'Edgy' older women...

[ProstituteHair]

Gah!

I know I'm about to start a thread I've started before but there have been a few comments in S&B this week about 'desperate' older women trying to look fashionable and 'I wouldn't listen to 60 year-olds', both comments to OPs who were favouring a fairly safe style of dress in their 30s and trying to shake it up a but feeling a little moribund.

There's absolutely fuck-all wrong with a safe and classic style in it pulls your chain. Really, I have no beef there. It can look incredible.

However, who's to say that the 30-year-old advisees know more about fasion than the 60 year-olds they were belittling. Some 60 year old have worked in the fashion industry for decades. Some 30 year olds have no care about fashion beyond looking respectable.

And that's ok.

But it's not age-based, and there's an absolute joy with older women and fashion, it can be much more unconstrained. It's certainly not desperate for older women to be edgy or fashionable, I'd argue that the truly edgy dressers are older women (or men).

And the young too.

There's space for both, I'm not sure why it has to be stratified along age lines.

People either love clothes and want to look incredible or they like clothes and want to look respectable, (or they think it's all complete bolloocks and just want to cover themselves appropriately for the weather, and that's ok too!!).

@DramaAlpaca I hear you!

I'm 51, very hard to be heard.

Very hard to be seen.

And FUCK YOU to anyone that doesn't.

An applause to you all. I'm in. Wear the best you can afford in your own confidence budget and style.

The best.

The Best.

THE BEST.

There's young me.

I think older me looks much better.

Yeah but you are pretty fab!

Absolutely stunning. Then and always.
Style v quirky what is that? What you know you can wear 👍🏻

@4plusthehound & @Monty27

I was always very fond of myself.

I HATE the idea that I've gone over the top after 50.

I FUCKING LOVE CLOTHES.

Always have.

Always will.

I do not like to be told by younger women that I know fuck all.

I know fuck everything, friend.

Diane Keaton (77) epitomises what genuine style is about, IMO.

A look she's made uniquely her own, has sussed what works yet not afraid to experiment, a sense of playfulness, an appreciation of high-end but just as much love for thrift store, clever at adding a twist here and there.

She will forever be part-Annie Hall (yay!), but, equally, didn't get 'stuck' there in 1977.

Oh, and you looked and look ace, OP!

I hate the ageism on S&B.

I firmly believe style is individual and unique for every person, and the women (of all ages) that look absolute amazing look that way because they've worked out what it is and they're true to it. Which does of course mean you can't copy the way someone else dresses ...

Wonderful.
You just know she'd have interesting stories to tell, too.
🙂

I admire my mother. The last time I saw her, she was wearing black jeggings, good boots, and a silk, cowl neck top. Her hair's quite white but still thick and beautifully cut. She'll be 87 this year.

I'm 62. I have always been more classic and never edgy but I try.

Oh gosh Linda Rodin's style is amazing! I want all her outfits 😍

@ProstituteHair you're stunning! Love your hair, it's so thick! And prostitutey!

I'm early 30s and my own style can be described only as - okay, so imagine an alien who looks like a human but with zero common sense fell into oxfam and let the volunteers dress her. But the blind volunteers.

And it kinda works for me 😂😂😂

I am 55 and love clothes. I work with teenagers who often comment positively about what I'm wearing and want to know where I've bought them, it's a way of bonding with them. Earlier this week I wore a pair of orange combat trousers and a khaki jacket and the 14 year old loved it.
My colleagues are equally as complementary and a mix of ages. I will continue to wear what I want and age will not define me!

When I was younger I was very self conscious and tried to blend in. But now I am older and no longer give a stuff I wear far more stylish clothes and do not blend in. I wear what I like, not what anyone else likes. I dress for me. I don't even care if it doesn't look attractive, I no longer need that validation. It's freeing and you can be who you want to be.

I have seen an older attractive female colleague be bitched about my much younger female colleagues because she has something that they feel an older woman should not have - a presence. She wears great clothes and has such a confident air about her, they want to reduce her in some way. It's because they are led to believe that all women are rivals and in their head, she should not be that attractive and stylish. And being an older woman won't happen to them, it's the worse thing they can imagine. It's a sad attitude, sadder still that it comes from other females, and because ageing will happen to them. They are just perpetuating a myth that once women are middle aged they should disappear.

We live in a misogynistic society, women don't need to add pressure to other women, the men have got that covered.

@thebabessavedme Iris Apfel is my hero too. I've got a quote on my phone (the one about not being pretty but having style) which really resonates with me.

It's a shame because I really feel for mothers of small children who barely have time to find something clean to wear, let alone reconnect with their sense of style. But there's so much ignorance and sheer rudeness around - 'Even my mum wouldn't wear that and she's 60' kind of thing.

I used to read far more threads than I do now and I used to challenge a lot more but these days I mostly just think, 'Righto, sort yourself out Mate' and there are certain types of threads I don't even bother opening, which is probably how I've missed the latest crop of comments.

I can’t understand the number of threads asking whether ‘I’m too old’ to wear this or that or have my hair a certain way, but I guess that’s a result of all this casual ageism.

I definitely agree being young doesn’t make you automatically fashionable. I work with lots of people in their twenties and thirties and some are stylish (in a classic way), some are fashionable (wearing latest trends) and some don’t appear to have a great interest in what they wear, all of which are fine. I think whereas maybe forty years ago at 50+ you’d be wearing beige anoraks and stand out if you wore fashionable clothes, these days there is less differential between decades and plenty of women looking great at older ages.

Ultimately it’s lazy stereotyping. We expect you to do this/behave like that/wear this/think that at x age. Don’t fall for it.

Can you tell us the name please. I’m late 50s snd really need some help

Wondering if the walker was the result of only having one shoe...

I do agree, many more mature women know how to put their wardrobe together and are much more edgy than a vast number of younger ones. Throw away fashion has a lot to answer for.

I like to Google for photos of older women in more alternative styles, they look great.

You’re stunning @ProstituteHair even if we can’t see your clothes!
DD is very critical of my clothes- too many patterns. But I find it’s a conversation starter, I love planning buying and wearing fab things and see it as self care.

She was just perfect. I spent the whole of Magpie Murders drooling over her outfits. Not my style but it still had me on Shop Your TV having a look where they were from.

The sort of thing I send dd to give her conniptions

I think that the key to looking great as you age is to be happy in your choice of clothes/style, it really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, I am so lucky now that I can afford some established designer pieces, I also spend time looking for new young designers just starting out, I have found some absolutely wonderful things from young people straight out of fashion schools. I am aware that my style is not for everyone but I have never beed invisible and I don't intend to be so now that I am 60.

Im not so worried about looking my age (don't want to look older though obviously ) I still only do things like hair and nails, make up everyday etc, no botox or tweakments yet,but I do get lovely compliments most days, I have also spawned a very 'alternative' dd so it must be in the blood.