Fashion
DO YOU HAVE TO DRESS ACCORDING TO YOUR AGE?
You can't help but be thrilled by geriatric starlet Iris Apfel after watching the documentary Iris, about her, her exceptionally eccentric style, and her life, with the star herself in the lead role. It's growing old gracefully at its best – and with flair. Her style of layering and extras is fantastically over the top, and it's a guilty pleasure to fantasize about how I too will one day spend my last days on this planet so extravagantly.
So why not start wearing paradisiacal creations right away? Well, I don't want to be seen as ridiculous, to be honest. Such a unique and colorful style doesn't suit me by nature, and that makes me look a bit crazy. And as much as I admire eccentrics: extravagance suits very few. Really.
“And as much as I admire eccentrics: extravagance suits very few. Really.”
Chic and charming aging has everything to do with knowing when to throw in the towel. And which one. And that, my friends, starts earlier than you think. ‘Young’ clothes can sometimes make you look intensely old – the opposite of what I guess you want to achieve.
Number one: childlike hair clips. A friend's ex is an artist, a type that they would soon call ‘such a quirky one’ in the province – let's say: Twente. It's not all that flamboyant: skinny jeans, colorful sneakers, a T-shirt with some street art character, and a mismatched bag with a ridiculously cute Harajuku print. Now, in the case of that last one, it's already hard to see the irony – just go full-blown gothic Lolita instead of timidly dipping your toes into such a sugary style – but with her hair pulled back with a million crazy child clips, this just-turned-thirty woman had reached the tipping point. She just looked crazy. It might have been meant to be cute, but it culminated in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Don't do it. Not even one, not even if you look otherwise perfectly normal.
“You think it perks you up, but it's just the demasqué of your transience”
A good second: sticking to the style of your heyday. No self-respecting twenty-something thinks about looking like Ariana Grande in 2010, and no one should literally want to showcase the eighties, nineties, or noughties in their daily style. A friend – I'm going to make a lot of enemies with this piece, that's for sure – is still a toned-down version of the riot girl she was in her house and rave days, with colored dreads, two braids, and a little backpack. The pastel satin mini skirts and over-the-knee socks have been replaced by black T-shirts and skinny jeans, but that doesn't change anything. Having your own style is not rusting in a decade, but constantly searching within the frameworks of each era for the trends that suit you. So update that stuff. Sorry, riot girl.
Third: really never think, not even for a second, that denim dungarees look cool when you're over 25, short, not enviably slim, or not exceptionally pretty. Overalls are cute for toddlers and Alexa Chung – and that's about it. All fashion photography that tries to prove otherwise is in vain.
Well, look around you and you easily unmask the serial offenders: poorly fitting clothes, things that are (unnecessarily) too loose or too tight, faded colors, bad highlights, and a too-tanned skin. You think it perks you up, but it's just the demasqué of your transience. A truly critical look in the mirror and you'll go through your closet with a scalpel to cut out the festering sores. It will do you and your wardrobe good.
