Your purse is on fire!

This week's most-wanted is a gorgeous DAKS kilt. Worn Mitford-style with a simple sweater and mannish brogues, as we're all grown-ups there's no need to dwell on the ankle socks. Despite the fact that the first kilt I ever owned - a lovely red tartan number - ended its days as a duster after I'd taken the scissors to it during a Bay City Roller-inspired frenzy, I've always had a penchant for pleated skirts.

Having quit Girl Guide's after a week (it just wasn't the same as Brownies), I had a uniform and a weekday evening going spare. Like a young Tracey Emin, without the dancing, cider and sex, I stitched a frayed tartan trim around the collar and cuffs, and E-R-I-C in big wonky plaid letters across the back of the cornflower blue shirt. Looking back, I should have left the kilt alone and worked on the unmade bed.

London Fashion Week: Monochrome

When it comes to year-round style, you can't beat a bit of monochrome - as the lovely Amanda King, 43, proves in a stunning Richard Nicoll dress. Nicoll's S/S 11 collection is inspired by David Bowie's Thin White Duke (the recently re-released Station to Station was the soundtrack for the show) and the 1940s silhouette. Grown-up fashion with a rock 'n' roll edge. We like:





Photos

Amanda King: Fashionistable
Catwalk shots: style.com

Street Style: London Fashion Week

Still in a menswear groove, That's Not My Age popped over to London Fashion Week yesterday where I bumped into Eliot Young, 47, looking dandy in an old Paul Smith tan leather jacket, shirt by Dougie Millings (the original Beatles' tailor) and tweed suit from Portobello market. To me this look says sixties-era Adam Faith with an aristo-twist. What do you think?



That quintessentially English combination of classic tweed tailoring and tan leather brogues put me in mind of fashion consultant, Brian Godbold, 66, another well-dressed gentleman I met earlier this year.



Is there a need for tweed in a gentleman's wardrobe?

Photos: Fashionistable

A year of blogging dangerously

Not wanting to be outdone by HRH, That's Not My Age has gone one better: three birthdays. So, July 14 2008 is the anniversary of my first style-over-forty post (featuring Mary Portas, of course), August 23 2009, the anniversary of my first trip out as an amateur style spotter with photographer, Fashionistable and August 25 2009 is the date of one's second blog post, or my official Blog Day, when things really got serious. So, a whole year has passed since two forty-something females decided that chasing strangers down the street with a camera was a good idea, and to celebrate there was coffee and cake and a couple of photos:

Aerobics teacher, Laura Avanti (above) enjoys mixing old and new, high street and designer. Anita's easy-going style is reflected in her choice of handbags. A Chloé leather number on one arm and a shoulder bag made out of an old Armani skirt on the other.



For a cool summer look, Anita Sobti teams natural fabrics - a silk over-shirt and linen trousers - with some top notch accessories, and always follows her father's advice: whatever your budget, whatever you wear, do it with confidence.


Happy Birthday to me! Another 99 years and I'll get a telegram.

I have a dream

One of my favourite photographs, ever, is this 1975 Helmut Newton shot of le smoking for French Vogue. I love the androgynous model, the mood, the composition and the ambiguity of this picture - a quiet Parisienne street after dark, what/who is she waiting for? And it captures a moment in the seventies when Yves Saint Laurent's revolutionary vision collided with Newton's powerful photography. In The Beautiful Fall, Alicia Drake says, 'Newton provided a link in the creation of the Saint Laurent visual world; thanks to Newton's imagination you could actually 'see' the Saint Laurent woman in action and witness the decadence and adventure of her life.'

At the time, the image caused a sensation, as the fabulous Colin McDowell points out in Fashion Today, 'Nice women did not wear the ambiguous smokings of Yves Saint Laurent.... And yet, both suit and image were an homage to the new female elegance - years before their time.'

This is the kind of elegance That's Not My Age aspires to. Grown-up and edgy, I've always longed for a YSL tuxedo. Unfortunately, I'm not a sixteenth arrondisement bourgeoise woman with too much money and time on my hands (how Helmut Newton described the way his ideal YSL-clad woman dressed). Though I have visited the Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent Foundation in Paris, where on a behind the scenes tour of the archives I actually got to see the original le smoking, a very special fashion moment indeed, almost as exciting as meeting Mary Portas. But that's as close as it gets. Or is it?

I've spotted this YSL wool-blend tuxedo on The Outnet (yes, yes, I know I've become completely obsessed with that birthday deal but imagine it, two quid for a tuxedo!)



And in homage to my middle-age crush - that's Tilda Swinton, not Mary Portas (though Mary in a tux - now that would be Portas-tic!) - I might actually opt for a cream pants suit:





Tuxedo love: Yves Saint Laurent with Catherine Deneuve in 2002.


PS If you haven't read The Beautiful Fall - a book about the rivalry between YSL and Karl Lagerfeld, about 'Fashion, genius and glorious excess in 1970s Paris' - I can highly recommend it. Brilliant stuff.



And don't forget....TheOutnet.com is throwing a very special birthday party, for one day only on April 16th the online fashion outlet will host a pop-up sale where all items will be available at the giveaway price of $1/£1/€1. For more information, www.theoutnet/birthday.com

Photos
Yves Saint Laurent and Catherine Deneuve: The Beautiful Fall
Tilda Swinton: ES Magazine

A tale of two ad campaigns

Something has been bothering That's Not My Age for a while now, so, deep breath.... time to let it out. Two adverts. Both aimed at grown-up ladies; the first, featuring a timeless shift dress on super-classy model, Stella Tennant, from LK Bennett, the second, what can only be described as a mash-up from Nicole Farhi. No prizes for guessing which I prefer.

Now, obviously I missed the memo on faux patchwork pants but a quick look at Vogue's runway report and I understand that notice-me prints are 'one of the trends that count.' No mention of Farhi's novelty pantaloons inspired by German expressionist Emile Nolde, mind you. Or why anyone in their right mind would wear them with a striped cowl neck tunic top. Funny that. I'm all for clashing textures and prints, if it's done well - I'm thinking Marni, Dries Van Noten, king of the mixologists, Marc Jacobs - but I am really struggling with this Nicole Farhi outfit. Apart from the clown in Robert Altman's Short Cuts, I just can't imagine who would go for the I-went-to-Glastonbury-in-1973-and-got-so-stoned-I-came-away-with-this-lousy-pair-of-pants look. Can you?

A vintage decade

It's official. The nineties are back in fashion and to prove it, Selfridges has opened a Vintage Concept Store dedicated to the decade. Now, when the eighties came back and slapped That's Not My Age in the face, it felt like I'd well and truly tripped over a generation gap. But this time I'm ready for some retro action. And to celebrate, here's a small tribute to my favourite fashion magazine of the nineties, American Harper's Bazaar, with the late Liz Tilberis as editor.

Saying she wanted to create 'the most beautiful fashion magazine in the world,' Tilberis moved to New York after 20 years at British Vogue (starting as an intern, becoming editor-in-chief when Anna Wintour moved to Manhattan) to turn fusty old Harper's around. With Fabien Baron as creative director, Patrick Demarchelier and Peter Lindbergh shooting the photos, Kate, Naomi and the Amber Valetta adorning the fashion pages, it wasn't long before the magazine looked simple, elegant, cool.

And, despite the occasional foray into rock chickery, That's Not My Age is quite fond of the nineties pared-down aesthetic. In fact, I'm still wearing it today, and not in a totally fashion-forward sense. If it's simple, elegant and unfussy, it works for me. And to quote Tilberis (from May 1996 editor's letter), 'Great fashion has moved away from extremism to a kind of luxurious subtlety. To me all this is a delight. Like most grown-up women, I'll instinctively reject anything that makes me feel not like myself.'


Are the nineties cool again? Or should we be looking forwards not back?


Images from Harper's Bazaar May 1998. Fashion editor, Tonne Goodman, photographed by Wayne Maser.

The kitten heel comeback

It may be winter outside, but in the fashion world it's spring. And so, That's Not My Age has decided to keep warm, stay indoors and work on an easy wardrobe update. Although clompy footwear is still loitering about like leftover pine needles in a shag pile carpet, the elegant kitten heel has nudged its way back onto the fashion radar. And this is a good thing.

Fortunately, being a glamorous lady who spent the nineties working on women's magazines, I have a couple of pairs lurking under the bed:





My favourites, in olive green leather are from queen of the kitten heel, LK Bennett. The heel is so low these are amazingly comfortable and trés elegant. The textured brown leather pair are a Sigerson Morrison sample sale buy - gorgeous but they pinch, and so haven't seen as much wear as the racy orange pair, with the dainty buttons and crumpled toes (also LKB). But how to wear the kitten heel in 2010?





For day, a slim leg trouser or jean, rolled up to show off the lovely, au courant footwear, is best. I seem to remember getting the pointy toe caught in a wide leg trouser once, flying across the office and nearly head-butting a colleague. So glamorous! Team with a neat wool jacket and pussy bow top (sorry the full-length shot is a bit dark, there's not much light chez That's Not My Age today). While it's still wintry, I highly recommend a pop sock, OK, OK, it's bloody freezing - how about a pair of thick socks and wellies for the commute?

For a smarter look, try a floral print dress with the tailored jacket, and of course, thick woolly tights.




And if you're looking for new shoes for spring/summer 2010, my favourites are from....you guessed it, LK Bennett:



Ready to step into spring now?


Photo: Giles from Vogue spring/summer 2010 catwalk report.