Sarah Jane’s a real gem of a woman
GAIL FORRER
IN SOME ways Sarah Jane Adams is in line with myriad mature-age role models who are defying ageing stereotypes, but in other ways she steps way out of line.
Sarah Jane uses the phrase “my wrinkles are my stripes” as a subheading to her flourishing Instagram account @saramaijewels that boasts more than 180,000 followers and counting.
Her naturally grey hair, her vibrant sense of offbeat fashion — think Adidas mixed with styles ranging from colourful Indian fabrics to op-shop cast-offs and defiant poses — blows her out of the average demographic. And so does her penchant for living life her own way.
The English-born 64-yearold antique jewellery dealer and jewellery designer has been happily married for more than two decades, and while the couple reside in the same Sydney street, they live in separate houses at opposite ends of the street.
Among other things, she said, it’s a great way to stay fit.
“I’ll sometimes walk 20km a day, going up and down,” Sarah Jane says.
The thing is, although she has been offered various business opportunities, Sarah Jane is not likely to come out as a champion for fads in fitness, weight loss, super foods or cosmetic surgery.
Indeed, just because she has a certain amount of notoriety doesn’t mean she is suddenly going to lose herself in a pile of superficial endorsements.
She recently declined a job to model “under’’ garments — which would have meant baring much of her body (which by the way has not changed size since her youth).
“You will rarely see me show more than my ankle or down from my elbow,” she says.
“As an older woman I can’t see how you can be empowered by stripping to your underwear.
“I see it as tokenism.”
And she’s not falling for any revamped sexual image of the older woman.
“I am not sexual, I am postmenopausal — I am not over 60 and sexy,” she states emphatically.
Sarah Jane’s Instagram fame started with one of her adult twin daughters posting a photo of her that went viral.
She has kept it up and especially enjoys the connection she has made with people around the world including Ari Seth Cohen, the photographer who has famously snapped unique ageing fashionistas.
In her youth, she says she was “bolshie’’ and “out there’’ – a young woman determined to run her own race, which has meant creating her own work.
“I have always made my own way and been self-employed,” she says.
Her travels led her to the place she calls her spiritual home — India.
“I have been to India more times than I can count,” she says.
India is the home of yoga, and Sarah Jane – who has been a daily practitioner since her late 50s – says she lives her life from a yogic perspective.
Her overall philosophy incorporates living consciously and being able to say: “This is me and it’s OK.”
These days she says she would rather grow old gracefully than disgracefully, and that means there are no disguises. She explained that one day a sales assistant accosted her and brought her into a store to put the latest miracle facial cream on her.
“Once the salesgirl mentioned anti-ageing cream, I was out of there,” she says.
And that’s why she says: “My wrinkles are my stripes.”