Many women agree. The September edition of Vogue, which featured supermodels Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and Turlington, attracted criticism for airbrushing.

“They seem more like AI-generated bots than actual people,” Vanessa Friedman wrote in The New York Times.

“When these images are used to sell products claiming to make you look 10 years younger, it’s worse. Let’s keep looking forwards, not backwards. There are real pressures for women to look younger in industries with age discrimination, but we need to celebrate older women beyond fashion images.”

For former Vogue Australia editor Kirstie Clements, frustration emerges when you look away from advertisements or images of ageless older women in fashion and try to buy clothes.

“These images are not reflective of most women,” says Clements. “We don’t need to see older women in amazing clothes. We need to see these clothes on the racks.

“There’s no point in having Joan Didion appear in advertisements for Celine if you can’t wear the clothes. Try to find something off the rack that’s not for a tall, willowy woman, and you’re struggling. It’s too dowdy or too cheap. Wearing cheap clothing becomes more difficult as you get older.”

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Australian label Jac + Jack has kept women in Beckham’s age bracket front of mind – and store – since launching 20 years ago.

“If you’re limiting yourself to a young customer, you’re missing out,” says the label’s co-founder Lisa Dempsey. They will eventually get older and you will lose them. Or you will exhaust yourself by constantly changing.

“Creating ageless pieces has been a part of our DNA since we started. Rather than wondering whether a 50-year-old-woman will wear something, we create something for everyone. Clothes shouldn’t be limited by age. It’s all in the spirit.”

For model O’Neill, who has elevated the runway experience at Australian Fashion Week since she returned to professional modelling two years ago, spirit is key.

“We are on a fashionably refreshing trajectory,” she says. “I just wore a couture swimsuit in the Australian Fashion Week Next Gen campaign and feel very blessed right now. I think it’s cool for young girls and women to see an image like that and think, wow, I have an amazing life ahead of me.”

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