Paris fashion week usually celebrates youth, artifice and maximum effort in the department of physical appearance. But this week there has been a big old French fuss about the joy of being natural and authentic.
Pamela Anderson has rocked up at shows “makeup-free at 56”. Andie MacDowell, 65, and Dame Helen Mirren, 78, “sported natural grey hair” (ie, they turned up while possessing hair) on the runway for L’Oréal. Making a lot of effort is, of course, still in fashion. All these looks probably involve complications of one kind or another: an endless carousel of painfully “carefree” outfits or a hairstyle that – at the very least – needs several hours of styling. (Important side note: if you’re still coveting grey hair like Meryl Streep’s in The Devil Wears Prada, that was actually a wig.)
