lindarodin

AGELESS STYLE

How to be awesome

Style icon Linda and
her lovable poodle,
Winks, show us how
it’s done

at any Age

BY LINDA RODIN
Thought cult Instagram followings were just for millennials? Meet
Linda Rodin – the 68-year-old style veteran leading the fashion
pack on a journey to true authenticity. By Sarah Ann O’Hegarty

IMAGE OPPOSITE: ARI SETH COHEN. ALL OTHER IMAGES TAKEN FROM LINDA RODIN’S INSTAGRAM, @LINDAANDWINKS itAgrnoeNaovdYseruiiretesabtarltoevheoomfe I’ve had, for sure. I buy things that I feel comfortable in. I always
like a slim kind of pant, I live in jeans, I wear denim every day
“Some days I feel 68, other days I feel practically. I don’t like tight, revealing tops, I don’t like low-cut
108.” In the case of New Yorker Linda things, I never have. I usually wear flat shoes, sneakers or boots
Rodin, it’s safe to say style is eternal with a little heel, but I don’t wear high heels, and you know, a skirt.
and ageism can go to hell. Indeed, I’m much more casual.
nuggets of wisdom about the
importance of authenticity and being true to yourself monopolise DON’T FEAR COLOUR
a lot of our conversation when we speak on the telephone from her It’s not so much the colour, it’s the style. You could wear a
home in New York. A lot of it is common sense, but in the frenzied
world of fashion, Rodin is akin to a type of Dalai- beautiful, let’s say turquoise, blouse but you wouldn’t wear a
Lama-in-lipstick figure, a spirit guide offering advice turquoise tube-top. I wouldn’t wear head-to-toe colour, but I would
in an era gone truly mad. She’s older, wiser, and quite wear a hot-pink sweater with a pair of jeans for example.
frankly, knows better; whether it comes to topics like
clothing or simply being compassionate to yourself. I’VE HAD GREY HAIR SINCE MY THIRTIES
I never really thought about [age] until I was about
You might remember Rodin circa the explosion of
Advanced Style – the octogenarian (and then some) 60, because I really didn’t feel like I looked old or I
style blog founded by Ari Seth Cohen in 2008 – since didn’t feel old, I’d had silver hair for a while. It was
then Rodin has been riding high at a time where the never something I was worried about and I think its
age-old perception of mature style has broadened in focus is so pronounced now when it comes to youth
the cultural consciousness. In fact, it’s now viewed as and being wrinkle-free. It must be very hard for kids,
an asset: Wisdom, more disposable income, a well- we never thought about it when I was growing up.
honed eye and a better understanding of what suits you means that
youth and an enviable sense of dress are not mutually exclusive, I COLLECT BEAUTIFUL THINGS
with badass ladies like Rodin (68), Baddiewinkle (87 and starring BUT I DON’T OBSESS OVER THEM
in swimsuit campaigns) and Carmen Dell’Orefice (85 and ranking
as one of the world’s oldest working models) all taking the lead. I have some beautiful things, and some of it I think
I’m never going to wear. Now I just know I can return
Rodin does not consider herself a part of this mature motley crew, it and there will be something else beautiful down the road. I did that
however. Her sense of style is far more refined, steering clear of the recently with a beautiful designer pink and green bomber jacket, and
pile it on, ‘more is more and less is a bore’ attitude of her peers I returned it. There’s always something around the corner.
(stand up, Iris Apfel). In fact, Rodin’s Instagram is a blow-by-blow
account of how to get dressed every morning – wearable, cool I WEAR LIPSTICK EVERY DAY
staples are the name of the game. (Kitsch aficionados should look I’ve been wearing my own brand of lipstick for two years, and
elsewhere.) Catch her modelling for The Row, getting name-checked
by Garance Doré on Instagram, and launching her new range of they’re coming out now to retail. There’s five colours [from cherry
lipsticks as a sexagenarian beauty mogul under her self-named red to brightest fuchsia] and I wear all of them. I just made five
beauty line, Rodin. So far, so we-want-everything-she-wears. And colours that I would always want, they’re classics for me. I love
don’t even get us started on her dog… wearing lipstick, it makes me feel much more myself.

ADVANCED STYLE NEEDN’T BE TOKEN THE ONLY RULE WHEN DRESSING FOR YOUR
I find this is trending in a very costume-y way, I feel. I never AGE IS TO BE YOURSELF

dressed like that when I was young and I certainly don’t dress like To be comfortable in yourself, to be
that now, and I don’t know how all these women looked when they comfortable with what you’re wearing, I
were in their twenties and thirties, were they always that dolled up mean physically and visually…I think that’s
or did they just kind of make a celebration as they got older that so personal. It all depends on how you feel.
they could be dolled up? I don’t like to dress with a million bracelets I see women in things I would never even
and hats and, you know, I never did that way to begin with. look at, but they look so at ease and
comfortable and attractive, and I think they
AGE IS NOT A DIRTY WORD feel the same way I do, it’s just visually
The advantages of this movement are really for the older women different.

who are living it, not for me. To see someone my age having freedom, IF I COULD GO BACK, I’D
maybe it’s aspirational to a lot of women. It shows you don’t have TELL MY YOUNGER SELF TO APPRECIATE IT
to be invisible when you get older and you can enjoy yourself. ALL

I TWEAK MY STYLE NOW THAT I’M You know, when you’re young you think, ‘Oh, he’s not going to
OLDER like me because I’m chubby, or that’, and then you realise that your
skin was beautiful and you felt healthy – you just took so much for
I’m not going to wear a sleeveless dress with no granted and focused on the negative things, so if I could go back I
stockings or, you know, I cover up my arms and my would just say, ‘Oh god, just enjoy every step of the way’, because
legs more, but it’s always been the same silhouette that things change. Embrace what you’ve got at the time you’ve got it.

Above: Selfie! Left:
Stylin’ it out in a Breton
tee