THE old premise that life begins at 40 may hold true for businesswomen in the territory but those who earn a living from their looks tend to have a much earlier expiry date.
Mature models such as Isabella Rossellini and Lauren Hutton have enjoyed a prime time in Europe and the United States but on Hong Kong's catwalks there is no one who comes close to them in terms of years.
According to Jane Liong of Calcarrie's model agency, the older a woman gets the more difficult it is to find modelling work here. 'People are always looking for new faces and fresh blood - there isn't really much demand for older women. Our oldest models are in their late 20s but it is around that time that most girls are thinking about retiring, or doing something different like starting their own business,' she said.
So if a model is past her sell-by date before she turns 30, what about women in other jobs where a youthful, attractive appearance is a prerequisite for success? When it comes to selling cosmetics behind the beauty counter for example, a fresh 20-year-old complexion must surely be a better advertisement for the products than a lived-in 40-year-old visage.
'We do not have any rigid age requirements, but normally the girls tend to be younger,' said Virginia Li, marketing manager at Christian Dior. 'I don't think that older women are discriminated against here, we have some very loyal staff who have been with us for many years and we would consider employing someone older. What we look for is a fair complexion, a very good personality and reasonably good looks - we wouldn't want to employ anyone who would drive the customers away!' As a result of recent changes, life for Cathay Pacific's female cabin crew can now go on after 40. In order to bring them in line with male staff, the airline has upped its retirement age for women from 40 to 45. An age limit of 27 still applies to recruitment but Cathay Pacific spokesman Jane Cowe said that this was likely to be revised in the future.
'The company recognises that it is not acceptable to have these rules in this day and age. It is something that may be changed but it has to be done step by step. In the past, the view was that older women were likely to be tied down to a family and less disposed to travel for long periods of time. Also, the airline's image is young and energetic and the job requires an awful lot of energy, which is why we tended to draw upon a younger age group,' she said.