Meryl Streep has graced the cover of Vogue magazine for the first time at the age of 62.

The Oscar winning actress looks resplendent in the pages of the ultimate fashion bible for the January 2012 issue.

Meryl told the publication that she thought her chance had gone for her to ever be on the cover.

"I was joking with the ladies earlier," Meryl recalled. "And I told them I was probably the oldest person ever to be on the cover of Vogue."

Meryl had portrayed a magazine editor in the movie The Devil Wears Prada which was commonly rumoured to have been a veiled take on U.S. Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

The esteemed performer has had 16 Oscar nominations with two wins, seven Golden Globes and two Emmys but she reveals that she thought her career was over when she turned 40.

"I remember turning to my husband [sculptor Don Gummer] and saying, Well, what should we do? Because it's over.'"

Meryl said once she reached that milestone she then received three offers to play witches in films.

"Once women passed childbearing age they could only be seen as grotesque on some level," she claimed.

But Meryl added that she's happy to have played characters like the woman she portrayed in It's Complicated where it depicts an older woman deciding between her ex-husband and another man and having sexual liaisons on screen.

Meryl portrays former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in her new movie The Iron Lady and will play her from the age of 49 to 85.