"Obviously some older women prefer to be 'chic' or 'athletic' or 'sexy.' But for me, the classic older woman – the one I plan to be – is walking around in a purple dress, leggings and thermally insulated boots, topped with a large, ratty leopard-skin hat that looks as if it might have a robin’s nest in it. She may or may not be pushing an elderly dog in a pram. That well-established Grey Gardens/eccentric old lady/Mad Cat Woman vibe is generally regarded to be one of the lowest-status looks a woman can assume.... For me, however, it’s actually the highest status look – it’s someone who is absolutely done with trying to look 'put together,' fashionable or sexy. It’s someone done with caring what anyone else thinks and who has returned, in their old age, to the freedom they had when they were four, five or six. Other people’s voices – fashion editors, other girls, boys – haven’t got in their head yet. Or – 60 years after they made a 7-year-old girl suddenly want to get a crop-top from Brandy Melville 'because that’s what all the other girls are wearing' – they have finally been exorcised."
From "Caitlin Moran: Vogue’s fashion tips are all wrong/My style icons are little girls and old ladies" (London Times).
I had to look up Brandy Melville. It's a clothing store. Here. It doesn't look particularly challenging. Indeed, it would be easy to put together a Grey Gardens/eccentric old lady/Mad Cat Woman look from the things on offer there.
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21 comments:
It's too bad; only the first paragraph and a half are not paywalled. I would've liked to read it.
But if the gist of what she's saying is that by age 60 you should be able to make your own decisions regarding fashion (or anything else), I wholeheartedly agree. And if you want to replace your wardrobe every year in accordance with the fashion magazines, then go for it. Free country, and all that.
This includes men wearing shorts in warm weather in South Florida. If the temperature falls under my age (68 next week), I usually go to slacks when I'm walking the golf course. I may be the only person on the premises not in shorts, but so what?
Welcome to the dark side.
Go to any Walmart! you'll see PLENTY of women, young and old, that "just don't give a f***"
You can get frumpy without a special store. Sweat shirts and pants are available all over, for example.
Ageism. Plenty of women of any age who lives be outside of popular fashion. That's how you find the most beautiful smart strong level headed women.
Love the girl who holds the world in a paper cup.
Drink it up.
Love her and she'll bring you luck.
And if you find she helps your mind, better take her home.
Don't you live alone.
Try to earn what lovers own.
It's a clothing store. Here. It doesn't look particularly challenging.
Skinny white girls. That's challenging.
My mother did watch how she dressed.
At 70, Her attitude, however got much more "direct". She would relate her experience at the car dealership (same one for 40 years)I would listen and say,"you can't treat them like that" She said, "sure I can, I'm 70". She never was one that had to be liked. Respected, yes. After seventy she stopped worrying about the respect from people that did not know her well.
Giving up on life?
Our daughter got a pair of high end slippers. She has been wearing them to work, because they keep her toes toasty. Her husband sees her in public in slippers, and kids her about 'giving up on life'.
One of my my best friends (65) expresses the attitude that we should all be doing our part to make the world more beautiful. She does it by accessorizing her (nice but plain) clothing with killer accessories: beautiful jewelry, shoes and handbags. And bright lipstick. Always bright lipstick. It makes her happy.. And she gets compliments from strangers…which she takes as “mission accomplished.”
I'm so glad that I don't have to devote even a single neuron to following fashion. What a dreary, boring, inconsequential waste of time it all is.
I wear what my wife buys for me to wear. I don't think I've bought any article of general clothing for myself in twenty or thirty years.
Specialized garments for activities like hunting and skiing I do buy for myself, but based entirely on functional considerations rather than esthetics.
Huh. By the age of 5 or 6, I cared deeply about clothing. I have vivid recollections of certain favorite childhood garments. I remember taking a beloved new pair of shoes to BED with me once! Since my current self-employment involves younger people, and since I live in a close knit neighborhood of mostly younger people, I find it helpful to signal via my fashion choices that I am in touch with current trends. I don't find this exercise difficult or humiliating.
Young girls and old ladies are not biologically driven to attract high-status males.
I had a few old lady sweaters in highschool. I loved them and wondered why I ever got rid of them. I was delighted to see one in a Forever 21 about a month ago. Everything old is new again.
My 5 year old always puts her shirts on backwards. There's a 20% chance she corrects it when I point it out. Maybe this lady is onto something.
When I was much younger I used to laugh to myself at my grandmother's "bloomers." (Cotton, loose fitting like men's boxers.) A few years ago I bought a pair. Damn...talk about comfortable! (Yes, I laugh at myself.)
"Young girls and old ladies are not biologically driven to attract high-status males."
Damn your mansplaining!
The little girl favorite costume, when allowed to dress themselves has usually included a tutu or similar gauzy skirt, cowboy boots, a random bright top, and The Favorite Headwear, usually a tiara or cowboy hat.
AS for old ladies, I now live in a 55+ community made up of mostly working class people now retired or semi-retired. These are women who never obsessed about clothing and certainly not year-to-year fashion, not since highschool, just buying to be practical, attractive by some measure, respectable. They pull out something nicer for the annual parties with an automatic sense of appropriateness. Now at 70+ (the real age of 55+) they wear about the same things as when working, but more informal and comfortable. They don't wear leopard-skin hats except as a joke at parties, and take the insulated boots off and put on something less dramatic when they get indoors. Not having been much influenced by Vogue to begin with, they see no need to rebel against that value now. They wear clothes.
I was reminiscing with a co-worker recently and she told me she remembered me castigating someone for being late because they had to iron a shirt. According to her, I told the tardy worker that we were not the kind of company that cared whether your shirt was ironed and used myself as an example. I don't remember it myself but it sounds right.
Young and old girls care about their appearance and will take affirmative action to present themselves in the best light within reason, in context, and do not take a knee to liberal (i.e. changing, diverging) modern modes.
She's claiming she won't care what she looks like, but she has the outfit planned right down to the dog that will accompany her.
Blogger Assistant Village Idiot said...
The little girl favorite costume, when allowed to dress themselves has usually included a tutu or similar gauzy skirt, cowboy boots, a random bright top, and The Favorite Headwear, usually a tiara or cowboy hat.
I attended a children's Christmas Eve church service few years ago where the cutest little girl was dressed to the hilt in an adorable Christmas dress...and a pair of cowboy boots.
>>walking around in a purple dress,
There is a brief scene in Crossing Delancey where an (dare I say) a dotty older woman comes into a bar/restaurant and spouts gloriously about wearing purple (the scene where the "stupid, stupid" by her own later admission Izzy tries to dump uber-mensch Peter Riegert on her desperate girlfriend). Thought it must be some sort of thing and I'd heard a few other references, at least one by one of my (awesome) sisters. But I wasn't aware of this, the apparent source, until I looked it up tonight:
https://laterbloomer.com/jenny-joseph/
Apologies for not providing a live link, but I don't know how off the top of my head and it's too late to do otherwise.
--gpm
--gpm
She takes care to explain carefully how she no longer cares.
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