Slater, now known worldwide as the Accidental Icon, has more than 750,000 followers on Instagram, has modeled for such brands as Valentino and Kate Spade, and has become an inspiration to older women everywhere who don’t want to be invisible, often a consequence of aging. Her rise to Instagram influencer status began after photographers noticed her outside Lincoln Center during fashion week and mistook her for someone important in the fashion industry. The friend she was meeting joked that Slater was an accidental icon.

She is no longer accidental, as she says in her updated profile, and she’s definitely not invisible.

However, despite her fashionista appearance, it’s not so much a love of fashion that propels her.

“I never followed fashion. I never followed trends. But I have from the time I was a really small child used clothes to convey who I was, who I wanted to be,” said Slater, who grew up in Dobbs Ferry in Westchester County. “When I was little, I would read a book and there would be this character I would like. The first thing I would do is try to figure out—look around in the closets and trunks and whatever—and see how I could put together an outfit that would sort of emulate them. I really continued to dress that way throughout my life and always very much expressing who I am now. This is the context I’m living in and so for me, it really never was about fashion. It was really much more about using clothes as a tool to sort of talk about who I was.”

When she was at UAlbany, she took a seminar in delinquency with Fritz Redl, a visiting professor at the School of Criminal Justice. “He was sort of the father of residential treatment as an alternative to locking kids up.” She then worked at the Saint Anne Institute in Albany, running a living unit and becoming a supervisor.

“I never followed fashion. I never followed trends."

Later, as a social worker, she found herself in courtrooms noticing that what women wore influenced their outcome. “One of the things I did observe at that time, maybe as a sociologist, was that clothing had so much power in the system,” she said in a phone interview.

“I’ve been interested in clothes and what happens when we wear them. I already knew from being in criminal justice, the first thing they do is they take away your clothes. That’s kind of taking your individuality. They do the same thing when you’re admitted to a psychiatric hospital. And for all of the many years I spent in court rooms, what people wore was actually very significant. People would make judgments, really serious judgments often colored by how a person was appearing.” She began coaching her clients. The lawyers wanted them to wear suits, but that made them uncomfortable, so they appeared shifty, she said. Instead, she asked them to think about what they wanted the judge to see. For example, if they wanted to be seen as a really good mom, she asked them what they would wear and they would show up in a freshly ironed blouse and pants.

the Accidental Icon, has more than 750,000 followers on Instagram

“When I turned 60, I kind of confronted getting older. But I had become a problem solver, a resilient person who learned from my many clients,” she said.

A devotee of lifelong learning, Slater’s always turned to creative pursuits, taking classes in theater, photography and writing. “I think it helped me to remain in this kind of work as long as I did and not lose my mind.”

At one point, Slater began taking classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Many of the fellow students and professors, all younger, said she should start a blog because of her style.

So she did. She began exploring her favorite designers and was wearing vintage finds.

In many photos, she wears sunglasses, because she’s an introvert. But putting herself out there is a statement against ageism and invisibility, something she says we should be confronting within ourselves.

“When you do come to that self-acceptance, then you can do what I do and just kind of fling yourself into Instagram and say I belong here and I’m not going to smile and I’m going to wear my dark glasses because I hate having my picture taken, but here I am. For me, that’s the ageism project.”

Slater is now retired from two decades of teaching at Fordham University. During her social work career, she created a resource guidebook for family court judges on the assessment and treatment of child sex abuse and also developed a handbook for clients, parents, foster parents and foster care agency staff. She’s hoping to write another book about aging so she’s taking yet another class, this time for writing.

Since the pandemic, Slater’s made some changes. She’s moved from New York City to Peekskill to be closer to her daughter and her granddaughter.

“Once I had to stop and slow down because of the pandemic, I had time to think and recover myself. I was traveling all over,” she said. “I had been to Paris and I was creating so much content. I was working a ton. And really life had become a little out of control,” she said. “These people send me clothes and gifts and all these things. And my little New York City apartment was so full of excess stuff.”

While her Instagram account shows her confidently wearing designer clothing, Lynn is now veering toward more sustainable fashion, like a flowered Emeka suit using upcycled fabric.

Her life now revolves around being more in tune with her environment, exploring the Hudson Valley and trying to buy used goods, rather than new things. She’s turned to rehabbing the old house she bought with her partner, Calvin Lom, and she’s exploring the Hudson Valley, perhaps more casually, but still stylish.

Her clothing choices in her Instagram posts have also evolved from high fashion to comfy jeans with her own flourishes. And it’s caused her to, once again, contemplate the power of clothes.

“I find it so interesting that while we endorse the idea that our denim jeans have a unique ability to gain character and value as they get older, fade and get used, we resist applying the same logic to the aging process of human beings,” she wrote in a recent blog post. “Why do we allow so many inanimate objects, like denim jeans, furniture or jewelry, the freedom to age over time, increase their worth and become valued for their narrative stamina rather than fall out of favor as older people seem to do?”