Lambchopitude
Many of us over 50 worry about looking "Mutton Dressed as Lamb" (MDAL). I thought it might be instructive to feature an adorable lamb. This girl was posted on The Sartorialist; I'm going to guess she is 18.
A cute tomboy with loads of accessories, her look reads young.
If you care about MDAL, I suggest that for about every decade, a woman lose one accessory from the array worn in the shot, and revise the clothing after thirty.
20-30: huge scarf worn in July; swap for lighter
30-40: arm warmers and high-top Converses
50-60: one of the two tote bags, fanny pack
60-up: pants (move to full-length or slightly cropped) and baggy top.
Keep the big grin, the newsboy cap and the scarf for when it cools down!
Of course you could just fly your sheep flag, and wear it anyway, if Converses and fanny packs are your idea of sheec.
A cute tomboy with loads of accessories, her look reads young.If you care about MDAL, I suggest that for about every decade, a woman lose one accessory from the array worn in the shot, and revise the clothing after thirty.
20-30: huge scarf worn in July; swap for lighter
30-40: arm warmers and high-top Converses
50-60: one of the two tote bags, fanny pack
60-up: pants (move to full-length or slightly cropped) and baggy top.
Keep the big grin, the newsboy cap and the scarf for when it cools down!
Of course you could just fly your sheep flag, and wear it anyway, if Converses and fanny packs are your idea of sheec.
Comments
Not that short hair is necessarily desexualising or mumsy - Duchesse and Une Femme both have smashing haircuts - but the obligation grates. Maggie's comment makes me want to grow it longer again - no sane woman middle-aged or over thinks having long hair will make her look 20. I know many women of 40, 50 or 60 with beautifully-groomed long hair.
I do agree with the paring down.
Hair needs to be well cut when long, and suit the hair type.
I think that really long hair is generally unflattering on so many women. After 45 or so I think hair generally (though not always) looks better shoulder length or shorter. Nobody says you ever have to get a mumsy (terrible description) cut - ever!
It was Chanel who said to take 1 thing off - but most people need to put 1 thing on as they don't accessorize at all!
She's cute, but the scarf overwhelms.
some older women wind up with it because they are no longer "seen' by their hairdresssers. Or have they retired to a part of their country where good hairdressers are scarce?
So it is not always a choice, sometimes s--- happens, or a hairdresser thinks, well, she is over 50, so too old for a stylish cut. (I've had them say this). Or they just chop away like the last one I had did, who knows why. Sorry to rant but sometimes it is not about "respecting a choice" and a little feedback is a good thing.
I live in an affluent town (saying so has a bearing on my comment-not that affluence means people are happier -not always but the expectation of seeing poverty say in India or a poor person in my store might have the expectation that warrants one or thenother to not so freely be able to conjure up a smile or a belly laugh)
However I can't stop thinking about my mum telling me not to make a certain face as a child "If you roll your eyes your face will stay that way darling" she would say. I, of course never believed it would happen.
Now I see it everywhere women and men all looking so discruntled- long faces- downturned mouths- dead eyes like a fish who missed being swept back to sea. How long does it take to etch those lines of pain and of disgust and horror. How long to be made sour.
I see it now all the time-if you look around.I wonder what kind of childhoods and teenage years laid the foundation of snarls- what sort of lost loves and cruel lives cemented each dowturn on the mouths- what disappointments created the glances filled with fear-
Yes please keep the smile. I looked at my face in the mirror and still thankfully have the smile. Thanks Mum! Thanks Duchesse.
It is wonderful that women donate their hair. There was a drive here; several media personalities were shorn for a cancer charity; of course only some had hair suitable for donation towards wigs and hairpieces.
Anjela, I wonder if - in countries where most people do have enough to eat and at least some form of housing - a certain glumness and sneer are more typical of the more affluent areas? Perhaps not so accentuated here in Québec (we aren't a big enough society) but friends and I have certainly noticed that during stays in Paris. People are much friendlier in the east end than in les beaux quartiers (not meaning they are necessarily nicer or kinder to others). In posh areas many cultivate an air of deep ennui.
There are still many frightening strictures about what older people, especially older women are entitled to do - starting about midway through current women's life expectancy, if not earlier. Fortunately that is changing. Elegance is refusal of unquestioned strictures as well as of too many accessories.
I even have to ask when people look so happy- who smile- "Are you from some strange planet-are you visiting- are you from out of town"
I approach that on tiptoes as I really don't want to get into the idealisation of any kind of poverty, which is deeply damaging in many ways.
I have had curly hair for years and when my hairdresser died, no one else could do the perms right, so I had to get it cut Short. I told the hairdresser not to give me a "small town cut" and insisted that they keep the bits behind the ears fringe helps too. I have fine hair and there is lots of it so I have to use a lot of product to get any volume People say the short cut makes me look years younger. When I look back at old pictures, I wince and wonder how I could have been so blind and out of date. Now I know to demand that the behind the ear bits stay long.
Also hair is a sexual characteristic, so I think some women associate cutting their hair with losing sexual attractiveness.
I have another (personal)theory. When you have long hair (as I recall) you spend a lot more time grooming it than with short. Just like a person you spend a lot of time with, it occupies more of your life, and you get more dismayed at the suggestion of parting.