THE language of fashion dictates that models are willowy, bulimic, young and glamorous and verging on the asexual. Irene Sinclair is a new expression. She is a comfortably upholstered, well-fed grandmother who lives in a care home in Stoke Newington, North London, and is 96 years old.

Yet Irene is the new face of Dove soap. Her features lead the latest advertising campaign for the Unilever-owned toiletry brand in Britain.

Irene’s image has appeared on a 69ft billboard in Times Square, New York. Now she will appear on British posters and in adverts dressed in an off-the-shoulder top and headscarf, with tick boxes marked “Wrinkled?” or “Wonderful?”

She does not mind being the tool of marketing men who have decided that the way forward is to promote “real” women. “I’ve never been beautiful in my life but I feel I am beautiful now; it’s about growing older gracefully,” she said. “I got involved in this campaign to be an ambassador for older people and to affirm that we have a lot to offer and we aren’t past it.”

Unilever sent a casting agency on a trawl of retirement homes in search of a face that would challenge the stereotype of beauty after research in ten countries told them that seven out of ten women felt beauty as portrayed on the fashion pages was unattainable.

Yet at the same time, in a separate survey of 839 girls aged from 8 to 13, 97 per cent said women could not be old and beautiful, and 73 per cent believed that beauty meant slim.

As well as youth, the girls believed that flawless skin was an essential for beauty.

Alarmingly, nearly three quarters of those questioned were dissatisfied with their appearance and wanted to change it.

Irene may be changing perceptions. Since the campaign began in the US, 100,000 people have responded to a website: more than 17,000 voted her “wizened” but 83,000 thought her “wonderful”.

Besides Irene, the Dove campaign features five other “real” women who in some way fail to fulfil the beauty stereotype — be it through grey hair, a small bust or freckles.

Last year the soap company featured a set of adverts with women who were in some way “imperfect” — mainly by being fatter than a matchstick — but who were in their twenties. The new campaign aims to glorify the older woman.

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