Opinion Loewe’s new face, Maggie Smith: 88 and chic

As the face of Spanish luxury brand Loewe’s spring-summer 2024 pre-collection, Maggie Smith cuts a glamorous figure in a faux fur coat, the brand’s Puzzle bag in her hand. In another photo, she lounges on a sofa in a black-and-white turtleneck ruffled dress, with another it-bag from the label. In all the images, the British actor looks distinguished. She also looks every bit of her 88 years.

Known for her iconic turns as Jean Brodie (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, 1969), Augusta Bertram (Travels with My Aunt, 1972), Professor McGonagall (Harry Potter films, 2001-2011) and, most recently, Dowager Countess of Grantham (Downton Abbey series and films, 2010-2022), Smith, however, is not a trendsetter in her avatar as a model. Despite its abiding fascination with youth, fashion has made a few attempts at age inclusivity in recent years. In 2015, when she was 80, American writer Joan Didion featured in a campaign for the French luxury house Céline. Zeenat Aman, 71, with her silver hair and sass, Rekha, 69, slightly airbrushed but with her appeal intact, have all featured on magazine covers this year. High fashion might be the bastion of the privileged, but on occasions, it is not just for the young.

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There’s one more reason why the images of Smith, Didion or Aman seem reassuring. It’s because they speak of possibilities. Youth can be vexing in its anxieties of trying to make the right impression. Middle age arrives with its fog of fatigue and intimations of mortality. Indeed, as Nora Ephron writes in her collection of essays, I Feel Bad About My Neck (2006), “Anything you think is wrong with your body at the age of 35, you will be nostalgic for at the age of 45.” Old age is the realm of survivors, those who have made it past the vicissitudes of time. Wrinkled skin and bags under the eyes be damned, if it can come with the promise of their confidence, what’s not to like?