Eileen Ford lived alone in New York while her husband fought in WWII, working different jobs in the fashion industry until 1946, when she became a secretary of a friend Natalie Nickerson who worked as a model. Many of Nickerson’s modeling friends were interested in her work as an agent, their male agents often sending them into dangerous situations. Ford and her husband Jerry used funds from selling their car to open an office on Second Avenue, where Ford’s vision of what a model should look like set the standards for models as well as fashion. Her work professionalizing the modeling industry led to New York City becoming a popular destination for models, discovering models such as Lauren Hutton, Kim Basinger, and Christy Turlington.