China Machado, one of the first non-Caucasians to appear in the pages of an American glossy fashion magazine and a model who helped break not only the race barrier but also the age barrier, died on Sunday in Brookhaven, N.Y., on Long Island. She was 86.

Her family said the cause was cardiac arrest.

Ms. Machado (whose first name was pronounced CHEE-na) lived a colorful life: She was born Noelie de Souza Machado on Christmas Day 1929, in Shanghai; fled the country with her parents in 1946, after the Japanese occupation; had an affair with Luis Dominguín, the Spanish bullfighter, who left her for Ava Gardner; and socialized with François Truffaut.

But at a time when the fashion industry is still struggling with diversity, it is worth pausing to consider what “colorful” really meant when it came to Ms. Machado, what her career represented and how far we still have to go, nearly six decades later.

Her legacy extends far beyond the pictures she created, and the poses she struck, to make us rethink our assumptions about what is considered beautiful, and why. And it is as relevant today as when she first stepped on a runway, in the 1950s.