We have women like 52-year-old French ex-model Inès de la Fressange to thank for pushing the collective envelope on the perception of "aging" women.
The fresh-faced, tousled haired, jeans-wearing mom of two could be one of us getting out of the car to shop for clothes with her teen and tween daughters. Except, as Karl Lagerfeld's muse at Chanel, and one of the first to sign a exclusive contract with the designer, she's probably had a slightly different career trajectory.
She served as inspiration for a sculpture of Marianne, France's emblematic heroine. But she also told the UK Independent that "the highlight of her modelling career was 'when I stopped. It's boring to be a model.'"
And yet, last year she made waves walking the runway for Jean-Paul Gaultier during the Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week. The buzz was akin to "51 and on the catwalk, OMG!"
Yes ladies and gentlemen, at 51 you can still walk and look stylish at the same time. She recorded her frustration in the Independent, saying "it's 'impossible to find a woman who is more than 30 years old in magazines. It's like being older is hidden, there's no one for women to identify with.'" But New York magazine's online blog, The Cut has called her "the quintessential effortlessly stylish French woman."
Now she's been snapped up by Roger Vivier, the French fancy footwear line, to revitalize its profile. And so she has, giving its stuffy image a facelift, even though she herself hasn't had one. Shopping excursions with her, on their website, can double as a French lesson (don't worry, there are subtitles).
We can look to the woman who was first to pair a Chanel jacket with jeans for more innovative couplings, like perhaps permanently peeling away this notion that women in their 50s are over the hill. There are many hills. Life is full of 'em.
Meanwhile, the question is, whose muse are you?
Or better yet, who's musin' you?