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Beauty Is Perhaps a Matter of Distance
Skin, hair, shadow, texture. A closer look at beauty, where the smallest details matter and being seen means letting your guard down.
In conversation with
‘The best age is the one you are living right now.’ On ageing, self-possession and the diminishing importance of conventional beauty.
TEXT by IRÈNE SCHÄPPI
PHOTO by PETER MEISTER
Conversation
On a street in Zuoz, a photographer working for Switzerland Tourism stopped a woman she didn’t know and asked to take her picture. The woman was sixty. Fifteen years later, Carmen Meier-Meister is walking international runways, still dressed mostly in black, and still convinced that being interesting matters more than being beautiful.
Chapter I — Style
Irène
You speak about beauty very differently from the way the industry usually does. What matters to you now?
Carmen
Authenticity. Without it, everything feels artificial, put on. Beauty can just as easily be warmth, grace, contentment, bearing, style. When you’re happy, I think, you’re beautiful too.
Irène
When do you feel most like yourself?
Carmen
When I can be exactly as I am and do not have to pretend.
Irène
You seem to have known your own style for a long time?
Carmen
Beauty and style are a personal interpretation. I found my style a long time ago; it’s timeless. I have outfits I bought twenty years ago that I still wear. Style lets you express how you feel. These days I wear mostly black, simple and minimalist.
Irène
What shaped your eye the most?
Carmen
Aesthetics, in everything. I have a passion for fashion, art, design and photography. Years ago, I was often in Florence, in Santa Croce. I would sit there with binoculars, studying Giotto’s frescoes in every detail. And then the Uffizi. The Uffizi, again and again. From there came my interest in minimalism, constructive art, monochromes, then the Expressionists. I’ve gone through them all. Today, art isn’t just a painting on a wall. It’s also an experience that sweeps me away and captivates me.
Chapter II — Beauty as Practice
Irène
Does beauty ever turn into work for you?
Carmen
It never becomes work. I experience beauty treatments as pure wellbeing. Before I leave the house, I take a quick look in the mirror and check my entire outfit. Everything simply has to be right. The same applies to skincare. For twenty-five years I ran my own institute for cosmetics and body care, so I know that world inside out. But age comes whether you like it or not. I do not want to fight it, and I feel no need to wage war against it. All I can do is be deeply grateful for my health and for all the privileges I have.
Carmen knows beauty from both sides of the mirror. What has remained consistent is her preference for individuality over correction: black clothes, old favourites, visible age and a face that still belongs to the person wearing it.
Chapter III — AGEING
Irène
What bores you most about beauty now?
Carmen
This all-encompassing uniformity. Everyone wants the same lips; everyone does their make-up the same way. I find this template version of beauty desperately boring. What people sometimes do to themselves through cosmetic surgery also raises health concerns. When you have your own style, when you’re sure of yourself, you don’t need any of it. I don’t have role models; I don’t follow trends; I just do my own thing.
Irène
You have no interest in hiding age. Why do you think it still surprises people when someone visibly looks older?
Carmen
Why the surprise? It is the path we all take. It simply is what it is, whether I want it or not. The best age is the one you are living right now. Be less critical of yourself and accept yourself as you are.
Irène
And when faces look almost too controlled?
Carmen
I wish them more joy and ease. Today it does not have to be beautiful. Today it has to be interesting. That is the difference.
Irène
You seem unusually unbothered by social media. How have you managed that?
Carmen
I have set up my social media so that a great deal of positive content comes into my feed. Everything that irritates me or does me no good, I have deleted. It works very well for me; I encounter nothing negative. For younger people, I often find it problematic: all these filters, all these ideals they cannot live up to, and need not. They should feel less pressure to conform.
Irène
Is there anything in today’s beauty and wellness culture that you genuinely welcome?
Carmen
What do I find positive? In beauty, it’s the incredible variety of innovative products. When it comes to wellness, it’s the many ways we can care for both our body and mind. And for longevity, it’s the growing awareness of healthy, mindful nutrition, a positive outlook on life, and Switzerland’s excellent healthcare system. What weighs on me? The culture of excess and the illusion that we have to live up to whatever beauty ideal happens to be in fashion. Wouldn’t it be better to be strong than to chase every new trend?
Chapter IV — Visibility
Irène
You never set out to become a model. What has visibility come to mean to you now?
Carmen
I never sought the spotlight; I became a model by chance. Today I embrace it. My work also has a mission to encourage women my age to be more confident and more visible.
Irène
So if beauty isn’t really the point any more, what is?
Carmen
Every person has something beautiful, whether it is their charisma, their attitude, their individuality, or their naturalness. Today, beauty isn’t the goal. What matters is being interesting and expressive. That’s true beauty. And being real is better than being perfect.
This interview was conducted in writing for the Super Flattering Beauty Index, published in Super Flattering Edition N°01 / 2026.
