Now you’ve sorted out your makeup, it’s time to take a look at your wardrobe.
And when it comes to style, this may be the one area which gives many women the most trouble. There are three main reasons for this.
- A Changing Body Shape: A decade ago you may have been a few pounds or kilos lighter, had a slimmer waistline, and your boobs may have been perkier. But age, combined with many other factors including pregnancy and approaching menopause, can subtly alter your body shape over time. Those thigh hugging hipster jeans you used to wear, may today reveal more than you care for.
- Likes And Dislikes: Like makeup, fashion is a way to express yourself, and your personality. From colours and fabrics, to the types of clothes you feel the most comfortable and confident wearing, fashion makes a big statement about who you are. What works for you as a 20-something, however, may not cut it in your fabulous forties.
- Fashion Faux Pas: There are undoubtedly fashion mistakes which can make a woman look ridiculous at any age, and fashion trends which are challenging even for a young woman with a perfect body. As a 40-something, however, there are a few key things to consider, which can prevent you from looking frumpy, inappropriate or worse, older than you are, and see you leaving the house looking like the stylish woman you should be.
Leading style expert and fashion consultant, Christine Schwab, says that as we grow up, it’s imperative that our fashion styles grow with us. We don’t have to grow older, just smarter. “My definition of style for the forty-plus woman is simply good taste, and everyone can have good taste,” she explains. “Some are born with style, but most of us can learn it along the way. And good taste comes from knowledge, from making mistakes, from being adventurous yet balanced at the same time, and from wanting to look your best.” Schwab says that style is the most powerful word in fashion. “It indicates that you’ve got it right,” she says. “You are in the ‘elite’ group that is in the know. You are savvy, smart, you have flair and you are confident.”
Schwab says that as women we go through a variety of phases during our fashion lives. “For many of us, our teen style was whatever our best friends wore,” she says. “Then in our twenties we wore what we could afford, and in our thirties we experimented. By the time we’ve hit forty, we pretty much know who we are, what we like and what we don’t.” A question you will find yourself asking more often is ‘does this look okay on me?’ Schwab says that many women feel they have earned the right to wear what they want, but in truth this is a fashion myth. “This may be true, but why do it if it doesn’t make you look your best?” she argues.
So what is the essence of 40-something style? In Schwab’s view, it is a combination of classic, contemporary, and personal elements. “It’s not necessarily about a head-to-toe Ralph Lauren outfit, what’s on the runway, or what’s hot in current issue of Vogue,” she says. “It’s about a crisp, tailored, white cotton Gap shirt paired with a Michael Kors slimline chocolate brown pencil skirt. Or the way you wear an heirloom brooch on the neckline of a shirt. It’s not so much about trying to be ‘in’, as being marvelously ageless.”
Fashion Faux Pas
For women in their fabulous forties, fashion isn’t as much about what you do right, as what you do wrong. After all, not every colour suits every skin tone, just as not every cut of a suit or dress suits every body shape, regardless of age. For Schwab there are a number of mistakes that grown-up women make, and top of the list is nakedness. “The number one fashion faux pas our group makes is baring too much skin,” says Schwab. This mistake isn’t just about showing off too much of your body, however thin and toned you may be; it’s also about the tone of your skin. ”
Nakedness is beautiful on a lovely young body,” says Schwab. “And it doesn’t matter how much plastic surgery you’ve had, or how toned you are, there is a cutoff point for baring your tummy and your breasts, as well as a time limit for going sleeveless.” Schwab’s advice is to be honest with yourself about your body, and when it comes to making revelations, retain the mystery, and show only what you want others to see. “If in doubt, if you can grab and jiggle it, cover it up,” she says.
Knees can be a problem area for women as they age. Cameron Diaz may be able to carry off cutoff denim shorts, but for most 40-something women it’s asking for trouble. If your knees are not their best anymore, all you have to do is replace shorts with cropped or Capri pants, showing a little ankle and calf, and lower the hemlines of your skirts so that they skim the knee or hang just below it. Still on the subject of legs, going bare might feel good when it’s hot, but if the shape of your legs, and the quality and tone of your skin isn’t as good as it once was, wear nylons, or use a fake tanner.
As for sleeveless or sheer tops and blouses, Schwab says they really only work under a jacket after 40. “Colourful or amusing print bras can make you wear a secretive smile on your face as long as only you, and perhaps your partner, know you are wearing them,” she says. Another common mistake many woman make, regardless of age, is wearing clothes which are too tight. “Body hugging clothing is almost as bad as naked,” says Schwab. “You might not see the skin, but you sure get the idea.”
Finally, it’s hard not to be influenced by the fashion trends we see in magazines and movies, and on the TV. “A trend is what the fashion world does to get us back into the stores spending,” says Schwab. “That’s why they change with every season.” As a woman in her fabulous forties, however, the time has come to be realistic about trends, and return to the classics. “They would include a good suit, a great dress, a crisp shirt, a flattering skirt, a pair of simple blue jeans, and cashmere sweaters,” says Schwab. “The Audrey Hepburn, Jacqueline Kennedy basics – these items are timeless, ageless, graceful and flattering.”
Schwab says you can display your personal style with a mix of updated accessories and individual clothing items such as a unique vest, an unusual belt, or layered bracelets. “Use the trends to your advantage in smaller pieces that mix with your classics but never overpower them,” she says. “Think classics eighty per cent, and trends just twenty per cent.”
This is an extract from Joanna E. Hall’s e-book 40 and Still Fabulous: The Next Chapter. Buy the book here.
