Channel 4’s profile of six older role models was a shot in the arm for invisible women everywhere. Will the fashion industry take note?
Bridget, Sue and Daphne from Fabulous Fashionistas. Photograph: Channel 4
It has been a funny old week. I’ve often been too preoccupied and cross to speak. It’s tiring, being a narky middle-aged woman, and the nullifying lack of interest in anything we do doesn’t help. Mostly, I sit behind my laptop and fester. Come the evening, I might swear a bit at the telly and grumble to the cat. “Older role models, that’s what we need,” I say, thumping the sofa. “For God’s sake, give us a break.” And you know what? Last night somebody did. Channel 4 offered a twinkly, 24-carat nugget of role models in Fabulous Fashionistas.
If you follow Ari Seth Cohen’s Advanced Style blog – and if not, why not? – the evidence suggests that New York positively seethes with stylish over-60s. You might reasonably conclude that London does a fair bit of seething too – only it doesn’t. There are plenty of well-dressed older women, but older women with a powerful, individual sense of style? Rarer than hen’s teeth according to Sue Bourne, the programme’s producer and director. It took her two years to find the half-dozen women she needed to make her documentary work and I’m chuffed to little mint balls she stuck at it.
I’m going to adore any group that includes Baroness Trumpington (the woman I want to be when I grow up), but the six of them together radiate enough fabulousness to scotch any nonsense that older women are better off not being seen at all. Boasting – yes, boasting – an average age of 80, they all agree that style, as opposed to fashion (it’s an important distinction), becomes much more relevant as the years tick on. Wearing things that make you happy gives a sense of wellbeing, regardless of what anyone else thinks, and it helps in dealing with a good deal of the discomfort that comes with getting older.
Ageing has very little respect for status or privilege, it is a great leveller, and the way we tackle it dictates how much more we can squeeze out of life’s pips. A comfortable income undoubtedly helps –but living almost entirely on a state pension hasn’t stopped Bridget. (Actually, I can’t imagine anything stopping Bridget.) Daphne blushes when she admits that the camera likes her “good bones” but then she should know because she was rediscovered as a model at 70 and is now signed to a top agency. I’m full of admiration for Jean who went for a job in Gap and was employed “on the spot” (Gap clearly knew a good thing when they saw it).
Not one of these women would, or should, regard themselves as invisible, surplus to requirements or in any other way redundant to society. It would be heresy to suggest it but if you needed more proof then Gilly Lynne, choreographer of Cats and Phantom of the Opera – and possessed of a full work diary for 2014, should certainly provide it. The sixth subject, Sue, announced that “beige is the colour of death”. You know, I think I might have that inked onto my upper thigh. I love that woman.
Our Fabulous Fashionistas (by now I felt we should claim ownership) weren’t trying to look younger or filling their faces with stuff – none of the six has had Botox – they were about learning to please themselves, learning to accept what can’t be changed and deal with what can. The message was one of not seeing age as something to hide from or be afraid of. Run up hills at 75 if you still can – you’re lucky to be alive.
Before we get swept away on a wave of “hurrahs” and sunny optimism, this documentary casually dropped in a couple of boringly familiar statements from the advertising and media worlds (yes, my favourite soapbox ). This from an agent: “Advertising people want the granny next door” (and you know what we say to THAT). Then from Vogue: “People want a dream.” And in case that backhander didn’t quite hit the mark: “Vogue is an inspirational magazine.” Are you saying, Vogue, that the right to dream is solely the prerogative of the young? That older women cannot be inspirational? And there was me thinking that the edginess of your photoshoots meant you were open to courageous editorial choices; that all that guff about size-zero models and diversity meant something. How about doing something really useful for women and putting a model over 60 in your pages? And let’s not forget that Anna “Nuclear” Wintour is herself 63. I had two more criticisms. The first was that our six Fabulous Fashionistas are uniformly Caucasian. I asked about this and was told it had more to do with the scarcity of candidates and the proximity of deadlines than anything else. Fair enough. The second is that it was screened at 10pm – perhaps an indication that TV isn’t quite ready for us yet? Still, it’s a bloody good start and I urge you to watch it if you didn’t. In fact, record it and watch it again … and again. I promise you it will make you feel better.
