Fashionable women over 50 balance style and comfort for an age-appropriate effect
A 50-year old woman’s closet can be a perilous place.
Consider Exhibit A, my own overcrowded little nook: short dresses, skirts and heels from my snappy 30s (hey, the ’80s are back!) share racks with the dowdy detritus of my 40s, which seemed like such a relief at the time. (Yes! I’m old! I get to be comfortable now!)
Age-appropriate dressing is a fine concept but tricky to pull off, especially if you don’t have the budget to reinvent your wardrobe.
Older women aren’t the only ones who change clothes five times some mornings, trying to look well put-together, taller and slimmer. But the issues do seem to multiply: how to downplay those wrinkles at the neck, that thickening middle, that bulge around the bra line, those veins in the legs, those not-so-sculpted-anymore arms?
The impulse, for many, is to cover up. But there’s a fine line between “modest” and “matronly.”
Style experts say the enemy is not shapeless bodies but shapeless design. To look as vital as you feel, it’s important to embrace what works for you and divert attention away from what doesn’t. You don’t have to be a slave to trends, but adapting one or two wouldn’t hurt.
A good fit
“As you get older and fuller, trying to cover it up only makes you look like a sack of potatoes,” says El Matha Wilder, the chic, 59-year old owner of Etui boutique on West Alabama. Not that she espouses dressing too young, which she says “will age you almost quicker than dressing older.”
Wilder thinks too many mature women wear “totally ill-fitting clothes.”
“They don’t address the fact that they’re not a perfect size 8 anymore,” she says. Her solution, both for comfort and looks: Buy clothes to fit the biggest part of your body, and tailor the rest in. (She is so adamant about this, she has an alterations person on staff.)
“A size 14 jacket may fit around the middle but need to have the shoulders taken in,” Wilder explains. The same applies to pants and jeans: “If your butt is your biggest area, get them to fit that, and tailor in the rest.” It’s not about how much money you spend, Wilder adds. “You can take a suit of any price and get it tailored to fit.”
Canadian fashion designer Peter Nygard, who calls himself “the 50-and-over king,” says fit and line are his customers’ biggest concerns. Nygard, , will be at Dillard’s stores across Houston Thursday-Saturday to promote his Peter Nygard brand, which is aimed at sophisticated, mature women.
“Size 14 is the biggest seller on the market,” Nygard says. “It’s a critical issue for us, because a size 14 appreciates different things than a size 4.” Still, he adds, “You need to design it so it looks younger and slimmer, as if it were for a size 6 or 4 and looked great on a 20-year old.”
And what, exactly, does that mean? Nygard says he avoids boxy shapes and horizontal stripes. He also emphasizes waistlines, using elasticized, flexible (and concealed) waistbands.
Proportion and color
Proportional balance is especially important for mature bodies. Styles that are “big” on the bottom, such as wide-leg pants or bubble skirts, should be offset with something smaller on top, such as a short jacket or a fitted sweater — “or you’ll have no shape,” Wilder says.
Another possible blunder: trying to hide a less-than-firm neck with high collars and turtlenecks. “Guess where all the skin collects,” Wilder says. Instead, she suggests, play up your shoulders. “They’re one of the best features for everyone, no matter what size. An off-the-shoulder look, open to the tips of your shoulders, across the collarbone, is a great look.”
And then those arms. While you don’t want sleeves too tight, Wilder says, you don’t want them bulky, either. You’ll look shapelier if the space between your arms and chest is well-defined.
Wilder also recommends “dressing tall” by wearing open-collared or V-neck shirts above the waist and sticking with one color below the waist.
Nygard agrees. “You gotta get those dark bottoms working and liven up the top with sparkle or color,” he says. His customers, he says, also appreciate pastels — “which are OK in a head-to-toe look, because that gives you length.”
Covering the seat is important with tops and jackets, he adds. “You’ve got to go past your hips. A tunic length is very flattering. You can still wear tight, slender jeans or pants even with sexy boots — just so you cover the seat.”
It begins to sound like a lot of rules. But Audrey Mansfield, 55, a nationally known style consultant based in Houston, sees plenty of good wardrobe options. “There’s a lot out there we can wear,” she says.
More important, she says, is what’s underneath. “You’ve got to reanalyze your undergarments,” she suggests: get the right bra size and consider “minimizers” by brands such as Spanx, Flexees and Sassybax to avoid bumpy lines under your clothes. “There are so many unbelievable undergarments out there,” Mansfield says.
Trends
Among Mansfield’s age-appropriate, trendy choices: wrap dresses and shift dresses, jackets with a little bit of “kick” and knee-length pencil skirts. One of her favorite skirts this season has a high-rise waist. And she recommends jeans that sit just a little below the waist. “The low-rise look is going out of style anyway,” she says.
She also likes ruched designs, which “look good on all figure types and are very forgiving if you have a few bumps.” Even trendy leg coverings such as tights can work, so long as what’s on top covers the knees.
Wilder sees a lot of room to play with accessories. “You may be too old to wear leggings, but not a fun red purse or cute flats,” she says. Too often, she adds, older women “tend to get one big, ugly black bag they wear with everything.”
Wilder has owned Etui 33 years. Since she’s on her feet all day, her own search for comfort starts with her shoes. “I go out and look for new shoes before I get clothes,” she says. “You can make the clothes fit; shoes are harder.”
