Last night while watching that new show, The Fashion Show, on Bravo, that crazy cat Merlin said to Danielle, "you dress like a 40 year-old woman", (she's like 22). I had to laugh outloud because ever since I was in high school I've been pretty into dressing, what my mother called, "old". This outfit smacks of the type of "old" I am getting at. Classic old stuff, not like nerdy old stuff. As a teen I cleaned and organized my room a lot, I listened to jazz (much to my mom's chagrin) and classical music and loved older people (I worked at a Bingo hall and a health care center for nuns). My affection for older people has not waned. Now when I say old here, I don't mean 40, I mean much older. However, when I say "dressing old", I mean dressing like Eileen Fisher, whose clothes I LOVE. My mother used to make a little fun of me for wearing high frilly collars and my tailor, a fantastic lady from Armenia is always tsk-ing me for wearing my skirts and dresses too long. She says. "why you want to look old, you younk, you want to have knee showink", spoken in her very thick and wonderful accent. She also cannot figure out why I want to fix old vintage clothes and wear them. She's like basicially, my grandmother and I love her.
Now, that I am not in high school anymore, or college for that matter, this dressing old gets tricky. I mean, it used to look so intentional, but now there's a fine line and I have to be careful, if I dress too old without adding "young" elements someone might just think I am older than I am, which I guess isn't horrible given that I am constantly inspired by women nearly twice my age and just loving having friends in their 50s, there is so much to learn from women that are older than us, I really look forward to being one of them.
Now, that I am not in high school anymore, or college for that matter, this dressing old gets tricky. I mean, it used to look so intentional, but now there's a fine line and I have to be careful, if I dress too old without adding "young" elements someone might just think I am older than I am, which I guess isn't horrible given that I am constantly inspired by women nearly twice my age and just loving having friends in their 50s, there is so much to learn from women that are older than us, I really look forward to being one of them.
Dress - thrifted and hemmed expertly by my mother
Platform shoes - ebay, and what a find!
Necklace - thrifted, I just LOVE wood & gold!
Music on my ride to work
Lavender Diamond
The Police
Bjork - who will never get old, she's magical!
John Coltrane
Q-Tip
Platform shoes - ebay, and what a find!
Necklace - thrifted, I just LOVE wood & gold!
Music on my ride to work
Lavender Diamond
The Police
Bjork - who will never get old, she's magical!
John Coltrane
Q-Tip
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Who are some women over 40 that you find beautiful?
Who are some women over 40 that you find beautiful?
Juliette Binoche
Julie Christie
Isabella Rossellini
Lauren Hutton
8 comments:
Anjelica Huston is my all-time favorite woman over 40. I hope when I'm her age I have even an ounce of her classiness!
i love this post! you write so well - very easy and vernacular. i can almost hear you speaking the words. the Ks at the end of your tailor's words are perfect! and chagrin is one of my very favourite words :)
my favourite woman of maturity is Judy Dench. she carries herself so elegantly, and there is always such a sparkle in her eyes.
I don't know where's the point with me...I don't know if I dress older than my age, but surely I dress in an anachronistic way...All in all I suppose I dress like a 28 years old woman but a 28 years old woman of the 50s...!
i'm pretty sure i am actually about 15 years older than i really am....it's always felt that way. i should have been born in the late 60s -- maybe that's why i love me some 70s clothes so much?
great point about looking up to older women - they've generally got it down when it comes to style, beauty, and individuality. i can't wait to be one either!
I love Eileen Fisher. Like, when I am shopping, I have to remind myself..."No one wants to wear that but you, unles they are 60." I mean...silk blouses are hot!
PS I'm doing my tag post this weekend. I have been thinking VERY hard about it!
You do express yourself very well and I admire it so much! I think there is something really special about admiring older folks...I always love what you put together and it looks just right everytime.
On a different subject: I agree: there are a lot of cute acrylics I just think they smell funny (on me that is) and I am so sensitive to it that it could drive me bananas, hence no acrylic sweaters :)
love this post! i've often felt older than i am, not only in the way i dress, but in the way i carry myself, some of my interests and preferences, and the company i keep.
i too admire and respect older women. i love wrinkles and grey hair, which i always refer to as "evidence of living," and the stories they tell. i am only 28 and my hair is already glistening with strands of grey and has been for awhile now(i take after my mom!), but i can't bring myself to dye it. i think i kind of like the juxtaposition of young and old, or of youth with something that signifies "aging." it's funny, we're so concerned with age and aging in contemporary Western society, but i've always feared being perceived as younger than i am rather than older.
there is just so much more depth and intrigue to an old soul...
i look forward to being one of them too.
being one of THEM...in my mid-fifties, i so loved this post and i do feel as we get older we become wiser and therefor free-er to do the things that really make us happy. really, really loved this.
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