Nobody puts grandma in the corner...

Fashion’s most wanted is walking down the street at a slow, genteel pace, in mid-high heels. She is carrying a patent leather handbag, wearing leopard-print gloves and a 1920s cloche hat. A glorious diamond brooch twinkles at her neck. She is on her way to the postbox.

At least, she was on her way to the postbox: nowadays, the glamorous grandma (‘Glamma’) is more likely to be on her way to a model casting, photo shoot, or even the premiere of a documentary about herself. Every one of the older women I interviewed for this feature was having a documentary made about her.

Fashion has fallen in love with fabulous older women — the older the better. Being in your sixties doesn’t quite cut it; octogenarians have all the cachet. Carmen Dell’Orefice, the mesmerisingly beautiful 81-year-old, was one of the busiest models at September’s New York Fashion Week, appearing in two shows in one day. Iris Apfel, 91, is currently resplendent in Rei Kawakubo’s Comme des Garçons creations on the cover of Dazed & Confused. ‘We have always believed that models can be any age, any colour, any ability, any shape. We have never had a conventional view on beauty, it’s always about attitude,’ says Dazed founder Jefferson Hack. ‘Experience combined with a strong individuality is totally punk. Iris is at the vanguard, and we get excited about celebrating those who are pushing things forward.’ Formerly a top New York textile designer, Apfel became a ‘geriatric starlet’ (her own designation) overnight when selections from her wardrobe were put on display at the Met. A documentary about her by the auteur Albert Maysles (director of Grey Gardens and Gimme Shelter) is forthcoming — full, no doubt, of Apfel bons mots such as: ‘If you don’t dress like anyone else, you don’t have to think like anyone else,’ and ‘If you hear anyone say I’m dead, tell them, “No, she’s very much alive and just walking around to save funeral expenses.” ’

What is it like to be ‘discovered’ at the age of 81? Jacquie Murdock has been a successful dancer all her life, but her biggest break came this year when she appeared in a Lanvin campaign photographed by Steven Meisel. It all began when she was stopped in the street by Ari Seth Cohen, creator of the influential Advanced Style blog, in which he chronicles the well-dressed older women he meets out and about on the streets of New York. He asked if he could take her photograph. ‘I told him, “I am a professional. I am a legendary dancer from the Apollo theatre in Harlem.” Then I threw my hands in the air and went “Ta-dah!” and he started snapping away.’

Born Jacqueline Bebe Mercedes Campbell, she grew up in Harlem; her parents came from Cuba via Jamaica. At 17 she danced alongside the Count Basie Orchestra at the Apollo. She worked with Eubie Blake, and still dances the Charleston at the Harlem Jazz Museum. She was ‘the first student of the first belly-dancing school in New York’, where she assumed the Middle Eastern stage name ‘Tajah’. Later in life, she went on to take three degrees at NYU. ‘I live a very active life. I don’t eat too much, and I never wear jeans. I love clothes and fashion and I have my own unique style. I can still wear my clothes from 30 or 40 years ago.’

Spotted on Advanced Style, she was recruited to the ground-breaking Lanvin advertising campaign, created by Ronnie Cooke Newhouse of House + Holme. ‘When they saw me, the casting director said, “Oh, you kept your figure, didn’t you?” I said, “I certainly did,” ’ says Jacquie. Being dressed by Alber Elbaz was a lifelong dream come true: ‘I wanted to be a fashion model in Paris when I was 18 and now you can put the “8” in front of the “1”,’ she quips. She loved the photo shoot — ‘I had three people working on my hair and make-up at one time’ — and Elbaz chose a green peplum dress for her, although she kicked off the accompanying stilettos. ‘I couldn’t stand in them. I’m tall enough. I’m a showgirl!’

Elbaz told me that he liked working with Jacquie because she brought ‘another angle, another perspective. There’s a feeling today that women are not allowed to age any more, it’s like wrinkles are almost forbidden. But I think sometimes you have to stop and say, “Look, there are so many beautiful people in the world, there is beauty in an older woman…” My logo is a mother and a daughter, and I try to do clothes for women of different ages. Yves Saint Laurent said many smart things but he said that before they’re thirty, women don’t need him, they’re beautiful already. After thirty, they come looking for him. Then he has something to do for them.’

There is no such thing as a generic Glamma. The whole reason these women are venerated by fashion is that they have, over the years, distilled a style that is all their own. It might be the outrageous Pop Art maximalism of the late Anna Piaggi, or its opposite, the restrained elegance of the former Danish model Gitte Lee — actually Lady Lee, since she is married to the actor Sir Christopher Lee (and has been for 50 years). Her signature daywear pieces include heavy black-rimmed spectacles, a wide straw hat, an Hermès handbag and usually one of a selection of long, light overcoats, made for her in India. For evening events — accompanying her husband to a James Bond gala, for example — she favours black, with outsize gold jewellery. She never wears her hair down. She has always been a beauty, but at 77 she has something indefinably extra, which makes photographs of her so compelling: she looks as if she has life all figured out. Her serenity seems to come from within.

‘I met Gitte at the premiere of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland,’ explains the fashion photographer Tim Walker. ‘She looked breathtaking. She was wearing a black embroidered cape from Ecuador. I wanted to take her portrait and capture her presence. At my Somerset House exhibition everyone was really taken with the pictures of her. She’s an exceptional individual, she’s had time to become who she is. As the decades go by, we start just pleasing ourselves. Photographing age is maybe even better than photographing youth, which is complicated by desire and full of questions: am I sexy? Whereas for an older person it’s not a question, it’s a statement: I am stylish. There are so many older women I’d love to photograph: Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin. The fashion industry thinks there’s some kind of cut-off point for beauty, but they’re missing out. They should wake up and see how certain women perpetuate the idea of beauty into their sixties, seventies, eighties. It’s a very positive thing for everyone.’

Gitte is also one of Ari Seth Cohen’s great discoveries. ‘We can all take style cues from Gitte,’ he says. ‘She is one of the most elegant women I have ever met and has a great instinct about style and how to enjoy life.’ Ari is 31, and became fascinated with superannuated chic after moving to New York from San Diego four years ago. His decorous manner and sincere appreciation mean most ladies he approaches agree to pose for him, although some ‘politely decline’. He still seems regretful about the ones who got away. ‘There was this lady in a black suit and hat the other day…’ He admits that the hardest part of what he does is explaining what a blog is.