The new wave of influencers celebrating ageing
There’s been shift in a youth obsessed fashion industry with maturity emerging as the new symbol of status and influence.
Supermodel Paulina Porizkova is no stranger to a ‘clapback’ on the internet. That is, a well chosen, and often devastating, retort to a rude comment or unasked for opinion. The 56 year-old, who has graced international covers of Vogue, worked with major brands and currently stars in the new campaign for Australian label Camilla & Marc, often poses in the nude on her Instagram page. When one commenter recently opined that she ought to spend less time ‘acting like a 16 year-old’ and instead spend more time with her grandchildren, Porizkova had this to say, posting alongside a screengrab of the comment: “I’m 56, and living my best life. After a lifetime spent taking care of others, I finally get to do ME.
“I post bikini and nude photos because I finally feel good in my skin. I don’t do this for compliments or likes. (Although they are very nice indeed). “I’m doing it because you see thousands of images of younger women in the same situations. That’s what you’re used to seeing. No one tells them to put their clothes on.”
The clapback, and the message behind it – i.e. a woman over 50 being visible, and joyously so – speaks to a shift in a famously youth obsessed fashion industry. As Camilla Freeman-Topper says of casting Porizkova for its resort 2022 collection campaign, “I have always loved Paulina’s honesty and rawness – the way she bravely shares her story, the good and the bad, it really inspires me. I cast her because I believe she really is the epitome of confidence and strength; she represents a new narrative that embraces and celebrates the process of ageing.”
Freeman-Topper, who also frequently uses model Heather Inwood, 65, believes the industry is finally starting to embrace age diversity.
“It is a beautiful thing to see more representation in the industry, and maturity is such a significant part of that. I know for me, as a woman, I’m more comfortable in my own skin than ever, it is the way it should be – and fashion is catching up,” she says.
“[I] think it will continually evolve and shift in all different directions. It has certainly shifted in the right direction, and will continue to do so,” she says.
While it must be caveated that ageing when you are both extremely and professionally beautiful is a different category to the rest of us, and well, it’s different strokes for different folks when it comes to what you’re prepared to do to hold back the impact of time (after all if you’re lucky enough, ageing is coming for us all) it has been galvanising to see recent high profile examples of ‘age positivity.’
This includes model and actress Andie MacDowell covering Vogue Poland this month with the grey hair and wrinkles that one should expect (but that can still, with the prevalence of Instagram filters, filler, Botox and face lifts, surprise) at 63. You only need to look at the furore caused by a photo of a filter and filler-free Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz, both in their 40s, to see how rare this has become.
There’s French fashion journalist and author Sophie Fontanel documenting letting her hair go grey to her 262k followers on Instagram. Fonatel also recently posed nude on the cover of an influential French magazine. Gillian Anderson, who at 53 is not only of the sexiest elements of the incredibly sexy, warm-hearted and funny Netflix hit Sex Education, also stars, compellingly so, in the recent campaign for Spanish luxury house Loewe. This all follows on from the fashion industry’s favourite party trick of casting original ‘supers’ for its shows – something that guarantees near universal euphoria from the fashion crowd on social media – as well as culturally influential people in its campaigns. Think author Joan Didion, then 82, for Celine in 2015 and Joni Mitchell, then 73, for Saint Laurent in the same year. Meanwhile the “Advanced Style,” as captured by Ari Seth Cohen, uncontested chronicler of the impeccable style of senior citizens has long been revered. Didn’t we all celebrate the ultimate, Iris Apfel’s, 100th birthday?
Even still, the continued rise of what The Times pegs as The Silvfluencers, or ageless fashion influencers, points to another form of currency too – influence and status. This cohort of 40 plus women has amassed huge and dedicated followings on social media (and plenty of paid brand partnerships to boot) for their excellent personal style – the kind that comes with maturity, no longer caring what people think and buying and wearing things you actually like. This includes Montreal-based Grece Ghanem who at 56 looks as chic in a velvet suit as she does a puffer jacket or a sequined two-piece gym set.
Ghanem, 706k followers, and other older fashion influencers such as Lyn Slater, better known as Icon Accidental to her 757k followers, disavow any ‘rules’ about what you can and can’t wear past a ‘certain’ age. Definitely any ideas of frumpiness are killed dead with chic, original, interesting looks. Their appeal makes such sense, some women over 50 have, after all, serious money to spend – despite often, as the International Longevity Centre reported, feeling overlooked.
Ghanem understands that feeling too, but turns it around, telling US Vogue back in 2018, “Stay visible! Once women pass a certain age, they don’t get looked at anymore. I don’t take that into account. I still wear things in a fun way. I don’t have to disappear.”
Back to the idea of ageing, gracefully and otherwise, Sarah Jessica Parker, 56, who will soon revive her iconic role as Carrie Bradshaw in And Just Like That, the highly anticipated reboot of Sex and the City, recently covered Vogue US and spoke about letting her hair go grey. It was particularly impactful for two reasons: if you can bring yourself to read any of the comments under photographs posted to social media from the set of And Just Like That you’d notice a distinct confusion, anger and even revulsion that Parker, alongside her co-stars, had dared to physically age, with interventions or without them. For another, the show, which will follow Carrie Bradshaw as she navigates her 50s, reminds us that life is full and interesting and worth examining, well, well beyond the age where you don’t look ridiculous doing a TikTok dance.
“There’s so much misogynist chatter in response to us that would never. Happen. About. A. Man,” Parker says in the Vogue US interview.
“Gray hair gray hair gray hair. Does she have gray hair?’ I’m sitting with [TV host] Andy Cohen and he has a full head of gray hair, and he’s exquisite. Why is it okay for him? Especially on social media. Everyone has something to say. ‘She has too many wrinkles, she doesn’t have enough wrinkles,’” Parker said.
“It almost feels as if people don’t want us to be perfectly okay with where we are, as if they almost enjoy us being pained by who we are today, whether we choose to age naturally and not look perfect, or whether you do something if that makes you feel better.”
And perhaps that’s what is really so gratifying about Paulina Porizkova clapping back and Carrie Bradshaw with wrinkles and grey hair, fabulous as ever, and Sophie Fontanel posing nude and ageless fashion influencers wearing puffer coats and cool suits and high heels. It’s this sense of being OK with who they are. Right now. Whether anybody is looking (but actually, a lot of people are) or not.
After all, as Naomi Woolf wrote in The Beauty Myth, “She wins who calls herself beautiful and challenges the world to change to truly see her.” Perhaps she wins double if she can land an Instagram paid partnership to boot. Probably though, the real prize is freedom from all of that and living life how you please.