Mature, refined and looking like they might own the products they're pushing; it's no wonder more older models are landing major new contracts

Published on Monday 12 January 2009 19:11

FRESH-faced and flawless, since the early 1980s the supermodel has represented the pinnacle of female attractiveness and desirability, the beauty ideal for women and a specimen of female physical perfection for men. But fashion being the fickle creature that it is, the image of the women commanding some of the biggest paychecks for campaigns and catwalk appearances has changed constantly over the years.

As is always the case in the fashion world, wait long enough, and everything comes back into fashion eventually. For the past few years, models have been very pale, very thin and above all very young women, almost indistinguishable from one another. However, in the past 12 months, fashion designers have been gradually waking up to the fact that since 19-year-olds aren't the ones shelling out thousands of pounds on their luxury goods, perhaps they shouldn't employ 19-year-olds to sell them. Until recently, the message to consumers has generally been that you might be old enough to have earned the money to buy these luxury goods, but you're just too old to fit the brand's aesthetic.

But things appear to be changing: 50-year-old Madonna is the latest face of Louis Vuitton's ad campaign (looking, admittedly, as smooth-of-face and limber-of-limb as a 21-year-old) while 52-year-old icon of the 1970s Jerry Hall has just signed up as the new face (or as she puts it, "the old face") of Chanel. Pamela Anderson, 41 will front a campaign for Vivienne Westwood, while 43-year-old mother-of-one Linda Evangelista last year took over as the face of Prada from Russian model Sasha Pivovarova who, at 23, is nearly almost half her age.

The "Supers" of the 80s and 90s – Schiffer, Turlington, Campbell et al – are all enjoying success in campaigns for everyone from Escada to Prada, while luxury lingerie purveyors Agent Provocateur recently signed up 40-year-old Helena Christensen to sell their skimpies. Think a 40-year-old selling pants is refreshing? As usual, Agent Provocateur were ahead of the game – last year, they employed a 46-year-old Catherine Bailey to front their ad campaign.

At the peak of their power, when supermodels graced the cover of every fashion magazine on the shelves in the early 90s, a "trinity" of models reigned supreme: Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell. Along with women such as Helena Christensen, Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer, these women were feline, sexy, womanly and (relatively) curvy. Fast-forward 15 years and things look very different. The average model is younger, thinner and more childlike. Think less sex, more androgyny. Less va-va voom; more doll-faced ice-maiden. Pale, blonde, ethereal models such as Gemma Ward and Jessica Stam appear like wide-eyed clones on catwalks across the world. Skinny Eastern-European teenagers are in high demand and, strutting robotically down the catwalk in thousands of pounds' worth of couture, they look like little girls playing dressing-up in their mothers' clothes.

"One of the reasons they are back could be the credit crunch. In times of financial instability, brands go for top quality; they want to sell dreams. There is much more punch with a girl like Linda than a beautiful face from Ukraine," says Carol White, managing editor of Premiership Models Management.

The great thing about the older women in these campaigns, however, is they look like they might actually own the products they're selling. They're mothers, career women who look like they've earned enough money to buy a handbag costing thousands of pounds. And they look like they might choose to wear the grown-up pieces they're promoting, rather than rush off to change into ripped jeans, Converse and a pair of neon Ray-Ban Wayfarers the second they step off the catwalk. In short, they're age-appropriate: by all means employ a teenager to wear a ra-ra skirt in a TopShop campaign, but how many 17-year-olds spend 5,000 on a tweed suit from Chanel?

Of course for women who, as Evangelista once quipped, needn't get out of bed for less than $10,000, this can't be about the money. The "Supers" are rumoured to be worth around 15-20 million each, so, in an industry where retirement looms at the age of 25, perhaps these women find it refreshing that they can still compete with women half their age for the biggest jobs. And they can still demand bumper payouts: when Evangelista appeared in a L'Oral ad campaign, the company's sales jumped 20 per cent, while when Twiggy wore a blouse in a campaign for M&S they shifted more of them in a week than any other product in the company's history.

But while the notoriously youth-obsessed fashion industry is embracing older models, they're still not quite brave enough to employ women who actually look like they're in their forties. Most of the Supers could pass for women in their twenties; Catherine Bailey doesn't look a day over 35 in her campaign for Agent Provocateur; and Madonna looks suspiciously smooth in her ad for Louis Vuitton.

Is it Botox? Airbrushing? Well, in some cases, it's a bit of both. Christy Turlington remains naturally beautiful: "I'm not afraid of ageing," she says. "I would not do Botox. I really don't see much difference in my face now. In a way I feel I've grown into it." Linda Evangelista on the other hand has been open about her use of cosmetic procedures, saying, "I think it's OK to say I'm 41 and it's work being me. It's a lot of upkeep. I'm pro cosmetic procedure. I use a little Botox and I'm not afraid to say it." So perhaps not quite naturally fresh faced, but still pretty close to flawless

BACKGROUND

Today they command millions of pounds just to turn up looking radiant and strut down a catwalk, but how did the world's most famous supermodels start out?

&#149 Leggy supermodel Jerry Hall was discovered as a teenager while sunbathing on the French Riviera. She quickly moved to Paris, sharing an apartment with the singer Grace Jones, and her career took off when in 1975, at the age of 19, she appeared as a mermaid on the cover of Roxy Music's album Siren.

&#149 Canadian model Linda Evangelista says she knew she wanted to become a model when she was just 12 years old. Her career began at 13 when she was spotted by a talent agent at the 1978 Miss Teen Niagara Contest.

&149 Cindy Crawford was discovered at the tender age of 16, when a photographer for a local newspaper photographed her doing her summer job; removing the tassels from corn. After seeing the shot, she was quickly snapped up by Elite Model Management.

&#149 Claudia Schiffer initially wanted to train as a lawyer and work at her father's firm, but changed her mind when, at 17, she was spotted in a nightclub in Germany by the boss of Metropolitan Model Agency.