Dear Beauty and Fashion Industries:
Why do you ignore me? For years and years I’ve been a faithful supporter and consumer. My relationship with both of you started when I was an awkward pre-teen. I would look through Seventeen and Mademoiselle Magazines and imagine that I was Colleen Corby or Terry Reno.
These were the looks I aspired to as a pre-teen and later a teen. Look at the NATURAL beauty of the models. Look at the simplicity of the clothing and how uncomplicated the looks are. Colleen Corby, Left, and Terry Reno, right were my two favorite models!
I would imagine my skin without pimples and my eyes without the awning of a unibrow. My happiest fashion days of those years were the days when the mailman would deliver my monthly issue of Ingénue. And the best—the absolute best issue was the September issues of Glamour and Mademoiselle—that yearly college issue was better than the Glamour “Do’s and Don’ts” throughout the year! At over an inch of fashion thickness, I was filled with hope that I, too, would be as well-dressed and well- tressed as Sybill Sheperd , then of Hunter College was. She stared back from the pages at me and her eyes told me that I could achieve that same look as hers.
No gimmicky looks here. I still dress like this. It is a timeless fashionable look that will remain classic!
Tell me, will THIS look from London Fashion Week remain classic? And who will wear these frocks other than the perhaps well-monied young girls with indulgent parents? Can we design for older women please?
I would imagine myself as a vision either in plaid, or stripes or a cute baby doll dress. Those images shaped the style I would continue to have into the present day of my 61 years.
Yes. This is a look that I continue to wear in my 61st year…
..and it never gets tiring!
It was so simple back then. Clothing was worn by models. Fashion models. They specialized in the fine art of selling clothing without speaking and without being a Z-list celebrity. Models back then were discovered on trains, at school—even walking down the street. Fashion ads back then were a bit more realistic in the use of age appropriate models. Just a tad—which is better than what we have in the present.
Today, the fashion industry puts Z-list celebrities who were discovered through sex tapes shilled by their mother. Yeah. Anna Wintour. I’m talkin’ to you. Although I loved thumbing through Vogue purely because of Grace Coddington’s fabulous editorial spreads, I divorced myself from your magazine when you splashed Kim and Kanye West on your cover. Your obsession with celebrities and your ageist tone is a disgrace.
When did the fashion industry go from catering to the “ladies-who-lunch”—women who were older and chic and oozed elegance from every orifice of their slender bodies, to catering to the younger generation who’s only link to journalism is Instagram and Snapchat. At one point, the fashion industry was well-aware of the woman who was purchasing the designer clothing. They were not the Gigi’s and Karli’s of the world.
Versace believes that all moms look like and dress like Karli Kloss and Gigi Hadad. Karli is 24 years old. Gigi is 21. Gigi sure was sexually active to have two kids AND to have enough money to dress like this while carting her kids around at such a young age. MOST moms are wearing t-shirts stained with breast milk leakage and coffee stains. Who is Versace kidding with this shit?
At least fashion ads of the early 1960’s stuck to more appropriate age limitations! These women are not 21 year olds wearing clothing for women a bit older!
What happened to true fashion journalism? Fashion journalism has been reduced to collages of outfits—purely visual with descriptions of “Sooooooooooooo Cuuuuuuuuuuuuutttttteee” rather than an in-depth read about construction, fabric and fit. Yeah. That would be too much to concentrate on and actually read.
Mr. Karl. Take a look at the people behind you. They are from the fashion press. I’m sure they would love to write an in-depth article about you. I know I would! They are not young. You ain’t young either. Why don’t you stop catering to the young and start paying attention to the older, more seasoned journalists rather than the 2-second attention-span Snap Chatters and IG Bloggers? Trust me, I am an IG fan, but an IG photo isn’t journalism.
At Miu Miu. Check out the average age of the women watching this. You can rest assured they are old-school fashion editors. This look is another one that would not be flattering on an older woman. So who would wear this anyway? Can you imagine wearing this after a big meal? The buttons on the skirt would pop right off!
But mostly, why do you abandon the group of women who are over 50 and 60 and older? Do you realize that we still love to look our best? Are you aware that we, as a group, spend an enormous amount of money on clothing? Do you realize that many of us have salaries that afford us the luxury of purchasing well-made and well-tailored clothing? And for the woman who is on a limited budget, she can look to your clothing to get ideas of what to look for during a sale or in discount shops.
You have taken us out of your demographic. Oh yes. You have! Look through any magazine and you will see young celebrities-as-models putting their best come-hither look while wearing clothing that an older woman can adorn with panache!
Lower the hem a bit and ANY older woman would look smashing in this beaut of a dress. I would wear this out to dinner with a pair of nude Repetto flats. Then I could drink and not worry about falling on the street.
Mr. Karl. THIS dress would be perfect for the older woman. The cut of the sleeves, the shape of the dress. So why do you think showing a young model wearing it is going to make the woman it was made for wear it. And the sneakers look pathetic. Just. pathetic.
Longchamp! Shame on you! Although the nylon LePliage is incredibly popular with Sorority Girls and Soccer moms, your main buyer is the older woman. I know this. I sold a ton of Longchamp leather bags to women my age. I own three cuir Longchamp bags and eight LePliage bags of various sizes. Stop using Alexa Chung as your spokesperson and go with someone older. Lauren Hutton perhaps? Better yet, maybe you can get Terry Reno or Colleen Corby out of retirement and back to where they belong–modeling as mature women.
This is just a sampling of the many Longchamp bags I own. Proof that moms and older women are the Longchamp demographic…
Alexa Chung, as cute and adorable as she is, along with her peers are not your number one demographic. Can we have a Lauren Hutton or Colleen Corby please? I have that bag! I love it! I’m an old lady!
Same with Brahim bags. Stop with the younger models. Your main buyer is the older, way older woman. I never, ever sold a Brahim bag to a woman younger than her late fifties. So stop being delusional. Get your customer in your ads.
I have never, NEVER, sold a Brahmin bag to a woman who looks like this. Enough said!
And Mr. Karl—don’t think you are getting off scott free either. I saw Signe Chanel three times. I own the DVD. The older women who work for you—they all love and adore you. From what I saw of the film, you are quite fond of those older women as well. So why don’t you have an ad campaign praising the older woman??? You design beautiful clothes. You are a genius. Why do you insist on using only young almost pubescent models in your shows? Come on, Mr. Karl. You have aged 11 years since Signe Chanel was filmed. Start using women your age and a decade younger.
Regardless of Mr. Karl’s insisting on using young women as models, this was one of the best fashion documentaries of all time. You really get an education on what goes into a haute couture collection. AND Mr. Karl’s seamstresses are all older women. And they rock!!!!
Mr. Karl’s mature workers are incredibly loyal to him. Nice thing is that he truly loves these women. Mr. Karl. I love you too but you gotta start using older women as models!
Mr. Karl. All these YOUNG models look miserable. None of them are smiling. That is because they would never wear these outfits. OLDER women were made for these pant suits. Can you give me one? I like the suit Cara Delevigne is wearing. Make the pants a bit slimmer though. And the jacket more fitted. Thank you Mr. Karl.
These days my fashion icons are a 97-year old Frenchman who happens to be my better half’s father and the style of Bardot—and she’s 81! I also have a new icon. The Lady In Green!
My fashion icon. Dany Lartigue the 97-year old Frenchman who happens to be Bonaparte’s dad! Do we see a pattern here?
The Lady in Green. Click to read more about her. THIS is the woman who should be modeling for all fashion houses. She is true fashion! She is older! She is awesome!
Fashion designers need to realize that most women have larger, saggy titties. We need a lift! Boning in clothing can help achieve that perky appearance. Are you listening? We have ass. God-given ass. We have ass that bounces and ass that jiggles. We have rounded asses. Not flat ones. Why don’t you design for women with womanly curves? Perhaps you can add a bit of old-school girdle material into the front panel of dresses . Have the panel start below the breastline and above the origin of the world. It would help to suck the fluffy softness achieved over the years without cutting our bodies in two! Are you listening to me?
This page is ripped out of my latest issue of “In Style”. Queen Bea has a curvy body but is covering her curves with this hideous monstrosity of non-fashion. What a victim. Look at Dakota Whats-her-name. She has the bottom half of a schoolboy.
In Style’s only saving grace is this showcase of Iman. But the magazine needs to focus more on older women. They do a pretty good job but need to do a better one!
You designers of the fashion industry could do great things if you only started thinking about the women you threw out to pasture like a bunch of cows.
Say hello to my fashionable friends. I’m in the pasture with you girls!
I’m done with you. I’ll rely on my memories of the 1960’s and old Frenchmen for fashion ideas.
I will still follow this look–but without the bow…
Better yet, I’ll stick to iconic simplicity that is true timeless fashion!
Don’t even get me started on you, beauty industry. You have no idea of the amount of money I’ve spent over the years on all things beauty. Ski n care. Creams, serums, mousses that looked good enough to eat—which I most likely did do after the mousse failed to work on my face!
You lie, beauty industry. You lie. In fact, I’m sure Donald Trump looked to your industry for guidance in his never-ending trail of false promises.
Anti-aging products? No. You cannot stop the process of ageing. We all age. We will all lose hydration. We will all be shriveled up raisin faces at some point in our lives. What will the long-term effect of all those fillers be? The only way to keep the aging process at bay is surgery. The infamous face and neck lift and 99.9 percent of us women cannot afford that kind of surgery.
Read more about how I feel –just click . You have no idea how ads like this piss me off.
THIS is the face of ageing. It is MY face. And even with cosmetics you can see the lines. I just look a bit more polished!
Why do you continue to have ads showcasing the visage of a younger woman in your anti-aging campaigns? And you Photoshop the younger women to make them appear even more youthful!! Do you think we are stupid? Do you think we don’t know Photoshop and airbrushing?
Do us a favor. Tell us the truth. Tell us that your potions and lotions won’t turn the clock back twenty or thirty years. But do tell us that the creams can hydrate at best helping us to look good over the span of eight or ten hours.
The foundations? Please. No matter how inexpensive up to the top of the line super pricey, all give us the promise of dewy , glowing skin that won’t cake up or show fine lines. That. Is. Not. True.
All foundations will creep into fine lines. Whether you use a sponge, a brush, or your fingers to apply, they will get a tad cakey. Instead of lying, try a different approach. Tell us how to best apply the foundation so that we older women can enhance what we do have and cover redness and blotchiness.
Lines, drooping lids and redness. They won’t go away, but I can help disguise them and take the emphasis off them with cosmetics. That is a good thing and the beauty industry needs to be honest about this.
These days my eyeshadow may not glide on as smoothly as it did in my younger days. And that’s ok because I’ve learned through trial and error how to work around my drooping eyelids. I’ve learned to not bring attention to my crow’s feet, which get deeper by the day.
Mascara won’t make our lashes longer. Fiber Mascara will give us the appearance of longer lashes, but regular mascara won’t. So stop telling us that we will have more lush, luxurious and lengthened lashes with the swipe of your brand’s wand as it comes out of the tube. Most of us older women have lost the many lashes we once had. Just tell us that your mascara will darken our lashes. Clumpy mascara works wonders. I think you know that already but don’t want to say that!
I’m a huge fan of Bella Rose fiber lash mascara. It does what it says it’ll do. Kudos to you Bella Rose!
Estee Lauder has always been a more “mature” cosmetics company with Clinique as their younger sister. Estee. You lost me when you hired Kendall Jenner as your spokeswoman. I, as do the older women we all know, have absolutely nothing in common with this young woman. Why on earth would I purchase cosmetics that you are rebranding for the young?
It’s sad. It is incredibly sad and disheartening that the beauty industry feels the need to place the emphasis on youth rather than celebrate maturity. The beauty of the mature woman should be celebrated by this industry. We have character. Our faces tell our life story. We deserve to be treated with respect. And you need to respect us by telling the truth in advertising and using older women in your ads.
And by older I mean from 50 to 80 years old and up.
As a consumer I won’t stop buying clothing. And I won’t stop buying stylish clothing. I won’t stop my cosmetics or skin care purchases. But I have stopped reading fashion magazines. My boycott is the lack of older women as models—I’m not talking the patronizing kind either. I’m talking about using older models on a regular basis.
I won’t stop purchasing cosmetics either, but will be more careful about what I do purchase. Lauder is off my list because they blatantly started a more youthful campaign. I’m also leaning more toward drug store brands these days as well because many of the brands are just as good as high end. It’s all about packaging and “branding” these days. And less about product!
Notice that I have an Estee Lauder foundation. No more. I refuse to purchase any Lauder item. But take a look at a small sampling of the many cosmetics and skincare items I own. And I love my cosmetics–but am tired of the way the industry ignores the older woman!
I’m being open and honest with you fashion and beauty industries. Please be honest with me. Please start to recognize and respect the older woman. Learn to celebrate us rather than patronize us. You are missing out on a great opportunity!
“Don’t You Forget About Me” by Simple Minds. Because the simple minds of these industries HAVE forgotten about me and us!
Filed under: Older women Tagged: ageism, Ageism in Fashion and Beauty, Beauty, Fashion