Photo Credit: people.com

About two-and-a-half years ago, I have posted an article on this blog lauding two luxury brands featuring older models – Joni Mitchell for Yves Saint Laurent and Joan Didion for Celine. The excitement about the then 71-year-old Mitchell and 80-year-old Didion emerging as the newest fashion faces generated a lot of buzz and attention in the media. I questioned at that time whether it was really a marketing campaign acknowledging diversification or just a promotional gimmick. It looks like the fashion and beauty industries are really waking up and embracing mature women and models.

Nobody made bigger news recently than iconic actresses Jane Fonda and Helen Mirren making their debut appearances on the fashion runway for LOreal during the Paris Fashion Week this year. The 79-year-old Fonda and 72-year-old Mirren have been trailblazers all their lives, and now they are brand ambassadors for a leading beauty and cosmetics brand. Fonda has always been comfortable in her own skin in spite of her age. In 2016, she told the Daily Mail that after she turned 60, she began to understand who she was and she became young again. She said she is feeling pretty good about life now that she is in sight of her 80th birthday. She repeated the same observations in a recent TV interview with Megyn Kelly on NBC.

These septuagenarian brand ambassadors are not the only ones walking the runway with the hottest young models such as Gigi Hadid. Last month,it was announced that Maye Musk, 69, was the new face of CoverGirl, making her one of the oldest ambassadors for the brand. Having been modelling since she was 15, Musk is, of course, no stranger to the world of beauty and fashion. What is noticeable is her continued success, as she ages, as a brand ambassador in an industry which has traditionally been perceived as skin-deep superficial. In an interview with Vogue last year, Musk said: I hope my success gives other women hope that they can look good and feel good when they are past 60. I was on a shoot yesterday, and the young models were so excited to see me because they say it gives them hope, too, that they can carry on.

The accomplishments of Musk are, of course, beyond the fashion runway and photo shoots. She is the mother of three successful adult children including Elon Musk, Founder, CEO and CTO of SpaceX and co-founder and CEO of Tesla Inc. This Regina-born grandmother, with 10 grandkids and also a successful business as a dietitian, perfectly exemplifies brains and timeless beauty.

The list of mature models does not stop here. Versace also featured former supermodels of the 1990s – Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen, Claudia Schiffer and Carla Bruni – in its latest runway show. These mature women walked the runway alongside the new guard, including the daughter of Crawford, Kaia Gerber, and the current reigning supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid.

Even Zara, the Spanish fast-fashion brand popular among young women around the world, is using three veteran models over 40 to showcase its new Timeless Fall and Winter Collection. In marketing campaign materials and on its website, the three beautiful women – Malgosia Bela (40), Yasmin Warsame (41) and Kristina de Connick (53) – discuss the effect of aging on their personal style. The ladies have collectively walked for Dior, Valentino, Givenchy and Dries van Noten.

Gucci, Dolce and Gabbana, and Loewe have also followed suit in recent years, hiring older Hollywood stars, such as Vanessa Redgrave, Sophia Loren and Charlotte Rampling, as brand ambassadors. Age diversity seems to be increasingly in vogue now on fashion runways for the past few seasons: Amber Valleta walked the runway for Tom Ford; Stella Tennant for Ralph Lauren; and Carolyn Murphy for Michael Kors.

Perhaps everything old is really new again! As I have said before on this blog, the fashion and beauty industries are finally realizing that the consumers buying their products are no longer just spring chickens, but mature women with more disposable income. Let us hope that this awakening to the aging reality is not simply a fad and mature women and men will no longer become invisible as they age.

By now, all the critics’ analyses of the final episode of the seven-season-long TV drama Mad Men have died down. But the yearning still remains – there will be nothing anymore on TV on Sunday nights to look forward to; no more disputes about the interpretations of what each episode meant; and no more nostalgia of the ’60s and ’70s fashion!

I’ve always loved this TV drama because it was not just a nostalgic piece for us boomers, but, rather, a cross-cultural and cross-generational, pop-culture masterpiece that has created controversy and generated different interpretations of the story development and the viewers’ affinity with its characters.

I watched the final episode twice in order to get into the full essence of what creator Matthew Weiner wanted to say. And here’s a spoiler alert: do NOT read on if you haven’t yet seen the final episode and are planning to watch it on Netflix! I think as loyal followers of this TV drama for the past seven years, we all thought Don Draper was going to die towards the end. From the illustrations at the beginning of each episode about him falling down a skyscraper building of Manhattan to Jon Hamm’s (the actor playing Draper) hint about his character’s destiny on TV talk shows, Draper’s death seemed like an inevitable end to a dark drama like Mad Men.

Yet, the brilliance of Matthew Weiner lies in the fact that he wanted the entire TV drama to end like the satire of the whole show – it’s a satire of the advertising industry in the ’60s and ’70s and, therefore, it should end with a brilliant commercial of its times. The “I’d like to teach the world to sing” Coke commercial has always brought goose bumps to the marketing world, and with Don giving us a smile and smirk in his final scene on top of a cliff while participating in his group meditation, we’ve come to realize that Don has come to recognize and identify himself as an advertising man after all his torment and soul-searching. Coca-Cola was so undeniably McCann-Erickson that it’s natural that only Don Draper could be the creative genius that invented this wonderful commercial after McCann has acquired Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

Although Peggy has always been the feminist on the show, it’s most appropriate to have Joan, the former secretary constantly harassed by the male characters in the drama, be the ultimate woman who achieved independence and quit McCann and her rich beau to set up her own company while raising a young son at home. What I don’t understand is why Weiner had the most despicable ad executive on the show, Peter, be on the road to fame and wealth by giving him the most enviable job from a private jet company. Perhaps, one of the creator’s key messages was that all successful advertising executives could be somebody like Peter – slimy, social-climbing, womanizing, lazy and manipulative while sucking up to their bosses and clients!

We will all miss Mad Men, but I’m sure the TV drama will, in no time, become one of the classics to be studied at universities and drama classes because not only did it trace the historical milestones of that era (the assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King); it also tracked the roots and rise of feminism; it portrayed racial and sexual discriminations within the office environments of the advertising world; and it depicted lies and deception with great depth and irony!

I don’t know about you, but this is the only TV drama that’s worth watching over and over again. I, for one, will start watching all seven seasons again over time on Netflix and savour what I’ve missed when viewing it the first time!

Photo Credit: www.frostmagazine.com

As a boomer who grew up in the ’60s and ’70s, I am delighted to hear that there’s a retro revival going on for the spring/summer fashion this season – that ’70s fashion of flared sleeves and bell-bottomed pants, knit ponchos, Bohemian dresses and tops, fringe on jackets and bags, and knee-high sandal boots will soon be everywhere! Not that I’ve kept any of my old clothes from 40 years ago for repurposing now, but the seventies fashion has always been my favourite!

According to Vogue magazine, designer Jonathan Anderson said that we’re living in a generation and a moment in fashion where you see a lot of nostalgia. “That’s because, fundamentally, we are living in a moment where no one knows where they are going and everyone is trying to work out whether they fit.” Now, this sounds a bit pessimistic, but it’s true that boomers are all about nostalgia. Pop culture and Hollywood are also enhancing that ’70s effect – Mad Men, American Hustle and Inherent Vice are all visually a feast for the eyes with the ’60s and ’70s fashion, makeup and music.

I personally think that we should not read too much into the trend. Fashion designers and creative directors just need to draw from the past and look into the future. There’s always the theory that fashion looks back in a 30- or 40-year cycle. I have not been excited about fashion trends for the last five years, but I am excited about this retro ’70s look because it brings back fond memories of my youth.

In case you’re still wondering what to wear (should you want to be fashionable), here are the top looks this season:

– Tops or dresses with bell sleeves paired with a suede long-strap bag

– Crochet tops and dresses with a fringed hem

– Soft suede high boots with long fringes

– Bell-bottomed pants and jeans

– “Flatforms” and chunky heels

– Short is out and long is in: maxi dresses with a slit at the front and preferably filled with patchwork

For all of you women boomers who want to have some fun this spring/summer season, just pick the style you like that will give you some fond memories, look fashionable but not ridiculous!

I was recently interviewed by The Globe and Mail in an article published on January 28 about marketing retirement products and services to boomers. I mentioned that it’s very challenging to get the tone right when marketing to boomers, not just for retirement products and services, but for consumer brands as well .

But there are a few examples of brands that have got it right. The first that comes to mind is Kimberly-Clark’s seven-month-old “Underawareness” ad campaign for its Depend undergarments. According to The New York Times, “Underawareness” is a portmanteau of “underwear” and “awareness.” Even though it is aimed at consumers under 50 because nearly half of those who experience some form of urinary incontinence are under 50, it’s a clever way to talk to boomers as well. There is nothing more unglamorous than incontinence – yet, a lot of senior citizens depend on Depend diapers to protect themselves on a daily basis.

According to the brand, the goal of the campaign is to reduce the stigma of the products by showing that bladder incontinence is common and affects younger people more than many people realize. It also highlights that the products look more like underwear than resembling bulky diapers decades ago. The voice-over in the commercial said, “It’s time to bring it out in the open – it’s time to drop your pants for Underawareness. A cause to support the over 65 million people who may need Depend underwear. Show them they’re not alone, and show off a pair of Depend, because wearing a different kind of underwear is no big deal.” Instead of using elderly models, print ads and billboards in the campaign feature attractive models and the brand wanted to show the product outside of its packaging to show that even diaper-underwear could look fashionable!

According to market research firm Euromonitor International, the incontinence underwear category in the U.S. has grown steadily from $1.19 billion in 2008 to $1.55 billion in 2013 – an increase of 30 percent due to an aging population. What I like about this marketing campaign is that Kimberly-Clark understands that by addressing the stigma of incontinence products, the brand could substantially grow for both the boomer and seniors markets as well as the younger-than-50 market suffering from incontinence. It is a bold and gutsy way to embark on a marketing campaign addressing the normality of incontinence with a more fashionable underwear look than the traditional ugly and bulky diapers. Even though the ad campaign wasn’t supposedly aimed at us boomers, how could you not look at these commercials and ads and say, “I can wear that with dignity when the time comes?”

In my last blog post, I commented on Celine and YSL using more mature, authentic women as their faces, namely Joan Didion and Joni Mitchell respectively. But I think it is Prada Menswear that has gone one step further by making Prada a fashion brand for both boomers and millennials. All right, they haven’t gone all the way out to use a boomer face yet, but Prada’s Spring 2015 menswear campaign features the 45-year-old Ethan Hawke as one of its dapper models. Hawke may not fit the boomer demographic in his actual age yet, but his “Before Midnight” and, more recently, “Boyhood” fame clearly made him a boomer father by association.

The other three faces for this campaign are much younger millennial actors – the 27-year-old lead actor of Oscar-nominated movie Whiplash, Miles Teller; the 24-year-old British actor in Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken, Jack O’Connell; and  the 20-year-old male lead of the movie Divergent, Ansel Elgort. Even though Hawke is not even 50, he looks like a father to the other three younger kids in the same ad campaign. This, in itself, should appeal to boomer men without alienating their younger counterparts.

In fact, fashion brands seem to be fascinated with age and experience this season. Apart from Celine and YSL, Dolce & Gabbana – usually an exceptionally youthful brand – featured a cluster of charming grandmothers gossip with the brand’s embellished leather bags and golden crowns gleaming against their widows’ weeds in the fashion ad. What a brilliant way to demonstrate the spirit of D&G’s Sicilian heritage!

Continuing with the salute to more mature women, Givenchy’s face this season is 47-year-old Julia Roberts while Burberry’s campaign starred iconic supermodel Naomi Campbell cuddling the 24-year-old Jourdan Dunn (somehow giving a slight hint of a mentor-mentee relationship).

Mature men and women inspire a lot of younger people, and it just appears that marketers are slowly and gradually beginning to get it!

Photo Credit: Hollywood.com

I was recently interviewed by Canadian Press (CP) about two marketing campaigns for leading international luxury brands featuring older models – Joni Mitchell for Yves Saint Laurent and Joan Didion for Celine. The CP article subsequently got picked up by The Vancouver Sun, The Province, The Windsor Star, Brandon Sun, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Leader-Post, The Star Phoenix, The Huffington Post Canada, Canada.com, and the websites of Global TV News and CTV News.

The excitement about the 71-year-old Mitchell and 80-year-old Didion emerging as fashion’s newest faces generated a lot of buzz and attention in the media, both online and traditional. When the CP reporter asked me whether this was a marketing gimmick just to be different or whether the two luxury brands were trying to appeal to boomer consumers, I shared with her my thoughts as follows.

Using mature women as models for fashion brands is not entirely new. In my blog post entitled Model Boomers on February 17, 2009, I’ve already said that the fashion industry is finally getting it – you really need boomer models to appeal to boomer consumers! At that time six years ago, the 50-year-old Madonna was donning the ads for Louis Vuitton; 52-year-old Jerry Hall was the new face of Chanel; 50-year-old Twiggy was the model for Marks & Spencer; Ines de la Fresange, a former Lagerfeld muse, walked the Paris haute couture runways at 51; and Lauren Hutton becoming J. Crew’s 2009 cover girl. This trend has progressively been continuing throughout the years.  What’s new now with Mitchell and Didion is that they were not even style or fashion icons when they were younger. Canadian Joni Mitchell (who now lives in California) is a musical icon while Joan Didion is an American literary legend who has inspired so many journalists and writers. The current marketing strategy is not just focusing on external beauty, but a celebration of individuality and inherent beauty. It’s another way of saying: Beauty is not just skin deep – it’s ageless!

So are YSL and Celine trying to appeal to boomer consumers or are these two campaigns using older women more like marketing gimmicks? As luxury brands, of course, they are trying to be different and edgy. The industry chat and word-of-mouth publicity alone have been generating a lot of media and consumer buzz and that’s what advertising is all about! But I also think that marketers are following the money. In Canada alone, boomers comprise 29 percent of the national population and control more than 70 percent of Canadian wealth and close to 60 percent of consumer spending. Discerning boomer women can definitely afford luxury brands and they are not attracted by young, bone-thin and waif-like fashion models. They want to see authentic, mature women role models exuberating confidence, wisdom and vibrancy in fashion advertising.

I would also hope that these luxury-brand marketers are also, at the same time, trying to appeal to younger intelligent women who are inspired by the two musical and literary icons. Maybe by appealing to more mature consumers, YSL and Celine are also trying  to develop new markets among brainier, younger women who are not necessarily yearning to look like the skinny fashion models on the runway.

Having said that, impressive marketing campaigns are useless if they don’t have products that appeal to their target consumers. I took a quick look on the YSL and Celine websites and I have to say that there are very few items on either one that would appeal to me! It’s always a very fine line marketing to boomers – you do not want to offer dowdy-looking apparel to mature women consumers who are still stylish and fashion- conscious. At the same time, you also want to stay away from designing and making clothing that would just appeal to these women’s daughters and granddaughters who might not be able to afford these luxury brands anyway.

I salute older women who continue to pay attention to fashion and be individualistic in their own styles. That’s why I always like the fashion blog http://advancedstyle.blogspot.com (as pointed out by Professor Ben Barry of Ryerson University in the CP article as well) which features stylish, mature women in the streets of New York City. It is truly a brave and refreshing initiative which should be replicated here in Canada as well.