Grey Power

Model : me. Stylist :Danielle Fowler. MUA:Francesca Thornton. Photographer: Isabella Bambagioni

On my way to a modelling gig for Samson Keller, a designer who is graduating from London College of Fashion, whose work was being shown as part of the annual show in Shoreditch last night, as I entered the tube station, I found that oyster cards and tickets were being checked. I got my oyster out and the nice young man who was scanning them asked me if I had a freedom pass. Not yet, I replied truthfully (I wish I did, it would save me so much on transportation costs which in London are prohibitive compared to other European cities! unfortunately I do not yet qualify for it age wise). He was most apologetic, it was my grey braid that had apparently confused him (I have now started braiding my hair to keep it out of the way). I told him I was not in the least offended.  Why should I?

Later at the venue, as I was getting ready to model for Samson, my hair all down, wearing a black silk- like cloth, red lipstick and red nails and lying inside a cage, while four other models would walk around me, I could not help thinking back of the oyster card incident. To the young man at the station I was a frail old lady, to the young crowd at the Nicholls and Clarke Building I was an older model helping the designer to make a fashion statement. 

(As it happens I was featured, as a model, in the work of several graduating LCF students this year, from Danielle Fowler's editorial with me modelling lingerie, with totally unretouched photos, to Kirstie Forbes' Project Silver). 

Model : me. Sylist :Danielle Fowler. MUA:Francesca Thornton. Photographer: Isabella Bambagioni

Being 'grey' is acquiring a completely different meaning. On one hand there is the stereotypical view of older people as being past everything, something that is often reiterated in advertising, with commercial models mostly being there to play variations on Zimmer frame pushing grandmas or grandpas. On the other, there are newer perceptions of age and ageing, and older people are becoming more visible in fashion, where older models have begun to be featured, representing glamorous and elegant older women and men, beyond the tokenism of editorials which show how clothing can be 'adapted' to suit your age - whenever I come across articles written by well meaning stylists on how to wear this or that when you are over fifty or sixty I honestly feel like screaming. If anything, after all these years I have learnt a thing or two about what suits me and how to wear it and I do not  need stylists to tell me that "after fifty you should hide your upper arms". Should I?  

A new model agency, Grey Model Agency, by which I am delighted to be represented, has just launched precisely to fill this huge gap in the market and to supply older male and female models who counter stereotypical notions of ageing - of being grey. 

Headed by Sara Stockbridge, known for being Vivienne Westwood's muse, and owned by Rebecca Valentine, who has represented  masters of photography, Grey Model Agency is unique in that it represents the diversity of ageing, through its models or 'ambassadors',  rather than having stereotypical 'classic' models:  Grey Model Agency's ambassadors are "beautifully ageing, elegantly eccentric 35+ models."  

In the agency's press release, Rebecca Valentine says the following:

"The decision to call the agency Grey was not without a touch of irony as our models are anything but! ...I want to change the perception of what it is to be Grey, or older, by confronting the prejudice head-on...I want to lead this agency from a client’s perspective and, with our own in-house campaigns, help position our models with brands traditionally targeting the young like Playstation, Nike, Lynx, Evian and even Audi!" reminding us that those who buy these products are over forty.

We are definitely ready for this change.

Grey Model Agency 

07968 190 411

www.greymodelagency.com

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