Carmen Dell’Orefice at Folies Bergère
Carmen Dell’Orefice at Folies Bergère, wearing a lace cocktail ensemble designed by Yves Saint Laurent for Christian Dior, photos by Richard Avedon for Harper’s Bazaar, 1957
Carmen is a unisex given name that represents two names taken as one. Its first (and original) root is Italian and Spanish, used as a diminutive nickname for Carmel and Carmelo (respectively), from Hebrew karmel, “God’s vineyard.” The second (and more recent) origin is from Latin carmen, which means “song,” “tune,” or “poem” and is also the root of the English word charm.
As a Spanish given name, it is usually part of the devotional compound names María del Carmen, Nuestra Señora del Carmen (Our Lady of Carmen) or Virgen del Carmen (in English Our Lady of Mount Carmel), stemming from the tradition of the vision of Mary the mother of Jesus on 16 July 1251 by Simon Stock, head of the Carmelite order.
To read extra info about people related to this name (specifically Carmen Marc Valvo), please take a gander at The Genealogy of Style‘s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Genealogy-of-Style/597542157001228?ref=hl
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