C: Is for Celebration and Congratulations!

MAC just launched a promotion called “ARE YOU A M·A·C ORIGINAL?”. This contest is a true recognition of individuality and originality from a brand who celebrates and embraces both qualities. The model that embodies this is Zelda Kaplan the 92-year-old club kid. You can find Zelda dancing up a storm at any of the top clubs, well past 3am. With an African-style hat stacked atop her head, an African dress made in the same print, and giant circular sunglasses completing the look, she is unmistakable. For the past 40 years she has lived in a one-room flat in midtown Manhattan, and, though it may seem hard to believe, the reason Kaplan has all these incredible hand-loomed clothes is that when she's not busy being New York's oldest social butterfly, she's trekking around in the dark heart of Africa, campaigning for women's rights in the tribal villages of places such as Ethiopia, Mali, Guinea and Nigeria. 'That's my passion in life, that's the way I justify my existence. At 54 Kaplan learned of the widespread abuse of women in that part of the world. 'Once I saw what was happening there, I couldn't ignore it,' she says. She created an organization called the World Cultures Council (of which she is the sole founder, funder and member) and for the past 35 years has been travelling to remote African villages, where she speaks to the senior women about the dangers of female genital mutilation, marital violence and the laws that forbid women inheriting money or property. 'In many cultures the inheritance goes to the penis,' says Kaplan, with devastating frankness. 'I try to make the women understand that everyone would be a lot happier if there's equality. Such opinions have not made Kaplan popular among the men in such cultures. 'Oh, the men in the villages hate me,' Kaplan says cheerfully. 'Once the chief of a tribe in Guinea tried to kill me, but he didn't stop me.' 'There are now five girls who have not been subjected to mutilation, I know it may seem like a small number, but to me it means everything'. She is also a fan of African music and dance, Kaplan attends tribal ceremonies whenever she's invited. 'I have an Afro-Cuban soul'. ' She is also the subject of a documentary film, Her Name Is Zelda; and for her 90th birthday, the great New York paparazzo Patrick McMullan threw a party for 400 at the fashionable nightclub Home in which I was a part of. 'I think one of the things that keeps me healthy is that I’m not introspective at all.' 'The secret is being interested in things outside of oneself.' Zelda is a women much admired, congratulations to MAC cosmetics for noticing and that is a F.A.C.T.