The Dancer and the Dame: Style across generations
Two women performing artists, as different as you can imagine, were both admired for their style in recent New York Times articles.
A black leather tee, actually rather roomy, over skinny jeans:
Leaving the gym with a friend, she looks like a typical 21-year-old woman:
And like so many, younger and older, she wears all-black topped by her moto:
A few weeks earlier, a piece on Judy Dench praised another black-clad beauty, in a similar biker jacket, slim black pants and what the Times called "an ethnic velvet scarf", worn to Stella MacCartney's Christmas party:
At the Venice Film festival in Eileen Fisher:
For the red carpet, she often wears a tunic or caftan in exquisite fabric, like this ensemble (by Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla) for the première of "Philomena".
Jon Caramanica cited Miley Cyrus as an examble of "the provocateur", the latest carrier of youthful disdain for restraint and conformity; on another day, Cathy Horyn lauded Cyrus' confidence in mashing up clashy, trashy and costly as "the look of our times".
The Cyrus stage image is a sexy pastiche that amps up visual entertainment. Cyrus
is not alone: practically every dance-oriented pop singer takes this
road.
Offstage and off-camera, away from her team of stylists, candid shots tell another story.A black leather tee, actually rather roomy, over skinny jeans:
Leaving the gym with a friend, she looks like a typical 21-year-old woman:
And like so many, younger and older, she wears all-black topped by her moto:
A few weeks earlier, a piece on Judy Dench praised another black-clad beauty, in a similar biker jacket, slim black pants and what the Times called "an ethnic velvet scarf", worn to Stella MacCartney's Christmas party:
At the Venice Film festival in Eileen Fisher:
For the red carpet, she often wears a tunic or caftan in exquisite fabric, like this ensemble (by Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla) for the première of "Philomena".
Averil Graham, an editor at Harper's Bazaar, said, "...she’s never
schizophrenic with her style. It’s never froufrou. She possesses an
innate elegance, but is comfortable and is a touch bohemian.”
Cyrus said, rather knowingly for her years (if not gramatically), "...someone, two years from now, is going to be the next kind of provocateur
— like, I can’t wait to collab with whoever the hell that is, you know?"
Dench's 78-year-old elegance is in its own way provocative to an industry accustomed to writing off the beauty of women over 40.
Fifty-seven years separate them, but both have found a fit that's good for their bodies, make the most of their striking blonde beauty and, it looks like, enjoy a killer leather jacket.
Comments
And how nice to see a movie star wearing clothing brands to which we (middle-class, at any rate) can aspire.
C.
P.S. And what ethnicity is a tiger, I wonder--Bengali?
I agree with frugal scholar about JD wearing Eileen Fisher too.
Darla
By 70+ it's not possible to be beautiful, you can be presentable c'est tout, we need to deal with it and not call it something that it is not.
Secondly, Anonymous at 10:34 am, I totally disagree with you! I think Dame Judi IS beautiful, and my husband does too. If your definition of beauty is "looking like you are 30" then I suppose one can't be beautiful at 70+. but my definition is pleasing features, inner glow, sincere smile, flattering grooming and a certain je ne sais quoi.
And Judi is a lot older than me, so this isn't personal.
She and Helen Mirren are wonderful beacons of style--different bodies, different looks, but always terrific.
frugal: Yes, Dench wears a range of clothing, always cut right for her petite frame.
materfamilias: Cyrus is young enough to have several careers; many pop singers try acting but not always with stellar results- I'm thinking of JLo and Madonna.
Juniper: Thank you.
C.; I saw Dench recently in a small part in a film made 40-some years ago, and was suprised to see her presented as a starlet-ish "babe". She looks more singular now.
hostess: Cyrus has a costumer for stage wear a stylist for public appearances; you can tell from candids when she is 'packaged' and when she's more likely on her own.
Mme: Sure, that's the industry. Only a few women pop singers last more than a handful of years, and Cyrus clearly knows it.
Anon@ 10:34: If beauty is defined as strictly physical attractiveness, and one believes that physical attractiveness is "over" once one is past the smooth perfection of youth, you'd be right. I know many women of Dench's age and beyond who are beautiful-even in the narrow, physical sense of the word- so, I disagree.
Maybe there still is hope for some of us! :)
~skye
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRoIxwGsBR0
skye: See frugal scholar's contribution. below. Dench was what my boyfriends in those years would have called "a cutie".
frugal: What fun! Thanks!
With Miley, I don't really watch her or look at her. Just hear the talk about her.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/oct/14/judi-dench-interview-skyfall