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ALL WOMAN
Move over teenage superwaifs, there's a new breed of model in town, says Claudia Croft
Who would have thought the fashion industry would tire of teenage models? Their blank, inexperienced faces and immature bodies were once considered the perfect tool for selling clothes. Their flawless, wide-eyed, youthful beauty was the impossible standard to which all women were expected to aspire.

But times are changing. Now, women in their thirties, forties and beyond, women who have experienced life's triumphs and disasters and have the legacies etched on their faces, are snatching fashion and beauty contracts from teenage models and pushing them off the covers of glossy magazines. At last, we have some valuable goals we can aspire to in models rather than the unattainable beauty of an ethereal young girl.

The fashion house Versace has led the way: two seasons ago, Donatella Versace cast Madonna, now 47, as the face of her campaign. Last season, it was Demi Moore, now 43. For her 2006 spring/summer collection, she has followed them up by signing the award-winning actress Halle Berry, 39. Madonna, Moore, Berry: women who are all known as much for their uncompromising approach to life as for their beauty and professional success.
"These women are all a little older and a little wiser,” says Versace. "They have all lived." Berry, whose performances as Leticia Musgrove in Monster's Ball in 2001 won her an Oscar, projects an image that is sensual, strong and unapologetically womanly. "I remember the first time I wore Versace," she says. "It was a skintight teal dress. "I'll never forget it, because I instantly felt in touch with my sexuality."

In the campaign, shot by Mario Testino, she is a character as opposed to a blank canvas, a woman as opposed to a girl. This is exactly what Versace was aiming for. "(These women) also have real talent as individuals and have achieved great things in their careers. I really admire and respect them, and believe they are more inspirational to a woman who would wear Versace. Any teenage model can look good in clothes, but these are clothes for real women, and I wanted to celebrate that.”

Berry is the first to admit that, despite her looks and success, life has not been easy. Her father, she says, was a violent alcoholic who left the family when she was four, and Berry has found herself in more than one abusive relationship since. She has talked about a former boyfriend who beat her so hard, she was partially deafened. She even admitted to contemplating suicide after her first marriage collapsed. "I was going to asphyxiate myself in a garage. When I was sitting there, really with all of my heart wanting to end my life, I thought of my mother. And I thought, wow, how unfair. I would break her heart." Her second marriage, to the R&B singer Eric Benet, also ended in divorce.

Berry's vulnerability, combined with her fierce determination to overcome her problems, has won her many fans. It's not hard to see why Versace connected with her. She was devastated by the murder of her brother Gianni in 1997, but stepped into his shoes and successfully kept the house at the forefront of fashion. More recently, she conquered her own personal demons, emerging healthy and reinvigorated from drug rehab. Her experiences have influenced her choice of model. "I identify more with women of today - women who triumph in the world in which they live," she says.

Versace's quest for more empathetic, older, wiser female role models may be born out of personal experience, but it has also caught the zeitgeist: Christian Dior has signed Sharon Stone, 47, to be the face of a new skincare range; Kim Basinger, 52, will star in Prada's spring and summer campaign; and Patrick Cox has announced that Elizabeth Hurley, 40, will front his new spring/summer campaign. Again, all these women are great beauties, and big talents but they have also publicly faced challenges in their lives.

Miuccia Prada describes Basinger, who is painfully shy and has battled anxiety and agoraphobia all her life, as having "unique intellectual sensuality". Similarly, Stone, who suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2001, is celebrated for her intelligence and fierce independence of mind. "To tell the truth, I feel more beautiful today than I did at 20," says the Hollywood icon. Of her new Dior contract - said to be worth more than £1m - Stone says: " I think it's very bold and daring to hire me. But I believe that older women can be interesting and sexy and valuable. Some of the most beautiful women in the world are over 40 - and doesn't everyobody think that Judi Dench is the most amazing actress? What does a 20-year-old have to say?"

Not much, as far as powerful international brands such as Dior, Versace and Prada are concerned. Cynics might call the rise of these vintage vixens faddish, but promoting age and experiene over youth and flawless beauty makes commercial sense. Marks and Spencer can testify to this: Its sales grew by 3.3% when television ads starring the Sixties supermodel Twiggy were on the air, contributing to a record 20% rise in profits.

"I think they are, in a way, easier to relate to than a supermodel," says Versace of these older, more experienced female fashion icons. "The supermodels of today don't communicate to other women in the way they once did; women like Halle are more inspiring."

That Berry, Madonna, Moore et al still look good enough to see off teenage models is as great an achievement as any of their professional accomplishments. None of them looks tired, or uncomfortable, in their skin, and all are in spectacular physical shape. Clearly, they devote more time to their appearance than most women would or could - but that's the point, says Versace. She believes that beauties are born, but modern icons are made. "Yes, of course we are lucky to live the lives we live, but we have all worked incredibly hard to get to where we are: we weren't just born with good genes," she says.

Without their ups, downs, trimphs and disasters, this gang of women of experience would be nothing more than well preserved beauties. For Versace, it's the story of a woman's life and her personality that her customers identify with, and not a line-free teenage face. Hurrah for that.
Style - The Sunday Times, UK

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