A guide to fashion, beauty, and style after 50

To offer a list of fashion and style tips is to venture onto very dangerous ground. It is riddled with barbed wire and ‘No Trespass’ signs; a woman is very possessive of this acreage. Whether make-up and clothes are paramount in her life or not, these aspects have been established in her own personal status-phere. The fact that these things are or are not important goes far in defining her personality.

A sense of what to do with make-up and clothes is necessary, however, for the greater good. And that good is style. Beauty is physical. That was nature’s idea. Fashion is glossy and stalks the catwalks on Fashion Week. The designers come up with that. Style is a personal achievement.

I’ve assembled a list of 10 roads that lead to that haven.

1. Honesty

Look at yourself. Every woman has her strengths and weaknesses, and it would be best advised to emphasize the one and hide the other. Looking at your face and figure honestly in deciding “What The Market Will Bear.” The streets of every city in the union is flooded with women and men who ignore this rule and insist on wearing very fine, very expensive clothes that fit them like sausage casings. I mean, I love pencil skirts yet would never consider wearing one, not wishing to inflict that type of horror on the populace.

Respect your limitations and you can still go far.


2. Make a difference

Look different. We are all grown-up women; we can handle the attention. You are not giving up comfort. You are not giving up finances. All you are doing is acquiring a new work of art and imagination. Be brave. Buy that ring with the 2-inch rhinestone flower. (Oops, sorry. I already did.)

Bottom line: the weapons are before you — in sales racks, in vintage stores (just muscle Young Hollywood out of the way) and flea markets. Fire at will.

3. A made-up story

That’s right. Throw reality out the door, because make-up is just one mighty slap of dramatic fiction on your face. I think that the animation in the face centers in the eyes and mouth. So why not emphasize where emphasis was meant to be?

For the eyes: Liquid eyeliner, certainly. Using a pencil is risky, as the color will smear and fade, besides having a coy tendancy to be sidetracked by wrinkles. Pair it with eyeshadow for the evening only. No need to overwhelm your acquaintances-by-day with your fabulousness.

Lipstick. Besides being a stylistic necessity, it is a colorful balm for the lips. As for shade, have at it, ladies. Mix it up, in fact (the lipsticks, I mean). I believe in contrast, so for me the darker the better (my current shade is Black Currant). But I would no sooner advise a lady as to which lipstick to wear as I would, oh, anything which I have no business advising.

(I use a “stain” made by Urban Decay — applied only at the edges of the mouth — and it prevents the lipstick from being diverted by lines. Use lightly, however, as it does cause drying.)

Make-up used to sneeringly be referred to as “paint.” But that’s what it is! Glory in it!



4. Trust yourself

Often the only couturier you need is residing in your own imagination. Many times it is your own good sense that will help you find your own personal style. A clear vision will go far in helping to guide you through a miasma of misguided fashion that attacks our sensibilites and wallets every season. But if you’re wearing horizontal stripes and UGG boots right now – well, we’ll say no more.




5. Don’t trust the present

Just because you see an article of clothing or an accessory in a store window doesn’t mean that it is a well-out-conception and worthy of your closet. A published book isn’t necessarily readable. Many times I’ve stood in front of a shop window, musing to myself, “They don’t have a clue, do they?” Buying something because it is new and trendy is foolish and ill advised. Make like a deer and buck the trend.


6. Embrace the past

There are many things from decades ago that will make a look unique: peplums, long skirts, full skirts, gloves, hats — the whimsies of years long past. Little things like jewelry or a scarf lend unexpected colors and patterns to an outfit that was formerly mediocre if only because everyone else had that same look. I honestly believe that style is like a bouquet garni, and one of its many essences is to look like no one else.



7. Ideas and reality

Beautiful, expensive things can be frustrating. They seem meant to stay behind glass windows, inside indimidating stores. But they are an education, too. What makes an outfit beautiful? Come on, ladies, break it down. Is it the line? The silhouette? The jacket? The collar? The decoration? Hold that idea — it can invariably be found once more, hidden in the retail depths of Ross Dress For Less, Loehmann’s and Target, etc.

If the outfit works because the model looks pretty, then move on. You are not a 98 lb. 15-year-old.

8. Flea!

The flea market is a source for items and decorations that will be found no where else. The things you find there will have traveled a long path through time, and by the time they reach you, they will have left their brothers and sisters by the wayside and become one of a kind. In addition, you can find things that were hand made (I once bought a skirt made from curtains). I’ve also found jackets or sweaters that were ideal, save for missing things as minor as buttons. Nothing could be easier to sew on, and it would be tragic if that were the only thing standing in the way of your purchase.

To bottom-line it: buy your basics retail, then punch them up with a flea market purchases.

9. Don’t abuse your shoes

Since corsets are no longer en vogue except for those special evenings, the only article of clothing that has the potential to destroy your body is shoes. Mind, I adore pointed tips and high heels; I love shoes that compress the foot vertically, forcing the wearer to adopt a dainty hobble. But I also enjoy a straight back and toes that perform the task they were born to do. Feet that are not pampered early in life will later on kick you in the–well, you understand what I mean. Ignore modern extremeties and travel the sensible route. With your comfy shoes you can do this easily and just as prettily. Is this style advice? Yes. As well as common sense.

10. Caged by age

Item #1 spoke about the limitations established by the vagaries of the body. I believe that those are the only restrictions that need to be adhered to. Any look, act, or goal you choose should not be controlled by your age. It is your preference, your inclination that is important. Your accumulation of years is absolutely irrelevant.

Age tells you many silly things. I remember reading something to the effect that once you have passed the age of 40, and still have the audacity to get married, you must leave the gowns and orange blossoms to the kids. The mature woman should get married in a pantsuit. I also own a pamphlet on beauty that was published in 1932. Each chapter discusses proper skin care from the teens to the forties — then stops. (Presumably once you’ve passed 49 you will have the goodness to be dead.)

Put it another way: Style is like a crime. If you can get away with it, do it.

Wait. That wasn’t right. Put it this way: a timeline shouldn’t control your lifeline. If you choose to ignore this list, it would make me very happy indeed if you could remember that one thought.