“She’s too old/young to dress like that”, “Who does she think she is? Mutton dressed as lamb”. How many times have we heard this about being said about someone, particularly a Woman?
Whether its Women in the public eye or that Aunty who wants to share your clothes, there has always been a fashion debate on whether we should dress our age or stop dressing a certain way once we reach a ‘certain age’. But when is that ‘certain age? Is it the big age of 30, 40 or 50?
If Celebrities are anything to go by these days it seems the ‘certain age’ has become blurred. Take Sarah Jessica Parker and in particular her character ‘Carrie Bradshaw’ from Sex and the City. Not only is the characters lifestyle one that many would associate with a typical young, successful twenty something single female but her dress sense also reflects this too.
It was the ‘Carrie Bradshaw’ character that elevated Ms Parker as one of the most iconic fashion characters (and SJP didn’t do too badly from this either) so far. Looking at the characters dress sense many would agree that it is not the one of someone who is in her thirties (in reality it is believed that that SJP was older then her character) but this character enabled Women of any age to abandon ‘age dressing’ and dress (in what is normally considered) ‘younger’.
Since then it is believed that the phrase “mutton dressed as lamb” has turned into “She is just on trend”, “She is just has the confidence/figure to wear it” etc.
The rise of Celebrity has certainly helped with this phenomenon too. If we look at examples of Women in their forties: Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox and Gwen Stefani. Aside from their healthy diets and workouts which make them look at least ten years younger, the clothes they wear (like the example of SJP’s character, Carrie Bradshaw) typically would be of a younger Woman.
It could be said the ever rising obsession that Celebrities play in our lives has given Women confidence to dress the way they want without having to think about whether they can ‘pull’ a certain look off because of their age.
Having these examples of Celebrity role models can be beneficial in inspiring Women not to feel they have to put away their fashion sense away after a certain age. It can also be said that because of the aspiring role models (in particular Celebrities), Women feel more confident in dressing without having to think of the ‘age barrier’ of fashion.
It can also be said that clothes these days are designed to be more dimensional in the sense that they are more ‘flexible’ for all shapes, sizes and ages to wear. Therefore there are many factors that maybe responsible for the blurring of the age barrier in fashion.
Here’s hoping that this age barrier comes down or is flexible so we can all live happy, fruitful fashion lives without having to think about what to wear all the time. The mornings and evenings may just get a little easier to dress after this!
