Carmen’s Team Pick:
I am totally and completely devoted to getting better with age. After all, if The Golden Girls and Iris Apfel have taught me anything about life, it’s that being older really just means nearing perfection. And if anything proves it, it’s Advanced Style.
Advanced Style began as a photography-based fashion blog, although it will soon live on as a book and film. Started by Ari Seth Cohen, it showcases the outfits of of older ladies and gents in a format reminiscent of The Sartorialist, Lookbook and Facehunter, and provides ample evidence that with great age comes great style.
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What I love about Advanced Style is the personality. As an avid worshipper of older women, I took care to watch each of the featured videos and read through the style advice published on the website. Cohen keeps the focus on his subjects by allowing them to use Advanced Style as a personal platform for discussing fashion and style, and so each video and advice snippet is truly coming from the mouths of fabulous elders from across the globe. The personalities featured on the website are glamorous, charming, and entertaining, and their advice is timeless.
Take, for example, the photo column of Countess of Glamour, Lynn Dell, who also has her own talk show and “dresses for the theater of life.”
Or “Meows by Mary,” the blog column for snippits of style advice:
Finally, ask yourself, “If my worst enemy saw me what could she howl and meow about”, and then take away her temptation to hiss and scratch at your expense.
Advanced Style is also taking on an important and missing piece of our fashion conversation. Too often, Hollywood and the fashion industry disregard the experiences and contributions of older adults. Advanced Style confronts their silence and fills it with wit, fabulosity, and grace. No longer can the experiences of the elderly be packaged as boring, slow-paced, and undesirable. Advanced Style proves that every stage of life is filled with vibrance.
To be honest I’d just like to be an old woman as soon as possible. But in the meantime, I’ll just work on developing my style.
