The NEW GOLDEN AGE

Women over 50 are ruling runways and red carpets like never before – so is ageism out and inclusivity in? Kathryn Madden reports on the rise of the midlife moment

- Kathryn Madden

In June this year, model Sarah Grant took a deep breath and stepped onto the catwalk, lights flashing and beats blaring. It was her first-ever foray at Australian Fashion Week, and she strode the sand-coloured strip in a sleek black bathing suit and floral overshirt. She revelled in the rush backstage, then returned to the runway to lead the finale – an honour for any model, never mind a newcomer. But Grant wasn’t your typical gangly teen making her big fashion debut; she was 71 years old.

“It gave me such a buzz,” she remembers, smiling. “I wasn’t remotely fazed about wearing swimmers. I go swimming all the time, so they’re part of my wardrobe. There were young girls backstage who were worried about cellulite and wobbly bums, and I was like, look at you, you’re beautiful! Getting older, you don’t sweat the small stuff. You think, OK, this is who I am.”

First discovered in New Zealand at age 16, Grant was a cover girl for Australian Cleo magazine in the ’70s, then carved out a glittering career in Europe: walking for Valentino, shooting with photographer Helmut Newton and appearing on the illustrious pages of French marie claire and Vogue. When she turned 30 she had a brief panic about getting older – many of her peers had already retired from the youth-obsessed industry – but Grant looked at herself in the mirror, took in her body’s subtly changing curves and creases, and decided to “embrace it”. She switched from catwalk to commercial jobs, and continued to work steadily.