Instagram star Lyn Slater, 63, refashions social norms and shows age is just a number
American university academic is challenging society’s views on ageing through her social media account and fashion blog Accidental Icon
Like many women, Lyn Slater was not thrilled when she started experiencing the physical signs of age. But she was even less happy about the “solutions” she saw: the anti-ageing serums, the dying of hair, even the rhetoric. “Retirement,” for example.
“It means that you kind of fade into the background. You retire, and you dress very comfortably, and you’re taking care of grandchildren. The antidote our culture has come up with – anti-ageing – it’s like we’re against ageing,” Slater says.
Instead of going along with that narrative, the 63-year-old Fordham University professor of social work in New York, turned to a realm that has long been associated with the young - fashion. By most objective standards she has conquered it. Her Instagram account – largely comprising photos of herself in striking couture – has more than 200,000 followers, with some photos garnering over 50,000 likes. Her blog has fans from around the world. She has modelled for Valentino Eyewear, Mango and Uniqlo, and in February she signed with Elite Models London.
I never intended to address ageing; I don’t have an agenda. But somehow I have become an alternative of ageing that young people embrace.
Ruffled white collars, wide-leg trousers, textured blouses, skinny jeans, oversized glasses - all curated by a woman with a lifelong love of clothes, who knows how to rock them. And her audience is not a bunch of old ladies. The vast majority are women between the ages of 18 and 35, who gush in the comments thread.
“I live for this lady!”
“You make me feel fearless about getting older.”
“Slay my life Lyn!!!!!”
“You are a muse.”
At first, their reaction surprised her.
“I never intended to address ageing; I don’t have an agenda,” she says. “But somehow I have become an alternative of ageing that young people embrace.”
A post shared by Accidental Icon (@iconaccidental) on Feb 3, 2017 at 4:17am PST
Hong Kong elderly learning to age positively, on or off the catwalk
“I’d made my name in my career, raised my daughter. I was ready to do something new,” she says. “So she signed up for classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design. “I was always the oldest person in the room but the young people would say, ‘Ah, your sense of style; you should start a blog’. ”
She did, posting photos of herself and ruminating about the sense of style she had honed over a lifetime.
I don’t retouch my photos. I leave the wrinkles. I’m not a model, in my opinion, although I’ve become one now.
She was a Catholic schoolgirl (required to wear a uniform) in Westchester County, New York, in the 1960s and early ’70s, at a time when clothing was a key to rebellion.
“I wanted to look like Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane – the love beads, the platform shoes,” she says. “I started to collect pieces which transcended trends – they were timeless and ageless.”
Like any master practitioner, she does not go for trends, but rather follows her instinct. “If I want to express my intellectual self, or if I want to be a little bit provocative or seductive, I choose clothes that do that for me,” she says.
Fashion world welcomes older models
But one thing she does not try to do is to look younger.
“I don’t retouch my photos. I leave the wrinkles. I’m not a model, in my opinion, although I’ve become one now,” she says.
A post shared by Accidental Icon (@iconaccidental) on Feb 4, 2016 at 5:14am PST
In fact, that natural approach is apparently what has captivated her young followers.
“A woman wrote and said, ‘I’ve spent the last half-hour trying to get my eyebrow perfect and my friend sent me your link and it made me think, what am I doing? I’m just going to be me and put down the brush.’ ”
Now, along with teaching, she gives TED talks, speaks at conferences, and attends fashion events around the world (on Tuesday she flew to Madrid for a fashion shoot). Many of her fans live in Asia, where her combination of style and hardcore academic credentials resonate.
93-year-old model Alice Pang’s fashion shoot is living proof that style is timeless
In the US, too, she says “young people are tired of the way we talk about ageing”. “They want to believe that they can keep becoming and reinventing throughout their entire life. . . . They look at me and say, ‘You’re clearly saying, “I’m not 20 and I don’t want to be 20”.’ Whatever age you are, life is important to you and you have to make the most of it.”
