It’s Time: How the Fashion Industry Moved Away from Ageism (We Started Copying Grandma’s Style)

As Oscar de la Renta said, “Fashion is the art of dressing according to the latest trends, and style is the art of being yourself.” With jeweler’s precision, the designer’s offer is conveyed by a new trend codenamed nannacore. In another way – the art of being yourself, regardless of the numbers in the passport.

More and more often, behind the classic evening scroll of the social network feed, we come across new faces that do not skillfully lie in Photoshop: they do not fit in XS sizes, they have no specific gender, and their birth year is not limited to the nineties and zeros – the world is striving for diversity, and this cannot but rejoice.

Along with the beauty industry, the fashion world is getting rid of the shackles of the word “anti-age” and age discrimination is being abolished. In the new reality, a revolutionary and more tolerant attitude towards the age is taking shape. In addition, positive changes in this regard have been demonstrated relatively recently.

The industry took a course in 2015 on the nannacore trend, the style of people not of the so-called “model” age – the beginning of the trend’s development was laid by a heated discussion of discrimination in the industry. So, according to Business of Fashion, the heroes of the most memorable advertising campaigns of the spring-summer 2015 season were people from 45 to 80 years old.

Also, the trend began to gain momentum quickly: writer Joan Didion is the face of the Celine brand, singer Joni Mitchell is Saint Laurent. Nannacore is also developing rapidly on the Russian front: in 2016, Oldushka appears, the only domestic modeling agency that works only with old models. Donatella Versace isn’t just paving the way for teenagers at last: In the finals of the 2018 spring-summer collection show, ’90s supermodels from Claudia Schiffer to Cindy Crawford take the runway. The presence of wrinkles and gray hair is no longer an obstacle, but rather a real ticket to a happy future.

Today, age-related influencers on social networks are also actively changing the rules of the game. Fashion blogger Gris Ghanem, 56, actively catches up with fashion trends and is not afraid to pair a pink sweater with emerald pants, 68-year-old Lyn Slater shows off her bright wrap dresses to 760,000 subscribers. How does Buddy Winkle not mention it with his profile description “stealing your man since 1928” on the banned social network: the influencer not only tries on the most extravagant catsuits and miniskirts, but also shoots for fashion campaigns like Missguided. Finally, Spanish King Andres Garcia-Carro, working with Egon Lab brand ambassadors Zara, Sagolina Herrera, and senior couple Marie-Louise and René Glemarec, their paired images shone on every social corner. Influencers prove by their example that numbers are just symbols in the passport and life is not limited to them.

The banned social network is also on the alert: the @sciuraglam account was created in 2016 – it now has 232,000 subscribers. Inside: Style photos of men and women over 50. Tips are sent daily from morning to evening to the new aged fashionista account holder Angelo Napolillo: “They send me photos of random people from the street, sometimes they send me photos of grandmothers or relatives of subscribers… everything: I have to like the light, the angles, the clothes and the hairstyles “How big, that good!” Another tip is the @gramparents account with 201,000 followers. Be careful, such a simple and at the same time elegant grandpa style is addictive.

On the “reverse” side of the barricades, brands change no less with the development of the trend. Market mastodons like Gucci, Chanel, Burberry, and H&M have a new niche – Chief Diversity, a kind of director of diversity and inclusion. The marketing power of the heroes of the age is increasing day by day. The most important assumption in advertising campaigns for brands is the transmission of certain values. In the case of older characters, it is versatility, functionality and self-sufficiency, confidence and individuality that are not synonymous with high-quality clothing and a potential sales boom.

The simplicity, calmness and desire for sustainable fashion of the older generation directly reflects the needs of the times, so the popularity of nannacore cannot be counted among the trends that emerge and disappear just as quickly. First of all, a healthy attitude towards oneself and natural processes as a part of life, not the end, comes to the fore. And although according to ISCTE Business School research, most marketing plans are somehow aimed at people aged 18 to 34, and the choice of modeling agencies does not separate age models, in the modern rhythm of life the situation can change at any moment. As many stylists agree, when requesting heroes for shooting, the choice is becoming more and more diverse. Moreover, it is quite a common story to see among the recommended age-related models today. And more importantly, it’s very profitable in the long run: the British International Center for Longevity in the UK has calculated that caring for the older generation could bring brands $14 billion over the next two decades. So after all age or antiage?