AGELESS FASHIONISTAS
Age, socioeconomics, location and lifestyle; any or all of these factors play into an individual’s wardrobe but not necessarily a person’s sense of style.
“I don’t give a damn of what people think of me or the way I dress, I dress for myself because I love style and design and color.” – Bridget, a 75-year-old British woman featured in “Fabulous Fashionistas,” a television documentary. Directed by Sue Bourne and originally airing on UK Channel 4, the fifty-minute documentary explores the development of personal style as well as the lives of six women, ranging in age from 73 to 91, who are still active and engaged in life.
While each woman in the documentary lives in the UK, their backgrounds are very different with their go-to fashion sources ranging from charity stores to catalogs to high-end boutiques. So what does each of the women have in common? As the women told the UK newspaper, The Guardian, they don’t care what anyone else thinks they dress to please themselves. Bridget explains, “Style, as one gets older, is more noticeable. How I look is to do with my identity and the fun of it. It’s nothing to do with looking younger.”
Inspiring in their own right, all of featured women have aged gracefully, without Botox or plastic surgery, with Bridget focusing her time and energy fighting against ageism. Widowed almost 15 years ago, Daphne, 85, has carved out a successful career as Britain’s go-to older model when she was re-discovered at the age of 70. Despite knee surgery, Jean, 75, still runs three times a week and when she started working at Gap in 2008, she became their oldest employee. A professional choreographer who has worked on renowned West End theatre productions, such as CATS and Phantom of the Opera, Gillian, 87, started out as a ballet dancer in the 1940s and still exercises everyday. A 73-year-old originally hailing from the US, Sue originally made a name for herself as an author of low-fat cookbooks and is currently an artist and curator, frequently wearing some of her art. She wears some of her art. Notorious for giving a less than respectful salute in 2011 in the chamber, Lady Trumpington, 91, is the oldest woman in Britain’s House of Lords.
The message beyond the fashion? Live life one day at a time, do things that make you feel happy and don’t fear getting older, as one of the women summed up the philosophy, “Yes, you think about death. But you choose life.”
Watch the UK Channel 4 documentary below:
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