“Segregation has never worked,” says model Kate Bell, 56, a familiar, gently lined face on the runway at Australian Fashion Week. “We are doing OK when it comes to older models.
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“Australia is doing better than Copenhagen Fashion Week and that is meant to be the most progressive runway in the world. I don’t understand, if a mature woman fits a sample size, why is she not in the mix?”
There have been positive changes, but the industry is still dealing with age representation, as it backslides on size diversity with the impact of Ozempic.
As with Melbourne Fashion Festival’s main runway shows, older models are significantly outnumbered backstage, where anyone aged over 25 can be seen as a veteran. While older customers are more likely to be able to afford Chanel handbags and Loewe gowns, brands are still chasing the cool currency that comes from youthful appeal.
“The industry still has some growing up to do,” says stylist and mature model Carol Sae-Yang. “For decades, fashion has marketed to women through a lens that prioritises youth and desirability. But we aren’t dressing for approval any more. We’re dressing for ourselves.
“We’re dressing for ourselves,” says stylist Carol Sae-Yang.
“We’re asking for great clothes, period. Clothes that acknowledge the realities of our bodies while celebrating the freedom and confidence that comes with this stage of life.”
On the surface, an event dedicated to older fashion might seem like progress. The show is already on its way to being sold out, with last year’s silver-haired runway greeted with whoops and hollers.
It works as a marketing tool for a no-longer-girls’ night out, where attendees will get to see former Olympic swimmer Nicole Livingstone, television personality Nicky Buckley and former Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp model Australian design. It doesn’t work as a representation of fashion as it is.
Speaking to a number of designers from last year’s show, it also doesn’t drive clothing sales. That might be because ticket holders are looking for themselves on the runway and not at the clothes.
“It reminds me of the ghetto that used to be around plus-size clothes,” says former Vogue editor and author Kirstie Clements. “Whether it’s size or age, we need the runway to really be about the clothes.
Vivienne Westwood, giving the thumb if not the middle finger backstage at London Fashion Week in 2014, where she wore a “Yes” badge and Scottish flag in support of Scotland’s independence referendum. Credit: Reuters
“We can all wear whatever we want, but putting older women in clothes that are deliberately nutty for shock value is pointless. We just want clothes that fit our life without any false gaiety and forced zaniness.
“I don’t need to see myself reflected on the runway to know that a coat is beautiful.”
Older women are not invisible in fashion, thanks to the pioneering middle finger of designer Vivienne Westwood, who refused to age gracefully, and the persistence of ’80s supermodels. The only hand signal mature models now need is to indicate merging into the mainstream rather than being forced into their own lane.
Damien Woolnough is the fashion editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
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