Gone are the days when magazine covers and catwalks were only occupied by women aged 30 or over. Today, fashion is also open to those over 60 years old, with gray and natural hair and with few aesthetic procedures.
If before the modeling career was seen as ephemeral and with an age set to end, the last fashion weeks in Paris, New York and London came to prove the opposite and confirm this trend, when older models walked the runway for brands like Miu Miu and Balmain.
In Brazil, older models came out ahead of brands like Thear and André Lima at the 57th edition of São Paulo Fashion Week, which took place at the beginning of this month.
This week, the province of Buenos Aires elected Alejandra Rodriguez, a 60-year-old journalist, lawyer and model, to compete for Miss Argentina on May 25th. The competition with someone at this age is unprecedented and, if she wins, Alejandra could still compete for Miss Universe.
In a space where young faces have always been predominant, Vita Christofell, 63, from Ceará, also managed to secure her place. A producer, she worked for part of her life in the area of technology and marketing, all very bureaucratic, until migrating to the entertainment sector with the production of the now-defunct “Xou da Xuxa”, a hit from the 1980s. And it was on film sets that she started to get used to photography.
When she was younger, Vita already had a small interest in fashion, influenced mainly by her father. “He liked to follow along and I thought it was great to watch the parades on television with him,” she says.
At the age of 16, she moved to São Paulo and even tried something in the area, but until then the Brazilian fashion industry was not so consolidated — something that happened around the 1990s with the emergence of supermodels and the hypervaluation of a thin aesthetic.
Her teenage desire was only embraced by her in 2019, encouraged by her designer daughter. “She asked me for a camera as a gift and I was the object of the work, when we saw the result, she told me” mom, you have to parade “, she remembers.
At the time, aged 58, she lived in Tiradentes, Minas Gerais, and rethought everything she had done throughout her life to embark once and for all on her new profession. “I asked myself how many years I will live before I decide to pursue this experiment,” she says.
From there, the photos taken by the daughter were sent to a modeling agency in Belo Horizonte, the capital 200 km from where they lived. Her first job was a lingerie campaign and in the same year she modeled for designer Ronaldo Fraga, at SPFW, in a collection that paid homage to the painter Portinari.
“I’ve loved representing women my age. I also like working with this because women make me stronger. It’s very enriching to be on a catwalk, even next to tops”, she says.
Today she is part of the Ford agency and says she has not faced any major challenges in her career transition or in relation to ageist issues, such as gray hair, on the contrary. According to Vita, the female union helped her. “The agencies were even interested in my hair. I think vanity is linked to our essence, and this is not something arrogant, it is a vanity of joy, of feeling beautiful and each one has its own shine.”
In addition to the catwalks and editorials for brands, today Vita also enjoys dancing flamenco and, more recently, joined the corps de ballet of “Ópera Carmen”, which debuts at Theatro Municipal de São Paulo, on May 3rd.
Owner of the Way Model agency, Anderson Baumgartner, known as Dando, has worked in fashion for 26 years and remembers that, recently, it was common for models to lie about their age when they turned 30. “I remember there were some who even joked about saying they were 28 three years ago so people wouldn’t be suspicious”, he adds.
A model for just two years, one of the factors that gave Cláudia Chaves, 61, the opportunity to reach commercials and catwalks was precisely her age.
Interested in fashion since she was a child, due to her height, she grew up hearing that she should pursue a career in basketball or the world of fashion, but she says she never had any encouragement to do so. “In my time, the role models I had were Xuxa and Luiza Brunet, in other words, there was no space for me, a black girl.”
When he was in college, he even paraded for some classmates who owned stores, but it wasn’t professional at all. Graduated in tourism, Cláudia has always worked in hotel administration, living in states such as Bahia and Mato Grosso.
The turning point in his life came with the pandemic, when the resort where he worked closed its doors. “I couldn’t get another job, I think because of my age. So I didn’t do anything for a while”, she says.
Cláudia actually entered the world of fashion only in 2022, when a soft drink brand needed a woman with gray hair for a campaign. “My brother-in-law made this suggestion to me and I sent him some photos,” she says.
From then on his life changed. Other commercials followed and, more recently, she modeled for the first time at São Paulo Fashion Week. “I do television commercials for fast food chains, banks and some stores, so walking on a catwalk, for me, was a turning point.”
The biggest challenge in entering this field, according to her, was facing people aged between 18 and 20 doing the same type of work as her. “At my age, I only saw businesswomen and sponsors, and none of them were black like me.”
His age, however, was never a question. Claudia has been openly gray since she was 55 years old. “I’ve been told that this type of hair ages me, but I’m that age and I like to show who I am.”
Enthusiastic about fashion or not, Vita and Cláudia’s stories also intersect with that of Ana Costa Galli, 63. In the world of fashion, the three found possibilities in front of the cameras thanks to who they are and their age.
Also from São Paulo, Ana started working as a model five years ago, by chance. Graduated in advertising, she always produced pieces and campaigns, so she was on the opposite side of what she is today.
“It was completely by accident, I was a publicist and a friend who worked at a modeling agency one day told me that they needed a gray-haired woman,” she says. And her answer was no.
For a long time, Ana dyed her hair every other week, but nine years ago that changed. “One day I got tired because nothing would stop me from having gray hair. So I cut it to make it gray. People questioned why I had done that, but I really liked it and I think it gave me personality.”
When she finally said yes to the cameras, she did a bikini campaign. The result was a shock. “I opened the magazine, I was shocked when I saw that it was me”, remembers Ana. The new career gave a boost to her self-esteem. “I never imagined I would feel this fantastic thing.”
For Anderson Baumgartner, preserving the natural beauty of women over 60 is a trend. “I think that if this woman over 60 starts doing sudden procedures like plastic surgery and dying her hair, she will compete with 40-year-old models, and that’s not the idea, she’s there to show how old she is, to be a source of pride”, he adds.
Today, Ana no longer works in advertising, and modeling has become her only and exclusive profession. “This is my focus and I love it, it’s delicious. Although it’s a challenge because I never imagined doing this in my life, it’s been a rediscovery.”
Ageism was never a problem for her. On the contrary, Ana says she has always been treated very well by the younger people. “I feel that today senior models are even proud to say their age,” she says.
Coming from the English ageism, the term also called ageism was created in 1969 by an American gerontologist.
The WHO (World Health Organization) itself states that ageism occurs when age is used to categorize in a harmful way, with disadvantages and injustices, and to ruin solidarity between generations.
Brands need to follow this trend, highlights Baumgartner. “These women need to be represented because they are also consumers and buy that brand.” The advance is symbolic and irreversible, in his view. “These consumers will no longer accept not being represented.”
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