They’re still teaching youngsters how to dress

By Eva Trieger

LA JOLLA, California–With a tee shirt advertising “Old is the New Black” Ari Seth Cohen introduced his documentary featuring seven aging New York fashionistas.  Each of these beauties had her own style, panache, and comportment, but all shared a joie de vivre and an obvious delight in wearing her style—loud and proud.

The San Diego Jewish Film Festival offered Advanced Style hatched from Cohen’s blog on “sartorial savvy for the senior set.”  Cohen shared that he was quite close with his two grandmothers and fondly recalled time spent with them.  In some small way the blogger thought he could continue to feel connected to these strong, elegant and vital woman by interviewing older women about style.

Though a San Diego son, the mecca of fashion, New York City, became Cohen’s proving ground.  Initially, his tactics proved fruitless.  He approached women between “50 and death” and awkwardly told them they were elegant and gorgeous and he’d like to photograph them.  In some instances he was rebuffed, in others, totally ignored!

Under the direction of Lino Pliopyte, Cohen collected his harem of fascinating divas.  The seven women, though radically different in their aesthetic sense, all understood that a woman can be fashionable at any age, and it has little to do with money, cosmetic surgery or popular fashion trends.  Ilona Royce Smithkin, Tziporah Salamon, Debra Rapoport, Lynn Dell Cohen, Zelda Kaplan, Joyce Carpati and Jacquie Tajah Murdock all agreed to be interviewed and videotaped for this documentary.  It was quite clear from their mischievous grins and flamboyant attitudes that they were having the time of their lives…or as one of them alluded to, whatever time they had left.

Cohen stated that New York City was the perfect place for these women who had the boulevards to serve as their runways.  The outfits they donned were only part of the allure.  Yes, the colors were bold, the long orange eyelashes took some getting used to, and the dyed hair and wild hats all added a sense of élan, but that was not the secret ingredient.

The most vibrant and scintillating attribute shared by the seven beauties was their inner peace and self-confidence.  Joyce Carpati summed it up so succinctly with “I never wanted to look young.  I wanted to look GREAT!”  Each of the subjects exuded a sense of knowing that her trademark hat or earring or handbag completed her look and she was the fairest of them all.

Though the combined ages of the girls was close to 600 years, they had more zest for life than many of their thirty year old counterparts. And what’s more, they seemed to know that life begins at 60….Ari Seth Cohen has done a great mitzvah with his blog and documentary and thanks to his promotion of these mature lovelies, careers have been launched and advertising agencies are rethinking their campaigns.

One highlight of the film was Cohen’s bringing some of the women to Hollywood.  They were elated about appearing before live audiences and sharing their trade secrets with young women and not so young women.  While the starlets said they don’t “buy green bananas” anymore, not one of them is going to go down with a fight…and a nice pair of heels, a chic pashmina and a jaunty cap!

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Trieger is a freelance writer who specializes in coverage of the arts.  Your comment may be posted in the space provided below or sent to eva.trieger@sdjewishworld.com