People looking older in the past...

[QueenArseClangers]

Inspired by another thread about wearing clothes deemed ‘too young’ past a certain age.
I really think so. My grandmother (born in 1901) was dressed in a gaberdine mac and twin set once she was in her fifties and adopted using a walking stick on her 60th birthday as she declared herself an old lady!

Anyway, this photos in this article are fascinating.
www.boredpanda.com/past-young-people-look-older/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

Yes, I think we gathered that,,

I'm around that age too, me and my friends were budding rock chicks or punks or indie and wouldn't have been seen dead with lady Di hair or clothes.

I think maybe we are getting at cross purposes.

Looking 'old fashioned' isn't the same as 'looking old', particularly if the fashion in question was fashionable at the time of the picture.

Exactly, Princess Di did not look old for her age, but her clothes now look old fashioned to modern eyes. That is all. Our clothes will all look old fashioned in the future, however funkily we pride ourselves on dressing.

@DadOnIce

It's a good point that today's fashions are not necessarily 'flattering'. In the 2060s, 60-year-old women will be looking back at old Instagram (or whatever has replaced it) photos of themselves and reacting with horror on Mumsnet (or whatever has replaced it) at all the fake eyebrows, fake tan, glossy hair, tight dresses and pouty faces.

Future generations will laugh their socks off at slug eyebrows!

& there'll be many a 50 year old regretting the heavy eyebrow tattoo they had done when they were 25.

@TheNavigator

Exactly, Princess Di did not look old for her age, but her clothes now look old fashioned to modern eyes. That is all. Our clothes will all look old fashioned in the future, however funkily we pride ourselves on dressing.

I just don’t get that, very rarely did I find Diana fashionable. She did a couple of outfits that she rocked but generally no. She was Sloany in the extreme. And I am seven years younger than she was. I knew no one who aspired to dress like Diana other than the typical sloaney types.

I knew no one who aspired to dress like Diana other than the typical sloaney types.

Her hairstyle was very widely imitated, though.

yes, my mum was 30s in the 80s and a mum and she had a haircut like that (actually looking at photos it really suited her). So it was fashionable, although I suspect people in their teens and twenties would have had other influences. I don't think she was consciously trying to look llike Diana or even admired her particularyl but that haircut was fashionable.

But also whats funny about people mentioning frumpy calf length floral dresses is those clothes are fashionable now although with trainers not court shoes. Not for me because I am old enough to associate it with looking old,.

@yetanothernamitynamechange

But also whats funny about people mentioning frumpy calf length floral dresses is those clothes are fashionable now although with trainers not court shoes. Not for me because I am old enough to associate it with looking old,.

Calf length floral dresses worn with DMs were the business in the early 90s!

All these things go round and round. Hold onto any item of clothing long enough and it'll come back into fashion.

I dunno about the 'Diana' being fashionable, but I know when I went to the hairdresser circa 1984 and asked for a very short cut, I got a Jayne Torville bouffant. It wasn't at all what I wanted, but the hairdressers seemed to get a bee in their bonnets about copying current celebrities. So maybe that happened with 'the Diana'?

Today's teens and 20 somethings must find it difficult to believe that short hair was actually fashionable in the 80s.

I know, in my neck of the woods, Claire Grogan from Gregory's Girl was the teen boy fantasy - with her short brown hair. She was gorgeous mind (I've just googled, she still is )

@SerenDippitty

Today's teens and 20 somethings must find it difficult to believe that short hair was actually fashionable in the 80s.

I don’t know why, there’s plenty of photographic evidence of it.

The best one for me is one foot in the grave - Victor Meldrew was 54 and his wife was 56 and they looked and dressed much older lol

This might out me but I am not worried
I am mid 70s a great grandmother and I like to think I look younger.My mother at my age dressed like an old lady and so did my grandmother.
My mother was 24 when I was born and always wore dresses, which she called frocks, or skirts and blouses. Never seen in trousers. Short hair and flat shoes.
I wear trousers, leggings, short skirts and black tights.I have inherited my mother's bad feet though and can no longer wear high heels regretfully.Although I am forced to wear flat shoes I like to keep them youthful looking.I have small feet so can wear child sizes.
When I look at photos of my mother, grandmother and other female relatives from my childhood they all look much older than they actually are.Women in those days were considered to be 'fast" if they dressed younger than they were.
I have a photo of one of my great grandmothers sitting on a chair wearing a stiff looking black dress buttoned all the way up to the neck with long sleeves and long skirt.She was probably no older than me when this photo was taken.

My grandparents were early 60’s when I was born pictures of them holding me my granddad looks about 80 my Nan looked her age she was very pretty still

I think different attitudes and many of our grandparents had harder lives and many wouldn’t have had a great diet not many fresh vegetables and very little fruit

I think some fashions are ageing the 80’s look certainly was

Life was physically harder and it took its toll. It wasn't just about clothes and hair.
Yes, indeed. I was looking at 1930s photos of working-class Spanish children aged 9 and 11 a couple of weeks ago and their faces looked incredibly adult. I would have thought they were in their late twenties.

many wouldn’t have had a great diet not many fresh vegetables and very little fruit

They had a better diet than us. No processed foods, small amounts of sugar, plenty of fruit and veg but what was in season. Apparently the war time diet was incredibly healthy despite rationing. My parents ate far better than we do.

I think that depends on your family

My grandparents may not have eaten processed food And less sugar but food was limited. Potatoes carrots and more potatoes little meat, fish and dairy. They often went hungry (which wasn’t so unusual in working class families before the war)

Now it’s more that we over indulge

Yes and of course for many life was physically harder

My nanny walked a few miles to school through the Yorkshire countryside No matter what the weather was like

I doubt she was wearing a puffa jacket to keep her warm her brother working down the mines at 15

My granddad was working at 15 in ship building

@Heartofglass12345

The best one for me is one foot in the grave - Victor Meldrew was 54 and his wife was 56 and they looked and dressed much older lol

No fucking way!!!!!

It's not entirely true that people in the '50s and earlier didn't eat much sugar. Home baking was very popular and every village had a sweet shop. Sweet things were my granny's downfall and she died of a heart attack when she was 62. I always remember her as being an ancient old lady, but she never really got to be old. She was another one whose personal style made her seem older than she was.

Weirdly, she worked as a dressmaker and was au fait with all kinds of women's fashion, including Mary Quant patterns and really up-to-the-minute wedding dresses.

@TheSmallClangerWhistlesAgain

It's not entirely true that people in the '50s and earlier didn't eat much sugar. Home baking was very popular and every village had a sweet shop. Sweet things were my granny's downfall and she died of a heart attack when she was 62. I always remember her as being an ancient old lady, but she never really got to be old. She was another one whose personal style made her seem older than she was.

Weirdly, she worked as a dressmaker and was au fait with all kinds of women's fashion, including Mary Quant patterns and really up-to-the-minute wedding dresses.

Sweets were rationed when I was born. Sugar had only just come off ration. The low fat fad ensured just about everything was filled with sugar from the 1980s on. Obesity and type2 diabetes were so rare as to be almost unheard of then. The 21st century diet is far unhealthier than 50 or 60 years ago.

This thread is really interesting!