Keren Smedley | 2nd August 2016

IMG_0194 (2)As we get older many of us lose confidence about our looks and start to believe we should tone down our image. We wonder whether we should let our hair go grey, wear tweed skirts to the knee, teamed with sensible shoes, thick stockings, plain twin sets. Many of us have never dressed in this style so why now?  If it’s what you like, of course you will continue.

If we feel confident in ourselves and how we look we can usually carry off anything.  It’s a chicken and egg situation. If we feel good we will feel confident and others notice and compliment us on how we look. If we feel unattractive and dowdy we hide ourselves so we become invisible.  You can try this for yourself by doing a short experiment.

Try walking down the street in a fed up, and I want to avoid the word, ‘mood’. See what happens? Do people respond to you or do you pass by unnoticed? On the same day dressed in the same clothes, with your hair just the same walk down the street with your head held high, looking at the people you pass and smiling to them. What happens this time? I’m sure you’ll find that people notice you and smile back and immediately you will feel good about yourself and confident in how you look and who you are.

The clothes we wear, the hairstyles and colours we choose are all statements of which version of us that we want to present to the world on which given occasion. We dress differently for different occasions. You probably wouldn’t turn up at a wedding wearing the clothes you use to garden in to go to work in.

None of our clothes are better or worse than the other but we dress for a purpose.  Our clothes, our chosen style, have to change to meet the setting. Some of us will stick closely to a style – classic, smart, casual, arty, glamorous and so on – while others of us will dip into a few of these.

There are lots of books about ageing and how to dress, shops and departments stores that will offer advice on how to look good, so search the internet for what’s relevant to you. What I do know is that many of us get into a habit and assume that what has suited us before and looked good then, will go on doing so.  But we change – in weight, in skin tone and so on – and we should adapt as fashion adapts.

Please also take a look at my book ‘Who’s that Woman in the Mirror –The art of ageing gracefully’

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