“It was a miracle to leave that baggage at the door and just walk in,” actor Marcia Cross, who famously starred as Bree Van de Kamp in Desperate Housewives, says of making her first foray into modelling at the age of 61. Farfetch’s spring/summer 2023 campaign explores the idea of dressing up, with Cross starring alongside model Younes Bendjima, wearing colourful eveningwear, such as a yellow Valentino ball-gown skirt and a show-stopping red Ferragamo dress.
“My friend was joking about my modelling career starting now,” Cross says of her casting. “I kept saying, ‘well, they know how old I am, right? I mean, they don’t expect me to be 25 or whatever?’” Despite her knockout appearance in the campaign, the actor insists she was shocked to be asked. “It’s just so not in my wheelhouse to feel like I can do that,” she says. “I’ve always been an actress and I really enjoyed dressing up for events, but I think because I’m older, you know, it’s hard to go out of my way and say: no, we’re alive, we’re here and we should feel good in our clothes, and you don’t have to be 15, 25, 30… I’m really so grateful.”
Hollywood and fashion are both notoriously obsessed with youth, something Cross explains she opted to leave at the door on shoot day. “I had to put my ego away. Because otherwise all I would have been [thinking] is, I’m not this enough, I’m not that enough, I’m not young enough.” In the end, because the notion of fronting a fashion campaign felt so farfetched, Cross says, “it gave me a lot of freedom to just get that out of the way and just enjoy it and be grateful”.
Instead of questioning her presence on set, the statuesque redhead chose to lean into the experience. “I thought, why do you beat yourself up when everybody’s happy? Just enjoy it! And I really did. I know with modelling you’re supposed to kind of look serious, like sour face. But in my head I was smiling because it was so fun, and I really enjoyed the pretending and acting.”
Styled by Victoria Sekrier, the campaign has a bold and powerful energy, with paintbox brights and classic, elegant silhouettes. “I loved wearing the red Ferragamo dress because of the feel of the dress, although I was a little nervous about the bra-less aspect at first, but then I thought, I’ll do my best – and it’s for Europe, you know!” says Cross with a smile. “That felt very, very sexy. The grey Prada knitwear set felt very like me. I love the Valentino yellow skirt, but not so much the nude top just because it isn’t a great colour on me, even though I know it’s the look right now. And then of course I loved the leopard Dolce coat, because it was just delicious! I’m lining up to take it all.”
As for her own personal style, Cross says she identifies with the current quiet luxury aesthetic, adding that “quality is a gift at this point in my life”. She enjoys dressing up on set or for a red carpet, but explains that for her own wardrobe she favours a muted colour palette of navy blues and rich greens, and is drawn to beautiful fabrics and classic lines. Fame has also made her gravitate towards subtle everyday wardrobe choices, as she explains: “I don’t like that much attention when I’m out on my own, you know? If you’re on the red carpet, that’s like, ‘have at it’. But if I’m with my husband I don’t really like to be noticed. I’m a little more of an introvert.”
As befits a woman who likes to fly under the radar in her downtime, Cross says she’s increasingly unconcerned by other people’s opinions about her appearance. “That’s one beautiful thing about getting older – well, there are many – but there’s acceptance there,” she explains. “You just know who you are and aren’t willing to become something else for somebody. If there’s a sense of play and you want to, then yes, but not in order to be loved or liked or appreciated. There is no desperation at this point, it’s just what makes me happy and fun and feels good.”
