At the age of 60, Lorna Brittain has a new career as a model. Deirdre McQuillan meets the former flight attendant who has taken to the catwalk like a natural.
'You don't lose interest in fashion or your sense of style just because you are over 40," says Lorna Brittain, who at the unlikely age of 60 has embarked on a new career as a model. A handsome, impeccably groomed mother of three, the Dubliner is a powerful illustration of how, in a youth-obsessed society, age can be something to celebrate rather than fear.
Her first modelling assignment was for the designer Joanne Hynes; even in slightly edgy, avant-garde clothes, Brittain looked elegant and graceful. Since then she has appeared on television and in other catwalk shows.
The recent advertisements for Dove, questioning conventional ideals of beauty, had a particular resonance for her. "I thought the campaign was marvellous, and a couple of things came into my mind about it. There are huge numbers of girls between the ages of 17 and 25 in the fashion world but a great dearth of women over 40. So there is no representation of those sections of the population over 40 and their style at a period when they probably have more time for fashion in their lives."
Her lifelong interest in clothes and in fashion - never an obsession, she is keen to stress - was inherited from a stylish mother who is now in her mid-90s. One of Brittain's sons, David, is a well-known stylist working in London. "David was once asked by his father to explain his interest, and he replied: 'I paint with clothes.' "
Brittain, a former Aer Lingus transatlantic flight attendant, was, like so many others, forced to give up her job when she married, in 1972. She and her husband, Derek, a pilot, then moved to Nigeria and Algeria, where two of their children were born. "I remember hand-washing 18 nappies a day. It was tough. We used to drive with the nappies hanging out the window, so they would dry and provide shade for the babies."
Brittain returned to Aer Lingus for two months one summer. "They used to weigh you then, and I was told I had put on one pound. That was baby number three, and that clipped my wings."
Aer Lingus, she says, gave her an amazing training for life. "You learned to make the best of any situation you found yourself in, because your own plans had to go out the window. A flight could be delayed for days."
She says you can still tell a flight attendant because of her grooming. "We used to go to a Miss Blake for grooming control. Gloves had to be just so, hair never below the collar, shoes polished: everything had to be just perfect. All of that has been a good training."
She had very black hair, although she started to go grey in her 20s. "For me this was a big change, and if you let your hair go white you need a good cut. I get mine cut by Ciarán Nevin in Terenure, though so many people ask me who cuts my hair that I now find it hard to get an appointment!"
She wears very little make-up: just a small amount of Clinique Almost Makeup, lipgloss, blusher, an Estée Lauder mascara "and that's it: very simple".
When it comes to clothes, she likes them very plain and classic. "When I was working I spent more on clothes. Now I spend less, so I have to be sure when I buy something that it fits into my lifestyle. I tend to pick neutrals - such as beige, cream, white, black, grey - as a base and then add colour with accessories, to liven things up."
The day we met she was wearing a brown appliqued knit (from Compagnie L in the Merrion Centre, Dublin 4) with a tweed corsage (bought for €3 in Spain), brown trousers (part of a suit by Patrick Gerard) and brown suede boots from Marks & Spencer. Her Fendi bag was a gift and she wore a camel coat bought from Richard Alan before it closed. She could have walked straight off the Rue du Faubourg St Honoré.
A keen bargain hunter, she loves rooting around antique and junk shops, and she shops for clothes in the same way. Monica John, Mitzu and Très Chic, in Malahide, are favourite haunts. "I have never been preoccupied with my appearance. I wear jeans tucked into boots because I have always worn them that way. I lead a quiet life; I walk a lot, swim and go to the gym three or four times a week. I have always liked the outdoor life. I swim every day except Saturday and Sunday in the Grand Hotel in Malahide, and since Derek retired we go together."
She loves to cook, and adores salads and fruit, but cannot tolerate heavy food. "I love wine, but it doesn't like me, so I always get to drive home."
Although she believes there is plenty of choice for the larger woman nowadays, she hates the way women have to sit up at cosmetics counters to try a new make-up. "I feel self-conscious and uncomfortable sitting on a stool in the middle of a shop. It is good to change your make-up - it gives you a perk - but if you could pay a flat fee and try various brands in privacy it would encourage you to be secure in your choice rather than make expensive mistakes."
This quiet, modest woman has another story to tell: a battle with breast cancer left her at one point not believing she would see 60. Now, having conquered it, she feels she was extremely lucky.
"It has changed my life, in that I want to live it to its fullest. I am glad to have been given the opportunity to live and enjoy my life, and if that includes modelling, great. Nobody asked me in my 20s or 30s."
But her real passion in life, she admits, is her garden, and that is where she is completely at home. "I am more likely to spend €100 on hellebores for the garden than on a new blouse."
Lorna Brittain is represented by Sonia Reynolds, sonia@soniareynolds.com