to think there's no upper age limit to wear jeans?

[RandomGeocache]

My mum has always had some weird ideas about what's age appropriate for adults. Women over 30 shouldn't have long hair, for example.

She was telling me yesterday about having lunch with a friend who is in her 80s and turned up wearing jeans. "What's she doing wearing jeans at her age?" I suggested that she might be happy wearing jeans and comfortable in them and that there isn't an age limit. Oh yes there are, says Mum, "older people" shouldn't be wearing jeans.

Weirdo, isn't she?

This thread reminds me of those “If you’re over 40, Don’t do this” lists on FB. I giggle at them because if you read them through There is no hairstyle or clothing choice that is available to women past a certain age.

Short hair -nope pixies are for the youngins
Long hair -you’ll look like a crone
Curly hair -what are you an aging hippie?
Straight hair -pfft that will age you by 100 years
Jeans- of course not they were outlawed by the Denim Act
Skirts- not if they are short or long patterned or solid
T-shirt-You know what give up now go collect your bingo card, lyrics to “Bicycle Built for Two’, and burlap sack to wear

Did that person think they sounded superior? Because they in fact sounded like a paedophile

I am over 60 and look great in jeggings and wear short skirts -loss of compliments and no complaints.

Lots - not loss!

huh?!

I know a wonderful woman in her 80s who turns up to every party in leather trousers and an off the shoulder top. I know who has most fun in life between her and people like your mum.

That said if older people want to live by these rules, that up to them. My mum is in her 70s and AFAIK has never owned a pair of jeans. I don't know why, whatever the reason she's never tried to impose it on anyone else, but she hasn't and that's OK.

my understanding - have a background in history but not fashion-specific
c.1890s small section of women started wearing bloomer-esque trouser-type things as bicycling became very popular but this was still seen as quite scandalous
c. WWI - small section (mainly working class) women started wearing trousers at work when taking over traditionally male roles
c.late1920s-1930s - some women wore trousers but would have been occasionally and seen as a high fashion choice - see Katharine Hepburn, Edith on holiday in the latest Downton movie etc. Your average woman on the street wouldn't have been wearing them.
1940s - more women wore trousers again due to WW2 - wouldn't have been particularly shocking to see women in them but most would have still worn skirts the majority of the time. 1950s switch back to excessively feminine styles for a bit.
c.1960s - trousers slightly more widely worn, but (very short!) shorts were fashionable
c. 1970s onwards - trousers and shorts very popular particularly among younger generations - huge increase in jeans, bell bottoms etc. I would say it's from around here that trousers became completely normalised as daily wear, albeit there were still hangovers from the past for the next few decades - e.g. school dress codes or formal work codes in places like banking that specified women should wear skirts. So your MIL is at least 50 years out of date! Also doesn't make much sense, as as far as I'm aware most women in much hotter countries also wear trousers!

Plus if she wants to go back even further in history, for the majority of time we have any evidence for most MEN wore clothes that were more similar to skirts/dresses to our eyes than modern trousers - i.e. robes, tunics with legging type things until these became a more defined shirt/breeches c. late tudor times, and then shirt/trousers early 19th century. So if she wants to be properly traditional everyone should abandon trousers, not just men!

My parents are in their seventies and both wear jeans. My grandmother had very long hair right up until her death at 85. Your mother has some unusual beliefs OP!

ODFOD

I’m almost 59 and wore jeans (with a light blue & white striped shirt) today and was told I was ‘very well dressed and put together’. I was chuffed to bits at this compliment. I wear jeans a lot, it’s not a persons age, I think that if the jeans are clean, ironed and worn with something equally clean and ironed, age doesn’t come into it.

I find it very amusing to see the youngsters wearing 80s and 90s fashion that was admittedly dire back then and hasn’t aged well. That said, wear what you damn well like, say I, and have fun. My mum was of the generation that dressed as if about to take holy orders when they got to a certain age (about 40). I found a photo of her taken when she was roughly the age I am now and it’s a shocker to see that she is dressed like an ‘old lady’. She was very much of the school of thought that said once married with children, women should cut their hair short, don tweed and stop wearing make-up. It’s sad, but fortunately it’s not so common any more - if you genuinely get to a stage of thinking ‘sod it, I’m dressing for comfort and that’s that’, that’s great. It’s when people give up what they enjoy because they feel some kind of pressure to do so.

My grandmother who was born in 1917 did in 2017 (agreed 99 1/2 😁) had never owned or worn a paair of trousers

I love jeans and have always pretty much lived in them. I remember teenage me having a conversation with my mum about older people's clothing, and how I didn't imagine my generation would switch from wearing denim to wearing 'comfy slacks'. She confidently told me I was wrong and as we got older we would gravitate to beige.

Fast forward to my mum in her 70s, rocking her jeans up to the day she died, and showing no signs of crimplene attraction

Ironed jeans? The whole point of jeans is that they are low effort and comfy. To be fair, I don't iron anything though 😂

😁 I iron almost everything but then I have plenty of time on my hands. I don’t iron a crease in my jeans, I iron them between the seams if you know what I mean. They are comfy and low effort 😁

My German great aunts had long, white hair (always kept in a bun) well into their 80s, and they were both wearing jeans and white trainers too. A lot of asian women keep their hair long well into old age as well.

@BitchFaceResting
Well I'll continue wearing skinny/wide leg/mom jeans safe in the knowledge that, at 65, I look awesome in them.

Every. Single. Pair.

@noodlezoodle having absolutely lovely images of a support group meeting for the ‘crimplene attracted’. The sheer fire hazards would make health and safety a nightmare. 😂

I love wearing jeans (40s) but my teenagers will not wear them, they haven’t since they started choosing their own clothes (at about 8).

They would definitely need a fire marshal to manage all the static!

People now in their 80s were in their 20s in the 60s. They're the original jeans and long hair generation.

YANBU op,your mother is weird.

Couple over the road from us probably mid 70s so around 10 years older than us they dress very traditional him in trousers and shirts with v neck jumpers her skirt and blouse with cardigan maybe because born post war

There's no age limits on clothes.

If you buy into ageist ideas, then all you're doing is wrongly limiting yourself

It's a bit like thinking Chelsea pensioners like Vera Lynn, whereas now they're more likely to be in to Led Zep, Black Sabbath the Rolling Stones (and all the other rock acts now in their 70s)

My mum's 79 soon and was rocking a pair of bootcut jeans the other day ( with her hotter shoes)

65 and Jean wearing.