Catwalk models. Impossibly long of limb, natural beauties and young, oh so young. But actually, that last point is becoming less and less of a credential. Yes models are still tall and gorgeous of course but we have noticed that designers are replacing the usual band of 19 year olds with a slightly more *mature* woman on the runway these days. Or at least offering a diverse cast of age groups to best reflect the women buying the clothes. In an industry that has a reputation for being obsessed with youth, this is very good news indeed. 

Some designers have been booking older models for a few seasons - Michael Kors, Donna Karan and Vionnet to name but a few - but it's interesting to see real fashion innovators like Nicolas Ghesquière at Louis Vuitton, Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy and Proenza Schouler using a lot more older models in their shows. Of course, by older, we are talking about women who are aged between 30 and 43 so we are not talking octogenarians here but watching women model collections who are ages with yourself does have a significant impact on how you emotionally relate to the clothes.

See our gallery of 30 models over 30 and see which faces you remember from the runways of the 90s and 00s.