I WISH I WAS OLDER
CREATIVE DIRECTION
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This project explores aging as a process of growth, confidence, and self-discovery rather than decline. It challenges the idea that beauty, style, and possibility belong only to youth, instead celebrating everything that accumulates with time: experience, relationships, memories, and a deeper sense of identity. The project presents later life as active, evolving, and full of possibility. Age becomes not something to resist, but something to embrace, reflecting a life that continues to be lived with confidence, curiosity, and joy. When we are young, we are always wishing to be older, and this project plays on that idea by asking why that desire should ever stop. Even in later life, there is still so much to learn, experience, and look forward to, so we should be excited to grow old. **Elisava Masters Awards Nominee**
Project by: Vivien Nikfardjam, Carlos Herraiz Sanchez, Joana Macia Casado
Models: MarÃa Camino GarcÃa Gutiérrez, Mercedes Expósito DÃaz, Carmela Salmerón RodrÃguez, Leo Salmerón RodrÃguez
BRIEF​
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The task was to develop and produce a bold visual fashion narrative that uses fashion, styling, photography, and art direction to communicate a strong concept. We were asked to choose a relevant theme and translate it into a cohesive visual statement through a professional photoshoot.
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The project required developing the creative direction, directing models, styling the shoot, and producing the final images. The outcome was intended to demonstrate how fashion and visual storytelling can work together to create a distinctive and memorable narrative.
MOOD BOARD & RESEARCH:
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Styling moves away from traditional ideas of how older women are expected to dress, using bold colour, expressive accessories, strong silhouettes, and personal combinations to communicate confidence and individuality. Fashion becomes a way of celebrating identity rather than disguising age.
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Research into the underrepresentation of older women in fashion and the prevalence of ageism helped shape the concept, highlighting the need for more positive and relevant representations of later life. Figures such as Iris Apfel and Vivienne Westwood, alongside Ari Seth Cohen’s work, provided references for portraying age through creativity, personality, and self-expression. Photographic references also draw from documentary-style fashion imagery, using candid moments and authentic environments to present aging as contemporary, active, and full of possibility.
