You wouldn’t think it would be so hard would you?

You’re a grown-up! You can choose what you want to wear … or can you?

What about all the rules? No short skirts after 30, no cleavage, no crop tops, no tight clothing, no long hair, nothing cutesy, no this, no that …

As you can see here I have failed to observe several of the “rules” …

So one day I was reading up on all the things I shouldn’t be wearing, as a woman of more mature years, and what really drove the expletives out of my mouth was when I came to the part where a woman in her twenties said that it’s not okay to wear ‘Mary-Jane’ style shoes – you know, shoes with the little strap that goes across the top of the foot – after the age of forty … that was going too far!!

I became pretty cross about this, I can tell you!

Later that week I relayed this rubbish to my tough, feminist, karate black belt, going for her second dan daughter of 29, and it was heartening to hear her come back with “over the age of forty, a woman wears whatever the f… she wants to and everyone else can like it or lump it!!” I think there may have been more expletives in there but you get the idea!

Here I am breaking the rules again … no one died or lost an eye when I put this photo on instagram …

As much as I know these rules are absolute nonsense and have nothing whatsoever to do with style, I can understand that they can undermine the confidence of so many of us who really just want to get it right.

Put simply, there are no rules other than the ones we ourselves seek to enforce. I have a rule that when I leave the house I want to present a neat, attractive and stylish package to the world. I dress appropriately for the contexts in which I operate.

The following is of me going out to meet a friend for lunch, going for a nice walk along the promenade next to the beach and attending an appointment with my Doctor …

In all of these contexts I have broken the fashion rules of a mature woman with the long hair, kitschy jewellery, bright colours and patterns, white in winter and finally, high heels and Mary-Janes …

And here I am ready to go out to dinner on a Saturday night in the sleepy little backwater of Wollongong …

Wear what you like and wear what makes you feel good, because life is too short to live by other people’s rules. I get my share of funny looks, and that’s okay, but I also have people who stop me and ask me about what I’m wearing, my hair and so on. They say they’d like the confidence to try something different, and I tell them the sky doesn’t fall down just because I’m wearing Mary-Janes, coloured tights or whatever – and I’m well and truly over 40!!

As to the business about long hair after 40, 50 or whatever … I love having longer hair and have fun styling it and if you prefer short hair that’s fine too .. and dreadlocks, cornrows or what have you. Hair is our individual choice.

And as you can see, I really don’t care …

I would love to hear what you think about such rules in the comments below.

Thank you for passing some time in my little corner of the web and I would love you to follow me so more fun can be shared,

Donna 💙🦋🧚🏻‍♀️🙏