This season it's all YELLOW and FUSCHIA - Ageism is RAMPANT in fashion [bows]

[ahundredtimes]

Seriously.

No more boho chick they say. Now the moment is 'Biba and Ossie Clark. An early 70s, Art Nouveau-ish tripping off into the kind of tendrilly doodles girls used to scrawl on their bedroom walls after studying their hippie-romantic rock album covers'. Does that mean ANYTHING to anyone?

Can you be nearly 40 and wear a large silk corsage with style?

Can you be nearly 40 and wear a tea dress?

Can you be nearly 40 and wear harem pants?

Can you be nearly 40 and wear bright yellow?

Can you be nearly 40 and be in the moment?

No, I say, no. You cannot.

The revolution starts here.

[buttons up black cardigan, tailored black cardigan]

As i sit here head to toe in taupe I will join your revolution!

Marvellous.

We are going to storm the offices of Conde Nasty once we've got our sensible shoes on.

i am nearly 40 and am currently sporting a fuchsia vest beneath a grey and purple striped top.

Yellow makes me look like an ageing alcoholic....which I probably am

Is it like ' a stab in the eye' fuschia? Because it's meant to be. The 'under' aspect of it is allowed - would you wear a fuschia dress? I wouldn't dare, it would match my cheeks.

[monochrome emoticon]

oh crikey did I miss boho chic?

I'm really not convinced yellow does anyone over 25 many favours. But I wait to be shown otherwise.

what are you reading 100x?

Vogue.com

Observer 'Women'.

And very shortly, Vogue.

I love Vogue, I know I shouldn't, it is my guilty pleasure - like the RT is your Cappy. And therein lies the difference between us.

I like the adverts in Vogue. [hopeless shrug]

the RT has never told me to wear fuchsia or doodles

(are we wearing the doodles or doing them?)

LOL.

That's it. I am having a magazine crisis. I need to stop chaining myself to the rails outside Conde Nasty and demanding Equal Fashion Rights.

I did to crack open the rich tea and open the RT. (See, that's so good it's almost poetic).

I think we are wearing frocks which are similar to the adolescent doodles of yesteryear

maybe not an entirely fuchsia ensemble but i do love it. and electric blue. not yellow no no never. i have never quite understood what a tea dress is, is it floaty or structured, sprigged or busy florals??

Just a moment Fishie and I shall tell you

I love Vogue too - despite the fact that for them, anything over about a size 12 is mahoosive. And the whole lifestyle they portray is so completely out of my experience.

I think you can nod to fashion, whatever your age (although I agree about the harem pants - best avoided). Though I'm not always clear how to be vaguely in fashion without following it. I do try, though.

I used to doodle people in jail for some reason - endless little boxes with stick men

[mad]

I wonder what kind of dresses they would have made?

(how is it going with the RT then?)

'You can take it to be a chiffony, floaty, printy sort of dress, cinched at the waist, with a run of little buttons up the back and perhaps a puff of a sleeve . . . find your inner girl and take her out to tea.'

I DON'T WANT to find my inner girl, I want to embrace my inner and outer nearly 40 y-o woman, because she is what keeps turning up when I go out for tea.

jam stained kids turn up when I go out for tea

100x, a corsage would look lovely on your cardigan, you know

lol @ Cappy.

Oh god, I can't tell you just HOW MUCH I want a corsage actually. I have a mini pink silk one. I like it so much, and I WANT a huge one, but I can't, I will look insane. I know I will.

When I have got over this mid-life bit, then I can have a VAST corsage I think. Once I've got over the dignity thing.

Have to say, what I find (at 42) works for me is to think of someone and almost dress as a character - what would, erm, Isabella Rossellini wear? (no laughing at the back, anyone who's seen me in rl - I'm definitely no IR, but hey, I can dream). And funky jewellery.

"cinched in at waist" hollow laughter. and my enormous shoulders would burst little tiny buttons (i once got a bicep stuck in esprit frock). while i am not a heffalump i do suspect they are only for very wispy ladies.

Yes fishie, it was the 'little run of buttons' that did for me not to mention 'a puff at the sleeves' - as if I need my upper arms emphasizing. . .

Jackie, I think you are on to something. I am going to think of a character. Not sure who though.

It doesn't even have to be a real person - maybe just an idea of someone.

Just went back to this month's copy of Vogue, and in an article about the Harrods fashion and beauty buyer, found a bit that made me lol - it says 'her two children used to beg her to wear Boden to school sports days, rather than her customary head-to-toe Chanel, Fendi and Roland [Mouret], in an attempt - doomed I fear - to blend in with the other mothers.'
My life is soooo different.

This is what we are all going to be wearing

I think not.

But twenty years ago? [happy sigh]

Actually, who am I kidding. I'd never have worn that twenty years ago.