Penelope Tree

Penelope Tree (born 2 December 1949) is an English former fashion model prominent in swinging sixties London.

Family

Penelope Tree is the only child of Ronald, a journalist, investor and British MP, and Marietta Peabody Tree, a U.S. socialite and political activist. She is the great-granddaughter of American retailer Marshall Field and of American educator Endicott Peabody. She is the half-sister of both the racehorse trainer Jeremy Tree and the author Frances FitzGerald and a niece of former Massachusetts governor Endicott Peabody.

Life and career

Her family objected to her career as a model, and when she was first photographed at the age of 13 by Diane Arbus, her father vowed he would sue if the pictures were published.

Tree made a striking appearance at the 1966 Black and White Ball thrown by author Truman Capote, wearing a black V-neck tunic with long slashes from the bottom making floating panels, worn over black tights.

The sensation she caused led photographers Cecil Beaton and Richard Avedon to work together to make her a supermodel. She was sixteen and her father had relented. David Bailey described Penelope as "an Egyptian Jimminy Cricket".