It is usually not customary to pay attention to how pensioners dress. And certainly few people consider old people to be trendsetters. But five years ago, Omsk photographer Igor Gavar began to write an unusual blog - “Oldushka”. In it, he not only explores the way older people dress, but also seeks to rethink our attitude towards old age, to show the beauty of an elderly person and to form a healthy attitude of both society towards venerable age and older people towards themselves. This year the blog has grown into the only agency for older models in the country. Lenta.ru talks about the history of “Oldushki”, their everyday life and plans for the future in continuation of the project.

It's not too late to become a model at 90

With age, my friends became fat, lazy, and unbearable. On the contrary, when I started working as a model, I lost weight, got pumped up, my posture appeared, and my self-confidence increased! At 60 I feel better than at 30. My friends approve of me, they say: show me what we old people are capable of! - says Lyudmila, one of the models from the Oldushka agency.

Lyudmila is sixty-two. During the Soviet years, she worked at a research institute; after perestroika, she traded at the market, worked as a cleaner, and babysat other people’s children. And after retiring, unexpectedly for herself, she became a model - one of the stars of the Oldushka modeling agency that opened in Moscow in the spring.

In recent years, models over 60 have been in great demand in the global fashion industry. Briton Daphne Self is 89, but she constantly poses for fashion magazines. American Carmen del Orefais, at 85, constantly appears on the podium. British resident Jane Whitlock became a model only last year at the age of 95, thereby fulfilling the dream of her youth. But there are practically no agencies specializing in older models. “Oldushka” is the only project of its kind, not only in Russia, but, perhaps, in the world.

Four grandmothers

“I was beautiful in my youth, but now I look good, inside I feel like I’m 60 years old. I don’t dress like an old man, and when they ask about my age, I answer: 65. Why? That’s just how I want it.”

In addition to my parents, I was raised by four elderly women: my great-grandmother Polina Efimovna, two grandmothers - Galina Vitalievna and Lidia Ivanovna, and Lidia Ivanovna’s sister Nina Ivanovna,” says Igor. “They always dressed well and looked very young, especially Lidia Ivanovna, who worked all her life at the Omsk Knitting Factory in the supply department. Acquaintances, when meeting me with her, often asked: “Is this your mother?” And I answered: “No, it’s grandma!” And he was very proud of it. She was an example to me of positive aging.

In 2009, Igor graduated from the Omsk State Institute of Service - Faculty of Interior Design. He worked in a ceramic workshop, sculpting and painting walls. However, he was more interested in interiors in what was happening at the costume design department: parties, costumes, shows, participation in the Russian Silhouette competition, where Igor was even a model.

In my second year, I visited Moscow for the first time,” says Igor. - And I experienced a culture shock, finding myself in a big city, among many bright people. Omsk is a conservative city, where it is not customary to stand out from the crowd. I was yearning for the capital’s beauty and diversity, and in order to somehow make up for this lack, I bought a camera and started blogging about Omsk street fashion - Point of People.

At first, Igor photographed people of all ages, the main thing was that the person stood out from the crowd with his appearance. But in 2011 I changed the blog format. This summer, Igor found himself at the Afisha Picnic festival, where in one day he “shot” seventy young, beautiful, creatively dressed characters. And I realized: there were already too many successful projects about street fashion, and he couldn’t say a new word here.

“When I returned to Omsk, I became sad,” says Igor. “I didn’t take any pictures for a month, and then I laid out my portfolio and noticed that the most interesting people in the pictures looked like pensioners: their approach to their own style was different from my generation. It seemed to me that the topic of the appearance of older people was much more interesting.

The ladies agreed

Igor met his first heroines on the Omsk dance floor in the park near the former Tara Gate. It was a warm September day. An orchestra was playing on the stage. Couples were spinning. Igor's attention was attracted by three stylishly dressed pensioners, especially a blonde in a hat with a veil and a red dress. Igor asked permission to photograph them. The ladies agreed. Igor posted the first selection of photographs on the fashion portal Look at me.

“It’s almost like I’m old enough to walk with a cane and watch my step. But I do not think so. I’ll fly as long as I like it.”

The public reaction was ambiguous, says Igor. - Some readers accused me of mocking pensioners by placing poor grandparents in the context of street fashion. I wanted to show that, despite the negative attitude towards old age that exists in our society, older people do not lose interest in their appearance.

Igor called the new blog “Oldushka” - from the English old and Russian “grandmother”.

The name was invented by my friend Demyan,” continues Igor. - Once we were sitting in a cafe and going through the words: “old”, “elderly”, “pensioner”... Almost all words describing age have a negative connotation. I wanted the name to be light. Demyan suggested: “Oldushka.” Later, I typed “oldushka” on the Internet and found out that such a word is in hippie slang, it means “old friend.”

Igor finds “Oldushek” everywhere: in Omsk, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Izhevsk, Perm, Ulyanovsk, Adler, Gagra. The best places for hunting: city parks, squares, embankments, dance floors, flea markets, and in big cities - theaters and subways.

When I started the project, I was afraid that most retirees would refuse to take pictures,” says Igor. - I had a stereotype that this is a closed generation, the word “Internet” does not mean anything to them, and that if a young man comes up to them and asks them to take a photo, and even post it on the Internet, this will scare them away. But it turned out not. Elderly people are very sociable and adventurous. Out of a hundred people, only five to seven refuse, the rest agree.

The most fashionable pensioners in Moscow

How do today's retirees dress? It all depends on where they live. In the provinces, for example, older women still look the way Igor’s great-grandmother Polina Efimovna looked: long colorful skirts, knitted sweaters, hair covered with a scarf, slippers on their feet.

Once I found myself in the center of Izhevsk at a small market in front of the cathedral, there were so many colorful grandmothers there at once that I didn’t know who to run after! - he says. - There are colorful skirts all around, Udmurt ornaments, unusually tied scarves...

St. Petersburg is a unique city, frozen and aristocratic. There, ladies wear berets and suits in beige tones, and men wear hats, jackets, ties, and boldly mix blue, light blue, and red colors in their clothes. The most fashionable pensioners in Moscow.

The standard of living in the capital is higher, here older women look younger and more well-groomed than their peers from the regions, says Igor. - Besides, there are so many creatively dressed people here that pensioners are not afraid to express themselves. A green turban or a wide-brimmed hat with a veil on a mature lady does not surprise anyone here.

“In fact, there are no rules for what an older person should look like. Dress the way you like."

But old people have one thing in common. Most older people complain that clothes today are expensive and pensions are not enough to buy new clothes.

Often pensioners wear clothes from Soviet times; their clothes are thirty years old,” says Igor. - Moreover, they take care of these things, repair them and wear them very carefully.

Senior Models Agency

Over the five years that Igor has been running the Oldushka blog, he has photographed and posted online more than a thousand portraits of pensioners. About five of them became not only his constant heroes, but also his friends. One of them is Nelly, 77 years old, a psychologist from Omsk. She lived a difficult life, but did not lose her passion for bright outfits.

Even in Moscow I have never met such a boldly dressed person. - Igor smiles. - Nelly works with color completely fearlessly, combining pink, turquoise, and yellow shades. She buys hats, sews trousers, knits cardigans and fur coats from yarn. She lives in the village of Amursky, a very dull district of Omsk. In this regard, I wonder how such a bright person can arise in such a gray place? Moreover, Nelly is definitely not one of those who looks bright despite the surrounding reality; she broadcasts her love of life through her clothes. One day she went to the pharmacy, but while passing by a jewelry store, she got distracted and bought earrings - instead of pills.

It’s not a fact that a beautiful suit will change your life, but the chances increase! - Igor is sure. A year ago, the heroine of “Oldushka” was convinced of this from her own experience.

One of the regular participants of the blog is Irina Andreevna, the same lady in a veil and red dress whom Igor met on the Omsk dance floor. She is 79 years old. She is a former flight attendant. When Igor met her, she lived in the same apartment with her adopted children, who constantly quarreled. Trying to get out of this hive, Irina Andreevna saved up for her own apartment, saving a ruble from her pension for years. And last year she collected 900 thousand rubles. However, it turned out that living space has become more expensive and to purchase a one-room apartment, Irina Andreevna lacks 114 thousand.

“I thought that I could help her,” says Igor. - Thanks to the photographs on the blog, Irina Andreevna is known throughout Omsk. I told her story on social networks and announced a fundraising campaign for an apartment. Within a week, city residents donated 200 thousand. There was enough not only for new housing, but also for household appliances. So now Irina Andreevna lives in her own house, got a dog and seems to be happy.

“Basically all my friends praise my new work. Everyone is interested. They say, show us what we old ladies are capable of!”

Irina Andreevna’s story convinced Igor - the Oldushki blog is trusted. He decided to go offline and into real life. So “Oldushki” had a second direction - a modeling agency for pensioners.

In December 2014, the Moscow magazine “Afisha” invited me to select several older ladies who could be photographed for the “fashion” section,” says Igor. - I found two ladies through friends: Olga and her friend Nina, and the third, Lyudmila, I accidentally met at one of the forums in Manege. We have completed the first order. And then within a year we had enough shoots to put together a portfolio and open a modeling agency.

But I can do this too

Currently there are nine people in the agency's directory: seven women and two men. Only one of them has filming experience - 70-year-old Olga, who came to the agency as an episode actress and even played for Renata Litvinova in the film “Rita’s Last Fairy Tale.” The rest of the models are ordinary pensioners met on the street. Igor encountered Viktor Afanasyevich, a 73-year-old ceramic artist, on a Moscow boulevard where the pensioner was selling his works. And with Valeria Nikolaevna - on the dance floor, and it turned out that the lady is a former ballerina, and at 78 years old she not only still goes to dances, but also conducts dance classes for visually impaired people in one of the social service centers.

The shootings in which older models take part are very different. Last year, “Oldushki” collaborated with the artistic group AES+F, worked in an advertising campaign for Sony, starred in a video for singer Yolka and participated in a performance by artist Vadim Zakharov. And at the beginning of this year, the famous Russian clothing designer Kirill Gasilin made Olga the face of his new line Base.

Sometimes you have to spend the whole day on your feet,” model Lyudmila shares her impressions of her new job. - You can’t get distracted, have a snack, or rest. I don’t feel tired, but if you do this constantly, you need to understand that the work is hard.

To be fair, it must be said that models are paid for their work - on average from 2 thousand to 20 thousand rubles per shooting day, depending on the budget of the advertising campaign and the type of work. For older people, this is a good addition to their pension, but not the main incentive to work.

But be that as it may, Igor has many plans for the future. One of them is to open a school for older models, where older people could learn the basics of the profession: walk the catwalk, act freely in front of the camera, and demonstrate clothes competently. But the main thing is that Igor intends to develop the social part of the project. The first step on this path has already been taken. Right now he is preparing for publication the photo album “Oldushka”, which will contain the best images of modern Russian pensioners.

Not all pensioners use the Internet. The album can be sent to social service centers, veterans’ organizations, and nursing homes,” says Igor. - So that older people look at their peers and think: maybe I can do this too!

Reading time 2 minutes

The Oldushka modeling agency does not have an office in the traditional sense, but it does have branches in St. Petersburg, Omsk and Chelyabinsk. The founder of Oldushka, photographer Igor Gavar, and I meet in a small coffee shop in Moscow, on Yauzsky Boulevard. To describe how Igor enters the room, the wording “ran in from the cold” is suitable - he really almost runs in, although in this case he is not late for anything: who knows, I was waiting for a lot of men?.. Gavar’s daily routine and a list of everything he needs you need to figure it out “right now”, of course, slightly reminiscent of the life of the heroes of the series How to make in America. Only they launched a fashion brand together in New York, and Igor runs an independent modeling agency alone. He admits that it would, of course, be nice to find a person who could be entrusted with the commercial part - but for now Gavar can cope on his own. At ease. Or involuntarily.

Lingerie brand Petrushka. Photographer Anastasia Lyskovets. Model Tatyana Neklyudova

“Basically, models are put on clothes that they don’t wear in real life,” says Igor. “On the set, the characters live a life they have never lived, trying on an image in which they may not have even imagined themselves before. Sometimes it goes to extremes. We have this Lyudmila Brazhkina in the agency. We met in a supermarket in Maryino. I approached and said that she had a very interesting appearance and asked if she wanted to work with us. Lyudmila immediately agreed. Literally a week later she was “booked” for a shoot by “Afisha”, but her hair had to be tinted purple. I called and said: “So and so, the story is for a very good publication, but there is a nuance - they really ask you to dye your hair.” Answer: “No questions at all.” You will probably be surprised, but our models are really ready for experiments. In a way, it even breaks my own stereotype. I thought the situation would be the opposite. Many who have worked with us tell me that the advantage of older models is how calm and balanced they behave on set, regardless of the circumstances. They work, as they say, for fun.”

From the Turn your skin on project by photographer Sasha Leroy and makeup artist Nika Kislyak. Model Lyudmila Brazhkina

It is somewhat more difficult for Igor to find new faces than for scouts from standard agencies. “What a life I have come to! - Gavar laughs. - No, by God! This is a very specific audience. Not all Russian pensioners are on the Internet yet. So, Instagram is not a big help to me in my search now. I probably found half the models right on the street. The rest were recommended by friends, acquaintances, and photographers. And a very small part came to me themselves. I photographed one woman whom I want to scout for a blog in 1912 in Sokolniki. Then I didn’t have any thoughts about the agency at all, and I didn’t take her contact information. Didn't even ask my last name. A woman with a very beautiful face: I spent about forty minutes persuading her to take a photo for a street style project. And she agreed only when her friend, whom I had already photographed, appeared somewhere nearby on the dance floor and said: “Larissa, don’t be afraid, everything is fine, he took pictures of me: a good boy.” And so I began to look for this Larisa Iosifovna through the “Wait for me” program. Seriously. I didn’t know how else I would be able to meet her - I made announcements on social networks, walked around the park with a photo card. Useless! I suspected that “Wait for me” might work in this case, and just recently they called from the program and Larisa Iosifovna’s son responded.”

Igor admits: the types of models he “scouts” are his personal, subjective choice. “There is no calculation in it,” Gavar assures. “First of all, these are the people whom I myself want to shoot, whom I want to see on the cover of the magazine.” Would he agree to work with the so-called “plus-size”? “If I come across a big woman that makes my eyes light up, then yes, of course. As for height, the agency’s most sought-after model is, in my opinion, five-foot-six. I saw some photos from their youth and pre-retirement period. What happens to them is some kind of cosmos, I cannot explain it. Time is an all-powerful thing; it can distort facial features beyond recognition. Disfigure. And for some, beauty, on the contrary, becomes more obvious over the years. Some people's facial features become sharper and seem more interesting. And so people - for example, this is what they say about our Tatyana Neklyudova - just begin to shine. I can’t explain how, why.”

Omsk photographer Igor Gavar opened Russia's first modeling agency for older people, Oldushka. Now older men and women with a photogenic appearance can seriously change their lives - “try on” a bright image, destroy stereotypes and even earn some money in the modeling business. At the same time, the age of the models interested in the agency is from 55 years and above.

“This is a logical continuation of our long-standing project “Oldushka” - since 2011 I have specialized in street fashion and style selection for older people living in Russia,” Gavar tells Metro. – I photographed bright, beautiful people of the older generation. Then we began to be offered participation in fashion shoots, and some of the project’s heroes had a portfolio. So opening a modeling agency was a logical step.

The project was promoted by a team of Omsk professionals. The creators of the bright image of older people rented equipment and a photo studio, invited potential models and made stars out of them.

“We are interested in people who have their age imprinted on them,” explains Gavar. – Priority is given to gray-haired models. Only one woman we work with has red hair.

According to the photographer, the agency is interested in the natural characteristics of older people. Breed and charisma are of great importance. A person must have a characteristic appearance. And a face that stands out in the crowd.

“Our models can make money from this,” Gavar continues. – Naturally, this will not be the main income, but a part-time job.

But it’s not just money that attracts older people – they are, in principle, interested in this kind of work.

“For them this is an unfamiliar, undeveloped activity,” assures the Omsk photographer. – You need to have a certain degree of adventurism to agree to such a job. This is a completely new format for Russia. In principle, older people in Russia are segregated, separated from society. Many people have a vague idea of what a person does after retirement. Because of this, misunderstandings arise between generations and stereotypes appear. People think that old age is ugly and poor. Old age has many unpleasant associations. Many people get offended when they are called elderly. And our project, our modeling agency, is confirmation that an older person can be beautiful.

To participate in the project, potential models can send their photos by email to the organizers or announce themselves on social networks.

“Now we have five women and two men,” says Gavar. – They are all from Moscow, since all the most interesting things in the fashion world happen in the capital. But in the future we would like to expand our geography. If there are people from other cities, old and beautiful, we will be happy to consider their candidacies.

Once in the hands of Omsk professionals, pensioners undergo “processing”. They find a “look” - an image, and select costumes.

– We go shopping, buy things. We rent a photo studio, negotiate with a photographer, makeup artist, hairdresser. They all create an image of the model, then we do photo sessions,” says the founder of the agency.

In his practice, Gavar encountered one serious problem - it is very difficult to select shoes for older people.

“An elderly person’s foot is very specific,” he complains. – Many people have problems with swelling and deformation. In general, this is a real disaster for the older generation. If the shoe is elegant, the foot does not fit into it. It is probably necessary to develop separate lasts, a separate line of shoes for older people.

Gavar noted that among the agency’s models there are both homebodies and people with an active lifestyle.

“One of our models, Valeria, is very infernal, with a devilish look,” says the photographer. – She dances and works with blind or visually impaired people. Helps them spend time dancing. She has the most menacing appearance of all our models. I met her on the dance floor in 2012. She is long-legged, slender, and at the same time small in stature. When I was choosing an image for her, for some reason an association with the Black Swan arose...

Photo provided by Igor Gavar

Russia's first modeling agency for older people, Oldushka, was created in Moscow. A photographer from Omsk, the creator of the project, Igor Gavar, told the site how grandmothers maintain a sense of style despite life circumstances, what beauty means in old age, and why we usually don’t notice older people on the streets.

Childhood with grandmothers

As a child, in addition to my parents, I was raised by two grandmothers, the sister of one of them and my great-grandmother. Four people from the older generation. They were an integral part of the family. Of course it had a big impact on me. I think this was one of the main reasons for the emergence of the Oldushka project.

Igor Gavar. Photo provided by Igor Gavar

I also photographed my grandmothers for the blog. I managed to photograph Grandma Galina once, who passed away in 2012. Fortunately, the second grandmother is alive and well. Her name is Lydia, she is now 75 years old. I photographed her for the project three times already. My grandmother worked all her life at a knitting factory in the supply department. She often traveled to Moscow for fashion shows and was aware of the tendencies and tendencies of that time. My grandmothers became the embodiment of the idea that you can look beautiful in old age.

“Oldushka” surprises and amuses my grandmother. She supports me, although she is embarrassed that so far the project has not brought in much money.

Street fashion on the dance floor

I am an interior design graduate, but during my studies I realized that I am more attracted to suits. I always liked watching beautiful people, looking at their faces and the way people dress.

Photo provided by Igor Gavar

As a student, I started a blog about street fashion in Omsk. This is the city where I was born and raised. I walked the streets and photographed unusually dressed people of all ages. But after a trip to Moscow, I realized that the project needed to be rethought. In Omsk, in principle, there are not as many interestingly dressed people as you can photograph in a week in Moscow. I laid out all the pictures and tried to choose the most interesting ones. I found the photographs of older people the most interesting. Once I went to a dance floor in Omsk to photograph elderly people who came to dance. There I met the first heroines of the Oldushka project. I still work with them to this day. Thus, in 2011, a project was born dedicated to street fashion and the style of the older generation in Russia.

Grandmothers started talking

At first I photographed the characters from a distance, did not come close, did not speak to them. And when I published the first set of pictures online, I received a huge number of angry reviews from users. People said: “How can you pass off the poverty in which our elderly live as street fashion?” I was accused of making fun of older people. After angry responses, I began to approach the characters, asking them personally why they dressed the way they did, what dictated their style, and what they thought about old age. So the heroes of the photo project started talking.

Photo provided by Igor Gavar

Older people most often agree to a photo shoot. About five people out of 100 refuse. To be honest, it seemed to me that older people are not very approachable, they would be embarrassed by the word “Internet” and the offer of a stranger to take a photo and give an interview. These positive statistics broke my own stereotype about the closed nature of older people.

Shoot better than young people

Once in Sokolniki Park I persuaded a lady to take a photo for almost an hour. An incredibly beautiful woman with diamond-colored eyes and an aristocratic face. I followed her through the park and realized that I couldn’t let her go. She agreed only after her friend, whom I had photographed earlier, passed by us. She said: “Listen, Larisa, calm down, you’re getting great photos!” I don’t have her phone number, I really want to find her and invite her to the agency.

Photo provided by Igor Gavar

“It’s better to shoot young people. No need for old ones, it’s not beautiful,” is the most common reason for refusal. I can't stand this phrase. I usually answer: “If you really thought so, you wouldn’t be standing so beautiful in front of me.” It’s a victory if I manage to convince the person in a conversation and get permission to film.

Elderly people also refuse to take photographs for religious reasons. They say that taking pictures is a sin because it is pride. I don't argue, I respect their right to refuse.

A modeling agency suggested itself

At some point, the blog's heroes began to be invited to shoot in Afisha, Bosco Magazine, Design Scene Magazine and other fashion magazines. They were filmed by the art group AES+F, artist Vadim Zakharov and singer Elka. A modeling agency came naturally. There are currently seven models in the agency – five women and two men. All of them are residents of Moscow. This is due to the fact that the fashion industry is more developed in the capital. All orders come from there.

Photo provided by Igor Gavar

The topic of age models is only gaining momentum; for retirees, such activity is unlikely to become the main source of income, but it can be a good help. From practice, I can say that a model can receive from 4 to 20 thousand rubles for a shooting day. And this is not the limit. The fee depends on the experience of the model and the scale of the project.

Financial style framework

Elderly people are often in difficult financial situations. It’s scary to think that this also awaits us in the future. Unfortunately, only one model of aging is widespread in Russia - a sad slide into poverty and decrepitude. And it is replicated from generation to generation, settling in people’s heads as the norm. First of all, this applies to the regions, where people live and dress worse.

Moscow pensioners are closer to modern trends in clothing, I think this is due to a higher standard of living and a large number of modernly dressed young people around whom they can follow.

A project about street fashion and a modeling agency - both talk about old age in an aesthetic sense. However, the principles for choosing heroes are different. In my street fashion blog, I explore the skills and creative potential of retirees who consciously or unconsciously work with their own image. Style is important here.

Look modest

The idea that old age should be visually modest perhaps comes from the Soviet period, when the system tried to make everyone equal in everything. Bright clothes, jewelry - all this did not correspond to the image of a working man and was considered a bourgeois relic.

And until now, the question of what a person should look like in old age is quite regulated by social norms. A brightly dressed young man is the norm of the times. A bright older man is not the norm. It is believed that an older lady should be elegant, wear a hat and a floor-length skirt, covering her arms and neck. By and large, people themselves cultivate prejudices, create complexes for themselves, not coming to terms with aging, but running away from it, denying the joy of being themselves in another, old body.

When we see older people on the street or in photographs dressed brightly and extravagantly, others also have the courage to experiment with clothing. The thought creeps in that “I can also try to be bright.” In any case, I see potential in these sometimes strange costume decisions.

Beauty, apartment and washing machine

One day, the Oldushka project helped one of the heroines solve a difficult life situation. Irina Andreevna is one of the first models of the project. I met her on the dance floor in Omsk.

One day we got to talking, and I learned that Irina Andreevna had a very difficult life situation. She lived with adopted children, with whom the relationship, to put it mildly, did not work out, and it was impossible to exchange an apartment. She had nowhere to go.

Photo provided by Igor Gavar

She suffered for many years and saved money, dreaming of a separate apartment. Sometimes she managed to live for a whole month and spend only 3 thousand rubles. She saved up about 900 thousand rubles. For Omsk this is a decent amount. She and I hired a realtor, and after only a year and a half we found housing. But it turned out that the accumulated amount was not enough to buy a separate apartment. For this amount it was possible to buy housing only with sharing.

But all her life she wanted to live alone. I announced a fundraising campaign in social networks to support it. About 150 thousand rubles were missing. The required amount was collected in just four days. Then the amount jumped over 200 thousand. Irina Andreevna was able to buy herself an apartment, and still had money left for a refrigerator and a washing machine. In the old apartment, all household appliances were broken.

Photo provided by Igor Gavar

This is a wonderful illustration of how beauty can solve even complex everyday problems. Thanks to the fact that Irina Andreevna dressed brightly and took care of herself, she gained a large number of admirers who added the missing funds. She was able to turn a difficult life situation in her favor.

Charisma and fear of old age

Many people only gain beauty and charisma over the years, so I have no fear of the fact of aging. One should be afraid of poverty, infirmity and health problems. If you can somehow protect yourself from poverty in your youth, then health is a difficult thing to predict; you just need to take care of it.

In our society, a stereotype about older people has become firmly entrenched: a grandmother, always wearing a headscarf, constantly knitting scarves/hats/sweaters, sitting on a bench and discussing with her friends the sexual liberation of today's youth and the Soviet Union.

We see such pensioners in the clinic, at the bank, on public transport and at entrances. But our old people can not only discuss other people’s personal lives and sit in line, but also break these same stereotypes: be a style icon, build stronger muscles than young people, travel the world and walk the catwalk. The image of a pensioner in society is rapidly changing.

Venera Islamova, 63 years old

“Age ceases to be a reason for embarrassment, the inability to develop and take care of oneself, and enjoy life,” Igor Gavar, head of the Oldushka modeling agency, said in an interview with the BBC.

Tatyana Neklyudova, 61 years old

The Russian modeling agency "Oldushka" is an amazing phenomenon in our society, where all attention is given to the young and sexy, and the beauty and charm of older people is overlooked.

Olga Kondrasheva, 72 years old

“Female beauty is always interpreted as youth. We want to change this attitude, we are trying to show that beauty lies beyond the dimensions of “younger/older,” says Gavar.

The youngest model in the agency. Sergey Arctic, 46 years old

Initially, Oldushka was created as a blog about the street style of Russian pensioners, and later grew into a modeling agency, where models aged 45 years and older work. The agency's older models receive many offers to work in Russia: they appear in lookbooks, catalogues, advertising campaigns and on catwalks.

Valentina Yasen, 62 years old

“Oldushka proposes to rethink the topic of aging, expand established ideas about this period of life, show it from the aesthetic side, thereby helping to form a healthy attitude both of society towards venerable age, and of older people towards themselves,” says Igor Gavar.

Irina Belysheva, 70 years old

Fashion for the elderly is not limited to the Oldushka agency. The Mature Beauty Podium is held annually in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Here it is not professional models who take the stage, but ordinary women “a little over 30”, or more precisely, 50+. This project, like “Oldushka”, wants to change attitudes towards people of the older generation and destroy the stereotype that the podium is a place only for young people with measurements of 90-60-90.

69-year-old model Maye Musk

The trend towards older models appearing in advertising and on catwalks has spread not only to Russia. According to the international forum Fashion Spot, the Spring 2018 season became the most “grown-up” in the history of the fashion industry: 27 models aged 50 years and older walked the catwalks at fashion weeks in New York, Milan, Paris and London.