Today while sipping my coffee and enjoying my morning TV fix; Canada AM; I was inspired to write a blog about an interview with Lina Plioplyte, the director of documentary ‘Advanced Style‘.
Canada AM has been featuring documentary films from Hot Docs, the Canadian International Documentary Festival; which runs April 24th to May 4th, 2014.
Today’s documentary, ‘Advanced Style‘ in a nut shell features seven of New York City’s most stylish, elderly women. These ladies; between the age of 62 to 95 do not depict the stereotypical style of what we view as elderly women. Their makeup, hair and clothes are flamboyant and would draw stares walking down street in Napanee but in a fashion mecca like New York they no doubt fit in a little more.
This documentary had me thinking about my own fashion style. I am more of a jeans person. Since I retired and do not have meetings to attend I don’t have the need to dress up. Staying with the trends each season is costly. When I go out to yoga class the clothing choice has already been made for me. I will always be a jeans wearer but don’t expect ‘mom jeans’. There are many companies with stylish jeans. I will look for colourful yoga tops and new tops for my retired and relaxed life style but there won’t be flaming red hair or ear rings dangling to my shoulders. There is still a conservative person buried here.
When I look in magazines and see suggested fashions broken down by age ranges, I feel that while good advice may be offered it often encourages older women to fade into the background. There are good tidbits to glean from magazine articles. For example the May issue of MORE offers nine insider tips when purchasing beauty products. Tips like ‘Skip the gift with purchase’ is great advice to resist over spending. Such offers encourage you to buy more than you intended to reach the magic dollar value to qualify for the ‘free‘ product. Such products may be cheap make-up bags containing sample items you will not want to use due to colours or ingredients.
I would like to take advice and examples from my granddaughters. While shopping last year with Robyn she told me to step outside of my comfort zone and choose a fuchsia pink top instead of the pale yellow that I was contemplating. Robyn was right when I compared the two choices, the fuchsia was better.
My seven-year old granddaughter, Amelia, can reach into her closet and pull together stripes, polka dots, and lots of colour and look so cute. She has no fashion fears. Amelia will grow up to be a confident young woman able to make her own decisions.
I have learned from the documentary and my granddaughters not to be afraid of being myself and express myself with style, colour and my words. Age is only a number and it should not dictate your fashion sense.
The trailer for ‘Advanced Style‘ can be viewed at:
http:/advancedstylefilm.com/
Notes from Napanee 