couture | Lorrie Whittington

Something a bit different: Fabulous Fashionistas

01/10/2013

Recently I watched a documentary on Channel 4 called ‘Fabulous Fashionistas‘. The documentary, directed by Sue Bourne, was about six women with an average of 80, and their attitude to aging, life and self image. It was one of the most inspiring programmes I have watched in a long time. Without being tacky, sentimental or sensationalist, it portrayed these women in a way that was upbeat, insightful and at times, terribly poignant. None of these women had resorted to plastic surgery or botox, but had embraced their age, without giving into it, or buying into society’s expectations of being ‘old’. They all used style and fashion as a way to express themselves, keep fit and active, and enjoy their lives. Needless to say the documentary was a big hit. I don’t really want to chronicle the content of the programme here, because I think you should WATCH it for yourselves. The women featured are all very different and bring their own unique perspective to the programme. The tall and impressive Jean Woods and Bridget Soujouner with their own eclectic sense of style, the glamorous model Daphne Selfe, ex cookbook queen and artist Sue Kreitzman, whose catch line surely now has to be “don’t wear beige, it will kill you’, the amazingly limber choreographer Gillian Lynne (‘You mustn’t let the aging process in, the minute you give an inch, life or illness or something will take a mile’) and the marvelously and unashamedly irascible BaronessTrumpington.

Second Hand Rose…

04/02/2011

I love how the phrase ‘vintage’ has replaced ‘second hand’ in regards to clothing and decor, and is now ever so trendy. Fact is, I was wearing vintage (along with many of my friends and fellow fashion design students) thirty years ago, well before it was acceptable and trendy as it is now. My friends and I would trawl the second hand clothes shops (and there were fewer then) like Oxfam for genuine 50’s clothes. Frocks, winklepickers etc.

Your Petticoat is showing….

29/01/2011

Last night I was reading to Orla, and we got to a section where the little girl in the story put on her ‘petticoat’, and Orla asked ‘what’s a petticoat?’. I found this interesting, for when I was five years of age I would not have asked this question. My sister and I had lots of petticoats, as we mostly wore dresses and skirts at the same age, and at that time one wore a petticoat (or ‘slip’) under ones dress, whether one was a little girl or a grown woman. I got to thinking, when was the last time I wore a petticoat (or slip)? I do still have one (as I discovered on investigation), not a full slip, but a skirt petticoat, for wearing under a skirt…naturally. Now, I don’t wear skirts any more, but when I still worked full time and wore a mid calf length skirt, I would wear a petticoat as it stopped the skirt catching my legs and bunching up.

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