Sleek hair, impeccable styling, perfect makeup – even though everything about her screamed model I still couldn’t believe my eyes. And yet there she was staring right back at me from a full-page glossy photo fashion spread for The Row, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s high-end fashion line.
The lovely 65-year-old Linda Rodin even had the audacity to accessorize her gray hair and wrinkles with a whimsical smile! Excuse me, but who said old people are allowed to look and feel beautiful? Certainly not popular culture. And yet how adorable is Rodin here, in a separate ad campaign?
I want to be her best friend… and borrow her shoes
Every article you read about aging is either about how to fight it with expensive creams, pills, diets and treatments or how to “accept it gracefully” as if you were losing a coveted award but still wanted to appear above it all. Even when we do pay lip service and put a cover models are a 50-and-fabulous Ellen Degeneres, they still photoshop her to look 25. This subtle ageism is especially apparent in fitness magazines, which is funny since every piece of fitness advice I’ve ever read says that exercise should be a life-long pursuit.
This is from 2012 – she’s 54 years old here. She is a beautiful, effervescent lady… with a few well-earned wrinkles that seem to have mysteriously disappeared.
Indeed, a study being published in this month’s British Journal of Sports Medicine gives scientific proof that not only does staying active past 50 years old lead to a longer life but it leads to a higher quality of life during the latter part of life.
In the eight years between the study’s start and end, the data showed, those respondents who had been and remained physically active aged most successfully, with the lowest incidence of major chronic diseases, memory loss and physical disability. But those people who became active in middle-age after having been sedentary in prior years, about 9 percent of the total, aged almost as successfully. These late-in-life exercisers had about a seven-fold reduction in their risk of becoming ill or infirm after eight years compared with those who became or remained sedentary, even when the researchers took into account smoking, wealth and other factors.
Yet aging happens to all of us. In fact it’s happening to you right now. So it boggles that the media would ignore something that is not only a facet of life but an inevitability of life. Despite the wealth of knowledge that experience brings, we idolize fecund youth over all else.
But perhaps this is changing? A little? Recently the media has been making strides by including more models with different body types, especially plus sizes. While they are still fairly few, Robin Lawley and others are insisting on being seen and heard and I love it. After all, in traditional lady mags it used to be you could only be non-model-sized and happy if it is your “before” picture. You certainly couldn’t have an overweight woman smiling. Or a woman with wrinkles not trying to hide them. Or thighs that touch. Or gray hair. Or a tummy that showed it had born children. Next thing you know women might stop hating themselves just a bit. And then what? Self-esteem from something that goes beyond your body? Does nobody think of the children?? Who will indoctrinate the next generation in the fine art of body checking and body snarking if their mothers are no longer doing it?
Before I get too Utopian up in here, we still have a long ways to go. The fact that Rodin has made so many headlines – and let’s be honest, she’s still a very thin white lady – just shows how much more work needs to be done. Yet, other companies are catching on. Not only does Rodin say she has more modelling work than she can handle but other venues are jumping on board as well. Check out American Apparel’s 62-year-old beauty Jackie O’Shaughnessey (with no photoshop, no less):
The ad campaign is titled “Sexy has no expiration date”
Or 82-year-old Carmen Dell’Orefice on the July 2013 cover of You mag:
This lovely lady has been modelling since she was 15. Isn’t her 1947 Vogue cover stunning?
And the best thing for me is that in none of these examples did they try to hide the age of the women. The lookbook for The Row included not only 65-year-old Rodin but also 39-year-old Esther de Jong (the youngest model featured) and 50+ Ursula Wallis. While I’ll admit I find The Row fashions to be alternately bleak and boring (not to mention overpriced, they of the $55,000 handbag), I’m delighted by the 27-year-old Olsen twins’ unconventional model choices.
Rodin has no illusions about the industry, saying, “I think the whole culture’s screwed up. They retouch 20-year-olds…I see the pictures, and I know that they’ve retouched this and that….I just go, ‘She doesn’t have any wrinkles!’ ”
But she’s still determined to take this as far as she can. Of being chosen to do the Lookbook she said, “I’d be lying to say I love all my wrinkles, but going into it I knew what they wanted. . . The confidence they gave me was really crucial. I loved that I was respected for who I am.” She adds that it’s only been recently that her modeling career has taken off, “No one ever looked at me when I was 25! It’s a riot, but you don’t take it that seriously.”
It’s this ability to showcase the beauty of what women in all stages of life and in different elements that draws me to The Sartorialist blog. I used to follow a lot of fashion blogs but quickly became disillusioned after post after endless post of the same young things wearing the same “unique” hipster outfits with the same “anthropologie/thrifted/whatever” taglines. It wasn’t that I found them unbeautiful per se, but rather I found them all the same kind of beautiful.
I mean, I love (LOVE) looking at a well put together outfit. And you don’t have to sew it yourself or buy it hand-crafted from a bazaar in Burma for me to appreciate it. But it’s more important to me that it expresses the personality and unique beauty of the wearer. Anyone can go into J. Crew and pick out a cute outfit – and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that! – but I don’t necessarily want to see a picture of it either. That’s more consumerism than fashion to me.
What I want to see is a picture of you, the person underneath. (And I mean that in the least creepy way possible.) I think that’s why I’m so drawn to “street fashion” over, say, Vogue or catwalk shows. See, the Sartorialist takes the idea of beauty and releases it from all the traditional rules of age, skin color, gender stereotypes, wealth and prominence and just looks to find a beautiful moment in the everyday:
I don’t know that you’d see any of the above women on the street and think OOOH MODEL and yet… look how beautiful. There’s this element of surprise and joy that makes the beauty and I think that every woman should have at least one picture of herself that encompasses the surprising joy of living.
Now, if we could just see some older women represented in fitness modeling I’d be really thrilled. Age is not synonymous with ignominity and I’ll health! Bring on the yoga grannies, the running nanas, the ballet dancing babas – I find them interesting and inspiring in a way that youth simply can’t be.
So what do you think – do these models show progress in how we define beauty or is this just an example of how fashion loves the latest shiny thing, whatever that may be? Do you have a favorite fashion site?
Whether or not you believe in the meteorological persuasiveness of a rodent’s sciophobia or sciaphobia…(fear of shadows) Happy Groundhogs Day!
(As my Dad always says, it will either be six more weeks of winter…or a month and a half.)
My grandmother (Dad’s Mom) hopped on the back of a (docile) rodeo bull when she was 92. (they had brought it to the retirement home because a lot of the residents were raised around such things and asked if anybody wanted a ride.) She lived till she was 99.
My Dad’s Dad died…but only because of rural medical facility closures, and he had to go to another town, and it was too far.
We went on a boat and portaging trip on my Mom’s Dad’s old trap line when he was in his late 70’s. While we were unloading, he walked three miles ahead and cut down trees and made a bridge over a narrow river that we would have to cross.
My Mom’s Mom died because she got appendicitis while out on the trap line.
My Mom’s grandmother lived to be over a hundred.
My 81 year old father was disappointed in himself because he had to wear gloves while shoveling snow. His hands never really got cold before. I explained to him that most 81 year olds are not still shoveling snow.
My 77 year old Mom zips around all over like she is in her forties.
Nobody believes her age when she tells them and nobody believes Dad’s age when he tells them.
My kids always loved them so much because my parents actually got down on the floor and played with them.
You never mentioned the name of that magazine Charlotte!
That one probably would have kept the pictures of you and your Gym Buddies!
Sorry – I accidentally hit publish instead of save on a very-early version of this post. But the full version (with names, pictures, and lots and lots more words) is live now! But I do love the stories of your parents! They sound like amazing people:)
My parents are very amazing people. Thank-you.
<3 🙂
Aw! Thank-you!
I suspected a premature publish…but I did not want to mention…in case you had to run because a child was swinging from the drapes or something.
Now that I have seen the entire full version of this post (you type AMAZINGLY fast BTW), I can safely say that I do not follow any fashion sites and I do really hope that this is not just how fashion loves the latest shiny thing.
I think the general fashion industry mentality is encapsulated by this quote about advertising:
“The incessant witless repetition of advertiser’s moron-like fodder has become so much a part of life that if we are not careful, we forget to be insulted by it.” The Times London 1986
I long for the rising up in fashion rebellion where people en masse say: “Frankly Scarlett, I just don’t give a hoot!” (To quote Kermit)
And ignore the next shiny thing like we would the next Carrot Top movie. Or any movie starring Yahoo Serious.
I love creativity…not the “A performance of a play by Shakespeare naked on a trapeze” shallow kind of creativity but thoughtful creativity.
I too like a well put together outfit.
I did over 70 stage plays as an actor but I also worked backstage took a costuming class and all the levels of make-up classes.
I appreciate the thought and effort and detail, truly. I have an understanding of pieces that absolutely speak to you. Items that pull it all together.
And I am secure enough in my masculinity to say so.
And ANY person can achieve that no matter their body type or age.
Man, there is almost nothing I love more than costuming! I love being on the stage but I think I almost love it more being behind the scenes in a beautiful wardrobe closet!
Colorado is not too far from Provo! You should go check out the costume shop at BYU in the Harris Fine Arts Center.
You will love it!
I actually surprised myself by loving it as well! Even when I wasn’t working costuming and just acting they would let me play and pick stuff.
I hope this will become a trend, I’d love to see some real unphotoshopped people in the magazines and on the billboards. Maybe it will convince people that they actually are beautiful as the real people that they are and we (especially woman) can walk around with self esteem and indeed without passing those ridiculous fears of not being good enough on to our children. It would be a wonderful world where we appreciate ourselves and other people for who we are in stead of what we look like.
Good idea! I agree that less photoshop would be a boon!
What a great, positive post. I love seeing the “older woman” model trend, even if it’s photo-shopped a bit. Older, thin, white female today, and if it takes off, the decision-makers will branch off from there and start showing different types of woman. As someone who is not-20 but not older either, somewhere in the middle, these images give me hope that with a little effort, it doesn’t have to be so bad as we age. I don’t really read fashion pubs so appreciate you calling this trend out to us.
I too hope this is just a sign of better things to come! And hey I’m right with you in the “in-between” phase!
I’m not sure if you can access this outside the UK but I really hope so – it’s a fantastic documentary made with some really inspiring older women, including a model, and I immediately thought of it when I read this post!
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/fabulous-fashionistas/4od
If not, the featured women are in this link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10312670/Meet-six-fabulous-women-aged-73-and-upwards-redefining-what-it-means-to-be-old.html – I immediately thought of Daphne Selfe whilst reading Charlottes’s blog, as she has doing high profile campaigns for a while now.
I guess you could only truly say that fashion has widened its norms of beauty when things like this are no longer newsworthy, but in the meantime it’s good to see some diversity.
Oooh thank you Jo and Janet! I’m excited to jump into this and check it out! I love docus!!
Here’s another place to watch the video in one continuous segment:
http://seniorplanet.org/dont-dress-your-age-six-inspiring-women-say-no-to-drab/?fb_action_ids=10200909390088861&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=.UpOmX38Wyqc.like&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582
It’s fantastic; you’ve GOT to watch it.
Ooh thank you! I read the article you linked but for some reason the vid didn’t show up. But I will find it! I’m super excited to watch it – just reading the blurbs about the ladies totally had me grinning:)
Naomi/Dragonmamma:
Senior Planet is one of my favorite reads (at 41)! That’s where I saw the video too.
I’ve always been pleasantly surprised by American Apparel’s models. Of course they are all good looking girls, but a lot of them have much more “normal” proportions and looks. There is definitely a range of body types and even prettiness, even though it’s still a fairly limited range of above average. They aren’t over stylized, either. I feel like I get a much better sense of what the clothing would look like in real life, as opposed to on an over-stylized, stick-thin model.
True. For all of the things I don’t like about AA (Dov Charney *cough*) I do like the variety of models they use!
Unfortunately it probably just is the latest shiny thing, but hopefully it leads to less ageism! I am all about looking like the best version of yourself, but Ellen looks younger than ME in that add. Her skin is more flawless than a six year old’s! Not right.
I know, right?? That picture of her is SO CREEPY. And takes away from her very real beauty the way she really looks.
Oh my goodness I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!
I still struggle quite a bit with the fact that I look as old as I am, and it’s amazing how inspiring it is to see even a few positive representations of older female faces!
It’s one thing to try to deal with “age shame” intellectually, and tell yourself that aging is natural, but SO much more healing to see pictures of women who are beautiful because of the way they’ve aged, not in spite of it.
And I LOVE that you can talk about this so honestly! I feel like there’s a lot of pressure on us “in-between” women to “age gracefully” and pretend like we don’t care but in a society that attaches so much worth to youth and beauty, there’s a very real loss. It’s not right and I hope we can change it but in the meantime telling us we “shouldn’t” feel the way we do is unhelpful. So, thank you!!
Have you ever seen “Bill Cunningham New York”? It’s on Netflix. Anyway, it’s a documentary about the NYT fashion photographer Bill Cunningham (who is a character himself), and how he goes out and documents (lovingly – no muffin tops and bars over eyes) the fashion of everyday people on the streets of New York. Very cool.
No but he sounds amazing! Will go check it out now!! And I love that you added that he does it “lovingly” – I hate those “what not to wear” or “fashion dont’s” where they blindside random people going about tliving their lives in clothing they like but apparently no one else does:/
Hey, I still have my chance to be a model someday! (Not really, but it’s kind of nice to know that if I wanted to, I might still be able to in 25 years :D).
I also love seeing older folks wearing fashionable clothing. I’m not ready to start wearing leggings and tacky sweatshirts like my mom! 🙂
Yeah you do!! And I too hope to someday be one of those awesome, quirky fashionable old ladies:)
If you go look at my pinterest page http://www.pinterest.com/vanlaanenj/hot-women-with-gray-silver-hair/ You will see women of all ages, some models, many not, who are breaking the stereotypical mold and society norms of dying hair and looking “old” and frumpy… but embracing their authentic self and shinning!
There is a movement growing where women are ditching the hair dye and embracing their real gorgeous hair colors. Women in their 20’s on up.
I hope this trend continues! And I, too, am MUCH more inspired by an 80 year-old yogi than by a 19 year-old in a sports bra.The most rewarding feedback I received back in my teaching days was when clients told me they were able to do something physically they hadn’t done before, or at least in a while. (I especially loved my client in his 80’s who would come to take a class on the Reformer and show off all the new yoga postures he’d conquered that week! :))
(I was wondering the other day about what aliens might think if they were to try and figure out humanity by watching American TV and movies (and looking at our ads): Would they think that all women perish at the age of 25? That men are FORCED to mate with women 20+ years younger because we just cease to exist? And that women outnumber men to the point where we have to compete with one another in the form of group dates and earning roses? And what happens to those poor, rose-less women, anyway? Are they crying because they’re about to be taken out and executed?)
Personally I think our obsession with youth reflects our ignorance on so many levels. We worship the surface, what we can see. When I hear guys complain about girls not wanting nice guys, I have to wonder how many of them ask out the nice girls. Not the ones who are the “hottest” in the room, but maybe the friends, the ones sitting alone. And the same goes for girls: Do they talk to the guy who isn’t the center of attention? The one who might be a little shy or even nerdy?
But it’s deeper than that: When we let older folks become disposable, we are letting ourselves down, as well. Life gets better as we get older, and people who’ve been around have a lot to tell us. If we don’t listen, it’s our loss. And the beauty that comes with age is a much deeper, fuller beauty than that of an unlined face and washboard abs.
*laughing* *so much*
About THIS: “(I was wondering the other day about what aliens might think if they were to try and figure out humanity by watching American TV and movies (and looking at our ads): Would they think that all women perish at the age of 25? That men are FORCED to mate with women 20+ years younger because we just cease to exist? And that women outnumber men to the point where we have to compete with one another in the form of group dates and earning roses? And what happens to those poor, rose-less women, anyway? Are they crying because they’re about to be taken out and executed?)”
Then I laughed some more.
Then I had to stop laughing when I realized that you and Charlotte and many other ladies on here ARE 20 years younger than me!
No wait! I’m over a hundred…so that would make you ladies…
…never mind.
But I applaud your insights and support your stated position.
I have asked out the nice girls sitting alone. That’s how I met my ex. I did a very good job of making her realize how truly wonderful she was…then she decided that she could do better than me.
Even if that is true, she had some issues with crazy. Like Loki in Marvel’s The Avengers.
But it has not put me off nice girls who sit alone. I was searching for quality of character.
When I stop my excessive “wussitude” (as Charlotte has coined the phrase) and get brave enough to date again…I will look for nice girls with good quality of character.
LOve this but I still see that even as older women, it has yo be a certain look BUT it is progress.. I want to see this more mainstream because I have not seen a lot of the above.
As for fitness – you know how I feel about that – I get no’s right & left due to age, my looks & all that even though I represent a very fit 56 year old.. it always has been frustrating to me & still is.. great post!
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