You have surely seen her silhouette and long silver hair in fashion shows and campaigns for major brands. She is Caroline Ida Ours, a woman in her sixties who changed her life a few years ago and advocates for the visibility of women over 50. A portrait.
Une présence remarquée
The Darjeeling campaign for which she poses naturally has been very widely noticed. It has sparked everything from enthusiastic comments to the most hateful ones, but in any case, it has left no one indifferent. Because as she herself admits, Caroline Ida Ours does not “really have the physique that lingerie brands might demand.” At 62, the model exposes herself with cellulite, belly fat, and back rolls, which she says she shows without issue, despite the risks of receiving nasty feedback. But she does this as an act of activism.
In fact, she turned to modeling four years ago, starting to audition for castings as she approached her sixties—an age when one begins to become invisible in the eyes of society. And while her children initially had some difficulty accepting her new career, they are now very proud of their mom.
Caroline Ida Ours’s blog at the origin of all this
Caroline Ida Ours started by launching a blog where she gives makeup, styling, and of course, wellness advice. She also addresses topics like menopause and her love life with a man 20 years younger than her. From this blog came a book “Silver Generation. Without Taboos or Limits“, released in April 2021 by Kiwi Editions.
Montrer le naturel
The woman who now describes herself as a “sexygenarian” had something of a revelation. After working for a very long time in a family business selling sports equipment, she suffered a ruptured aneurysm at the age of 57. She says she “almost didn’t make it.” From that point on, a true awakening took place. When she woke up from her coma, she realized she had to do something for herself.
Very quickly, this new career came to life, with photo shoots soon following the blog, then photo shoots for the brand Maison Louve, for which she became the face, fashion shows… She also quickly joined a body positive movement, with a desire to show herself as she is, with her flaws. And she is delighted to receive many messages from women who tell her they are no longer afraid of aging thanks to her. But she also receives quite a few mean comments from other women, which makes her angry (but does not hurt her), and she regrets the lack of sisterhood.
Figure du body positive
She has been participating for 4 years in a parade of plus-size people and atypical models at the Trocadéro. At first, she thought it would only happen once and was surprised by the scale it takes on each year. It must be said that the body positive movement is gaining ground. Many brands are starting to take an interest in it and are choosing to show more diversity in their models.
We also see fewer photoshop retouches on fashion photos, and influencers are increasingly daring to show themselves naturally, to encourage other women to do the same. Caroline is not fooled, however, and knows very well that there is a certain marketing co-opting behind all this, but she prefers to see a positive aspect, that of visibility.
Caroline Ida Ours’s Silver Attitude
But her most important fight is for the visibility of people over 50, also known as Silver. She realized that she saw none of these people in society (no representation in magazines or in cinema) with a few rare exceptions. Worse, when it comes to advertising that includes people in this age group, it’s to talk about health problems. She then told herself that something had to be done to break this invisibility. That’s how her fight began.
“We often forget that life can stop at any moment, it’s a chance to age. But when you get older, you no longer really have a reference point, so it’s a bit scary. Women’s magazines don’t talk about us. At best, they’ll show us Jane Fonda. I love her, but I don’t identify with her, I wear a size 44.”
The sixty-something is now proud to represent a “normal” woman, whom people want to identify with. With her pep and her naturalness, she is an excellent representative of this “silver” generation that we want to see represented more often.
