Helen Mirren sports a one-piece black and white swimsuit

[Mrs P]

Has Queen Helen hung up her bikini in favour of a more age-appropriate one-piece?


By Tom Kelly
Last updated at 12:43 PM on 07th September 2009
She always insisted it was a flattering picture.
And a year after that dazzling pose in a red bikini, Dame Helen Mirren has shown herself to be as good as her word.

The Oscar-winning actress was photographed again in beachwear last week, this time looking more like a woman of 64.

This year's model: Helen Mirren sports a one-piece black and white swimsuit

While still in excellent shape for her age, she has swapped the bikini for a more sedate striped black and white one-piece costume.
Both pictures were taken in Italy, where she and her film director husband Taylor Hackford own a castle she bought to celebrate her 2007 Best Actress Oscar for The Queen.




Dame Helen, who has always shunned plastic surgery, had said a rare combination of factors helped create the illusion that she had a thirty-something body in the first photograph.

The camera angle and the blazing sunlight both helped give her a more youthful image while her pose was a classic model stance that accentuates a woman's assets.

Despite her modesty, the image fuelled widespread praise as she was hailed as a model example of growing old gracefully.
The Marks & Spencer bikini in question was an instant sellout, snapped up by women with the hope that they too could benefit from its flattering shape.

The image represented a significant benchmark for men too, according to writer Simon Davis: 'Young men now feel it's OK to be attracted to a woman of 62,' he said at the time. 'Dame Helen has raised the bar.'


Foxy lady: Helen sparkles in a red bikini back in 2008

Joan Collins put Dame Helen's impressive figure down to a healthy lifestyle: 'From the look of her face and her body, Helen Mirren has taken jolly good care of herself and her diet, and it shows,' she said. 'All hail Queen Helen.'
The actress herself, however, was stunned by the shot: She said of it: 'I am beyond the bikini-wearing age, really. I wouldn't normally wear one.

'The truth is I don't really look that good, it was just a flattering picture.

'I look like a woman in her 60s. I've always looked awful in a bikini, even when I was young.'

While last week's photograph was not as flattering as the first, it is hardly likely to persuade anyone to believe her.

Dame Helen has an enviable figure for a woman of any age, and by flaunting it, has become a fantastic role model for older women everywhere.

Read more: Has Queen Helen hung up her bikini in favour of a more age-appropriate one-piece? | Mail Online

[celeb_2006]

Whoa, that first pic, yikes!

[Sylkyn]

I KNEW that red bikini picture was airbrushed or 'chopped. There is no way, even in perfect shape, a lady her age didn't have cellulite-ish legs. Or at least some. You can exercise til you drop, but your legs (and sometimes everything else!) are still going to have some vestiges of it, especially older women.

I think she looks good, though, regardless. She's 60+, not 20. She looks great.

[AllieCat]

Yowza! I wasn't expecting that at all! I had no idea she had all that cellulite!

[msdeb]

i think she looks fabulous. its not like she's teenager, give her a pass!

[Alysheba]

I am older than dinosaur eggs and I don't have cellulite on my legs. However, in her defense, if one has to criticize a 60+ lady, who no doubt looks better than probably most of us.....lame.

[L1049]

I KNEW that red bikini picture was airbrushed or 'chopped. There is no way, even in perfect shape, a lady her age didn't have cellulite-ish legs. Or at least some. You can exercise til you drop, but your legs (and sometimes everything else!) are still going to have some vestiges of it, especially older women.

I think she looks good, though, regardless. She's 60+, not 20. She looks great.

The bikini photo doesn't necessarily have to be photoshopped, as lighting plays a big role. The sun is directly'/ no shadows on her legs in the bikini photo, whereas there's a bunch of shadows on her legs, pretty much 'enhancing' the cellulite, in the one piece photo.

[MrsDark]

Looks more like loose skin to me. But hey, she's freaking mid 60's. That shit is nowhere near as hanging as it usually is on some women even younger. Still got the small waistline and some tightness in the hips. And I agree with 'beyond lame' at anyone criticizing her at this stage of the game.

[MoodyJenny86]

She looks amazing to me considering she's in her 60s!

[fgg]

she's also not moving in the bikini pic. movement usually makes less than perfect legs looks gloopy.

she looks great for her age.

[bellini]

Wow such a difference between thw two photos. So the red suit was photoshopped?

It doesn't matter anyway. She's a great actress.

[czb]

I KNEW that red bikini picture was airbrushed or 'chopped. There is no way, even in perfect shape, a lady her age didn't have cellulite-ish legs. Or at least some. You can exercise til you drop, but your legs (and sometimes everything else!) are still going to have some vestiges of it, especially older women.

I think she looks good, though, regardless. She's 60+, not 20. She looks great.

i dunno. there's a woman at my pool who swims laps regularly, this chick must be in her 70s. chop off her head and she looks like she's in her 30s. yes i'm serious. amazing.

[sputnik]

^^^
my friend's mother is about 66 or 67 and i saw her in a bikini a couple of years ago when i vacationed with them and she has a 6-pack! she's super fit and toned from swimming, biking, hiking, skiing and just generally staying in great shape her entire life. it's funny cause she looks her age in the face and doesn't dye her hair so it's all grey but then you see the body and it's like it doesn't match.

[suzan]

SHe's 64. What to expeect??????????

[AllieCat]

I'm not saying she looks bad for her age, just seeing that red bikini pic, I thought she had a perfect body and I had no idea she doesn't really look like that.