EMMA JOHNSON
WHEN I grow up I want to be Dame Helen Mirren. This is not a wholly new realisation. I am a longtime admirer of the veteran actress. But the images of her stomping down the runway in Paris last week cemented my ambition.
The 76-year-old joined a host of other famous faces in the City of Light for L’Oreal’s Fashion Week show, set against the stunning backdrop of the Eiffel Tower.
She was by some years, nay decades, the oldest woman there. The other L’Oreal ambassadors taking to the catwalk included the likes of 35-year-old actress Amber Heard and 24-year-old pop star Camilla Cabello. But Helen was the one stealing all the headlines the next day. Granted, her dramatic winged eye liner may have had something to do with it (to be fair my eye liner always looks a bit like that), but there was no question the Oscar winner was the star of the show.
Wearing a striking black and white trouser suit and the kind of vertiginous platforms that have brought many a model to their knees, Helen was an inspiration for women of all ages.
It is not the first time the Queen actress has left her younger counterparts in the shade. Two years ago, at the last L’Oreal show before the pandemic, she thrilled fans with a spirited appearance.
That time she wore a fabulous Giambattista Valli gown and skipped barefoot down the runway.
Dame Helen was 69 when she landed the gig as a ‘face’ of L’Oreal back in 2014. Just a few years earlier and you’d have struggled to find a woman over 40 advertising face creams let alone one pushing 70. It appeared to herald a shift in thinking for beauty firms.
Four years later 65-year-old Isabella Rossellini was rehired as a face of LancÔme.
The Italian-American actress had been synonymous with the brand for 14 years only to be dropped by them when she was 42. The same year actress Jessica
Lange appeared as the face of Marc Jacobs Beauty
Having women like Isabella and Dame Helen and Jessica, not to mention American modelling icon Lauren Hutton, 77 (the face of skincare brand StriVectin since 2019), fronting beauty campaigns is not only inspiring for real women, it makes financial sense. Teens and 20-somethings are not spending their hard-earned cash on lotions and potions in a bid to hold back the years. At least they shouldn’t need to. I remember the fire coming off my fingers in this very column, back in 2017, when Dior hired 25-year-old Cara Delevingne as the face of its Capture Youth line which promised to correct ‘all visible signs of ageing’.
That was back when it was commonplace to refer to products as ‘anti-ageing’ of course.
These days skincare brands have largely moved away from such terminology. Because – who wants to be is ‘anti’ ageing? We all know what the alternative is and I know what I’d prefer.
We need to see more women over 50, over 60, over 70 in adverts for skincare.
And, if Dame Helen in Paris is what getting older can look like in the 21st century, bring it on.
In other fashion news this week, after the golden dress she designed for the Duchess of Cambridge stole the show at last week’s Bond premiere, Jenny Packham has unveiled a collaboration with the film franchise.
To celebrate six decades of James Bond, she has designed an eight-piece collection inspired by Bond girls.
They include Barbara Bach’s gown from The Spy Who Loved Me and the one-shouldered sequin dress worn by Rosamund Pike in Die Another Day. There is also a number that is near-identical to Kate’s. The collection is available now at selected Jenny Packham stores. Unfortunately a quick look at my post-lockdown bank balance suggests this is no time to buy.