No jeans here. I gave them up years ago when I stopped trying to care if they were in fashion. I hate the feel of denim. Least comfy fabric to me ever.
I love cords in the winter. Loose cotton shorts in the summer. My newer work pants are a step above leggings. They are elastic waistband but not super snug and thicker material. Older ones are just generic cotton/polyester whatever. I find that 10x more comfy than jeans.
I bought my first dress in 20 years when older S graduated high school. I bought my next one this spring when I had to attend a wedding. The other dress was black and I didn’t think that was appropriate. This one was $25 on Amazon. Good enough. Nobody was looking at me anyway. I really hope my kids elope.
And I used to shop at goodwill, but that was because that’s all I could afford. I am also lucky that I fit in fine here. We are a poor community. There is no keeping up with the Jones. I definitely feel under dressed when we travel elsewhere.
And I never read fashion blogs ever or watch any style TV shows. It wouldn’t occur to me to do so.
I don’t wear makeup, heels, jewelry never dyed my hair, never had a manicure or tweezed my eyebrows etc. Some of these things I did not know about and heard from my daughters!
I have two pair of black pants and two black skirts and an assortment of short sleeve shirts and cardigans, almost all the same exact style from the same exact store. I hate to shop.
One of my daughters loves fashion, loves heels, but wears no makeup. I am really glad that she expresses her creative side through clothing (as well as her work!). She is very environmentally conscious of fast fashion and buys second hand, and/or wears clothes forever.
In our family, everyone has their own style but my daughters have expressed some gratitude for my lack of focus on appearance I just want to be comfortable. It’s certainly not ideological! It’s not a disability either!!
I’m another one. I dress for comfort and never wear makeup or jewelry. I do occasionally have to dress up for work. I’m going to retire in a few months and look forward to getting rid of all my “work clothes” which I will never need again. I gave up heels a long time ago and wear flats or running shoes always.
Oh wow–these are my people! Nothing against fashion folks, but I just. don’t. care. for myself. Last time I wore makeup was my daughter’s wedding nine years ago. May have worn a dress once since (another wedding.) Do not wear heels. I’m a jeans and t-shirt person most of the time. Long, cargo style shorts in the summer. Long sweatshirts or sweaters over t-shirt with my jeans in the winter. Rarely do nails. Never died my hair.
Edit: Just saw baggy capris on the other thread. Oops. Those are part of my summer “look” (haha), too.
Our house of origin still has the same second hand furniture from thirty years ago; falling apart, but we’re not there as much and I never have people over. Second, future home does have some newer furniture, but the same wallpaper and paint it came with. Might redo eventually, but not in a hurry.
The fashion indifference is integral to me. The furniture/decor indifference is mostly financial.
When I was overweight I didn’t care much about fashion. But 75 pounds lighter 4 years ago, I have gotten into fashion. I read an “older” woman fashion blog (Jo-Lynne Shane). She does what I consider mid to mid- high clothing and accessories. I have so much fun dressing now that I look better.
Maybe. But my daughter has a double engineering degree (electrical and biomedical) and she is extremely into fashion. She wrote one of her MIT application essays about nail polish.
I think it’s not about did you grow up with girls or boys, and it’s not about what your academic interests are, it’s not about feeling femme or masc as your gender. It’s just a combination of personal interest, what you want to spend time and money on, and your cultural/vocational environment.
I have three girls. They like mani-pedis, but I had my first one ever this spring for my youngest’s wedding. She likes to wear heels, but none of the rest of us do. (She’s also the shortest.) I had to look somewhat professional over the last 10 years, but it would have been weird to be “stylish” in my context. Think Elizabeth Warren’s style. I loved her for her low heel boots as much as for her politics! My oldest had a job where she was the face of the product and often on video spots. She dressed up and wore makeup and had her hair styled. Now she’s a full-time mom during a pandemic in yoga pants and tees.
In the “before times” I was invited to a “Lobby Day” on Capitol Hill. I dithered about what to wear for days before going with “I’m from Oregon, underdressed is our cultural garb.”
Last winter I bought 3 flannel shirts to up my game. I had been wearing hoodies all the time the year before (except for my one “zoom shirt” I used for meetings). I mean flannel shirts have buttons and collars so they must be dressy, right? LOL.
People should wear what they want. And it doesn’t need to signify anything other than that’s what they feel good in. And I think most people do just that. I have a friend who wears a full face of makeup all the time. Even right after coming out of surgery! She calls it putting on her face. The only makeup I ever wear is eyebrow pencil because they didn’t really come back after chemo and I think of myself as someone with eyebrows! Both of us fully embrace being women in the world in our own ways. She has boys. I have girls. It’s all just individual.
Not MIT, but Physics was my major too. I was often the only gal in my classes back in the Dark Ages.
I credit my lack of interest in fashion/parties on being more interested in playing outdoors in my youth. That part hasn’t gone away with age.
I don’t even use a purse and haven’t for a long, long time. My jeans/shorts pockets hold enough of what I need on me. I won’t buy any without decent pockets.
My grandmother tried hard though. When I went through my mom’s things I found a box of my stuff that was left over. In it was one of the “young girl” purses she’d bought for me before the Dark Ages. It was still in crisp, new condition. Some youngster bought it for next to nothing at her estate sale. Of course, also in my collection was a couple of well used cap guns with ammo, a holster, and similar toys. Those went to a collector.
To be fair the other thread isn’t about keeping up with fashion but what makes you look old(er) than your actual age. That doesn’t mean needing the newest fashion or wearing makeup (quite the opposite in many cases). In some cases we could have saved a lot of years off our faces by not having kids…
True, but I don’t care if I look “older” either. And it’s not called “what makes you look older?” it’s specifically Fashion “Mistakes” that make you look older.
I am no fashion plate; I do like to look “respectable.” Pretty much stopped wearing any makeup since the era of masks began, and for what it’s worth, most people are truly surprised when they hear how old I am. But my daughter went through various fashionista phases, and as long as it didn’t involve spending more than she/we had, I learned to honor her choices. Parents figure it out, girl, boy or gender nonconforming!
Making mistakes and making a “fashion mistake” aren’t nearly the same thing.
You can’t get fashion wrong if you’re not trying to get it right. Besides which it’s totally subjective. 2+2=5 is a mistake. Wearing something someone else doesn’t like is not.
Lol. Nope. It was not about anything about nail polish formulas. It was an essay she decided to do after we visited and they said that this particular essay was to be about things that spoke about your interests and that if you had an unusual one they’d love to hear it. So she wrote about her love of nail polish and explained ( figuring the reader at MIT might not know this) that top brand nail polish color names are often pun based. She then talked about how she for fun had come up with a bunch of nail color puns that were more math/ science related. Some were more complicated but the ones I remember were a puke green: “Take me to L’hopital”; a red: “Cherry Pi” and a blue green “MITeal”.
I just want to be comfortable. It’s certainly not ideological! It’s not a disability either!!