Fifty plus and rocking it as models

‘‘"I think there’s beauty in everyone and everything."’’

Beauty is not bound by age.

That’s the message of a photoshoot called 50+ and Rocking It, hosted by Huttbased model Arelle Hug.

‘‘I started with a vision of we are bombarded with pictures of beautiful young women. You see it everyday,’’ she said.

She had even noticed the trend on her Facebook page, saying she had photos of herself and other young women. She wanted to fix that.

‘‘I think there’s beauty in everyone and everything.’’

To gather models for the shoot, she talked to older women she had seen around, asking them if they would like to be part of a project to show their beauty.

‘‘A lot of them were like ‘but I’m not a model!’.’’

The photoshoot took place last Sunday at Upper Hutt’s Trentham Racecourse. Originally Hug wanted ten women taking part. Fourteen signed up. The youngest participant was 50 and the oldest was 80.

Fifty-six-year-old personal trainer and coach Martine Carroll said the shoot was a great idea and she was ‘‘all about empowering women’’.

Each model brought an outfit they feel beautiful in to wear. For some women, that meant the dress they wore to their daughter’s wedding. For others, it’s ripped jeans and a t-shirt.

The women also filled out surveys about their health and lifestyle at the shoot.

The models were asked how their idea of beauty changed through their life, how old they were and how old they felt.

The final photos will go up on Hug’s social media accounts and include the women’s ages on the photos and some of their answers to the questions. Hug said a big part of the shoot was focused on loving life.

‘‘I approached them because of the way they walked, the way they talked and laughed.’’