How to not look middle aged

[Justtakeatowel]

I've seen a few pictures of my recently and I look frumpy. I don't mind looking my age (mid 40s) but I just look uurgh.

I've started curly girl and I think curly hair ages me loads! Where do I need to buy from to make myself a bit more with it? I've a tendency to buy cheap supermarket stuff which I think isn't always cut the best and I'm willing to spend a bit more.

I'm 5 ft 7 and 9 stone 9 if that makes a difference but a definite apple and have a bit of a belly which I think adds to the frumpiness

Thanks!

Whatever you think of Lucy Worsley as style icon (who knew ) - she does not look like the sea of frumpy supermarket middle-aged women that the OP presumably wants to distinguish herself from.

The point then is to have a clear and deliberate sense of style, whatever that style is going to be - art teacher or monochrome or street style or vintage or whatever - and just go for it, with hard cash.

I don’t understand cos. Most of the clothes make me look like a bag. I’m average height and weight, and baggy or shapeless is hard to pull off I find unless you team it with the right stuff.

Lucy W seems very attractive. She has a distinctive style. Not my taste but it is hers.

I am enjoying all the sweeping generalisations and absolute statements on this thread.

Different people suit different things, different people like different things. I might look at someone and think, she looks great; someone sitting next to me may think the complete opposite.

Our ideas of what is aging vary hugely also; upthread a number of people have agreed that being overweight is aging, yet when I think of people looking really old, it's a very thin person I picture.

@Sunnydays123456

Don’t cut hair , short hair is sooooo ageing

It might be on some people, on others it takes years off. The short back and sides helmet a lot of women have does nothing for anyone.

I think sometimes getting clothes that are for younger people, the odd top or dress from top shop, can wake up a wardrobe that can look a bit expensive but dull too.

It has to be something that suits though! Like shirts, long dresses, shift dress. No festival dresses...

I need a puffer jacket/coat as where I live is freezing in winter. I think this look is relatively stylish. Although to be honest by the time winter comes I’m more interested in warm than stylish, especially as a teacher we may have to teach some lessons in a marquee/outside due to social distancing space requirements!

Also layering coats/jackets can be a bit more interesting/stylish than just a camel coat. I like this

@Railingsohno where's that from? I think you have to be quite tall and slim for that much padding though

[quote chubbyhotchoc]@Railingsohno where's that from? I think you have to be quite tall and slim for that much padding though[/quote]
Hi it’s an Instagram account I follow. Livelovesara a Canadian blogger.

I like the layered look.

I'm curly girling my hair and loving it, not much choice as lockdown meant I couldn't maintain my longish Bob. I also found going a shade lighter with my hair ( I'm naturally almost black haired but greying dramatically) means I have less visible grey roots and I'm sure the caramel highlights make me look younger! Thank christ I had them done before lockdown. I now touch up roots with a dark blonde colour to cover my greys. Op I wish I was 9 stone 9, I'm only 5 '3 and just over 10 stone. Mainly ass. So I wear decent jeans and trousers that cost more than the rest of my wardrobe put together. Cheap tops are OK but imo if the cut of your trousers is wrong then you are truly fucked. I've also found wearing less makeup is better for ageing, might be the hair colour, I dunno.

Short hair is shit on me. But a good friend had her hair cropped and made blonde ( she's mouse) and looked amazing, took at least 10 years off her ( she's mid 40s)

Classic but has a bit of an edge - maybe her hair helps? Also the cropped high waist straight jeans are more up to date. I’m learning that it’s often about the details.

I’ll shut up now! 😁 Those pictures aren’t me by the way- I wish!

Short hair can look fabulous if you have good bone structure. It looks shocking on me.

I’m struggling with those who have named Lucy Worsley as someone who is stylish. I think she’s somewhere between dreadful frumpy and looking like a toddler’s idea of how an adult should dress.

I don't think there is one way to be stylish. I think she always looks interested, enthusiastic and as though she is having fun. I think her clothes reflect her interest in historical fashion.

At some point everyone is going to look old. Better to look alive than desperately try to fight the consequences of having lived.

@IrmaFayLear

Cos and arket are ok if you are a 6ft Scandinavian, less good if you are 5’3” with hips and boobs.

Wool camel coats look very nice - but crisp sunny days are few and far between in the U.K. There is a good reason why the anorak is our national costume!

I also disagree I'm afraid . I look rubbish in Cos and I'm 5'9 and a size 10. I haven't ever got anything from Arket either, but have quite a few dresses from Other Stories and often get complimented for them.

I don’t think we need to be rude about each others choices! Just makes people feel bad which isn’t very nice when the point of the thread was to encourage! 🤷‍♀️

There’s a certain ‘look’ I think (think Peruvian Connection, Toast and Poetry et al) which is to say well heeled but ever so slightly staid. Individual pieces from all of the above are great just if you invest in the whole thing head to toe, it can be a bit ageing. I love a good Breton top, biker jacket and naice dress myself, but then I tend to wear them with something a bit off beat to stop it all looking a bit polite

Ps that wasn’t aimed at you @AnnaNimmity, I think cross posted

I think we cross posted

Brilliant thread.

OP I’m a different shape to you being shorter but don’t like the change either but we have to go with it!

I have found Uniqlo great for trying affordable things that are much less frumpy than the white stuff trap I had fallen into. The website has a Lookbook which is handy for finding a look you want to try and it’s then easy to buy stuff.

www.uniqlo.com/uk/en/lookbook?dptid=women

I have been wearing some of their tops and t shirts with some M&S trousers (need petite for my short legs) and I feel so much more together than in the patterned tops from the local shops that lose their shape and I just look a mess in.

@Craftycorvid I like the sound of your look.

I have just invested in a All Saints biker jacket and I really don’t see it as a dated trend. Surely it’s a classic

well I hope so. It was more than I usually spend

Tracy Ellis Ross looks amazing and not afraid to use colour and pattern.

Trace...