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Old Thu, Jun-05-08, 09:22
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Demi Demi is offline
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Default How to stay visible at fifty

I thought that this was such a great article that I ought to post it here


The Telegraph
London, UK
4 June, 2008


How to stay visible at fifty

For older British women, style is often a problem, not a pleasure - but it's all about attitude, says Celia Walden

'I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming," Agatha Christie once said. "Suddenly you find, at the age of 50, that a whole new life has opened before you."

Rousing words, but shortly after that she famously disappeared. The truth is that very few women believe in a "second blooming", certainly where style is concerned; instead, one word recurs when women over 50 describe themselves: "invisible".

Celebrities preaching the benefits of their "coming of age" to magazines - Kim Cattrall, Helen Mirren, Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Sharon Stone - belie a gloomy national perception: according to OnePoll, 40 per cent of British women think they lose their sense of style by the age of 40.

Elsewhere in Europe, women seem to celebrate age and revel in being released from the faddish shackles of teenage years: just look at Juliette Binoche (44), Sophie Marceau (41) and the eerily timeless Ségolène Royale (55).

Women are at the forefront of every field in Britain, running the country and unafraid to speak out, yet - perhaps because of our refusal to endow fashion with intellectual significance, as the French do - dressing has become more of a problem than a pleasure.

So pronounced is this collective female dilemma that Vogue has devoted its entire July edition to growing old fashionably. "I think there is a barrier you go through at 45," says the editor, Alexandra Shulman, who has written a candid piece on coming to terms with turning 50. "Suddenly, you no longer look as you always have done, but you haven't worked out how to be older."

Although the problem is universal, we British, she accepts, are particularly susceptible to a dowdiness that, stylistically, seems to be our default position. "There is this feeling among a certain group of British women that spending time on your appearance is wrong. People see it as frivolous and self-indulgent - but that's just wrong."

At 55, Joy Chambers is a perfect example of this: a serious-minded mother of three, she hunches with embarrassment at the mere mention of fashion, as though the word alone conjures up a world from which she is exempt.

"I'm not sure if I lost interest in clothes first, or fashion lost interest in me," she says. "Before the Sixties, it was older women who were the most important. Then, after the baby boom, it was all about young people."

"I can't find anything to wear in the shops," laments 67-year-old Sarah Johnson. "The tops are all short-sleeved, low-cut, covered in frills and flounces, or they have hemlines so short only a 16-year-old could wear them. And magazines seem to concentrate on young people."

With fashion homogenised by huge high-street brands, the demise of traditional dressmakers - who left older women free to customise their own look - has also contributed to the general sense that attempting to remain stylish in middle age is a futile battle. Even Vanessa Redgrave, a perfect role model at 71, admits her attitude has changed: "I love clothes, but I don't bother about them. And I don't enjoy shopping for clothes unless they're for someone else."

Shulman counters this argument by saying that it is all a question of perception: "To me, fashion has a life of its own, like any art form, and sometimes it is to one's taste and sometimes it is not. Get over it. While it's important not to get stuck in a rut as the years pass, there is normally a continuum of style in the women I deem most stylish. They may favour certain shapes, colours and silhouettes, but they will be aware of nuances of change, which stops them becoming dinosaurs."

Agnès B, the designer who epitomises French chic, and a woman who manages to take 20 years off her 67 simply by dressing astutely, tells me that she started designing with precisely this problem in mind.

"I don't believe this is a uniquely British phenomenon. It happens to many women worldwide. French women are not spared, but perhaps they are less affected by the syndrome. I have been fighting against this all my life. My advice? Women should keep their own style but continue dressing with good sense and taste."

Perhaps the role models themselves are off-putting. Just how much can any 40-year-old woman relate to Kylie "still fabulous at 40" Minogue? Has there been a rush on bejewelled corsets and swathes of transparent chiffon from her contemporaries? Thankfully not. These women are rare physical specimens whose livelihoods depend on retaining a youthful appearance. For the rest of us, Shulman explains, an increased attentiveness and more sanguine attitude are needed as we get older.

"The kind of clothes I bought as a teenager have remained the kind of clothes that I love. They are no longer, generally, the kind of clothes that I wear," she writes. Adored vintage floral tea dresses should be ruthlessly cast out (too matronly) and replaced by more forgiving block colours and graphic prints. While hankering for youth is pointless, there is no doubt that dressing becomes infinitely more complex in middle age. " The fear of dressing inappropriately lurks like some ghastly spectre around the wardrobe; the insecurity about whether you are heading into mutton-alert territory hovers determinedly."

The flip side is that there is more diverse fashion available than ever before - something older women who lived through the barren Forties should be grateful for. "I know a lot of ordinary women - not just celebrities - who look wonderful through a sheer love of dressing and clothes," says Shulman.

"Staying in a hotel in Venice recently, I noticed these 70- or 80-year-old women by the pool. They were in bikinis, wearing lipstick, bathing hats and mules and I remember thinking: that's what I want to look like at that age."

Diane Von Furstenberg, the 61-year-old designer, long ago decided that comfort should be at the essence of every stylish woman. "You wear what you feel comfortable in because if you're comfortable, you're confident, you're beautiful."

No nationality is blessed with an innate, stylistic superiority, but there is a pervading sense of laziness in Britain which too often is our handicap. Just as the supposed key to a successful marriage, "hard work", is boring and unromantic, age should be fought with spirited logic and (elegantly) rolled-up shirt sleeves.

"At some point we all think that we lose the person we were when younger and become somebody old," says Shulman. "But we don't, and our clothes, and the pleasure we take in them should reflect that."

THE GRANDES DAMES OF FASHION

Covering up necklines, legs or slack upper arms can be seductive in itself, insists 67-year-old designer extraordinaire VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

Everyone knows my clothes are sexy. It is playing with the idea of being clothed and then eventually unclothed. It’s much more sexy to be dressed. But for me, at my age, can I have a pair of high-heeled shoes? What really touches me is the woman who is chic, she knows herself, doesn’t buy into mass marketing or publicity, but takes the trouble to look good and shows off her best assets. This shows her to be generous yet discriminating and wishing to gain from her experience in life.

The older you get, the more grooming you require — but it’s also important to have fun, says JOAN BURSTEIN, fashion pioneer and owner of the Browns boutiques.

I am 81, so I’m very aware of the areas older women are concerned about. It’s all about deflecting from those areas. If you’re worried about your shoulders, upper arms or bust, buy a beautiful fine shawl and wrap it dramatically around yourself.

Also, use bright colours around the face: not white, which can be draining, but pale pink, blue or vivid — but not lurid — deep orange. And pay more attention to your hair and nails, because those are the things that pull you down.

If you go to the opera or out to dinner, swap your normal handbag for a smaller and nicer one, or get a professional make-up artist to make you up. These little things lift the spirits.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/...e104.xml&page=1
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  #2   ^
Old Sun, Jun-08-08, 13:53
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SissyPoo SissyPoo is offline
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Loved this. I am 62 now, have problems with arthritis but I enjoy having fun and living.
I may be old in the body but young in the mind.
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Old Thu, Jul-10-08, 14:43
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SusieQ567 SusieQ567 is offline
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I was sooo glad to find this forum! This is a pic of hubby and me, we just got our aarp cards...boy do i kid him about it. I've started really focusing on weights trying to remember the little old lady that will appreciate it someday.lol
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