Advanced Style

May 16, 2016
For the past eight years, fashion blogger Cohen has stalked the streets of New York in search of the most stylish and creative folks of a certain age. He photographs his subjectsâstylish seniors between the ages of 60 and 100âfor his blog, Advanced Style. People with silver hair (and sometimes red or purple) likewise fill the pages of this inspirational and stereotype-busting book. With over 200 color photos accompanied by first-person essays describing individual philosophies of style, Cohen's book provides indisputable evidence of the vitality and joie de vivre of this particular demographic, which is rarely seen or celebrated in popular culture. "Life is a costume party," says Valerie von Sobel, the book's 74-year-old cover girl. Readers of all ages will discover there's substance beneath all that styleâsome, like von Sobel, have started their own charitiesâand all have led long and rich lives and are still full of possibility and can-do spirit. Tao Porchon-Lynch, for example, a 97-year-old yoga master and teacher, took up competitive ballroom dancing at 87 and has placed first 761 times in the past decade. "I live every day with style," she says, "and I always wear high heels."