Women over 60 advancing in fashion industry

When Maye Musk was first modeling at age 15 in South Africa, she was told her career would have a very short life span.

“Models were not over 18 in Johannesburg then,” says the Canadian-born Musk via phone from her home in Los Angeles. “This was the ’60s; they didn’t have older models. But as I got older, I just kept on modeling.”

Musk has not only kept modeling, she’s had the kind of career breakthroughs as a sexagenarian models traditionally have decades before. After a meteoric past three years that include modeling at New York Fashion Week, gracing major advertising campaigns for companies like Virgin Airlines and appearing in the music video for Beyoncé’s “Haunted,” the 69-year old was named the newest CoverGirl for the cosmetics brand in October, making her the oldest in the company’s history.

Since signing with modeling agency IMG (which also represents Kate Moss and Gisele) in 2016, Musk has shot to even greater fame. She has more than 72,000 Instagram followers, and is a regular on red carpets and on the lecture circuit. She’s able to discuss modeling but also her career as a dietitian —she holds two master’s degrees in dietetics and nutritional science. Musk says she is working “more now than ever” on projects where her age is either incidental or a positive.

“It’s not all about the Kardashians,” says Roseanne Morrison, fashion director for the Doneger Group, a trend analysis firm. “It’s about time mature, healthy sexy women are recognized. It’s a shift, it’s anti-fake, it’s real, it’s about authenticity.”

That shift has come at a time when calls for diversity and greater representation on runways and in fashion campaigns are at an all-time high among critics of the industry. Over the past two seasons, designers have begun to respond. Expanding the range of representation has included hiring more models of color, plus-size models, trans and nonbinary models and models over the age of 50. Fashion website the FashionSpot’s fall 2017 diversity report noted 27 models over age 50 on the runways in New York, London, Milan and Paris for the spring 2018 collections in September and October, which the website called a “slight improvement.”

Musk modeled in two shows in New York: Concept Korea and Zero Maria Cornejo, while 85-year-old Carmen Dell’Orefice notably closed the Guo Pei haute couture show in Paris in January. In October, actresses Helen Mirren, 72, and Jane Fonda, 79, walked global beauty brand L’Oréal’s Paris runway to acclaim from Vogue.com, which called their appearance “a breath of fresh air.”

Women over 50 are also flourishing in print advertising campaigns. At age 64, Jessica Lange was named the face of Marc Jacobs beauty in 2014, following a comeback in Hollywood as the muse of director and television showrunner Ryan Murphy, who is noted for casting women over 60 in his projects. Author Joan Didion, then 80, was a featured face of Céline in 2015; singer Joni Mitchell, then 71, was featured in ads for Saint Laurent that same year. In April, model Lauren Hutton, who has had many age-defying firsts in the industry, modeled for Calvin Klein — in a video for an underwear collection, wearing a bra with an unbuttoned white shirt at age 73. Senior to all of these ladies is self-described “geriatric starlet” Iris Apfel, co-founder of Old World Weavers, author and fashion designer. In 2015, at 93, Apfel was featured in ads for Kate Spade with model Karlie Kloss, with whom she has a 71-year-age difference.

“Iris Apfel absolutely started this (visibility) of older, stylish, outspoken and fashionable women,” trend analyst Morrison says of the subject of the 2014 documentary “Iris” by Albert Maysles. “That segment has been ignored for so long; now there’s a big shift.” Morrison also credits the popularity of British actresses like Dame Judi Dench, Julie Christie and Vanessa Redgrave (star of Gucci’s spring campaign at 79), all over 70, with increasing visibility for this segment of women as well as the powerful 800 million global market of aging Baby Boomers.

“Also, a lot of the women leading the industry are more mature,” Morrison points out, mentioning Anna Wintour (68), Grace Coddington (76) and Diane Von Furstenberg (70).

Musk’s hiring at CoverGirl comes in a year of firsts for the cosmetics company: In 2017 CoverGirl also brought on James Charles, the company’s first male face of the brand, and Nura Afia, the first hijab-wearing CoverGirl. The hiring of a 69-year-old at a cosmetics company also renews discussion about whether the term “anti-aging” is passe. Allure Magazine banned the term from its pages earlier this year, calling it “offensive.”

“I don’t have such a big problem with that term,” says Musk. “It’s not like I put my creams on and say ‘I feel 20 years younger.’ Of course makeup is anti-aging! When I put makeup on, I look much younger!”

Morrison sees the market for models over 60 only expanding as Boomers and Gen Xers advance into their senior years.

“It was necessary in a way,” says Morrison. “After so many years of obsession with youth and that kind of beauty, we’re recognizing mature, healthy women. Even young women now are dyeing their hair gray,” Morrison points out, saying the trend is one way that shows the filtering down or expanding of beauty standards.

So what has the response been like for Musk since her CoverGirl campaign was announced?

“Women love it,” she says. “Even when I do a shoot with very young models, they get so excited to know that they can model past 20. They are so young; there’s a lot of competition when you’re young. I let them know there’s ups and downs, and sometimes there’s more work and sometimes you have less. (Older women) are wiser, we’ve been through many bumps in life. You think you’ve been through bumps? You’ve got scores to go through!”

Sage advice. None of us is getting any younger.

Tony Bravo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com