The brand message on Carmen dell’Orefice’s spring/summer 2009 Rolex campaign sums up the inspiring model’s contribution to female identity: Class Is Forever.

While the fashion word celebrates CARMEN: A Life in Fashion at London’s Fashion Space Gallery: London College of Fashion in an exhibit running unti January 14, 2012, the 80-year-model is quick to explain that she is a working girl for a reason.

Within this context, Carmen’s ‘Class Is Forever’ Rolex message truly resonates. Earlier this year, the Daily Mail explained the model’s return to the lens:

Carmen, who reportedly lost her money in the stock market in the 1990’s, invested what little she had left with Madoff, who swindled thousands out of an estimated $50bn with a Ponzi scheme. She was introduced to the former Wall Street financial expert by her then-boyfriend Norman Levy. She and Madoff were close friends until the scheme came to light in 2008. At the time, she said:’For the second time in my life, I’ve lost all of my life savings.’

But the model is still optimistic, despite celebrating her 80th birthday this year. Carmen told The Telegraph: ‘I’m a working woman of 80 trying to work out what the image I can project is. How I can do it with, you know, dignity.’

We take a look at very recent Carmen editorials:

Glen Luchford lensed Carmen in ‘Four Women’ for V Magazine November 2010.