'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!!).

Love this thread! Heading to my sixties but still wear stuff like this.

It is and I’d never wear fur but…
Gucci don’t use real fur anymore and I’d make a donation to peta and keep print outs of this article in the pocket if I get it.
http://www.sandrascloset.com/tag/fur-coat-with-snake-intarsia/

Lovely!

@Havingablast looks fabulous!!!

I took to dungarees the last couple of years. I got the blandest - plain black - I could find on Lucy and yak. Just to try.

Loved them even before I looked in the mirror
Have some green ones too

Anyway, DSs told me I looked like an Oompa Loompa... 😂 as a joke, they tower over me and enjoy height jokes at my expense

Relayed this to MIL who said perhaps I was a bit too old for them now
She's also suggested my hair isn't suitable for my age (shoulder length, nothing exciting) and converse don't work for the older foot

She means well but I'm 56 and I wear a variety of clothes, fairly safe styles that suit me. I like dresses mainly and have just discovered sea salt

Might buy some rainbow dungarees for the shock factor 🤣

Thanks ladies, this is a really helpful supportive thread

I am 36 with young kids and I really look
forward to having more free time (and cash) to try and be more stylish when I am older 😄 I think when you are younger it’s easier to try and be fashionable rather than stylish (either because of lack of confidence or because you don’t have time with kids to do anything but buy what’s on trend)

Grece Ghanem on Instagram is another stylish older women.

Yup. The ageism on this board is rampant, usually posted by deeply insecure younger women who somehow think their youth trumps everything whilst they continue to push hideous Toast sacks (or whatever is the latest S&B obsession du jour). They will get older - if they are lucky enough.

@thebabessavedme ·
My absolute icon is Iris Apfel, so kill me

Absolutely! She got me into colour!

Ahh I quite liked the NY outfits, @MissLucyEyelesbarrow! Not so much the double denim, but the other ones, and particularly the yellow trainers, to my surprise!

I liked the yellow trainers! It's not so much the individual elements; it's the way they are put together.

I’m in my 60s and wear exactly what I like and what suits me, with a nod to the current boyfriend’s preference. My style has generally been described as ‘weird’, I go for shape and texture above colour.

Amused by the “prostitute hair” comments - mine looks just like that!

Mid/late 50s here. My face has done a dive and I've got a bit of a tum, but I have a lot more money and time to shop and I'd like to spend MORE.
But...
Find it tricky to find stuff I like. Did try the JL personal shoppers but .... I think I should have gone for an older stylist, one who wouldn't have suggested, I kid you not, beige crimplene trousers with an elasticated waist. Bless her innocent heart.

I think it's still true that "it looks good because she is thin" works for all ages. I'm a classic British pear shape and so where some women will look edgy and classic in a linen sack dress, I look like a colourful bag of potatoes.

Have been inspired by the "strategize what you need, buy once, buy carefully, buy quality" threads here on S&B and I'm already seeing the difference.

My Mum was always well dressed all her life, even when she was almost completely spherical, so never, ever give up!

where some women will look edgy and classic in a linen sack dress, I look like a colourful bag of potatoes

Sadly true. And you also need to be tall, have long legs, and be relatively flat-chested, Even in the far-off days when I was a size 8, edgy stuff never look right on me, because I am short, with stubby little legs and big boobs. Anything unstructured hangs off the norks and makes me look pregnant.

😂 at the JL personal shopper
Reminds me of going to Selfridges to do a personal shopper, late 30s just months after second kid and moving abroad for DHs work. The lovely young lady wanted to dress me as a 1950s diplomats wife. In fairness some stunning clothes and I did succumb to the most beautiful fit and flare coat from Vivienne Westwood - but really really not what I needed or indeed would have dressed like.

@TheReverendBeeb @OrchidsBlooming @sevenbyseven
Some excellent points, well made.

My 5 year old niece referred to her yesterday as "that owl lady with the nice colours" 🙂

Have bought her this for her birthday:

https://littlepeoplebigdreams.com/book/iris-apfel/

Google lens shows it is likely to sell for 16 grand a lot to spend to get it off the MARKET

Oh it'd send a fair few on MN into conniptions. You'll either look like a child or desperately trying to be quirky or an eccentric maiden aunt. Ignore all of them.

You might avoid "dated" as it's difficult to see how even the most determined dated user could put a date on that top.

To be fair that’s just mumsnet. You must aspire to look ‘expensive’ and ‘French’ in ‘good but simple materials.’ If you’re young and don’t aspire to this you look tacky/chavvy/common. If you’re older and don’t aspire to this you look frumpy/dated/old.

The big joke of it is that these posters obsessed with this one particular Kate Middleton inspired style of dress actually seem to know very little about fashion widely, which is now extremely versatile with lots of different sub-styles.

I just finished Magpie Murders and absolutely loved how the female lead dressed. Just excellent example of stylish older lady wardrobe in my opinion.

Also, no actual women in France dress that way. This instantly reminded me of all the S&B French threads.

I follow her too!!! 😂

Yes, it’s ridiculous. But of course ‘Europeans’ (they’re all one big group of course) are soooo stylish and British people are slobby nasty messes. We must all rush to purchase some smart jeans and crisp white shirts with a classic Hermès scarf to drape artfully about our necks so we can be European and stylish.

Ahh I follow Tatty Macleod too! Love her vids but am not often impressed by her TK Maxx hauls 😁 but yes, you're absolutely right about the general perception of French women's style, I think.

There’s a woman I follow on YT who shows you how to make natural remedies and beauty treatments, early 70s and she’s absolutely beautiful. I want to be like her!

Thing about ageists is that they’re terrified of ageing themselves, have bought into all the fear and misogyny aimed around older women but will certainly get old themselves, if they’re lucky.

What is thought of as French style on MN is actually what preppie Americans think the French wear. It is extremely unFrench to be overly put-together: you are supposed to look as if you threw your outfit on without a moment's thought (although, at the same time, it should fit and suit you perfectly). The French are the world's most competitive under-dressers.