Aged to Perfection – The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fashion is often associated with youth, but the realm of style transcends age. The Costume Institute Library, dedicated to commemorating the rich history of fashion, houses an impressive array of reference materials that spotlight older individuals, people I refer to as “fashion elders.” These individuals defy ageism and serve as aspirational symbols of self-expression through fashion. They demonstrate that style and creativity have no age limits. So, in celebration of Senior Citizen’s Day, let’s explore a selection of books and materials that celebrate the elegance of aging.

Chic at any age: Older models

The fashion industry’s recent embrace of older individuals, especially women, marks a notable shift from the past, celebrating the enduring beauty and sophistication of aging by casting older models more authentically rather than tokenizing them. Molly Ringwald aptly noted in a Vogue article, “I feel like women in their 50s are the new It girls.” This sentiment was vividly echoed in designer Batsheva Hay’s Fall 2024 runway show, where she exclusively featured women over the age of forty, including Ringwald, close friends, and models scouted on the streets of New York City. Esteemed European heritage brands such as Balenciaga, Balmain, Isabel Marant, Miu Miu, and Prada embraced more unconventional and cross-generational casting in their recent shows, challenging traditional beauty norms and positively showcasing age diversity by representing a broader spectrum of society. New York City-based fashion houses like Eckhaus Latta, Collina Strada, Rachel Comey, The Row, and others have proudly adopted a more age-inclusive approach as well. Most recently, at Copenhagen Fashion Week Spring 2025 collections, Danish designer Peter Jensen showcased his new line Yours Truly by Peter Jensen featuring models over the age of 45. The designer shared in a Vogue interview that he liked “the idea of people with knowledge, wisdom, and a life behind them.” Hopefully, this new movement, reflecting women in all stages of their lives, is here to stay.

The Costume Institute Library’s extensive fashion lookbook collection, which includes over two thousand volumes in various formats, shows that the inclusion of older models is also not a recent phenomenon. We have several lookbooks from Japanese designer Issey Miyake’s “Permanente” collection, spanning from the mid-1980s to 1990. Miyake commissioned Lord Snowdon to photograph a diverse array of creatives—artists, designers, fashion editors, dancers, writers, filmmakers, and individuals from various walks of life, such as an acupuncturist, conference translator, historian, soba noodle maker, and sumo wrestler—all dressed in Issey Miyake’s creations. Each lookbook is stored in an oversized cardboard folder with cord ties, containing a collection of loose photos printed on delicate paper. Each portrait is separated by a newsprint enclosure and accompanied by background information on the subject, sometimes including a brief biography.

Bold and beautiful: Older women as cover stars

In 2023, Vogue Philippines gained worldwide recognition by featuring 106-year-old Apo Whang-Od on the cover of its April beauty-themed issue. Whang-Od, a tattoo artist trained in the thousand-year-old practice of Batok tattooing, became the oldest person to appear on the cover of Vogue, sending a powerful message about beauty and women’s stories beyond the stereotypical model and celebrity archetypes. That same year, Italian-American actress and model Isabella Rossellini graced the October cover of Vogue Italia at the age of 71 in a completely unretouched photograph at her request. This reiterated the beauty and appreciation of aging and changed the narrative by showcasing an honest depiction of beauty, wrinkles and all.

Street chic chronicles

Our library boasts many books on street style, with some focusing on an older generation of fashion enthusiasts. Ari Seth Cohen’s Advanced Style is a vibrant celebration of fashion and aging, capturing the unique style and spirit of individuals over the age of 60. Launched in 2008, the “Advanced Style” blog showcased photographs and interviews with stylish seniors, primarily in New York City, challenging stereotypes about aging and beauty. Cohen reveals that for himself, “[he] always [looks] to older women for style inspiration. For [Cohen], dressing up is about expressing one’s spirit and creativity. Style has the power to bring visibility to the often unseen.”

Cohen’s initial book, Advanced Style (2012), compiled these captivating portraits from his blog, celebrating his subjects’ creativity and confidence. The book’s success led to additional books and a documentary in 2014, further highlighting these extraordinary individuals and their impact on fashion and culture. In 2018, Cohen extended his exploration with Advanced Love. This third book showcases intimate portraits and stories of forty couples aged sixty and above, celebrating enduring love, romance, and companionship.

Chinatown Pretty: Fashion and Wisdom from Chinatown’s Most Stylish Seniors is a project six years in the making by photographer Andria Lo and writer Valerie Luu. It explores the unique style and cultural heritage of elderly residents in Chinatowns across North America. Published in 2020, the book blends fashion photography with heartfelt storytelling, celebrating the vibrant, eclectic, and resourceful fashion sense of seniors from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Vancouver. The life stories shared reveal resilience, wisdom, and joy, offering a window into the rich cultural fabric of Chinatown communities. According to the authors, the Chinatown Pretty look is “about layers of hand-knit sweaters and puffy coats in the summer, as well as bold floral patterns and baseball caps—sometimes all in one outfit. It combines urban utilitarianism with unexpected sartorial selections that make the heart go a-flutter.”

Icons of senior fashion

When discussing fashionable senior style, no conversation is complete without highlighting the late Iris Apfel, who died at the age of 102 earlier this year. A true icon, Apfel defied the conventional age expectations in fashion with her bold, diverse fashion taste. Her signature oversized glasses, vibrant accessories, and fearless mix of high and low fashion have redefined how we view individuality at any age. Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel originated from The Costume Institute exhibition Rara Avis: Selections from the Iris Barrel Apfel Collection back in 2005–2006, which highlighted forty objects embodying Iris Apfel’s distinctive fusion of haute couture and eclectic flea market discoveries. Renowned for her audacious and unconventional fashion sense, each mannequin in the exhibition was adorned in fully accessorized ensembles styled the way she would have worn them. Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon: Musings of a Geriatric Starlet debuted over a decade later in 2018, chronicling her remarkable evolution from interior designer to global fashion icon. This book captures Apfel’s all-embracing style and life philosophy through candid anecdotes, striking photographs, and witty reflections on fashion, aging, and individuality.

Similarly, other fashion memoirs and style guides—like The Art of Dressing: Ageless, Timeless, Original Style by Tziporah Salamon and Life in a Box: An Unorthodox Memoir by Sarah Jane Adams—play a crucial role in spotlighting the unique styles and perspectives of elders in the fashion world. Another related title is Muse: Cicely Tyson and Me: A Relationship Forged in Fashion, a memoir by fashion designer B Michael describing his decades-long friendship with the legendary actress. Together, they loved pushing boundaries of what women of a certain age should wear through their ongoing fashion collaboration for red carpet events and high-profile gatherings, visually documented in this book through photographs, textile swatch details, and fashion sketches. These memoirs celebrate the individuality and creativity of senior fashion icons and emphasize the importance of self-acceptance and authenticity at any age.

Personal style narratives: Celebrating individuality

Flipping through the book My Friend Magnus

Acne Studios introduced a limited-edition book entitled My Friend Magnus this year. Conceived by creative director Jonny Johansson, it is an homage to Magnus Carlsson’s vibrant creative energy and extensive personal fashion collection. For over a decade, Magnus has meticulously curated the ambiance of Acne Studios’ showrooms and their Stockholm headquarters, each day unveiling a fresh ensemble without ever duplicating a look. The book features over two hundred candid and informal photographs taken by Magnus’ friends and colleagues, showcasing his unique sense of style and imaginative approach to fashion.

Mrs. Tung’s Qipaos showcases a stunning collection of thirty qipaos worn by Mrs. Shu Feng Hu Tung, born in 1919 in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, who lived to be 100 years old. These qipaos were donated by her son to the Shanghai Pavilion of Treasured Qipaos. This tribute book features personal photographs of Mrs. Tung wearing her custom-made dresses, most of which were tailored in the early 1980s and worn over four decades. The personal portraits of Mrs. Tung exude joy and pride, with each dress maintaining a consistently elegant silhouette. The fabrics and patterns reflect her individuality and discerning taste, mainly featuring floral patterns and gorgeous silk textiles.

Stepping Out: Unapologetic Style of African Americans over 50 illuminates the vibrant lives of fashion forward African American elders, highlighting their unique stories and tracing the origins of their passion for fashion with portraits by Milton Washington. This book aims to place Black style within its broader cultural, spiritual, and historical contexts, delving into topics such as attire, jewelry, hats, hair, arts, activism, and entertainment. The people featured, as per the author Connie Briscoe, include “some [who] are famous, others no less extraordinary; yet they all illustrate why the styles of mature Black adults are so profoundly meaningful and worthy of celebrating and chronicling for future generations.”

Fashion through a wider lens: Photography book projects

I have worked in The Costume Institute Library for twenty years, and I still relish the thrill and excitement of discovering a new book in our collection. The book that sparked the inspiration for this blog post was My Parents: An Homage to Fashion, Photography, and Life, originally published in 2002 by Quách Thái-Công, a Germany-based former fashion stylist who has more recently gained acclaim as an interior designer. This book resonated deeply with me as a Vietnamese American because it prominently features Vietnamese elders. At the time of publication, Thái-Công’s father was 93 and his mother was 57 years old. Their inclusion challenged and redefined traditional fashion photography projects. Twenty-eight photographers captured them adorned in attire from world-renowned fashion and jewelry designers, ranging from Burberry to Dries Van Noten to Vivienne Westwood to Yohji Yamamoto, and more. Each photo series resembles a high-fashion ad campaign, perfectly encapsulating the signature branding and essence of each fashion house while showcasing these two unconventional subjects who beautifully embody the characters for each series. This book not only reveals the joy and love that went into creating these stunning collaborative images over the eighteen months of the project, but also includes essays that delve into the author’s personal narrative, including the history of Thai-Cong’s family’s refugee journey from Vietnam to Germany.

Another memorable discovery while exploring our library stacks is the book Sonomama Sonomama, which is a Japanese term that encapsulates the ideas of being “in a natural state” and “just as you are.” Photographer Taishi Hirokawa traveled the Japanese countryside, capturing the everyday lives of ordinary people—farmers, fishers, shopkeepers, construction workers, and more—wearing creations by iconic Japanese designers like Issey Miyake and Comme des Garçons. Their everyday surroundings provide a striking contrast with the avant-garde fashion pieces, infusing the portraits with warmth and authenticity. The book includes a compelling interview between the photographer and stylist Kimie Hata, reflecting on this special project. Hata noted that the “‘models’ for this project have no awareness of fashion, and the designers’ names mean nothing to them, but they knew when a fabric was something special, when it felt nice to wear.”

A final notable title, The Granny Alphabet, by renowned fashion photographer Tim Walker, is a charming homage to grandmothers and their timeless flair. This two-volume set blends whimsical photography with playful illustrations and verses by Lawrence Mynott and Kit Hesketh-Harvey. Volume One highlights Walker’s surreal and fantastical style, capturing grandmothers in charming and nostalgic scenarios, each photograph paired with a letter of the alphabet. The second volume complements Walker’s photography with Mynott’s illustrations and Hesketh-Harvey’s witty rhymes. Together, these volumes offer a tribute, celebrating the beauty and individuality of these maternal figures and honoring their significant roles in family and society with warmth and humor.

Conclusion

All these examples collectively pay homage to fashion elders—individuals marked by wisdom and multifaceted beauty. They serve as a poignant reminder that authentic style transcends boundaries. Whether it’s on the runway, the bustling streets of New York City, or the tranquil landscapes of rural Japan, these older people encourage us to embrace our distinct sense of style and honor the grace and elegance that come with time. The lesson we learned from our fashion library journey is that creativity and self-expression have no expiration date in the realm of style.

For this niche topic, you can do a keyword search for “fashion elders” in Watsonline. Materials from our fashion library collection can be requested and viewed in Thomas J. Watson Library. For additional information about The Costume Institute’s Irene Lewisohn Costume Reference Library, archives, and special collections, please check out our website. For more updates on new acquisitions and more examples of what is inside our fashion library and department, please follow us on Instagram @costumeinstitutelibrary and @metcostumeinstitute.