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WE ARE NOT DEAD YET.
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Wrinkles. We face a never-ending battle to banish the lines engraved onto our already haggard faces. Well, that’s one way of looking at it anyway. Do you ever hear your Mum or Nan wish away a wrinkle or two? The quest to remain perfect, to be flawless, is a quest nobody has ever conquered. So why, are we all so bothered? We all age, that’s life! Thirty years ago our mothers and grandmothers didn’t have this pressure from the media, and the seemingly blemish free fashion industry, to achieve perfection, so why should we? Why are we now defined by our looks –regardless of our age- and not by the stories that lie beneath the façade, the stories, which have provided us with our beautifully haggard faces? After speaking to women who have felt the pressure of looking ‘perfect’ - due to the digitally enhanced unparalleled world of advertising today -and feeling too ‘old’ – some at the tender age of 25, my overall attitude towards perfection is - why bother? The flawless complexions and elongated bodies of models are what the media has convinced us are the ideal, and I hate to break it to you but the media is wrong.
Thank God people are starting to stand up and rebel against this! Remember Twiggy’s recent Olay ad, it was banned because it could have "negative impact on people's perceptions of their own body image". Good! Perfection is an unattainable goal that even the models themselves cannot achieve, after all Cindy Crawford once famously said,
I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford
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Wrinkles, Wisdom & White PVC
The fashion industry is built on strong foundations of youth and beauty. However, the designers from the most influential fashion houses are old and male, take Karl Lagerfeld or Valentino! Wrinkles, depending on whether you see them as a blessing or a curse are an important part of our life. Whether you call them laughter lines or crows’ feet it doesn’t matter; they are there because you have been smiling and surely that’s a good thing! Sheila Allen, age 78, has such a refreshing take on life it allows you to see that age, wisdom and beauty all go perfectly hand in hand. One story, which particularly resonated, was about how she used to go out in hot pants and PVC boots “white pvc boots” she corrected herself, as though the colour made her instantly more devilish. “There was only one style back then, nowadays you can get away with anything, and believe me don’t people try”. Do you still have your PVC boots, I asked “Oh God no! They were so cheap you’d wear them once, sweat absolute bobbers
and they’d fall to bits by the end of the night!” I asked if she would do anything differently if she had her time again; she pauses takes a long sip of her black coffee with 3 sugars and rasps I was always rather plain and I would just blend in - I was jealous of the girls with the neckerchiefs and fancy jewellery, they were the real bobby dazzlers. If I could do it all again I’d be a bobby dazzler! I think that’s why I love clothes, shopping and a bit of bling so much now.” She chortles.
If you could take a few nights back to get rid of a few wrinkles would you? I asked tentatively so as not to disrupt the upbeat atmosphere of the room, “Oh NO.” Short and sweet, just like Sheila. I think it’s time women took a stand against the ideal. I think its time to celebrate every laughter line, every crow’s foot, every wrinkle. Each perfect imperfection shows that you have lived your life and that you have stories to tell that would result in even the smoothest of faces gaining one or two wrinkles.
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Elbert Hubbard
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DON’T TAKE LIFE SO SERIOUSLY. IT’S NOT LIKE YOU’RE GOING TO GET OUT ALIVE.
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