Can you dress too young for your age?

[Elliebobhobnob]

Can you dress too young for your age, and if so how would you define dressing too young?

It could be a man or woman.

I'm interested to know how someone would describe a person dressing too young.

Stop giving a shit, you'll be happier

I think I lost my way a bit in my 30s, which coincided with becoming a mother. I kind of felt I should be dressing a certain way out of work- which translated into safe and dull. Then I woke up and thought:"fuck it, you never used to follow the crowd, why start now?" And got my style back. I've always found it easier not being completely in fashion, because fashionable doesn't always suit me. I prefer timeless.

I love Joanne. She's 90. She can wear what the fuck she wants I say

www.instagram.com/pattipao1?igsh=NWk0MzljOHE1cXZt

I and my tartan dungarees would consider your opinion a load of tosh.

Quite. Don't like Disney so wouldn't. But if my son tried to tell me how to dress he'd soon remember whose body and whose clothes it was.

Tailored, smart, jacket and shirt are words that make me run for the hills. Do you realize how boring, safe, conservative and dull those descriptors sound? As someone said up thread it sounds like dressing for an office interview - no thanks!!

My 74 year old Mum says she would rather look like "Mutton dressed as Lamb" than "Mutton dressed as Mutton".

This made me laugh.

😆

@Idratherbepaddleboarding

girl, drop your workout routine/ diet!

@winterdarkness

how exactly do you define that?

Absolutely not a joke and I did insist. She lives in a small village in a Mediterranean country and my dad is her carer. If she went out like that, he'd be the talk of the town and be accused of not looking after her properly. So yes, I did insist because she looked ridiculous and because I don't want to embarrass him.

In the same way that I insist she wears lady Tenas even though she hates them, because I know what happens when she doesn't

With some regret, I agree. Clothing in general doesn't have a 'right age' as it did until some time in the 1960s. We can all wear short skirts, baggy jeans, whatever.

Young women sometimes dress in tight and/or cutaway clothing that exists to show off the wearer's firm & glowing naked flesh. Like it or not, the effect won't be the same on an older body. That's not to say you can't wear it, but you clearly won't be showing off the same kind of body.

So-called street clothing looks fine on anyone, but the edgier styles are meant to carry socio-political messages for gang members or young rebels. Adults should be expected to have formed more nuanced views and/or established some kind of place in society, so they look stupid wearing symbols of belonging to a youth cult.

One good thing about getting older is that you can wear strong and non-conformist styles with a lot more panache than a young person, should you wish. These days we can also wear 90% of mainstream fashion, so it's a win all round imo.

There's an old lady near me who dresses as a little girl. This isn't to say she wears young styles - she dresses, and does her hair & makeup, like a caricature of a little girl from the 1950s or thereabouts. I don't know why; the overall effect is just very sad.

38 is no age. This is me, 47.

Have you had children? I'll reserve judgement until I have the answer , great abs though

When does 'older' start? 🤔 Because I'd detest wearing that type of thing, frankly.

I wear leggings / joggers and t-shirts / hoodies most of the time. I have some (patterned / flowery, gasp!) dresses I wear in the office.

I'm on the eve of being 48, so imagine your post would have included me.

@user46826254287 you look amazing! I do worry that I’ll lose my body over the next 10 years or so but you’ve made me feel more confident 🥰. Can I ask what exercise you do?

@user46826254287

girl drop your diet and workout!

Out of interest, do you think that young bodies that are not 'firm and glowing' look good in revealing clothes? All the overweight young women, or the ones not blessed with 'the glow'? The plain ones? The untoned ones? Because when we start to unpick why exactly older women shouldn't wear certain styles, we often arrive at a bunch of asthetic criteria (which many young women don't meet either and are actually the preserve of very few) that in a nut shell says unless your body looks a very specific way, your clothing choices should be restricted. This has ramifications for all women, those who are over or underweight, who have disabilities, who are not conventionally attractive. I'm uncomfortable with that as a path to be on, and the way that linking it to age offers it a legitimacy.

I wear thigh high boots often. I have several pairs, the ones I wear most often are a velveteen pair with a block heel, with black tights or sometimes I'll roll them down to ankle height if It's warmer, without tights, then I have a pair of faux leather ones that are wide and flat, more casual, and another pair of velvetten ones that are flat with a zip up the front, dark blue and more formal. I'm early forties and slim/muscular. I think they look nice. If someone else doesn't then they don't have to look at me.

Good questions, @5128gap. Yes, I think revealing clothes are meant to display healthy young flesh. They look great on fat young women, whose flesh is often even more luscious than their thin sisters'.

I did say there's nothing stopping anyone wearing them! Those whose revealed nakedness is of a different quality will, obviously, look different in them.

Our fashion choices are a semiotic language - advertising, if you like. (Yes, they can convey a message of "I don't care about fashion". Mine often do, although I'm very interested in fashion!) Revealing outfits can suggest sexual availability regardless of the body on display. They can advertise a successful HIIT regime. They can proclaim pride in scars.

The point is that the wearer's chosen an above-average degree of nakedness, and the choice conveys a message. Not everyone will interpret the message as intended; such are the pitfalls of human communication. I'm pretty sure I would, actually: I've been observing this stuff since I wrote my dissertation on it fifty years ago!

You made a couple of seven-league jumps in your reply, which don't stand up to examination but I'm not about to write another dissertation here. It might be enough to point out that you can pay anything from £12 to £2,000 for a body-skimming mesh dress. Different women will wear them differently, conveying a range and mixture of messages that will be largely, but not universally, understood.

I personally don't think you can. Unless you are an adult, dressing like a literal baby. Everyone should wear what they want to and what they feel comfortable in. Nothing annoys me more than 'she's too old for this/that' or women stopping wearing something they love because someone has told them it's 'too young'.

I think I possibly know the answer to this but older women wearing shorts in summer is totally different regardless of age isn't it? They're not particularly making a statement other than it's hot and sunny hopefully! I'm nearly 60 and always wear fairly short shorts, my legs are probably my best feature but I'd hate to hear sniggering as I amble past.

how old were you when your children were born? You were either very young and your body recovered brilliantly, or you've had a LOT of time to work out. That's not the case for most mothers