I am doing a fortnightly chat on fashion every second Tuesday at 1400 AEST with the ABC Adelaide Afternoons with Carole Whitelock program. This week we talked dressing your age (click the player ^ if you are interested in hearing the show). There have been a few news stories on this subject pinging across the net in recent months. Most, IMHO, pretty dumb. One thing these stories constantly seem to overlook is the fact that we are staring in the face of a generation of older, high-profile women who not only don’t feel the "older" fashion rules personally apply to them and apparently have no fear of ridicule, they are setting the style agenda for others.
Just take fiftysomething celebrities Madonna and Sharon Stone.
The first posed legs akimbo in Louis Vuitton knickers advertising LV handbags.
The second recently posed topless and looking smoking hot for the cover of Paris Match, together with the headline, “J’ai 50 ans….et alors!” (I’m 50, so what!).
American Vogue editor Anna Wintour, the star of one of the year's biggest buzz films, The September Issue, is 60.
Paris Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld is in her mid 50s.
And Anna Dello Russo, the flamboyant Vogue Nippon fashion director at large, is pushing 50.
And while you would most likely never see Wintour in a pair of short shorts, leggings or a micromini – unlike Roitfeld and Dello Russo – Wintour has nevertheless been known to make bold fashion choices.
Unlike many other ordinary female consumers their age, these women do not feel forgotten by fashion and "invisible". These women are fashion.
Why do so many of their contemporaries feel out of the loop?
images:
1. sharon stone: paris match via the huffington post
2. anna wintour: perez hilton
3. carine roitfeld: new york magazine
4. anna dello russo: style.com
5. anna dello russo: jak + jil
5 comments:
Aha, after brain surgery, and your help, I have now worked out how to leave a comment. So to biz: Great column. I thought it was a terrific riposte to Weekend Oz Magazine supplement. Oz Mag last weekend was a style issue devoted to dressing for your age. A model representing the 40s or 50s wore a classic suit. Puhlease!
When it comes to "age appropriateness" I only have one rule: If it looks good on one then one can wear it!
Granted, with my being a man, I probably have quite a different mentality toward "fitting in" than a woman would. However, I think in a lot of ways men can be more conservative in their fashion choices than women. So, perhaps it's more down to the individual rather than something gender specific.
Regarding the fashion choices of the celebrities and media people discussed: Madonna's starting to look a bit long in the tooth these days. So, I can't say that I found her recent "spread" - pun intended - for LV that appealing. As a matter of fact, if it wasn't for Photoshop, I think the shot you refereed to would border on "grannie porn"; Sharon Stone looks good, perk 50 year old tits and all; Anna Wintour... Oh my! That dress? No; The others look fine though.
Kind regards
Carine Roitfeld and Anna Della Russo are such fashion inspirations. To women of ALL ages. Incredibly stylish and flamboyant women who seem to get so much ENJOYMENT out of fashion.
And neither feels obliged to tone things down to fit some 'age appropriate' mold.
Madonna just comes across as desperately trying to hold onto her youth, but I do think the youth obsession thing is worse in America than Europe.
I suspect a lot of 'dressing for your age' advice presupposes a middle age spread that is now far from inevitable. When you are as slender as all of the women you mentioned, you can get away with an awful lot more than the average woman of a certain age can, mostly because the average woman of a certain age is a size 14-16.
pics of you with your shoulder-padded jacket soon please.
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