The Older Model Bandwagon

Turning silver to gold...

Along with diversity in general there has been a real effort to cast older models who are relatable to ordinary women.

I do love a fantasy supermodel, a Maye Musk or Carmen Dell'Orefice. Too often, however, older models look like a second thought. I can hear the (young) art directors thinking, "Oh let's put her in the shot but keep her matronly and don't let her smile" or "Let's get some garishly outlandish older woman because everyone loves a character."

The fashion industry has been notoriously stupid for ages. I remember having navels airbrushed from two-piece swimsuit photos back in the '60s. That was only just after we stopped whittling down already skinny models at the waist.

I still want some fantasy in my fashion. If a model is too young, I just  mentally lop off her head when considering the clothes. I can determine if they will be right for me.

I do love to see someone who is not only older and beautiful but could be a woman I work with, volunteer with or am friends with. I saw an example today, looking at me from the window of Dress Barn, next to the Dollar Store in a strip mall. I usually pass by Dress Barn grateful there are other stores to shop. I'd never been inside.

Reflecting the window...and me?

I was stopped by a poster of an older woman with long grey hair.  Her expression is candid; she's thinking of something. She's also decidedly wrinkled and freckled, like me. The poster is huge, probably six feet high. She's beautiful, but she's also real, and what she tells me is I can still wear a leopard knit top with jeans and push up the sleeves. Why the hell not?

The "she" in the photo is Roxanne Gould, a 60-year-old native Californian. Dress Barn—sizes range from 4-24—is using a diverse group of models in a campaign promoting they are "more than just a name".

  
The tall (5'11") Roxanne joined her model mother in a Bayer Aspirin shoot at age 3 and has been modeling since. She spent 9 years in Europe as a popular, dependable model, but her career really took off when she stopped dyeing her gray hair and let it go natural. She's found more success than she ever did as one of a barrel-full of pretty girls.

Pretty, sure, but...

  
I truly believe the key to happiness as we get older is accepting ourselves. I'll never look like Roxanne, but I love looking at her. Those two sentences have got to be the ying and yang of woman.