This week, fashion brand Loewe debuted 88-year-old actor Dame Maggie Smith as the new face of their Spring/Summer 2024 pre-collection campaign.
Smith is captured in a fur coat clutching Loewe’s iconic handbag, but what’s most striking is the lack of airbrushing and the refreshing view of her wrinkles and age spots. Although the campaign included other famous faces such as Dakota Johnson and Josh O’Connor, Smith’s cameo quickly became the star of the show.
The internet rejoiced at the photos of the iconic actress with one X user tweeting “Maggie Smith for Loewe is everything I never knew I needed.”
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It’s unsurprising that these images went viral in an age where we are swamped by increasingly unattainable beauty standards and women are pushed towards drastic cosmetic procedures to prevent the natural aging process. In this sense, Loewe’s campaign is quietly rebellious and a clever move from the brand’s creative director Jonathan Anderson.
The buzz around this campaign is part of what appears to be a trending rebellion against social media’s curated beauty ideals. Pamela Anderson similarly went viral recently for championing a bare face at Fashion week.
The Baywatch star was praised for the makeup free appearance with actor Jamie Lee Curtis tweeting “THE NATURAL BEAUTY REVOLUTION HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN! @pamelaanderson.” In an interview, Pamela explained that chasing youth was futile and that she felt a weight off her shoulders from having embraced the aging process.
Although some may argue that Loewe’s campaign is simply a clever marketing strategy and a way to grab the internet’s attention, it still pushes a positive representation for women and acts as a celebration of not just British treasure Maggie Smith, but older women everywhere. The campaign champions the fact that we need to stop giving women a shelf life.
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