Embracing the mature

FOR the last three years at about this time - which is to say, in the nascent days of the new year when the calendar lies clear and the sense of possibility is at its apex - Selfridges, the British department store, has dedicated its windows, all 13 of them, to a new class of Bright Young Things: dozens of up-and-coming stars of fashion and art, including names like Simone Rocha, Christopher Shannon and Maarten van der Horst, who it thinks will shape what we wear and how we shop in the year to come. New year, new generation!

But this year, things look a bit different. On Thursday, the emporium unveiled its first windows of 2015, all dedicated to the work of Bright Old Things (BOTs): 14 men and women of a certain age, who changed careers late in life, moving into the worlds of fashion and art at a time most people start thinking about saying goodbye to fashionable things.

"It's traditional at this time of year to focus on what's new and what's next," Linda Hewson, Selfridges' creative director and the woman behind the project, said when I called to discuss the initiative. "We decided to turn that on its head."