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Followers may be more familiar with her alter ego, Accidental Icon, but Lyn Slater’s credentials go far beyond being fashionable. The former professor and social worker has spent the past decade using the moniker to turn our perception of style and aging on its head. Scroll through her Instagram feed or blog, and you'll find Slater decked out in designer duds, interspersed with fashion campaigns for Hermés and Dior, and sponsored posts for luxury brands like Net-a-Porter, Kate Spade, and Moncler. Slater speaks of this life stage with gratitude for the opportunities it's provided—like access to a wealth of influential people in the fashion industry and travel experiences in new destinations—but always from a place of removal. The Accidental Icon is not her, says Slater. It's a persona.
Now in her 70s, Slater says she has closed her chapter as an influencer and is embracing a new one. One where she is still undeniably fabulous and no-less influential, but has traded in her New York city apartment for a home upstate (where she is writing a monthly column for her local paper), her signature red lipstick and large statement earrings for a subtler wardrobe, and the title of “influencer” for “writer” and “grandmother.”
Ahead of her upcoming book release How to Be Old (out March 12) Condé Nast Traveler spoke with Slater about her most meaningful travel experiences, reinvention, and, of course, packing essentials.
As with style, how has your relationship with travel evolved over the years?
Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of resources, so my traveling occurred through my love of reading and books. The thing that I loved most about being Accidental Icon was the opportunities that it gave me to travel. During my time as “her”—because I kind of see Accidental Icon as separate in a way from who I am—I went to London, Paris, Iceland, Shanghai, Japan, Madrid; just all over to places that I would not have gone to if I had still been just a social worker and a professor. A highlight of one of my trips was visiting Amsterdam. My mom had told me stories about how my great grandparents had a hotel and cafe in Amsterdam. So when I finally made it there, I went to the hotel, and I mentioned their name to the hotel manager. He immediately took me upstairs, and there I see two massive oil portraits of my great grandparents. I had the opportunity to sit in that glorious cafe and learn how my great grandfather was an architect who pushed the boundaries of traditional architecture—he was really going against the aesthetic of the time.
Seeing those paintings must have blown your mind.
Blew my mind—it was incredible. It was actually sitting in my great grandfather’s cafe that I got the idea in my head that I should write a book, because I have this creative legacy that was interrupted by the Great Depression.
Could you tell me a bit more about why it was so impactful—and why it spurred this most recent reinvention?
I learned that his cafe had, for many years, been a meeting place for intellectuals and writers and creatives. What was interesting, is at the time that I took that trip to Amsterdam, I had sort of made a turn—which was not a good turn for me—into being an “Instagram influencer,” which was different from what I envisioned when I started Accidental Icon. I was feeling very burnt out and very unhappy and, most of all, very uncreative. So going into this place that was connected to me, but also was a center of creative life, was the thing that made me decide to start writing more seriously.
How does travel look different to you now when you’re planning your own trips versus when you were traveling as Accidental Icon?
There were always some demands in that type of travel. I often had to depend on the PR person or whoever was setting up the trip to have an itinerary for me. And also, at the time I was traveling the most, I was still teaching full time as a professor.
One of the things that made me retire was when I was invited to Paris by Martin Margiela to promote a new perfume—it was called Mutiny, so they picked me because I'm so mutinous about older life. Once I was there, I received invitations to all these shows and events, like Comme de Garçons and Issey Miyake, all these designers who I adore. But I had to say no, because I needed to return to teach. I wanted to take advantage of the travel, because like I said, it wasn’t about being well-known, or even the clothes, but about the excitement of travel. I eventually got to have my Paris redo when Hermes invited me for the launch of their first beauty product. I spent five super luxurious, amazing days learning how Hermes bags were made, seeing books and books of colorful silks that were used in the scarves. It was so unlike an influencer trip. And it was the last trip I took before the pandemic. The trip to Amsterdam was in December [2019], the trip to Hermes was in February [2020]. So those two travel events were what I brought with me into quarantine. And between the two of them, they transformed my life and triggered a new reinvention.
Such vastly different trips!
Yes, but both about history, both about craft, both about creativity and innovation and reimagining. You know how Hermes takes old bags and just reimagines them, right? They're not pumping out newness. Maybe because I was getting older, I appreciated how Hermes honors old, and keeps it in its DNA, which is probably why I like vintage clothes and things that—unlike society in general, that devalue old. But there are these certain pockets that really see the value of what comes with a thing or a person being older.
Do you find that your sense of personal style changes based on where you are in the world?
Absolutely. One of the things that people always ask me is, “What style are you in?” I don't have a style, because I dress more like a costume designer. I'm gonna be honest, I am a very performative person. I reinvent all the time. I've been like that since I was a kid. It really is about my identity, which, as you suggest, is also influenced by the context you're in. I see that very clearly in my life now, since I've moved upstate. What I wore in the city and what I wear here, which is more of a suburban, rural type of environment, is very different. I think the key is asking yourself, how do all of these things influence the person that you wish to be seen as, and what your identity is, at any particular time.
I know the style you're embodying changes based on what city you're in, but do you have any tried and true essentials that you take on every single trip?
Yes, Issey Miyake Pleats, Please because you don’t have to iron them, and they pack very small. A gorgeously constructed black turtleneck. Black, beautifully tailored trousers, a pair of black heels, a beautiful deconstructed white shirt. A blazer. That's always the core, and then I play around with it. It's like being a sculptor. You just start with that core piece. And then you add and subtract. I don't like to fuss when I'm traveling, I want to get dressed and to be out.
Do you have any specific travel rituals when you arrive in a new destination? Or when you return home?
The first thing I do when I get home is unpack and put everything away because I don't feel like I'm really home if that suitcase is off to the side. When I’m home, I’m ready to be home. But when I’m traveling, I don’t immediately unpack when I get to the hotel. Once I get there, I am eager to get out and settle in later.
I’ve got to say that I’ve followed you for a very long time, and I’ve loved learning about this reinvention.
Really, I'm writing this book for people who are younger, and who are in the midst of making a career, raising children, being a partner, and feeling like maybe they’re losing that part of themselves that had a dream. My message is that, instead of being fearful about being older, it's an opportunity to really take that dream that you might have put aside because of life, and making a living, and children, and really getting to a time of life where you can have that dream, if you want it. I think back to when I was in the midst of it. I never thought about older life as a comfort. If I’d known then what I know now, I would have said, Calm down, honey, you're gonna get through this, and you're gonna have the most unimaginable adventures that you could ever think of. I really want to try and change this awful, terrible fear that people have about being older. Because at the end of the day, the creams aren't going to work. You're still gonna be old, no matter what.