Age of love: a 40-year-old woman's reflections on life, relationships, and wardrobe

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

I'm 40 soon. Not in a couple of years, not in a year, but just about. Good age, you will like it. I turned 39. And at the same time I was hit. Cabinet door! Along the crown. I felt like I was going through a disaster. Disaster your wardrobe!

My husband is also 39. We have been together for 22 years. Those. the age of our love is 22. Time rushes by. Every year my husband grows prettier, every wrinkle, every gray hair, all our life experience makes him more irresistible. Every new T-shirt suits him, his jeans fit flawlessly. And this is understandable not only to me. But also to young, beautiful, modernly dressed women.

In the fall, I felt that I was wandering along the very edge of my 39 in my eternal flowered skirt and at once in all the tweets that I had accumulated over the years of irrepressible passion for bohemian chic. Desperately clinging to the nine with my hands, pencils, palette and bulky necklaces I bought from flea markets in Old Jaffa and from Venetian merchants. (Well, is this what they aim for life ?!) I cling, then. Behind all these layers of sweaters and skirts, I have not been seen for a long time. I don't want to change anything. Beneath me is a huge age gap 40 equator deep, pulling me in with a power of 40 horsepower, and falling into it is not 40 light years, as it might seem, but a few seconds. And whoever breaks down will disappear. Psychologists call this state a crisis.

October, November, December. Woolen oversized sweaters and bell-bottomed skirts, military boots and baggy jeans, mini skirts, micro shorts, dresses and stilettos: not that, not that, not that And then I thought: I live, damn it, in London … More precisely - not so. I thought: You! - You live in London. Open your eyes. This is the capital of fashion … And I'm telling you - the capital! Take to the streets, cafes, museums - and paint. Women. And - as it should. How to dress.

I believe that a crisis is the best thing that could happen to me. The sense of danger has benefited my notebook and my wardrobe. I've always believed in fashion. I started watching women dress in London. Those. I always watched, but then I tried to sketch women that I like. And I got so carried away by this that I have accumulated a small collection of drawings - how elegantly dressed women of all ages look. How I would like. Which seems right to me. What is interesting. I wrote it down.

I really want to share with you my conclusions and illustrations.

White shirt

It always seemed to me that a white shirt is an attribute of a terribly businesslike, not always tolerant, not always accessible and hardly smiling lady. Nonsense. A white shirt is the first thing to buy. At least in the GAP.

Cargo Pants

These are military-style trousers. For 20 years I have not worn them, deciding that it is unfeminine. Oh no! They are perfectly baggy and are worn by women of all ages in London. And how it suits them!

Striped vest

Coco style! The perfect thing that I dismissed for being sporty and unromantic. Here is a fool. And I have been afraid of prints for 15 years. Longitudinal, transverse, all sorts. I fell in love with vests of all shapes and sizes. They can be tied with belts, tucked into elegant skirts, worn under a jacket and the perfect white shirt. And, of course, with jeans.

Trench coat

Last year, my mother wanted to give me a black trench coat for the new year. No no, what are you, mom! I'm not a bank clerk! Do artists wear trench coats? They wear what they wear. This is the same real summer coat. (This was on Vie Artman in the film "Theater"). In London in winter +11. And women in trench coats look so perfect, fit, mysterious. Mom, buy me a trench coat!

In my opinion, in combination with a white shirt, a vest with a trench coat is the secret of European elegance. Is not it so? One of the secrets. But to wear a trench coat and cargo pants at the same time - no, no. Unless you are of course Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Jeans - yes. Is always. And to everything. Isn't it?

Yes, our husbands will not have to be young for a long time. They are beautiful at 35-40-50. As it is sung in the wisest song of Okudzhava, “nature wanted it so, why, it's not our business, why, it's not for us to judge” …

And we have to. I mean, to be young. Of course, one must take age lightly, but it is impossible to deny that fashion is in the possession of the (rich) young. We need to stay close to them. And copy them. Sneak up and copy. In detail, of course. Until recently, I gave a baaaal credit to something that went to me at 30. But I have changed, fashion has changed.

Ladies, it's important to renew yourself with all your might.

Go, for example, to the store where my son dresses. And buy sandals there for the summer. Bag with 'Adidas' lettering. Do you know? It's trendy again.

At the same time, grabbing the son's bag or putting on his jumper, one must manage to remain a forty-year-old woman!

Then - red lipstick

Someone once told me, or I myself, that this is an evening thing. Nothing like this. My grandmother painted her lips with bright red lipstick all her life every day. And it seemed to me - well, where, where does she paint? To the market? To my parents' meeting? To the doctor? Grandma, really! And now - I have grown up. Lancôme (L'Absolu Rouge 47) This is my mother and me. Well, isn't it more fun with lipstick?

Over the years I have accumulated a crazy amount of jewelry. And I wore them all at once. Like a witch.

In London, young girls wear one thing. Or a chain with a pebble, or earrings. A bracelet. Now such bracelets with pendants are in vogue. I have one such - small, but absolutely real cup, spoon, jug, watch, dolphin, something else are attached to the bracelet. I like it terribly. It's very feminine - a little childish jewelry.

It's me. On the left - scrap metal and fluff. On the right - I changed my mind.

I also forgot about brooches

And my mother remembers. In my opinion, the fashion for brooches is back. Place a bow tie on the lapel of your leather jacket. Well, isn't that great? And by the way. An elegant middle-aged European woman - does not wear a strong neckline. She simply pins the shiny lizard where the man's gaze should, at her desire, go down - on the edge of the neckline. Or puts on golf, and lets the lizard run to the very tip of his chest.

Yet. Don't be afraid of light-colored clothing. White trousers, for example. +11 is already warm!

These are just scum from my observations. In fact, "The wardrobe crisis when you are no longer 30 or even 38" is an inexhaustible topic. Spring came. Soon it will be possible to come to Coven Garden and sketch only shoes. Or better at Piccadilly - and only leather jackets. You can also go to Paris - and find out how things are with skirts and dresses, which I am going to do in April.

So that's it.

Me and my husband, we will both be 40 this year. And you, of course, can tell me that it's not about our wardrobe or what kind of sweaters we wear, but about love.

And I will answer you: And in this - too! It's not a bad thing when a good cashmere sweater is attached to love, especially if its age, the age of love is tens of years, and the sweater is completely new.