Everything gets better with time, at least so believes Olivia Ann May, Middlesex University fashion and textile student, who chose three models aged 62, 68 and 83 to unveil her final year collection.
May, 22, from Archway said she was “passionate about how older people look” and wanted to bring them “glamour, sophistication and style”. Taking to the catwalk last night, the student unveiled a vivacious collection of floor-length knitted dresses and printed trousers which came trimmed with silk fringing and feathers. Each model wore a pair of dramatic pink-tinted spectacles.
Amongst May’s mature models was top Sixties model Jan de Villeneuve (68)- a former wife of iconic fashion photographer Justin, Pam Lucas (62) and Daphne Selfe (83) who counts shoots with Nick Knight and Mario Testino amongst her career highlights.
Clearly taken with May’s collection, Selfe said “the pieces are suitable for my age, and yet they’re colourful and unusual”. “The colour is lovely, in London we always have so much black, black is a kind of uniform for London, so it’s nice to wear some colour for a change”.
At last night’s show May was competing with some 70 other fashion and fashion textile students for a place at a Middlesex University event at the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane which takes place later this year. She hopes to make a name for herself through designing fashion forward clothes for the more mature customer and dreams of opening her own London-based boutique with the over sixties in mind.
