Boas and Napkin Rings

Diana Gabriel always wears the most interesting accessories. She made her necklace out of napkin rings and wrapped a boa around her hat! Check out more of her work HERE.

Black and White, Amsterdam

I was struck by the contrast between this woman's gorgeous white braid and her black winter coat. 

Black and White and Red All Over

Lynn Dell and Jennifer Dolan after lunch at shopping at Off Broadway

I thought this title was appropriate considering the fact that Jennifer Dolan was a VP at The New York Times for many years.

Baroness Sherry von Korber-Bernstein

It's always a pleasure to run into Baroness Sherry. She let me know that she is about to turn 94!!!

Red Lips, Vintage Hat

Sometimes all you need is a great shade of red lipstick.

The Bows of Anne Marie

Anne Marie Bullen is 90-years-old and she wears a different bow in her hair everyday. Learn more about this spirited woman HERE.

Life Is a Party

I met Aida Bon on my last trip to Amsterdam and before I could even post her photos she sent me this lovely message below:

Well my age is a story...............

Thanks to Advanced Style I stopped worrying that I am closer to eternity than 50. I had given up thinking life was special, but it really is. With all the trouble going on in the world, it is better to do as if life is a party and hang up your own festoons every day. Advanced Style makes "us" oldies smile. Aida

How To Chase Away The Winter Blues

Spruce up your winter wardrobe with a pair of outrageous glasses!

Winter Gold Accents

Diana Gabriel

I met artist and jewelry designer, Diana Gabriel, at Lynn Dell's Off Broadway Boutique several years ago. I've been admiring her sculptural jewelry for a long time and was thrilled to finally run into her again on the Upper West Side last week.

When people try to sell me a necklace or something I always say I don't wear OPG(other people's jewels). I was lucky to have such an incredible mother. She made everything I wore, every pajama, every coat, until I got my first job. I studied Psychology and studio art and at Hunter college and have been painting and sculpting my whole life. One day I started to work with beads and then transitioned into silver work. I think of my jewelry as sculpture. I don't think you are really dressed until you put the whole ensemble on. The right shoes, the right necklace. I don't like little dabs of jewelry. I like simples clothes with bold jewels.- DG

Check out more of Diana Gabriel's work HERE.

Winter Matching

I love how this woman perfectly matched her lipstick and glasses with her scarf. 

Jenny Hirschowitz

I have wanted to share this outtake from a shoot I did with Jenny Hirschowitz for a long time. It's one of my favorite shots that never made the cut.

The Accidental Icon for Grey Magazine Coming Soon

Yesterday I photographed The Accidental Icon for the upcoming issue of Grey Magazine out next month. I can't wait to share the photos soon!

The Movement

Photo: Juergen Teller

Photo: Ari Seth Cohen for And Other Stories

Photo: Alexis Bittar

Photo: Hedi Slimane

Is the fashion industry finally embracing the older woman? Images of 80-year-old Joan Didion as the new face of Céline and Joni Mitchell, 71, modeling for Saint Laurent have been the talk of the town this week. It's incredible to see so many older faces taking over the world of fashion advertising. This shift in the portrayal of aging in popular media hopefully signifies a broader change in societal attitudes towards, and treatment of, the elderly. Bravo!

Winter Sparkles

You may remember Jennifer Dolan from our shoot in Greenwich a few weeks ago. When she showed up for lunch yesterday wearing these rad sunglasses and sparkly Stuart Weitzman
boots, I knew we would have to brave the cold and take a few new photos.

Re-Deux, Rancho Mirage

Aida

The Accidental Icon

I always love stumbling upon Advanced bloggers. I first found the Accidental Icon through instagram and immediately became addicted to her incredibly gorgeous blog. We finally had the chance to meet before the holidays and I asked her to share a few words below. Make sure and check out her blog
http://www.accidentalicon.com for more visual inspiration.

The Accidental Icon

As someone who has been involved in thinking about social welfare and social well-being for my entire career, I have recently become interested in the power of fashion and clothing to challenge oppression alongside it's potential power to oppress. I decided to start blogging because I was inspired by this potential power (particularly to challenge stereotypes about aging) but also because of the enormous joy and pleasure that can be gained from clothing: wearing it, talking abut it, writing about it and imagining potential selves in it. 

My grandmother Irene was the person who taught me about the pleasure of dressing up and wearing beautiful clothes. I remember my grandmother had a grey lambs wool coat that she had custom made (her name is embroidered inside) shortly after she left her rather ordinary (to her) suburban life when my grandfather died. Appalling to her daughters at the time, she sold her home in Wilton Connecticut and joined her two widowed sisters to forge a cosmopolitan life in Dallas and to travel around the world. She was especially enamored with Japan. She would bring me kimonos and beautiful  books of watercolors with rice paper covers. When she came to New York we would go shopping and she would buy me a head-to-toe outfit and we would finish the day at Charleston Gardens having a chocolate eclair. 

Making the calculations I see that she was the same age as I am now when she decided to re-invent herself.Interestingly, except for when I was young and a little wild in the 70's, I have never been so engaged with fashion as I am now that I am older. I take more risks and become more provocative the more the world wants to make older people invisible. I always knew I was like my grandmother, as she offered the only example of an educated, rebellious woman in our family. ​I now have her grey coat and can still smell vestiges of the Je Reviens perfume​Hi  by Worth she always wore. I think I can hear her whisper delightedly that my re-imagination as Accidental Icon (who loves urban living and Japanese designers) is the right adventure for me to take and now is the right time to take it.