Fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg, The Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington and Vogue’s Grace Coddington are among age 50-plus women who have resisted going under the knife despite being in the limelight.
See more on them and other women here.
Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, left, Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post, top right, and Grace Coddington, creative director of Vogue and a star of the 2009 documentary, “The September Issue.”
Legendary fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg recently had her “x-ray,” as she jokingly calls it, taken by famed artist-photographer Chuck Close. She wears no make-up in the serious, stark portrait. And her face is obviously void of any plastic surgery.
When she appeared recently at South Coast Plaza to promote Diane, her new perfume, I asked her to elaborate on her personal distaste for artificial cosmetic enhancements – at 64, she avoids the procedures that women 20 and 30 years younger routinely go for. She graciously answered some questions.
Photo of Diane von Furstenberg by Chuck Close, courtesy of The Pace Gallery
Here are excerpts from our interview:
“When I did that picture I just had had a bad ski accident, so I was still very bruised,” she said of the Chuck Close portrait, at right. “And already, to have your picture taken by him, it’s already an x-ray.
“And going in there, no makeup and all bruised. And then I just said you know what? Just do it.”
“I know that other women look at me and they just say why doesn’t she do anything? [plastic surgery] And I know that they do, and I can understand. Maybe if I actually saw myself I may think the same.
“But it’s a choice.
“The other day I had beautiful roses that somebody sent me, and then a week, 10 days later they were still beautiful , but they had spots, they were a little brown, and I looked at it and I said you know what? It’s still beautiful.
“I’m afraid if I started doing things I would become insecure. And I think that I would rather have my face and not be insecure.
“And I don’t judge. I don’t think that much about it. But it’s a decision. And it seems like the older I get, it seems like a more valid decision.
“I don’t give women advice. The only thing I tell women over and over … is be the woman you want to be. It’s about building confidence and living your dream.
“I am no authority in any of this, other than I am just a woman, and like every woman, every woman can identify with other women.”
Von Furstenberg said earlier this year in Harper’s Bazaar: “To erase is the horrible thing, because if you erase things in your face, you basically erase souvenirs, you basically erase memory, you basically erase pieces of you that made you. And it’s the layers of your life that give you character.”
She’s among other prominent women age 50 and up – in the worlds of fashion, publishing and even Hollywood – who believe in aging naturally or have spoken out against plastic surgery.
Click through the slide show to see more.
.
More on Diane von Furstenberg’s appearance at Nordstrom in South Coast Plaza here
.
Latest from this blog:
.
.
What happened to your comments?
The Register has switched to Facebook-linked comments. Below is a memo and a FAQ explaining details:
.
Women over 50 who are fine with their faces is a post from: In Your Face