Stylish ANNIE DAVIES meets the author of a new guide to looking fabulous in later life
With Dame Helen Mirren giving young upstarts like Jennifer Lawrence a run for their money in the Red Carpet style stakes, and singer songwriter Joni Mitchell who is the new face of Yves Saint Laurent at aged 70, older women are getting more attention from the fashion world these days.
And about time too, says 51-year-old fashion journalist and lecturer Alyson Walsh, who has just published Style Forever, The Grown Up Guide to Looking Fabulous.
“You don’t have to be young to have style,” announces the proudly botox-free writer. “There’s nothing more ageing than a woman trying desperately to look young.” Take that, Madonna!
As a former fashion editor of Good Housekeeping and regular fashion commentator for The Guardian, The Financial Times and Saga Magazine she should know what she’s talking about.
Alyson has been flying the flag for the stylish older woman for the last six years in her blog ‘That’s Not My Age’, named because of the habit many of us have of starting to knock a few years off the older we get.
The blog is aimed at women who have no intention of disappearing into a sea of boring beige at the first sight of a grey hair or a wrinkle, but who don’t want to resort to cosmetic surgery or swerving down the “mutton dressed as lamb” route.
Its fizzy mix of fashion news and tips and its positive tone have struck a resounding chord with a burgeoning band of regular readers from Generation FAB. That’s Fifty And Beyond, thank you for asking. If you’re wondering how to wear trainers without looking like an overgrown teenager, or concerned about being too old for a biker jacket, then look no further for advice.
That’s Not My Ages passes over fresh-faced 20-something starlets to shine the light on more mature women with a little more life experience: women like Dame Helen Mirren, First Lady Michelle Obama and International Monetary fund boss and former synchronized swimming champ, Christine Lagarde, the platinum-haired 59 year old that one newspaper referred to as possibly the “sexiest woman in the world”.
Style Forever picks up the blog’s baton and runs with it. Whether you’re a Casual Glamourpuss, a Scandinista, an Ageless Rocker or a member of any of the other fashion tribes listed, you’ll find something useful between its covers, from how to wear colour without looking like a crazy person to acquiring French chic when you’ve not been beyond the White Cliffs of Dover. There is advice on the best jacket, the worst underwear (Jettison those Spanx!) and even a step-by-step guide to tying your scarf the Mary Berry way.
“I wanted the book to be a celebration of older women,” explains Alyson, who is herself more likely to be found in leopard skin print coat, jeans and trainers than a sensible two piece with pearls. “Our demographic was overlooked. That’s also why I started the blog.
Magazines were full of younger women and clichéd style rules for older ones. Yet there were so many older women out there who looked amazing and I wanted to focus on the positives. I wanted it to be empowering.” 
And in any case, what’s the point? As actress/comedian Amy Poehler says in the book: “Fighting ageing is like the war on drugs. It’s expensive, does more harm than good and has been proven to never end.”
With quirky illustrations by artist Leo Greenfield rather than photographs airbrushed to the limits of belief, the book features a cast of role models who’ve really earned the title.
At 64, neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield is more than capable of rocking a short skirt and leather jacket ensemble and regularly does so. She says: “I wouldn’t want to be young again. Maturity and experience give you confidence and that’s wonderfully liberating.”
The wonderfully-liberated 95-year-old New Yorker Iris Apfel has a similar viewpoint.
“If you don’t know who you are and you copy someone else’s style then that’s sad,” believes the silver haired, fashion muse, who refers to herself as a geriatric starlet. ”You must learn who you are and dress to suit your personality.”
In Iris’s case that means trademark saucer-sized spectacles and armfuls of exuberant bracelets.
“It’s hard work getting to know yourself,’ she warns. “The biggest fashion faux pas is to look in the mirror and see someone else,”
Someone with a clear sense of her own style is Sue Kreitzman, 75, artist and star of the Channel Four Documentary Fabulous Fashionistas and currently adding a splash of colour to a tv commercial for paint.
“I never liked fashion. I’ve always done my own thing,” she says cheerfully.”And now I’ve been on the cover of the Sunday Times Style Magazine. Holy Moly, it took me 70 odd years to be one of the cool girls.”
Style Forever shows you that looking good isn’t just for the young.
“Since the 1960s, fashion has been fixated by youth but fortunately it really does feel like the times they are a-changing,” writes author Alyson Walsh. ”We’re finally seeing more gorgeous women in advertisements, online and in the media. Hallelujah. The over-50s are having a fashion moment.”
Dip into this book and you could become part of it. As shopping guru Mary Portas says in the introduction: “Style Forever is a book I’ll have in my arsenal without doubt.”
Style Forever is published by Hardie Grant and priced at £12.99.
For more information on style for Generation FAB visit:
www.thatsnotmyage.com
