Elle MacPherson covers the August issue of Harper’s Bazaar Australia, and if you feel like her pose looks a little bit familiar, there’s a good reason for that. Elle, age 49, has recreated her iconic pose (black hosiery and some strategically placed limbs) for her Playboy magazine cover that was shot when she was 30. First off, the realization that nearly 20 years have passed since Elle’s Playboy cover makes me feel super old. Secondly, I also recall spotting this issue in my dad’s bedroom, which makes me feel a little creepy. (Sorry Dad, but I also saw your Vanna White and Madonna covers too.)
Apologies for that diversion. Elle is still “The Body,” isn’t she? She looks fantastic, and I strongly dislike it when people say someone looks good “for her age,” so I will just state the obvious — Elle MacPherson looks damn good for any age. Fittingly, this issue of Bazaar Australia is titled “Fabulous at any Age,” and Elle was photographed or Bazaar by Bryan Adams. Supposedly, she’ll be wearing Tom Ford in the editorial, and I can’t wait to see the rest of the shoot.
Here’s Elle out and about in London earlier this year. She really is completely gorgeous. That body, that hair, and that face are all impeccable.
Photos courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar Australia, Playboy & WENN
I support ANY evidence given that women are ‘still sexually attractive’ at any age. <3
Eheh, and she looks better and sexier now than back then, too.
Sidenote, I think the photoshop people forgot to cancel out the left part of her black undies. Am I wrong? What is that tiny portion of fabric?
Yeah, her knickers are showing on one side. But I don’t think they photo-shopped them out on the other side, they’re just hidden by her upper thigh.
I am wondering why she looks better in the candids than on the cover? Is the light to harsh or did they anti-photoshop her? I would be PO’d if I were her. In real life she looks great, but on the cover she looks a little rough.
No, her skin has aged and those feet are horrendous.
Is her name even on the cover?
Doesn’t need a name – women in Australia know exactly who she is and “the body” is enough.
It says The Body at 50. That should cover it…
But her hands … and her feet! Thank God she isn’t that flawless. She already gives me nightmares and I’m just turning 40 soon.
I’ve turned 40 a couple of weeks ago and am green with envy.
I’m 31 and I feel that way.
Shall we try to be positive? I ,hm, have another 9 years to get into shape and you nearly 20 !!
I’ll just go and dust my cross trainer, shall I? LOL
Wow, proper wisdom! Ok, I’m putting down that cheeseburger now 🙂
Weell, I was preaching while munching some choc. cookies…Sh*t, sh*t, Sh*t !!
Let’s start tomorrow, OK?
If you want to know the age of a woman, look at her hands.
If you have been using sunscreen to control sun exposure in keeping with your natural skin color, then you need not worry about how you will look ten years from now. I noticed that Elle’s overall skin color was lightened, but her freckles were left intact on her arms and shoulders. A reddish, freckled upper body belies the artificially youthful appearance of a pale, taut face.
Her hands and her feet are fine.
Fine for a 70-yo.
Up close she has the most appallingly sun damaged skin. She was definitely one of those fools who oiled themselves up every summer and stayed on the beach until they were burned to a crisp.
Yep.
Wear sunscreen ladies!
Yes and the Aussie sun is one of the worst to do that in. Must remember my sunscreen this summer.
love her!
I love her too. She is my favorite model of all time, mostly because she’s naturally beautiful and seems very down-to-earth. She’s fabulous!
dont let her clothes fool you. she is most assuredly NOT down to earth…. tho i do understand how she would appear to be. she’s got great natural style – no doubt.
I don’t like her as a person but she looks fantastic, not just for her age but for any age.
Agreed on the phrase “for her age.”. I hate it too.
She looks fantastic, but I want to know about the 24 hours with Victoria Beckham article that sounds great.
Wow, that Playboy cover is really hot.
I thought the same thing.
She looks good on the outside pity she is such a bitch on the inside….her skin up close and without makeup is really bad. Way too much sun.
How did you see her up close? in person or on tv? just curious
I know nothing about her personality…please tell me the scoop as to why she’s a bitch? Pretty please ( ;
Sun spots everywhere!! Her hands and feet are frightening!
I have a family member who needs to have them removed, chemical acid and now surgically, monthly. And they are multiplying.
Does that mean they’re pre-cancerous? Or that they could become cancerous if left alone? (I know almost nothing about most serious skin issues, especially those that result from sun exposure).
I have skin colored on-par w/a piece of chalk. (But I guess the more positive term would be ‘porcelain’) I have mostly light freckles that come out when I’m outside, even just for 5mins, & have moles (some darker than others, some just like larger freckles) here & there (that I’ve always had). I burn to a crisp quickly if not constantly putting on more sunscreen (lasts much shorter before needing to apply more, for me).
Most all of what I’ve heard talks about watching for changes in moles. Hadn’t thought about sunspots, really. That sounds really awful to have to go through, what treatments you described for removing sunspots. =(
God, what is it with Aussie genes? Beyond gorgeous and looks totally natural – if she’s had work done it’s exceptional and minimal.
As an aussie, thank you, we are gorgeous ;). I know for a fact she has had a lot of work done. A lot. And this is dating back over ten years ago. She’s just gone to the best and stayed away from the fillers.
I’m an aussie too, but unlike the other poster, I can tell you it has nothing to do with “aussie” genes that make Elle look fantastic. Certainly not all aussie women do – far from it. Elle is genetically blessed and probably has a very good surgeon who does “subtle” work on her here and there…tweaking and skin work mostly, I would say.
she looks fabulous
I don’t mean to be mean but her skin is badly sun damaged and on the new cover her face look’s like Steven Tyler and he is quite a few year’s older.
I don’t mean to be mean but… right.
The woman is 50 years old. I’ll take that look ‘tanned’ beautiful look any day over the fake Hollyweird faces. Madonna comes to mind. Courtney C.
I don’t think you’ve seen a recent picture of Steven Tyler.
The sun damage thing is true, but she was also a model who probably had a ton of photo shoots outside. So it makes sense that she doesn’t have perfect skin like you apparently do…
I am her age and I look alot younger then her.But I never worshiped the sun.I live in the desert.it’s to damn hot here.
Yup, she has skin damage and she’s 49 – who gives a crap. It’s a REAL photo cover that hasn’t been photoshopped to hell. Realize she’s had significant work done but I applaud Aussie Bazaar for a real model on a cover – it’s refreshing.
Perfection. It also doesn’t look like she is getting any work done either. Bravo!
Sadly, it’s not entirely true that she’s aging naturally. She’s had work done for going on ten yrs now. It’s discreetly done,but she’s not discreet about the clinic she goes to.
F— all of this. Her greatest accomplishment is not being able to move on from the past? She’s also a business woman, but this is what they dump on the cover?
(goes to find coffee to calm down…)
I don’t want to keep sucking in my stomach at age fifty. To be fair, she does look good.
I doubt the cover was just up to her, it’s what people want to see. I want to continue believing that there is hope to look like elle when i am 50 lol.
I turned 50 this past January and one of the things I kept telling myself was, “It’s okay. Elle MacPherson’s going to be 50 this year too.”
I may not have the same body at 50 I had at 25 (after 3 kids, who does?), but I feel strong, healthy and happy. Seeing other women age beautifully inspires me to keep taking care of myself.
I am her age, and that is what 50 looks like. It doesn’t appear she has had anything done, but as I type this it seems like an impossibility.
I agree. I’m 50, have had no Botox or fillers and aside from getting my hair highlighted and toned (to cover the appearing grays) every 6 weeks, I don’t have any wrinkles … yet! I think a lot of it has to do with genes and how you’ve lived your life. My mom used to tell me, “How you live shows up no your face.” I don’t drink, smoke and I never have. I eat a mostly vegetarian diet and keep a positive, happy outlook on life. I think that has a lot to do with aging well!
Me too Sherry.Why does everyone assume just because you hit a certain age you have to look old?Take care of your skin and stay out of the sun and you will be fine.Also don’t smoke.It will age you just as fast.
She has always had a natural look. Her light soft brown hair with golden highlights is flattering and her young smile helps. She always had a toothy smile with a pretty shaped mouth, upturned. A lot of women start having that downturned mouth on the sides that shows their age. She has a smile like Christie Brinkley, who also had that sunny look that is young and lights up her face. And Elle has eyes that are expressive, not frozen from too much Botox around them and actual smile lines, not an overfilled face with filler. I’m sure in her industry she’s had a little work, but the key is minimal.
And she always uses her hair to hide her neck and any other wrinkly bits around there.
true – true – true. ive seen shots of her from a few years back and i can tell you she was looking ROUGH. and thats fair enough, we all have rough days, etc.
but i say her current blitz is all about the fact that she saw her rough pics, handled it, took sufficient healing downtime, and now she’s back – and she looks GREAT.
She’s definitely had work done on her face. Look at her hands in the candid snaps. The hands always give a person’s age away. Now compare her hands to her face. Her face is far too smooth for those hands.
I object to the hands as indicators of plastic surgery assessment! 🙂 Maybe in celebrity world, but not for the rest of us.
I have been extremely diligent about sunblocking and moisturizing my face over the years but pretty much ignored the rest of me once I had a base tan. Now my hands and feet are starting to show the sun damage (especially my toes). I hate it, but that’s twenty-twenty hindsight for you.
I can remember not so long ago, it was clear that she had had her face lasered, because it absolutely did not match her neck skin, which was leathery. At that time, she was also touting Rhino Horn as a miracle skin cream additive. Ever since then, I kinda think of her as a b*tch.
Nevermind her hands. Look at her neck and upper chest skin in candid photos, it’s permanently reddish, wrinkled, and covered with age spots. The contrast between the face and the adjacent neck and upper chest always give away sun worshippers’ reliance on dermatologists to hide the signs of premature aging. Some celebs like Jane Fonda wear tips with high necks and sleeves to cover what dermatologists cannot fix.
UsedtobeLulu is RIGHT. I read all that Rhino story too (probably here on Celebitchy) and that was it for me.
Elle is tres belle and gives aging boomers everywhere hope!
I’m surprised nobody mentions the fact that Elle’s ‘iconic pose’ is not hers, originally. Her Playboy cover is an exact copy of Brigitte Bardot’s Playboy cover photo from the 1960s. Actually, many other models copied that photo- you can see them here
http://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainmenttags/bipasha-basu/cover-faceoff-bipasha-basu-vs-kajal-agarwal-vs-monica-belluci-vs-elle
Nice one! So true.
She does look good… but I just can’t get past those crooked toes under the nylons.
And I wish she would ditch the hair extensions- they’re just not realistic (not to mention being too long).
They bug me too — it looks like she has big chunks of fake different-colored hair.
Otherwise, I agree that her body looks fantastic, sun-damaged skin and all. Not that she’s old, but I love seeing photos of crinkly sun-damaged smiling faces — they show a life well-lived. Good for her!
Bunions 🙁 I’ve had mine for so long that straight big toes look weird to me!
I’ve always thought she was so pretty. I like that she goes out with very natural looking makeup too.
Unfortunately, that is not my body at fifty–well a few months from fifty anyway. Damn Elle, you still got it.
I think the newer one looks better!
I can’t get over the fact that she admitted to using powdered rhino horn to keep that youthful look….
http://www.treehugger.com/culture/elle-macpherson-says-she-uses-rhino-horn-medicine.html
That utterly disgusts me and no matter how great she looks, that will forever ruin my opinion of her.
Good! I see I am not the only one who remembers that. It was disgusting.
(i remember to Lulu)
That’s insane.
Well said, Jaded.
Being from South Africa, where we hear the stories of rhinos getting poached and so brutally too! It make me absolutely sick!
She looks AMAZING!!! You go, girl
Not irl.
Beautiful! Her age doesn’t matter.
Remember when Playboy mattered and there were real supermodels that dominated the media like every silly disney twit of today – she wasn’t quite in the league with Cindy,Christy,Linda,Naomi,Claudia,Yasmins,etc., but at least in Australia they put models on their covers – we would probably have carly rae jepsen doing this pose on Cosmo here in the US.
She doesn’t look overly Botoxed, which is a relief.
I never saw what the big fuss was over her, but CLEARLY I missed that Playboy cover. I know it’s a take off of Bardot’s cover, as someone mentioned, but it’s really sexy.
Sorry never thought Elle was beautiful and even now don’t think she is appealing. She is just an average looking person to me nothing special about her.
ok, now for some real GOSS ladies.
For those of you who suspect smelle mcphearson isn’t a very nice person, you are on the money.
My sister is a brand manager for bendon lingerie, the australiasian parent company elles lingerie brand which is hugely successful. My sis said elle was as dumb as dirt in their branding/advertising meetings. They all had to humour her and pretend their fantastic advertising stratergies were in fact elles fantastic ideas, otherwise she would make everybodies lives difficult.
She also said elle was a closet alcoholic. That is way Arkie Busson would not marry her. Now, remember elle went into rehab for “exhustion”. My guess is Arkie insisted on it but it didn’t work. They announced theor separation shortly afterwards.
Now, if my common law husband spent all week in Zurich whilst I was holed up with 2 young sons in a 4 storey townhouse in the plush London suburb of Holland Park, I would turn to the bloody bottle too.
Apparently Arkies well to do friends always scoffed at dumb elle and thought she was just a common Aussie. Prolly made her hit the bottle harder to take the edge off.
Anyhoo, on to the state of her skin. I saw a super rank photo oh her last year and nearly piked. There she was, looking scrawy at 50 (women need more meat on them as they age), with leather skin, surfing on bondi beach in sydney with a huge cold sore. She was a sight! I was not envious in the least.
Do lover her weight loss tip though. Think she said she likes to drop a roofie after her kids went to bed and have it put her to sleep, thus missing dinner. Great plan. Tried it and its great. Ha ha ha. No really.
Nuff said.
wow!
She is no a closet alcoholic she is a straight up alcoholic who has been to rehab several times. The alcohol has definitely taken a toll on her skin that even all her botox & fillers cant erase.
Sorry, spelling atrocious. Meant I nearly puked at the surfing pickie.
She’s 8 years older than me and looks like that? Excuse me while I go jump off a bridge with my fat ass.
She still looks good. I’ve always liked her smile.
The rhino horn shit though, that’s not right. Age gracefully and let the rhinos do the same.
In the first photo Elle looks like a blonde Steve Tyler; It could be the way her hair is styled. it would be interesting to see her in short hair like Robin Wright – a short do might really suit her.
lol.I posted that earlier and someone got alittle upset with me.I can totally see it.
when she was on that jessica simpson/nicole ritchie show, she looked very tweaked to me, like a little surprised. it was distracting.
Yeah, there’s no denying it – she looks fabulous. Go Elle!
I remember walking past her in the street about 15 years ago and being shocked at how wrinkled she was- she had Rachel Zoe pre botox forehead and huge crows feet.
She’s definitely had at least ton of botox and possibly more. Looking at her on Britain’s next Top Model it is glaringly obvious.
She’s also a very odd person. I remember reading a feature on her in a UK broadsheet back in the days when she’d just split up with the father of her children and the journalist actually printed it was the most painful interview she’d ever done. She said the difference between McPherson as a person and the image people have of her (laid-back down to earth Aussie beach girl) was like day and night.
She was really rude and also weirdly new-agey. When asked about being single she said that she was in a relationship with her friends and her children (?). She ended up throwing the journalist out, only to re-invite her a few days later to start again.
Hilariously the article described the whole thing.
Also if you google her school run photos, all I can say is I feel sorry for her teenage sons.
Am I the only one who doesnt think she has aged well? All her drinking took a toll. She is pretty botoxed & filled. Not saying she is ugly but Ive definitely seen sexier/more natural women her age.
Alcoholic?In other words,a typical Aussie
That iconic pic of Elle is a direct rip — I mean, *homage* — to the iconic pic of Bardot from the 60s
when you see just the top of the first shot ,..just her face with the fluffy hair she looks remarkably like Patsy Stone