Noelie da Souza Machado was born in
Shanghai, China to a
Portuguese father from
Macau and a Chinese mother. Her maternal grandmother was from
Goa. Her parents met in
Hong Kong. After World War II, her family traveled to
Argentina,
Peru and
Spain. At the age of 19, she met the Spanish bullfighter,
Luis Miguel Dominguín. When the relationship ended, Machado moved to Paris and found work modelling for
Hubert de Givenchy. and ventured into other endeavors in publishing, fashion, and television. In 1989, she was added to the
International Best Dressed List. In 1991 she opened a gallery in Watermill, New York, when she left the fashion industry. Among the photographers who exhibited in the gallery were Hiro, Avedon, Lillian Bassman, Mary Ellen Mark, and Barbara Bordnick. The gallery closed in 1998, when she retired. She returned to modeling and the public eye at age 82 with an article in
W followed by interviews in the Spanish and German editions of
Vogue,
The Sunday Telegraph, and
New York. She starred in an ad campaign for Cole Haan as well. ==Personal life and death==