culture watch
Paris Fashion Week: 70 is the new 17
Milla Ling-Davies
What do you check in the mirror before you rush out the door? Is it a thinning patch of hair? Wrinkles on your forehead? What part of you do you try and hide during family photos? Whatever it is, you might not have to worry about it much longer because Paris Fashion Week 2023 has declared that ageing is now ‘cool’.
The event took place in early October and was a celebration of being authentic and embracing your age. Model and actress Pamela Anderson, age 56, went ‘courageously’ without makeup. At age 78, Dame Helen Mirren walked the runway for L’Oréal with her natural grey hair on proud display, as did actress Andie MacDowell, age 65.
‘Theology of ageing’ encourages seniors
‘It was so encouraging to be reminded that old age is a blessing from God.’ Organised as a collaboration of Keswick Ministries with Faith in Later Life, over 80 people attended a three-day online seminar on ‘Faith in the Second Half’ in May.
A church leaders’ day saw: Dr David Field exploring the Theology of Ageing, which was a new concept to many; Dave Fenton encouraging the equipping and empowering of seniors for ministry; and Professor Keith Brown, The Revd Roger Hitchings and Pippa Cramer giving Biblical and practical ways of pastoring and supporting seniors.
Christopher Ash: how can we age well?
I am in my (very) early seventies. I have just written a book about following Jesus in your fifties and sixties. “A bit late,” you say. Sure. But it is the book I wish someone had given me 20 years ago.
In most of the world and much of human history, these decades are the close of life. But in rich western societies with good diet and healthcare, they are—for many—an “in between” stage, between the vigour of middle age and the frailty of our older years. I think of it as “the afternoon of life”.