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Elle MacPherson: ‘Women want to look good not young’

Supermodel Elle Macpherson has come out this week saying she’s not interested looking internally youthful and strives to age gracefully.
Elle MacPherson lingerie

Supermodel Elle Macpherson has come out this week saying she’s not interested looking eternally youthful and strives to age gracefully.

The model – who turned 50 in March – told Britain’s Telegraph that she has developed a broad opinion on what it means to be beautiful.

“I don’t think beauty’s reserved for youth,” said Elle. “I think women today want to look good, they don’t want to look young. They want to feel good, they don’t want to behave like a teenager necessarily.

“My ambition has been to navigate this phase of my life with grace and I feel like I’m doing that. I see my priorities changing. I realise that this is a period where you can either go with it or it can be quite difficult.”

Macpherson says she is much more confident than she ever was in her twenties.

“I feel better now than I’ve ever felt. I look at pictures of myself when I was younger and I think, ‘God, I was so gorgeous there, but I didn’t feel it.’ Or, ‘Wow, I look so much better now.’ I was such a dork and I can see insecurity written all over my face, trying to be something I wasn’t – even though at the time I thought I was cool.”

With long-tanned limbs and a girl-next-door smile, Elle scored supermodel status by posing in magazines like Sports Illustrated, Playboy and Elle in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. As her career progressed she turned her hand to building an empire off the back of her celebrity and now sits at the helm of a very successful lingerie line, Elle Macpherson Intimates.

But as Australia’s biggest fashion export hit half a century the model and mogul proved she’s still got what it takes to stay at the top of the beauty business with her impressive body of work.

Elle has posed in her underwear at 50 to promote her latest lingerie collection.

Elle on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1987. In all, she appeared on the cover of SI five times, including three consecutive years beginning in 1986.

Elle’s 1988 cover photographed by Marc Hispard.

Elle’s divine figure earned her the nickname “The Body”.

It wasn’t long before Elle made her move from swimsuit model to high fashion cover girl.

The model strutting down the runway in the late 80s.

Elle was a paparazzi favourite with her fame transcending fashion and soon she became a superstar celebrity.

Elle with Helena Christensen.

Elle Macpherson, Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell at a party in 1994.

Christy Turlington and Elle at a party in 1995.

Elle Macpherson, Claudia Schiffer, and Naomi Campbell at Fashion Cafe in New York City in 1995.

Elle at the “Batman Forever” premiere in New York.

Supermodels Jodie Kidd, Naomi Campbell, Yasmin Le bon and Elle pose during the photocall for ‘Naomi Campbell’s Fashion For Relief’ press conference in September 2007 in London.

Elle and Rachel Hunter together in SI in 1991.

Elle on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar Australia in October 2000 with her eldest son, Arpad Flynn Alexander Busson, nicknamed Flynn.

Elle walks with her former partner and father of her children, Arpad Busson and their sons Flynn and Aurelius for the christening of Aurelius at Basillica Santa Maria Maggiore on September 2006 in Rome, Italy.

Elle and Naomi Campbell smile for the cameras at the GQ Men of the Year Awards party in September 2007 in London.

Fellow supermodel Carla Bruni Sarkozy and Elle attend Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2014 shows, in Paris this year.

Elle wearing all white at a Miami art gallery opening. The model now splits her time between London and Miami since marrying American businessman Jeffrey Soffer last year.

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