Is it possible to look 'cool' over 50?

Actually, isn't 'cool' an old fashioned word now? As if I'd know.

I agree N&g - style is the thing. I ain't got that either.

I think cool can be clothing but cool can be applied to all sorts of things . I still think style is harder to have than cool .

Someone can look cool, even if they are dressed in a way that doesn't appeal to you.

When I go to do my weekly shopping I see a very elderly lady, who obviously was always good looking. She is immaculately dressed, if a bit frilly and frou-frou, and has curly white hair in a 1980s style and is beautifully made-up. She pushes one of those four wheeled shopping bags for support. Now I can hear at least half of you wrinkling your noses, muttering mutton dressed as lamb etc. But she has a certain something about her, her air, her carriage, that she is so completely comfortable in her skin and in her clothes and whenever I see her, I admire her. To me she has 'cool'

I think the other women on Advanced Style look great. Some people like getting dressed up and being different. It makes them feel good. I would like to dress like them to a certain extent. And the make up I love. I'm becoming more bold with my make up as I get older.

A couple of years ago my daughter persuaded me to try skinny jeans with a tunic top.
I wasn't too sure but my GD assured me that if ever she thought 'mutton dressed as lamb' she would tell me.
We have a pact!

Bet he looked really cool, Elegran.

I love Judi Dench's style and think Joanna Lumley looks fabulous (cloth probably my idea of cool!) but Helen Mirror is certainly not my idea of cool. Nor is a big scarf - I look daft in a big scarf. Though I do do plain. I make no pretensions about me looking cool so why am I on here?

Mutton and lamb spring to mind when the middle aged try to look cool

I've been searching for an image I saw on Facebook, of a male model on a catwalk. He was wearing a grey suit jacket tucked into a pair of red shorts/underpants (some jacket sticking out below the legs of the underpants), long blue socks with other socks on top, trainers, dark glasses, a very short haircut, hairy legs and designer stubble. I imagine the designer thought that was cool.

I was going to post it for you all to admire, but I can't find it. Sorry!

Am I meant to care about "cool"? If so, I have failed dismally.

Yes it is - but unfortunately I haven't been able to manage it so far.

I don't think catwalk models look cool - I think they're hilarious.

'Cool' is not what you wear but the way that you wear it.

I couldn't look cool if I tried ! And I don't try.

And better than that .....I don't care if I don't look cool

And when I see so called 'cool' on catwalk models ....I laugh. Hysterically sometimes. If that's cool you can keep it. I'll take style over cool ( not that I have that either lol)!!

I agree gillybob, but why can't we just enjoy what life we have left without the pressure of having to fit any "look"?

One of the ways to look "cool" is to look on U-tube as to how to fix a big scarf to your neckline,wear pencil/straight cut ankle length pants and a plain 3/4 sleeve shirt or thin jumper always go for the plain rather than the fussy.Helen Mirren is most womens idea as "cool".

I agree with Judy Dench but the other two just look plastic to me.

Judy Dench, Joanna Lumley, Helen Mirren look as though they are cool without trying, and without posing as cool examples.

Ah, but if you're not trying too hard to be cool and you don't, then you've succeeded kitty!

Surely 'coolness' involves not trying too hard. Having said that, I don't try too hard and I definitely don't look cool. So that's that argument out of the window.

I still go for all the older women you see in the media looking good:Judy Dench, Joanna Lumley, Helen Mirren to name but a few

Maybe? Maybe not!

And all that makeup...

kitty most of them look as though they are trying hard to be cool, and posing theatrically. If I copied them I would not look good. I wear what I want to - and if it isn't cool, then tough.

Who cares!

I've just looked at Advanced Style and the first picture was not what I would call cool!

Oops, nearly forgot. ( Referring to another thread here). Unless of course the "cool" in this context has something to do with the menopause as Maw suggested.

I do think that the meaning of "cool" in this context is utterly rediculous for anyone other than a teen. It would be far nicer to be thought of as smart, trendy, fashionable, having style wouldn't it?