Tuesday 18 January 2011

Dear Granny

My grandmother, Beryl became delightfully demented in her last year, and has started to carry cooked fish around in her hand-bag. I'm not sure what the thing is with wrapping battered fish in newspaper. It's not important anyhow , it's just something that English people do with fish and chips. All I know is that she would put in there for safe keeping, along with her check-book and medicine, then forget about it and dithers around for the next week washing herself fastidiously, trying to wash away the smell of rotting fish.

I miss her.

The day before she died, on a horrible Winters day, we took her out to a village in Devon at the bottom of a hill. As we drove along she said one of my favorite sayings.

"Oh it looks like we're descending into Hell. We might see Gran-dad down here"









Unknown images and Jessica Stam for Glasse magazine

Stereotypical Granny accessories are big, particularly in Scandinavia — this is not a new trend. To be honest I thought it might have died out, but perhaps part of the draw is that it is relativity easy to source vintage finds on the cheap. You basically pile on tones of old smelly shit that you find at thrift stores, like furry hats, a pleated ankle length skirt, a bit of tweed, a pearl necklace, and some irrelevant things like umbrellas, gloves and a brown capes. This trend is kept simple by wearing dresses and skirts topped off with some weird, out-of-place boots the individual bought from a flee market.

For me, the key to this look is to wear really dirty fur, preferably those heartbreaking ones with the little emptied animal heads and paws still on...which is great but I think I'd feel strange with a foxes arse-hole lingering over my shoulder.

The point is that this is not how I envisioned my late grandmother, who until her very last day, was full of wit, obliquely assertive, authentic and highly creative. So, for what it's worth, I wanted to dedicate this to older women and men, who embody all of lifes experience, creativity, humor, pride and wisdom. You don't need to be old to dress old, and vice versa.

Take a look at the wonderful blog, which captures alternative views of beauty and age. It is wonderfully uplifting. www.advancedstyle.blogspot.com








The idiosyncratic fashionistas, Valerie and Jean. Words cannot describe how much I like these two women. http://idiosyncraticfashionistas.blogspot.com































Photos all from www.advancedstyle.blogspot. com



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