a pink polo shirt:
quoting
alternative palette
More northern skies.
polos and khakis
The TV commercial, either for medication or insurance, opens on an older couple strolling, hand in hand, on the beach. Perhaps there’s a big dog running ahead, perhaps not. The couple is dressed nearly identically, she in a pink polo shirt, he in a light blue one; he in “khakis,” she in “capris,” most likely white.
They are, for all intents and purposes, dressed like toddlers, no, babies.
My eyes immediately begin to roll, and my hand inevitably reaches for the remote and mute button. What is going on here? Why are these olders dressed like this, and what does it mean?
It’s a truism that the “elderly” often come to resemble babies in meaningful ways.
But while some aspects of the aging process may be inevitable for some of us, e.g. diapers for incontinence, no one need ever put on a pink polo! And older couples need not dress alike, like twins in a double stroller.
Although they may feel like twins, people who live together for a long time do really come to resemble each other, this “twinning” baffles me, especially when it’s done intentionally. It seems like some kind of “blending” that some people are comfortable in, but I want to ask why.
Are people infantalizing each other and themselves, in essence telling the world “we’re done,” or “we’ve reverted to a former state?”
Are they saying they no longer want to own their age and experience?
Or are they, as I believe, most often adhering to the expectations of a society that values individuals less and less as they age? Marginalized into invisibility.
And when “casual” dress becomes every day dress, as it has, the continuum of aging from child to adult to elder can all be “covered” by the simple, the big, and stretchy, asexual, “athletic” style. And from brunch to dinner you’re ok in your capris and khakis. Another option:
“There is, for example, a style that can be termed “sweet old lady” dress. A distinctive style characterized by floral patterns, soft fabrics, frills, high necks and long sleeves, it represents an enduring mode and not just clothing that is out of date (though such is the nature of fashion that it is periodically in vogue, usually identified by terms such as granny style.)”
—Julia Twigg
I like this man’s style.
alternative palette
Grind and Glaze
If you follow me on Instagram, you know that my fall palette, what I like, is generally darker than this and it contains more “red” and “blue” tones. But this is a nice alternative. It really reminds me of the colors of the leaves one sees in Central Park in the fall. It’s lighter and less mood than what I tend to be drawn to.
This “colorstory” is from Grind and Glaze, a small batch, sustainable, and low waste brand by Tessa Clark, a designer and a design contestant on Season 17 of Bravo’s Project Runway Reality TV show. How many fashion designers do you know from Cincinnati? Well, now you know one.
“This moulding the female body into acceptable social forms is also found in relation to age. Beauty practices, especially anti-ageing ones, are part of the process of producing an acceptable form of woman in later years—still feminine, still displaying engagement with the disciplinary practices of femininity, yet in a toned-down way that accepts the lesser claims to attention and regard. In relation to clothing this means still wearing feminine or fashionable dress, showing that the individual is still involved, still trying to present a good appearance, and not falling into the dangers of neglect, and potential dereliction. It can involve showing a continuing commitment to fashion in the form of the trends of the high street, but without straying into overly youthful dress.”
I definitely make a quick change to a different palette in the fall. For me it goes from black and white to browns, and dark greens, and dark blues; I actually become more colorful in the fall!
Sitting with girlfriends, and the discussion turned to time and desires, and, if not now, when? Isn’t that something of what getting older means? With every year, that kind of grey, foggy sort of thought creeps in more and more often. Then a friend dies, and time accelerates. If not now, you think, when? And even though it’s not all doom and gloom, this feeling, it is melancholy. 
I had always wanted to get my head shaved, if not completely, then that Sinéad O’Connor length. (Read 
It’s the little things, that’s what people say. Well I never really believed those “people,” until this summer when I was “gifted” (horrible word), these little samples, after I had a rare, and kind of meh, facial. 
These little, leather rings are from,