two for the girls

Grey-power is Good:

71-year-old-veruschka-returns-to-modeling

Here’s a thought which is taking hold on the runways of the world. Since when have teenagers been known to buy haute couture? Well, why should teenagers with nubile bodies be used to sell high-end fashion to 40-somethings, 50-somethings and 60-somethings, the vast majority of whom have mature figures?

The penny seems to have dropped that older women are big spenders on fashion regardless of their size and grand dames may well be surpassing their younger sistuhs in becoming the fashion trendsetters of the 21^st century.

A small item in Grey Matters raises this issue and provides evidence dating from last autumn’s top fashion shows when 47-year-old Elle Macpherson appeared on several catwalks, gaining world-wide media attention.

Then Juan Duyos gathered a cast of 60-somethings for his Madrid showings and evergreen supermodel Veruschka, now 71, strutted her style for Giles in London.

(I remember some time in my journalistic career seeing Veruschka on the runway and I was in awe of her ageless beauty (no surgery evident). It could only have been at the Australian Fashion Show in Melbourne many years ago because that’s the only one I ever conned my way into – not being a fashion writer, and known widely for my feminist writings.)

H&M also jumped on the wagon and included a white-haired grand dame in its video for Lanvin x H&M.

And any astute media watcher may have noticed the growing number of mature faces appearing as cover “girls’’ and our own much-admired celebrity cook Maggie Beer springs to mind.

Much more natural and endearing than the recent fashion magazine cover of Olivia Newton-John, who surely had had all her signs of age eliminated by surgery even before Photoshop.

In 50-Something magazine, I read about a Superstar of a different kind, revered foreign correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, who, at 53, showed the world how to nab the first American interview with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi since the country’s troubles.

The British-born Iranian has an iron-clad history covering the world’s major trouble spots including Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Rwanda.

Christiane reported on Twitter that Gaddafi “refused to acknowledge that any demonstrations took place in the streets of Tripoli,’’ and it was to Amanpour that he reckoned that “all my people love me. They would die to protect me’’.

It was the second interview coup for Christiane during the Middle East uprisings because she was also the first to interview then-Egyptian president, Hosni Muburak.

And she has also interviewed the other controversial leaders including Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the late Palestian leader Yasser Arafat.
It begs the question Why do Australia’s media moguls place an age limit on women as interviewers for television news and current affairs programs?

PS; I did get into trouble for attending those fashion showings, though. I was on holiday and not accredited. Nor was I dressed for the event and merely flashed my Advertiser nametag. On reflection, it was outrageous, but I scored front-row seats for my Sydney friend and myself which was not appreciated by some renowned fashion writers. I was reported and the editor dressed me down when I returned from holiday. The experience was worth it, though.

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