Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Style and beauty

Looking for style advice? Chat all about it here. For the latest discounts on fashion and beauty, sign up for Mumsnet Moneysaver emails.

Original poster

"AmI too old to wear...?" No. You are not.

103 replies

Trills · 23/04/2017 16:09

You are never "too old" to wear anything.

There are many things that you might not look good in, or might not feel comfortable in*, but your age is not the reason.

This also applies to hairstyles and makeup.

(*not feeling comfortable in something is a quick way to not look good in it, because your body language will show that you're not happy with it)

This is not a TAAT, this is a TA Many Ts.

OP posts:
Original poster
Trills · 23/04/2017 20:00

Your great aunt is more stylish than mine then!

Mine has some coolness, but not in her dress sense.

OP posts:
Floisme · 23/04/2017 20:07

Actually I don't think our mums and aunties actively chose to dress 'like old ladies'. I'd say they just carried on wearing what they'd worn when they were young, which is pretty much what most of us do. I think the difference today is that young people haven't really created a look of their own. Personally I hope they do soon, even though it will consign me to fashion irrelevance. I'm bored with everyone dressing the same.

Original poster
Trills · 23/04/2017 20:10

That's true for some of them but not all. It depends on whether they were interested in clothes in the first place.

I expect a lot of our mums and aunties would have liked to continue to evolve their look as time went on, but were told that they had to "dress like a grownup now" or that they "shouldn't try to be sexy now they had children" or that they "were mutton dressed as lamb" or other crap like that.

OP posts:
Gingersstuff · 23/04/2017 20:12

I'm 47 and a size 16 and I whatever the hell I like. I have a large collection of Irregular Choice shoes which I wear pretty much every day if I'm not in biker boots or Converse, and I'm currently eyeing up some fabulous Wonder Woman leggings.
My 16 yo DD told me last night that I was much cooler than other mums as I don't look like them or dress like them. I thought that might have been the greatest compliment I've ever received.
It helps that for some time now, I have given less than zero fucks as to what people think or what might be appropriate attire for my "age".

Swimminguphill · 23/04/2017 20:17

I think age as in the number you are is super misleading. I am nearly 39 and mainly rocking my Foo Fighters t-shirt and h & m stretchy jersey dresses. Pretty much what I would have worn at 16 if I had been slimmer! I look better now than I have at any point I think. I feel fit and strong and can wear things I couldn't before because I don't give a shit any more if other people think it's appropriate. I bought a denim mini when pregnant with ds1 because I as sure I would get really thin straight after birth because that is what happened to my sister (hollow laughter). It sat in my cupboard for 5 years but now I wear it (with leggings so I don't flash my pants when helping ds2 into the swing seats) and I feel ALIVE! Life is too damn short. If I want to dress like SJP in the credits to SATC I will. Ok so any loose skin can be blobbier than when I was 20 and I firmly believe fashion should be enabling and empowering so if you don't feel comfortable don't wear it but you can be a mum, be pushing 40 (or more) and have bodily imperfections and still wear anything that makes you feel good...

mewkins · 23/04/2017 20:18

Agreed. I realised a few years ago in my mid 30s that I had spent my life being worried about what I looked like and not wearing certain things because they drew attention or showed too much flesh. I realised that I probably look as good as I will ever look so will wear wtf I like. It is very liberating.

Floisme · 23/04/2017 20:19

Yeah partly that. I do remember though that my mum and at least one of my aunties both really liked their clothes but the 60s came as such a shock that I don't think it even occurred to them that they could follow it too. (They were in their 40s at the time.) I don't think there's really been an equivalent sea change since then so it's hard to know how we'd react now.

mewkins · 23/04/2017 20:19

(Swimming, great minds obviously think alike!! )

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 23/04/2017 20:20

I still wear bunches occasionally and I am nearly 50. So shoot me.

Great thread, Trills.

Floisme · 23/04/2017 20:20

Sorry that was for Trills several posts ago. I spent far too long typing it!

Swimminguphill · 23/04/2017 20:22

Wink mewkins let clothes be clothes!

CountFosco · 23/04/2017 20:23

I think we are still suffering from the effects of the invention of the teenager in the 1950s when suddenly the young started dressing differently to grown ups. So fashion for young and 'old' people was very different. However, I do think we are now moving back to an earlier tradition where every age can dress the same, I'm far less concerned with being MDAL than my mother was at the same age.

I have to say all the examples given above I can easily image older women wearing, e.g. dungarees, don't think Bum40 looks any more ridiculous than any of the teenage models wearing dungarees, do you?

There do seem to be a lot of these 'Am I too old?' posts from frankly young women in their 30s. However I think in your 30s you are often trying to look older to get credibility at work (or was that just me because I looked so young?), in their 40s people at work seem to be going for more of a high fashion look because they are out of the baby years generally and are senior enough to not give a fuck. Notwithstanding the odd 'Am I too old to wear trainers now I'm in my 50s' posts you see every so often. Since every second 80 something I know wears trainers because they are so comfy I do wonder where these people live that it's such a crime to wear trainers in your 50s.

Zxyzoey31 · 23/04/2017 20:27

I so agree OP.

Age is not the factor why some thing does not look right or feel right on somebody. I still wear some things I wore 20 years ago and unless some awful health issue befalls me I intend to wear the same hemlines etc when I am 20 years older than now.

I find it sad how many posts there are asking about it. But I also think that one reason might be that people can have a lot of life changes in their 30s and can lose themselves a bit and get lost about what their style is or should be.

CountFosco · 23/04/2017 20:28

I am nearly 39 and mainly rocking my Foo Fighters t-shirt

Since the Foo Fighters are in their late 40s and 50s if anything you are a bit young to be wearing a FF t-shirt.

CountFosco · 23/04/2017 20:30

Oh, and I'm 46, 5'2" and have recently started wearing minis again after not wearing them since the 1990s and am wondering why I ever stopped, I look fucking amazing in a mini (helps that I swim every day and so have fantastic legs).

Swimminguphill · 23/04/2017 20:34

Count Fosco the Foo Fighters formed when I was 16, so I think I can credibly wear their t-shirt. But on reflection, I genuinely don't give a shit if I can or not Hmm. Off to don my Common baseball cap...

itsacatastrophe · 23/04/2017 20:42

Absolutely! Never too old to be happy and have fun

"AmI too old to wear...?" No. You are not.
"AmI too old to wear...?" No. You are not.
"AmI too old to wear...?" No. You are not.
Original poster
Trills · 23/04/2017 21:07

That's a great point about your 30s being a time when many things in your life might chance and so you might feel a bit cast adrift.

Maybe I should be gentler while still saying "No, don't be bloody ridiculous, why do you think that?"

OP posts:
Original poster
Trills · 23/04/2017 21:07

*change

OP posts:
Floisme · 23/04/2017 22:32

It's an interesting point. I don't remember feeling at all like that in my 30s but my baby/toddler years came in my 40s and then I hit the menopause and woke up to find I was 55 Grin

BroomstickOfLove · 23/04/2017 22:39

I was a fashionableish, slim 30 year old with a job I enjoyed and then I was an exhausted plump SAHM with no money for clothes for a decade.

JemimaMuddledUp · 24/04/2017 08:05

Maybe it's different if you have teenage DC. I do, and feel that dressing too similarly to them would really cramp their style. My DM was a 60s teenager who firmly believed in never being too old to wear the latest trends, I remember being mortified when I was 12/13/14 and she would wear similar things to me. I have no plans to do the same to my DC! (although their Grandma still might Hmm)

AuntieStella · 24/04/2017 08:12

Casual ageism is a problem, including on MN and especially in S&B and on Christmas present ideas threads (yes, there's a difference between children, teens and actual grown ups, but you don't magically lose all your hobbies and interests between the ages of 30-60)

I'm always heartened to see posters chipping away at it.

I'm a 50-something who wears miniskirts, btw...

ShelaghTurner · 24/04/2017 08:24

Bollocks to a lot of this. I'm fat, very fat and these last few months I have realised that the world does not end if I wear my leggings out of the house in daylight hours. And you know what? They are so comfortable! So what the hell do I care? Similarly boiling my tits off in cardigans in the summer. Last year I let my upper arms out and again, no one died.

I'm just about to embark on walking (running when I'm able) and I'll be wearing leggings. Tough tits to anyone who doesn't like the sight.

And you know what else? The sneery, bitchy 'mum boots' and 'mum jeans' can fuck right off. Wear whatever the hell you like. Life's too short.

kalinkafoxtrot45 · 24/04/2017 08:37

49 and still wearing what I liked up wear 20 years back: trouser suits and smart dresses for work, and dresses with tights or leggings, and jeans and band T-shirts at the weekend. Still looking fine.

Swipe left for the next trending thread