Lauren Hutton - What I Know Now

With A New Beauty Campaign At 75, The Model Who Broke All The Rules Reflects On Standing Up For Herself, Getting Older And Why She’ll Never Give Up Sex

- Liz McNeil

They wanted her to get a nose job. And her gap-toothed smile? Early in her career she tried to fill it in with wax. But Lauren Hutton became one of the most successful models of the ’70s and ’80s just being herself. In 1973 she was the first to demand a cosmetics contract—earning $250,000 a year, worth more than $1.4 million today—from Revlon, a move that empowered models and transformed the industry.

She lost that contract at 41, considered too old to sell makeup. But she began posing again for top fashion photographers and became a style muse to companies like J. Crew and designers including Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. Now 75, the avid travel and motorcycling enthusiast, who divides her time between New Mexico, California and New York City, is the new global brand ambassador for StriVectin skin care. “As we age, women can be good-looking and vibrant in every way,” she says in a freewheeling chat about what she’s learned. “And certainly don’t give up sex—because that’s just silly.” Here, more of what she’s learned.

There is life way after 40.