Conforming has never been an option for Lyn Slater. Even as a child attending a Catholic girls’ school in New York in the 1960s, she would break the rules — as quietly as she could.
“We weren’t allowed to wear jewelry, we couldn’t add anything to personalize our look, but we were able to wear medals of saints and religious artifacts. I had a huge collection and I used to arrange them in all different formations on my uniform and hang rosary beads from my belt,” says Slater, now 64. “They couldn’t tell me not to do it.”
That rebellious and stylish streak continued after Slater graduated: She followed a not-so-straight career trajectory that started with running a live-in unit for delinquent juvenile girls in upstate New York, and later, she became a social worker and a professor. “I think this whole notion of feeling boxed in or confined led me to become very interested in the field of criminal justice,” she says. “I identified with girls and women who were resisting categories and societal expectations. I was also outraged by the sexism in the criminal-justice system at the time and how girls were punished in different ways than boys for things like running away and having sex.”
In 2010, as a creative outlet, she signed up for design and technology courses at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, where her classmates and professors encouraged her to start a blog. Then, in 2014, Slater finally launched her site, Accidental Icon, as a hobby.
Since then, her minimal yet statement-making looks and insistence that #AgeIsJustAVariable has garnered her close to 300,000 Instagram followers. Earlier this year, she won a modeling contract with Elite Models London and bagged a campaign for Mango — all while keeping her day job as a professor at Fordham University. Here, she explains her unlikely career trajectory and what sets her apart from other fashion bloggers.
Where does the name “Accidental Icon” come from?
I was racking my brain trying to think of a good name when I met a friend [who works in fashion] for lunch near Fashion Week [at Lincoln Center in 2014]. I was wearing a Yohji Yamamoto suit and this very obscure Chanel bag, and photographers came and started taking pictures of me. Then there were tourists who saw the photographers and thought I was someone in fashion, so they started taking pictures of me. Then, these journalists from Japan came up to me and wanted to do an interview. I was not about to take myself too seriously at that time, but my thought was, “OK, this kind of reinforces the idea that it is the right move to start a blog.” By the time my friend who I was meeting came upon the scene, she said, “Oh, look at this. An accidental icon.”
You’re always hashtagging #AgeIsNotAVariable. Why?
Because it’s not a variable when you’re getting dressed. I know 18-year-olds who would never wear a mini skirt; I know 70-year-old women with endless, fabulous legs who do. I didn’t intend to break all these [age] barriers that people are saying I’m breaking. For me, fashion is for all women, all men, all people because it brings you pleasure. When I’m getting ready to do something, I don’t say, “Oh, I’m 64. Should I not wear this dress?”
What’s the biggest difference between you and other fashion bloggers?
I don’t necessarily do trends. I might reference a trend but I do it in a really different way. I talk about who designed the clothes, what their inspiration was, how it made me feel. Not just, “This is what I’m wearing today and this is how you can buy it.” I didn’t start this to sell things to people.
Does blogging and modeling pay your bills?
It would not be enough to sustain my current lifestyle, but I do get a lot of opportunities. I don’t do ads, but if a brand wants me to do something, I pretty much say, “Fine.” I really need to have full creative control over what I’m going to do, though. I put in links but I don’t benefit from the link. I’d rather charge a flat fee to do the story and style the garments. This year, things are really starting to happen — meetings with brands to have long-lasting relationships and do things other than just feature them on my Instagram, doing other events, writing books.
Right now, there’s actually a lot of sexualization on Instagram. Have you seen the memes like, “Girls on Instagram: Wearing clothes — 2 likes; In underwear — 50 likes”?
Like anything else, there are pros and cons to Instagram. People who are not thinking critically could definitely get swept up in that — it’s very seductive. There’s times when you’re glued to it, looking at your numbers. When that happens to me, I have to say I’m taking a break to focus on writing and content.
A lot is being said right now about sexual harassment in the modeling industry. Have you witnessed any of that?
I haven’t seen anything like that, and I have to tell you that the photographer who shot me for Valentino Eyewear was Terry Richardson. Because of his [alleged] history and who I am, when I walked in there, I was watching him like a hawk the whole time, and at least during that five-hour stretch that I spent around him, he was completely nice and not inappropriate to me or other young women, and there were a lot of young women running around.
What advice do you have for younger models navigating that difficult issue?
You have to have a really good agent who you can call up in the middle of a meeting or shoot and say, “I’m not comfortable with what they are asking me to do,” and your agent will support you.
Has anyone ever pressured you to look a certain way or to undergo treatments to look younger?
No one has ever pressured me like that. The one pressure I do get is more from commenters. It’s, “Why don’t you smile?” It’s always happening on Facebook — “With everything that has happened to you, you should be smiling!” It’s not men telling me to smile, it’s women. I went on the Internet, and there are thousands of entries about what to say to men who tell women to smile, but there’s nothing about women doing it to other women. If we want feminism to be successful, we have to talk about how women can be mean and awful to each other.
What does your family say about your newfound fame?
My [partner, Calvin, my daughter and my granddaughter have] always been incredibly supportive of me. Especially Calvin, who takes [all of] my photos and has his own work and art as well as his job as a scientist. He’s up every weekend morning supporting me in doing this. But my granddaughter was [also] born a few months after I started my blog, and my daughter decided there was no way she could now call me “grandma.” She taught her to call me “Coco,” for Coco Chanel [instead].
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Senior Video Producer: Jason Ikeler
Shot and edited by: Josh Archer
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Rachel Torgerson is the fashion features director at Cosmopolitan, overseeing fashion coverage online, in print, and on our various social media platforms. She has over a decade of experience in the fashion and media industries, musing on style through multiple lenses, including cultural, celebrity, and bridal. Her ultimate focus: making fashion less exclusive and more relatable. Before landing at Cosmopolitan as a digital fashion editor in 2016, she worked at Us Weekly, The Knot, and Fitness Magazine, among others. When she's not discussing runway trends, you can definitely catch her trying (and, in many cases, failing) a new crochet cardigan pattern or in a spirited debate about the difference between the Bridgerton books vs the Netflix series. Follow her on Instagram and TikTok: @RachelTorgs
