“Chanel couture seemed more relatable than much of what we’ve seen on the week’s runways,” Vogue Runway director Nicole Phelps said in her review. But it wasn’t just the wearable, breezy designs that felt suitable to the everyday woman—but the visible grays running through one model’s hair.
“I’m walking on clouds,” model Stephanie Cavalli tells Vogue. This was her second time walking for Chanel, the first being December’s New York-themed, subway-set Métiers d’Art show. “I never thought I would do something like open a Chanel show. It was completely unexpected, especially at my age.”
Cavalli, who also owns a vintage store in upstate New York, began modeling for commercial projects in her 20s and has modeled on and off ever since. Three years ago, she began her runway career at the Tibi spring-summer 2024 ready-to-wear show, and since then has walked for brands like Miu Miu, Maria McManus, and Proenza Schouler.
“When Matthieu [Blazy] saw me for my first Couture fitting, he told me he was inspired by me and wanted me to open the show,” she says. “I was happy, obviously, and a little nervous too, because I feel like it’s quite a responsibility to open such a big show. But I did it.”
While Stephanie Cavalli’s visible grays aren’t meant to be any sort of statement on aging (just a choice she made to make her life easier), that’s exactly what they have become. “I was tired of having to color it all the time, and feeling that sometimes the color would come out nice, but sometimes it wouldn’t,” she says. During the pandemic, she chose to stop coloring her hair in an attempt to get it as healthy as possible. Cavalli says she didn’t want her self-esteem to be dependent on having dyed hair; still, it was hard to adjust to. “But as soon as I realized it was making a difference in both my hair health and my career, I stuck with it,” she adds.
Looking forward, she has an exciting fashion month coming, as well as a major drop at her vintage store sourced during her minimal free time in Paris. (Teaser: lots of cotton 1920s button-downs incoming.)
“I didn’t wear my hair like this to show that gray is great,” Cavalli reflects. “But it turns out, somehow, that that’s true anyway.”
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