Following our recent reading of Trinny and Susannah Take on America, What Your Clothes Say About You
They are:
- My kids are my life.
- My career comes first.
- I like a natural look.
- What’s the point in making an effort anymore?
- I’m loud and proud.
- I can fit into my daughter’s clothes – and I’m 45!
- I hate wearing skirts and dresses.
- Well, I have been married for years.
- Look at me, boys!
- You’re only as good as the labels you wear.
- I don’t really care about clothes.
- This has always been my best look.
So my question is, and really has been since before I began this blog, how do people get from the point that they look like that to the point where they admit it and are ready for a change? Is there a place for a compassionate intervention?
- Video peek: MSN
- More Trinny and Susannah videos
Okay, and now maybe for a more simple question: if you could nominate someone to realize she needed a makeover, which of the twelve categories would she represent?
Oh boy. When I visit my hometown, I see a lot of women who fall into categories 4 and 6 — obviously not the same women! The ones in category 6 usually have frowning teenage daughters.
T&S would put ME in category 2 because I refuse to wear above-the-knee skirts, 3″ spiked heels, fishnet stockings, or basics in colors other than black, gray, and brown… and I’m already dressed on the edgy side for the investment profession. There are a lot of things I like about their approach, but they seem a little shaky on the reality that not all women work in sales/marketing/HR jobs, so not all women have “approachable” as an important aspect of our on-the-job personality. But maybe I work in a particularly odd industry. 🙂
I like the #12 category of makeover. I think many of the women who stick with a particular look for decades have a pretty good mix of at least one of the other troubles tossed in.
Such as can’t be bothered figuring all this out – so let’s stick with what looked good in at that earlier time. Maybe that time was right out of college, so she’s still shopping in the Junior department at age 45. Or she felt great about herself around the time she was married, so she sticks with that era… after all, her husband loved it.
Overall, Rebecca – would you recommend the book? I have the original WNTW book, and was able to use the information in it as I decided what clothes to tailor and what to replace while in the process of losing 40 lbs. Now that I’ve been out of the Don’t Care/Mom mindset for a couple of years, I’m finding the Tim Gunn’s Guide to Quality, Taste & Style (currently reading) to be better for my closet weeding and wardrobe planning.
12. Definitely 12.
Joy, if you find it at Goodwill for $2, as I did, it’s entertaining reading, but there are others that are better for the nuts and bolts of closet weeding and wardrobe planning.
I still think most of the books out there are just explaining two things: one, the author’s personal opinions/biases, and two, the principles laid out in The Triumph of Individual Style. In other words, if a person is able to form their own opinions (as many of the types listed above obviously CAN’T), she could figure out all the so-called “rules” from scratch with The T of IS.
drwende – I loved that in the section 12 of this book they recommended the eighties ladies let their skirts DOWN. 🙂
I would love to makeover my mom. She’s 67, and “she’s been married for years.”
She is 5’7 and 130 lbs, with long thin arms and legs, but very short waisted. When I was small, she was a very tailored Audrey Hepburn type dresser but has since fallen into elastic-waist pants, boxy tops and Earth shoes.
Polly do you think that outfit issued to women when they reach a certain age?
My MIL, who has enormous potential to be petite and cute, dresses just like that. AND despite being very, very short, she somehow manages to wear only pants that are high-waters.
I wonder what that’s all about. Like maybe these formerly fashionable ladies just aren’t sure where to shop? I remember when I was in my early 20s, I knew I needed something more quality than juniors but I wanted something more stylish than misses. I was genuinely stumped.
Anyone want to give us a peek into the 67 year old mind?
WOW! That’s a challenge if I ever heard one.
I’ll start with a response to dr wende: Few 60+ yo’s want to be thought of as “cute.” and to
Polly, being “married for years” is just about the most wonderful thing that can happen at 60+.
As to the “cariciaures” – I’ve been them all — except 11, which would be missing the point, I think. And #10, of course. My yearly wardrobe expenditure is about 1/4 of Rebecca’s, if that much. (Depends on how many support hose and shoes I must replace.) There are so many more important places where my $ can go. Thankfully, my worth being related to my “labels” wasn’t a mindset that I had to break.
Let me think about the others and get back to you, if this is what you had in mind?
Opps, that’s caricatures:-))
“My yearly wardrobe expenditure is about 1/4 of Rebecca’s, if that much.”
Which statement mystifies me. Certainly you have many more clothes than I do and certainly most of those pieces cost more than mine, so how can that be? However, the point about choosing to spend your money on other things probably applies to alot of other ladies … and Trinny and Susannah might consider it a mild case of 11.
I can’t wait to hear what you have to say after you think some more! 🙂
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I’m sure I have more clothes than you do; but the fact is that in the past five years, I’ve probably not spent more than $300 on clothing (all together, not per year) – including support hose and shoes. I found a warm weather look (elastic-waist polyester pants and poly short-sleeve shirt) and a cool weather combo (elastic-waist corduroy and poly long-sleeve shirt) at KMart about 10 years ago and bought 3-4 sets a year for 5 years. I’m still wearing them all.
In fact, I’m still wearing clothes that I bought 15 years ago. Before that I wore a much smaller size.
More on that and how it relates to the caricatures and clothing make-overs later:-)
Very illuminating! It’s amazing how long polyester clothes last! But even if I wore polyester, I don’t think I could keep from ruining them in two or three years, like all my other clothes. Back in the old days, when I used regular antiperspirant and didn’t eat as much garlic, I could wear my cotton t-shirts much longer. 😉
BTW, I like the Christopher Hopkins book much better. He’s more about what looks good and less about what’s “in style”. Oh, and he says fishnets are a big N-O!
I can’t stop laughing about these caricatures. I guess I am, My Kids Are My Life…. and before kids…. I was I Like the Natural Look!!!
Sounds like a great book.
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LOOK I AM IN MY FIFTYS AND I FEEL LIKE I AM INVISABLE AS FAR AS TV SHOWS ARE CONCERNED AS FAR AS NEW CAREERS AND NEW AND INPROVED STYLES FOR THE AGE OF FIFTY’S .IS IT ME OR DO WE STILL EXIST IN THIS WORLD DO WE COUNT? I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW THERE ARE SOME FIFTY OR OLDERS THAT DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THEY ARE FIFTY OR MORE
Pamela – you might enjoy reading the Duchesse’s blog: http://www.passagedesperles.blogspot.com/
I think I can sympathize with you a bit. What I see around me mostly, concerning women in their 50s, is they have either given up or followed Trinny and Susannah. Which is worse?