Mutton

[NigellasGuest]

Following recent posts I've noticed on the S&B board, I would really love to know what is mutton dressed as lamb? As in, can anyone actually define it or post a picture of someone who is mutton dressed as lamb? To my mind it doesn't actually exist, and is just another way of saying "badly dressed". People seem to use it as in, I need an outfit but I don't want to look like MDAL but what do they REALLY mean by this? if a dress doesnt look right on you then to my mind it's because it's too short or too long for your proportions or you have the wrong shoes with it, or another reason like that. This mutton thing is just lazy talk I think.

I'm getting on in years - in my 50s - and if I get dressed and don't like what I see, I don't think I look like MDAL. I just think I'm badly dressed.

Wear what you like. Someone will always judge you. I do think that Brigitte Macron looks like an Essex nan though. But if she’s happy with that look, good on her.

Essex nan!? 🤣

And her legs are covered. as long as it's not New Look skinny jeans, eh?

Sooooooo chic. Seems it can be done!

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It's agesim. It's about making a woman feel bad about what clothes she wears. These comments come equally from men and women and say more about the person saying it than who they are commenting on.

Sharing the love for Carine Roitfeld - she's what I aim (but undoubtedly fail) to look like on my good days.

Another French one. Born in 1957.
Fabulous.

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I have a friend in her early sixties who is an Absolute style icon. She wears all sorts - skinny jeans, dungarees, pleated skirts, Stan Smith's, dm's and she looks amazing. She mixes textures and colours and styles. I guess some people might sneer at her, but they wouldn't be people who I would care to listen to.

It is a horrible, judgy phrase which seems to want older women to keep themselves hidden.

It's a term that belongs in a museum. People who use it/think it are rather old fashioned imo.
Confident women in general think fuck it I will wear exactly what I want at any age.
It comes from an era when people were happy to wear shit clothes and make out they were old at 40, had no interest in looking good, fashion etc. The rare person who broke the mould had to be ridiculed for fear of leading others astray.

AnnabelleLecter did they really have no interest or no opportunity?

My be-permed, tabard-wearing, factory-working grandmother got a degree in her mid-sixties. Whilst not obvs getting a career after that, she got a job on the fashion floor in Fenwicks of Newcastle. She developed her own style which although by no means magazine-worthy, boosted her confidence massively after being a widow with 5 daughters for 30 years.

She rocked and looked bloody brill and felt fabulous while doing so.

Anybody can wear what they like but you can rock middle age in a stylish way without trying to look like a teenager. It smacks of desperation to try and wear the same clothes as a teenager or somebody in their 20s. A lot of disingenuous posts on here, veritable saints not judging people when I am sure they would raise an eyebrow at a 60 year old wearing tight denim hotpants or a pelmet snd stilletoes. Stan Smiths, mini skirts with opaques are not mutton, but lots of clothes are.

BTW I was wearing a pair of jeans once that I had for a while. I asked myself were they a bit mutton. Turns out they were. A woman and her teenage daughter did that cough thing when they saw me where they were disguising the word mutton. They were right, if a bit cruel in not keeping it to themselves, but luckily I have got a thick skin and I found it quite funny. Sticks and stones and all that. Mutton is just a shorthand expression to explain a look. I am middle aged so don’t actually care what people think I look like, but I do care if somebody thinks I look desperate.

Everybody judges everybody, although women get it the most. Life is one big judgement and I don’t believe a lot of the posters on here.

All of these older women, that people agree are stylish, are not displaying swathes of crepey, orange flesh, are they? There is no wrinkly cleavage, flapping bingo wings, knees where gravity has struck or cellulitey thighs. They are all stylishly dressed, but quite covered up, They also have great hair, which is either coloured well or grey and with a good cut.

BM, in contrast, is flapping her wings, showing her legs, and has overly blonde hair that looks like a helmet. Her skin is unflatteringly orange and her make up is stuck in the 1980s. This is why she looks "wrong".

Ok if we're talking about not believing posters, I'll bite. I don't believe posters who talk about 60 year olds wearing denim hotpants actually look at older women at all. I bet if I walked past them naked they wouldn't notice me. The fact that when challenged, they invariably come up with Liz Mcdonald says it all. Here's a clue, Liz Mcdonald isn't real.

Look at the things middle aged women ask on here: Can I wear trainers? Can I wear a hoody? What about a bomber jacket? Some of them aren't even 40. That's the reality of being a middle aged woman trying to find their style. I will happily reply to posts like that and I'm happy to have a ding dong row about this on a different thread because I'm interested in this stuff. But as far as I'm concerned, any poster who has so little respect for women that they think it's ok to talk about them as if they're lumps of meat is not worth the time of day.

Jean from Fabulous Fashionistas - not mutton

Lizzy Cindy - a real Liz. The very definition of mutton.

I see no advantage in trying to make the term "mutton" acceptable. How is it ok to refer to an entire group of women that are no longer in their 20's, by such a misogynistic term? No matter how much you excuse yourself, your ageism shows and that puts in my mind an image of you with an ugly mind, pathetic low levels of self esteem, all wrapped up in stupidity.
Why do you think it is ok to use this term?
WTF are you actually trying to argue for?
What is the point of this thread?

Rosemary46 - I love that link upthread!

Whatever they fucking want indeed.

I (50s) am going to send it to my Mum (80s).

Thanks for deigning to bite Flo.

And I don't know where you have seen "swathes" of crepey flesh, wrinkly cleavages, and cellulite, on all women over the age of 35. I've seen more than my fair share on women much younger than me, I don't have any and am in my 40's. So this has nothing to do with age. And perhaps you ought to stop looking at instagram, and maybe look at real women, who mostly have everything you have expressed such an objection to. Perhaps you feel, that you are not 'perfect' enough, and therefore feel it is in your remit to police the whole of woman kind.
It's just so sad

I want to be Linda Rodin when I'm 67 ( I'd love to be her now if I'm honest) funky, stylish ... Some people may say she dresses too young but I love her and think she's fabulous.

'Mutton dressed as lamb' is more insulting to the lamb than the sheep. It's the young people who should find it offensive not the badly dressed older person the phrase in aimed at.

Some of the posters on here, apart from living their lives in a saintly, blameless non judgey way, actually seem quite judgey themselves.

Wear what you like. But you can’t stop people judging that the clothes you might be wearing look wrong on you. The Fabuolous Fashionista Woman is wearing what could be termed young clothes, but she is not wearing them in a desperate way to look sexually relevant like Liz C. Liz C just looks desperate. You can look sexually relevant (if you want to) at any age - Mirren, Lumley, Blackman etc.

How is it ok to refer to an entire group of women that are no longer in their 20's, by such a misogynistic term?

You have missed the point. No one is doing that. What some people are doing, is pointing out that clothing which is skimpy is designed for young women and it looks frankly wrong on other age groups.

Joanna Lumley is absolutely fab. She has class.

Who is Liz C?
Is she not as already pointed out, a fictional character?
I look bloody good in a short skirt and no tights, I look amazing in figure hugging clothes, and if I want to, I can dress is a sexually attractive manner. Most teenagers I know wear baggy clothes and skat shoes, no one wears crop tops and short skirts. What the hell is this thread about?

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Just wow