Sometimes the thought of a sixteen year old model wearing a $4000 Zac Posen dress is somewhat unconvincing – even infuriating. And it seems the fashion industry is beginning to realise this too. The resurgence of the ‘mature’ model has seen some of the world’s most influential designers showcase their collections with some our most well-known old faces. (And I use the term ‘old’ loosely and specifically relative to the world of modeling here.)
Dazed & Confused – whose pages are typically reserved for the freshest faced models and the brand new kids on the block of the celebrity world, have just featured a gorgeous Lina Scheynius-shot editorial spread of 90s top model and Bardot lookalike Kristy Hume.
When Francisco Costa, designer for Calvin Klein chose to feature the likes of Kristen McMenamy, Stella Tennant and Kristy Hume in his show earlier this year, it was “to represent the women who actually buy my clothes.” He said: “The woman who puts my clothes on needs a certain level of sophistication. We wanted to acknowledge women who have always worn our clothes, women with their own identities, have full lives and have kids.”
It’s not just magazine pages that seem to be putting an increasing focus on ‘mature’ models. Marc Jacobs, for his Louis Vuitton A/W 2010 runway show, chose to cast 47-year-old Elle Macpherson to hit the catwalk – and she looked pretty damn fine for a gal pushing half a century. Similarly, Ksubi closed Australian Fashion Week this year with a couple of laps by grunge-rock 90s model Emma Balfour.
It’s obvious enough that the average consumers of high-end fashion don’t usually consist of under thirty-somethings, so the fashion industry is starting to change the angle when it comes to the faces who are supposed to represent their target customers. So power to the mature model! After all, age is just a number. English model Erin O’Connor, 32 has said she has no plans to retire any time soon: “I hate that idea of retirement or ‘you’re past your sell-by-date,” O’Connor told Vogue recently.
So does this mean the end of flawlessly youthful pre-adolescent models? Absolutely not. But it is refreshing to see the fashion world embracing realism – albeit aesthetically superior realism…
See Photos via Style.com
