Sydney model Kate Bell hotter than ever at 55 years old
Warned for decades she would ‘age out’ of the industry, Sydney model Kate Bell, 55, is getting more work than ever as society shrugs off old attitudes about age and desirability.
Entertainment
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She stares piercingly at the camera through a halo of blonde curls, fresh faced and makeup free, except for a smear of pink frosted lipstick. In another, she poses in a chambray shirt and a cable knit jumper with her dog Peppy.
Taken on an old Instamatic camera by her sister Anne in the overgrown backyard of their Arcadia home on Sydney’s outskirts in 1986, the amateur images were enough to nab the interest of Ursula Hufnagl, who would go on to establish what is now Chic Management, a leading model agency.
The industry usually ages out models before they hit 30. But those shots put the then
18-year-old Kate Bell on the path to an almost 40-year modelling career.
Now, at 55, Bell is most proud of two things. One, she has worked consistently in Australia and around the world, without a break, since she began modelling at 18. Two, she has more work now than at any other point in her career.
“I believe I am unusual,” says the 175cm tall Bell.
“Oddly, I never thought about the end of modelling, but certainly people said to me repeatedly, since I started, ‘What are you going to do after modelling?’ and I would think ‘What do you mean?’.
“But because they started saying that to me I started panicking as I got into my late 20s, like ‘What am I going to do?’. But I just didn’t stop working, basically. I may have got less jobs during some stages, but I somehow managed to keep going.”
Looking back, Bell attributes her successful career to what she calls her more “commercial” or approachable look, used to sell a range of products to a wide audience. And she says basing herself overseas for periods of her career – New York in her early 20s and early 30s and the UK in her late 30s – gave her valuable experience, which led to longevity back in Australia.
But ongoing success didn’t always protect her from the built-in ageism experienced in the industry.
Bell balances the good – like her recent work for David Jones on the Visionaries campaign with Indigenous model Nathan McGuire and Somali-Australian activist and model, Hanan Ibriham – with the bad.
The bad includes shoots where she is labelled the mother, matriarch or even the grandmother of the “girl gang” being depicted in a campaign, or being put in the elasticated “mum jeans” while other, younger models, wear the sexy skinnies at a jeans shoot.
That kind of blatant ageism is starting to change, Bell says – and changing quickly.
“In the last six months my hair has been allowed to be out on a shoot instead of pulled back into a low bun,” she explains.
“I wasn’t allowed to be effortlessly casual before; I had a low bun for a straight 10 years. I wasn’t allowed to be cool.
“But all that has changed very fast – like, I’m talking the last six months. I have been doing ‘old lady’ wear since I was in about my late 30s. And the old lady wear used to be these lilac crotched twin sets.
“It was hideous and lots of the brands did it because that’s what they thought women wore. And there wasn’t anything in between. There was perceived fashion for women up to say, their 30s, then straight into what grandmas wear.
“But that is changing really fast.”
Throughout her career Bell has worked for big brands like Calvin Klein, R.M. Williams, Country Road, Trenery and MECCA.
She was still in high school when she cold-called Hufnagl – who would go on to launch the careers of Miranda Kerr and Ruby Rose – after seeing a feature about a modelling competition in teen magazine Cleo.
Instead of entering the competition like hundreds of other girls, a savvy 18-year-old Bell instead found out who was running the comp and contacted them directly.
Bell was granted an interview, which she attended clutching her Instamatic shots. She began modelling as soon as she finished her Year 12 exams that year.
The modelling world she entered is a far cry from today’s more-regulated industry, she says.
“The industry was certainly dominated by men, and let’s just say, the sorts of men that were around the modelling and advertising industry, you probably wouldn’t pick as a husband,” Bell says.
“Stacks of stuff happened to me that I knew wasn’t right. I came from a pretty conservative environment and then was thrust into it.
“One time I just got to a casting for jeans. The photographer was doing the casting, and as if he was saying ‘Do you want a glass of water?’, he said, ‘OK, take your top off and walk across the room’, and I remember just stalling.
“And he said, ‘Well, if you’re not going to do it, other girls will and they’ll get the job’. So I did. So many young women in that situation may not have done that and I don’t really know why I did, but I think it takes a long time to grow up. I know I have taken a long time to find my voice.”
Bell says exposure to the modelling industry, particularly overseas, caused her to “lose respect” for her work during her 20s.
Rigid weight control around models – she was once sent home from a lingerie shoot in Germany because she was deemed the wrong size – and even racism against models from certain cultural backgrounds were common.
Bell’s late 20s also resulted in one of the few professional “lulls”, as she aged out of the 18-25 age bracket.
But stints in the US, UK and Europe in her 30s buoyed her career, and when she returned to Australia, she continued to find work throughout her 40s and into her 50s. Today she is represented by Scoop Management, a division of Chic Management.
Bell says she’s happy to be the poster girl for older models if it helps send a positive message to all women of Australia that age shouldn’t define how you act, what you do or how you dress.
She also makes sure she uses her years of experience to help guide young models she comes into contact with on shoots.
“I do make a point of talking to them, to see what they want to achieve out of modelling, who they are and where they’re from,” Bell says.
“A lot, especially in runway, are really young and have come in from all over the place, and it’s nice to be a safe space for them.
“But also, I feel that what I am doing is just putting out there that women my age can do whatever they want. And that whole thing we have grown up with, like, ‘Is my bum too big in this?’, and that whole idea of what your shape should be, is so outdated.”
Bell sighs at the notion that “50 is the new 30”. When she thinks of herself at age 30, she’d rather be the strong, confident woman she is now than go back to those uncertain times.
The notion that ageing is a beautiful thing is gaining steady ground.
Financially speaking, people over 50 hold the financial power. According to a recent report, they outspend millennials on entertainment, car purchases, health and travel, and their numbers are set to double by 2050 – that’s something to pay attention to, according to Secrets and Lies: Ageless and Booming, a report on Australia and New Zealand by advertising agency WPP.
In the media, too, women over 50 are owning the stage in a way they never have before. Actors like Jennifer Aniston, 54, Meryl Streep, 74, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, 62, and Sarah Jessica Parker, 58, are enjoying their rightful place in the sun, but lifestyle maven Martha Stewart’s Sports Illustrated cover at the age of 81 this year left them all in the shade.
However, Bell wishes the “age thing” wasn’t always only seen as something to either be pitied or glamorised, but rather somewhere in between. That women over 50 are powerful, beautiful and skilled – but also that knees hurt a little more on the incline.
“Age how you want to age and dress how you want to dress,” she says.
“Just be authentically yourself. I just really hope to give some power back to women who, around menopause especially, just feel a little powerless or a little at sea.”
Originally published as Sydney model Kate Bell hotter than ever at 55 years old
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