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Advanced Style
Aug. 7th, 2012 05:30 pmI discovered the blog Advanced Style and have been poring over some of the entries with great interest. First of all, I've been thinking a lot about my body and how I dress. Pennies have been tight for quite awhile, but although I don't know much about fashion, I know all about the mental lift it can give you when you feel as though you look fabulous.
This blog spotlights women in their seventies, eighties and even older who dress them to suit themselves and carry themselves with confidence. Some of them look stunningly elegant:
some of them (in my opinion) look more than a little dotty:
but what pulls the blog together is these women's self-confidence. Many of them choose pieces with brilliant color:
They are dressing to suit themselves, and they've reached the age where they can say they don't really give a flip about what you think; they're not doing this for you, they're doing it for themselves. It's the difference, as one woman puts it, between 'Look at me!' and 'Here I am.' It's no coincidence that many of these women have active and busy lives into advanced old age.
The man doing the blog, Ari Seth Cohen, has a book out and a movie in development:
I'm very attracted to these women, who seem quite sure of themselves. It was interesting to probe my reaction to these pictures of confident crones, if you will, (and I use the word 'crone' in the best sense of the word) with the more wary reaction I have to the Red Hat Society (and not just, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sdn says, because their website looks so awful that it sort of breaks the eyes). The Red Hat Society, if you'll remember, is a social organization for ladies, primarily over 50: they do outings together, where they all wear purple clothes and red hats. Both Advanced Style and the Red Hat Society are trying to tap into the power of older women, help them harness self-confidence. And yet...I once was in a Red Hat Society store, and it struck me quite forcibly: 1) how corporate it is...see all the stuff they're trying to sell (note all the ads on the website) and 2) maybe it's encouraging women to discover their inner zing, stand out, be bold. But note how it works in practice: all the women at a Red Hat Society meeting dress alike: red hats, obviously, and purple dresses. The women that the Advanced Style blog follows seem to me to be much more individualistic. And they often make their own clothes, or create their own art pieces that they wear, sometimes with thrifted items.
I am sure the Red Hat Society has been a godsend to some women, opening them up to new adventures.
Somehow, I kinda think I might prefer, however, to hang out with the ladies profiled in Advanced Style.
This blog spotlights women in their seventies, eighties and even older who dress them to suit themselves and carry themselves with confidence. Some of them look stunningly elegant:
some of them (in my opinion) look more than a little dotty:
but what pulls the blog together is these women's self-confidence. Many of them choose pieces with brilliant color:
They are dressing to suit themselves, and they've reached the age where they can say they don't really give a flip about what you think; they're not doing this for you, they're doing it for themselves. It's the difference, as one woman puts it, between 'Look at me!' and 'Here I am.' It's no coincidence that many of these women have active and busy lives into advanced old age.
The man doing the blog, Ari Seth Cohen, has a book out and a movie in development:
I'm very attracted to these women, who seem quite sure of themselves. It was interesting to probe my reaction to these pictures of confident crones, if you will, (and I use the word 'crone' in the best sense of the word) with the more wary reaction I have to the Red Hat Society (and not just, as
sdn says, because their website looks so awful that it sort of breaks the eyes). The Red Hat Society, if you'll remember, is a social organization for ladies, primarily over 50: they do outings together, where they all wear purple clothes and red hats. Both Advanced Style and the Red Hat Society are trying to tap into the power of older women, help them harness self-confidence. And yet...I once was in a Red Hat Society store, and it struck me quite forcibly: 1) how corporate it is...see all the stuff they're trying to sell (note all the ads on the website) and 2) maybe it's encouraging women to discover their inner zing, stand out, be bold. But note how it works in practice: all the women at a Red Hat Society meeting dress alike: red hats, obviously, and purple dresses. The women that the Advanced Style blog follows seem to me to be much more individualistic. And they often make their own clothes, or create their own art pieces that they wear, sometimes with thrifted items.I am sure the Red Hat Society has been a godsend to some women, opening them up to new adventures.
Somehow, I kinda think I might prefer, however, to hang out with the ladies profiled in Advanced Style.