A woman of an uncertain age
Friday May 16 2008
By Lee Ann Waterman
Circumstance and necessity conspired to see me in a mall not once but twice in the last week.
Despite all the stereotypes about women and shopping, clothing and shoes, building my wardrobe is far from a favourite activity of mine. But, when — shortly after coming to grips with the sad reality of my spring/summer clothing options — I found myself travelling very close to a shopping centre with a few stores I like on Tuesday evening, I ventured in.
Then, on Friday, I broke one of my shoes (that’s right broke, a big split right across the sole). When I couldn’t find a replacement pair that fit both my feet and my vanity (I have bunions but still want cute shoes) in town, I decided to brave a different mall on Sunday.
It was during these two trips that I realized I have become a woman of a certain age — or maybe I should say uncertain age.
Even though I don’t really feel that much older than I did five or 10 years ago, I clearly am. Which means a lot of the stores I favoured in my 20s carry many items I really should not be wearing in my 30s. Problem is, although some things are very obviously too young (and to be honest, of a style I probably wouldn’t have worn ever), others I’m a little unsure about.
For example, I bought a t-shirt dress. It’s fairly conservative — knee-length, black with thin white strips and a white colour, but there’s something about it (perhaps the t-shirt material?) that says youth.
My husband, it seems, has greater insight into this age-appropriate dressing issue than I do. “You’re cutting off the tag?” he asked when I dared to pull out the scissors the minute I got home with the new dress. “Why?” I asked. “Well,” he said, “Where are you going to wear it?”
“Lots of places.” I replied. “Weekends, maybe to work on casual Fridays. Lots of places.” And I cut the tag off.
Now, I am, of course, wondering where indeed I will wear the dress. Weekends around the house, or possibly short jaunts to the grocery store are looking the most promising.
On other hand, I don’t want to shop too old either.
So now, in addition to all my other issues with purchasing new clothes — Is this too long, short, round, pointy, billowy, tight to be in style? Why is a size six at one store a size eight at another? Does this come in black or grey? Where do I find more items that weren’t made in China? — I now must consider: Does this say I’m trying, spectacularly unsuccessfully, to look like a teenager? Or, my mom and I share our clothes?
Makes one wonder when we are going to arrive at the future of television shows like Star Trek, when human beings have simply adopted a uniform.
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