WOMEN WHO NEVER AGE OUT OF STYLE
Street blogger’s documentary captures creative seniors
“Age before beauty,” the hoary jab goes, but “Advanced Style,” the new documentary spinning off the streetstyle blog and book by photographer Ari Seth Cohen, begs to reconcile that tired dichotomy. For Cohen and his cadre of gorgeous, creative seniors, all found on the runway-like avenues of NYC, age is beauty — and with experience comes a vivid sense of style stemming directly from a lifelong appreciation of art, fashion and very glam hats.
The high-drama ensembles of his subjects — and splashy hair colors — speak volumes, as does the enthusiastic reception to Cohen’s work. It’s led to not only an opening event thrown by S.F.’s own “Advanced Style” icon Joy Venturini Bianchi, but also career catapults for onetime Apollo Theatre dancer Jacquie Tajah Murdock, 84, and former Berkeley stylist Tziporah Salamon, 64, both of whom are featured in the doc and were shot by Steve Meisel for a 2012 Lanvin campaign, as well as former Berkeley artist Debra Rapoport, 69, who garnered a Kmart billboard. We spoke to Cohen, 33, whose grandfather Hal Cohen played a part in developing Rohnert Park, about the documentary he produced with director Lina Plioplyte.
Q: How did you come to start the project?
A: When I started the blog, I had never taken a photo. I borrowed my roommate’s camera, and it went from there. My grandmothers (Helen Cohen and Bluma Levine) were my best friends, and they really taught me about fashion, culture and movies, and they had this incredible elegance about them. I had just seen a film about this 94year-old woman, Mimi Weddell, who had started an acting and modeling career. She was the most gorgeous, elegant, spirited woman, and I thought to myself, why are we not paying attention to women like this? Everything is so youthfocused in the media. So I started interviewing and photographing all these women on the street just for myself. I realized these women have the power to change our perception on aging.
Each of them is incredibly inspiring in the ways they live their lives. Ilona (Royce Smithkin) is 94 years old — she started a cabaret and is always hopeful for the future. She says in the film and many times to me that she’s really come into her own in the last 10 years. That’s a message that’s really inspiring for all of us. At some point, even if we don’t have it now, we are going to get it.
Q: What do you look for in a streetstyle subject?
A: I look for individuals, someone who has a personal sense of style or someone unique. It doesn’t have to be someone who’s eccentric. I definitely photograph elegant women and classically dressed people. It’s something different every day — it could be someone with a bracelet that stands out. It’s about the way they present themselves to the world.
Q: You seem to have tight relationships with the women in the film. Do you think that you’re trying to find your grandmothers again, in them?
A: Ever since I was young, I would point out the well-dressed older women in the shopping mall or grocery store, and I always had older friends. I don’t think I’m trying to re-create my relationship with my grandmothers, but I do think that the things we can learn from older people are so valuable. We tend to cast older people aside. To me, I’ve always found people much older much more interesting and (they) have so much wisdom to share.
Q: They also know how to wear a hat
and accessorize.
A: These women are incredibly bold and dressing for themselves. When we’re younger, we tend to dress for other people, for jobs or for people we want to impress. These women are themselves — they’re still wearing things they’ve had for 40 or 60 years and mixing them with new things. Their clothes tell stories.
Q: What unites your “Advanced Style” subjects?
A: Really, the film is not about their style, but how they’re approaching their life at this stage of life. They’re not sitting in a rocking chair, waiting to die, but going out and having new careers. The style is a reflection of that vitality.