Fashion houses finally show awareness of an ageing population

FASHION is having a pro-ageing moment, following in the footsteps of its twin sister, the cosmetics industry, which upped the ante in promoting older women for their brands last year.

Just as we had grown accustomed to seeing 60-something women such as actresses Diane Keaton (L’Oreal), Jessica Lange (Marc Jacobs) and Charlotte Rampling (Nars), fronting glossy cosmetic campaigns in 2014, French luxury fashion house, Celine, boldly steps into the new year with the raw image of 80-year-old icon, Joan Didion.

Didion of course is no ordinary 80-year-old; for those of her vintage and decades younger, the one-time associate features editor at Vogue is famous as a literary essayist, novelist and in particular as a soul-searching chronicler of her own life.