“I don’t know if it’s a fact that I’m the oldest living and working model,” Dell’Orefice says from her home in New York. “What is a fact is that no other model managed a career for 76 years … I love the challenge that every booking presents to me. I am never bored.”

Born in 1931, she was discovered at the age of 13 by a woman on a bus in New York. Dell’Orefice quickly went on to model for magazines like Vogue, and first appeared on the cover of its American edition in 1947.

“Horst P. Horst was a gentleman and extrovert,” she says. “He was one of my early mentors and we [remained] friends till the day he died.”

“I remember when Cecil included me in his legendary photo, A Portrait of a Ladies Lounge, with all of us in ball gowns,” she says. “I was in brown satin in the company of the most famous models of that day.”

As a self-proclaimed “print model” she has brushed shoulders with runway models, but was not drawn to the format.

“Being a print model is the job I enjoy the most. I do love meeting the young runway models who certainly know how to strut their stuff.”

Having seen the fashion industry evolve over the past half-century, Dell’Orefice is pleased that it has become a more inclusive space.

She says this is particularly true of print magazines, which have played an important role in instigating that change.

“[They do] that by waking readers with images of real people of all colours, sizes and shapes, and clearly demonstrated; all people are beautiful in their own way.”

The industry has also become more age-inclusive in recent years. But she does not think age is the be all and end all.

“Let me paraphrase something [US] President John F. Kennedy once said: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what can you do for your country.’

“What can a model feel they can bring to the job? A good model knows she or he is part of the picture, or not the whole picture but an interpreter. Be prepared! Be on time!”

In the trailer, she explains: “I’ve helped women get out of the closet about ageing and live their life. I’ve finally hit a point in my life where I have a look that is uniquely mine, which I’ve grown into. Time defines me.”

When you are an era-transcending model, your wardrobe certainly reflects it. Dell’Orefice all-time favourite fashion designer is Mariano Fortuney. Recently deceased Jackie Rogers’ early bias-cut designs were also among her go-tos, she says.

Nowadays, her everyday uniform is the work of South African designer Peter Cohen.

“You know how it is, when you find a shoe last that fits your foot, you keep going back to that shoe designer, for practical and aesthetic reasons. When I go to my closet, after umpteen years, it’s still Peter Cohen.”

Looking towards the future of the fashion industry, Dell’Orefice says she believes that modelling agencies should unionise.

“I think they should, because it would redefine the whole business for themselves and their role in protecting and shaping the future for their models, especially the young ones,” she says.

“They need to be protected from the predatory actions of the business world for intellectual property. Actors are protected and recompensed for any reuse of the original work.

“Writers are protected by a plagiarism law. I think that modelling agencies can only benefit by getting together and reorganising.”

Dell’Orefice had to learn much of this the hard way. She remembers her father reminding her, “Don’t take a wooden nickel.” But, at 91, she has taken to enjoying every moment.

Her new motto? “Happiness is an inside job,” she says.

“It really is,” she adds.