IN BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HELL NO I’M NOT WEARING THAT

Women ask me all the time, cringing a bit, in hushed tones, like it’s a secret:

“Am I to old to wear this?”

It’s a question no woman *really* wants to ask, lest they receive an answer. On the one hand, the horrifying prospect of looking like you’re trying too hard to look young. On the other hand, a one way ticket to being a sexless doily for the rest of your life. Between them, a balance beam.

It can feel better not to try. Just play it safe. Disappear. Don’t wear prints, or anything shiny. Cover your knees, legs, arms, chest. Stay far in the background, beyond reproach.

But the problem with playing it safe, with following every rule to “dressing your age” is that you also end up dressing to be invisible. And then you really are.

The answer to dressing as a dignified, stylish, elegant woman of a certain age whose presence commands she be seen and heard can’t be playing smaller, but it might be playing smarter. More sophisticated, not more conservative.

Sophisticated makes a bold statement about who she is, conservative says nothing and offends no one.

Sophisticated dresses as well as she can afford to, conservative dresses as poorly as she can tolerate.

Sophisticated wears her life experience as a badge of honor, conservative apologizes for it.

I know what I’m having. If sophisticated sounds like what you want but you’re struggling to make it happen, email me, I’d love to talk.