The time old phrase “age before beauty” seems to be fading out in favor of “age is beauty.” The standard of youth being synonymous with beauty in fashion is becoming overshadowed by a new trend: women who are advanced in years and style. We celebrate this trend with the release of the IRIS DVD:
IRIS is directed by legendary documentarian Albert Mayseles, takes us on a journey through the life of 93 year-old fashion legend Iris Apfel. Iris rejects the concept of beauty by saying “I don’t like pretty,” and stresses the importance of creative depth and of personal style. Iris is a leader in trendsetting and, perhaps unintentionally, is paving the way for older women to be invited into the fashion world and appreciated for their beauty.
This trend became prevalent some time ago but its popularity was slow coming until Ari Seth Cohen decided to start a style blog, which lent a fresh-new take on who are considered as fashionable women. His blog ‘Advanced Style,’ which later turned into a major film, focuses on the fabulous, silver-haired women of New York who are fighting the stereotypes of age through fashion. After the great success of the blog and film, the trend took off. Now, all of fashions top designers are jumping to feature chic, elderly women in their ad campaigns. Even in the new film ‘Iris’ we see 93 year-old Iris Apfel being featured for a new M.A.C. cosmetics campaign.
So what is it about this trend that is captivating the imagination of so many designers and the approval of the public?
In a world of age 18, size triple 0, seemingly superhuman models, this trend comes as a breath of fresh air and is infatuating to designers and consumers alike. This new trend is inspiring old and young women to break out of the concept of traditional beauty and form new mindsets for themselves about what they think should be considered beautiful. Young women fear the effects of aging less and older women feel better in their own skin. With the fast and immense popularity of this trend, women are beginning to say good-bye to anti-aging and hello to aging gracefully.
Leave it to New York women to begin a trend that has set the fashion world on fire, we can only hope that it is here to stay.