Style Alert - From My Window

I recently spent several hours sitting in a very busy airport, and in a break from my reading, did some people watching, while taking note of styles of clothing and hair.  I don’t have the kind of lifestyle which prompts me to think of popular trends often; so it was interesting for me.  If you are like me, and don’t pay much attention to such things, here are a few style alerts from a bustling airport in a city of 1.6 million people:

1. Crop-tops.  It escapes me why you’d wear a long sleeve, warmly knit sweater which ends well above your belly button.  It does showcase a nice waistline but it just seems so impractical at this time of year.  A crop t-shirt on a hot summer day, why yes; but a truncated cable knit sweater on a chilly March day?  Looks like the knitter ran out of yarn.

2. To go with the shorter tops, jean waistlines have crept higher.  This is a welcome development for me.  Low-slung jeans are very uncomfortable, and you can tell that by watching women who wear them do a sort of “hip shimmy” while pulling up on the waistband of their jeans to try and stop their relentless downward descent.  Sometimes it is necessary to do this every five or ten minutes.  So bring on those slimming high waist jeans! 

3. Pigtails and braids:  Lots of younger and middle-aged women with longer hair have resurrected what was stylish in the early 70’s.  Braids in particular are a nice way to control hair and looked killer on grey-haired women.  Quite classic, I like it. Pigtails are cute on younger women, sort of fun and playful.  Probably not suitable for most of us older ladies, but if you can pull it off, good for you!

4. “Leisure” pants.  I don’t know the correct name for these.  They are like a cross between slacks and those shapeless sweat pants.  A nice, stretchy material for comfort, but with enough trim tailoring to be dressier and more flattering, yet still casual.  A forgiving flat elastic waist.  Perfect for sitting jammed into a tiny, uncomfortable airplane seat for hours.  I’d guess about a third of the women, and even more of the men I saw were wearing these.  I say “bravo.”  They are less revealing than leggings, but just as comfy. Add a classic black t-shirt and you not only look good, you’ll feel better.

5. False eyelashes.  Quite a few women wear them, hopefully for special occasions like weddings; I can’t even begin to contemplate daily wear.  An acquaintance of mine looks fantastic in them, but said she has to sleep on her back and never change position or they wind up on the pillowcase.  That’s a hard nope for me.  And there is a point where some go from eye enhancing to being kind of bizarre, where you think they might be impairing peripheral vision they are so long.  The other problem is that they are time consuming to maintain, and anyone with a fifteen minute patience for such ministrations like me would find the time fussing around with them much better spent doing something more enjoyable, like cleaning the horse stall.

I wasn’t inspired to drastically change my normal attire after my analysis in the airport, but if I was 40 years younger, I’d probably be all over updating my look.  I’ve seen enough pictures of myself in peculiar clothes and really big hair to know I have been led astray by trends in the past.

You can reach me for commentary, alternative viewpoints or ideas at this e-mail address:  JanieTMartin@gmail.com