We all have little (and big) thing that irritate us. Some of mine:
Hangers that don’t function. It never fails. Whenever I start looking at clothes in a store, they slip off the hangers. Everyone in the fashion industry seems to hang their stock on the same thin, cheesy, narrow hangers. You’d think a store that’s selling expensive clothes wouldn’t want them falling on the floor all day long.
So unappetizing!
Food in salad bars that looks like it’s been sitting there for days. There’s a “gourmet” food store in Manhattan with a salad bar so distasteful looking that the health department should condemn it.
Executives who hire officious assistants or train their assistants to be officious. You can always tell how nice a boss is going to be by how his assistant treats you.
People who are constantly checking their Blackberry while you’re talking to them.
Illustrated by Jon Keegan
People who don’t mute their cell phones in restaurants.
People who talk loudly on their cell phones in public, especially on buses.
People who never ever ask you anything about yourself but babble on and on about themselves.
People who don’t have a nice word to say about anything.
Buying lipstick. Why hasn’t anyone invented a clever way to see how a shade will look on your lips without having to use the demo colors.
People who listen to their iPod or text on the crowded streets of Manhattan and endanger their own life, and the lives of others, because they can’t hear or see what’s going on around them.
I am loving the new trend in clothes: bigger is better. Sweaters, coats, and dresses are slouchier and oversized, but not sloppy. Cuts are asymmetrical; shirt backs are longer than fronts so our tushes are covered when we wear leggings; fabrics are drapier, softer and sexier.
I adore this shirt. It's one of the great pieces we'll be showing in our new FOF shop, opening on FOF in a few weeks. We can't wait till you see what we've put together, especially for all our members.
Fashion mavens claim it’s better to wear more fitted clothes when you’ve got a little heft (like I do in my hips), and although the latest designs are definitely not fitted, they’re still flattering. Hip and fresh, too.
When I was 42 and weighed 127 pounds, I loved sliding into pencil thin slacks, fitted blazers and tight-ish tops. I’ll never see 127 again–and 42 is ancient history–but I’ve outgrown that look anyway (figuratively as well as literally.)
There’s something liberating about clothes that don’t force us to suck in our tummies and scrunch in our waists. I want to be fit and healthy, but I don’t need to be a size 8 anymore. It was fun while it lasted, but it was destined not to last forever.
I’ll never forget seeing my 61-old-friend in her bra and undies when I was a svelte 41. Although Mary was a size 2, her tummy was slack and hung a bit over her bikinis. Is that what happens in your sixties, I thought.
It sure is. Unless you’re Jane Fonda, I guess.
Once upon a time, Diana Vreeland's fashion, beauty, travel, art and entertaining recommendations were the only ones that counted to American women who wanted to be "in style."
Responses started pouring in when we asked FOF members to add their favorite nail salons to the site. We sure love our manicurists, hair stylists and trainers, and all the other talented people we call on to make us feel and look good. And we enjoy sharing our fab faves with our FOF friends. We trust each other’s recommendations.
I’ve been at business meetings where one high-powered woman will ask another where she bought her dress, had her hair colored or found the great necklace she was wearing. We have this marvelous ability to concentrate on the business at hand and on the other things that count to us (jewelry and clothes, for example).
The web is wonderful because it allows us to spread the word about almost anything. (Of course, this isn’t always good since many people also use it destructively.) Back in the day, we learned about the best of everything primarily through magazines and lifestyle pages of newspapers, where editors’ opinions were the only ones that had a platform.
I was one of these editors. Imagine, at the ripe old age of 25 I was telling readers which clothes were stylish, which home furnishings would make their homes sparkle and where to take vacations, just because I worked at a newspaper and a boss gave me an editor title. I surely lacked the qualifications to be anointed an arbiter of good taste, but arbiter I was nevertheless.
All FOF members are editors at faboverfifty.com. We call FOF the place where women of substance share their style. Pretty cool, eh?
Jennifer Snowdon has energy to burn. Photo by Katherine McPherson
It’s so much fun for me to meet new FOF women who are bursting with energy, talent and creativity. It’s contagious and it confirms that we are the most exciting women on the planet. Makeup artist, Jennifer Snowdon, visited the FOF offices today to demonstrate exactly how much makeup we need to wear and how to apply it. While we were all chatting away before the beauty lesson began, Jennifer told a good story:
“I recently finished working practically non-stop on a film project with a crew of twenty and thirty year olds. I slept three or four hours a night for 20 nights. We were going non stop all day long. One day I enthusiastically jumped out of the trailer with my makeup kit in hand and bumped into a young man from the crew. He couldn’t believe my spunk. ‘How old are you?’ he asked, confused how anyone older than 25 could be so lively.”
Like Jennifer, I am blessed with an enormous amount of energy, which belies my age (63). While young people around me complain about feeling tired because they stayed up too late or say they’re under the weather if they have the sniffles, I usually don’t give in to aches, pains and other maladies unless I literally can’t get out of bed.
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