What do your clothes say about you?

It's annoying bags isnt it - some people just have that effortless chic gene. They have a way with scarves and other accessories.

I wear jeans almost all the time so every now and again I like to wear a frock or a skirt just to prove that I do have legs.

Scarves, lots of scarves. Hopefully to deflect attention from my lack of boobs and too large tummy. I do have a few old longish skirts in the wardrobe which look like new because I hardly ever wear them but intend to - one day.

Hmmm, wish I had style and flair! I live in jeans (cut-offs in warm weather) and any tops/sweaters which don't enlarge my already full buzoom and which hopefully manage to hide my tum area. Gilets are great for breaking up those unseemly bulges in the wrong places . My only good point are long slim legs, so it's jeans and trousers for me.

I love dresses, but the agony of trying them on in changing rooms and seeing the result (surely I don't really look like that . . . do I??) has me putting them rapidly back on the rail!

The trouble is, I have a mental image of myself which doesn't transfer to the reality.

Yep - my clothes say that I am too fat hey! ho!

glass - do you mean an 'avocado' bathroom suite, and not and 'advocat' one? There you are - having a glass or two!

marelli no I have not had a glass or two yet no this is what she actually called her avocado bathroom suite and she was very proud of it.

I have picked out 3 quotes which I can really empathise with, but what are we saying here?
Quote 1 is the story of my life (hence hating most pictures of myself)
Quote 2 is only too common over a certain age, but is Judi Dench "invisible"? Maggie Smith? Helen Mirren? Let's not run ourselves down.We are not invisible!
Quote 3 is my financial downfall!! I love new clothes/shoes and the "promise" of the miraculous effect they will have on my appearance. As if!
Here they are:
1)The trouble is, I have a mental image of myself which doesn't transfer to the reality.

2)I've become invisible over the last few year so no point in dressing up.

3)Basically, I don't much like wearing clothes, but I like to acquire them .
Thoughts please!

Very philosophical grace and I need to ponder the implications here. Will have a thunk when the 2-year old ( dream child) goes for his nap.

gracesmum I totally agree with quotes 1 and 3.
But then I also agree with:
Nfkdumpling and scarves, I have THREE drawers full!
Marelli and Gally re sales, I love a bargain so much that I buy something, say for £9.99 and then spend a great deal more matching it up! When I realise this is getting stupid I apply the 'Blue Rule' (only allowed to buy it if it's blue!)
I can spend hours wandering around clothes shops, I think it's a sort of avoidance strategy (housework, paperwork etc)
Like other grans, I like to vary the mood.
Bags... buffs ? Nothing to do with 'in the buff' I hope.
Finally, I think my clothes say that I am a vain old biddy trying to hang onto a size 10/12 and that I certainly do NOT need the amount I have.
P.S. apart from shoes and underpinnings ALL the gear worn in Brum had been bought in Sales!

grace
no 1 sums me up to a tee.
I hate to have my photo taken (proof on the Edinburgh thread, where I am hidden at the back) as I am sure I should be 5ft 8 and thin

No 2 I would be happy with as then I wouldnt then have to hide

No3 Does not apply as I hate shopping for clothes but then No 1 and No 2 are proof to that.

I am much happier in my old work clothes and big boots and covered in cement and nobody to see.

I agree absolutely with number 3 gracesmum, and have a wardrobe full of unworn clothes to prove it! In my mind's eye, when I bought them, I was transformed - but in reality I tend to wear the same old things every day and either haven't got the courage or the occasion to wear some of the more striking items that persuaded me to buy them...

Number 3 applies to me, and I used to have clothes hanging up that we're too tight,but I was going to slim into, needless to say, that never happened. I am starting to wear some of the more colourful, or as ana says, "the more striking items", just because I love them and hav got to the age when I realise people don't care or notice what I wear.

I live in jeans and trousers, don't own a dress or skirt, which is a shame really as my legs are my best bit. However I can only wear flat shoes and they make me feel dumpy!
I've still got some good quality clothes, especially coats and jackets and macs, because I live in walking distance of the town centre, but underneath may well be a Sainsbury jumper! I love a bargain!

As for 1,2,and 3..well I feel invisible, but my mental image is worse than reality I think.
I think my clothes are as confused as I am

Ok DC napping. .
1) I still tend to buy clothes that would suit a younger me, and end up giving them to my daughter. But sooooo hard to find clothes that flatter. (Why don't firms like M&S cotton on to this market?)
2) I'm invisible...but I'm not in the public eye like Dame Judy, and I spent the greater part of my life conforming to an image and trying to look young and trendy. Now the pressure is off. I have my grandchildren 5 days a week. They don't care at their age what I look like so long as I can play with them, cuddle them and get messy with them. (Oddly enough they do notice what I smell like !!!! and comment on new fragrances...the favourite being Vick vapour rub just now!) MrDog wouldn't notice if I wore a burka. My children wouldn't either though occasionally my SiL or DiL might say I look nice ('for a change' is probably implied).
And it's all quite liberating, in fact very liberating. Don't get me wrong I try to look reasonably smart but that's about it.
3) any fashion disaster I give away or cut up for patchwork, dolls clothes, charity shop. Except I have a drawer full of belts taken from per Una jeans which I don't use.
Anyway love reading all these posts makes me feel reassuringly normal

OK so what are we prepared to do to be visible? My mum used to discourge vanity by saying "Nobody is going to be looking at you anyway" which didn't do much for my self-confidence but what is it about getting older that seems to make us less important? Magazines bang on endlessy about self-confidence/inner confidence/rediscover your confidence blah blah until I feel perhaps I should be worried.
Is it retirement? Giving up being "somebody"? In which case are we defined by our job? (Heaven help us!)
Having met some very "visible" Gnetters on Saturday, I do not believe that we should just roll over and sink below the horizon. What happened to the spirit we had when we were younger?

Ah but that's different * grace* . I might appear invisible but I'm not. You rattle my cage and you'll know about it, as stroppy shop assistants/government officials soon find out.
So perhaps the cloak of invisibility we choose to wear is just camouflage? The GNetters on Saturday chose to take off their cloaks and display their true colours I think.
Does that make sense???

OGM, www.buffwear.co.uk/

So, is it like a snood-sort-of-thing?

OMG is (sort of) right! I especially like the Dog Buff

I like tshirts and shorts, worn with sneakers or sandals - preferably comfy boys' sandals. My favourite denim gardening shorts started to go in holes, so I covered the holes with applique/embroidered flowers. Now I look like a failed and faded flower power refugee from the 1960s.

When I go out I'm a bit posher - I put on a better Tshirt and linen-look trousers. I did get a nice skirt and a silk scarf for a wedding recently, but the dog chewed the scarf, and I daren't wear the skirt again till I buy some new knickers: well, you don't get the fear of them falling down when you wear trousers, and most of my knickers have dodgy elastic, and I've lost a bit of weight too. I know I should buy some more, but I always forget.

My dress sense is non-existent, and my clothes budget is more or less zero so I'm unlikely to ever get it right. Just as well I live in the subtropics where you wear a lot less, so there's less to get wrong.

joan

gracesmum you have the chic scarf gene. Just in case u didn't know.
my nana used to say "nobody's going to stop their horse and cart" - which is a more positive statement than your mums.
And just to show i can be pedantic too bags does that mean there is no such thing as a waterproof hat or boot?
nanadogsbody - I know what you mean. When I am doing grandchild herding my interest in how I am dressed gets trumped by practicality for the duration.

No, jess. In answer to that I'd say your pedantry has led you astray. But I see what you're getting at .

This thread made me laugh out loud! Loved all the quotes and comments. I am not that interested in clothes and it probably shows! As long as the lumps and bumps are covered and nothing is too tight I am happy. [ grin]