Stacy London Embraces Her 50s as Her Best Era
Stacy London, a well-known fashion expert, feels that her 57 years have brought her more happiness than any other time in her life. She believes this is due to the challenges she has faced throughout her journey. London shared these thoughts with OK! while discussing AbbVie’s PSO Done Campaign, which aims to encourage people living with psoriasis to reflect on how their symptoms are managed and to have open conversations with their dermatologists about their care.
London expressed that aging or dying are the only options, and she has come to think about mortality differently. “I don’t mean this in a morbid way. It makes time so much more valuable,” she said. “I don’t have time for regret. I want progress. I want evolution. I want joy. I want inspiration, and those are things for me to be able to do.”
Now, London is speaking out about her psoriasis, which affects over 8 million Americans, with plaque psoriasis being the most common form. Despite its prevalence, many people still normalize ongoing symptoms like itching, irritation, and flare-ups without realizing how much they impact daily life. Through AbbVie’s PSO Done Campaign, she wants others to know they are not alone.
“I want to do this and grow old with a group of people who are kind, caring, and really understand each other,” she said. “With the PSO Done Campaign, I’m so done with keeping things a secret. I think with Gen X, we are trying to take the shame out of a lot of things we used to keep secret, and I couldn’t be happier about that because fewer secrets mean fewer problems.”
London was diagnosed at the age of three. “I think being affected by it so young, it’s something I grew up with trying to manage and understand on my own,” she stated. “When I was very young, I was completely covered in scales from my neck down. For years, I wore white turtlenecks and long pants because my scalp was so thick with psoriasis that I had dandruff. I didn’t want anybody to see. I couldn’t wear dark colors. There were a lot of things that made me feel self-conscious.”
She also mentioned that psoriasis is not an infectious disease but an autoimmune condition. “What’s interesting is that this self-consciousness really led me to look for tools to combat it — and fashion was one of them.” London added, “In a way, I really connect what I experienced with my own psoriasis to my desire to conquer my self-consciousness.”
London isn’t the only celebrity to discuss psoriasis. Kim Kardashian, Cara Delevingne, LeAnn Rimes, and others have been open about their experiences. “The more we talk, the more you come up with a customized plan with your own doctor, the happier you’re going to be and the more confident you’re going to be,” she said.
London and her friend Nitika Chopra, founder of Chronicon, want people to know “you belong here just as you are.” “You don’t have to be boastful, and it doesn’t mean you have to have a huge ego,” she said.
For now, London is enjoying this season of life. “I am so interested in learning new things, in going to new places; I don’t have the same cadence to my career that I did when I was younger. I used to work all the time and never stopped, and now I’m much more interested in work-life balance, and that’s also been very good for my stress levels, which is great for my psoriasis!” she concluded.
