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Carmen Dell'Orefice

At age 79, model Carmen Dell'Orefice's striking looks still get her bookings. Her career has been unique on a number of levels, seeming to escalate as she got older. But she's one of the few — and yet, research shows that she might have others soon joining her ranks.

Cambridge University Ph.D student Ben Barry did his dissertation on whether women responded better to models who looked like them and, of course, discovered that they did. He said:

The vast majority of women significantly increase purchase intentions when they see a model that reflects their age, size and race. If you speak to consumers on the street about my research, nobody is surprised – consumers are light years ahead…"