Is your bubbe your style inspiration? If you just got a mental image of women in tracksuits, or frumpy dresses, you’re probably not alone. But Ari Seth Cohen sees things differently.
Cohen, 32, who describes himself on his Twitter profile as a “lover of all things vintage and all around good guy,” would beg to differ. He created the blog Advanced Style in order to showcase his portraits of fashionable older women (and a few men) he meets on the streets of New York. Now he’s produced a film of the same name, which has just opened in theaters. Three of his featured fashionable ladies are Jewish, and you can hear their old-school New York accents as they offer advice (and occasionally scold the less-fashionable).
Cohen’s Jewish grandmothers were his best friends, he says in the beginning of the film; he was inspired by hanging out with them and their friends in Palm Springs. He’s passionate about society’s treatment of the elderly: “I think that people neglect, forget, or ignore older people and don’t realize their worth. They don’t realize that they still want to be heard and that they still have a lot to offer.”
And at least somebody’s taken note. Barney’s Creative Ambassador Simon Doonan calls the fashions in the blog “punk rock anarchy” (that’s a compliment), and Lanvin recently featured two of Cohen’s subjects in its ads.
Showtimes can be found here, and iTunes and VOD will carry the film after October 7. Cheers!
___
Watch the Advanced Style trailer:
Get a shot of Jewish in your inbox. Sign up for the daily Jewniverse email.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
