The older woman and fashion

I am outraged by the suggestion this week that women hit their style prime at 35. Come off it! There are plenty of stylish older ladies out there as there are younger! I know because how many of them have I served in retail over the years!??!?! Not only that but I have thrown together a list of stylish gals who are over the age of 35 and still rocking it...

The honorable Daphne Guinness aged 44

 

The ever tasteful Anna Wintour aged 62

 The beautifully bonkers Vivienne Westwood aged 71

The grand Iris Apfel aged 90

The amazing Zandra Rhodes aged 71

So don't tell me that women hit their style prime at 35 - what a load of bollocks! I think as we get older, and this goes for women in their late twenties as well as their late 50s - we learn what suits us and we learn to make better choices. The choices I make now at 26 suit me as a 26 year old woman and I know my shape. I don't pander to trends as much as I used to and I don't dress like a lunatic anymore. We grow into our style as we get older but to suggest that women have a style sell by date is insanity and just another way in which fashion retail rejects the idea of fashionable older women.

Germaine Greer wrote a wonderful article on this for ELLE UK a few years ago in which she spoke about the exclusion of older women by fashion retail in recent years. I wrote about the piece here and you can see for yourself - it was a wonderful thing to read. 

If you need further convincing then why not check out http://advancedstyle.blogspot.com/ which brings you photos of the amazing style of older ladies....

....I personally plan to be fab, fifty and wear purple...as the poem goes....