Wow, this has been an interesting read. Sorry I didn’t get back sooner, but I want to thank all of you for your thoughtful comments, and, even more, your encouragement to stay on the forum. This truly is a special place.
But to get back to my original post: I actually didn’t intend this thread to sound like a precursor to abandoning YLF or to raise the posting vs. non-posting picture issue, or even to talk about how to maintain one’s fashion mojo as one ages, so I apologize if some of my earlier responses highjacked the thread in those directions. Thistle, Rachylou, and Tulle actually expressed my thoughts much better than I did—what happens when, as an older woman, you decide to stop playing the fashion game according to conventional wisdom?
I totally salute women who, up until their last breath, look cool, stylish, and current. I can visualize Angie, and so many others on the forum, settling for nothing less as they age into their sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties—heck, even into their hundreds! But as I’ve aged, I’ve come to realize my feelings about fashion are much like the way I feel about art, or music, or the theatre. I love to look, listen, or watch, but my desire to own another painting—or jump in on what is pitched as the latest, coolest, or edgiest—is fast dwindling. More and more I just want to do my own thing in my own way. I like to think of this as one of the privileges of old age.
Which brings me to Her Majesty (thanks, Adelfa, for putting us straight on her title!). To me, she looks old in a smart, comfortable, relaxed way that really appeals to me. It’s much like Kate Hepburn’s uniform when she was old, except Kate had the kind of magnificent bone structure and willowy body that made her smart, comfortable and relaxed choices look stylish as well. Put Kate’s choices on a more “average”, older body, though, like HM, and it seems to me you get dowdy—as in matronly, dowager-like, stodgy, and, yes, even a bit frumpy when you aren’t wearing the crown jewels. Well-cut, well-fitted, quality clothing, but about as far as you can get from the fashion runway. Those hemlines are set in concrete. HM could resurrect an outfit from a couple of decades ago and most of us wouldn’t know the difference. That is about as classic as you can get—more CLASSIC(modern), than Modern Classic—but a uniform I find appealing although at odds with the excitement and variety that is the heart of a fashion forum.
Like Kate Hepburn, HM, and Thistle’s grandmother, I crave a uniform that I never have to think about once I put it on my body. Is it the “best I can be”—probably not, but I don’t think my clothing and appearance is where I want expend my capital these days. So my question is really how do you view a decidedly average older woman who deliberately puts runway fashion and trends on the back burner? Can it be viewed as a style goal, a rebellion, or is it the equivalent of “giving up”? Are there any other Elderly Tomboys out there, or Senior Sportifs who are content to wear their navy polo sweaters, Gap jeans, and boots, endlessly, until the end of their days?