How old is too old ?

[LizzieMaine]

Not a fan of shorts on any man over the age of 12, unless he's on a basketball court, a tennis court, or sitting atop a lifeguard tower -- it's just not an aesthetic that I care for. But what I *really* don't understand is the wearing of shorts when the weather isn't appropriate for them -- lately I've started seeing them all year round here, which when the temperatures are below freezing strikes me as just a ridiculous sort of exhibitionism, no matter how toned one's leg muscles might be. GET SOME LONG PANTS!

 

[$ally]

I live in the desert, where the temps are sometimes well over 117f degrees. At that point an elderly man is allowed to go sleeveless and wear shorts, to keep from fainting, no matter how it looks.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Not a fan of shorts on any man over the age of 12, unless he's on a basketball court, a tennis court, or sitting atop a lifeguard tower -- it's just not an aesthetic that I care for. But what I *really* don't understand is the wearing of shorts when the weather isn't appropriate for them -- lately I've started seeing them all year round here, which when the temperatures are below freezing strikes me as just a ridiculous sort of exhibitionism, no matter how toned one's leg muscles might be. GET SOME LONG PANTS!

Same here. It's the sheer trendiness of it that I can't stand. Plus the fact that my mom used to make me wear shorts as a kid. It was not so long ago that wearing long pants was a sort of right of passage into adulthood.
Shorts are for kids,...

 

[Spitfire]

Shorts are nice, when walking around in your garden.
I had shorts on every day in Tuscany - but whenever we went into civilation (Sienna, Venice etc) I got out my long pants. Would never dream of being caught in the city with shorts, makes you look like a tourist.:eusa_doh:

 

[reetpleat]

My dad seems to like me in vintage. Hates my mom in vintage. He gripes whenever she wears anything vintage, or even something like a flare skirt. On me or my cousins it is cute and arty. On my mom, he says it ages her 10-20 years.

It works out OK for me, since whenever she tries something I wind up getting it after my dad declares it foul. Whether or not I will keep wearing it in 10 years remains to be seen.

BV

Interesting. Your dad is probably teh age that he remembers older women dressing this way, hence the association.

 

[Viola]

My dad thinks the cutest possible look on a girl is long straight hair and tight flared jeans.

Short curly or retro hair? Fuhgeddaboutit.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Why do people think we want to see their toes?

and sandleslol

Oh, please, please, please, if they're going to wear sandals then PLEASE let them be wearing socks!!!! If I see one more fungus-filled toenail, bunion, horny heel, blister, or hairy instep I am going to puke. And that's just on the females.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

The style I adopted for myself when I was in high school, was the collegiate or preppy look. While my girlfriends wore poodle skirts and page boys and pony tails and, later beehive hairdos, I wore button down shirts, blazers, sweaters, straight skirts, jumpers, silk scarves and a simple hairdo. Couldn't wear the stilletto-heeled ankle-breaker shoes to save my life -- I would have, well, broken my ankles.

For casual style, I adopted the preppy athletic look, jeans, sweatshirts, good sneakers.

These styles took me through college, through my twenties, into New York and beyond. I still wear them and they still look good. They haven't aged much.

Guess what? Forty-something years later, they are still in style. Sure saves money on "fad" clothing (except for the "hip" era, when I wore a few pairs of bell bottoms, had two Nehru shirts and some bead. Got me through a lot of parties).

I still wear jeans, maybe not the Levi's 501's I could wear when I was 25, but the relaxed fit stone-washed type. My generation was raised on jeans and I believe we will die with our jeans on, as opposed to boots.

Some things just never really go out of style.

karol

 

[Elaina]

When my son turned old enough to talk, I changed the way I dressed from the 20 something hip girl to a mother. I argued with Chanel ("I asked for No. 5, not 19. Yes, I AM serious") I quit wearing trendy clothing and got a classic look and style, because kids are expensive and my clothes had to start preforming.

Now, several years later, my son knows when I show up anywhere, he doesn't have to remind me to comb my hair, put makeup on, and wear a bra to school. Wearing jammie pants to the grocery store every Saturday morning ("Oh mommy! Where's the green ones so I can wear my velvet green ones and we can MATCH") is something fun, not a fashion statement.

And since I like pretty clothes, that pretty much leaves me out of ANY current trend. Since my clothes have to last longer then a season, most of them are classicly tailored, be it from 1910, 1930, 1970 or 2007, and I can mix and match my wardrobe and not be of any era, but tasteful in them all.

 

[Diamondback]

Oh, please, please, please, if they're going to wear sandals then PLEASE let them be wearing socks!!!! If I see one more fungus-filled toenail, bunion, horny heel, blister, or hairy instep I am going to puke. And that's just on the females.

Ms. Ashley, when my shrink hands me the bill for treating the horrendous psychiatric trauma from that visual, I'm having the bill sent straight to you.

 

[dostacos]

Hi, was just wondering what you thought about growing old gracefully in vintage, there are so many vintage fanatics, well what happens when we all get old ? Do we suddenly, when we hit 50 or 60 , stop dressing in our favourite era ?
I admire Vivienne Westwood for her style and at 66 she looks amazing ! Just thought would be interesting to hear what you all have to say !

as long as you can do in with the good air out with the bad air you are ok


oh and I AM over 50 and I just STARTED going retrolol

 

[carter]

OPB Maj. Nick Danger
Plus the fact that my mom used to make me wear shorts as a kid. It was not so long ago that wearing long pants was a sort of right of passage into adulthood.
Shorts are for kids,...

I absolutely detested shorts as a kid. Now, not so much. Maybe it's the TX heat but I like to get into shorts as soon as possible on a hot (of which we have many) day after work. Not when it's cool and probably not often in Ms. Maine's NOTW. However, I vigorously defend a man's right to sartorial independence no matter how the wind is blowing.

OPB BtB
...hairy instep I am going to puke....And that's just on the females.

I'm keeping an eye out for ladies with hairy insteps!

 

[carter]

Posted by Gilby today in another thread
Going Casual
It was a lazy Sunday on a cool 75 deg weather with slight drizzle. People were jogging in the rain on Riverside strip enjoying the cool breeze (a nice break from the previous heatwave). So I decided to dress casual for church in my dark blue shirt and khaki shorts with a pair of topsider shoes.

It's been a while since I felt casual on Sundays and the same people who used to see me dressed up with my fedora now looked at me with surprise. Oh well, I just didn't like dresing up in the rain and getting my fedora wet.

See, thre is some fraternity in the men-in-shorts world.

(No wiseacres remarking on the relative proximity of Dallas and Tulsa)

 

[Edward]

And VERY pale legs, and varicose veins. lol

Hey, don't knock the pale.... one of the strongest reasons I have for exposing as little of my body to the sun as possible is to maintain my natural plae complexion as my preferred aesthetic. Each to their own and all that - and maybe I've been overly influenced by various things along to way to where I am now (watching a lot of Golden Age comedy and films as a young child, punk rock, goth, inbuilt perversity.... lol ) - but there's something about an alabaster complexion that to me is everso much classier than tan.

I must respectfully disagree. I don't feel or look particularly old but I am much nearer 60 than 50. I have neither pale skin nor varicose veins. I know a lot of men near my age (north of 50) who wear shorts regularly. Heck, I'd even wear them to my office with knee socks (not support hose) on casual Friday occasionally. (I'm a brave man.) I've even been known to wear a blazer and tie with shorts.
How far does this particular/peculiar bias extend? Does it include shorts worn in Bermuda by a large portion of the male population? How about Scot's kilts? (If I had a kilt, I'd wear it.)
Maybe I'll be an adult someday.

lol fair enough, each to their own. Funny thing is, I'd be quite happy in a kilt too - I'm tempted to add one, though maybe in an Irish tartan - I'm perchance a little too far removed from the Scots roots on my mother's side to justify a Scottish tartan. Maybe. No, it's just shorts i'm really not comfortable with. Hey, if other guys want to wear 'em. that's up to them, but they're really not an option for me at all.

Actually....there are some of ANY age that cannot carry shorts off with style

Somebody call me?

Not a fan of shorts on any man over the age of 12, unless he's on a basketball court, a tennis court, or sitting atop a lifeguard tower -- it's just not an aesthetic that I care for. But what I *really* don't understand is the wearing of shorts when the weather isn't appropriate for them -- lately I've started seeing them all year round here, which when the temperatures are below freezing strikes me as just a ridiculous sort of exhibitionism, no matter how toned one's leg muscles might be. GET SOME LONG PANTS!

That's about where I'm at with it too.

 

[Edward]

Same here. It's the sheer trendiness of it that I can't stand. Plus the fact that my mom used to make me wear shorts as a kid. It was not so long ago that wearing long pants was a sort of right of passage into adulthood.
Shorts are for kids,...

I think possibly there is an element of this in me. My folks always dressed us in shorts in the Summer, even while they were careful to keep us from burning. My mother can't take the sun at all - she would burn very easily, which is dangerous of course - but even so she still thinks it's weird now that I go to a far extent to avoid exposing myself to the sun. I think what might have a big subconcious effect is that I can't ever remember my dad wearing shorts, except one time when I was maybe eight or so - we were on holidays in Scotland in the caravan, and I'm sure I remember him electing not to wear a pair of shorts because he reckoned my mother didn't like them. It's entirely possible I've therefore grown up with this association that a grown man wears long trousers. Dad's from the era when kids in the fifties did just wear short trousers year round - I think he got his first pair of long trousers when he was 12 or something, I'm sure he said that once. A lot of men his generation would be the same back in the old country. Maybe I've just absorbed that thinking somehow.

I still wear jeans, maybe not the Levi's 501's I could wear when I was 25, but the relaxed fit stone-washed type. My generation was raised on jeans and I believe we will die with our jeans on, as opposed to boots.

Some things just never really go out of style.

karol

Very true. You might not find 501s so odd a fitting any more, though - the actual fit of a 501 is drastically different now than in some previous years - they're pretty baggy these days (at least, it seems so to someone who grew up on the 80s drainpipe thing and only really recently moved towards a wider leg).

 

[carter]

Originally posted by Edward

Funny thing is, I'd be quite happy in a kilt too - I'm tempted to add one, though maybe in an Irish tartan - I'm perchance a little too far removed from the Scots roots on my mother's side to justify a Scottish tartan.

Now all we need is a fedora Lounge tartan!

 

[Fast]

vintAGE: in praise of khaki

I'm happily stuck. The older you get, the more conservatively you have to dress. Much of the answer lies in Khaki!

I came up at the end of preppie and the beginning of yuppie (hippie was too short lived to be believed if you wanted a future). Anyone looks silly in double knit anything: out. Forget being over 20 and swimming in a jersey, baggies down around the knees, a baseball cap for a team on which you do not play, and roundball shoes: out. Suits are great in season and farther north, and most folks can't tell vintage from fashion, especially with fashion racing along from week to week as it does: ok for sometimes and some places. Denim and a dress fedora have been enemies pretty much since the cowboy hat went into hybernation as citywear, and I want to wear my fedora whenever I want: out.

Shorts would be fine in summer, but every other joe and josephine out there seems to be geting skin cancer or terror of same: out (even though ya just gotta plaster on the uv 50, throw on the hawiian, the shorts, the panama and really stroll on the beach now and again, but mostly, sadly: out.

Yet hope prevails! Khaki! Wear it hot, fine; wear it cold (especially with silk or some other wonder winter underwear, fine; plain front or pleated. fine;
Loose or slim, fine; Throw on a blue or grey or plaid sportcoat, or even more khaki! Fine! Khaki loves hats and solid shirts and ties and golf shirts and even the occasional (ugh, but since you're already committing stylistic sacrilige) tee-shirt.

Throw on a pink buttondown and a good tie and a blue blazer and your favorite grey fed and go to most weddings (grey slacks would be nicer, but . . .). Go to a blue shirt and go to work. Toss the tie, throw on a plaid shirt and hit the town or the road. Pack up your windbreaker or safari jacket and a panama or brown fed and get outta town.

And This just barely scratches the surface. The khaki slack (or beige if you really want to get fancy) is vintage, is current, is expensive, is cheap (once knew a millionaire who always had 10 pairs of his J.C. Penny's) is ubiquitous and therefore impervious to fashion. They exhibit style.

The older I get, the more often I wear khaki.

Carpe Diem
Fast

 

[olive bleu]

Now all we need is a fedora Lounge tartan!

Where does one line up to vote for that?

 

[Fast]

Vintage. . . or What?

Dress like Holmes or Homie?

Look at what most folks wear. Should anyone have anything to say, wouldn't it, if (and only for the sake of argument) true, be someone who looks like a clown saying that someone else looks like a jester?

I have no desire to buy my wife, or anyone else, dinner at Chez Mimi if she wears a belly shirt, navel jewelry, and hippy huggers.

We represent, no less than a general or a poloiceman od a gangbanger. I look in the mirror once in the morning and ask what I represent, then forget about it. It's a way to go (khaki was more fun).

Carpe Diem
Fast

 

[jamespowers]

Dress like Holmes or Homie?

Look at what most folks wear. Should anyone have anything to say, wouldn't it, if (and only for the sake of argument) true, be someone who looks like a clown saying that someone else looks like a jester?

I have no desire to buy my wife, or anyone else, dinner at Chez Mimi if she wears a belly shirt, navel jewelry, and hippy huggers.

We represent, no less than a general or a poloiceman od a gangbanger. I look in the mirror once in the morning and ask what I represent, then forget about it. It's a way to go (khaki was more fun).

Carpe Diem
Fast

You mean Homie the Clown right?