Is the “invisible woman” syndrome finally over, asks a thoughtful opinion piece on ageism in the fashion industry. The conclusion is that attitudes to older women are improving but still have some way to go. Writing in the Australia based Fashion Journal, Bianca O’Neill cites current and recent examples of starring film roles by older actors, including Demi Moore, who won a Golden Globe for “for a film that positively skewered society’s treatment of older women in public-facing roles as they age, delivering a taught thriller that equated plastic surgery with body horror, laid bare corporate commodification of women, and questioned what (else) women would do to be seen as still desirable in the public eye. And she reports on the second appearance in Melbourne’s Fashion Festival calendar of “F*** the invisible runway”, quoting the festival’s CEO Caroline Ralphsmith who says she doesn’t feel the industry is making the advances she would like to see. So putting this event on the runway again,”elevating the topic and the sense of invisibility, and making sure that we drive home this opportunity, is really about the market size of older women. They have a lot of disposable income, they have a sense of themselves – they just need to be shown how to use it.”
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