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Dressed: The History of Fashion
Advanced Style, Part I: An Interview with Ari Seth Cohen (Dressed Classic)
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- [00:01]
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- [00:28]
Cassidy Zachary
Please enjoy this episode from the Dressed archive of over 500 plus shows. Dressed will be back with all new content in March of 2025. Until then, consider heading to DressedHistory.com to explore our latest online fashion history classes and in person tours of Paris and New York City. More from Dressed coming your way soon. Over 7 billion people in the world. We all have one thing in common. Every day we all get dressed.
- [01:10]
April Callahan
Welcome to Dressed, the History of Fashion, a podcast where we explore the who, what, when of why we wear. We are fashion historians and your hosts.
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Cassidy Zachary
April Callahan and Cassidy Zachary. Today, Dress listeners, we are thrilled to welcome Ari Seth Cohen to the show. Ari is the creator of the widely acclaimed blog turned international movement Advanced Style. And if our listeners are not aware of Advanced Style, Google it immediately and prepare to be amazed and inspired.
- [01:41]
April Callahan
Super inspired. And as the title suggests, Ari started the street style blog advanced style in 2008 with the intention of, quote, capturing the sartorial savvy of the senior set. And he has dedicated the last 12 years to celebrating the unique stylings of Incredible individuals age 60 + who have made the art an act of dressing a lifestyle and personal philosophy.
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Cassidy Zachary
While Advanced Style may have started as a blog, it has now also become a wildly popular Instagram page as well as three books and those are titled Advanced Style, Advanced Style, Older and Wise, and the most recent, Advanced Love. There is even an Advanced Style coloring book and a documentary.
- [02:26]
April Callahan
Okay, I didn't know there was a coloring book and I definitely want to get my hands on one of those. Ari's work has been incredibly important in bringing visibility to older women, including models in the fashion industry, and we are excited to welcome him to the show today to hear more about the meteoric journey of Advanced Style and the lessons he's learned from his many muses along the way. Ari, welcome to the show.
- [02:51]
Cassidy Zachary
Ari, welcome to Dressed. It's such a pleasure to have you here with us today.
- [02:54]
Ari Seth Cohen
Pleasure to be here. Thank you so much.
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Cassidy Zachary
So I believe you were actually in your late 20s when you started Advanced Style. I think you started in 2008. Can you tell us a little bit about the origin story of advanced style and how you came to create what started as a blog.
- [03:09]
Ari Seth Cohen
I have always had an interest in clothing, and that came from spending so much time with my grandmother Bluma, who is my best friend. And, like, the most magical thing that I can imagine doing was going through her wardrobe and seeing her caftans and dresses and old hats and gloves and going through the bureau drawers and seeing the vintage rhinestone jewelry. And I think because I was so connected to her, she was my best friend, that each one of these items held a special power to me. And I learned early on that you can transform your mood with clothing. We played a lot in her closet, and I'd wear my grandfather's hats and clothes to school. And dressing up was really a joy for me and a way to assert my individuality and my creativity, because I always felt a bit different when I was younger than everyone else. And so it was a way for me to own the difference and own the strangeness and weirdness and eccentricity. And I used to flip through my grandmother's scrapbooks and see images of her and her family members dressed up in the 1930s and 40s in Iowa. And although they didn't have a lot of money, everybody had such elegance. There was these great hats and gloves, and I was really struck by these images. And we would watch old movies together. And when I was really young, I started to draw pictures of my grandmother and her friends and sometimes even imaginary older women with really wonderful style. So this was the roots of the project. And then I went away to college. My grandma wasn't feeling very well, and so I went back and forth from San Diego, my hometown, to Seattle, where I was going to college, studying art history. And I would help my grandmother. And when she passed away in 2008, I really had so much grieving to do. It was the biggest loss I'd ever experienced. But I also knew that I needed to do something that celebrated our relationship and continued this connection that I had that was so deep and profound. And when I was really young, my grandmother told me that I should move to New York if I wanted to do something creative. She had studied at Barnard College in the late 30s, early 40s, and became a librarian. And she always used to talk to me about the style on the streets and the creativity. So when I moved to New York in 2008, after my grandmother passed away, I started to see all these incredible older women on the streets of New York City and wanted a way to connect with that kind of energy again. And Also deal with the loss of my grandmother. So first it was about healing, and then I realized that these images that I was taking had the power to shift other people's perspectives on getting older.
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Cassidy Zachary
Yeah. And it's such a beautiful, incredible project that you embarked on in 2008. It's now been 12 years. It's now turned into what has become three books, a documentary, and really what has become an international movement, which I'm going to talk to you about a little bit later. But you really have this incredible eye, I have to say. And you're really finding these, your subjects, just walking the streets of New York City, or I think you've been to Mexico, you've done international photography. I'm curious, how do you pick your subjects? What are you looking for? Or do they find you do what they. What they're putting on their bodies and walking out into the world wearing? Is that something you're just instantly attracted to?
- [06:44]
Ari Seth Cohen
Thank you so much for saying that. It's interesting because the reason why I brought up the book of drawings I made, I just found that a few years ago, it was like a book of these really, like, extravagantly dressed women, was that when I started to see these women on the streets of New York City, it was almost like the drawings from my childhood were coming to life. And that all happened right around the same time that, you know, my grandmother passed away, and I followed her advice. So Lynn Dell was one of the main women in my documentary, the Countess of Glamour. And I remember walking past Lincoln center and I saw this woman dressed in a black cape, green satiny ruffled top, matching pants, a green turban, green jewelry. And it was almost as if she. We were meant to see each other on that corner. And she became such an integral part of my developing a community in New York of women. And she had this amazing boutique called Off Broadway.
- [07:45]
Cassidy Zachary
It's.
- [07:46]
Ari Seth Cohen
Once you open your eyes, you start seeing certain things. So it's not one thing that I look for. I think that this just is. I've always had an affinity for older people and style, and so that's where my eye is drawn. But my eye is drawn to, you know, nature, a lot of beautiful things. But a lot of people will tell me, like, I never see ladies like this in my town or my city. And then once they read one of the advanced style books or see the film, then they start seeing what I see. So I think taught to treat older people as if they're invisible. And so once you awaken yourself to this idea that because you get older doesn't mean you need to stop being creative and vibrant. You might also be able to see aging in a different way and then see what I see. But it's always something different. It can be beautiful white hair or a turban from miles away that I spotted. I don't. Sometimes I'll run after someone and I'll tap them on the shoulder and they happen to be a 30 year old woman, but they might just be dressing like style lady. So ace color, it's spirit, it's so many things.
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Cassidy Zachary
And can you introduce us? You mentioned one of them, but can you introduce us to some of your muses that you've worked with over the years? Because really the. Some of these women appear over and over in your work.
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Ari Seth Cohen
Yeah. And that happened because originally it started out as a streets advanced style, started out as a street style project. And then this woman, Deborah Rapaport, I was working at the New Museum when I first moved to New York City and she had pink hair and necklace that she had made from recycled materials and she was fabulous. And she came in, I was working at the bookstore and she said, I said can I take your picture with my phone? At the time I didn't happen to have my camera with me. And she said of course. And come over to my apartment, I'll dress, I'll undress, I'll make you lunch. And I was a little bit taken aback by that. But I called her and she shared so much wisdom with me and I got to see the way she lived and I realized the way she lived her life and the art in her apartment and all these different aesthetic viewpoints were shared in a complete lifestyle of how she lived a creative life. And then I realized I really wanted to delve deeper into some of the individual lives of the women. And also it was a way for me to make new friends in New York City. People who were more open to talking to me. We created deeper friendships and Deborah Rapoport was surely one of those people. A lot of the women in the documentary, Ilona Roy Smithkin has Now just turned 100 years old. She was an artist, she lives now in Provincetown, but she also lived in the West Village and a performer and is still painting every day and going in the ocean and swimming as much as she can. She just wrote a beautiful book about turning 100 and it talks about dealing with pain and how she sees life as a hundred year old woman is. It's truly incredible. It really makes you understand like it's not easy always Getting older, but, you know, with the right attitude, you can really combat a lot of the things that you have to face. And Joyce Carpati, she's now 87. She's was an opera singer, and she worked with Helen Gurley Brown, and she's one of the more classically dressed women. She always wears a set of pearls and a braid, and I talk to her probably three times a week. All these women have become some. They've become some of my best friends and just give me great wisdom and advice, and we share that with each other and give us an excuse to dress up. So we used to go out of the town, and now we get on zoom and have parties.
- [11:40]
Cassidy Zachary
The Advance Style Documentary is such a great place to really get to meet some of these women and see how they really embody the joy and the art of dressing. Dressing and getting dressed is such a part of who they are and their way of life and bringing joy to themselves and to each other. And that's just such an incredibly special part of your work and sharing that with us all. I have to say, too, that we're talking about incredibly stylish women, which are, yes, some are fashionable, but style is about so much more than fashion. There's their approach to dressing, really transcends trends. It becomes something entirely different. Can you talk a little bit about style versus fashion and how that really plays out in these women's lives and in your work?
- [12:25]
Ari Seth Cohen
Sure, definitely. For me, I've always been attracted to personal style, and I like to look at fashion. I like to look at magazines in the Runway for fun, But I'm usually on Etsy, scrolling through or listening to your podcast, looking at your Instagram, because I love the history of fashion and I love vintage clothing. But, yeah, it's almost like these women. There's something really iconic about the way each one of them dresses, and it's really personal, and it's looking at them. You see the history and their lives through the things that they're wearing. Because they have collected so many things throughout their lifetimes. Style is really their. Like a personal meditation when they get up in the morning and kind of create something on their body as if their body's a canvas. And they talk a lot about it being a form of artistic expression and walking out into the world and being visible, and which in itself, as an older person, is a political act, because older people are constantly being told, especially now that their time is up and that they should no longer remain visible. And so these people really are going out in the world. And being bold and being as visible as possible. But yes, style really for me is they don't pay attention to trends. It's really like they put on the things that make them happy and try not to care what other people think. They've earned that. We all should earn that, but definitely have. And they do it with a confidence and self assuredness that I think is inspiring to people of all ages. Yeah. And they're rebellious in that way. And some of them do follow fashion, and some of them like to buy designer clothing, the ones that can afford it, or the ones that really save up and seek that out. But it is really about making their own personal statements. It's interesting to get to know them and see how that style is developed. Deborah, for instance, Deborah Rappaport was telling me that she never felt beautiful as a young woman, and she always felt like her sister was the beautiful one. So she used style and putting herself together as a way to distinguish herself. And Deborah is a very beautiful person, but she really found herself through the art of creating and assembling pieces that she created on her body. And she continues to do that in her 70s and also does it with recycled materials. So, yeah, each person comes to style differently and has a different approach to it, but it's definitely something that I think is very personal rather than something that's being fed to them through the global media.
- [15:09]
Cassidy Zachary
Right. And I have to say that your work has been incredibly important in really smashing fashion and beauty standards and ideals that champion youth and the young. Right. You just talked about that, how stepping out as a woman over 60 in these bold prints and this bold sense of style is really counter to how society has told them they should act, how they should dress, how they should be. Can you talk a little bit about ageism in the fashion and beauty industries? And I'm curious if you set out to kind of shatter these outdated stereotypes and ideals, or was this just a natural byproduct of your work?
- [15:44]
Ari Seth Cohen
Yeah, I mean, even the fact that we're constantly being fed advertisements about anti aging, even that statement, anti aging is so ageist. And it creates a sense of fear about getting older. And that fear has not escaped a lot of the people that I photograph. But so many of them are in the process of trying to show other people that it's okay to be your age. In fact, it's a wonderful thing because you have this renewed sense of who you are through experience and wisdom and no longer needing to fit ideals and things and expectations that you've been told your Entire life that you should. For me, like I said, it started out as a project to heal after the loss of my grandmother. But early on, I was about to turn 30. When I started the project, I was not quite 30. I was. I was. Well, now I'm 38. So it was 12 years ago when I moved to New York City, and a lot of my girlfriends who were in their late twenties were already talking about getting gray hair and what are they going to do? And, like, they were. Were worried about getting older. And I was seeing all these women on the streets who were living these really bold lives, and the way that they were walking with such confidence. And I wanted the women to be role models for my younger friends and to show them that they didn't have to believe everything that they were seeing in the media about aging. So I didn't necessarily seek to change the fashion industry. That was more of a byproduct of what I was doing, because I think a lot of brands and companies were starting to wake up to the fact that they had this huge demographic that they weren't reaching out to who had the resources to buy their things. And so they were doing it more for financial purposes. But I wanted to shift people's perspectives in order for people to just feel better about themselves. And part of that does happen through what we show in the media. So it all developed together. But I just wanted people to feel good about themselves, feel good about aging, to treat older people better. And along with that, so many of the women became models and started working with brands. And now, like, on social media, there's an incredible movement of older women really earning a living being. What's a better word for influence?
- [18:21]
April Callahan
But really.
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Ari Seth Cohen
But I still haven't figured one out, so I guess I'll just say influencer. But older women who are being. Who are influenced, influencing online.
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Cassidy Zachary
So, yeah, I know influencing is such an interesting word these days, but they're really an inspiration to millions and millions of women around the globe. The Raiders inspirators and the New York Times fashion critic Vanessa Friedman has actually credited you with changing fashion's relationship with older models. You've just talked a little bit about it, but I'm hoping maybe you can talk a little bit more about some of the specific responses to your blog and the transformations you've seen in the fashion industry since starting Advanced Style, but also some of the incredible opportunities that have come out of Advanced Style for your muses. And the documentary is great in showing that two of your muses headed up a Barney's fashion campaign. So could you talk a little bit more about those experiences?
- [19:16]
Ari Seth Cohen
Yeah, sure. Brands started to reach out to me early on and Karen Walker out of New Zealand asked me to do a sunglasses campaign which I shot with Ilona and Deborah and Joyce and Lindell and Linda Rodan, another woman who was in the campaign. And they were like, I think aged from like 65 to 95 at that point. So I photographed all these women in contemporary eyewear and that campaign went viral. And then Karen wanted to do it because she wanted to show older faces. She thought that was something that was lacking from the fashion landscape. But at the same time she didn't realize that now all of a sudden older women were starting to buy her eyewear.
- [20:00]
Cassidy Zachary
So funny that.
- [20:01]
Ari Seth Cohen
Yeah. And Marc Jacobs based one of his collections on the advanced style women. I and I only read that in the New York Times like that that I was at my photos as the inspiration for one of his collections. A few years back I was able to cast campaign for Lanvin. One of the women who started that campaign was Jackie Teja Murdoch and she was a legendary Apollo dance theater dancer and also worked at NYU and she was 81 at the time and she always wanted to be a model and she was a dancer her whole Life. And at 81 she got to shoot a campaign for Lag Bon that was featured in magazines all over the world and got to meet Albert Albaz and she said that you can turn the 1 in 8 around. And finally she made it to Paris. Yeah, they all have had incredible opportunity. A lot of them have had incredible opportunities to have a new career in terms of using their style and things that they've been doing for the longest time and helping to affect change in terms of how older people are seeing. And yeah, there's just so many different things. I worked with Coach to do a collaboration where we paired younger influencers with older people and we did a series of conversations about style. The most incredible thing about this is I've been able to have this wonderful opportunity that I'm so grateful for to travel the world and meet older people all over the world and photograph them and share their stories and give a platform and a voice to people who weren't necessarily being given that for the longest time.
- [21:51]
April Callahan
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- [22:16]
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- [22:31]
April Callahan
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- [22:42]
Cassidy Zachary
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- [22:57]
Ari Seth Cohen
What is Dax? Are you tracking all our cars on Carvana Value Tracker on all our devices? Yes, Kristen, yes I am.
- [23:04]
Cassidy Zachary
Well, I've been looking for my phone for.
- [23:06]
Ari Seth Cohen
In Dax's domain we see all. So we always know what our cars are worth.
- [23:10]
Cassidy Zachary
All of them?
- [23:11]
Ari Seth Cohen
All of them. Value surge trucks up 3.9%. That's a great offer. I know. Sell. Sell. Track your car's value with Carvana Value tracker today.
- [23:28]
Cassidy Zachary
Many of these women have credited you with changing their lives. You've brought this incredible new dimension to not only their lives, but how they see themselves. Women who follow your blog and watch your documentaries. And that was something that was really special in your documentary was when that woman approaches Lindell in her Off Broadway boutique and just says, you've changed my life. You've, I, you've brought, you've given me a new lease on life. And my relationship with clothing and with myself has completely changed because these women are inspiring to people of any age. Quite frankly, Lona is one of the most colorful of your cast of women in the documentary and your books. She's so incredible. As you said, she just turned 100 years old. She makes false eyelashes every morning out of her red hair. She's just an incredible woman. And she says of you that after she met you, quote, my life changed. It took on a completely different color. I've always enjoyed my life, but that involvement brought a new dimension to my existence and made my life far more interesting. And like I said, you've not only changed how these women are seen in society, but how they see themselves. So that's just, I'm just saying that's just incredible. Such an incredible thing that you've done.
- [24:41]
Ari Seth Cohen
They've done that for me.
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Cassidy Zachary
Right.
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Ari Seth Cohen
They've given me an incredible gift and a sense of purpose and a sense of understanding myself and what it can contribute to the world and more freedom to be myself and to dress how I want without fear and to speak up against things that I think are wrong and not question everything that I do. And been such great friends and mentors and style advisors and life advisors. And the biggest thing that is still hard for me to accept and comprehend is when I go to a book signing and someone will say, your work has changed my life. Or I look at aging differently. And that was my goal. And I am so grateful for those moments. And that is what I love about my work. It was. That's why I started this whole thing. But it is quite a emotional thing to hear from someone and be able to accept that. And it's something that I've started to process over the last few years because I've really just been running around trying to create enough content to make this a bodily work that helped people. But I'm very grateful for any person who's changed their mind about getting older because they've seen one of my photographs or had a better relationship with their grandmother or aunt or made a friend who was older, whatever it is.
- [26:07]
Cassidy Zachary
Yeah. And you've been doing this Advanced Style now for over a decade, I think. 12 years now. Is there. You've mentioned a couple of them already. But can you maybe share with us, like, are there takeaways from these experiences? Are there any life lessons or common themes that have come up, as you've observed and become friends with these women over the years? Are there things that we could all learn from these women, regardless of age?
- [26:31]
Ari Seth Cohen
Yeah. That is why I made my latest book Advanced Love, because I entered into my first serious relationship right about the time that I, like two years after starting Advanced Style. And so I was embarking on this relationship. I'm now married and have this idea of love as being something very romantic and easy, like things that I saw. And then you realize there's so many ups and downs and it's such a journey. And I really turned to the women and men that I was photographing for advice and to see what I learned throughout that process is. And this is just specific to love is. But it can be taken in so many ways. Is that it's a constant journey and you are constantly changing. So the relationship that you're in is also constantly changing because you're as individual people are changing. So it's never static and so Basically, you have to constantly work to achieve something that feels. That feels good. And it's the same thing with aging or dressing. You have to put work into living. You have to have a passion, you have to keep moving, you have to keep imagining, you have to keep thinking. Because the moment that you stop doing all these things is the moment your body starts to stop and you start to decline. So these women are constantly fighting that by continuing to do yoga, going out on the street, dressed up, playing with their grandchildren, painting, taking up new hobbies, making new friends, being isolated, and is one of the most detrimental things to the aging process. So I think it's so many of these women have made an effort. It's continued to make an effort in all aspects of your life, and it's not easy. And Ilona says that in her book, it's called 99 Straight up, no Chaser. She wakes up every morning, even if she's in pain, and does her stretches in the bathtub. Like, even if she's feeling pain, you have to constantly put effort into it. But life lessons, I think, is just really about being yourself and finding out who you are. Because we're bombarded with ideas and images that tell us not to be the person that we are. And it's like on process of unraveling things that we've been taught and really coming inside of ourselves and finding whatever that true nature is. And that's what I did. So I've always loved older people. My grandmother was my best friend. I love style. And I was able to take something from my childhood, which was like, the root of who I was, and make my life about that. But for many years, I questioned, what am I going to do? I still do that. But I returned to the person I was when I was six, seven years old, right. With a little, hopefully a little bit more wisdom. There's endless lessons, and I think it's just like being authentic, being kind to yourself, being loving, and just ignoring a lot of what we're told all the time. I think it's about tuning a lot of that out and creating your own identity. And one way that I created my own identity was keeping my eyes open and constantly looking around at things and looking at books and movies and films and having experiences and. Yeah, yeah.
- [30:12]
Cassidy Zachary
And I've read now both your books, Advanced Love and then the second Advanced Style Rendition. And like you said, there's so much fabulous advice in there. I have so many things bookmarked because it's. These are life lessons. These are things to take in with you into your everyday existence. And it's just so incredibly inspiring and heartfelt. And I have to say. So your Advanced Love book was published in 2018. And can you tell us a little bit more about the inspiration between this. This kind of new aspect of Advanced Style? It's called Advanced Love. It's a heartwarming book about couples who, quote, prove that love is bound by the constraints of neither age nor time.
- [30:56]
Ari Seth Cohen
I think that for the longest time, I was photographing individual women. It started with women because of my relationship with my grandmother, but also I felt like in the media and in society in general, women were treated way harsher when it came to aging than men were. And so I wanted to really make a statement about being able to be yourself as an older woman. But then I. A lot of people were asking, what about men? And so then I was incorporating men into my work. And I am very inspired by the style of older men. And I was also, for many years, photographing couples that I saw walking on the streets of various cities. Both my grandparents were together their entire lives, and I always loved the images of seeing them walking down the streets holding hands, like it was something. Something that just felt so heartfelt to me. And think coming into the current political climate, I also saw so much that was dividing us and so much that was creating hate. Like, there wasn't a lot of joyful and positive and loving imagery out there, along with the fact that I had started my, you know, relationship during the creation of Advanced Style. And I wanted to make a book that really encouraged people to love. And there are stories about finding love in your 90s, people who lost their partners and then met someone new in their old age home, and stories about people who have been together maybe the last 10 years as an older couple. For me, it was just showing that there's never a point where you can't find someone to love or share your life with. And that could even be in the form of companionship and friendship as well. So, yeah, I really just wanted to make a book that was a force that was very different from what I was seeing in the world, and it continued to see in the world. And so, yeah, I went and I used a lot of the photos that had taken over the last several years. But then I went on a journey finding new couples to photograph and tell their stories. And in that process, I learned so much about love and relationships. And for me, it was the most meaningful experience to see how people relate to one each other, one another. And there is a huge style element to it because they share so much with one another, including the way that they dress and whether that's influencing one another or even dressing one another.
- [33:53]
Cassidy Zachary
Morton and Virginia Linder are fabulous. They're in both your books, too. And she, I think, has been dressing him for 53 years.
- [34:00]
Ari Seth Cohen
Yes. I forgot to say, I met this couple, Morton, Ginny, and they were really, I think, the impetus for starting the book because it was the first time in my relationship where things were a little bit shaky. And I went to go meet this couple in Marin county, and just hearing about their soul connection and how they get over being angry with each other after five minutes because they never want to hold on to resentment. And they were just this inspiring couple. And I went home and I said, you know what? How do I have a relationship like that? And I made a little film about them. It's on YouTube and it's called Advanced Love More than Ginny. And they had so much lessons to teach me, I think. Yeah, you're reminding me of why I made this book. They were huge reason for that. Because a lot of times these days we're. People are struggling with human connection. Especially now during the quarantine and coronavirus, it's really hard to make human connection. But before that, we're spending so much time online that I think it was hard to meet people organically and so just. But we have to remain connected and we have to remain empathetic and loving, and that's the only thing that's going to get us through.
- [35:07]
Cassidy Zachary
Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I do have to say, Ari, I have been reading your books before I go to bed at night because I struggle with anxiety and stress because of the state of the world. And so I pick up Advanced Love and I read one of these stories and they're just so incredibly soothing and healing and beautiful stories and snapshots of love. Of love and what? And like you said, it's exactly what we need right now.
- [35:35]
Ari Seth Cohen
That makes me feel really wonderful. I think I better take the book out and do the same because I'm not sleeping very well and having the strangest dreams and worried about all my friends and family and just the general everyone right now. I'll use a little bit of dose of Advanced Love as well.
- [35:55]
Cassidy Zachary
Yeah. And all of our listeners should, too. Ari, thank you so much for being here today. This was such a lovely conversation.
- [36:01]
Ari Seth Cohen
Thank you so much. I appreciate your time and love what you do as well. And now you're going to have a lot of older women listening to the podcast because I've told them all about it.
- [36:12]
Cassidy Zachary
I can't wait. And next week, we're going to be interviewing some of these women. So stay tuned, dress listeners.
- [36:17]
April Callahan
Thank you, Ari, thank you so much for being here with us today. And we have to mention, Cass, that you and I were both very pleased to see Hyland Booker and his wife Charlotte featured in Advanced Love. And for those of you who might not remember or haven't listened to our very first episode of Dressed. Oh, my gosh. Hylan was our very first guest on our very first episode, which was on the House of Worth, because in the 1960s, Hyland was became the first black designer to head the London branch of the legendary House of Worth. And Charlotte and Hyland met on an airplane on Valentine's Day in 1985.
- [36:55]
Cassidy Zachary
So sweet.
- [36:57]
April Callahan
And as Charlotte explains it, quote, we started talking 33 years ago on that flight, and at 86 and 88 years old, that sentence hasn't come to an end.
- [37:08]
Cassidy Zachary
Yeah. And I cannot say enough wonderful things about Ari's work and the people he features. Advanced Love, actually, in particular of all his books, it's just so incredibly important because it's not only he's not only helping to bring visibility to age 60 plus individuals, but he's also showing that, quote, unquote, advanced love really is so essential in helping to destigmatize the aging process. And instead, he's really celebrating it. This book in particular addresses love, sexuality, passion, and life lessons learned about love and loving. And if you can do it stylishly, all the more better.
- [37:46]
April Callahan
Right?
- [37:47]
Cassidy Zachary
So for our as many subjects, getting Dressed is both a way of life, as we discussed earlier, and a philosophy about how to live life. And I thought, April, that before we go, we could share some of our favorite pieces of advice shared by Ari subjects throughout his many books.
- [38:02]
April Callahan
Yes, certainly. For instance, Joy Venturini Bianchi, who says, quote, in truth, clothes can dress a person's soul and become an outward expression of the inner self. At this moment, style is born.
- [38:15]
Cassidy Zachary
I just love that because all of this advice, it resonates with people of any age, really. And I've taken away so much from reading these books and from learning from these individuals. I still struggle with finding my own personal style. So there's so much inspiration to be found. Ari in our interview mentioned the opera singer Joyce Carpati in the interview, and her words of wisdom include, quote, find a distinctive style and make it your own. Start with a great hairstyle. And she herself sports this fabulous long braid that she wears wound into a bun at the back of her head. She also says, quote Ladies at this time in our lives, dare to do and say anything you like and do it with audacity. Embrace your age, have fun and try some false eyelashes.
- [38:59]
April Callahan
Or how about Alice Carry suggestions to stave off the ravages of time and for her, these include never leaving home without lipstick, sleeping longer and better without pills or liquor, and sex. Quote Never give up on it in whatever shape or form. It keeps the roses in your cheeks and the gleam in your eyes here.
- [39:21]
Cassidy Zachary
And April I'm actually thrilled to share that Alice will be one of several of RE's advanced style muses joining us next week in our special advanced style part two episode. Be it 25 or 85, we all can benefit from their words of wisdom. And I'm super excited to share my interviews with you all next week.
- [39:39]
April Callahan
Hey, and until then, we would like to close with the words of Sue Kreitzman who writes, quote my message is this. Be open to change when the Muse bites. Do not ignore her. It is never too late to unlock your hidden talents, to finally do the things you always dreamt of doing, to realize your full potential with menopause, with advancing age, great adventures can begin. Be ready to embrace them. Be bold, be adventurous. Do profound things, dazzle yourself and the world, Contribute to society and live large. Life is short. Make every moment count. It is never too late to find your passion.
- [40:16]
Cassidy Zachary
True. And on that note, dress listeners, may you consider being bold, being adventurous, and finding your passion next time you get dressed.
- [40:29]
April Callahan
Remember, we love hearing from you, so if you'd like to write to us, you can do so@hellorusthistory.com or you can also DM us on Instagram at Dressed Underscore Podcast, which is of course where you'll find reels and posts accompany each week's episodes. We get so many questions from you all about our recommendations for fashion history books, so if you're interested you can always find a link in our show Notes to our Bookshop Bookshelf. So that address is bookshop.org shop dressed and there you can find over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles.
- [41:08]
Cassidy Zachary
You can also find a link to that in our show Notes where you can find a link to DressedHistory.com, which of course is our website where you can check out our latest offerings from the dressed universe. That includes our classes and our tours. So head over to dresshistory.com and see what we have up our sleeves. Love Dress but want to skip the ads. Consider subscribing to our ad free version of the show for just $3 a month and enjoy our eight new episodes a month ad free. That does it for us today. Dress listeners, thank you as always for tuning in and more dress coming your way very soon. Dress the History of Fashion is a production of Dressed Media.
- [41:47]
Ari Seth Cohen
Wow. What's up?
- [41:48]
April Callahan
I just bought and financed a car through Carvana in minutes.
- [41:51]
Ari Seth Cohen
You, the person who agonized four weeks.
- [41:54]
Cassidy Zachary
Over whether to paint your walls eggshell.
- [41:55]
Ari Seth Cohen
Or off white, bought and financed a car in minutes.
- [41:58]
April Callahan
They made it easy, transparent terms, customizable, down and monthly. Didn't even have to do any paperwork.
- [42:04]
Cassidy Zachary
Wow.
- [42:06]
April Callahan
Hey, have you checked out that spreadsheet I sent you for a dinner?
- [42:08]
Ari Seth Cohen
Options Finance your car with Carvana and experience total control financing subject to credit approval.
- [42:17]
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