After 60, Change Your Dress Style to Reflect the Way You Think and Feel
Dressing in an age appropriate way is something that strikes fear into the heart of many women. We don’t want to look like “Mutton dressed as Lamb.” We don’t want to look like granny.
Our goal is to simply look sensational! We want to change the way we dress to reflect the way we think and feel.
Sometimes, it takes courage. It especially takes courage if we decide to step outside the box and create a whole new style.
We may worry that our friends or family may not like our style. However, we are at an age where it only matters if we like it!
I have been a Stylist, designer and change facilitator for many years. Here is my short list of tips and tricks you may care to adopt.
The key to dressing your age, at any age, is very simple. Don’t let anyone ever tell you it’s difficult and time-consuming. It isn’t. It consists of the repeated adjustment of your style, the constant refinement of your style and letting go.
Letting Go
As we move into our lives as they are meant to be lived, letting go applies to almost everything. The ability to let go is intrinsically bound to our self-esteem. This in turn is bound to the strength of our belief that the opinions of others are none of our business. The way you dress and the style you adopt is uniquely your own.
Embracing Your Difference
This is not necessarily accepting our differences in terms of race, colour or creed. No, this is our difference as an individual with regard to other people! We are blessed to all be different. This can often be where the problem lies. We must recognise that we are each truly and deeply unique.
Desperately Seeking Perfection
The quest for perfection is a waste of time. Because we are unique in our definition of perfection, we are all perfectly imperfect!
I often wish I had a dollar for the number of times I have heard women say I’m too fat or I’m too thin. (Actually, I don’t hear that very often!) I often hear I’m too old or I’m not smart enough. That goes with, my thighs are too big, my arms are too floppy, or my waist is thick.
Seriously ladies – build a bridge and get over it! You’re gorgeous, just the way you are!
The Getting of Style Wisdom
Stopping to look back over the years is rarely productive. We only tend to focus on what we consider the bad things. What is useful is to take a look at how you dressed when you felt your best!
For example, I know I looked fabulous in the sixties and seventies and I loved the eighties. I seem to be in a minority of one here! The nineties did nothing for me and I can honestly say there isn’t a lot about fashion that I like nowadays.
Which brings me to Coco Chanel who said “Only fashion fades. Style remains the same”, and how right she was!
Here are just three key points to remember as we select our clothing:
- Nothing looks or feels as good as clothing that is the right size, shape and colour. If it fits properly you are unlikely to feel constricted and you will look slimmer. It’s a mistake to think that wearing something big and baggy makes you look slimmer. It doesn’t!
- When we go shopping, we need to know exactly what we are looking for. Unfortunately, sizes determined by the clothing industry are not regulated or tested in any way. Sizes even vary between manufacturers. So a size 36 may not be the same in two stores next door to each other.
- Forget about the number on the garment label. It’s just an arbitrary number assigned to a garment by somebody in a factory. If you don’t like the number, cut out the label! If you’re buying something that works on you, it doesn’t matter if the label is size 16 or size 0.
When I turned 50, I started working with women over 50. Then their major issue was how to dress a body they failed to recognise as their own. It impacted me so much, I wrote a book on the topic of menopause and finding your own style. It was called Hot Stuff: The Ultimate Guide to Style for Women of a Certain Age. The sections on menopause may be irrelevant but style is the same at any age and at any time of life!
My catch-cry is that the way you dress is all about the way you feel, the way you look, and the way you feel about the way you look!
So tell me… how do you feel about the way you look? Have you opted for a new style? Do you have a different outlook on style, fashion and clothing generally, since you reached your sixties? Do you still want to look sexy?
