The 13 style rules that every midlife woman MUST follow (and yes, beige really is banned!)

Release time：2024-05-22 05:08:40 Source：Cultural Compass news portal

Shoes are your secret weapon, for ever 

There's nothing you can't wear on your feet for ever (though your ideal heel height may come down and, personally, I'd give Mary Janes a swerve). More to the point you can and should get maximum Wow points from your footwear whether that's a leopard-print kitten heel or a wooden-soled sandal. 

Red velvet platforms, £189, penelopechilvers.com, and green wedges, £85, boden.co.uk

Ever since Prada did velvet platform sandals, several years ago, platforms and wedges have shed their glam rock image and become acceptable year-round at any age – quirky, leg lengthening and great for those occasions when you're on your feet for hours. Just keep them more on the Prada scale than Noddy from Slade.

50+ means: Finding the shoe that keep's you looking like a fashion contender.

It may be time to bow out  

I'd love to say you can still get away with a giant organza bow at the neck or a big bow on the back of a dress or a fat bow on some flat pumps or lots of sparkly crystal bows running down the front of a dress (hold it ... that may not be forbidden, if we're talking about a Saloni dress) but ninety nine percent of bows are in the Baby Jane category. 

Hydrangea scarf, £84, wolfandbadger.com, and silk scarf, £90, whistles.com

Instead of bows at the throat, get serious about scarves, either silk squares tied in the French manner in the neck of your shirt or wrap around big cotton or wool scarves. They add texture and colour and they cover up imperfections from necks to upper arms.

50+ means: Fewer bows, more scarves.

Edwardian garden silk scarf in cornflower blue, £150, aspinaloflondon.com

That girl with a pearl earring was onto something 

Pearls flatter the skin and do something mysteriously illuminating to the complexion. We've shied away from them for decades but now we're in a pearls with everything moment.

Pearl drops, £95, hotdiamonds.co.uk, and Keshi pearl earrings, £150, monicavinader.com

Interlocking flower earrings, £295, gucci.com

Vintage black pearl, £125, susancaplan.co.uk

You can find pearl earrings and necklaces everywhere from Accessorize to Gucci.

50+ means: Upping the impact of jewellery and wearing it more of the time.

Sort out your specs

It's odd that we can spend weeks shopping for the right dress to wear to the wedding and then turn up on the day in six-year-old specs that dull the glamour by roughly sixty per cent. Look at the pictures of the King's Coronation, Oscar Night, Victoria Beckham's 50th, what do they all have in common? 

Gillian Anderson in New York last month, who has curated her glasses to work with her outfit

Few of the women are wearing glasses, and if they are they're curated to work with their outfit. Some of us have yet to investigate contact lenses, but it's an oversight. Bring out your eyes from behind your smeary specs, at least for special occasions, and you will look ten years younger.

50+ means: Working your specs or ditching them. (See Gillian Anderson) 

Scallop swimsuit, £35, marksandspencer.com

Take your underwear seriously

The state of your bra makes all the difference now: bra bulge and bra sag (when a bra has given up the job of supporting) are two absolutely unnecessary consequences of not wearing the right fit. Everything to do with underwear matters 100 per cent more as you enter your fifties. 

As a general rule deliberately visible underwear – either under something sheer or peeking out – is no longer a good idea. The exception is in summer when you can wear the bikini tops you no longer wear on the beach on show under linen shirts. A good plain black swimsuit can also double as a body on holiday. (See Nancy Shevell)

50+ means: Properly fitted underwear.

With jeans you must never rest on your laurels 

Mom jeans, £45, riverisland.com

There's the classic Levi 501s, which officially never date, but isn't all that easy to wear in real life. Otherwise you need to be ready to switch up your denims regardless of whether or not you've found your perfect forever shape. 

Boyfriend jeans, £35.99, zara.com, and barrel style, £95, whistles.com

Fashion never sleeps and if you ignore the march of jeans you will get left behind (witness the predicted swing from baggy boyfriend styles to skinnies). If you do one thing and one thing only keep a close eye on the current jeans shape and adapt accordingly.

50+ means: Moving with the denim times. (See Kristin Scott Thomas or Julia Roberts)

Bye bye black leather biker

Your black leather biker jacket, however much fun you had in it, must be handed on. There's no 'what if' with this (you can hang on for a bit if it's olive green or brown but there are better answers out there). The cool looks that we used to aim for are now just hard and ageing and the whole rock-chick vibe is very high risk since the foundation of rock 'n' roll style is a certain unkemptness which is incompatible with grown-up dressing. We've all seen it, some of us in the mirror. One day you are channelling late-period Blondie, the next you look like you've just got out of bed after a hair-raising bout of flu. It's fine to look casual but now we need to look polished too. It's all over for scruffy.

50+ means: Lots more grooming and swapping biker leather for soft tan sheepskin.

It pays to find the one surprising thing that really suits you... in spite of your age

Maybe it's a jumpsuit, or white denim flares when you're 63 (see Julianne Moore at last year's Cannes film festival). There is a whole category of clothes (much bigger than the ones you need to put away post 50) called Score Extra Points for Looking Good In These Post 50. 

Ribbed vest, £8.50, marksandspencer.com, and linen shorts, £139, broraonline.com

Maybe you suit tank tops with bare arms? Maybe you have the legs for city shorts or you happen to look terrific in a plunging decollete.

50+ means: Finding your Unexpected Good Look and working it hard.

Bring on the black and white 

Julianne Moore at a photocall for her film May December at Cannes in 2023

Some people can do black for ever, depending on their colouring (washed out blondes less so), but everyone now benefits from a black lifter – whether it's a leopard bag strap, a bold brooch or necklace or a cuff (see Jamie Lee Curtis on Oscar night). Black needs blinging up post 50. 

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