Update on the passing of Runway Diva Extraordinaire - Katoucha

It deeply saddens me to provide you all with the latest update on the passing of the legendary uber model Katoucha. As you all now know, Katoucha was not simply another black model that graced the runway - she dominated the catwalk. But as my dear friend Jay Alexander said, "Only Katoucha would have the nerve to resurface on the same exact day as the showing of the new Yves Saint Laurent Collection. Now that is what you call a true Runway Diva Extraordinaire. " Rest in peace our "Black Princess"...

Katoucha in Yves Saint Laurent's Farewell show on January 22, 2002

This is the way the "Black Princess" will forever remain in my dreams and heart.

Katoucha was truly one of the my favorite models of all time.

Paris (AP) Paris police found a body in the River Seine today thought to be that of a missing Guinean former model, one time muse of fashion giant Yves Saint Laurent, who vanished from her houseboat a month ago.

Nicknamed the “black princess”, the 47-year-old Katoucha Niane went missing from her home on a central stretch of the river on the night of February 1.

The mother-of-three disappeared after being dropped off from a party and her handbag was later recovered near her houseboat.

A woman’s body fitting Katoucha’s description was pulled Thursday from the Seine, in Boulogne just west of the capital, according to a police official, who said investigators were at the scene gathering evidence.

Police said the body, which was spotted under a bridge by a passer-by and was thought to have been in the water for close to a month, appeared to be wearing the former model’s clothes.

The death appeared to be accidental, officials said, but an autopsy was needed to determine its exact cause.

Police said they had no evidence so far to suggest the model may have been murdered.
Born in Conakry, Katoucha worked with the greatest haute couture stars at the height of her career in the 1980s including Saint Laurent.

Katoucha left the catwalk for good in 1994, but in recent years she made headlines as an outspoken campaigner against female circumcision, launching a foundation against the practice.

Excised at the age of nine, in her home country Guinea, Katoucha recounted the ordeal in a recent book entitled “In My Flesh”.

She said she saw her career as a top model as a form of “revenge” for the horror of excision.
“I embodied the most arrogant and admired kind of feminity, I who was supposed to be diminished,” she wrote.