Merry Christmas from Frockwriter

melise williams, charlie brown AW13 backstage, auckland, september 2012 

Just a quick one to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of frockwriter's readers. It's been a bit of a watershed year for this blog – one during which, as many know, we took the controversial step of introducing a metered paywall. Oops. Unable to support ourselves through advertising alone and disinclined to accept potentially lucrative brand ambassadorships, sponsored posts and a raft of other commercial tie-ins from the industry on which we report - because of ethics considerations and genuine conflicts of interest - we assumed readers who value the blog for its independence would support it. Some have and a massive shoutout to our subscribers. Your support is truly appreciated - especially considering how flipping easy it has been for all those pesky freehadists (yes there's a term for you now) to defeat the paywall. In their thousands. I now have access to frockwriter's subscriber list and have been overwhelmed to learn just who these supporters are. So thank you!

Talking dressing your age with ABC Adelaide

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