Kerry Parnell: Let’s all walk in the footsteps of Dame Helen Mirren
Despite being almost 80 Helen Mirren owns every red carpet she steps out on and the reason is simple, writes Kerry Parnell.
Opinion
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Forget the buzz about Johnny Depp’s “triumphant return” at the Cannes Film Festival this week and save your applause for Helen Mirren.
The 77-year-old British actor has done it again and owned the red carpet at the annual movie event, thanks to her mermaid-core blue gown and matching hair.
The star of Shazam! Fury of the Gods looked every inch the style superhero on Tuesday, in her long-sleeved ocean-coloured Del Core gown and colour-co-ordinated hair. The actor, who is an ambassador for the festival’s official make-up sponsor, L’Oréal Paris, had achieved her dramatic do with L’Oréal Paris Colorista spray in Pastel Blue.
The Cannes Film Festival is in its 76th year, meaning Mirren is older than the event. It always includes an array of A-listers on the red carpet, followed by a slew of hopeful starlets in frocks with so many cut-outs there’s hardly any fabric left in.
So, it’s even more marvellous that year after year, Mirren manages to hit the best-dressed headlines. Last year she literally danced down the red carpet, all silver siren with long platinum grey hair extensions and metallic gown and in 2021, was majestic in a marigold Dolce & Gabbana dress. Her best look was in 2019, when she dyed her hair pink to go with her showstopping Elie Saab couture gown. The secret to her successful style? Being comfortable, she says. I hear you Helen!
“Somehow, being comfortable in what you’re wearing gives you an ease and the relaxation that transforms your look,” she previously told Allure magazine.
“You can have everything perfectly done, but if you’re self-conscious about things showing, or it doesn’t quite fit, you’re sort of stiff. Weirdly, comfort is very, very important.”
She’s not wrong. Being comfortable in both your clothes and your skin is what it’s all about. If you can’t sit down to dinner in your formal get-up without giving yourself an accidental gastric band, then it’s a no from me.
That’s why I’ve never embraced shapewear – Kim Kardashian’s Skims magic pants might enable you to squeeze into that one-size-smaller dress but feeling like a sausage about to burst out of its casing, is not one I am actively choosing anymore. Especially in the heat.
In the same week Martha Stewart has become the oldest-ever Sports Illustrated cover model at 81, posing in her swimsuit, which is kind of good and kind of exhausting, Helen’s no-nonsense approach to ageing is the one I’m here for. She says her beauty regime consists of cleaning her face.
“I religiously clean my face and take my make-up off, and that’s it really. Put a bit of moisturiser on and you’re done and dusted, basically,” she told The Cut.
“I’m old! And I look it. And that’s just fine,” she told Candis magazine. “People talk about ageing gracefully and I don’t even know what that means. We seem to have got to a point where it means not having plastic surgery...to me it’s more about accepting who you are and what you are and going with it.”
Amen. I’m going wherever you lead, Helen.
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