EDITOR’S NOTE

THE NEXT TIME you hear someone use the expression “age before beauty,” think of Joni Mitchell and Joan Didion. As I write this, both are featured in advertisements for prominent fashion brands: Mitchell in Saint Laurent and Didion in Cèline. Mitchell is 71 and Didion is 80; both are silver haired and very chic. As they always have been, and ever shall be.

That is so cool! we all say. And so amazing! It’s so modern! And they are so beautiful! And I hope I never, ever get that wrinkly.

Right? Mitchell and Didion have faces lined from years of laughter and tears, surprise and worry, and all the other experiences that mark the lives we’ve led and signal who we are. We all grow more wrinkled over time, as collagen begins to diminish and opportunities for laughter (and, alas, worry) continue. We know that with advanced years comes wisdom, and our faces will reflect the full lives we have lived. And that is all cool and amazing and, of course, as nature intended, until those little vertical lines appear above your top lip, overnight, when you turn 47. And then you must work very, very hard to make them disappear.

So goes our culture’s love-hate relationship with aging and beauty. Signs of aging are completely fine, unless you encounter them in your own mirror. And then the questions begin. How can you minimize the signs while remaining authentic? Products and treatments are everywhere, but how far do you go? Is moisturizer with SPF just the gateway drug, and before you know it, you’ve Fraxel’d your entire body?

No. Remember: When in doubt, keep it simple. First turn to “Anti-Aging Advice for Every Age,” on page 122. Find the quick (as in, no more than three steps) routine that fits the decade you’re living in.

And then study the faces of the beautiful (real) women who posed for the story. There is a 20-something with an unlined brow and a 60something with crow’s-feet earned from decades of smiling and a few gorgeous faces in between. There is no “age before beauty” here. But age with beauty? Yes.

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