Street Ladies

Artist Katy Grannan has a keen eye for the pretty that exists in the odd. Her work is a body of mostly photographs that shows viewers what they may not think to look at in a way that makes it so they can't stop staring. The artist's latest work centers around a decidedly older group of subjects. In a two part solo exhibition entitled The Happily Ever After at Salon 94's Bowery and Freemans locations (see the site for details) Grannan presents The Believers and Boulevard. The Believers is an unscripted video work featuring a cast of faces familiar to Grannan's cannon; and Boulevard is the artist's rendition of street style photography. In her characteristic way Grannan stopped and snapped an intriguing (beautiful, unsettling, maybe unhinged) set of strangers against a stucco wall, as bright as the California sun.

The photos of Boulevard are of a varied set of passersby that present with their own peculiarities. Each subject carries out some form of visual delusion, whether a dyed mustache masking grays, a teeny tank top defying calendar age, a masculine jawline, or a host of ill-fitting clothing relaying an ill-fitting persona. The thread between them is a molding of reality to match the mind's life, the one that the subjects are living happily ever after. The photos themselves are saturated with sunshine, and glisten with brightness. The shots of older women, in their outfits and with their smiles, are most intriguing. Age is such a taboo in our culture, that we associate it with demented minds and feeble bodies, rather than a mark of life well lived and well spent. Grannan's photos raise that point without any pointedness, just great sitters and a stucco wall.

Senior Styles With Sylvia!

Do you have an affair coming up? An event you need to look special for? Let Grandma Sylvia show you how to put together an outfit with a little pizazz on Episode 2 of Senior Styles With Sylvia:




Waka waka waka! Happy Halloween from I Want To Wear It.!!

Respect Your Elders: Iris Apfel.

In fashion there are only a handful of people who can defy every rule, every standard, every purportedly perfect method of dress and still light the world up with their natural born sartorial skills. One member of that very small club has been popping up a lot on the fashion scene this season and she deserves every bit of attention she's getting. Ms. Iris Apfel is a rare bird indeed, an oldschool New Yorker with taste that repels the mere notion of categorization.

Iris snapped by Yvan Rodic at the New York shows.

She's 87, an accomplished, lauded veteran of the Interior Design profession, and the co-founder of the highly reputed textile company Old World Weavers. Her signature round spectacles and a penchant for copious accessories has made her the toast of fashion town for years now.

The lady's got balls. (Sorry, I had to.)


Iris with her husband Carl, who she also dresses.

She's a true original and one of the only living fashion legends to have been honored with a wardrobe retrospective at the Costume Institute at the Met. Loves her.

Click all images for source information.

God, Please Let Me Age Gracefully.

Garance Dore snapped this beautiful woman of a certain age looking timeless and marvelous on the streets of Amsterdam. I want to be her when I grow up.

Grow Up.

Here are two beautiful ladies of a certain age to ease anyone's fears of passing days:

Garance Dore found them. I want to drink coffee with them and listen to their stories about life. Then raid their closets, quiz them on their skin care routine, and scope out their shopping spots.

Resepect Your Elders

I'm a big fan of the more wise among us. I love the stories I hear and the lessons I learn from those with a few more years under their belt than me. I noticed this year that the golden set were getting their due respect in the fashion arena, and I couldn't have been more pleased. The Moment, which is The New York Times fashion blog also noticed as part of their year-end wrap-up of fashion trends. In their post called "Fashion Grows Up" I found a link to Advanced Style and now I'm hooked.

This street style blog distinguishes itself from the many on the market by covering the stylings of senior scenesters. I'm such a fan of older people maintaining their sense of style. When I was younger I thought that there was an age that you reached where your pants had to be hiked up and your hair had to be fluffed and your bags had to be fanny packed. It scared me. I'm not scared anymore, kids. I'm ready to grow up. Well, in due time of course.

Radical Old People

Is it wrong to say "old" people? I just looked up at the title of the post and somehow it doesn't seem very PC. But I'm thinking that's because we are so ageist here in the US. It is almost taboo to talk about getting old, unless you are hawking some inevitably ineffective cure for the pesky aging problem. Mortality is a reality, no matter how many cc's of botox a person feeds into their face, they're gonna get old. We are all gonna get old. Here's a plug for doing it gracefully courtesy of the Spring Summer '09 men's shows.

Check out the senior studs at Yamamoto:


And some more distinguished gentlemen at Demeulemeester's runway show:



I absolutely love it. One of my favorite memories of my travels through Europe was the impression that older people there carried themselves with dignity and an evolved sense of style that they had cultivated and honed through the years. I'd never seen the concept of elegance enacted so well and so pervasively. Here, when we are old we hike up our socks, wear high waisted trousers made of plastic fabrics, and tug a sun visor over our bald spots. I sense change in the air. The world is aging, here's to encouraging it to do so with dignity.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I don't think this same enthusiasm for the more wise among us would fly on the women's runways. However, I did just see Laurie Anderson in concert, and my hopes are high that if she can make 61 look as radical and beautiful as she does, there's a chance for us all.