Things you think can make you look older than your years!

Bad haircut, bad teeth, and bad posture - all these make one look and feel old.

Ditto to showing ‘old’ arms.*
If you don’t care, that’s fine, but if you do, elbow length sleeves are IMO the way to go - old elbows aren’t very pretty, either.

*or old anything, TBH. Perhaps particularly wrinkly cleavages, not that I ever had much of a cleavage anyway.

I lived for years in very hot climates, so even in hot weather (unless getting a tan is a priority) IMO covered-up in light cotton or another natural fibre keeps you cooler - at least the sun isn’t beating down directly on your skin.

Losing my hair made me look older than my years. Appreciate you hair folks.

GagaJo

Callistemon21

If you can remember wearing it the first time round the advice is not to wear it when it comes back into fashion ?

Exactly. Perhaps I should hand the purple short dungarees to my daughter. On second thoughts, back in the day my waist was tiny. They wouldn't fit her!

?

Now, where did I put my mini skirts and long white boots?

Germanshepherdsmum

Today my local paper featured Ladies' Day at the local racecourse. I won't comment on what the younger women were wearing. Two of the older ones wore sleeveless dresses which showed their very crepey upper arms to perfection. One of them was wearing a dress without sleeves but sporting a bra with 'transparent' straps. Another wore a sleeveless and strapless dress and there were some big bulges around the bra area. Yuk

I know.
Young arms look lovely in sleeveless dresses.
Ours not so much.
Even toned slim arms still don't look right in sleeveless tops and dresses as we age
Its much more flattering to have a small sleeve.

Callistemon21

If you can remember wearing it the first time round the advice is not to wear it when it comes back into fashion ?

Exactly. Perhaps I should hand the purple short dungarees to my daughter. On second thoughts, back in the day my waist was tiny. They wouldn't fit her!

Even if all us Gransnetters are wearing what we see as 'stylish' clothes, I suspect that today's young people will grow up thinking of those as 'old people's clothes' in just the same way as we do with crimplene dresses! Probably the same with our 'modern' hairstyles too

I have stopped wearing black close to my face as I think it can make you look drained. On the rare occasion I do wear a black top I usually also wear a bright scarf

I tend to wear shirts/blouses these days rather than t shirts as they don't cling to ever lump and bump - and I have quite a few of those. I wear them with leggings, cropped trousers (narrow) or slim leg trousers.

I do like the way Prue Leith dresses with all the bright colours and chunky jewellery.

Hyacinth Bucket on the other hand, she always looked older than her years even when the series came out in 1990. Patricia Routledge (who played her) must have only been in her early 50's when the series started. My MIL still dresses like this and has done for the last 30 years.

What does she wear? I really cannot remember, but she could make a binbag look stylish

That's my problem, then.
With flat feet, a dodgy back and needing TKR I can make stylish look like a bin bag.
It's quite an art.

Kandinsky

Jezz you can always tell when you’re on gransnet.
Crimplene? ? wasn’t that last used in the 60’s?
Although a young pretty woman would still look good in it.
Any woman over about 50 becomes pretty much invisible so doesn’t matter what you wear.

Kadinsky I remember a few years ago there were some little girls' dresses for sale in M&S which were made of a thick Crimplene-like fabric.
It can't be more than about 5 or 6 years ago because I was looking for something for DGD - no, I didn't buy one!!

If you can remember wearing it the first time round the advice is not to wear it when it comes back into fashion ?

MawtheMerrier

Pickpockets at work?

??? hadn’t viewed it like that. Could be a comment on falling value of state pensions.

Whenever I see vintage clothes for sale I give them a huge miss as I am vintage and they make me look older. Also I don’t wear makeup, I am blessed with long black eyelashes and my skin is good with very few wrinkles, my teeth are good so not afraid to smile, I put my natural glow down to fresh air. Why spoil it all with makeup

Kandinsky

Invisible to the opposite sex I meant.
Isn’t that why women once they get to a certain age ( & men for that matter ) try to look younger? To still look attractive to the opposite sex?
Why bother otherwise?

100% not ! I dress for myself. Occasionally for my granddaughter (wear the pink earrings Granny)

if you like what you are wearing and wear it with confidence, who else should it matter to? Exactly what I was thinking, Maw. If you feel comfortable you can forget what you're wearing, and just be yourself. At this moment, I am wearing a pair of plaid pyjama trousers,a red fleece and sheepskin slippers but when I've had a shower, dark indigo jeans and a hyacinth-blue top plus a pair of trainer style shoes. Comfortable and non-age-specific.
But a word about cosmetics. Lipstick leaking into little lines around the mouth is worse than no lipstick, but a primer can help. Mis-application of blusher looks like a warmed-up corpse. Go and get a lesson at a make-up counter in John Lewis.

I do think posture can make a big difference to how you’re perceived, assuming you’re not affected by mobility/health problems.

A colleague once told me how she’d mistaken another colleague - seen some distance ahead - for a really old lady, purely because of the way she was walking. We were all only very early 60s at the time.

Since then I try to remind myself to walk and stand ‘tall’ - and I’m thankful that I’m still able to.

For oneself. I’m certainly not trying to attract another man (one’s enough!) but I try to look my best every day, whether I’m going out or just doing housework or gardening. Self esteem and not ‘letting myself go’.

I’ve just had an extremely quick look at the ‘chic at any age’ blog.
She undoubtedly looks lovely.
But it’s a reminder that you need to know what your colours are (ie your colour ‘season’)
I’m an autumn, and can also get away with some winter colours too; but I would look awful in that lady’s colours. (Summer?)

Invisible to the opposite sex I meant.
Isn’t that why women once they get to a certain age ( & men for that matter ) try to look younger? To still look attractive to the opposite sex?
Why bother otherwise?

I’m certainly not invisible! But I would be if I got a neat Queen-style hairdo or a short back and sides, chucked out the makeup and wore head to toe beige and Hotter shoes. My neighbour, who is younger than me, ticks those boxes and looks 10 years older. Very invisible.

Having read most of the above I looked at the things in my wardrobe this morning.
Comfy? Yes. Modest? Yes. that'll do for me.
I have some things that are decidedly frumpy but they work for me and so they stay on the rota!

Love the 'pickpockets' interpretation! Mawthemerrier

I do think that colour makes a difference- dark indigo denim jeans for instance rather than beige “slacks” , or that pastel green one used to see elderly ladies in. White near the face too seems to reflect the light and lift your look.
I wonder if we become more timid about colour as we get older? Ironic, really, as a head of white hair can carry off just about any colour . You only have to look at the Queen recently in that zinging yellow coat at the opening of the Elizabeth line or the pink she wore yesterday to Chelsea.
I have a sneaking fear that floral patterns may be a no-no too, shame as I have a couple of floral shirts I like , but if you like what you are wearing and wear it with confidence, who else should it matter to?

A quote from Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey)

Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter.

Although, nowadays, I suspect it is the men who will prefer the 'shabbiness and impropriety' and the women who will go for 'neatness and fashion'

And Kandinsky I do not agree that women over 50 are 'pretty much invisible'. I think many women over 50 make themselves invisible by thinking they are.

Pickpockets at work?

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