Ageless Beauty -

When you think of the word “blogger”, images of millennials living perfect lives with flawless fashion sensibilities probably occupy your thoughts.

Which was true, until Ari Seth Cohen came along in 2008 and flipped the status quo to celebrate fashion’s next generation of mavens over 60. Bringing those, who a youth obsessed society traditionally ignores, out of the shadows and into the light.

Cohen features people who are of an advanced age who he perceives to be stylish. He accomplishes this through his blog Advanced Style, three books, and his documentary Advanced Style . The movement has universally reduced the fear of aging, given courage and provided a platform to still be heard by those who refuse to be forgotten.

Thankfully Cohen’s efforts have inspired a groundswell of fabulous ladies who have taken the torch to amplify the spirit of his work. They too insist that great style doesn’t need to stop after a certain age. They give the rest of us hope, inspiring the idea that our best years can be lived no matter where we happen to be in life’s journey. It’s a movement that is bravely being heralded by a group of ‘Advanced Style Bloggers’.

These ladies are taking the blogging industry by storm and reinventing our ideals of what beauty is. Proving that you can be fabulous at any age and seem to be having more fun than anyone else doing it.

What a refreshing approach to social media where perfection seems to rule that space. Ilona Royce Smithkin a flame-haired style icon and one of the stars in the new film Advance Style has been quoted as saying -

“In trying to be perfect you miss half of your life.”

Amen sister, preach, because we’re all listening.

Timely yet timeless -

Get ready to meet my first introduction into this marvelous world of free thinkers, Style Crone. She is every bit as delightful as I had imagined her to be. Perhaps it’s her wisdom that only life experience can afford that gives her oeuvre a whimsical appeal that is completely magnetic.

Style Crone has been featured in two of Ari Seth Cohen’s books and has been on his blog over 11 times.  

Always a lover of style and headwear, she started her blog to showcase her passion long before it was in vogue to do so. Her creative outlet unintentionally became a lifeline later, when she found herself in the midst of grieving for her life partner:

“It helped get me out of bed and put on a pretty outfit.”

Proving that fashion is far from frivolous. It can be healing, it can inspire and it can transform us.

So whether her sentiments to older women in their most creative, outrageous, authentic, powerful, adventurous, funny, and proud era were ahead of her time - Her celebration of a woman of a “certain age’ who embodies all her life’s wisdom, knowledge, experience, and love is absolutely timeless.

The new idea of what youth is -

I swear that Style Crone has more moves in front of the camera than I could ever hope to have, no matter how many hours I spend on Pinterest looking at model poses. Watching her work on the shoot we did together was pure magic and an true embodiment of her joy for what she does.

Creativity doesn’t have to be relegated to suffering alone. You can have fun and not take yourself too seriously. There’s a certain freedom to operate in this space that way.

After all, we want to be set free in some way. Maybe embracing the things that you truly love is a great place to start.

Read Style Crone’s featured post on our collaboration on her blog.

Here’s a ‘behind the scenes’ video of our shoot with some of my favorite images we captured that day. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Follow Style Crone on Instagram here.

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Photo credits - Nicole Marcelli

Makeup and hair - Mel Akana McIntosh

Model - Style Crone