[Editorial Note: This post was originally published by Ronni Bennett five years ago and re-posted in response to an inquiry from a fashion designer interested in specializing in fashion for elder women. ChangingAging is cross-posting it as part of our series Design on Aging: Why Everything Sucks.]
One big change in women’s clothing since 2008, is the disappearance of sleeves and I directly blame First Lady Michelle Obama. As soon as the media swooned over her toned, upper arms, clothing designers ditched sleeves.
So much so, I’m surprised they have left sleeves on winter coats.
Watch any television news program, especially on basic cable, and every one of the women anchors, pundits and reporters – you know, the ones who all have matching hairstyles – also show up sleeveless in every appearance. Summer or winter. Day or night.
There aren’t many elder women who want to expose upper arms that tend to sag by age 50 or 60 but designers don’t care about us and we have no choice. There are no other clothes.
‘Tis the season now for bargains in summer clothes – a good time to buy for next year – but as I peruse the catalogues that pour in, I see more transparent blouses and even pants than much of anything that actually covers a human body.
The euphemism for transparent, by the way, is “gauze.” Perhaps there are so many left over because even younger women don’t want to be seen in public looking naked.
With few exceptions, even with such retailers as Coldwater Creek that supposedly cater to heftier bodies, there are fewer elastic waists on pants than in the past.
When I wrote this post in 2008, I said: “In my case, that means when a pair fits my hips, the waist can’t be closed since mine – and that of many other elder women – long ago expanded to equal the size of my hips.”
Now that I’ve lost a good deal of weight, the problem is reversed. Although my waist will never be as svelte as when I was 25, it’s small enough that if the waistband fits comfortably, there is enough extra fabric through the hips for another pair of pants.
I think, perhaps, there needs to be another sizing mechanism to go with petite, misses and tall that we have for length. Something that measures hip-to-waist ratio.
In blouses and tops, they are enamored of so-called boat necks that lie about two inches below the back of one’s neck. There aren’t many women who don’t get a bit beefy in that area as we get older and it’s not something I want to show off.
And aside from turtlenecks, a large number of sweater styles meant for cold weather are designed with boat and v-necks. Do all designers live in warm climates and not realize we want something cozy around our necks?
Lately, I’ve been buying winter sweaters in the men’s department. The necks are located in the same place as human necks, they hang much more nicely than women’s sweaters and aren’t made with thin, clingy knits.
It is nearly impossible to find a suit that fits an older body. Designers just add fabric for larger sizes without considering differing proportions so that if a jacket fits at the shoulders, it is unlikely to button at the waist. A larger size results in shoulder seams halfway down one’s upper arms while the matching pants or skirt are then baggy.
Lack of thought in design applies to shirts too. Even with the recent weight loss, I like what are called “big shirts” to wear with pants, but those, too, are missing proportion in petite sizes (I’m just under 5’ 2”).
They are so long, I look like an eight-year-old wearing daddy’s shirt. The problem is easy to see (and should be to correct): clothes are originally proportioned for 5’ 8” and above models, and in sizing down for petites, short legs and short waists are ignored.
Another thing: why do the few dresses designed without waists all look like muu-muus of the 1950s – totally shapeless? There are numerous ways to cut and sew fabrics to give some style to dresses without waists, but no attempt is made to do this.
And don’t go telling me to shop in big-size stores or whatever the polite phrase is for fat-girl shops. Those clothes, too, are designed for younger bodies that although they are larger than clothes for skinny girls, are created for young, not old, proportions.
Our bodies begin to thicken about the time we start menopause (our forties for most of us) and although there were more than 52 million women in the U.S. 45 and older in the 2000 census (37 percent of the female population), and millions more now, we are the forgotten women in the rag trade.
One of the ways old people are maligned are with accusations that we lack a sense of style. Don’t blame us. It’s the fashion industry which has not given one second’s thought to how our body shape differs from that of a 17-year-old.
This post was originally published at TimeGoesBy.net
I enjoyed your article on fashion and aging. It was the first of its kind I read. Thank you.
I am an AGNG 200 Student at the Erickson School of Aging. I agree that both the fashion industry and Fashion designers do not consider the size/ body type of elderly women.I think that it awesome that elderly woman do care about what they are wearing and want to look good. In class we spoke about how when someone starts to age they start to careless about how they look but I think this post goes against that thought.
http://www.upworthy.com/what-happens-if-you-say-no-to-how-fashion-orders-you-to-be-jl2-6c
Once again I find myself repeating words that I heard from my mother (and didn’t understand at the time) “I don’t have a waist —my body just goes straight down. Some 15 years later, I finally “get” it. It was reassuring to find that “at least I am not alone in this dilemma” and I continue to pray for more elastic wait pants.
my mother, a very stylish lady all her life, started complaining about the lack of fashionable clothes to fir her after she turned 60. after a brief moment of confusion (I screamed, really! those were ugly pieces, almost didn’t recognize my mom!) she decided to have tailor-made gorgeous clothes. it’s a huge trouble, kind of expensive, but at lease she’s got back her old stylish self. oh, yeah, and she added sleeves to almost all store-bought blouses :))
Had to laugh out loud. Last weekend I attended a semi-formal wedding and put on a dress for the first time in years. I found a gorgeous purple crepe number at Goodwill ($4.50 plus a spool of thread for shortening). Because all my other under-tops are sports bras with T-backs whose straps showed at the shoulders and back, I pulled out the strapless number I wore at my daughter’s wedding four years ago. Packed it without trying it on again.
The stiff foam cups stayed high and perky throughout the afternoon and evening, but the bodyparts they were supposed to support slipped way down into the bodice below the cups. Fortunately, the dress was fairly loose on top, so I don’t think it was all that noticeable. But it was incredibly uncomfortable on the dance floor as I boogied the night way with the young folks.
Next time, if there is a next time, I’ll take my cue from the Hollywood designers who do up the actresses for the Oscars: Duct tape, and plenty of it!