TODAYshow.com contributor
updated
8/2/2010 11:38:56 AM ET
She gives new meaning to the term “Silver Fox.”
Model Kristen McMenamy is experiencing a revitalization in her career despite two very large checks against her — she’s 45 years old and she has long, fully gray hair.
This stunning woman is currently the alterna-flavor du jour, with a long tally of enviable jobs to her credit: She’s featured in American Vogue’s August Age Issue; designer Alber Elbaz chose her for his recent Lanvin campaign; she’s in the current issue of
Dazed and Confused magazine; she walked in the fall 2010 runway shows for Calvin Klein and Viktor & Rolf this past spring, and who knows where we’ll see her in the upcoming spring fashion shows starting in September.
Elegance with an edge And all this for a model who rode the tail end of the original supermodel era in the 1990s — one mentioned in the next breath after Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista.
Even then, though, McMenamy, who lives in London with husband, photographer Miles Aldridge and their four children (including two they had together, as well as one each from previous relationships), was never particularly mainstream. Her lanky frame showed off clothing fabulously, but her facial features were not particularly feminine. The story goes that when she was a young model trying to make it, Eileen Ford told her it would never happen unless she had extensive plastic surgery.
But McMenamy persevered — and, as luck had it, her androgynous looks appealed to the edgier members of the fashion flock.
Like Linda Evangelista, who became a superstar when she cut off her hair, McMenamy shot to fame when she shaved off her eyebrows, in 1993. The look was a little disturbing, but designers and creative directors clamored to work with her.
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Model Kristen McMenemy let her gray locks show for all the world to see when she attended a party in London on Nov. 11, 2009. The 45-year-old mother of three also shows off her silver mane in the August issue of Vogue.
Kristen McMenamy displays her gray on the cover of the August issue of Italian
