Catherine "Kate" de Castelbajac (born Katherine Lee Chambers in Santa Barbara, California) is a former model and fashion journalist who now works as an image consultant and educator. She is currently the founder of CdeC Academy of Santa Barbara, and is affiliated with the Association of Image Consultants International. Castelbajac is 5'9" with blond hair and blue eyes.
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Kate Chambers was born in Santa Barbara, California, to William Joseph Chambers and Lillian Chambers, and graduated from Foothill High School in Santa Ana, California. While a senior at Barnard College, where she would earn a BA in English Literature, Chambers was discovered by the photographer Jean Pagliuso and the editors of Mademoiselle. She became the subject of an article in the September 1975 issue entitled "The Makings of a Model", in which she was transformed from student to model.
The Mademoiselle feature helped launch Chambers into a career in high fashion, as she began working with the Ford Modeling Agency and such photographers as Arthur Elgort and Patrick de Marchallier, appearing in magazines like Harper's Bazaar. Eileen Ford then sent her to Paris, where, in October 1976, she met fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac. The two were married in 1979 and she became the 13th Marquise de Castelbajac. They would have two sons together.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s she was among the most popular models in Europe, working for French Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan, and represented the line of cosmetics Orlane B23. She also appeared in several runway shows for Chloé, Karl Lagerfield, Chanel, and Issey Miyake.
While she continued modeling for a time after her marriage, Castelbajac shifted over time to the business side as well as doing journalism. She began her business career in 1983, working as the accessory director for her husband's design company, Jean Charles de Castelbajac, SA., a position she continued until her divorce in 1995. She also began to contribute articles to In Style magazine in 1989, and accepted a position as a founding editor of the women's magazine Mirabella, covering European trends. Harper's Bazaar said of her, "Accomplished, charming and refreshingly candid, Kate brings her personal brand of elan to everything she does."
In 1995 she published a book depicting the history of cosmetics, The Face of the Century. It chronicled how faces had changed during the 20th century and the economic, social, artistic reasons for those changes. The International Herald Tribune described it as a combination of "lucid text [and] well-chosen images."
The period leading up to the publication of her book also saw considerable turmoil in Castelbajac's personal life. She had recently begun an affair with American tycoon Bill Koch, whom she met at his Cape Cod estate. This led to her divorce from Jean-Charles, and she received $100,000 in cash and an art collection worth (est.) 2 million dollars as part of the divorce settlement, along with annual payments of $80,000 until 2004. She got an apartment in Boston, where she was working on an MBA from the Simmons Graduate School of Management, but then moved into Koch's $2.5 million condominium at the Four Seasons Hotel.
Castelbajac's stay in the condominium next became the subject of a lawsuit when her relationship with Koch ended. Koch persuaded a jury to evict her after a trial noted for its testimony about lavish spending and torrid letters and faxes between the two.
Currently, Castelbajac lives in Santa Barbara, where she is an image consultant and the founder of CdeC Academy, a modeling, self esteem and etiquette school. She is working on a new book about fashion and business style and etiquette.
   | Books About Fashion: A Feast for the Eyes and Some Food for Thought - Books AboutFashion:A Feast for the Eyes and Some Food for Thought - The New York Times |
| | Official CdeC Academy site - CdeC Academy, Santa Barbara's self esteem, manners, modeling school |
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