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Last Sunday, while having my coffee and pancakes, I read the piece in the New York Times, “Why Fashion Suddenly Loves Older Women.”
I, a woman in her 40s, seeing faces like mine on the cover of the style section — contemplating a couple of things.
First: I don't identify as older. Although I suppose, technically, maybe it's about time I do. As I read the piece, I couldn't help but notice that some of the "older" women interviewed were actually my juniors.
Secondly, our clients at Oui, We Studio, certainly our customers at Casa Noon, and the women in my circles have always known that erasing your best customer is never the flex so many industries think it is.
At Oui, We Studio we work with founders and brands on their way to becoming cult favorites on the daily. And this is a convo we’ve been having: know your woman, like really really know her. And have a POV she can get behind.
If you spend your marketing budget chasing trends, you’ll never build a story that’s your own.
When I posted my thoughts over on IG, within 48 hours, Fern Mallis (former executive director of the CFDA and the woman who created New York Fashion Week), our patron saint Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu — aka Sylvie Grateau on Emily in Paris — and a plethora of models in their 50s and 60s had engaged. And many of the models in the comments said the same thing: they're working more than ever.
So what inspired Vanessa Friedman's article that inspired my post? Let's get into it.
What happened on the runway this season.
Vogue put two 76-year-old women on its cover for the first time in its history. Meryl Streep and Anna Wintour, side by side. And instead of feeling dated, Vogue suddenly felt like the most current thing in the room. Anna wrote in the issue: "I feel age is actually an advantage."
The spring 2026 runway season backed that up with data. According to Tagwalk, 100% of the top 20 runway brands included an older model in their shows this season. Only 5% included a plus-size model.
Chanel opened with Romae Gordon, 50 — one of 15 models over 40 on that runway. Romae stopped modeling years ago. Came back after her partner died. She is now having her best season ever. Bottega Veneta: 9 older models. Givenchy: 8. Balenciaga: 5. Louis Vuitton: 4. IMG Models is now scouting women over 60 in supermarkets outside Paris. Their word for it: "generational."
The money part.
McKinsey: half of all consumer spending power and half of all spending power growth sits in the 50-plus cohort. The Federal Reserve: over 70% of US wealth is concentrated in the over-55 age group, which drives more than 45% of consumer spending.
Fashion ignored this for decades. The brands paying attention right now aren't being generous or progressive. They're simply following the cash.
And yet. When casting for his first Balenciaga show, Pierpaolo Piccioli said it was easier to find older models than plus-size ones. "Two years ago," he said, "it was common to see girls with different shapes. Now it's over."
So we've made room at one table by quietly clearing another. That's worth sitting with. An industry that congratulates itself for finally seeing one woman while actively unseen-ing another isn't all the way there yet.
The data tells you exactly how far the values really go, and where they stop.
The "come as you are" brief.
Matthieu Blazy's direction for Chanel: no retouching, no trying to make anyone look younger. "Come as you are" was the brief.
Romae Gordon: "They don't want to put any makeup on me."
Piccioli: "We all want to show powerful women, even in their vulnerability. Pride in showing your age is a symbol of strength and power."
Joan Juliet Buck — 77, former editor of French Vogue, now a Substacker, actor, radio host — posted a bare-face bathroom selfie before the Celine show, captioned: "The face I never thought I would have." More positive feedback than almost anything else she'd done.
Blazy put it plainly: "Everything is so overdone and velvety and well arranged because of Instagram culture — everyone lives in the same apartment with the same chair. Being yourself became the ultimate luxury."
He felt a hunger for difference.
Buck described it as two poles. The pull toward shinier, newer, smoother — what she called "the lacquered surface of the machine over the body." And the other: I'm real.
"We're like old stone houses," she said. "We have the value of antiquity. If you haven't tweaked yourself, it's like you have a working fireplace that's been going since 1680."
What this means if you're building a brand.
IMG's Talisa Carling: "I don't actually think it's a trend. I think it's structural."
Paulina Porizkova, 61, built 1.4 million Instagram followers by posting laugh lines, weight gain, no filter, no apology. Her audience grew because she stopped hiding.
Buck was cast in Julie & Julia in her 50s. After the shoot, a producer pulled her aside: "It's so great you haven't done anything to your face. You're going to get so much work because that's so rare."
Rarity doesn't need to announce itself.
The brands getting this right are marketing to a woman who knows herself. She can tell the difference between a brand that sees her and one that updated its casting brief.
Your most loyal, highest-spending audience may be the one you've been quietest around. The question isn't whether to include her. It's whether your brand has a point of view worth her attention.
If I Were Building Right Now.
So let’s get into how you use this information strategically, because culture reporting is only useful if you can do something with it. Here's how I'd apply this shift depending on what I was building.
If I were launching a ready-to-wear DTC brand today.
I'd build the whole thing around one woman. Specific enough that I could describe her bathroom counter, the way she talks about getting dressed in the morning, what she's already done by 9 am on a Sunday. I'd name her, her favorite restaurants, her favorite vacations, and dream days. I’d print her out and put her on the wall.
And then I'd let her make every decision for me.
The price point.
The fabric weight.
Whether this goes direct or into a boutique in Malibu first.
Whether the campaign runs on Instagram or gets mailed — actually mailed — to 200 women who already dress this way.
Every time the team disagreed on something, we'd go back to her and ask her.
The data from this season makes the commercial case obvious. But the brief I'm describing isn't a trend response — it's a business architecture decision. Refy did something adjacent in the makeup space recently and it landed.
But the difference between a campaign that feels true and one that feels calculated is whether the brand was already living there before the moment arrived. You can feel it. Your customer can definitely feel it.
I'd shoot the campaign the way Matthieu Blazy briefed his Chanel show. Real faces. Real light. No retouching note in the production brief because there'd be, well, no retouching. And I'd make that choice visible in the work itself - in the casting, the copy, the way the product sits on a real body.
And I'd be very deliberate about what I said no to.
The brands that earn loyalty, that are crowned cult favorites in this crazy economy, are the ones whose audience feels understood before they've spent a dollar.
What I'm actually doing with Casa Noon.
If you didn’t know, in addition to being the founder of Oui, We Studio I’m also building a skin science sun care brand. And if you want to see how we're thinking about positioning, here's an exercise we did internally that I'd recommend to any founder.
We asked: what brands do people compare us to, mention alongside us, or assume we're adjacent to?
Then we wrote a character read for each of those brands and compared Casa Noon.
Here's what we came up with (and I'm sharing it with you because I think it's one of the most clarifying things you can do for your own brand):
Vacation. The 80s Miami hotel pool. Corporate fun with a gold chain. Loud, self-assured, slightly ironic about how hard it leans in. The guy who orders another round and means it. Everyone is invited — that is the point. Vacation is the Instagram story. Vacation is a party at a beach club. Vacation says hot girl summer.
Casa Noon, on the other hand, is the woman at the beach club who got here first. She's been coming to this spot for years, before anyone else found it. She knows the waiter by name. Her skin looks like she's been outside for thirty years — and somehow that's the whole point. Casa Noon is the film photo that shows up three months later. Casa Noon already had a hot girl summer. Casa Noon is the reference.
Here’s another example:
OSEA. The wellness retreat you drive to on a Friday afternoon. Linen everything. A diffuser going. She talks about her morning routine like it's a spiritual practice — and she means it. You like her, she's warm, she's genuine. But she's always inside.
Casa Noon, on the other hand, is already at the beach. She's not tending to herself. She's out there living.
The underlying difference: Vacation is a mood anyone can opt into. OSEA is a ritual anyone can adopt. Casa Noon is a point of view you either have or you don't. That specificity isn't snobbery — it's clarity about who we're building for. We don't need to cast a wider net to feel confident about it.
Try this for your own brand.
Make a list of three brands people compare you to or ask about. Write a character read for each one — who she is, what she believes, what she does on a Sunday morning. Then write your own.
The gap between where they end and where you begin is your positioning. And once you can write it that clearly, everything else — the content, the casting, the campaigns, the opportunities you say no to — gets a lot easier to decide.
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Smart Girl Opportunities
Casa Noon — Investor Round Closing Soon
We are in the final stretch of our seed round for Casa Noon, our skin science sun care brand. If you've been watching what we're building and want to be part of it — I'd love to talk. We're specifically interested in connecting with investors who understand founder-led, community-first brands. This round won't be open long.
→ Reach out directly: reply to this email or DM me at @ouiwegirl
New Studio Services — First Dibs for Newsletter Readers
We're opening four new client spots at Oui, We Studio for May — and newsletter readers get first access before it goes anywhere else. These new services include done-with-you and done-for-you brand and content strategy. If you've been thinking about working together on your brand positioning, messaging, or visibility strategy, this is the time.
Content Weekend New York — September 2026 We just wrapped up our Hollywood Hills content weekend, and honestly, it was my favorite event of the year so far! I’m hosting our second content weekend of 2026 in September, and this time we’re going to New York. We’re already almost sold out, so if you’ve been thinking about joining us, now is the moment (we have a payment plan too). Details are here.
See you back here again next week! Want to chat, DM me over at @ouiwegirl, or hit reply to this newsletter. It comes straight to my inbox.
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