Alien muse of Salvador Dali: Why the life of the first black model Doniel Luna ended at 33

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Today you will not surprise anyone with dark-skinned girls walking the catwalk. Elegant Naomi Campbell, sophisticated Iman, daring Tyra Banks - and dozens of young African American beauties on billboards and magazine covers. But once upon a time the appearance of such girls in the fashion industry seemed incredible. Until she burst into the conservative world of glamor - an alien creature, the muse of Salvador Dali, a prophetess and just a girl from Detroit …

At birth, she was given the name Peggy Ann Doniel (precisely through the "o"; in some sources - Donial) Aragonia Pugo Luna. Her father, a mixed-born African American with Indian ancestry, worked at a Ford factory, and her mother was a secretary for a Christian women's association. The family did not boast, but they did not live in poverty either. True, the parents divorced and reunited again four times - according to Luna, "due to stubbornness", although further events showed that the cause was domestic violence. Doniel grew up active and inquisitive - she studied journalism, languages, art, acting, sang in the choir … The sisters - the oldest and the youngest - thought Doniel was strange. Already in adolescence, she was very different from others. She formed a special way of speaking, more reminiscent of singing, invented strange things about her "cosmic" origin, dressed in black from head to toe, despised shoes and loved to hang out around the city … In 1963, the photographer David McCabe noticed the moon. Shocked by her unusual appearance, he took several pictures and, with her consent, sent them to all the modeling agencies with which he could contact. So the first proposals began to arrive at Doniel.

Soon, the girl left her home and went to New York - practically without clothes, as if she was traveling for a day, and not for years. When Luna's mother shot her father in 1965, Doniel had little reaction to the event. A year later, she said only: “My mother tried in vain to protect us. We have already suffered."

Doniel became the first black model who, despite the racist sentiments in the fashion industry, very quickly found herself on the most high-profile shows and on the covers of all the leading fashion publications. And the reason was not only the appearance, but also the creative approach to the shows. Luna developed a unique style of displaying clothes - creeping like a panther, striding abruptly and freezing like a robot that is alien to human plasticity, crawling on all fours, rolling on the catwalk … Extravagant performances brought her fame. André Courrez, Paco Rabanne, Mary Quant often asked Luna to “do something like that”, and the audience burst into applause after each of her dance shows. She didn’t like her own photographs (“If I had seen this in childhood, I would have died of fear!”), But while posing, she turned each of them into a real work of art.

Her acting talents were used not only on the catwalk. She began acting in theater in the 60s, mainly in avant-garde, shocking productions, starring in Andy Warhol's experimental short films. In the mass cinema of those years, the actress with her skin color could only play a maid, but progressive directors saw potential in her. In the film of the great Federico Fellini "Satyricon" she played the passionate witch Enoti. She has appeared in several documentaries - about the life of "fashionable" London, about Salvador Dali and about the Rolling Stones. The only mainstream film with the participation of Luna is Skidu, where she appeared as the mistress of a crime boss. Luna's last acting job was the title role in the 1972 Italian film Salome directed by Carmelo Bene.

Doniel's appearance was quite conventional for the conservative fashion world and at the same time exotic (although she was mercilessly "lightened" in the photo). She has inspired many fashion industry professionals to take on innovative projects. For example, based on the model's facial features and figure, the first "black" mannequins for fashion stores were developed. She polished her image, becoming more and more shocking every year. She loved to walk barefoot - on the sand, on hot asphalt, on the catwalk … A crowd of admirers and admirers followed her everywhere, and when Luna sat down to rest at a party or on a walk, the retinue sank at her feet. Sometimes she began to describe her “prophetic visions” - she spoke of the “great division” when people would die because they were devastated, do not know how to live, who to be in this world … peace?

Be that as it may, it is not surprising that the king of the surrealists himself, Salvador Dali, could not resist the hypnotic charm of the model. They were introduced by the American photographer William Claxton, who invited Doniel to Cadaques. Dali was inflamed with a real passion for her - in an artistic sense. He called the Moon the reincarnation of Queen Nefertiti, painted patterns on her body, laid on a pile of freshly caught fish …

Yet the iconic model, actress, and muse of several geniuses regularly encountered manifestations of racism. She could have been kicked out of the restaurant on the grounds of “breaking the dress code” (although she was dressed appropriately). Designer Paco Rabanne, who took her to the podium, was simply spat on. In Rome, she was constantly stopped by the police …

Doniel's glamorous life was not at all like a fairy tale. This stems from prejudice and difficult family experiences. For many years she was afraid to start a long relationship, although she was twice married and managed to become a mother. Efforts to escape memories and surrounding hatred led to drug addiction. On the morning of May 17, 1979, Doniel Luna died of a heroin overdose at the age of thirty-three …

Doniel Luna was the one who changed the perception of the role of black women in modern culture, a guiding star that fell from the sky too early. Today, black-skinned women in the fashion industry call her their inspiration.