Aging myself by my clothing and shoes….

I didn’t really realise it till now, but we age ourselves by what we wear in the way of clothing, makeup, shoes and hair . Here is how it goes for me…

When I was younger, I wore heels constantly even when I first met my now husband in my 40’s. However, when I was in my 20’s I could wear them all day and they were comfortable. Go forward towards my 40’s and my husband and I would be going out on the town and I would come out in an outfit and do a twirl and he would say ‘Are those shoes going to be comfortable?’ and I would reply, ‘What do you think? We won’t be doing much walking and I will manage.’ As to my underwear, it started off at the briefest kind, without going into too much detail. With makeup, I would wear it every day and have black eyeliner and blue makeup and mascara. My hair was always done nicely and I might dye it just to change the colour for fun.

Then I progressed to platform shoes, still heels but more comfortable than stilettos’. With knee length skirts and bikini briefs. The transition to more comfortable clothing and shoes had begun. Now on a night on the town, more thought was starting to be put into wearing something comfortable, while still looking good and feeling attractive. I would put on makeup to go to work, but not much in the weekends apart from going out. My hair was started to be dyed to hide the grey hair starting to appear.

I started to wear more and more shoes that were comfortable, especially to work. Even if going out for dinner, I progressed to shoes that looked cute, but without heels and designed to be comfortable for walking around as needed. The makeup started to be less and less often and mostly only at work. Underwear staying pretty much the same for about 20 years. In 2020, just before the lockdowns, I started to stop dying my hair, within 18 months to two years I completely stopped dying it and let it go to my natural grey.

Fast forward to today and I realised so much has changed in recent times. I retired and from that day I have hardly worn makeup. My hair remains undyed. Then I accidentally went and bought new knickers, got them home and realised they were full briefs – like my Mum used to wear – thought ‘damn, I got the wrong ones!’ and was going to swap them. Decided to try them on and blow me, but they are very comfortable. Now to my footwear. I have a wardrobe full of heels that almost never see the light of day. Flat shoes have been my footwear of choice for some time. But, now I have progressed even further to shoes without laces so that I don’t have to bend down to do them up! My trousers – at the moment – are pull on pants with elastic waists. Again, for comfort while I have my back and leg problem. Hopefully, once I get better I can reclaim my jeans.

So much has changed in so short a time.

It has snuck up on me and I now know that I am getting old!

What I want to know though, is when did I turn into my Mother?