Meet Silver-Haired Model and Advocate, Annie Stirk

Tell us how you got into the world of modelling.
I’ve always loved fashion and clothes and wearing my lippy, but when I retired at 67 and hung up my PR hat I thought ‘what now?’ I’d been so used to coming up with ideas and having lots going on I thought I really needed to try and find something new. I saw an advert on Facebook looking for someone to model with no experience needed, so I sent in a photograph of myself and they asked me to go along to a shoot. I then approached York Fashion Week but they told me they had filled all the spots for that year, but with my PR head on I thought that my way in would be to approach them with the idea of having more silver- or grey-haired models in the show. They loved the idea and asked me to go for it so I approached Rachel Peru, a fellow silver model, to ask if she’d help me champion and celebrate the older woman. Sadly, due to the pandemic, the show was cancelled but we eventually did the Silver & Sassy fashion show in September last year and it gave people a real boost. It was such a fantastically empowering event.

Did you ever think that you would be modelling post-retirement?
I had no big plans and lots of things have just evolved. My two kids bought me a fashion shoot for my 70th birthday and I went along and coincidentally the photographer was working on the Meatless Farm campaign, and he asked if I wanted to be involved. I of course said yes, and was given the ‘granny-Annie’ look with the big specs and knitted cardigan, but never thought I would be on billboards across Yorkshire. It’s a crazy world, and it’s very competitive even at my level – you would think that there aren’t huge numbers of women my age wanting to model but in reality there are loads.

What’s your mission in the modelling world?
The silver-haired look is becoming more prevalent in marketing now but there is still a long way to go and my mission is to do what I can to influence the advertisers and marketeers. It’s become more campaign related now and it’s really nice to be a spokesperson for age-related issues, hair issues and things that relate to us as an age group – it’s not particularly about wearing a frock and prancing down a catwalk, although that is very nice. It’s really about being involved in something which has a bit of meaning behind it as well.