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I'm going to be fifty and I look like I'm in my mid thirties. WWYD?
I don't do minis anymore. Never was the dress type. I pretty much live in jeans. I do Denim and Supply and feel I can pull it off.
I like the was HRH Kate dresses. Some feel she dresses to 'old' for her age.
At this point life is too damned short. If your BFF hasn't pulled you aside for an intervention and your SO isn't afraid to go out in public with you the you're okay.
My mom always said she would never become the sweaters and sweatpants lady just because she was a certain age. She still hasn't, and she is more fashionable that most girls my age. I kind of rolled my eyes at this as a kid, now I really admire her. If you care about fashion and like being put together, go for it!
I think hard and fast rules don't work for everyone and that everyone has to adjust to their specifics. Because I'm so tall, I NEVER wore cutesey outfits that the petite lil thang would wear, even when I was young. I've seen taller/larger woman wear frilly ruffly stuff and they look like Baby Huey. I never wanted anyone to think that of me.
Older women can often dress "younger" as long as they don't look as though they are desperately trying to BE younger and/or are clueless as to how they really look.
I have a new neighbor in my condo building. Nice woman, but in her 60s and it shows--she has obviously tanned quite a bit over the years and has a pleasant, though very lined face with "tough" looking skin. She dyes her hair blonde and wears it shoulder-length, and she wears peasant-type dresses with puffy sleeves and ruffles. The hair and clothes kind of clash with the face and emphasize her age.
She has four or five of those life-size Halloween figures with the skeleton and witch faces wearing normal clothes on her front porch right now, and the other day she was standing there amongst them talking on the phone...she looked sort of like one of them.
LOL @Jarring and incongruous, I love it. I've always wanted long hair. When I was younger my hair was too dry and brittle to sport a longer length. Now that I'm older and on the correct dose of thyroid pills, my hair is growing nicely. I stopped coloring my hair a few years ago, this further improved the texture of my hair. My hair is silver-streaked, wavy, and half way down my back. On days with little humidity, I wear my hair down, and always get compliments. I look at it this way, I'm 55 and fortunate have a healthy head of hair. I know my health could change tomorrow, but for now I'll enjoy my hair. Those who find my hair jarring and incongruous, can avert their eyes.
I usually do, avert my eyes, that is....lol. Fair enough on your feelings about long, loose, gray hair on older women. We all have them, feelings, I mean. I have thin, always been thin, brownish hair that I wear short and it has a slight wave @70. I wore the same hairstyle @16, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70, not because I wanted to but it was the best cut for me. Having said that, I adored and prayed for a full head of hair that, until about the age of 40, I could wear streaming down my back or in a beautiful high ponytail or caught up with combs. I can understand your pride but I would never wear it gray, long and below my shoulders after 40. JMo. I know a lot of women that after coloring their hair for many years, along about 45 or 50 said, the heck with it, cut it shorter and let their hair go gray. They became 10 times more attractive, according to compliments and DH's seemed to love it. It's all good and I am glad that you are enjoying your hair. I understand.
My youngest daughter has the most glorious head of hair I have ever seen. It is thick but silky, slightly wavy, beautiful rich, light brown with natural blond streaks/highlights. We kind of don't know where it came from. lol. She wore it longer for years but never longer than a several inches below her shoulders. She is 42 now and still wears it just slightly below the shoulder and we thrill at pulling out the few gray hairs that we can find. She has a young face, still lovely hair but, it just doesn't go with her profession (ER Nurse) to have really long hair. Again, that is her preference. I don't know why I write this paragraph as it doesn't have much to do with the original post. I have always marveled at that beautiful head of hair she has. I tell her, "you couldn't have a bad hair day if you tried...". And if she wanted to wear it way down her back, I would still love it, just not if it was gray.
But I know a lot of older women who wear pastels. Particularly the ones who wear pastel colored sweatshirts of various sorts.
I do think that we older women cannot wear all the styles we could as younger women. We've all seen women who dress far too young for their age, and the way they dress opens them up to ridicule. But if you like a certain thing you should try it on and decide if you can and want to carry if off.
When I was a young child old women wore frumpy dresses and black cuban heeled oxfords. I am so happy I don't have to dress like that! Dress to please yourself.
What you say is logical, but if you really look at the next over 50 woman with good legs in a mini skirt, see if you really think it looks good, or slightly "off".
My MIL is 56 and she's got fantastic legs, much better than mine at 30. I'm a pear shape while she's an apple shape, short and petite with a bit of a tummy but very slim toned legs (and she does NO working out, I'm so jealous), and she wears pencil skirts just a bit above the knee with a conservative top and looks great.
Personally, I think shorter (not extra-mini) skirts are fine as long as you have the legs for it; fitted (not skintight) clothing is fine, a bit of cleavage on a dress or V-neck top is fine. Skintight, lycra, tops riding up, hot pants, bare midriffs, flimsy sagging spaghetti straps, blatantly juniors/forever 21 type stuff with stupid sayings, cheap glitter and rhinestones, writing on the butt, cheap plastic jewellery, cheap vinyl shoes and purses, etc., are all OUT, actually for anyone over 25 I would say. In short, I would say you need to go classier and more expensive-looking (note: doesn't need to actually BE expensive) as you get older; I think you can still wear trends and edgier stuff, you can even do playful, but it needs to be good quality and fit perfectly to look good and not cheap or trying too hard, and the 'edgier' an item is, the better-made it needs to be. It's easier to get away with simple basics being cheaper. Shoes and purses and accessories need to be well-made and preferably from natural materials. Obvious shiny polyester and vinyl cheapen the look right away. Outerwear needs to be good quality, no puffy waist-long bomber jackets with fake Muppet fur hoods. No glitter makeup. No pigtails. If you want to keep your hair long, please make sure it's in good condition, brushed and colored. Some women have those horrible manes of limp damaged brassy hair, yet get all hysterical at the thought of cutting it.
Last edited by EvilCookie; 10-25-2013 at 04:25 PM..
LOL @Jarring and incongruous, I love it. I've always wanted long hair. When I was younger my hair was too dry and brittle to sport a longer length. Now that I'm older and on the correct dose of thyroid pills, my hair is growing nicely. I stopped coloring my hair a few years ago, this further improved the texture of my hair. My hair is silver-streaked, wavy, and half way down my back. On days with little humidity, I wear my hair down, and always get compliments. I look at it this way, I'm 55 and fortunate have a healthy head of hair. I know my health could change tomorrow, but for now I'll enjoy my hair. Those who find my hair jarring and incongruous, can avert their eyes.
Sing it sister!
I'm also 55 and stopped coloring my hair last year...it is shoulder-length and silver and I swear I get more compliments on it now than I ever did when younger.
I also occasionally wear headbands, skinny jeans, pink and short (ish) skirts sometimes. I'm in great skinny shape and really don't care one angstrom whether a: it's "in style" or b: whether random people from city-data or anywhere else think I am following someone else's (whose rules would that be, again?) "rules."
Obviously I'm not going to wear teen-type clothing, see-through anything, tight little juniors tops or anything, ever, with words printed across my rear end. But the bottom (LOL) line is: if I feel good wearing it, I will. My opinion is the only one that matters to me. I don't get the compulsion for approval from the random public as to what I wear? That's just so weird.
And for the record, if a larger or older woman wants to wear pink or form-fitting clothing or spandex, so what? Why the pearl-clutching and vapors and hostility over what someone else wears? That is also extremely weird, IMHO. It's clothing. That's it; just material that covers the naughty bits. Talk about obsessing over first world problems.
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