Florals? For spring?

"Groundbreaking," as Miranda Priestly (fashion editrix in "The Devil Wears Prada") once sarcastically said.

Yet year-after-year the pansies and roses, poppies and daisies make their way down the runway. Is it even possible to liven-up this ubiquitous trend? I partnered up with Star photographer and fellow fashion-lover Michelle Pemberton to take on the challenge.

Click here for our magazine-style layout and share these fabulous floral looks on Pinterest!

Next we enlisted local floral designer, Autumn Keller, to create vibrant floral headpieces and accessories for the shoot that took place in her ISIBEAL studio at the Stutz Building.

The result was a stunning assortment of boho-inspired styles, channeling the typically playful prints into a most soulful sophistication.

And, with the fashionista on a budget in mind, all of the pieces are less than $200.

Call Star reporter Leslie Bailey at (317) 444-6094 and follow her on Twitter @Lesalina, Facebook.com/Lesalina, and Instagram @Lesalina.

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About the photos

Model: Joanna Bajena, LModelz Model Management, (317) 345-8521, www.lmodelz.com.

Floral designs: Autumn Keller, ISIBEAL Studio, (317) 437-9646, isibealstudio.com.

Hair and makeup: Hair by Emmett Cooper; makeup by Naieem Abdool; Emmetts the Studio, 711 E. 54th St., (317) 475-0777, www.emmettsthestudio.com.

Rabbits: Peanut (first one, adoptable) Bun (second, larger one, provided by Jennifer Shirk), Indiana House Rabbit Society.

Older women are fronting major fashion campaigns and one of the next Bond girls is 50. Mature ladies are having a moment, but does it represent a change of attitudes or just a marketing gimmick?

With her silver hair styled into a severe bob, clad all in black with huge sunglasses, 80-year-old U.S. author Joan Didion cuts a striking figure in the new ads for Celine.

A guitar-strumming, floppy hat-wearing Joni Mitchell, 71, fronts Saint Laurent's Music Project, and Dolce and Gabbana focuses its new campaign on cackling Italian grandmothers.

Meanwhile Madonna, 56, has been posing for Versace, Julia Roberts, 47, is the face of Givenchy and Italian actress Monica Bellucci, 50, will soon be the oldest ever Bond girl.

Such adverts should be no surprise given an aging population and the growing purchasing power of older people in some parts of the world.

The senior market is "one of the most powerful consumer groups in mid to long-term," said Magdalena Kondej, an analyst for Euromonitor International.

"Marketing targeted at elderly consumers that has found success to date often uses older celebrities in advertisements," she said, citing L'Oreal's recent signing of Jane Fonda, 68, to advertise a face cream for over 60s.

"This approach would also seem the best option for apparel brands and there is no shortage of poster girls for older, glamorous women," Kondej added.

But critics question whether this signals a real change in attitudes, or are simply the latest shock tactics by a fashion industry that will never give up its love of youth.

'Makes a nice contrast'

Sylviane Degunst, 56, was spotted by a model scout two years ago on a London street, and has since appeared in photo shoots for high-street clothes as well as other adverts.

Slim, although not tall, she has killer cheekbones and hair that has been white since she was 18.

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Degunst was a writer and publisher in her native France, but struggled to find work on moving to Britain and has embraced her new career.

"I can't use my mind any more so I may as well use my old body... I'm having a great time!" she told AFP.

"We're not in competition with the young girls, but I think it makes a nice contrast. It's interesting to mix things up."

Degunst is far from the top end of the age spectrum -- American Carmen Dell'Orefice is still modelling at 83 -- but she says that stereotypes still prevail.

In one of her first modelling jobs she was asked to sit in a wheelchair, while in another, scouted because of her white hair, she was rejected because she did not look old enough.

Artist, writer and curator Sue Kreitzman insists that older women are becoming more visible in all public spheres, and even goes so far as to call it an "older lady revolution".

"It's happening slowly, but it really, really is happening," said the 75-year-old London-based New Yorker.

Kreitzman praises the Celine pictures for showing "that older people are here, we're beautiful -- we count".

"What I love about it is that Joan Didion doesn't look the slightly bit young. She's gorgeous and she's an old lady," she told AFP.

On the catwalks, even if former supermodels Amber Valletta, 41, and Eva Herzigova, 42, both took to the runways in Paris in January, skinny young women still rule.

But Sylvie Fabregon, who runs the Masters and Silver agencies for older models in the French capital, says she is seeing increased demand for more mature women.

"People are not stupid -- women have had enough of seeing 20-year-old girls in adverts for cosmetics to fight wrinkles they don't have," she told AFP.

Marketing gimmick?

Many Western countries are seeing a growth in the "grey pound," not least Britain, where pensions have been largely protected since the financial crash while wages have stalled.

In 2012, the over 50s accounted for almost half of all U.K. household spending -- and spending on clothing is soaring, according to the Centre for Economic and Business Research.

Sandra Howard, a 74-year-old author who was a top model in the 1960s and 1970s, is sceptical about the new trend, saying the fashion ads featuring older women are "not about grey power, but the power to shock".

"It's one thing to have a beautiful older woman in a cosmetics ad -- I think that does work," she told AFP, citing "The Queen" actress Helen Mirren's campaign for L'Oreal.

"I think in fashion photography you can mix in older and younger women, I think that's good. But if you go too much and do it as a gimmick, it's slightly offensive really."

However, she concedes things have moved on a bit. "When I was modelling, you were old when you were 30!" she laughs.

 France has sent shock waves through the global fashion industry by passing a surprise law making it a criminal offence to employ dangerously skinny women on the catwalk.

Under the new law, anyone running an agency found employing undernourished models below an as-yet undefined Body Mass Index, or BMI, risks a maximum six-month prison term and a €75,000 (£55,000) fine.

Magazines will also have to systematically indicate when a photograph of a model has been digitally "touched up" to make her look skinnier or bulkier on pain of a €37,500 fine or up to 30 per cent of the sums spent on advertising.

A model presents a creation by French designer Lea Peckre as part of her Spring/Summer 2015 women's ready-to-wear collection during Paris Fashion Week September 23, 2014 (Reuters / Gonzalo Fuentes)

The French fashion world reacted with anger, however, and described the measure as "a dangerous confusion between anorexia and the slimness of models" that will disadvantage Gallic agencies in what is a global industry.

French "fashionistas" were already up in arms against another amendment passed on Thursday night that will make glorifying anorexia on the internet a criminal offence. People who run so-called "pro-ana" or "thinspirational" websites risk a maximum year's imprisonment and a fine of €10,000 for "provoking people to excessive thinness by encouraging prolonged dietary restrictions that could expose them to a danger of death or directly impair their health". A host of website or blogs claim to offer beauty tips to girls as young as 12, including starving themselves to create stick legs and a yawning "thigh gap".

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Until Friday morning, it was assumed the second measure targeting modelling agencies would be dropped, as many MPs had pointed out that it would violate France's strict employment law on discrimination in job recruitment.

However, the National Assembly voted it through after health minister Marisol Touraine said the use of excessively thin models in fashion was "worrying" and that she backed the change.

A file photo taken on March 10, 2015 shows a model presenting a creation by Iris Van Herpen during the 2015-2016 fall/winter ready-to-wear collection fashion show in Paris (AFP / Getty)

Dr Olivier Véran, a Socialist MP and neurologist who tabled the amendment, said it was crucial to change mentalities in the fashion world about what is considered acceptable in terms of skinniness.

"The prospect of punishment will have a regulatory effect on the entire sector," he said, pointing out that Spain, Italy and Israel had already taken similar measures.

Spain bars models below a certain body mass index from featuring in the Madrid fashion shows; Italy insists on health certificates for models and Brazil is considering demands to ban under age, underweight models from its catwalks.

The World Health Organization considers people with a BMI below 18.5 to be underweight and at risk of being malnourished.

Arnaud Robinet with the opposition centre-Right UMP party said the new law was "inapplicable and discriminatory" and would put the French fashion world at a disadvantage.

"Agencies will employ foreign models over French models," he claimed.

France's national model agency union Synam said it a purely French approach would disadvantage the country's models.

"French model agencies are constantly in competition with their European counterparts. As a result, a European approach is essential," it said.

It also said the law "confuses anorexia with the slimness of models".

"When you look at criteria for anorexia, you can't just take BMI into consideration, but other criteria too, psychological but also whether models are losing hair or have teeth problems (due to undernourishment)."

The new law will ban any model whose BMI falls below a level fixed by France's Higher Health Authority.

But Isabelle Saint-Felix, secretary general of the union, insisted that some models, such as Ines de la Fressange, often dubbed the quintessential twiglike French model, were skinny by nature.

"She says herself that its part of her constitutional make-up, just like the rest of her family".

Dr Véran said a 2008 charter of good practice signed by the fashion industry had failed to change mentalities. During the parliamentary debate, he read out a letter from a top model explaining how agencies "congratulated girls who lose weight and recommend taking laxatives".

He cited one model who weighed "less than 45kg at 1.8m tall" whose friend died of a heart attack after coming off the catwalk due to "starvation".

There are an estimated 40,000 people in France suffering from anorexia, around 90 per cent of whom are adolescents. 

In fact sweatpants, leisure pants, or trackie bums — as they are variously known — are fast becoming a must-have winter wardrobe fashion item.

Comfy leisure pants have been seen on international designer catwalks for several seasons now, but the trend is now making it into the mainstream.

While comfortable and stylish are not two words often seen together when it comes to fashion, celebrity stylist Lana Wilkinson says the sports luxe look is bang on trend.

“Celebrities like Beyonce and Rihanna have been rocking that look of trackpants with heels for a while,” she says.

“It’s all about making your wardrobe and your clothes more versatile.”

“Being casual is more cool now. You can see it with all the runners on the runway. It’s a breath of fresh air.”

Wilkinson says the new trend of pairing trackpants with more structured pieces allows women to be more playful and have fun with their wardrobe.

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Trak/Leisure pants are now being teamed with jackets and heels to take them form the gym to the office and out.Picture: Tim Carrafa Source: News Corp Australia

But she cautions against using the trend as an excuse to cover up completely.

“It’s not about hiding under loose fitting clothes,” she says.

“If you’re wearing loose fitting pants you need to balance the look by creating shape with more structured pieces.”

More tailored shirts, jackets and coats as well as a pair of heels work together to create a sophisticated sports luxe look.

Cotton On trend director Lucy Nutter says the trend is accessible as well as fashionable.

“Ath Fash is an extension of the global sports-luxe trend. It’s a more relaxed approach to dressing where comfort is just as important as looking stylish,” she says.

Model s wear:

Cotton On Longline Trench Coat — $69.95, Cotton On Carolina Cotton Shirt — $29.95, Cotton On Body Delicate Lace Camisole — $19.95, Cotton On Body Gym Trackie — $19.95, Rubi Shoes Ramona Lace up Heel — $49.95

Forever New Penny shirt $69.99, Forever New Jessie Quilted Biker Jacket $269.99, Mossimo, Track Pants $79.95, Sachi, Honey heels $159.95