“Friendship,” observed novelist C.S. Lewis, “is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.’” Certainly this was the case for Anjelica Huston and Lauren Hutton. Working together as models in the late 1960s, they quickly came to recognize in one another not just a friend but a kindred spirit. Both were fiercely intelligent and vocal about their independence in an era when women weren’t expected to be either. Both also exuded the kind of worldly glamour one can only cultivate from jetting around the globe with the likes of Jack Nicholson, enfant terrible fashion photographer David Bailey and then-Vogue-editor Diana Vreeland. Even their beauty, while markedly different, shared an alluringly off-kilter quality (Huston’s Roman nose and arched brows, Hutton’s famous gap-toothed grin) that set them apart from their more conventional-looking peers.

Eventually, as we know, Huston left the fashion world for a successful career in Hollywood. Last year, she added best-selling author to her list of accolades with a memoir, A Story Lately Told. Its much-anticipated sequel, Watch Me, is due out later this month. Hutton, meanwhile, remains a force of nature in front of the camera. (One would expect nothing less from a woman who has graced the cover of Vogue 28 times.) For her VIOLET GREY shoot at New York’s bastion of old money society, The Lotos Club, she effortlessly slipped into the role of a Park Avenue doyenne, complete with gum-ball-size cocktail rings and an appetite for lobster at lunch.

In the accompanying interview, the legendary Hutton — who is known for her no-holds-barred, no regrets, all-American appeal— is still very much Hutton. Her refreshing candor is due, in part, to the fact that her good chum Anjelica is asking the questions.

Below, VIOLET GREY listens in on the two women as they laugh, reminisce and indulge in a healthy exchange of compliments. “I remember when I first saw you,” Hutton tells Huston. “You came in with your black hair and white skin and … wow.” “When I first saw you, you were like the sun shining,” replies Huston.

If only everyone could be blessed with such eloquent friends.