Looking Good While Growing Old

When I was young I thought "old people" had to be unattractive. Old people looked like Gabby Hayes and Margaret Rutherford. We have come a long way from that today. Now old people look like Jayne Fonda and appear in leotards with better looking bodies than most young people. Most of us live in the real world and don't exercise two or three hours with a personal trainer every day. How do we make the most of what we have? While most older folks don't look like the people appearing in the e-mail showing "Walmart Shoppers," many still make correctable mistakes. Remember, you never know who you will meet when you are out in the world. After a lifetime of hiding my physical flaws and hours of watching Trinny and Susannah on BBC America's "What Not to Wear" I will share what I have learned.

First, take care of the basics. See to your smile. Nothing makes you look old and ignorant, like bad or missing teeth. If you have false teeth, keep them in. If they don't fit right, go back to the dentist until they do. In order for them not to be painful when you are in public, you need to wear them in private too. If you are smiling, people will not notice a multitude of physical flaws. They will notice that they feel better after they have been with you.

Another basic is posture. When you notice that you are slumping, make an effort to stand and sit as straight as you can. If you are already in the habit of stooping, begin to pay attention to how you stand and keep working at it. You didn't become stooped over night and it won't correct itself that way either. Besides making those muscles work, make sure that your shoes work with you. If your feet hurt, you will hobble instead of walking tall. Although shoes often can make a fashion statement, it is more important to be able to walk comfortably. Get shoes that fit right and support your foot. Inspect the shoes you do have. If the heels of your shoes are worn down, you can get some extra life from them by using a heel insert, but these shoes are now the shoe for at home, not for going out.

As a child I learned that it was important to clean up before I went out in public. Guys shave, stubble ages you. If you are growing a beard, or mustache, do it and keep it, or shave it every day. Ladies wash your hair. Even if you can't afford new clothes your clothes should be clean. Chose the clothes you want to wear in public and wash and mend them. When you come home, take them off and hang them up. If you don't know how to mend clothes ask someone to teach you or take them to a professional. When you take clothes out of the dryer, check to be sure there are no places that need to be mended. It is too late to do it when your ride is coming in five minutes.

The last basic is your foundation. If your foundation garments fit right, your cloths will hang better and look better. Lots of jokes have been made about breasts hanging down around our knees. Get them up and keep them up. If tightening the strap no longer holds, then it is time to invest in a new bra. For heaven's sake get one that fits. Your breasts should not be falling out of the cup at the top, the bottom, or worse over the side. Having an extra breast on the side is not a good look. If you are planning on wearing a top that doesn't have the normal neckline, be sure that your straps will remain covered. Don't invest in the dress, if you are not going to invest in the right kind of bra for it. Oh and folks when you go out please be sure that you don't show a visible panty line. VPL's are not attractive and make you look fat even when you are not.

Now for the fun part - picking out clothes. By the time you are a "senior" you should know which colors work for you, but pay attention because as you age, your coloring may change. You may have always gotten a lot of sun and now you aren't, or your face may no longer have the pale beauty it did in your youth, but may have picked up some redder areas. So check colors in natural light, next to your skin. Color is my favorite, because you can use it in so many ways. If you have an area that you want to make appear smaller, cover it in a matte finish, soft color. Put that next to a bright and shiny color where you want to attract the eye. You can hide a multitude of sins that way. You can't turn a size 24 into a size 2, but you might be able to make it look like an 18. Do you want a part of your body to look longer? Keep all parts the same color. Longer legs can be achieved by maintaining the same color throughout the leg and foot. Changing the color breaks the flow of the eye.

Try to get clothes that fit right. If the cloth of a garment is stretched over an area that is fat, it will show the rolls of fat that are there. If it is draped, it won't. If there is a lot of material gathered in an area, it will make that area appear larger. Pleated pants, make it look like you have a belly, so unless that is the look you want, skip them. That goes for guys as well as girls. In the store, try to check the next size larger and smaller of a garment to see how they look before you buy a garment. It may look better looser, or tighter. Pay attention to where the color and lines of a garment draws the eye. Is it where you want people to look? Remember to see how the changes in your body through time effects the way styles that have always worked for you look. While all those ruffles looked great on you when you were young, they might just make you look dowdy now. Remember that if a garment isn't comfortable, don't buy it, just keep looking.

This is my last piece of advice and it has two parts. Take a friend with you when you go shopping. They see you differently from how you see yourself. When they bring you a garment to try on, do it. Especially if it is something you wouldn't normally wear. The shopping trip should be an adventure, an exploration. It may be that you will find a color or cut that is just right for you that you would have never tried. Be sure that the friend takes a picture of your back so that you can see how a garment looks from the back. Isn't it grand that we can now easily do that with a cell phone. It will certainly allow you to see if the garment fits right and looks nice. Then do the same thing for her.

There are lots of books written about what to wear to hide a particular flaw. I couldn't possibly pass that information on as well. Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine did in a book entitled "What Not to Wear" based partly on their experience in the show. It is a refreshing look at how to hide every kind of flaw you could ever want to hide. It is a lot of fun. While they both appear to be beautiful women, they frankly show themselves dressed in garments that are not ideal for their body type, beside photos of them dressed in a better alternative. If you are interested in camouflaging a particular area, the book will show you how to do it, while making you smile at the same time.