How much do you spend on clothes for yourself and your family per year?

Witless

TBH, I suspect that those who 'power dress' actually lack confidence and feel the need to project an image that camouflages their inadequacy.

If you're confident you don't give a toss what people think: you know full well the only opinion that counts is your own!

[Deleted User]

I've reached my statutory three score years and ten so I'm way past 'mid life' I left that in my 50s, thankfully I add and from now on in any years I get are a big bonus. I don't need war clothes to make me feel my worth, I know myself, I know my strengths and limitations and I dress to please me! I don't actually care what the rest of the world thinks about how I look and dress I have enough confidence to just be ME and folk can take me or leave me as they want it isn't the least bit important. What is important is how I treat other people and how I conduct myself in all areas of life, that's what I'm happy to be judged on because its honest and it's real. I earned a place in our last home and I'm earning myself a place here the same way by being helpful and useful not by being a fashionista!

GreyQueen

I suppose I could be quite striking if I could be arrised. Not because I am (or ever was) pretty/ beautiful but because I'm the best part of six feet tall in my socks and have studied costume and fashion at degree level, so know my stuff and can design, pattern-cut and sew . Striking as in-yer-face-look-at-me.

But I really do not give a monkey's for fashion and aim for the minimum-acceptable-standard for whatever role I find myself in. To dress appropriately for the situation allows me to blend into the background, where I can get on with musing, striking up random conversations with strangers and just watching the world go by.

Life is very interesting when you don't aspire to the spotlight. I also kinda think that we aging women ought to gracefully cede the centre stage to the girls and young women, and let them do their experimentation and ornamentation.

There's a season for everything and I am in my Gardening Years. And a pair of mismatched pyjamas, but that's a whole 'nother thread.;)

monnagran

I am so thankful to be me. My life is so full and entertaining that there isn't a minute to fret about whether I am suitably colour co-ordinated, whether my heels are the right height, if my skin measures up to someone else's idea of exquisiteness (it doesn't. It looks like a ploughed field.) or if I smell delicious.
Fortunately my myriad friends don't seem to mind either. No one has run away screaming as I approach. Children don't burst into tears. In fact I even get the odd compliment, though that may be surprise that I can pull out all the stops occasionally and if the event calls for it.

If ever I got to the stage of taking myself too seriously, I hope and expect one of my friends to give me a quick dose of reality.
I want to live NOW. Not prepare to be a beautiful corpse.

If only we saw souls instead of bodies, how different would be our idea of beauty.

[Deleted User]

Oh Monna, that's true and you're so completely right xxx.

maryb

Dressing appropriately for the situation is exactly right. And now I'm retired my situation is usually humdrum (and I thank Heaven every day for it!) I like to have suitable outfits for anything out of the everyday routine and then I can forget about how I look and not worry about it. I'm not innocent of the fault of self absorption but it hasn't often taken the form of obsessing about my clothes

VfM4meplse

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I don't do make up, I don't colour my hair, I don't do potions and lotions I wash with soap and that's that. I look respectable and like the grandmother that I am, I'm always neat, clean and not at all noticeable thank goodness!!!

I could contemplate not colouring my hair - its such a faff! - but make-up is a must for me: I've been fascinated by it since I was a child and to me its as much as a part of my daily routine as showering every morning. As I grey, my lipstick colour is going to get bolder, bring on the fuschia! No way am I gonna fade into the background

I can't see my clothes / style changing unless my weight fluctuates dramatically. What I've got is quality, I just need to get round to using it all.

LameWolf

My DH likes me to continue colouring my hair back to it's original red, so I do, cos I love him.

Anything else is purely for comfort. Hey... I'm a dog-sitter for goodness sake, why do I need to worry? My house guests don't care if I haven't been able to brush my hair as I can't reach up that high first thing in the morning, or that my comfortable clothes would be most at home on a 60's hippy commune.

I spend pennies on clothes, usually from the chazzer, and only to replace something that's worn out that I will actually miss.

Heels?? I don't even wear shoes if I can get away with it!

Gods, I couldn't possibly cope with worrying if I was colour co-ordinated, or if I was too beige and needed a statement necklace (whatever the heck that is).

Oh, and I saw a brilliant wooden plaque in town the other day:
"No outfit is complete without dog hair".

Smurphington

I've never been one for high heels, I think I braved them a few times for weddings but I prefer the comfort of flats or for day to day wear converse style trainers

moneyistooshorttomention

The thing though is for everyone to realise it's "Each to their own" and "You do you - and I'll do me" and not criticise anyone with the other viewpoint.:)