Talking fashion and ageing
Check out the midlife crisis jacket in action. For my early, big birthday gift, I opted for timeless style over a commemorative watch – which was starting to feel a bit too much like a retirement gift – and the biker jacket was the people’s choice, after all. Thank you. That’s me at the Mirror Mirror conference with Ari from Advanced Style, last week. Discussing blogging, the visibility of women beyond a certain age, inspiring role models, the media/fashion industry’s obsession with youth and so on. There’s been a real buzz around this topic recently, and I’m hoping this means that the fashion world is finally starting to take notice of this important demographic. The Guardian published an interesting article asking ‘has fashion really changed for women over 60?‘ based on a study by academic Julia Twigg. Not sure whether Vogue editor Alex Shulman has been taken out of context but she certainly doesn’t have anything positive to say about her soon-to-be contemporaries:
“I don’t think people do really want to look at older women as …
exemplars of fashion and beauty.” Why? Because they would look not only
“slightly ridiculous” but “absolutely hideous”.
Ouch. Over at High 50, a feature on midlife bloggers had more of a celebratory tone. Ari and I both agreed that we prefer to view this phenomenon not as a trend, but as a more of a long-term cultural shift or movement.
Even though I’ve done a fair amount of public speaking in my time, I’m not a huge fan, and was unbelievably nervous beforehand. There’s a difference between talking to students and standing up in in front of peers, academics and fellow bloggers – the thought of which I found incredibly daunting. Poor Mr TNMA in the audience felt sick with nerves, too. Anyhow. A few reassuring words from Ari prior to the talk and I felt much, much calmer. Even better after we’d done a set of gentle stretching exercises with Daphne Selfe, and the audience, in what felt like the best warm-up ever.
The highlight of my evening was a fabulous Sue Kreitzman makeover. Decked out in one of Sue’s beautiful Lauren Shanley coats, armfuls of rubbery bangles and an amazing necklace made from huge decorative combs, I felt like a rock star. Sue is a fantastic, inspirational woman who believes, ‘Beige will kill you,’ and so I was delighted to be turned into a work of art. The coat of many colours was so beautiful, I didn’t want to take it off:
Then, in spite of a technical hitch, Ari showed a clip from his upcoming documentary which will be doing the rounds at film festivals soon and is incredibly moving and lovely. There’s no doubting the impact Advanced Style has had on the media and people’s perception of ageing, and I felt incredibly honoured to be sharing a stage with Ari. Once the nerves had subsided, it was such a joy to be able to discuss a subject I feel so strongly about, in a roomful of people who feel the same, and to meet a bunch of brilliant like-minded women afterwards. As someone commented, ‘ The energy in the room was palpable.’
The following day, I caught the Fabulous Fashionitas in conversation with academic Amber Butchart but I’m going to save that for another blog post. These women are excellent role models for myself and for much younger women too. In an image-obsessed world, where we’re constantly bombarded with age-defying celebrities, they are cutting a path that is inspiring and interesting; growing old with dignity, style and joie de vivre in spades. As Sue Kreitzman wisely says:
‘ Don’t be afraid of ageing, I’ve never had so much fun in my life.’
Discussion (27 Comments)
Excellent! I really enjoyed reading about it – thank you! I too hope that it's a complete cultural shift and that by the time my daughters are grown up, it will be normal to see older women as positive role models everywhere.
Shame on Alex Shulman! I can't believe she thinks this much less says it.Love your outfit and yes, jacket is awesome – how does it feel to wear? And please id your amazing shoes 🙂
First of all, I love your biker jacket! I would love to attend an event such as this and hope that more will be happening and come to the US. I agree with you and Ari…I hope it is a cultural shift. This old attitude about women reaching a certain age and then becoming invisible needs to change permanently! Thanks for all you guys are doing to make this happen.
silkpathdiary – wearing the jacket feels fantastic, very special and I love it. Might do a separate post on the shoes, so watch this space!
loobiloo – someone else asked about a video so I'll check with the LCF press office and let you know.
silkpathdiary – wearing the jacket feels fantastic, very special and I love it. Might do a separate post on the shoes, so watch this space!
loobiloo – someone else asked about a video so I'll check with the LCF press office and let you know.
You and the jacket look great! I believe that if I ignore the issues around aging, it just won't be an issue!! See you later this week.
Sounds as though it was great fun. I would have been there if I had not been in France.
Very exciting to see you and Ari on stage together, adding momentum to the movement to change the perception of aging. You look marvelous in the Lauren Shanley coat. Brava!
The event looks great, as do you in both your biker jacket and the Lauren Shanley coat. I thoroughly enjoyed the recent Fabulous Fashionistas documentary. I am at a loss to understand what Alexandra Shulman is thinking of, as a woman in her mid-fifties, to be so dismissive of her contemporaries and elders. Aging is an inevitability (if we're lucky) and style knows no boundaries of age. Aging, not beige-ing, that's us! xxx
Fantastic post dear girl. I bet you were wonderful. Loved you in the coat of many colours you should do it more often.
Yes please lets meet in the real world soon. Email me with dates. XxxxAbsolutely stunned by Alex Shulman's comment! She represents a women's fashion magazine? Wow.
Well, she's dead wrong. I am 45 and find I've had a growing desire (along with my growing bank account, btw) to see women my age in fashion magazine in clothes for women my age for the last 5 years or so. I feel I actually NEED to see 40-50 women's style represented because I need to see what to wear and how it's being worn by women in my own age group.
Not only am I surprisingly grateful to see ad's with a gorgeous woman over the age of 20, it's teaching me to accept aging gracefully. I really can not understand her perspective at all.
Congratulations on a successful event. You looked amazing. Won't it be wonderful when we can be more concerned with living beautifully, than we are with how we are aging! Such a great post. Thank you!! xo, NG
Well done, and thank you for telling us about it!
I really do think it is a shift rather than a phase. We are all living longer; more women have more say in their financial decisions; thanks to a few (depending where you choose to put the starting date) generations of feminism, women are less prepared to fade into the background once they reach middle age.
I, for one, am delighted to be part of this shift, and look forward to being even a fraction as vibrant and engaged as these women when I'm their age.
Awesome stuff! Just saw your mention in the Guardian for Mirror Mirror, I am so loving the new pro-age focus, it gives me hope for the future! Continuing to love your blog! Luci x
Agree with Mother.wife.me – enough of this anti-ageing nonsense, I'm rebranding it as 'pro-ageing'.
Well done to you both and don't forget to give yourself and The Womens Room (and others but yours are the ones I read most) credit for shining a positive spotlight on brilliant women of every age.
Yay! I'm able to get back to your site, having cleared my cache — now I'll have to catch up — so much exciting stuff has been posted while I was locked out. . .
Congratulations on this event and the dialogue is exciting and so needed. I've often wondered what women and men who work in the fashion industry really think about the over 40 blogging. There really seems to me to be a gap between the images of style icons and images of the eccentric over 40's, both which are wonderful in their own way. What do you think about all the women who create personal style blogs in the over 40 set? I don't see many on your blog roll? You have created a great blog and are a wonderful writer!
blue hue wonderland
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How wonderful! Many thanks for a brilliant read. I would love to see more images, articles and programs on television about interesting and inspiring older women (and men). We have a responsibility to ourselves to be the best we can be – at any age, but we sometimes only reach that point with maturity. Bring it on!