Wear what you want?

So, I read not long ago that apparently it is not deemed appropriate for a woman over 40 to wear red lipstick. Who came up with that I don’t know but as I thought about it, it just made me think about how many other rules there are about what we should or shouldn’t wear or how we look when we reach a certain age.  It is almost as if our need to be fashionable, colourful and to express ourselves ends when we reach that age. 

A phrase I particularly hate is “mutton dressed as lamb’.  Who gives anyone the right to judge what anyone else wears? 

Surely the main thing is that we need to feel happy with what we are wearing, and this shouldn’t mean having to dress in a certain way or follow certain rules?

The good thing is that for the over 50’s, we are now past the age that we feel a pressure to follow all the latest trends, and our style has by now evolved into one that we are comfortable with. It does not mean that we need to always be ‘comfortable’ though. Getting past 50 doesn’t mean we automatically put on our sensible flat shoes and our jogging bottoms. If you want to be eccentric, flamboyant, colourful, then be it!

My whole point is that fashion and style is individual. Age should not be a factor. If you wear styles and colours that suit you then you will always look amazing. French women, known for their natural style, embrace ageing more than most other nations and there ‘women of a certain age’ do not try to dress to maintain their youth. They talk about ‘ageing with attitude’.

Take the American influencer Iris Apfel for example. Iris was a fashion designer and businesswoman well known for her flamboyant style and colourful clothes. She became a fashion icon and an influencer in the latter part of her life and even gained a modelling contract at the age of 97. Read more about Iris’ life in fashion here:

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240302-how-iris-apfel-became-an-icon-in-her-90s

Perhaps what I’m trying to say here is that although we may not all live in New York or have Iris’s fashion credentials, we could all be a bit more Iris. Wear what you want and do not worry about the so-called fashion ‘rules’. If you are happy, and it is not hurting anyone then go for it. 

Views as usual are all my own! What do you think?