Fashion Over Fifty: Everyone has a Different Opinion

Hello!  For this week's Fashion Over Fifty post I'm wearing my faux leather moto jacket that I first revealed in THIS post.  In that post, I discussed" how does someone wear a black leather jacket when they are over 50" and I decided to wear it like a conservative blazer.  One of the comments I received from that post said 'Black leather jackets are for all ages in every stage of life'.  I so agree.  They are a classic clothing item that has been around longer than I've been alive, and  they will be around long after I'm dead.  But, they do go up and down with the 'trends' and this is the year they are definitely 'up' and whenever something is 'trendy' inevitably there is a young person out there telling us old people not to wear it or we look silly.   I really don't know when the older generation started to take fashion advice from teenagers and young adults, but this old lady doesn't.  Since starting this Fashion Over Fifty series, if there's anything I'm discovering it's that EVERYONE HAS A DIFFERENT OPINION of age appropriate dressing.  I subscribe to hundreds of fashion blogs, about 3/4 of them are written by bloggers under thirty and the rest are the over-forty or fifty generation.  I don't do that by choice, it's just that there are not a lot of good' fashion-over-fifty' blogs out there.  And of those older women fashion blogs, the opinions of what styles older women should wear vary greatly.  I don't want to get in a blog war and start criticizing other bloggers, so I am going to refrain from revealing the titles of the blogs, but one  blogger in particular is pushing sixty and I swear, in every single blog post I've read the past six months, she has worn a pair of black pants, with what I call 'the double shirt trick':  a shirt and cardigan or blazer over it or a T shirt with a open button down shirt.  That is the standard ensemble of any older woman….why, because we gain weight in our mid section and we think if we cover it up with a cardigan, jacket, or another shirt,  no one will notice our spare tire or the bra fat.  It's boring. This blogger think she looks 'fashionable, not frumpy'.  I think her style looks old and unfashionable, and that she does looks 'frumpy':  the very look that she is trying to avoid.  In my opinion, if you dress old, you look old.  It's not age appropriate fashion, it's old fashioned. I don't want to look like that. I want to wear the current trends, but I have to figure out how to do that in a way that does compliment my aging body and growing midsection, yet not look silly at the same time.  And that is hard, and it's controversial.  The safe thing to do would be to wear the black polyester pants and double shirts, but I won't.   So here is my trendy, hip, over-fifty way to cover up the expanding midsection without resorting to the polyester pants and double shirt trick:

 In place of the black polyester pants, I wore Extreme Stretch dark blue skinny jeans from Express.  Because the material is SO stretchy, they are very comfortable, and forgiving, and they give me the extra stretch where I need it without having to resort to wearing elastic waistband pants!  LOL!.  The red silky shirt is also from Express and it is part of the Portofino collection.  I wore a white long sleeve polyester tee from H & M underneath.  The jacket is from Forever 21.

 So, you see I'm still doing 'the double shirt' trick most over - fifty years old do:  I'm just doing it in a trendier, more interesting way by using a faux leather jacket instead of a second shirt, cardigan, or blazer, and I'm wearing skinny jeans instead of black polyester pants.

 For jewelry, I wore a collection of silver bangles and a watch.

 Whenever I wear a 'tougher' look, I like to feminize it a bit by adding some really girly jewelry like these pearls from Tori Spelling.

For shoes, I wore suede, black booties from Famous Footwear.

I hope I have inspired you to today to have the courage to step out of your style rut and take the risk of wearing something trendy.  But if your not there yet,  and you feel comfortable wearing the traditional double shirts and polyester pants, that's o.k. too.  We all should have the freedom to wear what we feel comfortable wearing without fear of criticism.  Wear the clothes that reflect who YOU are, not what someone else thinks you should be.

Have a great day! Amy