> CD #29: Aging out of fashion?
A few weeks ago, the seventh (and final) season of Younger dropped, and I was pretty stoked. I had binged the first six seasons less than a year ago and thought it was a perfect lockdown watch. The show, about a 40-year-old suburban mom who pretends to be 26 in order to get a job in publishing, is total brain candy. Nothing is particularly believable (Designer outfits! Only one literary agent in all of New York! A book gets published in six weeks!), but there is enough truth at its core to keep me hooked.
After all, I am a middle-aged woman working at a digital marketing agency where I’m often the oldest person in the (virtual) room. I’m also trying to launch a second career as a middle-aged author in a culture that is largely obsessed with youth. It’s a real hustle, trying to stay current while remaining true to yourself.
But I digress. Back to Younger. I began watching the first episode of the new season and realized that I had no clue what was going on, so I rewatched the last episode of season six to catch up. To my dismay, I still couldn’t follow. I mean, I knew who all the characters were, but I could not remember at all how they’d gotten to that point in the story. It became clear that I’d have to start the whole series over again, which is alarming because it hasn’t even been a year and I’ve forgotten entire storylines and some pretty major plot twists. It’s like I’m watching the show for the first time, really, and that is unsettling. Exactly how much have I aged this past year??
At the same time, I’ve been browsing the spring/summer collections from some of my favourite fashion brands and it looks like this could be the year I age out of fashion. All the vests, bodysuits and high-waisted pants feel like a throwback to how I dressed in my 20s, and it just doesn’t look right to me anymore.
A year spent away from the office definitely has not helped. Now that I don’t have a constant infusion of sartorial inspiration from young, fashionable co-workers, I can feel my suburban mom tendencies rising. “Why work so hard to keep up?” I ask myself. “What are you trying to prove, even?”
Another thing I ask: “Isn’t it time you started wearing statement jewelry?”
Things are looking pretty bleak, I tell ya.
But this Mary Ruefle piece, while harrowing at times, gives me hope.
And my guess is that, if I can maintain a sense of humour about aging and approach it with openness and curiosity, I’ll come out relatively unscathed on the other side—older, yes, but also no longer exhausted from trying to stay/look/act young.
Besides, as I’ve said before, Chinese granny is my ultimate style goal. And only then will I let sweater vests back into my life.
:) Teresa
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