THE OUTSIDER by Ellie Thomas

issue one

ageing

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COVER GIRL

Illona Royce Smithkin, featured in ADVANCED STYLE on page 13. 4

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welcome to issue one

A woman of a certain age. Passed her prime. Over the hill. Mutton dressed as lamb. A mature lady. There are a lot of euphemisms and not many are positive. Older people are marginalised in almost all areas of society but nowhere quite so explicitly than the fashion industry. The fashion world fetishises youth. Models are getting younger and younger, with 14 year old not uncommon on the runways of London and Paris fashion week. But this trend is completely at odds with the realities of our aging population. Often, it seems as though the fashion and beauty industries don’t want you to be happy with the way you look. If you were, you might not buy that anti-aging cream or pair of stomach-sucking, body-sculpting knickers that they’re trying to sell you. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Rather than pushing ‘aspirational’ images of youth and warped, impossible beauty standards, why not celebrate those people being themselves and being well dressed while they go about it. It appears that ‘women of a certain age’ have two options: continually fighting the aging process with wrinkle creams and hair dye - even botox and cosmetic surgery - or quietly fade into the background, not making a fuss or expecting anyone to pay any attention. But there is a third option, characterised by the women in the pages of this magazine: keep being yourself.

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contents GRANNY NIRVANA PAGE 8 ALL WRAPPED UP PAGE 12 ADVANCED STYLE PAGE 18 STREET STYLE PAGE 24 IN BLOOM PAGE 28

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+ THE MIDDLE PAGES ICON - IRIS APFEL PAGE ii DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST GREY HAIR DEBBIE THOMAS PAGE vi FASHION IS FASHION TIME IS TIME BARBARA FRANCIS PAGE x IDIOSYNCRATIC FASHIONISTAS xiv

contents

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Luella Bartley has established herself as an authority on British style. After her namesake brand sadly folded, Bartley has continued her study of this British art with her book Luella’s Guide to English Style. Here, she delves into the final stage of dressing in the life of a ‘Brisish bird’ - Granny Nirvana. Words: Luella Bartley

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THE OUTSIDER Stage seven of Miss England’s progress means... stop thinking and start playing. The rationality and sagacity of stage six is behind her, now it is time to have a bit of a laugh. British grannies do this better than anyone else. To get the obvious out of the way: being an English granny does have its downside. Deterioration and decay are inevitable and sure to occupy one’s mind on occasion. But to set against that there’s a colossal new freedom. This gives English grannies their cracking sense of humour, not to mention a genius wardrobe. At last you have the freedom to be whoever the bugger you want – whatever path an English granny takes, it is as uncompromising as when she was a toddler in her mother’s pearls, only with marginally more bad language, a lot more worldliness and a practical approach to life’s intricacies. There’s a defiant pragmatism, a brilliant logic and a fuck-it insouciance to my favourite grannies. I’ll sum up their thinking as: ‘So what if I’m grumpy, I’m allowed to be. So what if I’m fat, I’m allowed to be, I’m old!’ There are no limits to the amount of blue eyeshadow and pink lipstick a seventh stage Miss E might apply – maybe with a slightly shaky hand – after all, it’s up to her.

she has weathered the storms of life. Now she has achieved wisdom and can be completely herself – everything had been leading to this heady moment. Now the fun can be put back into dressing up (or down, or sideways). If a seventh-stager looks like a batty old eccentric, or chooses to wear hats again and match them to handbags and shoes, well, why the hell now? My most cherished granny look is the most pragmatic – wear all your biggest sweaters as once and some woolly socks over your tights to save on the heating, a comfortable pair of shoes, a nice comfy elasticated-waist skirt, a headscarf to keep your set in place (or a good fur hat if your hairstyle allows it) and a good rain mac and carry a brolly at all times. Oh, and a good sturdy shopper or a carrier bag to keep all your essential items in. Some of this thoroughly British look might be down to the crap weather and dubious welfare system, and it’s sometimes accompanied by too much Lily of the Valley. Sometimes it almost becomes a self-parody – but it’s a beautiful one. The glorious, who-cares, pile-it-on granny style – and grandad’s can be pretty rousing too – is continually inspired me, because for this Miss E there is nothing quite so worrying as looking fashionably correct, with all choices dictated by designers. If the street is where Miss E will find her style A-to-Z, grannies are the unbeatable expression of the eccentricity that’s the key to true English syle. Elsewhere in the world, style is now often hindered by neurotic attempts at youthfulness and the thread has been lost (apart, that is, from the surgeon’s thread). If a dark and weak moment catches you – predictably – thinking about wrinkles, consider how sexy Marianne Faithfull is: winkles maketh the ultimate, stylish expression of a life lived with sartorial grace and tribal history. A granny also knows better than everyone else how to make-do-and-mend, which is something any true Miss E grows to understand too.

Just look at some of the brilliant, uncompromising, no-nonsense grannies we have. Something of what I admire is summed up in Catherine Tate’s ‘Gran’, a machine-gun of expletives and vulgarity with wrinkly tan tights and a killer smoker’s cackle, and also there’s Vanessa Redgrave, the pinnacle of over-seventy chic, which an experienced but elegant face and lots of fluid black clothing and costume jewellery. We’ve got Vita Sackville-West (an androgynous intellectual with a progressive sense of morality), Marianne Faithfull (rock goddess), Vivienne Westwood (make-up caked experimentalist) and the Queen (a gun-toting, ruddyfaced, head-scarfed countryside-lover). Then there’s Agatha Christie, such a sweet be-tweeded little old lady who likes Earl Grey in Royal Doulton and a good murder mystery, but we know that she knows all the awful secrets.

Grannies are the queens of the exuberant mismatch, the guardians of the idea that to really know about style you also have to know that it isn’t about rules or strictness, it’s about expressing yourself in a way you feel comfortable with, without the need for clever nuance or subtext. This very English idea can, though, seem flummoxing abroad. A rather grand French fashion editor once exasperatedly asked: ‘What is it wiz zees English girls? Why do zey insist on zis ugly dressing?’ To which the answer is simple – because it’s wrong!

By this seventh stage, our Miss E has seen and done everything. She has been through every incarnation of rebellion, anarchy, subversion, conformity, tribal affiliation, bad haircuts, irony, apathy, and has arrived at total freedom of expression. She has spent a lifetime tailoring her looks to express changing personal manifestos – some embarrassing, some witty, some cool, some geeky, some sincere and some ironic. Editing her style for chosen members of the opposite sex or work environments, or anything that may have hindered and closeted her style desires – it’s all in the past. Now she can be singleminded and any tribal allegiance is limited to the Women’s Institute (and what a sublime group of style leaders they are). She has dignity, and it’s because

Luella’s Guide to English Style by Luella Bartley is out now.

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Hats orf to Her Majesty for refusing to submit to the tyranny of spurious fashion trends. The Queen reigns as the original revivalist, refusing the deviate from a style developed in the fifties but tweaking it ever so slightly in order to remain just this side of eccentric. The Queen is a courageous pioneer of head-to-toe lemon. There are not many who could carry that one orf. A gun-toting, ruddy-faced, head-scarfed countryside-lover.

Words: designer Luella Bartley. Photography: Ellie Thomas

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THE

in which we talk to Iris Apfel, Debbie Thomas and Barbara Francis about aging, vintage clothes, grey hair and lust for life.

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TALK ING IT OUT

The fashion worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s youngest darling in conversation with one of itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oldest. Tavi Gevinson talks to Iris Apfel about style, age and what these young designers are missing. Tavi: Thanks so much for doing this. I think you'd really like the magazine. Every time I get a new issue I put it on its own shelf and decorate the shelf around it. I become such a little girl. Iris: That's good. Stay a little girl. Everybody should be not childish, but they should be childlike. I think that's the problem. You lose a lot of that as you grow up. And I think it's very important to keep whimsy and all those lovely feelings. What do you think is the difference between childlike and childish? Well to me when I think childish I think petulant and silly and, you know, wahhhhhh and all that. But childlike to me is all the better qualities of childhood. The wonder. Wonder is something that seems to have gone out of fashion. Everything is so material and so scientific and so technological and I think it throws humanism down the drain, which to me is a terrible thing. I feel bad for these designers who have to do all these extra collections. I don't understand how you can be inspired enough to make all that. Well they're not! And I don't think a lot of them have the talent for it. I think a lot of them are media freaks. Which ones do you like? I like Ralph Rucci. I like Isabel Toledo. I like people who know what they're doing. And most of these people don't know what they're doing. I mean, depending on what it is. Naeem Khan is wonderful for runway fashion. You know, he can make a slinky, gorgeous dress move. There are a lot of designers I like for bits and pieces, but all-around talent is not prevalent. And I think all these young ones, I mean I guess they're very nice people, but I don't think they're violently talented. They seem to be manufactured. I first saw you in person at a Rodarte show. It was the only one I ever went to. It was when a poor girl fell on the floor. I though, mamma mia! I hope legs weren't broken. Do you like Rodarte? I love Rodarte! They have that childlist wonder to me. They're supposed to be lovely ladies. I don't know them. Once they did a line for Target and they shot the campaign at a farm in North Dakota and I went along with them. And it was a total small town, and it could've been really boring or depressing, but they were just inspired by everything.

I missed a lot of those Target things. Was theirs good? Oh yeah. A couple of those dresses are very near and dear to my heart. They were inspired by Rosemary's Baby and Bonnie and Clyde. Oh, they're wonderful movies. We were talking about the Dakota before; Rosemary's Baby was shot there. Well [Albert] Maysles used to live there, and it's a far cry, from the Dakota to Harlem [where he lives now] It's changed a lot. And he has a part at this wonderful restaurant you've probably heard of, the Red Rooster? I haven't! Well, Marcus Samuelsson is a very talented chef. He's Ethiopian. And he's a beautiful man, beautiful colour, and he has the most gorgeous wife, who just goes on and on and one, she's like about six foot or something, she's a model. And he was adopted as a small child by Swedish people and taken to Sweden where he learned to cook and became very famous in Sweden and then he came here and opened an extremely important Swedish restaurant called Aquavit, which he sold some years ago and now it's terrible. And maybe a year or so ago, he opened this place in Harlem called the Red Rooster. It's a very hip, interesting place. Food is good. He gets a great cross section of people because he gets the locals in Harlem, and he gets a lot of the downtown people. He gets the Park Avenue people, he gets young people and old people, so it's an interesting crowd. So it's right across the street from where Maysles has his offices. And so they're all very friendly. I was so sad I had to miss [Maysles'] party the othernight. That's so exciting that he's making a documentary about you. No, it's very exciting. It's the last thing in the world I... to me, everything that's happened to me since my first show at the Met is... I really can't even get excited because it seems so otherwordly. It seems so... I mean, I was ninety in August, and to have all these careers and all these offers to do designing and all these things I'm doing... it's really crazy. But I love it. It's so much better than going out to pasture and mooing. I'm doing Home Sopping, I've already done two programmes. I debuted from my hospital bed. And I had another about two weeks ago; we were on again where I couldn't go but this time I was able to talk for an hour, the whole length of the programme. And each time we do a whole new collection. As a matter of fact, next week, they're coming with all the samples for the February show, so it's great fun. Next time you come everything will be squirreled away so I can get out everything we did, I think you'll like them. Because I thought it would be great fun to be able to do some really nice- cause lots of things on the Home Network are kind of schlocky, or, you know, overdone, and I wanted some more simplified things that were fun and different, colourful, really terrific. We did well last time too. So that's exciting. And then I did a collection for Yoox; it's a three-part collection. One we call Ready to Wear, which is jewellery that's manufactured in the Phillippines. That's all very bold and

graphic and natural elements, but we do some resins that look like they're amber and stuff because we want to keep it affordable. I did a small collection of, I call it Couture Jewellery, and they're limited editions. Those pieces are quite expensive; they're made of one-of-akind items or vintage stones. That frog over there has one of them; I'll show it to you [pointing to a stuffed frog wearing a necklace]. The third part was jewellery from my own collection, 'cause I've been collecting since I'm eleven and now I'm ninety, so you can do the math â&#x20AC;&#x201C; I have a few pieces! So periodically, every time I do a show in a museum, the shop takes a bunch of my stuff and sells it. Is it hard to let that stuff go? It's not easy. But I have to because it's something I can still collect, and you know, it gives me some funds to work with and it gives me some space. It's the same with my clothes. Giving them away is an agony. You kind of see your life go by. You look at a dress and- I mean, they pulled out a dress today and I said, Oh my goodness, I wore this to the 100th anniversary party at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1976. They celebrated 100 years. And we [her and her husband] were in the fabric business at that time, and we did beautiful drapery and upholstery, I love antique fabric, and we specialised in doing historic recreations. So we redid the Belter Parlor, you know Belter was a cabinetmaker in the 19th century, so the Victorian time, and they had this stuff squirreled away in a warehouse. They wanted to refurbish and do some special rooms and they found a little piece of the original fabric, which we were able to reproduce. We reproduced all the trimmings, tassels. It was a beautiful room, a big success. So it was a three-day celebration and we were invited to all the parties. Mrs. Nixon invited us to one, and Estee Lauder did to another, and the museum itself invited us to a third. And I happened to wear this dress which was kind of interesting because one year in Paris I found a bosor Lesage embroideries. Samples, exquisite, exquisite samples. Old ones. And I decided to use them for clothes and design them myself. They were very strange colouration and it was so hard to find. I finally found some couture fabric that was left over from somebody's collection. It was kind of silver with blue and hot pink and it kind of shimmered, it was just perfect. And I wore that dress to this party. In the '50s I started to collect some Victorian jewellery in London, they used to have all the pushcarts out on Portobello Road, and in those days you would get real treaures for so little money. So I developed over the years collections of little tiny rings and little rubies, so I have a series of those. Turquoise, pearl, all those things. I had them on every finger. And they looked so beautiful with the dress. Two of the hears of the National Gallery were there from Washington and they fell in love with the jewellery and found out we were doing the White House at the time, going back and forth, so they said the next time I'm in Washington, promise us you'll call. And I rang up and they said, We decided if you want to come tomorrow morning, we'll open the jewellery vault and you can play all morning, and try on whatever you like! Oh my gosh!

I had such a good time; I'll never forget that dress or day. Is there any item of clothing you've been searching for that you still haven't found? Not really. Do you just go out looking and see what comes back with you? I learned a long time ago if you don't want ti spend a bloody fortune, you have to have an open mind. So if you're going to a vintage sale or a discount store, you can't say “Today I want a snowsuit”. Because you'll come back with a bikini. You have to just see what's there. Some people just can't do that. My mother was very chic, and dressed very well, and never overpaid for anything, but she could never shop at a place like Loehmann's because my mother was very organised. She said, “I need a black suit, and I need a brown dress,” or whatever it is. Is she couldn't find those things, she wouldn't buy anything else. Of course I go, anything I see that I like, if I can afford it, I buy. And they were so hysterical when they were looking through all the clothes when we did the first show at the Metropolitan Museum. There'd be something I'd forgotten was even there with all the tags I bought maybe thirty years ago. But it's very funny because sometimes, when I used to shop – I don't shop much anymore – I would look and look, I couldn't find it, and I go home and find it in my own boutique! 'Cause I've got so much stuff. Whenever I feel like I have nothing to wear and I actually look in my closet instead of just the pile of clothes on my floor, I'll find all this stuff that I totally forgot about. You always do. I saw so many things just going through my wardrobes for this, looking for things that I wanted to put in the collection. So how do you decide what to wear every day, with so many options? Well, what happens is during the day I don't dress up much, I live in jeans. So I'll wear jeans and sweaters or jackets or something like that. We used to go out a great deal, and you know, there were specific parties and I knew [what] I wanted to wear. But lately, in the last years, people don't dress up much anymore, except great occasions. And I have maybe half a dozen outdits that are all organised and it's already when I'm working, or was working, when we're supposed to be some place at a certain hour, I get stuck at the studio and I'd be late, so I'd have to run home. I used to love to just make an outfit as I'd go along. I didn't have the time, so it was very comforting to have five or six outfits that were already coordinated and accessorised and I'd just jump into them. So most of the clothes I was wearing, I'd just wear the same damn things over and over and over again! But that's how it goes. I think most people find outfits that they like or are comfortable with and when they're in a hurry, they put them on. There are lots of clothes here that I haven't worn in years. And your

lifestyle changes, and times change. I mean years ago we travelled a lot, always went twice a year by ship, the great ships, to Europe. It was very glamorous and you dressed for dinner every night, and in Europe, we had friends who threw great parties, so you needed all those clothes. Now you carry things like that people look at you like you have two heads! There's very little personal style anymore. Is there anyone who you think has it? Oh I don't know, I don't want to comment. There are some people who are beautifully dresses head to toe by designers and they always look perfect, but I don't like things that are too perfect. I like to have something with a little mistake here and there. Vivienne Westwood said that stains are decorations. I always have things from everywhere. I have things that cost nothing and things that cost, for me, a lot. Some clothing, I think, are works of art, and they have to be expensive because they're hand done, there's a lot of time and efford and care, great fabrics, and that's all expensive. It depends on how important you think you are and how much money you can afford and whether you feel that every day you have to wear a work of art. So I think you have to have some mix it all up. A lot of designers have to use price to differentiate themselves from... From the mob. So many designers are so similar. Some designers you can tell in a minute, their distinct style. If you dress a certain way without caring about other people, people will still look at you funny. Have you ever had a day where you just, you don't want to put up with that kind of attention? I don't care. I always feel I dress for myself and for my husband. If he doesn't like it, I'll change it... sometimes no. But really I d ress for myself. And if I like it and he doesn't object– and of course when my mother was alive I always wanted to please her, but aside from that, if other people don't like it, I figure it's not my problem. It's their problem. They don't like it, that's tough. They don't have to like it. I don't care; it's no skin off my nose. I don't care what other people think. I never did. I mean I'm not a rebel, I don't do it to be different, I just think that you have to please yourself, and be confident in what you're doing. It's hard work to do that. Sometimes people go, Oh, how can you go out looking like that? I say, I don't care. I really don't. I mean, I have to be comfortable sometimes. Most of the time, as I said, during the day I'll wear jeans or something very tailored. It's very funny. If I'm all dressed up and looking... well, I can't work. I have to maybe look like more of a mess!

A MOTHER / DAUGHTER CONVERSATION ABOUT GOING GREY AND HOW TO HANDLE IT.

Do you remember finding the first grey hair? I don't remember the exact moment-I do! It was traumatic. For as long as I can remember, my mother has coloured her hair. Regardless of whether it comes from the hairdressers or out of the box, every two to three weeks without fail there is a new coat of dye on her hair. It is one of the constants in my image of her. But she doesn't do it out of fickleness or boredom with her look. In fact, in the past twenty years I can't recall the colour changing by anything more than a shade or two on the stylists colour chart. She does it because, under the dye, her hair is completely grey. All of the women in my family have extremely dark hair but only some of them go prematurely grey. My mother was in her twenties. Throughout my childhood, I can remember important meetings and family gatherings being scheduled around Mum's roots situation and last minute dashes to Boots for a home dye kit when the hairdresser couldn't fit her in. I'm not at all adverse to using your hair and makeup to play with your appearance but when it came to my mother, it seemed less like fun and more like work. And stressful work at that. I have always joked about my inevitable grey hair by age thirty. But it wasn't until one morning over coffee when my mother leaned over and pulled a short grey hair out of my fringe that I actually thought about the reality of it. When you find yourself clutching a tiny grey hair and crying in a branch of Starbucks, mourning your lost youth at nineteen, you know it's time to think about these things in more depth. A few months later, when my hairdresser (whom I share with Mum) found not only that grey hair in my fringe but also two more near my crown, she immediately started explaining my “options”. “What we do for your mum is...” She went on to explain that I didn't have to worry for now but she was just giving me a heads up for “when the time came”. I tentatively tried to make a case for letting it go grey – maybe it could be my statement? I could probably pull it off? She was less convinced. Maybe I'm just lazy, but having watched the stress and money my mother has spent over the years, I'm not sure I want to get caught in this cycle of constant trips to the hairdresser and last minute root touch ups. I decided to talk to the wisest (but not in an old-looking way) person I know.

I was probably in my early twenties. And did you start dying your hair immediately? I already was dying it - only to change the colour, not to cover greys. I remember, around that time we were involved with some research thing, market research or something. A woman came to the house with hair dye and asked us to try them and came back to see how they'd worked and get feedback. And it was all going well until Joanne, who had dark hair, complained that she'd used the blonde one and it didn't do anything to her hair. But I'd always dyed my hair, before I even started to go grey. So not much changed then? Just I remember when I was younger, you'd always be worrying about roots and making sure you had your hair dyed for this particular event or party or whatever. It seemed like it was a pretty stressful process for you. Not something you wanted to do, something you felt like you had to. Oh, it is really stressful keeping up with it. And I wish now I hadn't dyed it when it was going grey and I'd just let it change gradually. Because now, under the dye, it's all grey. As soon as it grows, I see the roots coming through and once I know they're there, it gets to the point where I just don't want to leave the house looking like that. I just have to fix it. I did consider having a living will so that if I had a stroke and lost the use of my arms, someone had to do my roots. So it sounds like you've kind of backed yourself into a corner now? But, the one thing I like about having dark hair is that people always say "Oh, I can't believe you have a twenty-year-old daughter" and I like that. Well, that was going to be my next point. You do look younger than your age. I mean, I really hate it when people say "you look good for your age" because it implies that you can't look good whilst also looking old. But you genuinely do! I don't think people are just doing that cliche thing of complimenting a mother by saying she doesn't look old enough. I think people genuinely mean it. Oh, I know they do! [laughs] But I don't think it's because your hair is dark, it's just your general appearance. But if I had grey hair and young looks people would just think "oh, she's probably in her late forties, she just carries it well."

Well, what's wrong with that? Because I want the surprise! The gasps! The awe! [laughs] "I can't believe it! Were you a teen mother!?" That's what I'm going for. [laughs] This does seem to be a running theme with you. Every time you were featured in the paper or interviewed on the radio about tennis and they asked for your age, you'd always, always give them a fake one. Why? …I don't know… I really don't know. I've lied so much, I have to think hard about it to remember my real age. I remember you deciding when I was about twelve that it was no longer feasible to tell people you were twenty-four so you bumped it up to twentyseven-I'm up to thirty-two now. I'm staying thirty-two forever. So-[whispering] Wait! Can I just say, look at that woman who just walked past. Never let my hair end up like that! This is what I'm up against. That's the look I'm trying to avoid… like, straggly. Witchy. Witchy, but not in a cool-Stevie Nicks kind of way? Exactly. I think there's a certain age at which long hair, hair passed your shoulders, becomes wrong. I don't know where that comes from, but it's true. Do you really think that older woman look bad with long hair or do you just think we're not used to it? It's a convention, but I don't think you could call it truth. It's just what is expected of older women. But it you look at Daphne Selph [model]. Her hair tends to be used as kind of a novelty because it's unusual, but it looks incredible. I think if you look after it, it can look great. But a lot of people get to a certain age and stop trying as hard. They stop using conditioner and styling it… I'm not judging, it makes sense. But I think that's where the short hair thing comes from. You get your perm done once a month and you're all set. I know there are evolutionary reasons too. Isn't long hair supposed to be attractive because it suggests fertility? Although, that kind of stuff really bugs me. It feels like it's just perpetuating a lot of ideas about men and women and how they should be, which is all bullshit-[whispering] Oh, look. She's coming back. Her hair… Mum! Focus. Stop judging strangers. Okay, okay. So, hair dying. I honestly think I couldn't stop now. Under the dye, all of my hair is grey. I could quietly fade it out without anyone noticing. I'd just have

grey roots growing all the way down until I'd finally grown out all of the dye. You could pull that off. Just tell people it's ombre. Dying your hair grey is trendy now. People my age do it. I hate that. You know, I think I could probably be fine with having full of grey hair. I actually really like the idea of getting a blue rinse and playing off all those ideas of "old lady" stereotypes. But what worries me is the process of going grey. Being twenty and having grey hair is like a statement. But being twenty and having slightly grey hair just feels a bit pathetic. No, no. Now, I had the option to have dark hair with just grey speckles, I would be fine with that. But I'm beyond that now. My options are keep dying or all out grey. So I'm going to keep dying. So is there anyone you think grey hair looks good on? I think you'll be able to pull it off, it you want to. You have the courage and the style to. And Izzy, you know my old aerobics instructor? And with her, it wasn't even style, it was her attitude. I only ever saw her wearing her work clothes, I have no idea how she dressed outside of the gym. But you could tell she just didn't worry about having grey hair. It didn't age her because she wasn't worrying about looking old. Her attitude was youthful. She was probably only in her early 50s anyway. But she always looked great. And you like grey hair on men. You have kind of thing for men with grey hair, don't you? Grey hair on young men, yes. That's really attractive. So what's all that about? You're attracted to men with grey hair but you don't like it on yourself? Internalised monogyny mum, jeez. [laughs] I don't know what it is. I think it's that it's unexpected, when a man looks middle aged but has grey hair. Wise, but not decrepit. [laughs] Well, that's the dream. You know they're a catch if they fit that description. So what about women with grey hair? No, I don't fancy them. [laughs] Okay, but you agree you're more accepting of it on men than on women? That's probably true. I wish it wasn't, that makes me sound awful. There's a double standard with ageing and people try to argue that that's evolutionary. Women are

only fertile for a certain amount of time while their young but men can go on until they die. And I guess that's part of the reason you get this young woman/ older man pairing. You see it old Hollywood films a lot, you know a twenty-one-year-old Grace Kelly with a fifty-year-old Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window. And it's just a completely reasonable pairing. Or, Funny Face-Is that Fred Astaire? Yes! And Audrey Hepburn. And he looks about sixty. Mid to late sixty. I know, so weird. I mean, I'm not saying age differences in relationships generally are weird-That would be kind of hypocritical considering your current relationship. Yes, I know. I'm just saying that it seems very easily accepted when it's an older man but not if it's an older woman. If you think about The Graduate or Harold and Maude, it's played for comedy value. But when it's the other way around, it's just the norm. I think part of the reason I started this project was because I've been thinking about ageing a lot lately. Which sounds ridiculous at twenty but since I started finding grey hairsâ&#x20AC;Ś it was like facing my own mortality. No, that sounds ridiculous. Okay, I know. But, it was always my running joke that I would go grey early because you did. I've been making that joke since I was about fourteen. But I hadn't actually thought about the reality of it happening. And I'm trying to find a way to be okay with it. So do you have any advice? Mother to daughter? I'd say do whatever you want to do. It's your hair. But I wouldn't rush out to start covering greys immediately. I wish I'd let that happen and not gotten myself into this situation where I feel I have to dye it every two weeks. It's so stressful. And expensive. And time consuming, I don't have the time to sit in the hairdressers for four hours. I have things going on. And if you use home dye, the bathroom ends up looking like the set of Psycho and the hairdresser tells you off next time you goâ&#x20AC;Ś Just, do whatever you want. But don't feel like you have to cover it. And don't let it stop you living your life just because I'm a crazy person.

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We talk to Barbara Francis, 72 year old ex-teacher and vintage shop manager about personal style and the cyclical nature of fashion.

Barbara: So where did you want to start? Ellie: Well, I guess I wanted to ask you about how style evolves. I really like the idea that with age, comes more understanding of yourself and your style. Like you become more yourself with age. That is a nice thought. And, with me anyway, style does change with age. It's all about modification. But I always did have an eye for what was right for me and that coincided somehow with what was available to me, you know? And I can remember having this beautiful straight sixties dress. It was red wool and it looked-- it was the most simple dress imaginable, no accoutrements, it was just a beautiful fit. No waist, just straight. And it just looked so effective. Now, today, I wouldn't wear that without some accessories. Then, I had nothing. No jewellery, just nothing. Very little make-up. Just this dress and red shoes to match. It was very effective then, but I wouldn't do that now. So the modification doesn't necessarily mean less than, it can be more than. Yeah. I think what annoys me is the idea that you have to change because of age. Whereas, in real life, it's just more of a natural process. Yes, I think that's true. I think it is. Because with experience and with life lived, you actually... you evolve, it's as simple as that. You evolve. And you become a different person anyway, we become different people at different stages in our life. I mean, I'm not that same person in terms of style â&#x20AC;&#x201C; because really, we're talking about style â&#x20AC;&#x201C; as I was... That's the other thing, you

become a different person with the particular role you play, in terms of fashion-- Oh, do you have to take notes?

No, I've never read that one. It's actually one of the few Shakespeare plays we never studied.

Oh, no. I've got a dictaphone. I just thought it could be more of a conversation this way.

Oh, it's wonderful. “Fashion is fashion, change is change...” That could even be your title?

Yes, you're right. I'm so sorry.

Yeah, I'll look it up. Thank you.

It's okay, go on.

But, about fashion changing. It changes because that's the nature of fashion, it has to change.

Now, what it is as well, it depends on what you do. When I was teaching, I think I was very lucky in having a department department which – this sounds very facile and probably superficial in some ways – but the girls in my department – I ran a department of nineteen people and there were only two guys – but the girls in the department were very aware of dress sense and what suited the role. But I had two ladies who were much older who would always wear designer clothes. They were very well off and I don't know how they managed it, I think they had richer husbands. They always wore designers clothes and they always looked – to me, anyway – really, not meaning to be unkind – too much for the job that they were doing. Because they were very ostentatious in their dress. But for the most part, all the girls in the department dressed very smartly, very stylishly, but they underdressed in the day, as opposed to what they'd wear at night. If you saw them in the evening, if you were to bump into them, they'd look completely different in the way they dressed. One girl for example was a total goth, you know, she wore the more outrageous things, that I'd think were outrageous, but she was the most demure person in the day, in terms of dress sense. She had a very demure style. Very slim skirts and very stylish blouses. Very simple, always black and white, always with a waistcoat. So with a nod to gothic but modifying it for her job? Yes, that's right. It's about different roles and different places, different times. I find I do that depending on which branch of the shop I'm working in, a little bit anyway. Like, if I'm in Manchester I'll wear band t-shirts and just tuck them into skirts and things... I guess to fit in more with the kind of clothes we sell. Whereas if I'm here, it's all capes and tweed and all of vintage pieces I own. I don't really notice I'm doing it even. Do you prefer Manchester? I don't know really. It's different, you just expect a different kind of day. I definitely feel more of a connection to the clothes here, I'm probably more passionate about the clothes here. Yes, we do have some lovely styles here at the moment. Speaking of the evolution of fashion, you must write in Much Ado. You know, the comments Shakespeare makes in Much Ado about fashion?

As much as we like to think of fashion as art, it's also a business. It has to keep changing so people will keep buying things. But at the same time, it also comes full circle. So there are different aspects to fashion. That's the thing I find really interesting about vintage. Sometimes you can find a piece that's sixty years old but it feels completely right for now. Well, there's a beautiful coat I found yesterday when I was looking through all the vintage that had come in. It was crumpled and didn't look nice but then when I really looked at it, the fabric – it's a shot and I don't know whether it's a shot silk or shot linen, which is beautiful fabric... So, Heather steamed it and I'll show it to you when we go downstairs, It's a perfect early 60s coat. And quite small. And it's just recognising it... you know, Joe will say “oh, that's 70s”. Not necessarily! It might have a pointed collar but when you look close, it could be late 60s. You know, you have to look closely at fashion to appreciate what it is. You know, when I looked at that suit there [pointing to mannequin] I knew immediately it was a 60s dress. And I'm not even sure how I knew because in actual fact, in the 60s, it was more slimline, except that they did actually have a little flare sometimes. I think it's strange that everyone has this vision of what the 60s looked like. And it's almost as if people think that come new years eve in '59, it hit midnight and everyone took off their swing dresses and put on tiny shift minis immediately. But obviously it's much more gradual. Yeah... However, I did wear those dresses in the late 50s, the kind we have downstairs. I have photographs of them. And I loved them, with the underskirts... I'm glad they've come around again. The only difference it, with the 50s-inspired replica dresses that we're now selling in the shop, they're all quite low, or backless or... they show a lot of upper body. Now, in the 50s, that didn't happen. They would still have the same full circle skirt but they would be quite high neck, buttoned up, maybe with a little peter pan collar. No sleeves, but other than that, they did cover up, quite conservative. They were the most popular ones. Now, with Marilyn Monroe, obviously she wore the... [mimes cleavage] but they were one offs, you know. If you think about the 50s, just coming out of

the 40s and there was still a little bit of a cover-up thing going on... it was only later that people became more free in terms of showing skin.... well, what do you think? Yeah, that's sort of the image I have of it too. Like that black dress with red floral print and three quarter length sleeves-Beautiful! Yeah, that is the exact mental image I have of the 50s. Very Donna Reid. But I guess the halterneck pin-up dresses are popular because they're a little bit more alternative. Most of the people who buy them are looking more to Bette Page or... Betty Boop, even, than Donna Reid. Yes... I agree. I look around here and... well, actually, I look around and think “there's no hat on that stand, or on that mannequin, or there” It's not like when you're here. Haha, I think I probably spend more time trying them on. I did want to ask a little bit more about your own personal style. ...My style? Yes, you always look so put together. And... like yourself, if that makes sense. ...I don't think I even have a style, do I? Well, I think it's mostly unconscious. If you're thinking about it too hard then it doesn't work. Oh, I never think about it. I think I'm sort of lucky in that, I've always been able to have things – I don't have a lot of clothes – but I have things that I think “well, that can go with that and that's fine”. Things that work together in lots of different ways. I don't deliberate too much on what I wear... I have a friend who will take ages deciding what to wear and changing her mind constantly. I could never do that. It's just... it's what you are, really. I think, style is you. It's not something... I don't know actually. Is it something you acquire or is it just innately there? You know why I ask, I've noticed with Dylan, he seems to have the ability to be able to just-- whatever he puts on, it looks good like that. And he mixes things in the most peculiar way. The other day he had a brown polo neck sparkly jumper on and I thought that was really effective. But it wouldn't look good on anyone. I think it depends on you as a person. Your style reflects.... you, in a way, it's reflection of who you are. It's almost this intangible thing... That's why I think it's so interesting. It's so strange when people talk about style icons-Most of the time I look at them and I can't fathom why. And also, the idea that you're aspiring to be like your 'style icon' when really, I think style should be more personal than that.

Yes. And it's not about doing purposefully. You are yourself and you don't actually... I'd never dream of emulating anyone. I'm not interested in doing that. But what I was going to say was, Christi, my other grandson who sometimes works in the shop, he always looks like he hasn't thought about his clothes at all. Just any shirt and jeans, no style at all. He's just not interested in clothes, really. He has other interests, other things going on. Yes, you're right. Although I wish he'd think more about what he wants to do with his life... but that's another matter. But it's strange that he and his brother are so different in that respect. I mean, Dyl... I don't want to go off on a tangent, but I'll just tell you this. Of all my grandchildren, he's very different. They're all very academic whereas Dyl, he's very intelligent and he has great general knowledge, but it doesn't come through on paper as well as with the others. He's got creative intelligence. And that's another thing really, different personalities and different types of intelligences which project themselves in different ways. That's what produces different types of fashion. If you think of some of the great fashionistas over the years – well, fashionista is the wrong word, I hate that word – but designers, you know. Their ability to articulate their creativity is second to none but talk to them on a different level, about a different subject – they might be incredibly dull. But anyway, we could go on about that for ages and I'm rambling now. What about your personal style then? Oh, well... I guess I really started to think more about clothes when I left school and suddenly I was allowed to decide what I wore to college each day. I almost think of it as an extension of the kind of thing I do when I'm designing... thinking about form and colour and putting together different elements in a way that looks good or feels right to me. I like that first thing in the morning I'm doing something creative that I barely think about and then it sets me on the right track for the rest of the day. Well, I think you look lovely today. Very stylish, very fashionable. Oh, thank you! I think I'm dressing more and more like my boyfriend these days, we seem to emulate each other a lot, weirdly. Well, that happens. That's another example of roles and modification. And it's good. But makes sure you always dress for yourself. Never dress for a man.

With experience and with life lived you evolve... you become a different person.

All photographs Ellie Thomas Sohoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vintage shop, Liverpool.

“Young ladies, you’re going to be old ladies one day. Don’t sweat it.” - Jean, Idiosyncratic Fashionistas

THE OUTSIDER

It is true that older women are under-represented in mainstream fashion but street style is the great leveller. Even if the fashion industry is only interested in women on one side of thirty, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nothing stopping those on the other side looking incredible while shopping for groceries.

STREET

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THE OUTSIDER

All photographs Ari Seth Cohen, of advancedstyle.blogspot.com

PHOTOGRAPHY ARI SETH COHEN

THE OUTSIDER