Elegance is not exclusive to women over 60 (femmes d’une certaine age) but – damn! – they do do it so well. Today, Voxfrock editor Janice Breen Burns and The Loupe’s Monty Coles, crash a fitting and hair and makeup rehearsal ahead of the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival’s mature fashion show to investigate the mechanics of fashion that appeals to this neglected market.
Photographer: Monty Coles, www.theloupe.org
Stylist: Franco Schifilliti, 0412371906
Models: Linda Drake, Clare McArdle, University of The Third Age, Melbourne.
Hair: Chelsea De Main, 0488998802
Makeup: Cammi Tu Makeup Artistry, 0410114457
Clothes: Egret, 1054 High Street, Armadale, 9509 1000
Shoes: Dolce Firme, 1060 High Street, Armadale, 9509 0503
Most women have drifted from season-based fashion by their 50th year. By 55 and beyond, the most fashionable femmes d’une certaine age are deftly composing ensembles from a trinity of classic codes: elegant, artful and chic.
Some can scan a boutique from the doorway and dismiss it – colours, textures, quality of fabric, finesse of finish, superfluity of trimmings – as harvestable, or not, for their unique brand of style. They’ll add a twist sometimes, a pop of Nowness to their perennial blacks, charcoals, navies and creams, but basically, they’ll stick to classics’ rules and proven formulae: this is flattering, that’s not, luxe is good, gaudy not, and so on.
It’s a calmer, less stressful way to dress, away from the risky mutton-as-lamb racks of fashion’s designers du jour to whom “sexy”, for this market, can be a nerve-wracking imperitive. “As you get older, elegance comes with that idea that you are more grounded and confident than you’ve ever been,” says Clare McCardle, 67. “When you’re younger, you’re still grappling with all those questions: how should I be? What is “sexy” supposed to mean? When you’re older, fashion becomes about intuiting, not flaunting.”
Clare is one of a battalion of amateur models, aged 55-plus (combined age more than 2000 years) from Melbourne’s University of The Third Age (U3A), recruited to walk in Don’t Stop Me Now, a mature fashion catwalk. It’s the brainchild of U3A student and former model Shirley Mason, a remarkable woman who fired up a vast number of unpaid volunteers to mount the show, even securing the services of veteren stylist Franco Schifilliti. The show is plugged into the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival‘s cultural programme and doubles as a celebration the university’s 30th anniversary. Bad news for those champing for a ticket tho; it sold out in a flash.
“When you’re older, fashion becomes about intuiting, not flaunting…” Clare McArdle.
Today, we’re with Clare and two other soon-to-be-models at Egret, a buzzy, modern boutique halfway up High Street in the middle-to-monied Melbourne suburb of Armadale. Egret is nestled among what owner Joyce Cosgrave calls “all the fresh and forward” fashion brands: Scanlan & Theodore, Josh Goot, Ginger & Smart, Camilla & Marc, dozens of designer others, and a swathe of bridal stores.
Volunteer amateur model Linda Drake will walk in Sunday’s sold out Don’t Stop Me Now Show, part of the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival cultural programme
The street is famous for its better quality bulls-eye fashion pitched at every conceivable market from babies and kids to cashed up teens and brides-to-be, yummy mummies, lunching ladies and, notably, Joyce’s niche: 50-plus women in search of well priced crisper-than-your-average casuals and non-corporate workwear. “We’ve got fashion,” she says in her sing-song Irish accent, then chuckles; “But it won’t frighten the cows!”
No shocks, no dramas; that’s the (lower) key to this mature market’s heart; looks that are more luxe than faddish, an emphasis on natural yarns, a fairly limited palette and accessible prices. Here, black is always the new black, though charcoal has recently come a close second and the return of navy to many collections has delighted femmes deft at mixing it into their whites and creams and chic nut-browns.
“We’ve got fashion…but it won’t frighten the cows!” Joyce Cosgrave (with a chuckle)
Flattering, well fitted silhouettes are vital, cut precisely to connect (but softly) with shoulders, waists, and in trousers, ankles. Women want tops, says Joyce, that drop to cover their bum, they want frocks not sacks, sleeves please, and well weighted drops and drapes of fabric that feel luxurious, last longer than your average fadfrock, and are reasonably costed within an average self-funded retiree budget.
Shirley Mason believes it takes a visionary fashion brand to incorporate all that and appeal to the 55-plus market but, rewards await those who give it a shot. “A lot of members (of U3A) tell me they feel invisible when they go shopping,” she says. “But among seniors, there’s a lot of money that could be spent.”
The problem, she believes, is the nature of fashion itself. “I do think most fashion designers are fixed on the young and the thin,” she sniffs, “And don’t always appreciate the huge market of retired people who want to spend money on themselves.” More flattering cruise and travelling clothes would be particularly welcome.
Janice Breen Burns, jbb@voxfrock.com.au
