Why are women of a certain age dressing like trailer trash teenagers? It’s quite shocking sometimes, you see an extremely overweight middle-aged woman waddling down the street with a skimpy top and cut off trousers (which only models size zero should wear anyway). Do they not possess full-length mirrors? I know it’s not easy to get smart stylish clothes for any age now, there seems to be a surfeit of cheap fabrics, soiled looking jeans and bad haircuts around, but what people forget is you have to be a) stick thin and b) incredibly beautiful to get away with it. To see women who I am sure are quite aware of how horrific they look in clothes that no one over the age of 16 should wear is sad. Even normally sensible women (see Janet Street-Porter pictured) have made horrendous mistakes.
One reason is that since the doyen of shops for the middle aged woman – M&S – decided to wring as much money out of us as possible by dividing their shops into “designer” units, it’s become harder to find decent clothes. Now I am definitely not the twin set and pearls type, I want to look good as anyone does, but really!
Then there are the “style consultants” like Trinny and Suzanne, who I’m sure have a good laugh in the privacy of their mansions laughing at how gullible and desperate women can be. Yet another horror is that “10 years younger” programme, which takes very plain ladies and tarts them up to look like newly retired whores. On top of that, there is the humiliating format which calls for people to insult a woman in the street. Can you imagine any man allowing himself to be treated like this?
I think the whole issue may be because of the fact that the people responsible for fashion and media really hate women. If you factor in that thought, you can see why those TV programmes exist and why nothing flattering is designed for women who have gone beyond puberty or who have any breasts, never mind may be older that 16.
Of course the really cruel side of this is that it is we middle-aged women who suffer most from this type of fashion. Because it is harder to stay slim in your 40s and 50s, the fashion as it is today looks even more grotesque on anyone overweight (which, let’s be frank, includes nearly all of us). There are obviously some very disturbed people in the fashion and media industries who have serious issues with their mother. But to take it out on the rest of us is unnecessarily cruel, don’t you think?
There has never been a time when women of a certain age could be regarded as attractive, until now. In the recent past (the 1970s springs to mind as a good example) to be 40+ and a woman was to cease to exist. There were no role models on TV any woman having the nerve to age being discreetly removed from in front of the camera. Nowadays there are one or two, but Madonna?? Deary me, that taught tense body, that mean tight face, I don't call that growing old gracefully.
One reason is that since the doyen of shops for the middle aged woman – M&S – decided to wring as much money out of us as possible by dividing their shops into “designer” units, it’s become harder to find decent clothes. Now I am definitely not the twin set and pearls type, I want to look good as anyone does, but really!
Then there are the “style consultants” like Trinny and Suzanne, who I’m sure have a good laugh in the privacy of their mansions laughing at how gullible and desperate women can be. Yet another horror is that “10 years younger” programme, which takes very plain ladies and tarts them up to look like newly retired whores. On top of that, there is the humiliating format which calls for people to insult a woman in the street. Can you imagine any man allowing himself to be treated like this?
I think the whole issue may be because of the fact that the people responsible for fashion and media really hate women. If you factor in that thought, you can see why those TV programmes exist and why nothing flattering is designed for women who have gone beyond puberty or who have any breasts, never mind may be older that 16.
Of course the really cruel side of this is that it is we middle-aged women who suffer most from this type of fashion. Because it is harder to stay slim in your 40s and 50s, the fashion as it is today looks even more grotesque on anyone overweight (which, let’s be frank, includes nearly all of us). There are obviously some very disturbed people in the fashion and media industries who have serious issues with their mother. But to take it out on the rest of us is unnecessarily cruel, don’t you think?
There has never been a time when women of a certain age could be regarded as attractive, until now. In the recent past (the 1970s springs to mind as a good example) to be 40+ and a woman was to cease to exist. There were no role models on TV any woman having the nerve to age being discreetly removed from in front of the camera. Nowadays there are one or two, but Madonna?? Deary me, that taught tense body, that mean tight face, I don't call that growing old gracefully.
But, be fair, she and her peers are pathfinders for a new way. They are the women who will make the mistakes for us. You never know, one day being and older woman will be something to look forward to, a golden time when a sense of style and comfort in one's skin are the rewards for a life well-lived.
1 comment:
I agree. There is a huge market for good clothes for mature women. Here in France, there are lots of interesting examples of older women wearing stylish outfits - hats for a start. I live [temporarily] in a very unfashionable part of France - Limousin - far from the catwalks, but even in the small local country town, plenty of older women manage to look original and smart. It seems to be the cut of the clothes, the quality of material and the colour co-ordination. Plus decent haircuts. Of course, I'm still in M & S fleeces and jogging bottoms. But I am learning. There must be a business opportunity there/here/
some bloody where.
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