An article in the Guardian in London caused some merriment when it was read outside Aristo’s bar in Barga Vecchia this morning.
The article had the title – “I hate jeans, but I hate age limits more, which is why older men can wear denim” and Hadley Freeman who wrote the article went on to say, “Yes, men over 40 can look awful in denim, but it’s more to do with the kind of jeans and how they’re wearing them”
Anyway, what was she talking about? Ah yes, men’s sell-by dates on jeans. “So, as I was saying, it’s just as wrong to harangue men about being too old to wear a garment as it is when done to women. In fact, one could make the argument that it’s worse because most men work within such a fearfully narrow fashion palette to begin with, so for them to be told they can’t wear one thing is the equivalent of a woman being told she can’t wear at least 16 things.”
It would seem that for the Guardian’s English readers, denim jeans for the over 40’s is a bit of a joke.
Maybe somebody ought to come and see what Aristo’s bar was like this morning. Every single person in the bar was wearing jeans this morning. The age ranges went from the mid twenties, to jean wearing over thirties, over forties, one or two over fifties, a smattering of denim clad over sixties (including two German visitors to Barga) and then the cherry on the fashion victim cake – not one but two men both over seventy sitting drinking their morning espresso quite happily wearing smartly pressed jeans.
How old is too old for jeans? – Joe, north London
I’m glad you asked this, Joe, I am glad you asked. If one spends too much time self-lobotomising via the media of women’s fashion magazines and online tabloid newspapers, it’s easy to assume that it is only women who get hectored about being too old/fat/ugly to wear anything other than an oversized cardigan from Boden and a muumuu from Monsoon. But, of course, men get this kind of nonsense just as badly, and while some of my sex might be tempted to cheer and stick their tongues out and crow that it’s right and just that men should endure at least a sliver of the kind of fashion fascism that women must endure, I must beg those well-intentioned women to de-crow and retract their tongues back into their mouths.
It is simple logic that two wrongs never make a right and my general, genial feeling about this kind of gender debate is that if something is unacceptable when done to a woman, so it is unacceptable if it is done to a man. Re-enacting an injustice on the opposite gender has nothing to do with restoring some kind of out-of-whack balance and everything to do with short-term revenge. Thus, it is just as unacceptably embarrassing for a newspaper or magazine to perv over male athletes in their tiny shorts as it is when they do the same to female athletes. Can’t we all just get along? And can’t we all stop perving over athletes, too? Because that really is just very, very sad.
Anyway, what were we talking about? Ah yes, men’s sell-by dates on jeans. So, as I was saying, it’s just as wrong to harangue men about being too old to wear a garment as it is when done to women. In fact, one could make the argument that it’s worse because most men work within such a fearfully narrow fashion palette to begin with, so for them to be told they can’t wear one thing is the equivalent of a woman being told she can’t wear at least 16 things.
Recently, an article came out in an inferior British newspaper that took a particular member of the Conservative party to task for daring to wear a pair of jeans to work while being over the age of 25. Now, I was on holiday when said article was published and, despite my best attempts, I have been unable to pull up the actual article beyond the headline. However, several kind readers have thoughtfully conveyed to me the essential point which was, in essence, that a chap really can’t wear jeans to work if he was born before 1973.
Now, as I have made very clear in columns of yore, I am no fan of denim. In fact, I find jeans excessively dull. However, I understand their appeal and, more importantly, my abhorrence of phoney rules about age limits for clothing far outweighs any wariness I might have about denim. I have said this once before, and by “once” I mean “about a million times”, and I shall say it again: there are no age limits in fashion.
I appreciate that some people (men, often, but many women, too) feel so nervous about fashion that they like the idea of hard-and-fast rules they can cling on to, even if those rules work against them. But I am both sorry and thrilled to tell you that those rules do not exist. Age is not the determining factor in whether someone should wear something or not. Rather, it’s about whether the person feels comfortable in said garment, and whether the cut of the garment suits them personally.
So, for example, even though I am younger than the aforementioned Tory, I can guarantee he looked better in jeans than I would simply because I hate wearing jeans, whereas he, clearly, does not. Furthermore, from the photos I have seen, he looked absolutely fine in his jeans, and certainly a lot better than most of the rest of his political party. Honestly, is dressing like George Osborne any better? (No, no, for God’s sake no.) Further to that, the reason Jeremy Clarkson looks so dreadful in his jeans has nothing to do with his age but because of the kind of jeans he wears and how he wears them.
Of course, there is the other detail that on the midnight of one’s 40th birthday the magical fashion fairies fly into your bedroom and forcibly take all the denim out of your wardrobe. But y’all knew that already, right?
article by Hadley Freeman –The Guardian
