Couture For The Ages

I’ve been thinking about aging for a long time. Like, literal years.

I was biting my nails the night before I turned 10 – hitting double digits was terrifying to me. At 11, I complained to a math teacher about how I felt old (which, looking back, given that she was around 30, was not my most tactful moment). I’d read books like Peter Pan longingly, even when the book was replete with crocodiles and pirates and spiteful fairies who left you to die.

In the 20th century and before, aging used to be something children longed for: Dating! Drinking! Late-night parties! Overall, more freedom to do what you actually wanted to do.

Clothing reflected that. For little girls, wearing your hair up or letting down your dresses as you grew older was an aspirational milestone. Boys longed to go from shorts to pants.

Until the 1950s, women in their 30s were the epitome of fashion. Makeup and emphasizing the curves that came with age were chic.

Then the 1960s happened. Youth became all the rage. Mary Quant invented the miniskirt so that little girls’ short skirts became the ideal, versus the longer skirts of grown-ups. Balenciaga popularized the then-obscure baby doll dress, designed to obscure the waist and hide the curves that come post-puberty for most women. Overall, it was an environment of emphasizing and aspiring to youth.

Of course, it’s impossible to aspire to youth. It is probably the hardest aspiration out there. Time will always pass, and age will always show.

In today’s hustle culture, youth and aging come with their own pressures and (I feel) fewer freedoms. Barely anything is locked behind the Adulthood Gates anymore, and there are fewer tantalizing secrets to look forward to. Drinking, sex, partying - it’s all out there in the open now, accessible to all. The only thing adulthood really unlocks, in popular imagination, is the unpleasant bits.

That, combined with the pressure we’re always putting on young people, to Get It Right and Make Life Great, makes it so that so many kids are living in the future.

“Will this look good on a college application?”

“I’m 22 and haven’t raised seed funding - is it too late?”

“Oh, you’re 30? You look really good for your age!”

None of these are made-up quotes. The first was said to me by a sixth-grader, the last one was said to a friend of mine.

I hate this idea that joy and curiosity and experimentation are over once you hit 18, 25, 30, 50, whatever number people are fixating on now. Quite frankly, we want age to show! Age comes with wisdom and experience, and knowing more about your place in the world. Ageing can be so fun, and we’ve turned it into the biggest chore.

So, as an Ode to Aging, I’m featuring 3 of my favorite designs from Ari Seth Cohen’s blog, “Advanced Style”.

Cohen is an American photographer, writer, and filmmaker whose work focuses on the lives of those over 60 – their style, their love lives, and their fashion. His work is a love letter to growing old, and what a fun, delightful privilege it is. If you haven’t checked out his work yet, I highly encourage you to delve deeper into it.

Favorite Look #1: Coral Me Impressed

I love the simple lines in this look, and especially, I love the color! I’m so tired of older women being shoved into black and white. As much as I love both those colors, it’s so fun to see this 1920s-inspired dropwaist summer dress and with matching lipstick and sunglasses too!

Favorite Look #2: Big Life on the Prairie!

The way I squealed upon seeing this look! It is SO cute and so adorable and most importantly, so wearable! I can totally see this woman strolling around NYC wearing this comfy dress and those sturdy boots. And those sleeves with their cape-like drama?? I swoon.

Favorite Look #3: Blue Me Away

This picture doesn’t contain a full outfit, but the image arrested my attention the moment I saw it. The dead-on stare, the satiny night blue dress, the sunglasses that match the earrings (also, brb, going to create my own line of matching sunglasses and earrings now), it all just took my breath away.

It was impossible to pick these three looks from the countless works of Cohen. And I’m biased! I prefer simpler, cleaner looks, but there are so many stunning pieces across Cohen’s works. The pictures showcase drama, fun, friendship, courage, contentment, laughter, togetherness, and just all the fun parts of being a person.

What’s your favorite part of getting older?

Love,

Simran

P.S. I do NOT own any of the images in this edition. They are all works from magazines, Ari Seth Cohen, or from museums.