Strange ideas about age, ageism on S&B.

[Pangolin44]

A bit of a mangled thread title, but I'm always slightly agog when it comes to age on this board.

So many 'Can I wear X at Y age?' threads. So many comments about 'age-appropriate' attire. Mutton-dressed-as-lamb always rears its head. Granny shoes, frumpy coats, 'I'm 35 am I too old for mini-skirts?'.

And don't get me started on hair! Bejeysus.

And this is women, talking to other women.

It makes me sad more than anything else, people are obviously posting on this board because they're interested in clothes and style, why close off any area of style because of age? The thought that women think they can't express themselves physically due to an imagined arbitrary cut-off.

I would love to free women from this idea, what's the worst that can happen?

Great pics milkyaqya, thank you. Inspiration is so important.

Sorry - milkyaqua

I also enjoy fashion by the way, and I'm quite fascinated by trends even if I don't always copy them.

@SirVixofVixHall and@TottersBlankly having read your earlier posts I really want to see your clothes. Feel free to post pics of your favourite pieces!

I love clothes and I've just realised I treat that as a guilty pleasure. I downplay it to my friends because none of them are particularly interested in fashion. I have multiple cats of various colours and they shed all over my clothes, so I tend to keep the good stuff in the wardrobe (I don't go out much these days, for various reasons). I just like having nice things - and sometimes I want to be a slightly different kind of person and I feel clothes might do that for me.

I wish you could join a fashion club, like a book club, just to meet with likeminded people and discuss. Theoretically S&B could fulfil that function but as other posters have pointed out, it doesn't often work out that way.

@MarieRoseMarie

Why would you say that??

Say what exactly?

This entire thread is a dig at women with certain style preferences. I don’t see why your style preferences are sacred but any woman who dares care about “trends” needs to be pitied.

I wish you could join a fashion club, like a book club, just to meet with likeminded people and discuss. Theoretically S&B could fulfil that function but as other posters have pointed out, it doesn't often work out that way.

That's exactly what I thought I'd found when I first discovered S&B, not necessarily a fashion club, as I realise not everyone is into fashion, but a club for clothes heads, regardless of budget.

I really don't know where your last 2 posts are coming from MarieRoseMarie.

Your summary of the thread isn't what's on the thread

You are a stunner !

Maybe we should just start the club and ignore hecklers. We could do handbags first.....
(That's a joke, I'm not even into handbags.)

Isn’t there already a Paris-leaning clothes-head club on MN? I’m not much of a joiner so only take a glance occasionally - but it seems to fulfil that function.

(Always remember when I first joined MN years ago I tried dipping my foot into the MN Vogue thread - and was roundly ignored. 😭)

Yes Totters - and very remiss of me not to mention it as I post on it!
And you don't have to be into Parisienne style dressing - I'm not. I'd say what's (arguably) French about it is that there's a lot of talk about clothes and what they mean (and more besides) rather than just 'What can I wear for....' although we do that too.

I've avoided the Parisienne de Mamansnet thread because (a) I don't think French women are sooo much more stylish than British women (b) the "Parisienne style dressing" praised on MN is just the teeniest, weeniest bit dull (and (c) don't get the love for Sezanne)

I suppose if one were going to use broadbrush national stereotypes I'd pick English eccentric over Parisienne style.

The Parisiennes threads started that way, thanks to the OP who had just returned from a weekend, but they have moved on and mutated. It's definitely for clothes-heads, but it ventures into sewing, art and exhibitions, sales and secondhand, and lots of random digression. The OP has long gone, but a fair few have stuck around to hang out. There's no national sterotype.

I shall give the Parisienne threads a go. I was put off because I assumed they were about French fashion - which doesn’t tend to work for me.

There are one or two posters who are very knowledgeable about Paris / France but that's not the main focus at all. I guess the name stayed the same because posters come and go and come back again and it makes the thread easy to spot.

Thanks, I'll have a look.

I always enjoyed following the MN Vogue thread too although I didn't post. But from what I remember, it died a death at least partly because people didn't feel comfortable posting any more, which I thought was a shame.

I find it rather sad that people (and I say people rather than women, but I think it might be a particularly female thing) rush to the defensive when presented with difference. I think that’s why these threads so quickly become confrontational; also the dark underbelly of the generally deliciously complex semiotics of clothing choices.

IIRC the Mumsnet Vogue mainstay posters were targeted when they organised meets. They were mostly in London and did actually go out together and meet up regularly. They probably still do. but don't broadcast it. It was a fun thread, I lurked there.

The Parisienne thread sequence works if you read the current thread, bounce on, introduce yourself (at which point most regulars will say hi and welcome) and then you stick and comment, or not. It's participative. If you pop on to say that you hate S&B, then we will ignore you completely. It's purely for clothes-heads, and we all like different stuff. Some people spend almost nothing, and everyone is interested in a bargain. So it's not about how much money you have to spend, and I hope it never is.