Over the hill
Petronella Wyatt
rinhe French have always enjoyed deliver ing snubs to les rosbifs. But now they have gone a step trop far. All red-blooded Englishmen, and loyal Englishwomen, should be inflamed this week by their shocking insult to our greatest rose anglaise. Miss Kate Moss.
Miss Moss, the nation's greatest natural product, has been dumped by Chanel as the face of its Coco Mademoiselle scent. The speculation in the fashion world is that Miss Moss's motherhood and 'partying lifestyle' are partly responsible, but more still claim it is her advanced age of 30.
Chanel, apparently, wants to replace her with an actress of whom I have barely heard — Scarlett Johansson, who is 19. But Miss Johansson is under something called exclusive contract to another fashion house, Calvin Klein. Is this revenge for our support for Mr Bush and the Gulf war? Miss Johansson makes films in Hollywood, but her family surely hails from Europe — probably one of those countries which supported the French line, on foreign policy, not hems.
Surely Miss Moss is not too old? Estee Lauder seems happy enough to retain Elizabeth Hurley, who is 39, but, tellingly, the cosmetics company is American, and thus, theoretically, part of the 'special relationship'. I can see no other motive but pure anti-Britishness. Unless, of course, fashion pundits are actually speaking the truth. That is. Miss Moss is really considered over the hill. This would be even worse — for this would count as anti-womanish.
Indeed, the machinations of the fashion world would not be exactly head-turning, gasp-for-breath reading were it not for its illustrating the extraordinary paradox underlying modern society's attitude towards women.
I vaguely recall, some years ago, the fury of Miss Isabella Rossellini when she was sacked by Lancome cosmetics for being middle-aged. I believe Miss Rossellini was just over 40. Well, fair enough. But with all the airbrushing these fashion people do, as they used to say in the song about Hollywood, you can make a monkey look like Tyrone Power. Miss Rossellini was followed by a series of singularly unmemorable younger women.
Now it appears that a woman is past it when she reaches 30, no matter how pulchritudinous she may be. Most of us would agree that Miss Moss is infinitely more beautiful than this Miss Johansson, who has, frankly, a large hooter and one of those trout mouths. Moreover, Miss Moss appears younger than her intended replacement.
As for her marital status, she remains a mademoiselle. Miss Johansson, on the other hand, could be a madame three times over — like many much-married Hollywood actresses her age. She is certainly not above a slap and a tickle in a lift. If Miss J. ties the knot, will she be told to get knotted?
But this is only part of the paradox. We are supposed to be in a new era for women, a sort of Rider Haggard Ayesha dawn. We are continually being told that the thirties are the new twenties, the forties the new thirties. etc. Women have babies in their fifties and are applauded for resorting to plastic surgery and marrying men decades younger than themselves.
Perhaps this has made men insensible with jealousy. All this encouragement of women, all this stuff about us staying younger longer, and being better in bed when we are 64. Has this created a backlash? Perhaps men are now trying to inculcate women with the Victorian idea that we are finished at 28. Maybe that is why the men who run Chanel's holding company have sacked Miss Moss — as a signal to the rest of us. Lengthen your skirts, let your hair go grey and stop nightclubbing with tennis pros and footballers.
In which case, in five years' time. Miss Johansson could well be sacked in favour of a 16-year-old. Just so that men can undermine women's confidence and regain the upper hand. Are we back to the Lolita syndrome? Heaven help us. Even gratuitous cross-Channel snubs are preferable to that.
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