Age is a universal personal Mount Everest. Everyone tries at least once to conquer it and few rarely make it to the top. Overriding the fact that weathered faces make most interesting portraits, a multi million dollar age-defying industry attracts obsessive enthusiasm from billions across the world. So, when British designer Giles Deacon chose the 71-year-old former supermodel to walk the show at the London Fashion Week recently and the Spanish clothesmaker had four senior models strut their stuff at his Madrid show, the age old debate of beauty versus youth was begging to be rekindled.
Artist Niladri Paul is no stranger to beauty or women, with his recent show “Sutradhaar”, which was all about etching women in myriad moods behind the stage. But he believes that ageing gracefully is not a pot of wrinkle cream everybody can claim. “Old age is beautiful only if one carries it well. The spark of the youth is needed to keep one looking radiant at any age. It is the attitude and grace that makes all the difference,” said the artist.
And for someone who shoots perfect bodied and skinned models for a profession, photographer Rohit Suri talks no different. “Physical beauty is fake until supplemented by an equally charismatic personality, which most mature women have due to their years of experience and wisdom. They can impress you with their grace, poise and intelligence and charm their way. If that’s not beautiful then what is?” demands the man with years of photographic moments behind him.
But then, we are not all about botox and cosmetic surgery, at least not yet, as the eternal beauty Maharani Gayatri Devi is still considered one of our most beautiful woman. And we know, she wasn’t afraid of creases, unless they were in her chiffon.
Which is perhaps why designers like Reynu Tandon didn’t have to think twice before making seniors like Shovana Narayan and Bubbles Sabhawal walk for her show last year. “These women are beautiful because they are confident achievers. Each one of them has made a mark and that shows on their face. And that is what makes them gorgeous,” she told us adding that they were perfect models too, for who wants to dress up more than women who are done with their responsibilities and want to enjoy their lives. Though we might be barking up the right tree, we still won’t adjudicate an older woman with superlatives like drop-dead beauty. As beauty, we were told by Shiveshwar Raj Singh, a creative director for FCB Ulka, Delhi, is still a property of the young. “All older faces are character driven and have loads of charisma, power and gravity. But these are hardly the universal standards for beauty. Women can ‘age well’ and ‘look good for their age’ but are not considered as strikingly beautiful in the classic sense of it,” he says. You agree?