Saturday 4 July 2015

Saturday Style - My Favourite Style

Saturday Style

This is the first in a series of posts looking at style. I'll be looking at style for the older woman. Is it true that those of us in our 50s can wear what a 20 something might wear? Is there a typical style for older women? And what about the myth that older women should wear their hair short? Anything and everything is up for discussion. I will focus on the plus size dilemmas of a 50 something and look at what is available each season.

For the first in the series I'm going to talk about my favourite style. I grew up in the 60s and 70s. During the 60s I was at primary school and my clothes were bought or made by my Mum. I love the 60s fashion but was always too young to wear most of it. By the time the 70s arrived I was at secondary school and starting to take more notice of fashion. I was also able to make more choices about what I wore. I had a Saturday job and my parents gave me a clothes allowance so I was choosing and buying all my non-school clothes and shoes. I have fond memories of platform shoes, Crombie coats, cheesecloth smocks, lots of purple, totally unsuitable triangle tops, hipster jeans, seed beads, Biba and Chelsea Girl. I could go on but you get the picture.

So it will come as no surprise that my favourite style is hippy-BoHo. I love loose, flowing lines and colourful prints in natural fabrics like cotton, linen and cheesecloth. I think part of this is because I'm a plus size woman. Tight clothes make me feel self conscious and some man made fabrics can cling and make me feel sweaty and hot. Nothing like hot and sweaty to make me feel graceful and stylish (not!)

I like the recent focus on vintage style and I have a soft spot for 40s and 50s styles. I think they are really feminine and elegant. There is also lots of variation within those styles - the 40s wartime style is minimalistic and utility was a watchword, with a real emphasis of hand made, home made clothes; the 50s styles can be glam with nipped in waists and blood red lipstick or casual and chic with pedal pushers and sweaters as seen in late 50s Elvis movies. I'd love to wear more vintage inspired cloths but I've found few outlets selling them in larger sizes. One of the real problems I've had is with vintage style dresses and bras - my modern style bras always show as they have a different cut to the vintage style bras. Another dilemma that I've yet to solve!

So there you have it, that's what I'd like to wear. Over the next few weeks I'll share some of the things that I actually do wear. Bear with me though, I hate having my photo taken and it will take some courage to post pictures of myself.      

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