Happy Birthday, Pat Cleveland! Celebrating the Supermodel’s Iconic Beauty Moments

"I knew I’d never have Grace Kelly’s little nose or Rita Hayworth's figure," writes Pat Cleveland in her memoir Walking with the Muses. "But I could have bright red lips, lots of hair, and a job with Halston."

Since being discovered on a subway platform by then Vogue fashion editor Carrie Donovan in 1966, the Harlem-born supermodel has spent her decades-long career breaking boundaries. Not just as a Black woman in a predominantly white industry, but as a beauty whose talent and charisma made her different. Her distinctive facial features—namely, her aquiline nose and sculptural bone structure—proved to be a makeup artist's dream. From learning the tricks of the trade at a young age from her aunt who was a dancer, to being on high-concept sets with the likes of Steven Meisel and Karl Lagerfeld in Paris, Cleveland always loved to stoke the imagination with vivid, cut-crease smoky eyes, glossy crimson lips, and streaks of blush that dramatically played off her pyramid-esque cheekbones. And while her brushed out spirals worn loose were always something to marvel at, when she slicked back her lengths into a taut low knot (a precursor to Sade's scraped-back rope braids), it further accentuated her above-neck theatrics, as well as her famously lithe silhouette.

In honor of Cleveland's 71st birthday, a look back at the striking beauty that cemented her status as one of the fashion world's most beloved renegades.

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Originally Appeared on Vogue