Over 50 and beautiful
Who says over 50 is the end?
The Wall Street Journal recently looked at the new rules for women in “middle age”. These women describe what happens at 50 and how they feel left on the shelf and are beginning to understand that they have to get out there and try new things and not disappear.
What I want to tell them is just you wait until 60. The baby boomer generation drops off the radar for marketing, branding, and productive opportunities. It is like anything over 60 is the end of life as we know it.
Nowhere is that more apparent than in the fashion industry where models are 19 years old and every layout shows lithe bodies in flowing $2000+ outfits. But guess what?
Coco Chanel made all women of all ages beautiful
“Dress shabbily and they remember the dress. Dress impeccably and they remember the woman”. Coco Chanel
How to make worn jeans elegant.
“Chanel [states} that 80% of their fashion is sold to people over the age of 50. Most people don’t have the accumulated wealth to pay $2,000 for a jacket.”
Havas, a leading global marketing company, published a powerful Meaningful Brands study and found massive growth in the online presence of over 55 consumers, with 68% of them also buying something online every month.
“Aside from healthcare, luxury is the product segment where Havas has seen more brands actively engaging with older consumers. And for good reason, since Euromonitor reported that 70% of all available U.S. income is owned by those over 55, and, globally, people over 60 will account for $15 trillion in spending power by 2020.”
We matter, and we are a force to be reckoned with, so please do not dismiss us.
A recent photo. She seems to get more beautiful with age.
She developed and runs a successful lifestyle digital magazine.
However, when I look at Gwyneth Paltrow on her Goop site it seems that everything she models and markets looks great on her. I want the $350 bathing suit and the $875 “weekend” pants but remember this is me now not me back then. Remember also that she is 46. Okay, she still is amazing looking and I still routinely watch her in “Emma” and adore how beautiful she was then in her 20s.
At this year’s MET Gala
Gwyneth is elegance personified
But even so, I watched a video of her getting ready for this year’s Met party and how many of “her people” it took to get her to look so ravishingly beautiful. Lucy did a little homework on this and found that they used over $1000 worth of beauty products and that the process of getting Gwyneth ready for the Met evening began at 1:00 in the afternoon. This kind of time and money is a reality check on what it takes to “look younger than springtime”.
The message for us is that we can still be interesting and engaging and fashionable but let’s be proud of us. Stop with the angst about laugh lines and sagging arms. Get up and get out there. We are so much more interesting now than we were in our twenties. And remember what we went through in the 60s to secure today’s young women the privilege of choice and increasing equality. That journey is definitely another story to be explored.
Check out this article:
Ciao
Lucy and Claudia