Dressing Your Age - Topic of the day 6/14/24
What does dressing your age mean to you? Is it something you concern yourself with? Do you think that your style will evolve as a result of getting older? Are there things you're wearing now that you don't think you would wear if you weren't the age you are? Is four questions enough to incite discussion?
42 Replies
Dressing your age is a phrase used exclusively to justify insecurities or shut down people who challenge one's preconceptions.
Look im just dressing 50 percent tenured history professor and 50 percent kindergarten child. If you average that it evens out
I’ve preferred dressing like an “old man” most of my life. I got a lot of negative comments growing up so I tried out streetwear and some other styles as I got into college and wasn’t super happy with any of it. Always felt very imposterish but couldn’t understand why.
In the end, I went back to my natural style and feel much better. People should wear whatever makes them feel best
Rather than restricting your options, I've always had the feeling that getting older gives you license to experiment more. Especially once you get to fuck you age and especially especially if you've been paying attention to clothes throughout your life.
I'll say I suspect that's very much a privilege of being a man, though.
I get some REALLY negative comments regarding my "older" sense of style. Idk if it's a culture thing or what but it is what it is.
life is hard enough as it is without adding the constraints of how one "should" present themselves as they age. somehow i've dressed more risqué (i don't want to use the s- word and invoke a riot)in middle age and yet it seems to fit how i want to wear clothes, ergo here i go
I read "Especially once you get to fuck you age" in so many different ways
i also find it interesting there's a notion of what dressing "old" is even when in reality plenty of older men are trying to live their best life in 511s and fashion is largely cyclic
Please don’t make me lock another totd 😭
Before my grandfather passed away about 5 years ago he was wearing my cousin’s joggers. My wife’s 99 year old grandfather wears jeans and hokas. With a windbreaker layered over a vest because he’s freezing all the time
I dont even look my age who cares if i dress it
I don’t have any conception of what a 29 year old should dress like, theres things I won’t wear but it has a lot more to do with what I already own than “dudes approaching 30 cant wear a graphic tee” or something
I dress the way I wish I could’ve when I was younger, but I was too broke
i just don't know what dressing my age means. ive never known. i wasn't really into sports growing up (or the wrong sports) and I just didn't want to do the basketball shorts/team shirt uniform. now i'm in my 30s and a father and I grew my hair long and grew a mustache.
I'm old and i will take full advantage of the fact that my age means i can wear hats that actually protect from the sun
Goated instagram account
I like his instagram even more than his clothes
(Cheaper too)
Cabourn truly is such inspo
Cabourn on a fat bike grinning like an idiot is basically the platonic ideal of acting your age.
when i first started managing people i look relatively young for my age and tried to dress more "maturely" (read - in my mid 20s dressing like a 40 year old) to be taken seriously; ironically i ended up being seen as out of touch
mainly because it didn't really "fit" me in the same way that dressing like my grandpa hits now
i guess i dress my age, but not by any social obligation. i feel like i dress a bit like a teenage boy who just started learning how to dress himself well. which isn’t bad!! i still have a long way to go, of course, but i have enough of a grasp of what to do with what i’m wearing to look a bit better put-together
I had a job in my late 20s/early 30s where I interacted with upper management a lot, so I started dressing up more even though it wasn't necessary by company dress code. That was actually when I first started following MFA. Was weird at first and one of my friends in the office in particular gave me a lot of shit. But eventually it just became normal.
Now, though, it's nice to know I can pull off dressing up more when I want to, but I rarely do.
But I'm still glad I can feel comfortable throwing on a sport coat if I want to.
These days I dont really think formality and age necessarily go together
Formality has been thoroughly dismantled across all age groups.
What looks bad isn't when you dress too young, it's when you get old and you're too lazy to bother to put any effort in.
New here. Interesting question. I used to think I'd dress more formally as I got older but I dress more casually than I did 10 years ago. I live in trainers and t-shirts, not the shirts and boots of my 20s. I'm not sure if it's my increasing lack of desire to be uncomfortable, or if it's because society in general is more casual than ever, or because of some combination of the two. My style has definitely evolved and has gone along with the overall trends for looser clothes, but I don't chase trends and I am old and grumpy enough to think the kids wear some weird stuff.
I’m 49 so what’s appropriate for my age to wear is always in the back of my mind when making purchases. I find that I can straddle that line pretty well with Japanese brands but adding sneakers to any fit puts me way over that line therefore I avoid them.
Really, sneakers? Everybody wears sneakers.
I dunno if it doesn't vibe with your style that's one thing, but I would say sneakers aren't a thing you outgrow. I'm 43 fwiw.
truth be told i've got 10+ pairs of GYW shoes in my closet and i've barely touched them post-pandemic
If sneakers are good enough for Ralph…
some of you just don't don't got the swag https://www.tiktok.com/@jaadiee/video/7293923987413945632
A lot of my clothes are relaxed/wide and lean younger so I try to offset that with shoes.
Funnily enough I am on the younger side of things and my desire for sneakers has never been lower. Not primarily for any age reason - just because I really don't like the look.
valid
sneakers and laced boots are my go-to
Propably also bc im a contrarian and sometimes feel like sneakers are the default way folx my age dress - so in that way I might just subconciously tend to dress in relation to my age
So yeah
But I think no one is truly ideologically pure in that sense
i too am a contrarian but only sometimes LMAO
(In the sense that we are all influenced by our peers, most of which are of similar age, in one way or another, and therefore always dress "our age" at least a lil bit in some sense)
i dress within ten years in either direction
i think it's also worth saying that sometimes it's not about dressing our age, sometimes it's just about tastes changing over time
Sneakers are cool
I think this is true, as is the opposite. A lot of people my age haven’y developed their tastes past what they liked when they were 21 or so, meaning different styles read as being of a different generation (older or younger) to them.
Wait are those la sportiva wildcats?? I used have a pair lol
Ah nvm theyre not. look similar though 😆
No they’re some Salomon joints
Same same but different
'dressing your age' is for cowards
I'm 44 and will continue to dress as I damned well please
i think dressing for your age is weird as that revelation made in that old tv show
it was for women buts all the same for men
young girls dress older while older women dress to look younger
to clarify the main character had to design a collection for older women
but the idea of the more mature designs looked off to her
so she instead made younger more fun and colorful designs and sample clothing
so a direct comparison would be how young guys wear a black suit and tie to their first job interviews
while older guys up and about in the business wear more “fun” of not at least more varied colors for day to day
so really its just dressing youre age is directly in correlation on how free you are to yourself to make choices that dont conform to the idea of age