Barneys Celebrates 10 Women Of A Certain Age Who Can Command A Room

Take Bruce Weber, 10 of the world’s most famous supermodels, a roundtrip ticket to Miami, and you have the makings of one killer campaign. For proof, see Barneys New York spring 2015 ads which feature a roster of fashion icons including Christie Brinkley, Brooke Shields, Stephanie Seymour Brant, Pat Cleveland, Veronica Webb, Kirsten Owen, Elaine Irwin, Kiara Kabukuru, Bethann Hardison, and Susanne Bartsch. Not surprisingly, the reunion is a girls' weekend unlike anything else.

Entitled “Better Than Ever,” this project is latest in a series of seasonal collaborations between Barneys and Weber, which, according to Barneys' blog, The Window, intends to “break the mold of traditional fashion photography” in terms of age and background. Not to mention that by featuring icons in their 40s and older, like Daphne Guinness, Carine Roitfeld, and Lauren Hutton, Barneys has never shied away from crushing industry standards.

While the most recent Barneys/Weber installment “Brothers, Sisters, Sons, and Daughters,” spotlighted transgender models, this season is a celebration of growing older. With careers spanning up to four decades, the campaign stars (whose ages range from late 30s to 60s), possess a quality that even today's hottest youngest models don't: self–assurance that comes from having lived. As Barneys' Creative Director Dennis Freedman put it: “Never, in a million years, has a 20-year-old model walked into a room and had the same effect these women do.”

Although the amazing spring collections mixed with half-naked pool boys lend a sense of humor to the images, nothing outshines the models themselves.

“Only a woman of a certain age can really command a room," Freedman said. "Because she has a lifetime of experience, she’s able to have a certain perspective and sense of humor. There’s a lot of laughter in the images and a focus on how sexy a certain smile is — I mean, think of Christie Brinkley’s smile.” (The Window)