'We are one of the coolest older age groups there has ever been': Yorkshire model Glen Campbell on being in demand at 65
When an odd message popped up on Glen Campbell’s social media, asking him to send back some photographs of himself in swimwear - wet and dry - for a potential movie casting, his interest was piqued.
A bit of digging, and he realised the message was from Disney. “It was for a role in The Little Mermaid as the one of the merfolk,” he says. “I sent off my pictures, went down to Pinewood, had to do a diving and swimming test, and got into the movie. So I'm actually in the final scenes of the My Little Mermaid live action movie. It was a delight.”
Glen’s grown-up daughters, Sophie, Ali and Holly, had loved The Little Mermaid original cartoon film so, when the live version came out in 2023 on Holly’s birthday, the family went to see this new adaptation. “To see myself on the big screen - something I would have never thought of - but also to see my name on the cast roll at the end, was really cool,” he says.
Glen gets recognised everywhere he goes, not least for his work as a model for Leeds-based multi-channel fashion and lifestyle brand, Joe Browns.
He says: “I’d just got off a plane in Cape Town, and I was going through customs, and a guy walked past me, finger out, pointed at me and said, ‘Mr Joe Browns, good to see you.’ In South Africa.”
Indeed, Glen has a loyal following, so much so that, when he was absent for one Joe Brown’s photoshoot campaign a couple of years ago, there was consternation. “There was a big outcry from their customers and their social media followers, so they brought me back,” he says. “They did quite a cool, fun thing, little tease videos - ‘you've asked for it, it's coming’.”
This year, Glen, who turned 65 in July, is celebrating 10 years of returning to modelling. For 26 years, he has also been a fashion stylist and presenter on the QVC UK shopping channel, making around 10 fashion shows a month, so he is on the train up and down to London several times a week. “I'm actually the longest standing fashion expert they've had there, because I was the first one they had on, other than the designers.”
His work takes him to surprising places, but he has never wanted to move from Yorkshire. For more than 30 years, he has lived in Menston with wife, Sue (they celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this year).
Glen was born and brought up in Hyde Park, Leeds, and his mum, Rita, still lives in the city. His grandfather, Bill, came over from Jamaica in the 1950s and opened a cobbler's shop by Woodhouse Moor. His father, also Glen, sadly no longer with us, was a mechanic.
After Royal Park Middle School, Glen went to Lawnswood, where he discovered sport, and shone at rugby, playing for the county.
His first job was at Vidal Sassoon in Leeds, and he also modelled for Sassoon. He worked at a variety of cool Leeds independent and designer fashion stores, including Primo, Strand, Hip and Accent, and set up his own store called Union.
“Then Yorkshire TV found me and asked if I'd style their fashion programme. That was probably 1990,” he says.
This launched a TV career presenting fashion slots for Calendar and the Manchester equivalent, then for This Morning with Richard and Judy, where he also took on broader lifestyle and travel features. “We went to Edward and Mrs Simpson's house in Paris. His wardrobe was exactly how it was,” says Glen.
In-between, he was styling for fashion brands and joined QVC.
Around 10 years ago, he started to post photos of himself on his Instagram, and was spotted by menswear brand Oliver Sweeney, who asked him to model for its 2015 campaign. And just like that, aged 55, Glen was back modelling.
Ten years on and he is still in demand, with older models becoming increasingly featured in the fashion industry.
“It's mainstream now,” he says. “Initially, it was brands with higher price points that realised that people that were slightly older were the ones realistically buying their clothes.”
Then around 10 years ago, there was a shift. “A couple of brands thought, wait a minute, let’s drop some older people in there, and I think that was the starting point, just one or two older faces popping up with a sea of young people around them, which obviously meant that the older-looking face shone out even more like a bright light.
“People of my age, when we were young, fashion was really cool, and you had punks, you had New Romantics, you had very specific, strong-looking groups of people.
“The skater crowd initially, again, in sort of the mid-80s. All these little groups, setting trends, all of a sudden are my age, or slightly younger or slightly older.
“So we grew up with a real individual kind of base of what we wanted to look like and what we did. Our group is probably one of the coolest older groups that's ever been. We've got a background of being quite individual.”
Brands that Glen models for include 2nd Academic, founded by Everton Campbell and Mano Dridi in 2022, selling cool designer brands made in Japan, the UK and the US; Peter Christian, the British menswear brand that blends urban and country wear; and Mayfair tailors Ivory London.
As a fashion stylist, he is well placed and happy to pass on his own expert tips, and share what works for him. “It's very rare that I even nip to the shop in just a sweatpant and a hoodie,” says Glen. “I get dressed every morning and that's me dressed for the day.
““I'm not afraid of colour. I'm not afraid of print. I quite like to be classic but playful. But it's always a conscious thing. I always think about what I'm doing, what I'm wearing. But it's quite easy now because my wardrobe, if I put my hand in and pulled three things out, I could put them on and they would work together.
“A loafer is a smarter shoe and also a casual shoe, so it can be worn formally or with jeans or fatigue pants. Khaki fatigue pants have taken over from a classic chino, so if you see the olive green fatigue pant that lots of guys are wearing now - and girls have stepped into them as well - they've replaced the safe formula of a tan chino.
“A tan chino still works, but the fatigue pant is a little bit edgier, but does the same job.
“Tailoring-wise, I always like to have a third piece, whether it's a vintage Polo Ralph Lauren blazer, or whether it's an Anglo-Italian, soft-shouldered, mid blue jacket, or a chocolate brown check.
“I'm not afraid of putting just a tee on with a smart jacket and a fatigue pant and a loafer. If I'm going to be playful, it would tend to be a pop of colour from a sock. And that would be a solid colour as opposed to any sort of print, so you can kind of just have a little edge of colour popping through.
“I was wearing a bright green pair of socks and some off-white ecru jeans the other day and a brown loafer and a navy polo shirt, and a lady in Waitrose said, ‘I love your outfit, but your socks are making me smile.’”
Glen has no plans to give up modelling. “I'm going to keep going. As long as people ask me, then I'm happy to do it. I'm active, I'm fit, I still fit in the clothes.
“Because that's the other thing, model-sized clothing - they're getting a little bit better now, but back in 2015, 32-33 was your max on your waist. Because I'm a 33-34, sometimes you'd have to stretch them out a bit to make them work. But they're now making sure that there's clothes that fit you.
“I can still be doing this when I'm 75, 80. Younger people can think, well, wait a minute, he's cool, he's still wearing fun clothes, he's still wearing fashion.”
He remains deeply rooted in Yorkshire. “The delight is that I can spend four days in London or two days in Paris and look around, but the minute I'm on the train heading back home, and get off the Leeds train to get into the Menston train, it warms my heart because I know that I'm home.”