Byline: MIMI SPENCER
Well, it had to happen. After decades of chasing the fickle skirts of youth, women are finally coming to their senses.
Middle-aged chic is all the rage! Forget bum-hugging miniskirts and boob-baring tops. Erase from your mind the Wag-y, slaggy, come-and-get-me mode of dress that has been shocking the counties and tickling the tabloids for nigh on a decade. The hottest look at the moment takes a nice sensible shoe - a suede court, perhaps, with a sturdy heel - as its foundation. A mid-length skirt comes next, followed by a short-sleeved top and a lovely fitted cardie. Hair is thick Fake Panerai and glossy. Makeup is neither of the above. The entire look can be purchased from Jigsaw or Boden or M&S and is set off with a good-quality leather handbag, a string of pearls and, if at all poss, an engagement ring.
Middle-aged chic, or 'Mac' as it is called by those in the know, carries only one further caveat: you can't possibly wear it if you are actually middle-aged.
To do so would be to undercut its very raison Coach Wallet Bags Replica d'Itre and turn you into little more than a frump. No, Mac demands the dash of youth. Look at Kate Middleton, aged 25. Kate shows up to function after function in entirely appropriate attire, her floral skirts tracing the exact Mac plimsoll line (the upper cusp of the patella). She wears nice, neat clothes with small buttons and proper shoes. Modest. Middle-aged. Magnificent.
Katie Holmes does it too, in her Chanel spectator shoes, tweedy jackets and snug polo-neck jumper. It's a rather generic, user-friendly look, designed expressly to avoid frightening anyone off - the perfect foil to a barking husband. This is lamb dressed as mutton and it belongs to the breed of young woman who is proficient at modern languages, skiing and making a very tasty gravy on the Aga. It prefers flowery frocks to drop-dead dresses, comfort to come-hither. You won't catch a Mac frock out on the razz, singing the theme tune from Titanic on the karaoke machine, or spilling Bacardi Breezers down its cleavage and then rolling home to end up as a puddle on the bedroom floor. Mac dresses are folded, my dears, not flung.
It's an odd fashion movement, but one that is fast gaining hold - the first gust of style from the Home Counties since Sloanes last drew breath.
I have a friend, Delia, who at 26
embroidered patches has long excelled at the Mac look and now finds herself in the bothersome position of being fearfully in fashion. She finds the whole thing exasperating and has taken to swearing wilfully in public to redress the balance. Delia's clothes, though, remain perfectly ironed, neat as a pin and as dull as a headache. I just hope that when she hits 38 or thereabouts she will start wearing tiddly hot pants and see-through T-shirts. It would have a certain symmetry to it, don't you think?
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