It’s not the micro minis and low cut sweaters themselves…it’s the faddishness of those clothes. I understand teenagers really wanting or needing to keep up with the absolute latest in fashion (or else). And I can see why fitting in means more to them than clothing that fits or flatters them. But when I see someone who is older wearing clothing that doesn’t suit them at all in an attempt to keep up with the newest trends (or what in their mind is a trend), I wonder why they haven’t outgrown that yet.
I think older (much older tahn 50!) women with long white hair that they keep pulled up in French knots or buns is beautiful. I’m 26 and have long hair that I keep pulled up 'cause I like it that way and I intend to still do the same thing when it all turns white.
People who comment about how people dress, how they look, their weight, their choices, etc. are just plain rude. If it’s a family member and you feel it’s important to let them know that their ass is hanging out of their shorty-shorts, well, then that’s a little different. But I would never comment (negatively) on someone’s appearance unless I knew them *really *well. The only thing commenting would do is offend them and make me look bitchy so why do it?
I see a project: The absolutely fabulous, don’t always dress like their mamas want them to, older babes of SDMB calendar for 2006. I think it should be 50 and over but I’m willing to be flexible. I humbly offer my services, just think of me as Irving Klaw without the comb over (but with the physique :rolleyes: - don’t worry ladies, I don’t wear a speedo) Unfortunately my work schedule probably won’t allow it but it’s a nice thought.
I am so glad that I have come to appreciate the beauty of older women as I have matured. Don’t get me wrong, I can certainly see young women as beautiful but I don’t define beauty strictly as the properties of youth. Wrinkles, gray hair, stretch marks and “crinkly cleavage” - I kinda like the sound of that - are part of life so I don’t see them as detracting from a woman’s beauty, they are part of it.
Oi! I dont know where this idea that mothers or “mature” women must have short hair comes from, but if you want to defy it and you (and your husband) like long hair, keep it and ignore everyone else. This isn’t the Father Knows Best nostalgic Fifties. I know short hair is convenient, especially for moms who don’t have time to brush it out and dry it every day, but I think long hair looks good on women of any age, regardless of color or greyness.
As for the shorts, if you can carry it off…do so. Nothing wrong with that.
Am I the only guy that thinks that many women become more attractive when they get in their thirties and beyond? 
Stranger
As long as your ass doesn’t sag out of the shorts, your fine. That doesn’t look good on anyone of any age.
Also, FWIW - I think older women with long red hair are sexy - which is good, because in not very many years, I’m going to be one. 
My hair is baby fine, but I refuse to cut it short when I get older-I HATE having short hair. I won’t cut it shorter than chin-length, even then. I refuse to get the “mommy cut” or the “gramma perm”. If it makes me look bad, so be it. I’ll get a wig if I have to, but no short poufy hair!
(Unfortunately, my hair starts to look limp and scraggily if I let it grow past shoulder length. I’m thinking of getting a loose perm).
<Highfives SoaT
Plenty more I think, aren’t we lucky bastiches? As we get older we will more and more appreciate women our own age or older. So much better than being a pathetic, dirty old man lusting after college girls. We’ll be dirty old men lusting after women 
Padeye…
Oh yeah, Irving Klaw! I used to be so into Bettie Paige! Years ago I dyed my hair blue-black, cut bangs straight across, and did the whole routine: lots of leopard-print minis and coats, long black gloves, seamed stockings… the works. My boyfriend at the time took a bunch of Klaw-style pics. Totally kitschy fun! As an aside, he still has the photos and negatives, and, being a true gentleman, has never shared them as far as I know. That’s one nice guy!
I wouldn’t go that far. I think a lot of women are more attractive as PEOPLE in their 30s and early 40s. They still maintain some semblance of youthfull attractiveness, but they realize they aren’t in their prime so they have lost that obnoxious “I know every guy wants to fuck me up the bumm” attitude that young girls have.
Wasn’t there an episode of Sex in the City where the gals were trying to figure out if the teenagers were trying to dress like older (30ish) women or if the older women were trying to dress like teenagers?
No one should ever act their age. Everyone should just be themselves, any time, all the time.
Enjoy,
Steven
I so agree. If you were around for when Madonna was doing the Marylin Monroe schtick–Madonna v1.0 you might say–you’ll remember that she wore the Monroesque perm, and I don’t think she looked very sexy at all. It reminded me of how my maternal grandmother had worn her hair–it was a grandma-perm! The hair was blonde, not gray, but still.
It’s so sad that Salma Hayek is almost ready to lose the last of her semblance of youthful attractiveness and that she isn’t in her prime. The old girl will be 39 in September. What an hag.
[/sarcasm]
I wear everything from silk and Harris tweed to Mickey Mouse t-shirts, jeans and boots. I just ordered a sari and I own a couple of kimonos. I have short dark hair, but I may get a long gray wig after reading this thread.
Who can release you from your self-imposed sense of obligation?
I second that. I think that it’s the people who dress/groom wih the specific goal of trying to be something they are not that always come up short.
Be comfortable, be yourself. Self confidence will show through and people would think it strange for you to be anything else.
I don’t think I’ve ever looked at a woman and thought “she’s dressed inappropriately for her age.”
I’ve thought it about people’s body types before, but not age.
No, I take that back. I’ve thought it about little girls in revealing clothes and makeup before. But that’s more of a “Enjoy your childhood, darn it!” sort of reaction.
I want to be like this older woman I saw a few years ago. She had short silvery hair and looked fierce. Really short hair that looked good on her and was dignified but fresh, sophisticated with an edge. Her clothes were classic with a bit of a modern cut and in colors that looked great on her. You could tell she’d always been a woman who dressed with style and just a nod to trends that would be appropriate for her body type, etc. so that she didn’t look a fashion floozy.
From what I’ve noticed, a woman can look fantastic and sexy at any age. It’s just how that is accomplished that varies.
Warning
By Jenny Joseph
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat that doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me.
I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired
And gobble up samples in the shops and press alarm bells
And run with my stick along public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit.
I don’t want to violate copy write laws, so will skip the next two verses, which are wonderful and go to the last.
But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me won’t be too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
I first read this poem when I was 24, and bought a print of it and hung it on my wall where I could often see it. At 40 now, I am amazed I could appreciate this at 24 and am looking forward to the day this is appropriate for me. I assume this is where the Red Hat Ladies got there inspiration, it is just so fitting.
So I am thinking if you are just a little off, so what? You are just preparing folks for the wonderful woman you still be when you are “an old woman.”
When I turned 40, several friends suggested politely it was now time to cut my long hair. I didn’t say this, but what I thought was, “I have been carded 5 times in the last 2 months, how many times have you been carded lately?” In quiet moments alone, I smile at the memory of my 40th birthday spent in San Diego, when a sweet 22 year old surfer boy asked me out for dinner. When I sadly declined, stating that not only was I happily married, but could technically be his mother, he told me," You could have just said you weren’t interested, you didn’t need to make up the part about being all old and stuff," I just smile and think, you are only as old as you think you are. Rather than growing old gracefully, I would rather grow old having fun my way.
So good for you not letting others dictate what you should and shouldn’t do. We get enough of that when we are young, why pay any attention to it when we are older?
My girlfriend of two iterations ago was 52 and had beautiful grey-silver hair midway down to her navel. She didn’t wear makeup and didn’t dress in teenager clothes but that’s mainly because she had better taste and she looked great in jeans and a button-top shirt.
More women in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s should consider growing their hair out. And also cutting loose and doing whatever the fuck they want. When I’m an old man of 50, 60, 70, 0, 90, 100, 110, etc…, I’m gonna be looking for you and I expect some liveliness and spine and a tendency to enjoy life.
Just curious, and only tangentially related to the OP, but:
Does anyone else find the Jane Goodall type attractive? I think she’s beautiful, and while she’s definitely showing her age, I still find her far more appealing than the bobbed-hair and makeup Nancy Reagan-type. She’s a woman I could imagine waking up to every morning for the next sixty years and not thinking “Who is this old woman living in my house?”
Or maybe it’s just me and some kind of primatologist fetish, though I don’t think Dian Fossey was pretty fetching.
Stranger
Pink, if you like it, and your husband likes it, go for it! I personally think age is not the prime determinant of what one should wear. As an example, picture the fairly numerous young women who wear low cut pants that serves to accentuate the rolls around their waists…just because one is young is no certainty that one will look good in a “young” fashion. I personally know several older women who would far better.
But you would have to provide a picture for an actual judgement…hint, hint…grin.
Depends on a lot of factors. If you’re wearing hotpants/Daisy Duke-short shorts, then you’re in for a whole hell of a lot of mockery, because nobody past the first blush of pubescence can wear those in public and be taken seriously. Mostly, though, it’s an overall effect sort of thing. It’s possible to wear some fairly short shorts in a classy sort of look, ditto the long hair. It’s also quite possible to wear these things in a ahem less than classy sort of look. If you go for the less than classy sort of look, you’re more likely to come across as desperately grasping at the tattered shreds of your youth and get laughed at. A lot.