Vintage for the over 40 crowd

[kymeratale]

Hi all,

I haven't been on FL much lately and just kind of realized how much I've missed it.

I wanted to bring up something I have been thinking about for a bit. I follow lots of vintage blogs, sewing mostly, but general vintage too. I am now 41 and I've realized that there isn't a lot of content geared toward the over 40 crowd (let alone over 50 or 60). I'm thinking fashion specifically, but the whole vintage genre as well. So, is it that there are just less older women interested in vintage or are we out there and subject to the whole invisible thing that society at large does? Perhaps the whole pin up/rockabilly/wiggle dress thing is dominant because most of the crowd is young and that is what they want? Are there women in their 50s and 60s who love vintage style? I know the women in their 40s are out there, just not terribly visible.

I for one am at that stage where I acknowledge that I don't want to be a flirty sweet young thing, but I am also wary of veering into dowdy territory. I can still wear vintage styles that in their day would really have been for the younger crowd, but I also don't want to look like someone trying desperately trying to stay young. I know some of you get where I'm coming from. A big emphasis in the commercial side of vintage (repro clothes, fests, dance culture) is on the young and flirty or young and hot or young and...

I've been toying with the idea of starting a vintage blog that would specifically try to represent the perspective of people my age and older in the vintage scene. I've poked about and haven't found any blogs or sites that do that. Are there any that I have just missed? A blog that is prominent done by someone not in their 20s or 30s?

I know this opens up a whole big discussion about our youth obsessed culture, etc., but I am curious if this perspective is represented in the vintage scene and if so, where.

Thoughts appreciated.

 

[Espee]

I will just say I'd rather see a lady of a certain age looking like one of W.C. Fields' movie wives, than in a Flapper costume from Halloween Club.
Yeah I know, that isn't an answer to your question...

 

[Idledame]

I'm over 60 and there are a lot of older woman out there dressing vintage, but of course in Los Angeles we have a big vintage community. Yes, some of the styles are too young, some probably make me look dowdy, but then, I have the same problem with modern clothes, so maybe it's just me. It's hard to find attractive, suitable clothes period! I really look at all the older women in the background of old movies on TCM and the "mature" styles in the old catalogs. The women usually have their hair up. Most clothes are black, dark brown, deep green, navy, dark red. Not too frilly, not too wild, but lace collars and cuffs are too grandmotherly. I really take notes of any chic older women in the movies. Especially any scenes taking place in a nightclub or with rich women.

My daughter says I look younger and "hipper" in a well fitting t-shirt but I actually get kinda depressed wearing a t-shirt and jeans. I feel so ordinary! I usually feel more special wearing vintage. And I know I'm not disappearing, because I get so many compliments and comments if I'm wearing a hat and stockings with seams. I do wear normal clothes for everyday, but I don't enjoy them.

Here are some of the images I copied for for my idea file:

 

[rocketeer]

Hi, and almost an apology but being a male I look on the scene in a similar vein to you.
I am in my 50s and have been on the UK rock n roll scene since the mid 1970s when there was really no following for 'vintage' fashions, yes we had Teddy boys and some old leftover Ted and Rockers from the 1950s and 60s but that was it.
Fast forward 20 years and a new 'era' had emerged and been slowly gaining popularity, the swing era. That is to say since the early 1980s an interest in 1940s fashions and music, mainly big Dance bands and war time military clothing was slowly appearing on the Rockabilly roadshow so to speak.
Many of the new age 'Hep cats' of the 1980s were of course teenagers and now most are like me, now in there 40s or 50s but still wear the same clothes and to be honest it can look a bit silly. I have seen a woman in her 50s wearing a cowgirl outfit that would suit a young teenager, lucky she still had the figure I say, another dressed like Dorothy from Wizard of Oz and just how many thinning grey haired 'Johnny's' do you see trying to look like a young Marlon Brando, even though Brando was nearly 30 when he made 'The Wild One.
I still wear leather jackets and jeans but I know if I dressed like I did in 1977 I would look like an old man dressed as a teenager so I pick what I look best in. It looks so obvious for whatever era you pick except the 40s when teenage boys dressed like Dad rather than the other way round
A lot of older women take up the Hollywood glamour look, but good quality old clothes can be hard to find or be very expensive and to be honest from a mans point of view the home front look is a bit drab(well the war was a miserable time if I'm not mistaken).
On the UK 'vintage' scene the majority are older people into this look and the youngsters are scarce, I'm sure there are many here well past 30 years old who can advise and if you dont like wearing secondhand clothing I'm sure you could adapt some modern styles.
Put away the teenage gingham, wear nice things and remember, though you are no longer a young sprightly thing didn't your mother look just a bit glam on her nights out.
Johnny(But definitely not Strabler)

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm 49, and I dress the same way I did when I was 39, which isn't too different from how I dressed at 29 -- the thing was, I never went in for the youth stuff at all, so it's been less of a transition as I've gotten older. I wear conservative cotton dresses for everyday and when I need to dress up I wear a conservative dark suit. About the youngest thing I wear is saddle shoes in the summer, but I've been wearing them since I actually was young, and they're old and broken in now, just like me. Plus, they're brown and white, not black and white, which avoids any rockabilly association.

I think for at least some folks around the Lounge, the older one gets the more interested they become in the cultural aspects of the actual Era. A lot of the so-called Vintage Scene is rather ersatz when you get right down to it, the past run thru a Hip and Modern filter, and as one gets older that sort of thing might be somewhat less appealing. I don't go to clubs or bars,, I've never gone to clubs or bars, and don't see any need to start now, but I've always been and will always be interested in how ordinary people lived in the 1930s and 1940s -- and in how those values and habits can be continued into the present time.

 

[kamikat]

I'm just on the edge of this, at 39. I lean more toward the rockabilly side of things because I came to vintage through goth. My style has changed since I started dressing in vintage/vintage-influenced clothing. I tend to sew more solid colored dresses, using the younger fabrics (gingham, polka dot, ect) as accent fabrics rather than the main fabric. The curious thing I have found is that 50s dresses to be quite matronly on me, even if it's a youthful style. Same with 50s hair. I stick to 40s these days.
As for blogs, there are individual blogs of older than 35 women into vintage, but they are person rather than about the scene.

 

[Louise Anne]

Speaking as a 50 year old , I think vintage is less age related than modern clothes and that one of the great advantages, think style not age I would say.

 

[rue]

I'm 42 and dress in 40s/50s vintage every single day and I don't really see that changing as I get older. Although, once in awhile I'll throw on a more rockabilly look for fun and I can see stopping that after a certain age, but I'm not sure when that will be. The way I look at it is that I'm dressed more age appropriate in my vintage attire than someone my age that dresses like their teenage daughter.

By the way, great inspirational photos Idledame

 

[kymeratale]

So, what I am specifically interested in what content is available online that is either for or produced by the older crowd in vintage. What blogs do you follow that are done by someone over 40(ish)? What content do you see that shows or is geared toward over 40(ish)?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, for starters, there seems to be more than a few of us right here on the Lounge. I think we tend to skew quite a bit older than the average "fashion/lifestyle" forum.

 

[W-D Forties]

I think a lot of us on the Lounge (as in life) got into vintage through the various youth cults of the 80's. Fast forward and a most of us are now in our 40's and still like to 'dress up'. I wore a lot of vintage when I was a teenager in the 80's mainly because it was cheap, available, unusual and easy to mix and match. It was only as I got older that I really appreciated the history behind the looks.

Dita is nearly 40 now, but I know what you mean about some of it (the pin up looks) being geared towards a slightly younger age range. I think a lot of the loungers blog though, and as Lizzie has said, we err towards the more 'mature'!

 

[Miss Stella]

Speaking as a 50 year old , I think vintage is less age related than modern clothes and that one of the great advantages, think style not age I would say.

Well said, Paul!

I will be 50 next Monday- Its all about knowing your personal style and owning it
I do put on jeans and a t-shirt occasionally to cut and stack firewood, ride the Harley...things like that but I certainly feel more content and confident wearing classic styles and those in, my case, are either vintage or vintage-inspired. I've done the "wear what the media says" thing and they can keep it! I dress how I feel best. Now, IMHO, there is an art to wearing vintage so we don't look dowdy or costume-ish. But isn't that with any clothing?
I think it would be great to start a blog for us older ladies who wear vintage though....encourage others to be 'classy not trashy'
Best style advice for any age~
"Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and remove one accessory". Coco Chanel

 

[Miss Stella]

Has anyone seen advancedstyle.blogspot.com? There are a lot of classy ladies and gents Ari has photographed and he has a book that has just gone out.
he also has photographed many, shall we say 'unique' individuals over the years...

 

[Vera Godfrey]

I just turned 40 this year. I don't always dress vintage, but when I do, I tend to go for a 40's look as I find it very classic and "forgiving" for my age and figure.

 

[Espee]

Hmmm the catalog figures of mature women are only seven or eight heads high, instead of nine or ten!
(A quick estimate.)

 

[swinggal]

I think it's more about sophistication and chic as you get older. I don't feel the need to change the way I dress as I age because I always try to aim for those two aspects anyway, even in my every day life, and I have been doing that since my 20s.

A classy, classic look has always been my thing even when not dressed in vintage. I'm not one for flowery fabrics and flounce either and have always preferred blocks of colour in my vintage looks, I think that is ageless really. I love resort wear too and 30s style, wide, high-waisted flowing pants and cute blouses are a staple of my wardrobe. Renée Perle (below) is a great inspiration and very much my style. I also love Coco Chanel because she wore a lot of darker colours, like I do. For me, simple is best with accents.

 

[Red Diabla]

Hi all,

I haven't been on FL much lately and just kind of realized how much I've missed it.

I wanted to bring up something I have been thinking about for a bit. I follow lots of vintage blogs, sewing mostly, but general vintage too. I am now 41 and I've realized that there isn't a lot of content geared toward the over 40 crowd (let alone over 50 or 60). I'm thinking fashion specifically, but the whole vintage genre as well. So, is it that there are just less older women interested in vintage or are we out there and subject to the whole invisible thing that society at large does? Perhaps the whole pin up/rockabilly/wiggle dress thing is dominant because most of the crowd is young and that is what they want? Are there women in their 50s and 60s who love vintage style? I know the women in their 40s are out there, just not terribly visible.

I for one am at that stage where I acknowledge that I don't want to be a flirty sweet young thing, but I am also wary of veering into dowdy territory. I can still wear vintage styles that in their day would really have been for the younger crowd, but I also don't want to look like someone trying desperately trying to stay young. I know some of you get where I'm coming from. A big emphasis in the commercial side of vintage (repro clothes, fests, dance culture) is on the young and flirty or young and hot or young and...

I've been toying with the idea of starting a vintage blog that would specifically try to represent the perspective of people my age and older in the vintage scene. I've poked about and haven't found any blogs or sites that do that. Are there any that I have just missed? A blog that is prominent done by someone not in their 20s or 30s?

I know this opens up a whole big discussion about our youth obsessed culture, etc., but I am curious if this perspective is represented in the vintage scene and if so, where.

Thoughts appreciated.

I don't have much in the way of resources for you, but as a 43-year old, I hear ya! My ramblings are as follows:

You touched on how invisible women can be when they get older, except when they try to look desperately young. I think it's when the desperation shows through that it's a problem. As for the rest of us, I get frustrated seeing dresses or skirts that I think are cute, but the hem is too short for my liking, due to my age. Which is depressing when it starts happening a lot. It doesn't help that I'm so white I'm clear, but that's a different issue.

There's something to be said in feeling confident with what you're wearing, and that will kill most desperation with vintage styles, since you're not going for a modern Jersey Shore hoochie-mama look to begin with. There's more leeway working with vintage styling when one is middle-aged these days, because the connotations between age now and age when these clothes we love first came into being are so different. A 40-year-old now can wear a dress originally meant for a late-20's/early 30's age range that's vintage and no one would blink an eye...in fact, that 40-year-old will most likely get a lot of compliments!

I think it comes down to the individual and what that individual is attracted to fashion-wise to make vintage work for them. There's leeway for the middleaged to look pretty darned good; we just have to believe it and run with it!

RD

 

[Patricia Lynn]

I'm over 40 and while my blog isn't specifically about being vintage over a certain age (its more about the vintage places I go and things I do, events I attend, things I'm sewing, etc.) it does reflect, I guess you would say, a more mature bent. I have a child and can't flit about on weeknights and party as I would have when I was younger. I find if you dress in 20s, 30s, 40s or even 50s styles as actual ladies of that time would have worn them, vs. pinup interpretations of vintage styles you can pull off vintage classically at pretty much any age. I'd read your blog if you were to start one.

 

[Idledame]

I think there would be interest in a blog specifically for vintage older women. Do tell us if you start or find one!

 

[Louise Anne]

What about doing a collaborative blog together for "Vintage for the over 40 crowd" if you already on bloggers I think you can add people as authors to a blog
This way the work load will not fall on one person and you can keep your own blog the way you like it now.
and together we will show a range of look we wear and how we use vintage etc.
Even if your are 25 years old maybe with vintage it could be interesting to try a more mature look once in a while and post it on there

Each blog post could also be advertised in this thread as it made so every one can keep up to date and go over if it interests them.

If any one interested in doing that please add your name below and I set up a blog add you as a author and see how it goes.



As for weaing style two young style I think if it suits you wear it , in real life where I live I haave seen some ladies in the 50's wearing shorter skirts and they can look very classy I feel it's more what else your wear with it that gets the look working right.