If you thought that 40 was the new 30, think again. Rolling out in cinemas comes Cannes film festival Palme d’Or winner Amour, a love story about a couple of retired music teachers in their eighties. Last December, 91-year-old style icon Iris Apfel created a make-up collection in conjunction with MAC, and this year Jimmy Choo named a shoe after her. In July, Lanvin used 82-year-old first-time model Jacquie Murdock for their latest campaign.

And that’s just the beginning. Daphne Selfe, 84, posed earlier this year as Madonna, wearing the pop star’s Jean Paul Gaultier conical bra for Oxfam’s Big Bra Hunt campaign. Former Danish model Gitte Lee, 77, featured for Céline. And 81-year-old Carmen Dell’Orefice took part in a recent campaign for Delvaux, the Belgian luxury bag company.

Many of these women also appear in Ari Seth Cohen’s blog, Advanced Style, which focuses on the most stylish “older folk” on the streets of New York. It became the basis of a book, Advanced Style, that was published earlier this year and will be made into a film in 2013. All of which prompts the question: is it possible that these days 80 is the new 20?