Women's middle aged appearance, through the decades

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Such an interesting conversation. Another aspect might be that 'aerobics' and working out wasn't really a thing for women until the 1980's. I remember how shocked people were when people like Jane Fonda showed up on TV in leotards! Again, I think it was the idea that women who weren't young weren't expected to be wearing revealing clothing like a leotard -- and in public! It was kind of scandalous! That's why they had things like Jazzercise and that other gym that was just for ladies. I grew up in the 1970's mostly and I remember all the moms seemed to have a pooch and to wear stretch pants. I don't remember either of my parents owning a pair of jeans -- but they were really conservative. Weird thing is that now that my mom has alzheimer's she seems to have forgotten how conservative she is 'supposed' to dress and last time I saw her, she had her eighty year old self wearing black jeans. And she looked good. And comfortable.

Televised exercise programs started decades before. Jack LaLanne was a household fixture on his show from 1951. And he wore those little workout suits. LOL
Jazzercise was huge in the late 70s with women, but you're right, working out wasn't the cultural hit until aerobics was televised. Though aerobics had been around for years before with women taking part at home or in gyms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hairstyles for sure.
But also the idea of any sort of sex appeal was reserved for young, single women in their late teens and very early 20s.
In our mothers’ time, you got married at age 20-24 —and once you were a married woman, your manner of dressing and styling needed to fit in with your new role, which usually included role of mother by age 30. And social media was called TV. Who were the “mothers” on TV at that time? June Cleaver, Donna Reed, Carol Brady,…all women who had short hair set in rollers and wore dresses and “sensible heels” with a simple strand of pearls to the market for grocery shopping.
The era of late-80s nighttime soaps like Dynasty, Falcon Crest, Dallas ushered in a new brand of married woman who could be a mother AND have a spicy side that wasn’t quite so matronly. Even the mid-80s sitcoms brought mothers with a less matronly look and more style/flair like Cosby Show’s Claire Huxtable, Growing Pain’s Maggie Seaver, and even through the portrayal of hippie-turned-mom Family Ties’ Elyse Keaton that accompanied mothers being portrayed as career women.
In this way, I think one can argue that media was definitely driving culture rather than reflecting it.

So as a collective we all agree that short hair is elderly? Yes!

No. It depends on the cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a 1992 millennial with Silent Generation parents who in turn were raised by parents who came of age during the Great Depression. They had some very aging ideas about appropriate fashion:

1. You must wear sheer pantyhose, no bare legs, even if it's super hot outside.

2. Clothing cannot cling to the body. Nobody can know you have a butt. Awkward darts on shirts, though, meant it was a good quality shirt.

3. They loved synthetic fabrics because they grew up having to iron everything. You cannot wear wrinkly clothing, this is a sin as bad as having a crooked part in your hair. (This is also why they loved canned vegetables and frozen dinners, it was seen as a wonderful time-saving invention.)

4. Jeans are only for children and adults who work in the trades.

5. Hair styles were a big thing, as others have pointed out. You only wash your hair once a week, and ideally you get it done at the beauty salon with a wash and set. Overnight curlers were a total thing, with the perm being a big time saver.

If you just washed your hair and let it air dry? Slattern.

Also, short hair after a certain age (30) was de rigeur because long hair was viewed as aging. Bear in mind that lot of actresses had very short hair (Audrey Hepburn) so it was chic, just as we'll all be wearing beachy waves in our hair at the nursing home some day.

What did my parents consider sad, old people clothing? those 1940s victory skirt suits. https://vintagedancer.com/1940s/1940s-victory-suit/

My mother often lamented that nobody wore hats and gloves anymore, and subsequently looked super sloppy. I guess we've all come full circle because I can't believe LL Bean sells jogger-style pajama pants that you can wear outside the house.

I'm 45 and recently went to a meeting with a European head of state in Athleta Brooklyn "ankle" pants, AND the protocol lady (whom I'd met before and was friendly with) asked where I got them because she liked them so much. Frankly, this is what I consider civilized--accepting people as long as they are in clean, presentable, affordable clothing without pretense. I did have heels on. Heels are what we need to totally get rid of next!

You cannot compare American political fashion and European politician fashion. In the photos where you see the Euro politician standing next to the Americans, they look so stylish and effortlessly polished in something like a fashionable jean, leather moto jacket, and casual sneaker--while the Americans are standing there in their Ann Taylor sheath dress, dowdy one inch heels, and their "It's an Important Meeting and I Must Look Like I Mean Business" Emotional Support Blazer. If you insist on dressing like a community banker from the midwest, at least take off your lanyards, people.

Athleta pants PP here.
Interesting, my experience is the opposite, the Europeans are much more conservative.

You made me laugh with “emotional support blazer” though.

[Anonymous]

‘Younger” Gen X here. I’m 45.

My cohort of people were part of the DGAF generation. Non-conformist was the thing. That mental attitude has stuck over the years. Yes, I’m presentable at work and know the social norms but. No, I’m not chopping off my wild hair for a polished bob, I’m not ditching my Pumas for loafers, and I don’t care if I’m the oldest one at the 9:30 club enjoying live music.

[Anonymous]

Now wondering if the blazer I have on today is an emotional support blazer.

I have a very stark memory of being home on maternity leave in the early aughts and seeing a TV add (this was before DVRs so I had to watch the ads) for Boflex or something with this ripped woman in a tiny string bikini, and at the end of the ad she said "And I'm a grandmother!" And with my post-partum body, I thought to myself --- this is a sign of the end-of-days.

Seriously, our grandparents just did not have this pressure to look great after menopause. They were expected to look good, meaning appropriately put together (clean, nice jewelry, actual shoes, probably a dress that is ironed, etc.) but no one expected them to look bang-able, unless they were Sophia Loren. On the one hand, I'm glad no one expects me to wear heels and pantyhose. On the other hand, I'm really sick of caring about my meno-pot and my crows feet.

[Anonymous]

Did they really look “older” or are they just in styles of clothing and hair that are indicative, to us, of “old people?” People don’t tend to change much from what they wore when they were younger, so the clothing styles of, say, the 1940s and 50s, were seen on older women through the 1970s+ even as the “current fashion” changed considerably.

But if you took someone like my grandmother who was born in the 1920s and held on to that 1940s and 1950s fashion all her life, and transported, say, 70 year old her into the present day and dressed her like 70 year olds now - in jeans or pants, sneakers, and a zip-up sweatshirt jacket - and hair down and natural and not the “wash and set curls” - what would she look like? I think there would still be some different signs of age, namely her teeth weren’t that great as dental care was an issue for a lot of people of her generation when they were growing up. But overall I think we think people “look older” because they are dressed in the fashion of the time.

Gen Z says that about Millennials too, when they see our yearbook pics it’s “oh they look so old.” Because a lot of Millennials still, more or less, wear their hair and clothes kind of like they did in HS and now your average 17 year old associates those looks with their late 30s neighbors/teachers/relatives/etc. But to us, we look at our old yearbook pictures and just see teens.

[Anonymous]

Televised aerobics was hilarious and awesome. Anyone remember the Twenty-Minute workout? I used to do that with my mom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Televised aerobics was hilarious and awesome. Anyone remember the Twenty-Minute workout? I used to do that with my mom.

I just did a 20 minute aerobic workout today!

[Anonymous]

I don't know y'all. My mom turned 40 in 1989 and I always remember her (and the photos back this up) as being a stylish hottie. Sort of mob-wife / Alexis Colby vibe. And speaking of... Joan Collins was late-40s to mid-50s when Dynasty aired in the 80s. She slayed and looked decades younger than the Golden Girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a 1992 millennial with Silent Generation parents who in turn were raised by parents who came of age during the Great Depression. They had some very aging ideas about appropriate fashion:

1. You must wear sheer pantyhose, no bare legs, even if it's super hot outside.

2. Clothing cannot cling to the body. Nobody can know you have a butt. Awkward darts on shirts, though, meant it was a good quality shirt.

3. They loved synthetic fabrics because they grew up having to iron everything. You cannot wear wrinkly clothing, this is a sin as bad as having a crooked part in your hair. (This is also why they loved canned vegetables and frozen dinners, it was seen as a wonderful time-saving invention.)

4. Jeans are only for children and adults who work in the trades.

5. Hair styles were a big thing, as others have pointed out. You only wash your hair once a week, and ideally you get it done at the beauty salon with a wash and set. Overnight curlers were a total thing, with the perm being a big time saver.

If you just washed your hair and let it air dry? Slattern.

Also, short hair after a certain age (30) was de rigeur because long hair was viewed as aging. Bear in mind that lot of actresses had very short hair (Audrey Hepburn) so it was chic, just as we'll all be wearing beachy waves in our hair at the nursing home some day.

What did my parents consider sad, old people clothing? those 1940s victory skirt suits. https://vintagedancer.com/1940s/1940s-victory-suit/

My mother often lamented that nobody wore hats and gloves anymore, and subsequently looked super sloppy. I guess we've all come full circle because I can't believe LL Bean sells jogger-style pajama pants that you can wear outside the house.

I'm 45 and recently went to a meeting with a European head of state in Athleta Brooklyn "ankle" pants, AND the protocol lady (whom I'd met before and was friendly with) asked where I got them because she liked them so much. Frankly, this is what I consider civilized--accepting people as long as they are in clean, presentable, affordable clothing without pretense. I did have heels on. Heels are what we need to totally get rid of next!

You cannot compare American political fashion and European politician fashion. In the photos where you see the Euro politician standing next to the Americans, they look so stylish and effortlessly polished in something like a fashionable jean, leather moto jacket, and casual sneaker--while the Americans are standing there in their Ann Taylor sheath dress, dowdy one inch heels, and their "It's an Important Meeting and I Must Look Like I Mean Business" Emotional Support Blazer. If you insist on dressing like a community banker from the midwest, at least take off your lanyards, people.

Anathema. Off of my cold, dead neck.

[Anonymous]

Golden Girls Dorothy and Rose wore grandma clothes and hairstyles at age 55 because women at 55 a generation or two ago were likely retired grandmas! 55 yr olds today are much more likely to still be in the workforce, coloring grays and wearing a semi-cool blazer with the hopes they won’t be an ageism-fueled layoff choice.

[Anonymous]

Granted, I’m refracting it through the lens of being young, but old people back then seemed to have a dignity and bearing that most people just don’t have any more. Along with our slovenly clothing, we’ve lost a degree of dignity.

[Anonymous]

I mean my grandmother was a farmer in the south who didn't have access to sunscreen. It makes sense that she looked older at 50 than I do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Example: Alice from the Brady Bunch with long hair and contemporary makeup. Crazy.

https://www.instagram.com/eilamell/p/C0Jf-PQunw8/

OMG, this just totally blew my mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We all had kids a lot later too. There's something to be said for being 45 and a mom of toddlers vs 45 and a mom of college kids.

Not all of us.

I had my first at 21.