I was walking home from a coffee date with Ilona in the West Village when I spotted the stunning woman above. When I approached her to ask for a photograph she replied, “Darling don’t you recognize me, it’s Emily from Paris.” I had photographed Emily two years ago when she was on vacation in France and I was in Paris shooting for my book. It was so much fun to see her again and I can’t wait to get together for some more photos after the holidays. Check out Emily’s equally fantastic summer travel look below.

I can’t believe that the Advanced Style documentary is finally hitting US theaters starting today! Lina Plioplyte, director of the film, and I met six years ago when I first moved to NYC. She was working at a coffee shop and we admired one another’s crazy mix of paisley and tropical patterns and I asked if we could be friends. I told her that I wanted to start a blog where I photographed some of the most stylish, vital, and interesting older people in New York and she told me that she was just about to start a position at a fashion magazine making videos. Lina and I ran into each other about a month later at a gallery. She had been seeing my posts on Advanced Style and asked if she could make a few videos of the ladies for my blog. We started with Debra Rapoport and interviewed her about her style. From there we moved on to Tziporah and Ilona and quickly realized that these videos were about much more than just style. The ladies began to open up to us and share their lives and secrets to their incredible vitality. Lina and I became so captivated by their stories that we couldn’t stop filming.

We are thrilled beyond belief to be able to finally share our film with everyone starting this weekend. Lina, The Ladies and I will be doing a series of Q&A’s at the Quad Cinema all weekend and the film will be playing several times through the end of next week. For tickets to NYC screenings CLICK HERE or head to The Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street, NY, NY 10011.

We couldn’t have gotten here without all of your support. Thank you to everyone who has been following our journey over the last four years and a special thanks to all of our incredible Kickstarter Supporters. We hope to see everyone at the theater this weekend!

For more national screenings: Advancedstylethemovie.com
For international screenings: Advancedstylefilm.com

Tziporah,Lynn Dell, Ari Seth Cohen, Joyce Carpati, Lina, Plioplyte, and Debra Rapoport at the HotDocs Premiere of Advanced Style The Documentary

At The HotDocs Premiere of Advanced Style

The Ladies arrive in London

Ilona Royce Smithkin hugs Director Lina Plioplyte at the New Jersey Premiere of Advanced Style The Documentary

It’s been a very exciting few days. Lina and I have been traveling with the stars of The Advanced Style Documentary for our world premiere in Toronto. We couldn’t of hoped for a better response with four sold out screenings and wonderful feedback from the audiences. After Toronto, I made my way to London with some of the ladies, while Lina attended the New Jersey Premiere of Advanced Style with Ilona Royce Smithkin and Jacquie Tajah Murdock. Thanks so much for cheering us on! We hope to bring Advanced Style to a Theater near you.

Follow all of  our travel adventures on Instagram and for all UK screenings CLICK HERE.

I created Advanced Style to start a dialogue about aging and to show a
positive and uplifting image of getting older. It’s equally important
to show how older people confront the struggles and difficulties that
accompany the aging process. Artist, Ilona Royce Smithkin lifts the
spirits of everyone around her. She was kind enough to  share some
incredible insight into how she deals with physical pain. We can all
learn from her inspiring words below:

Everyday
something unexpected happens to our bodies. I fight everyday to get up
and out of bed.When I feel a pain somewhere I tell my body, “I’m so nice
to you, what do you want from me?” And I tell myself a little story or
joke and remind myself of the times when I was in worse pain, and how
lucky I am today, and the pain begins to go away. I tell myself that
this isn’t the first time, or the last time that I will feel pain and begin to occupy my mind with other things. You must get involved in things
outside of the pain, things that give you interest. All these things
are a part of life. We all feel pain and unpleasantness. As long as I
can seduce myself to enjoy all kinds of things, like in the morning
enjoying the first cup of coffee, or piece of chocolate the pain begins
to diminish. I give myself nice things to look forward to, throughout
the day. The moment you give in and let yourself get dragged down by
misery you are closer to death.