If someone asks you, “Hey, what day is today?” you will inevitably glance at your phone for the answer. I mean, where else would you look to check for the date?

But back in the day, there used to be this thing called a calendar that people would hang up in their kitchen or office. I think calendars are still in wide use, but most people just use their phones which provide dates and pictures, just not on the same page.

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You may not be familiar with Pirelli, a multi-national tire manufacturing company based out of Italy. Pirelli publishes a calendar every year – a very famous and well-known calendar. It’s a collector’s item that’s only given to an elite group of high-powered clients and influential members of the fashion world. It features the most beautiful models and actresses, usually dressed in little more than tire rags themselves.

However, Pirelli took a major turn (and risk) this year by featuring older actresses as their calendar girls. Accomplished thespians such as Kate Winslet, Uma Thurman, Nicole Kidman, Helen Mirren, Julianne Moore and others, each over 40 years old, posed for famed photographer Peter Lindbergh. The photographs, in black and white, portray the actresses in an honest, vulnerable way.

What makes the photos even more powerful is that the women are not wearing any makeup, and the photos are UNretouched.

Let’s review this for just a moment. These are famous actresses, constantly under the spotlight – a spotlight of perfection. One gray hair, one wrinkle or crinkle, and they can lose that coveted role in the next big film. Helen Mirren is 71 years old; Nicole Kidman is 49. It’s not like Hollywood is knocking down their doors.

For a company as big as Pirelli to take this direction for a calendar usually filled with half-naked girls barely out of their teen years, this is huge. HUGE. There is a taboo against age (specifically for women) in Hollywood. Older people are usually cast aside. I can attest to this – I recently visited some friends in an old age home. It wasn’t pretty.

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Highlighting older women, without makeup and without retouching, points to a deeper truth – that true beauty is not skin deep. True beauty takes on a number of shapes, and I’m not talking thin, athletic or curvy.

True beauty is confidence and self-acceptance. True beauty is achieving goals. True beauty is giving and serving. True beauty includes all hair colors, including gray and white. True beauty is self-sacrificial. True beauty is putting others first. True beauty is being okay with who you are, not just how you look.

True beauty is the 12^th grader who gives my boys his attention and guidance every week during archery class (shout out to Jeremiah S.).

True beauty is Mr. Weimer’s and Mrs. Devereaux’s 4^th graders visiting the residents of Brookdale Senior Center last month.

True beauty is not being afraid to go out without wearing makeup.

True beauty is complimenting someone’s smile and meaning it.

True beauty is not what’s hanging in your closet or parked in the garage, but your words and attitude toward others.

This Advent season, remember that the Word became flesh and true beauty arrived wrapped in swaddling cloths (not designer ones). Age, looks and money were not a factor then, and they shouldn’t be now.

~ Silva

To read more Style Session, check out Style Sessions No. 5 -Trends to Avoid 

Silva Emerian is a city girl at heart, growing up in Boston before moving to California in 2001. With a long and varied background in fashion, she is a freelance writer and editor, a self-proclaimed word nerd, and mom to Silas (FCS grade 6) and James (FCS grade 3). Shoes and chocolate make her world go ‘round.

If you have questions or topics you’d like to see addressed in this blog, please email me at [email protected]. You can read more from me at www.onmyshoebox.com.