Older women ruled New York Fashion Week
Modelling’s silver wave hits the runway at shows including Batsheva and Helmut Lang.
Misako Sassa was leaving a class at the Broadway Dance Centre in New York when she was approached by fashion designer Batsheva Hay. Would she be interested in walking the runway at New York Fashion Week?, Hay asked. Sassa didn’t quite believe her ears. “Are you sure?” she responded. “Because I’m not that tall … and I’m 53 years old.”
Hay was absolutely sure. A former lawyer, she now makes clothing that subverts traditional clothing, such as lamé house dresses. Meditating on her own 42 years, she began seeing ageing in a new light. “You’ve entered this part of your life where it just feels different,” she said. Different how? “Deeper, vital … amazing.”
So the designer decided to cast only women ranging from their 40s to their late 70s in her northern autumn fashion show, which took place this past week. Some, such as actors Molly Ringwald and Ione Skye Lee, were familiar faces. But many of them had never modelled. Hay street-cast them around the city – at Fairway supermarket, coming from dance classes, in the subway.
Hay’s show wasn’t the only event at New York Fashion Week that thrust older women into the spotlight. Christian Cowan, a designer who has dressed Lady Gaga and Paris Hilton in sparkly ensembles, featured several older models in a show that was an ode to his undersung Upper East Side clientele. Amber Valletta, a 1990s supermodel who just turned 50, was a standout at the Michael Kors show. Kristen McMenamy, 59, took a star turn at the Thom Browne show. Several models over 40 walked the Helmut Lang by Peter Do show, including Kirsten Owen, 54, who worked with Lang himself in the ’90s.
Models over 40 are having a moment, appearing in advertising for brands from Rachel Comey to Saint Laurent. Beauty giant L’Oréal has spokeswomen in their 70s (Helen Mirren) and 80s (Jane Fonda), and Maye Musk became the oldest CoverGirl at 69 in 2017. Last year, at 81, Martha Stewart became the oldest woman to appear on the cover of Sports illustrated’s swimsuit issue.
But the runway, with its punishing schedule and thankless physicality, hasn’t exactly been fertile ground for age diversity. Runway shows tend to be where young models start their careers. They tend to be full of teenagers willing to run from casting to casting and prance relentlessly in towering stilettos.
That’s finally changing. Anh Duong, a model, actor and artist, said she first started modelling in the ’80s at age 22, but by 26 she had quit because she was “too old”. Her art and acting jobs are thriving, with a gallery show up in New York, and a film on the horizon. But at 63, she can’t resist the renewed interest in her modelling career. Although she was spent from her art opening the day before, she was excited to model in this past week’s Helmut Lang show.
“This is a great opportunity to show that it’s OK to be women at any age,” said Duong. “And I love when women come up to me now and say, ‘It made me feel like I could be cool at my age’.”
Duong continued: “I think true beauty starts at 40”, when women come into their confidence and self-knowledge. She said she feels more comfortable modelling today than she did in her 20s. At the Helmut Lang show, she walked the runway without makeup, which she described as proclaiming: “Look at me. This is how I look at my age.”
Natthias Mitchinson, who does Christian Cowan’s casting, said their decision to feature older models was about making the customer and the audience “feel like they could relate to what’s coming out”.
He also spoke about a “pop-cultural moment” for women of a certain age, crystallised by Ryan Murphy’s current show Feud: Capote vs. the Swans. With its cast of over-40 stars including Demi Moore, Calista Flockhart, Chloe Sevigny, Naomi Watts and Diane Lane, Feud kept coming up in my conversations about the influx of older women on the runway.
Both Mitchinson and Hay spoke about the business opportunity inherent in representing a larger swath of the population.
“Anything that includes and that doesn’t shut people out, and that makes them feel good, is definitely also a business opportunity,” said Hay. She said that she noticed an immediate spike in sales on her website the day of her show.
The Wall Street Journal
Fashion month continues this week with Burberry, under relatively new creative director Daniel Lee, closing London Fashion Week with plenty of tartan, leather separates and fuzzy shearling coats. Meanwhile, women at all stages of life were further celebrated with the Marques Almeida brand making a welcome return to LFW, and sending mother-and-daughter pairings down the runway in a tribute to life, and fashion’s, cycles. Fashion month rolls into Milan later this week with big hitters such as Prada and Gucci in the lineup.