Sitting in a hotel lounge, spying on a fellow guest...

[LavenderHills]

We're at a hotel in Vienna; it's bitterly cold and snowing outside. She's got slim fitting leather trousers tucked into chic little flat zippy boots. A long, drapey cardigan in the perfect charcoal shade, with a MASSIVE fur collar swathed about the neckline. Quilted leather handbag with a chain, very subtle, not tacky or blingy. Gorgeous hair, barely any makeup.

She's about the same age as me, too (early 30s). I'm sitting here in jeans and a jumper, wishing I looked so effortlessly cool.

Anyone care to share similar moments of stranger style envy with me?

There's rather too many slim and lovelies in well fitting jeans/leather leggings in Westfield for my liking! They also have the perfect shoes/boots/bag combo. Why don't they fuck off? Swines...

I wish I could find the perfect pair of leather trousers & and the perfect brogues. New years resolutions. Sigh.

In Italy in the spring: lots of old men (70/80+) wearing impeccably cut suits and looking absolutely bloody great. I was already getting bored of dresses but that was it - I came home and put them all into storage.

I think Europeans often buy a few expensive things they team together well. You see the same in Italy, especially the men who are often beautifully dressed. We went to the opera in Rome once I have never so many diamonds and black Amarni dresses in one room, and no one looked tacky!

My DH is Italian and he never wears "leisure" clothes, such a t-shirts or joggers. He says they never look good on men over thirty. He also never wears ankle socks because apparently nobody wants to catch a glimpse of middle-aged men's ankles.

My stylish moment was a woman in Venice (again!) who was basically wearing a leotard and a draped scarf - so many ways that could go wrong but she looked immaculate.

How is that that shabby/floppy type clothes look good on the young and slim and on me look slob? I think I know the answer.

The real trick is looking elegant when your figure, age and height are less than ideal.

I was in Brighton last year with some mates and we admired the style of three women who walked past us and into the MAC store. All were beautifully made up with lovely swishy highlighted hair. I can't remember the exact details of outfit but I can remember shiny midheeled boots, jeans tucked in and some drapy textured knitwear. No trainers and anoraks for them! They proper showed us up. It was only when we saw them again a little later I realised they were not originally women!

I saw an elderly lady at a bus stop once and was stunned by her the whole day. Her hair was white and cropped. I can't remember her jacket but she had skinny jeans on, periwinkle blue converse shoes and a huge scarf wrapped round her neck in the same shade of blue. That was when I decided to avoid mushroom and beige like the plague when I reach her age!

I think the key is good hair and good posture - neither of which I have!

lurking

Good posture (and being slim) makes a massive difference. And that's really about being fit and flexible, you move with an ease that looks youthful. The clothes you wear don't really matter if you carry yourself well.

I saw a middle aged woman in a department store in central London who had the best hair I have ever seen. Swishy and sherry coloured but tonal, with a mirror shine. Simple clothes that draped, she just screamed class and good taste. I have never seen hair that good.

You've reminded me of a woman I saw at a shopping outlet.

Her hair - never seen anything like it before or since. It was black, shoulder length, dead straight sleek bob. But she'd had red 'flames' dyed into it at the ends - it looked like fire licking up through her hair.

Bet it looked shite next day though.

One that sticks in my mind was a woman of about 60 I saw in my town a few years ago. Black t-shirt, baggyish cream jeans, cream sandals, no make-up (and a bit weatherbeaten), long streaky-blonde hair in very good condition, and the thing that really made it special was a rather battered straw panama that looked as if it must have been on lots of exciting adventures with her. And she carried herself well - graceful, like a dancer.

Another woman who might well have been 70, last winter at a craft fair: black skinny jeans, black and grey spotty tunic top (think it might have been Masai), red circle scarf, red Fly boots and a bright yellow bag. It was the surprise element of not picking a red bag to match the other accessories that made that one for me.