Getting and Spending: Your "Image Interest" lifeline

Though the world is presently engaged in at least three existential conflicts at any given time, today I'm pondering a superficial but consistent concern: I hear women in the Passage say, "I wonder if I should buy something "really nice" when I am not sure if it matters to me anymore." 

Ah, I think, they are ratcheting down their Image Interest, the degree to which a woman is concerned with personal image and its expression. Though this interest varies through life, knowing one's current level enables more conscious and satisfying choices.  

I sketched my timeline below. There is no correct level; it is affected by personality, culture and competing demands. To simplify, think of three levels:

Low Image Interest: Doesn't really care about clothing, hair, by choice (Frump Movement) or situation. Choices are practical, to meet requirements for role. Hairstyle is low-maintenance. One of Canadian politician Chrystia Freeland's assistants alluded to her Low Image Interest by saying, "Time spent thinking about her appearance was time wasted; if she could just be a brain in liquid, that would be her ideal situation." A woman might outsource the matter; public figures use stylists, others recruit partners, children or higher-image friends. Marketers do not waste their budgets on this cohort.

Medium Image Interest: Pays attention to what she is wearing, "makes an effort",  enjoys some shopping. Selects appropriate attire for work and social occasions herself. Aware of trends but not an early adopter. Checks out makeover and What I Wore posts for ideas. Sometimes anxious about choices; can overbuy trying to get it right. Marketers emphasize staying current—and increasingly, messages about sustainability.

High Image Interest: Enjoys reputation as fashionable and well-dressed. In control of image, early adopter of trends; confident. Prioritizes apparel purchases over others. Often the province of teens, women raised in High Image environments, and later in life, of design aficionados who view fashion as art. May co-exist with high interest in cosmetic procedures and diet. Marketers emphasize style-leader position and exclusivity.

One woman's timeline

A friend wrote recently to say, "Clothes—who really needs anything, but I think about them all the time." She led me to reflect on where I am now, and where I've come from. This is my timeline, beginning from when I could buy my own clothes or at least have them considered.

The y-axis is Interest in Personal Image; the x-axis is Age.

16-19: Fast ramp-up from Low (Mom dressed me) to High! I devoured "Seventeen" and "Glamour", babysat to buy the latest thing. High Interest felt like a grand experiment, in the company of the enormous Boomer cohort. No brakes on consumption other than my pocketbook; taste dictated by the magazines because this was the era before Tik-Tok. 

20-32: Interest remained at High but by mid-twenties the primary driver became "looking the part" for work. Stuffed Closet/Nothing to Wear Syndrome; many impulse and one-occasion buys.  Experimental forays, quite costume-y choices. Friend: "You always had the latest thing even if you looked dreadful in it."

33-37: Peak Image Interest coincided with divorce: binge buying clearly to deal with it. New, freespirited persona; unfortunately also freespending. When High Interest tips into obsession, danger lurks. Example: Diane Freis silk slip dress that cost a month's salary, worn maybe three times.  

See that Dancing Queen?

Sudden wakeup call re credit card debt. Took a year to pay it off, lesson stuck. Phase ended with remarriage; whew, calmed down.  Mistake besides the expense: Many designer pieces unworn.

38-50: Medium-High plateau: Stuck with one hair style/colour; abandoned vintage and avant-garde styles; shopped sales for business suits, shoes; also needed wash and wear mom clothes. Worried about looking mumsy. Mistakes: Too many similar items and eBay purchases that did not fit.

50-60: Image Interest dropped to Medium-Low when gained weight; mostly concerned with dressing bigger size. Motivated by good clothes sitting in closet, lost it (Weight Watchers), but divested skirt suits as business casual gained precedence. Realized some styles too twee, began to look for exemplars for my age. 

60-69: Retirement dip: goodbye to workplace 'fashion runway'. Interested in uniform dressing and sustainable brands. Avoided "how to look younger" influencers; instead, focused on who I was now and how to express that. Read only The Gentlewoman unless Vogue was in a waiting room.

70s-present: Medium Interest, a reckoning and wariness re the consumption culture. Refusal of fast fashion; inured to trends; wear mostly heritage brands. Some days, Low Interest and that's fine. New preoccupation: What do I want to wear now that I'd feel I'd missed out on, if the next phase is an institution?  

80+:  Might I come to emulate a nonagenarian artist who wears only white shirts and black yoga pants? Keep looking at portrait of the aged Georgia O'Keefe. Predict I won't become Low Interest unless health requires it, because I'm like my mother that way. 

When I visited to celebrate her 90th birthday, she asked me to take her to Maus and Hoffman, a Florida shop she patronized for over fifty years.  "I think I'm going to be around for a while", she said, handing me her charge card. She wanted this cardigan; it had to have grosgrain ribbon inside the placket and gold buttons. She was in her petite fuchsia flag for nine years, and then it went to her girlfriend, Sue.

Photo: Maus & Hoffman

I'd love to hear about how your Image Interest has changed over time.

Some women say they still have fairly high interest, but the industry seems  to have forgotten them, and is are focused on thirty-year-olds. Others say they are finally free to live in overalls and Crocs. What I wish for all is the that bright flash of pleasure Mom felt even at 92.