Marlo Thomas Launches Clothing Line: Until Now, ‘I Had the Choice of Looking Like My Granddaughter or My Grandmother’

Whether you know her simply as That Girl, an outspoken feminist and ally of Gloria Steinem, for her hit TV show cameos, her comedic turns in films like Deuce Bigalow, or simply the mom of Rachel Green on Friends, Marlo Thomas has had a pretty spectacular professional trajectory. And at 79 years old, the actress shows no signs of slowing down now. In addition to her still vibrant career and work on behalf of St. Jude’s, Thomas is now pursuing a very different dream, launching her own clothing line collection in conjunction with HSN, which she’ll show off Thursday night on “The List With Colleen Lopez” from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. So what makes That Woman right for this moment in her life?

“When I started That Girl , which was the first independent working girl on television, it brought a whole fashion revolution,” she tells PEOPLE. “The women on television like Lucille Ball and Elizabeth Montgomery and Donna Reed, they were all wearing house dresses and Peter Pan collars. And I had been in London doing Barefoot in the Park, so I brought all the Mary Quant stuff, the fishnet stockings, the mini, the midi, the graphic designs, it really was an explosion of fashion. And became a fashion icon, she really did.”

But she found that that same ’60s panache is lacking in clothes for middle-aged women. “Women always say to me, Why aren’t there more clothes for women over 40 that are sexy and zippy and like you’ve always been?” she says. “And it’s true, you know, you go to a store and you’ve got bare midriffs and dresses so short you can see your butt and it’s like, What am I going to wear? I either have a choice of looking like my granddaughter or my grandmother. So I thought, I’m just going to do it myself.”

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As for the name, she explains, “The reason I wanted to call it That Woman is that I really do think that the girl we are, the girl we were, is still in us. I don’t think of myself as an older woman. I think of myself as exactly the same person I was as a girl. And I do bring that into my life, I bring it into every project that I do, I bring it into the way I dress, how I exercise. Everything that I do in my life is really done from who I’ve always been. And I think a lot of women that I meet are kind of stuck, they don’t know how to be another age: How do I still look desirable and with-it and trendy without looking like I’m trying to be too young? They don’t want to be silly looking. So that’s what this line is all about.”

As for why you should trust her taste over that of a salesclerk? “A woman in the store will say, You look great in that! But just because it fits you, doesn’t mean you look good in it or that it’s appropriate for you,” she says. “And I don’t want appropriate to mean all covered up. I think it’s appropriate to show a little skin, whether it’s the shoulder or V-neck or key hole. All my clothes have those kind of opening so that there’s some skin showing so that you’re covered but you’re not covered up.”

Not to mention, she has terrific taste. “I’m a high-end shopper so I wanted to be sure that the fabrics would be good. And I wanted there to be lots of color for different skin tones because I’m olive complexion, so I don’t like beige but I look great in hot pink and turquoise, and I’m using those colors as well as black and beige and the basics. Every outfit comes in five colors so there’s something for everybody’s complexion and a range of sizes so that everybody has a shot at it…I had them make a model of every example in my size so I could try it on and see how it fits and feel the fabric and it’s great. It’s washable and packable. When you see it yourself, you’ll agree with me. You’ll see that they have some sex appeal and they’re fresh.”

Are you looking forward to Marlo’s fashion line? Will you be buying something from the collection? Sound off below!

–Reporting by Julie Jordan