Meet the 63-year-old professor who became a fashion icon
Lyn Slater lets her true self shine
Like many models, Lyn Slater has lots of fans. On Instagram, she has 20,000 followers, with some of her photos getting over 50,000 likes. Her blog has readers from all over the world. She has worked with Valentino Eyewear, Mango and Uniqlo.
Unlike many models, Slater is a 63-year-old professor of social work at Fordham University.
Here’s the story of this “Accidental Icon,” as she calls herself on her social media.
As a professor, Slater has a long list of accomplishments that have nothing to do with fashion. Along with teaching, she helped establish the first child advocacy centers in New York City. She also developed a handbook for family court judges and helped develop Fordham Law School’s Interdisciplinary Center for Family and Child Advocacy. Eventually, she came to a realization: “I’d made my name in my career, raised my daughter. I was ready to do something new.”
Her next course of action was to sign up for classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design. “I was always the oldest person in the room,” she says, “but the young people would say, ‘Ah, your sense of style; you should start a blog.’”
So the blog was born, and a new chapter of her life began.
After she created her blog and Instagram account, things snowballed. The editor of Grey Magazine spotted her and did a cover and editorial about her. Then she was picked up by BuzzFeed and other sites.
Now, along with teaching, she gives TED talks, speaks at conferences, and attends fashion events around the world.
Slater doesn’t try to follow trends or figure out what’s “cool.” She just goes with her instincts.
“If I want to express my intellectual self, or if I want to be a little bit provocative or seductive, I choose clothes that do that for me.”
She also doesn’t retouch her wrinkles―a move that’s inspired many of her young fans. “A woman wrote and said, ‘I’ve spent the last half-hour trying to get my eyebrow perfect and my friend sent me your link and it made me think, what am I doing? I’m just going to be me and put down the brush.’ ”
Slater says she never meant to start a conversation about age. “I don’t have an agenda. But somehow I have become an alternative of aging that young people embrace.”
“I think young people are really tired of the way we talk about aging,” she says. “Whatever age you are, life is important to you and you have to make the most of it.”
Original story by The Washington Post’s Tara Bahrampour.
