By Holly O'Neill
25th Apr 2017
25th Apr 2017
In this month’s issue of IMAGE magazine, Fashion Director Marie Kelly states that “Fashion feeds into our human need to change and distinguish ourselves. It’s shorthand for what’s going on in both our heads and hearts.” While the fashion industry is still growing it’s place for older women, the public have chosen their own older style icons on social media, giving rise to a generation of women with followings so big, it can’t be ignored. For Denim Week on IMAGE.ie, Marie Kelly chose 68-year old Linda Rodin as her denim muse.
Women like?Linda Rodin?and Iris Apfel are now recognised as serious fashion power players as brands increase their diversity in ages in recent years with the inclusion of older women.
??After 40 nobody is young, but one can be irresistible at any age?. ?- Coco Chanel
SS17 saw the most women over 50 on the catwalk than ever before, according to the biannual diversity report last year from?The Fashion Spot?which?analysed the 8,832 models?featured in the 299?SS17 fashion shows which took place in September and October. Across the catwalks, diversity in terms of age was the focal point of shows such as?85-year-old Carmen Dell?Orefice closing the Guo Pei Spring 2017 Couture show and Lauren Hutton closing the SS17 Bottega Veneta show?arm in arm with Gigi Hadid in Milan.
Here are the ageless style icons you need to follow on Instagram.
Linda Rodin @lindaandwinks
New York-based stylist Linda Rodin is the founder of luxury skincare brand RODIN olio lusso and a former fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar. Read about the glimpse the beauty innovator and style icon gave us into her art-inspired life in the November 2016 issue of IMAGE magazine here.
Baddiewinkle?@baddiewinkle?
The 88-year-old great-grandmother Helen Ruth Van Winkle has 3million Instagram followers,?attended the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards with Miley Cyrus, has featured in a Missguided ad campaign and is a muse for Urban Decay. Her Instagram bio states, “stealing yo man since 1928.”
Sarah Jane Adams @Saramaijewels
She joined Instagram to promote her jewellery business and now Australian Sarah Jane Adams, 62, has close to 150k followers who love her edgy, colourful looks. She told the Australian Daily Telegraph, “I posted a photo of myself with my face red from its daily exfoliation and asked: ?Why are you following me?? There were many replies. ?You make ageing look like something to be excited about and at ease with.? ?I’ve been feeling the pull to break free of the tiny box I’ve put myself in. You make me want?to buy nothing but bright colours.” ?You’re an old lady who doesn’t give a damn. That’s so sexy and makes me look forward to constructing my own definition of age.”
Daphne Selfe, @daphneselfe
Daphne Selfe is the world’s oldest supermodel at 88-years-old and modelling since 1949. She went back to work at 70 and had much more success than she’d had in her twenties, working with Vogue and shooting with Mario Testino, Mary McCartney and Rankin. In 2014, The Guinness Book of Records awarded her ?Oldest Professional Fashion?Model?.
Lyn Slater?@iconaccidental
The 63-year-old style blogger, university professor and social worker?Lyn Slater, aka, The Accidental Icon?was spotted during Fashion Week by photographers when she was just meeting a friend (hence The Accidental Icon) and is now signed with Elite. ?I was surrounded by fashion photographers taking my picture, thinking I was some fashion person,? she told the Huffington Post. ?It was really all very accidental.? She started her blog and Instagram page. Her followers grow at an alarming rate; at the moment, she has 117k followers – 13k more than earlier this month when we talked about her on IMAGE.ie. She is also the face of Mango.
Anna Dello Russo?@anna_dello_russo
Former Japanese Vogue stylist Anna Dello Russo has the wardrobe of your dreams. Though her wardrobe may not be accessible to us mere mortals – in Fashion Director Marie Kelly’s words from The Regeneration Game in the May issue of IMAGE magazine, “she dons cocktail wear to breakfast and evening wear to afternoon tea” – she has 1.3million Instagram followers.
We hope that the clear interest in ageless icons will mean we continue to see diversity on the runway and in advertisements ?whether that diversity is in ethnicity, size, sexuality or age. As Vogue put it – ?the idea of realness?whether packaged as a model or an unexpected talent?has usurped follower count as the most invaluable quality during fashion month.? Or as The Accidental Icon puts it, ?Age is just a variable.? Let us know your ageless fashion icons to follow on Instagram in the comments below.
Featured image @anna_dello_russo.
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