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Nico Christa Paffgen (October 16, 1938 – July 18, 1988) was a singer-songwriter, fashion model, actress, keyboard player and Warhol superstar, best known by her pseudonym Nico. She is best remembered for a collaboration with The Velvet Underground in 1967.
The date and location of her birth are disputed. Most sources state October 16, 1938, Cologne, Germany.
Nico made her early fame as a model. After leaving school at 13, she started selling lingerie and soon was spotted by fashion people. A year later, her mother found her work as a model in Berlin. While on a modelling assignment in Ibiza, she met the photographer Tobias, who christened her "Nico" after his ex-boyfriend, filmmaker Nico Papatakis. She later moved to Paris and worked for Vogue, Tempo, Vie Nuove, Mascotte Spettacolo, Camera, ELLE, and other fashion magazines in the late 1950s. She also claimed to have been briefly hired by Coco Chanel. Despite having dropped out of school at such an early age, Nico eventually became fluent, through working in Europe and the United States, in English, Italian, Spanish, and French, in addition to her native German.
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