Supermodel Carmen Dell’Orefice’s latest magazine cover celebrates the beauty and longevity of a modeling career that has spanned nearly 70 years.
After posing for Salvador Dali at 13 and for her first Vogue cover at 15, Dell’Orefice recently told New You magazine that she’s actually worked more in the past 25 years than ever before.
“I had a very respectable career but I didn’t have a specific look,” said Dell’Orefice. “I was a chameleon.”
“Fortunately, there was always somebody who knew I was good when I showed up, was responsible, not temperamental, and could do the job well,” she said. “Today I am in a territory that business considers unmarketable: age and white hair. Slowly, however, I started to own that territory little by little because I stood up for age.”
The cover of New You’s spring issue features Dell’Orefice, still sporting striking cheekbones and a full mane of silver hair, looking timelessly elegant in black and pearls.
“Carmen is the embodiment of being able to do anything you want no matter what age you are,” said Ruchel Louis Coetzee, co-executive director of New You, which targets women ages 35 and older. “She defies age.”
What Dell’Orefice does, Coetzee said, is listen to her body and take care of it, so she can do whatever she wants to do.
A woman turning age 65 today can expect to live, on average, until age 86. In a world where people are living longer, it makes sense for magazines to target older women.
That may be why some advertisers are following suit. Oscar winner Helen Mirren, 69, and longtime model Twiggy (real name Lesley Lawson), 65, are both modeling for L’Oreal Paris.
