Age, Size, and Trends

For years I have been a strong proponent for wearing what you love and not following "DON'T" lists. The most popular don't lists, for what seems like decades, for plus size women are, "don't wear horizontal stripes", "don't wear white", "don't wear large prints", "don't wear bright colors". All these in a effort to make us look smaller than we know we are. And not to mention, incredibly boring and invisible.

There are a similar set of rules for women of a certain age: short hair only, avoid trendy clothing, shop in the old lady stores, hang out with people your own age.

I think we get too caught up in age and what is age appropriate. A few weeks back people in the media were making a stink about Madonna showing one of her nipples to a paying audience and that she was "too old" for such shenanigans. If she was twenty or thirty years younger it would still have been inappropriate to show her boob to an audience but it is Madonna. My point is, her age should not be a factor in whether her behaviour was appropriate or not nor what she chooses to wear.

As for fashion trends, I do not think we can put an age or a size limitation on them. If a woman can rock a fad or a trend and she feels good doing it then she should go for it without fear of a backlash.

A hot trend can look bad on a young person who does not wear it well but it can also look awesome on a woman twenty years older who knows how to rock it. The same holds true for size, a slim woman may not know how to execute a trend while a curvy woman transitions it better (or vice versa).

It is more important to be true to yourself and dress to your personality. You can take advice from the style magazines and blogs but use them as guidelines to make the best decisions for you.

Today we have to work more towards not limiting people because of their age or size. For some of us our weights may go up and down but most of us stay pretty much at the same weight so better to have fun with our clothes no matter what our size. We are all going to get old and all of us do not need to be wearing polyester pants and applique sweaters with cats on them.

We live in a time where women are drawing new lines of appropriateness individually and together by refusing to be segregated by the rules of yesterday. Variety is the spice of life no matter what your size or your age and we should not feel bad for enjoying it.

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M. E. Wood has been the editor of the Large and Lovely site at BellaOnline.com for eight years. Come shopping with her at www.PlusShe.com.