Mrs. Exeter was introduced on the pages of Vogue magazine in 1949 as a woman "approaching 60 … a fact she accepts with perfect good humour and reasonableness". This is something we need today, "an older woman's voice in an iconic fashion magazine". Mrs. Exeter was a positive representation of women getting older and being able to accept it. Mrs. Exeter is interesting because her picture being on the cover of Vogue "coincided with an ageist schism, brought about by the relentless rise of youth culture in the 1960's, which ultimately laid the foundation for our present predicament."
In the most fashion magazines today we see young women on the covers of almost all iconic fashion magazines. Fashion industries are focusing on the younger generation as their target audience to sell their products to, but the majority of women able to afford their high fashion clothing are mostly women over the age of 40. This article raises the question "Why don't today's fashion magazines find space for older women?" People are increasingly unable to accept aging because of a false belief that someone's beauty disintegrates as they start to get older and gain wrinkles as well as silver hair.
Older faces as icons of beauty, like Mrs. Exeter, need to be brought back to fix the problem of the underrepresented older generation so people can let go of their fear of ageing. As people get older they should be able to look at themselves positively, with confidence and acceptance rather than by fearing what comes with ageing.
No comments:
Post a Comment