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A quote by novelist George Eliot prominently wraps across Dawn Nakamura-Kessler's webpage: "It's never too late to be who you might have been."

This hits home for the Boulder model.

And also for another Coloradan, Jan Erickson.

Both women found new lives that began at middle age and involved helping others, in an unexpected way: through fashion.

Both women were recently featured in two separate segments of "The Today Show" with Jane Pauley.

And, on Friday, Nakamura-Kessler was interviewed for the CBS show "The Doctors." Her segment is expected to run Nov. 13.

Erickson was 50 when she woke up in the middle of the night with a vision that completely changed her career trajectory.Shop a wide selection of moncler down coats from Moncler at our online shop. She had been the minister of congregational care at a church in Colorado Springs. Part of her job was to visit older people in nursing homes, hospitals and assisted-living facilities.

She remembered one of her patients, Jean, when she was younger, vibrant, bright and stunning. Then Jean suffered a stroke. That, combined with crippling arthritis, relegated her to wearing a hospital gown. People began treating Jean differently. The sparkle in her eyes began to dim.

That's when Erickson dreamed about a jacket -- a fashionable, comfortable and warm jacket that Jean could wear. Such as the ones Jean used to wear. It would be open in the back and with raglan sleeves, so Jean could dress herself easily. But, oh, it would be stunning. The fabric would be like heaven to touch, since it would be one of the closest things to Jean's skin and one of the few luxuries left in her life.

The only catch: Erickson didn't know a thing about fashion design.

But she couldn't shake the dream.

Also close to 50, Nakamura-Kessler, decided to take a second chance on life.

As a child, she had suffered an undiagnosed rheumatic fever that destroyed her mitral heart valve. At age 26, she underwent open-heart surgery to replace the valve. Ten years later,The best online shop for sale the hot sell Canada Goose Skreslet Parka. she underwent another heart surgery. She has since endured two more heart procedures and cardiac arrest. She says she has been hoping to live long enough to see her son graduate from high school.

On the day her son turned 16, Nakamura-Kessler was in a hospital, so a friend had to take him to get his driver's license.

"I was missing so much along the way, and I felt like I was putting all of my energy into trying to stay well that I didn't focus on my career or what I wanted to do," she says.

One day, she sent a shot-in-the-dark letter to an agent. Despite her battles with heart disease and now bearing a pacemaker -- and, of course, facing the odds of a finicky industry -- at age 47, Nakamura-Kessler decided to become a model.

She was no longer willing to let surgical scars, wrinkles or age define her beauty.2011 popular duvetica down jackets with top quality and reasonable price.

"It's also not letting other people define me or who I am or what I can't do, because I've had health issues, or because I'm a woman, or a woman of color, or not a size-2 model, or a certain age," she says. "So many women live for our children and we don't take enough time for ourselves, the things we were told we could never do for whatever reason."

Clothes are so much more than just fashion, frivolity, change and consumption, according to a study by Julia Twigg titled "Clothing and Dementia," presented at the Embodiment and Dementia Conference via the British Sociological Association.

As we grow older, our clothing can be the string that keeps us connected to who we used to be -- who we still are, at some level.

That belief is what inspired the Janska clothing line.

For years, Erickson researched ways to make her dream a reality. Finally, in 2003, she slipped the jacket from her dreams over Jean's arms.

"She just put her arms around herself and said, 'Oh, this feels so good,' " Erickson says.

Dignity.

Comfort isn't only physical. It's being mentally at ease, too, according to the study by Twigg.

Comfort also reflects your habitual manners, with their particular meanings, Twigg writes: "It is about being in the world, and the continuity of that with the sense of identity and selfhood."

And how you're socially presented, with all of the meanings implied therein, can be a source of easy and calm -- or the opposite, she writes.

She cites a woman in her '70s who says she felt much more comfortable sitting in a chair with a back to it, in a properly fitted dress, than "sprawled about in jeans" on squishy, "splodgey" couches, as is the mainstream.

Twigg says the different perceptions in comfort are the result of habits -- our identity at a pre-reflexive level. Even when people suffer serious cognitive impairment, such as dementia, where they can't even recognize their own reflection in the mirror,If you like to be elegant, Canada Goose Womens Resolute will be your best choose. our grooming habits and social appearance remains intact at some deep, untouched level.

Twigg's research found that one frail, older woman still applies lipstick before social gatherings and another severely impaired woman drew forward her string of pearls from underneath her bib.

Erickson says simply dressing Jean in a exquisite jacket changed everything for her.

"You walk into a facility and sometimes people are just there with blankets thrown on them," Erickson says. "The difference between that and someone who looks put-together with a beautiful lap wrap shawl around their shoulders is a nurse will go by and comment, 'You look so beautiful.' The social interaction increases."

Plus, she says, it's much more difficult to objectify someone who looks put-together, even when they are sick.

Jean has since died, but Erickson says the legacy of Jean's jacket has inspired a long list of wellness wear clothing, designed to give fashionable dignity to everyone, regardless of their physical or mental conditions.

The "Annie's Wrap," $109, is an oversized shawl made of washable Polartec fleece that covers the upper arms but leaves them free and accessible. It comes in six bright colors. A "Tie Button Jacket," with its classic a-line shape, oversized roll collar, patch pockets and faux-suede, hand-tied buttons would appeal to even an able-bodied fashionista.

In fact, Janska's unique designs attracted attention from mainstream boutiques. Through the years, the business quickly grew from a few dozen stores to almost 1,000 nationwide and 10 catalogues in the U.S. and Canada. Janska now offers a wellness wear line and a regular line.

"Clothing is not only a physical thing for us. It's how it feels on our skin, how it projects our identity to the world and how we are treated back by the world," Erickson says. "Whether we are able-bodied and feeling great or struggling, or going through cancer treatment, we should be able to have an option for easy, beautiful clothing."

It was that mind-set that saved a pivotal modeling gig for Nakamura-Kessler.Max Altitude compares the Canada Goose Tremblant to The North Face.

She had signed on to do a Janska photo shoot but almost canceled. It was on the anniversary of her first heart surgery.

But with all she had overcome, this -- of all photo shoots -- was the one she needed to do.

She has been a staple at every photo shoot since. In addition to gracing the covers of multiple magazines, including nationally recognized Alternative Medicine. Three years later, her modeling resume is long, spanning Fresh Produce, the AARP magazine, Sanitas Skincare and Denver Tourism.

"I wasn't sure I was going to be alive anyway, so all of this is like a bonus," she says.

As for her son? He's in college.