I love this article – just goes to show that age is no barrier. This woman sounds awesome.
There’s no raw ingredient, fermented drink or alternative exercise class that keeps Daphne Selfe, who celebrates her 87th birthday today, looking young. The British native holds the Guinness World Record as the oldest professional fashion model, so keeping fit and healthy is of the utmost importance. “I walk a lot, I do all my own housework and gardening, I eat properly, and I’m lucky that I sleep properly most of the time,” says Selfe of her secret to staying fit, which all sounds pretty common sense.
Her more than 60-year career in front of the camera began in the same way it does for many models — winning a competition to appear on the cover of a magazine, which in Selfe’s instance, was the humble Reading Review in the late 1940s. She moved to London to pursue that path, doing a three-week training course where she learned to walk, pose and do her own hair and makeup, as all models did back then.
Compared with when she first started modelling, Selfe says she’s treated with more respect now. “They allow me to sit down occasionally,” she says, again with that modest giggle. “Help me from falling over while I’m putting on my shoes.”