Gaudy or Good?

Iris Apfel is considered a “geriatric starlet” and a very senior fashionista at 94.  How much of a statement do we need to make as we grow older.  She has collected jewelry and clothing all her adult life and now has a collection of “couture” jewelry that has been featured at the Peabody Essex Museum, where she is considered the “Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel.”

When I am 94 I would love to be considered fashionable, but I do live in a small community and not New York City.  How do you take “fashion” to rural America?

For one thing, I would never be able to wear that many necklaces without a back brace. One car accident too many, by this point in my life to have that much weight suspended from my neck. On another day, we might take on the conversations we have with peers about “health issues”.  Maybe call it “Backache with Lunch”.

Looking to icons of fashion over the years, so many seem based on excess not elegant simplicity.

So where do you take this?  Do you over-stimulate your eyes in the mirror each morning or do you look for an expression less overpowering?   Or do you take some elements of style and look fashionable in slightly less exaggerated manner?

Coco Channel is stylish in a slightly less provocative manner.  So pick your style, enjoy life and love getting dressed in the morning.  “Fashion you can buy, but style you posses”. Iris tells us this.  What is your over 50 style?

Maybe in a more rural environment, we just make our overalls more stylish?

Or better yet, maybe go for stylishly simple and elegant.  Anyone can make a statement, but not everyone can make a good one.

Maybe less attention too excessive is good and elegance can return.  What do you think? What would AARP say about this?