Yesterday, The Guardian columnist Helen Walmsley-Johnson revealed her true identity to her readers. Under the pen name “The Invisible Woman”, she had been writing excellent columns about fashion for older women for quite some time. However, she’d been feeling increasingly uncomfortable with “staying invisible”, and thought it was time to stand up, for herself, and for a whole generation of women:
“Another reason for shedding my anonymity is that we are a generation of women who need to speak up and demand what we need because there is so much wrong with the treatment and perceptions of our age group. We are a generation of ‘copers’ — silent copers at that — but we need a voice. I can’t add my voice if I remain invisible. We must all stop being invisible women. It’s simply no good to be polite and hope someone else will do it for us, or that common sense and good manners will prevail. That is not how society is, if it ever was. We need to adapt and reinvent ourselves.”
Another blogger whose style philosopy I like is Alyson Walsh from That’s Not My Age, a freelance journalist and former fashion editor who “strongly believes that you don’t have to have youth to have style”.
Through Alyson’s blog I discovered the website of photographer Kristin Perers. She started interviewing and photographing women “of a certain age” for the this is 50 project when she herself turned fifty and “was looking for role models who could show her how to do it with style and grace”. The pictures are beautiful and the stories thought-provoking and truly inspiring.
Fab Links from Our Members
After reading the Man Repeller’s post about a cry against normcore, Deb wondered if we are really doing this. Are we becoming boring dressers?, she asks, and is “boring” really in style?
Vildy enjoyed this piece on actors needing to “perform ordinariness” to come across as authentic, and in touch with their audiences.
Both MuseumGal and Angie came across our very own forum member Deborah being interviewed about her killer style on 40 Plus Style. Angie adds that she especially loves Deb’s style when she incorporates white and/or light grey into her outfits.
Angie would also like to share Already Pretty’s selection of favourite body-positive blogs.
Betabrand, a San Francisco-based apparel company, decided to use female PhDs instead of professional models in its latest ad campaign. Diana has mixed feelings about this, and started a great discussion in the YLF forum.
Peter Lappin of Male Pattern Boldness asks a question Laurinda has long wondered about: Why must our clothing be gendered? He also includes a video interview with Timothy John, often seen in Bill Cunningham’s fashion photo essays in the NY Times, who explains that he just wants to wear clothing that makes his heart sing.
