Madonna, 56, has been posing for Versace, Julia Roberts, 47, is the face of Givenchy and Italian actress Monica Bellucci, 50, will soon be the oldest ever Bond girl. Is this an older women revolution?
Her silver hair styled into a severe bob, clad in all-black with huge sunglasses, 80-year-old US author Joan Didion cuts a striking figure in the new Céline ads. A guitar-strumming, floppy hat-wearing Joni Mitchell, 71, fronts Saint Laurent’s Music Project, and Dolce & Gabbana’s new campaign focuses on cackling Italian grandmothers. Meanwhile Madonna, 56, has been posing for Versace, Julia Roberts, 47, is the face of Givenchy and Italian actress Monica Bellucci, 50, will soon be the oldest ever Bond girl.
Such adverts should be no surprise given ageing populations and their growing purchasing power in some parts of the world. The senior market is “one of the most powerful consumer groups in the mid to long-term”, said Magdalena Kondej, an analyst for Euromonitor International. “Marketing targeted at elderly consumers that has found success to date often uses older celebrities,” she said, citing L’Oreal’s recent signing of Jane Fonda, 68, to advertise a face cream for over 60s. “This approach would seem the best option for apparel brands; there is no shortage of poster girls for older, glamorous women.” But does this signal a change in attitude or simply the latest shock tactics by the fashion industry?
Sylviane Degunst, 56, was spotted by a model scout two years ago on a London street, and has since appeared in photo shoots for high-street clothes as well as other adverts. A writer and publisher in her native France, she struggled to find work on moving to Britain and has embraced her new career. “I can’t use my mind any more so I may as well use my old body. I’m having a great time!” Degunst is far from the top end of the age spectrum—American Carmen Dell’Orefice is still modelling at 83—but she says that stereotypes still prevail. In one of her first modelling jobs she was asked to sit in a wheelchair; in another, scouted because of her white hair, she was rejected because she did not look old enough.
Artist, writer and curator Sue Kreitzman insists that older women are becoming more visible in public spheres, going so far as to call it an ‘older lady revolution’. “It’s happening slowly, but it is happening,” said the 75-year-old London-based New Yorker. Sue praises the Céline pictures for showing that ‘older people are here, we’re beautiful—we count’. “What I love about it is that Joan Didion doesn’t look the slightest bit young. She’s gorgeous and she’s an old lady.”
Even if former supermodels Amber Valletta, 41, and Eva Herzigova, 42, both took to the runways in Paris in January, skinny young women still rule. But Sylvie Fabregon, who runs the Masters and Silver agencies for older models in the French capital, says she is seeing increased demand for more mature women. “People are not stupid. Women have had enough of seeing 20-year-old girls in adverts for cosmetics to fight wrinkles they don’t have”.
Sandra Howard, a 74-year-old author who was a top model in the 1960s and 1970s, is sceptical about the new trend, saying the fashion ads featuring older women are “not about grey power, but the power to shock”. However, she concedes things have moved on a bit. “When I was modelling, you were old when you were 30!” she laughs. AFP
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