What to wear in retirement, look good and you'll feel good

Don't know what to wear to look well in your advancing years? Don't worry! Rita de Brún talks to the style experts

Looking good in retirement may look like it comes naturally to some, but that's a sure sign they've put in some thought and effort. Picture: iStock

What to wear at retirement age without looking hideous is something that has likely, at one time or another, baffled your ancestors. Chances are, it’s your turn now.

The topic has never been more confusing. Gone are the days when you could simply go on a shopping spree, parade around in your finery and expect admiration. For that, you’d want to be donning at least one thing you found in a charity shop. It could be something daft, even something vaguely ridiculous. Given its origins, it’ll still have quite the cachet.

As for mincing around in leather and furs, forget that. Nothing is more indicative of being old-fashioned and cruel. Today’s set is more enlightened. They see animal parts as inextricably linked with slaughter and they’re right. It’s unimaginable that it was ever otherwise.

Some things you can tweak. Take Birkenstocks for example. Vegan versions are untainted by spilled blood and they’re super comfy as well. But even when you get the footwear in order, there’s plenty more to think about.

I don’t know what age T.S. Eliot’s Prufrock was when he pondered the merits of parting his hair behind, and that, after settling on wearing the bottoms of his trousers rolled. But this is the sort of a conundrum with which many of retirement age are familiar.

Joan Cashman runs the Colour & Image Academy in Cork. When asked what people of pension age might well avoid wearing, she says ‘outdated eyeglasses’. 

Joan Cashman, of  The Colour and Image Academy, Academy Street, Cork. Picture: Jim Coughlan

  “Those old-fashioned kind of plastic pinky spectacle frames,” she says. “They were on prescription long ago for kids. You often see older women wearing these. They’d be better off with proper frames.” 

What about cat-eyed frames? “It isn't so much the shape of the glasses that matters. It’s actually the frame itself. Not wearing those outdated frames. They need to get proper glasses every couple of years. Because trends change all the time. Now the frames will depend on your face shape. But those plastic, cheaper frames don’t look good.”

VPLs are another bug bear of Joan’s. “Avoid wearing undergarments that show the panty line,” she says.

What about short skirts? “Avoid the shorter skirts,” she says. She’s absolutely right. Above the knee hemlines are an obvious no-no. After all, who - at pension age who hasn’t had them ‘done’ — has the knees?

There’s more on Joan’s ‘Avoid’ list. Religiously following trends, and wearing patterns both top and bottom simultaneously are on there. I’m not sure if they’re felonies or misdemeanours, in her wise style bible, but religiously following trends and wearing patterns both top and bottom simultaneously are listed, and in Joan's knowhow we can trust.

It’s fun visualising all the worst looks and the protests that dissing them might generate. After all, with age comes a well-earned right to comfort. That said, would Joan draw the line at trousers with elasticated bands? I felt sure she would, but no.

“They're actually fine,” she says, “because a lot of pensioners will have a bit of weight in the middle. They look okay when they are not paired with short tops. As long as the top covers the top of the elastic band, we will probably all be in them,” she says with a laugh full of merriment.

She has ‘a thing’ she tells me about the merits of volume avoidance. Elaborating she says: “Avoid putting something over those elasticated trousers that is creating volume on top. Because if there is volume in the top, the pants below it can't be wide.” 

Wearing oversized clothes is no problem in her opinion provided they’re worn only on the top or only on the bottom. “The problem is when you do both together,” she says. 

 

What about men? “The Farah pants that were out a long time ago. I am still seeing those on men. You’d think they were still in vogue when really they are gone out with the flood. But I’m still seeing the elderly in those. Often they are a bit on the tight side, which isn’t flattering. Elderly men should, I think, avoid tighter trousers like the Farah pants."

What else looks awful on pension-aged men? “Dying their hair,” says Joan. “When men dye their hair it looks awful, so I say avoid that and let your hair grow grey." 

Advice for men in a nutshell, then: “Avoid dying the hair and tight trousers,” she says.

Asked what might look ghastly on a pensioner, Cork-based personal style consultant, Breeda O’Connell is another who knows what’s what when it comes to how to dress. 

When asked what might look ghastly on a pensioner, she wisely opined: “Something they are wearing for the wrong reasons. Something that someone else has advised them to wear, so they don't feel like themselves when it’s on them.

“You will always look good when you are wearing the clothes. It’s when the clothes start wearing you: that’s when you are wearing the wrong thing.”