Pat is still absolutely stunning. Remember that cheesy 70s film "Mahogany" where Diana Ross twirled and danced down the runway as a young, black fashion model taking Europe by storm? Diana literally stole those moves from Pat Cleveland.
This is just one of many beautiful images from V Magazine's "Who Cares About Age" issue, hitting newsstands today. V is celebrating the beauty of Grown Ass Women this month, and giving all the young-uns something to aspire to. Three separate covers were shot, and each cover girl is over 60 years old! Although Sigourney Weaver is one of my personal heroes and I'm quite fond of Ms. Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon's cover is my absolute favorite...
Is this just a tribute issue, or a passing fad? Personally I think it's wonderful to see women of all ages, not just the teens and twenty-somethings from the Paris runways, modeling in major publications. Again, fashion is supposed to be fantasy, and the reality is very different. Fashion editorials usually show young models, some of them barely out of their teens, in couture and luxury suiting. What social functions does a 19 year old attend that may require her to wear an impeccably-tailored, two thousand-dollar suit?
Stop and think about who is actually buying these clothes. When I was working in high fashion boutiques most of my regular clients were stylish career women well over 40. I would often come home from work, shake my head, and say, "That 59 year old chick is so fierce I want to be HER when I grow up." These are the women who could afford to buy a Gucci suit, blouse, and coordinating pumps, when most of my 18 year old customers were saving their tips from serving at the local diner just to buy a belt or a wallet. These women don't need to babysit all summer or dip into their student loan funds to by one popular style of designer handbag, because these grown women already have that bag in three different colors and in skins appropriate for each season. These are grown women who really are VIPs in every sense of the word, not standing in line trying to get into the VIP room at the club on Friday night. If the older woman is the customer that is being sold to, then would she want to see the clothing modeled by someone she can relate to?
What do you think?
I'm right there with you, girl! I hate seeing people like Lauren Hill and Lindsay Lohan on magazine covers and I really hate looking at models who aren't even old enough to have a driver's license. 'Cause let's face it - older women have real bodies (ahem, hips) and most models have bodies that haven't discovered the world yet. Showing clothes on a model who is 30 years younger than the target audience doesn't give the purchaser an idea of how the clothes would look on them. I feel the same way about so-called plus-size models. Few, if any, of them would shop at a plus-sized store because they're all a size 12, which in RTW is NOT a plus-size. How is a size 22 women going to know how a dress will hang on her body when the model in the magazine/catalog/ad is a size 12 and is having the sample garment draped/pinned/taped on her? I'm just sayin'.
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