The world of Fashion & Beauty it seems has suddenly decided at first thought, that this season the older you are the cooler you are. Perhaps it all started in 2013 with Angela Lansbury as a Gentlewoman cover girl shot by bad boy Terry Richardson. We see chanteuse 60’s icons Joni Mitchell & Marianne Faithful photographed by Hedi Slimane in the latest Saint Laurent campaigns and over at Céline they have cast the celebrated author and octogenarian Joan Didion as seen above looking beyond cool snapped by Jurgen Teller. In beauty we see Charlotte Rampling for Nars by Nars, radiating that cool sexy boyish energy that has intrigued us for 40 years. Not to mention mass  high street brand American Apparel who have Jacky O’Shaughnessy in their campaign sitting on the floor in the ads in her undies doing yoga stretches with her long grey hair looking cool as.
We know that back in the day fashion celebrated the older models, Lisa Fonssagrives, Suzy Parker, Ann Saint Marie were posing for Vogue photographed by legends Irving Penn and Cecil Beaton or sashaying down the couture catwalks well in to their 40’s. From that era Carmen Dell’Orefice is still modelling for high fashion and Bettina just had an exhibition dedicated to her work and beauty in Paris at the end of 2014.
So what happened when did women over 35 become undesirable, was it the 60’s when Twiggy’s adolescent look became all the rage or was it the 90’s when Kate & waif was the thing and then more recently in the noughties when models are so young that their parents/guardians are on set or backstage at shows. This is a certainly something to be celebrated but perhaps this is not an age or even a style issue, although we all do love Advanced Style by Ari Seth Cohen. Perhaps this is designers saying loud and clear that after the last few over exposed years of the KKK (Kim Kardashian Klan) perhaps it is time to celebrate smart, accomplished women that have achieved something in their long years that they can look back and be proud of and that future generations take pleasure and learn from their work rather than for ‘breaking the internet.’ This celebration is so important when we live in a world that devalues women of a certain age in the media and in advertising. Insecure women all over the globe need to see women of all ages shown in a desirable way so that they feel good about ageing that it is not something to be scared or ashamed of. Lets hope this trend is here to stay and lets also hope that in 2015 those fashion influencers not only look at age as beautiful but also remember that women of all races are beautiful too.