Mature Models Are Back on the Runways—This Is Why

Chani Ra is a Who What Wear UK Editor in Residence and a London-based fashion commentator at her social channel The Fashion Nap, which broadcasts show reports, trend commentary and both current and archive industry analysis on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. As well as interviewing industry leaders and experts on her platform, she also often speaks as an expert on panels.

For the last decade or two, it’s become completely uneventful for 20-something women to be on a religious Botox and filler schedule, and it seems the newest normal for celebrities approaching 30 is a facelift. But there’s change afoot. As clothes become more "undone" and filler gets dissolved, expressive and unique faces are re-emerging in the public eye.

Fashion brands are catching on to the boom of mature models. Case in point: Tom Ford recently dropped the sexiest campaign of the season, featuring 59-year-old former model and The Vampire's Wife co-founder Susie Cave. A particular video caught my eye, especially when the camera pans into her face, close enough to see the fine lines that sit gracefully around her pink-shadowed stare. It was a precursor to a very sultry show, in which creative director Haider Ackermann created restraint and tension with models of all ages.

Chanel’s latest breakout star is Stephanie Cavalli, who is 50. After opening Matthieu Blazy’s debut couture show, sauntering down the runway in a sheer suit, she was back again to open the most anticipated show á Paris: Chanel autumn/winter 2026. Cavalli’s hair has become instantly recognisable: a painfully chic curly, triangular bob streaked with grey, framing her adult face in all its glory.

Catching up with Who What Wear UK's own editor-in-chief, Jane McFarland, who braved the crowds at the Paris store's opening as the spring collection landed, it’s a reminder that Chanel’s clients are women of all ages. The new face of aspiration is rooted in reality, and the brands young women want to buy are those they can grow with. Women with real-life experience are our newly crowned It girls. Even my afternoon TikTok doomscroll is currently populated with women who worked at Calvin Klein in the '90s, emerging as the gatekeepers to "Carolyn Bessette Kennedy chic". The comment sections are flooded by Gen Z viewers begging for the ancient magic, and exclaiming that they "still look so good!"

49-year-old Stephanie Cavalli opens the Chanel A/W 26 show.

Looking back on this most recent fashion month, London set the standard for age inclusion. Karoline Vitto, a London-based Brazilian designer, is known for catering to women of all sizes. This diversity also extends to age; Vitto doesn’t shy away from dressing a 40-year-old woman as she would a 25-year-old. "We dress the baddies!" Vitto exclaimed backstage. "That comes in any age and any shape. It’s all about an attitude and a presence you feel when you wear the clothes." Indeed, presence is a far more interesting currency than youth, and much harder to replicate.

Johanna Parv showed a collection called Intimacy of Distances for women who are actively living and moving through life with purpose. The show notes chronicled creative women travelling via different modes to different places, with the clothes providing a uniform for streamlined, no-frills success. "Most models are too young for my taste," commented Parv, whose show featured models of a range of ages.

Translating this taste to the runway was casting director Lisa Dymph Megens, who has made it her mission to cast the types of women brands are actually selling to, meaning "sending 20 teenagers down the runway" isn’t an option. "Johanna Parv’s show proved that you can present something human and still be very 'fashion'," she told me. "As casting directors, you’re waiting for a brief that allows you to show what you stand for, because you still have to do what the designer wants, and this is an industry that’s obsessed with youth. [This] is linked to young women seeming easier to control."

Megens raises an unignorable point. Just one look at the so-called "elite" men in the news with anchors in every industry—fashion included—makes the quest for eternal youth feel far more insidious. You have to ask: whose standards are we catering to? Once you ruminate on that, suddenly it feels like it’s time to visibly grow up.

In the spirit of rebellion, Lueder’s runway was walked by London nightlife icon (and the only royal I will be acknowledging this season), Princess Julia. Famous for allegedly going out every night since 1976, Princess Julia is a pillar of London’s queer community and a champion of emerging designers. Rose McGowan, 52, also walked for Lueder, in a rave-ready look comprising a bleached pixie cut, dark glasses, a red silk bomber jacket, black tights, leg warmers and trainers. In the Matieres Fecales A/W 26 show, Debra Shaw (49), Michèle Lamy (82) and Daphne Guinness (58) were the scene stealers.

Representation of women over 40 is particularly meaningful in the trans community, where so many aren’t allowed the opportunity to age. Dominique Jackson, 50, walked for Conner Ives this season, and Connie Fleming—whose modelling career started in the '80s—recently appeared in MAC campaigns. I had the pleasure of interviewing Fleming in 2024, and we discussed how often, when you represent a marginalised community, there isn't a roadmap to follow. Allowing these women to stand and inspire people to look forward in a world where we witness rights being stripped left and right is a testament to the impact fashion can have.

Ultimately, the hope is that the industry continues on an upward trajectory when it comes to age, and this isn’t a throwaway fad, as we've unfortunately witnessed with body diversity, or the lack thereof. We cannot reduce our bodies or our life experiences to play things for the trend cycle. As Diane Von Furstenberg once said, "Don’t ask, 'How old are you?' Ask, 'How many years have you lived?'"