Picture this:

A tall and thin twenty-something sporting a white pea coat, a tailored pink pinstriped blouse, booty shorts, white fishnets, and platform mary janes. She is wearing multiple gold bangles and charm bracelets on each arm, as well as two white tote bags on the left. To her right are four grandmothers. Each one is wearing an Easter pink, green, purple and yellow trendy skirt suit, complete with perfectly primped fluorescent hair, funky shoes, and an arsenal of long necklaces.

This is an ad featured in the New York Times for Juicy Couture’s new stores opening this Fall on Fifth Avenue. This is the zeitgeist of the fashion industry today. Everyone is wearing the latest trends regardless of age. For the first time, a 60-year old woman is wearing the same hip-hugging seven jeans and juicy hoodie as a 7-year old girl. This year we can finally say that fashion is ageless.

As the editor of Dansk reported, “Good style – even in modified versions – no longer has an age and depends on the wearer and the wearer’s attitude.” We are no longer subject to the unwritten rule that fashion should mature with age. Age should not (and does not) follow fashion’s religion. We should all follow Yves Saint Laurent’s prophecy : “Fashions fade, but style is eternal.”

At the end of the day, it comes down to self-possession. As long as grandma can wear her tapered, black, skinny jeans and cropped blazer with her head held up high, most people would not give her a second look (unless of course they were checking her out). Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue, is of the opinion that confidence is the only thing that matters when deciding if a piece is age-appropriate. I completely agree.

When mothers and daughters go shopping today, they now shop on the same floor. We as a society have discarded the age-defined uniform. People of all ages are copping the trendy new looks.

Although the vintage look is always in style, women find themselves repeating many looks from their younger days. The return of Diane Von Furstenberg’s wrap dresses or the infamous black skinny jean/wide belt combo has many women coming back to their fashion roots and wearing clothes from decades ago. The phrase “appropriate dress” has practically lost it’s meaning in this context. Current fashion trends are adopted with utter nonchalance (and a sense of humor).

We close with a comment from New York Times fashion writer Guy Trebay : “Appropriate means about as little these days as do the formerly clear, now worthless, sartorial distinctions between the professions, between underwear and outerwear, between the seasons or the times of day.” I would add that age is no exception.
-Sarah Perpich

* images shown in order are: Juicy Couture Couture, Audrey Hepburn and Carrie Donovan