Some fashion trends may not work for older women, but one trend seems exactly on point: that is, the world of fashion seems more and more intent on featuring older models and designing for the interests and lives of older women. Last fall we reported on the trend of utilizing older models in advertising campaigns, especially the faces of older female celebrities. As one more example, you can now see images of Diana Ross as the new celebrity face for the fashion house Saint Laurent. Fashion magazines are also competing with each other to feature older women on their covers, including Miuccia Prada on Vogue and Sharon Stone on In Style. These are women who have been style icons throughout their lives and who demonstrate that style and fashion can be the province of older women quite comfortably.

But what’s also interesting is that younger female designers are evolving in their own thoughts regarding how to dress and what makes sense as you become an older woman. For example, the 50-year-old British designer Phoebe Philo (previously iconic for her designs for the fashion house Celine) has become an even more heroic figure to fashionistas who are aging along with her. In her new solo collection under her own name, she uses models and presents clothing that give off a vibe that aging is cool and something stylish women can aspire to. As The Washington Post’s style reporter Rachel Tashjian writes about Philo’s new clothing line, “These clothes speak to someone who’s seasoned in life and on top of the world. She’s treating herself. She knows she’s worth it. She’s probably running a company or even started and sold one. These are clothes that, in a world that fetishizes youth and seems to chuck away women after 35, reveal that middle and late age are actually pretty great.” If that peaks your interest, be prepared to empty your bank account and click here.

Coming back down to earth for more budget-conscious older women, the American designer Batsheva Hay recently shook up New York Fashion Week with a show that only employed models over 40, most of whom she lured to the runway after spotting them on New York City streets. These were not professional models for the most part, but women (in their 40s and beyond) leading interesting lives as they matured, with real bodies and lined faces. The designer was not trying to project “cool” but rather wanted her customers and her audience to “feel like they could relate to what’s coming out.” The designs were not dour or minimal, but rather fun, inventive, and created to make women feel relevant, visible, and playful (including a sweater with the word “Hag” written across it!). To see all the designs from her recent runway show, have some fun by looking here. 

And isn’t that what it’s all about? Having fun with fashion while being comfortable with who you are and how you feel about yourself? The New York Times chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman recently responded to an inquiry from a reader who wanted to figure out how to dress as she gets older. Friedman reiterated the point we’ve previously made, that there are no rules as to what you can and can’t wear as you get older. However, that’s not to say for everyone, anything goes. As she writes, “How you dress is a statement about who you are and how you want to be perceived. And that changes as we grow up — even more, sometimes, than our bodies or dress sizes (though those, of course, change, too).” Friedman cites her own example of now being more comfortable in clothes that cover her more and are more practical and elegant, values to which she’s been drawn as she gets older. But ultimately, it’s to each his own to determine what’s comfortable, what’s no longer desirable, and what feels good for the moment you’re in now. For one woman’s example of how she came to find the right dress as a 60-year-old attending a formal affair, take out your dancing shoes and read here.