After I had finished and scheduled the two parts below, IG fed me a post by a silver-haired 53-y-o model and anti-ageism advocate that just said (under side-by-side photos of herself with her previously dyed hair and her real hair), “In case you need a reminder today: It’s ok to look older.” The message, of course, being that “older” isn’t inherently worse than “younger,” especially with regard to looks (ffs), although we’ve all been trained to think so. But it got me musing on that age-old irony: that when we’re kids, all we want is to seem and look (and indeed, be) older, and then at some point the script flips, and suddenly simply appearing older is a fate worse than death. What popped into my head was a day last spring when I was out wandering with my sister (K) and my then 15-y-o niece (N) in Winter Park FL —
We were in a store my sister had wanted to shop in, full of what I would describe as generic, age-neutral sportswear — like a Gap sort of thing, but locally owned. K said bemusedly, “N thinks this is a store for old people who want to look young.” I said, “What’s old?” and N shrugged and replied, “I dunno. 30?” K and I giggled and shook our heads. Then we went off down the street to the store N had wanted to check out. As we approached the storefront, I took one look at the slinky, revealing dresses in the window — the kind that teenagers think makes them look all grown up — and said to her, “Ah. This is a store for young people who want to look older.” To which she replied (I love her so much), “Touché.”
PART ONE: The Bold
Adding to my list of role models the following:
• This unidentified 94-year-old sky diver
• 89-year-old track star Flo Meiler
• and the entire Wild old Bunch of Alta (NYT Gift Link)
PART TWO: The Beautiful
It’s not uncommon for the fashion industry to periodically try to show their (momentary) commitment to diversity in various ways, only to quickly fall back into the habit of only featuring very young, very thin, and mostly white models. Hopefully this isn’t just another such anomaly, but ‘More old(er) models walked on the runways this season, marking a step in the right direction for age representation.’ (NYT Gift Link) At least as far as the images included in the article go, they are still all thin and mostly white (like scientists conducting a lab experiment, they apparently can only change one variable at a time), but how great to see these women showing how it’s done.
Collapse and Delight 