Accidental Icon Lyn Slater

From the Stella Fosse "Crones to Watch Out For" Series

Age is never a variable I use to make decisions about what I wear.

—Lyn Slater

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Fashion was always a mode of creative expression for Lyn Slater, but it became her career later in life. Slater, now retired from a professorship at Fordham University, began her work life in a locked facility for delinquent adolescent girls. She came to see the issues there not as crime but as the result of trauma and neglect these young women experienced as girls. Slater became head of a sexual abuse project at a law firm and was frequently called to testify. She gave the dark suits she wore to court just a hint of personal style with the cowboy boots she wore underneath. After the law firm she earned a Ph.D. in social work and was recruited by Fordham University to found an interdisciplinary program linking the schools of law and social work.

All this time Slater developed her style and collected fashion, mostly used designer clothing from thrift stores. She was discovered by fashion journalists at age 61 and started her Accidental Icon Instagram. Her self-confidence and distinctive style combined with her grey hair made her page a huge draw for other women who refused to be invisible. As she wrote, "A grandmother with grey hair and wrinkles became a fashion star."

At first it was huge fun to work with emerging designers. But as an Instagram influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers, plus modeling contracts with major fashion houses, Slater discovered that fashion was more of a business than the creative outlet she had always enjoyed. The role of Instagram influencer turned into a 24/7 job, with enormous amounts of time spent on the telephone and in communication with her followers. Eventually Lyn had to step aside and decide what to do next.

In addition to her love of fashion, Lynn had always wanted to write. When she decided to write a book, she was chagrined to realize that her agent and her publishing contract came to her because of her Instagram platform, not because of her writing chops. She wanted to be worthy of her success.

Her book, How to Be Old: Lessons in Living Boldly from the Accidental Icon, is a memoir of Slater's sixties and how she became and lived that decade as an icon. As her sixties approached, Slater was inundated with AARP invitations and cemetery plot flyers. She wrote:

How old I am is hands down the most boring fact about me. I became determined at age fifty-nine not to let age define me, or get in my way. All the reminders that I was getting old only served to provoke me. They fueled my desire to make this decade one where I will resist stereotypes that dictate what I should look like or how I should live life when I am old.

In her insightful book, as here on Substack, Lyn Slater reinvents herself yet again.

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Crones are using the power and freedom of later life to break barriers and create better lives for people of all ages. Look for more Crones to Watch Out For in this Substack series and in Stella Fosse’s upcoming book, Rock On: Power, Sex and Money after Sixty. Launch date and cover reveal coming soon!

In the meantime, here’s an advance review from author Billie Best: