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Supergran! Aged 80 and earning £1,000 a day, could Daphne Selfe be the world's oldest supermodel?

轉載自 : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ 

In an age obsessed with youth and beauty, Daphne Selfe is a welcome reminder that the two are not inextricably linked.

The grandmother is in the 60th year of an extraordinary modelling career thanks to her graceful posture, striking cheekbones and her long, lustrous  -  and unashamedly grey  -  hair.

At the age of 80, she is Britain's oldest catwalk model, gracing runways for Dolce & Gabbana, Tata-Naka and Michiko Koshino.

   

80 year old grandmother Daphne Selfe, pictured today, left, and right, modelling in the Fifties, still commands £1,000 fees for fashion shoots such as the recent Dolce & Gabbana advertising campaign

She earns up to £1,000 a day for magazine shoots and has appeared in adverts for Nivea and Olay as well as a Will Young video.

Mrs Selfe's career was reborn 11 years ago when she was spotted at a fashion show and recognised as someone who could appeal to glamorous grandmothers.

'I was very lucky,' she said. 'I think it helps that I am half-Irish and I have a strong bone structure and I'm supple.

'My comeback was extraordinary and quite ironic. I got big when I embraced my age and went grey.

'It made me more striking. My hair is my fortune.

'Other younger models admire me but they're not jealous as I'm not a threat. I have a niche all my own. I'll continue modelling until they stop asking. I love it. It's fun and keeps me young.'

   

Daphne started modelling aged 20 when she was discovered working in the fashion department of John Lewis

It was in 1950, when Mrs Selfe was 20, that she was persuaded by colleagues at a department store in Reading to enter a local modelling competition, which she went on to win.

She was soon signed up as a 15 guinea-a-day house model for clothing manufacturers and furriers. She went on to appear in advertising campaigns for companies including Whitbread.

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'In those days you did your own hair and make-up for a shoot,' she said. 'Now I go as I am to a job and someone else takes complete care of me. It's wonderful.

'When I started out I was 5ft7ins tall and had dark hair, worn in a bob.

'My vital statistics were 36-24-37, and although I weighed 10st, no one asked me to lose weight.'

   

Daphne, pictured here three years ago in a fashion shoot for the Daily Mail, keeps her looks by doing yoga and eating plenty of fresh vegetables and fish

She is now 36-26-36 and 8st 4lb  -  the result of natural weight loss through age rather than dieting.

She married her husband Jim Smith, a TV floor manager, in 1954. After the birth of their three children she continued modelling for designers such as Alexon, a label which specialises in fashion for older women.

It was in 1998, a year after her husband's death, that she was approached by a scout working for Models 1.

She was signed up and her renaissance began with an appearance in Vogue. At the dawn of her career, Mrs Selfe said, the greatest pitfalls for young models were predatory men in the industry who offered trips abroad and wonderful clothes with 'heavy hints' about what to do in return.

   

Daphne, whose husband died in 1997, has three children and four grandchildren and keeps herself active by dress-making, going to the theatre and gardening

Today, she fears for young women being tempted by cocaine and alcohol. 'They knock it back, largely, I think, because they need courage  -  I stick to water or lemonade,' she said.

'So many are terribly thin, too, and shaped so differently to me. I go in and out  -  they just go straight down.'

Mrs Selfe, who lives in Baldock, Hertfordshire, keeps her looks and health by doing yoga and eating lots of fruit, vegetables and fish.

在這世上
你我都會年輕一次 幼稚一次
你我也會年老一次 成熟一次
都只有一次
好好珍惜所有
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