I wore an 18in mini in my 50s . . . what was I thinking?
By columnist Amanda Platell, 63
IF AnY woman over 50 can get away with wearing a mini it’s Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Yet still I found myself tuttutting over her musings on the appropriateness of it all. Get over yourself, honey.
Even a woman as gorgeous as you has to face the fact that when the clock dials up half a century, it’s time to dress your age. I wouldn’t wear a minimini now and if I do dare to wear a slightly shorter shirt, it’s not far above the knee at all and with opaque tights to conceal the thread veins.
A quick scan through my own mini history brought back memories. At 16, Mum banned me from leaving the house in a knitted black version that barely covered my buttocks, so I put on a pair of jeans and stuffed it in my handbag to change into later.
In my 20s and 30s — the 1980s and 90s — I had a whole rack of skintight minis you wore under long, shoulder-padded Dynasty-style jackets. Into my 40s, when I’d put on weight, but my pins were still good, I went for slightly more demure minis, floaty and romantic.
In my 50s? never! Or, rather, just the once. Aged 51, at a pub with my then boyfriend, who was 13 years younger, I remember wearing a little Agnes B number, faded denim with jean buttons down the front. I styled it with a white boyfriend shirt, battered cowboy boots and opaque tights.
I found it yesterday in the cupboard for clothes I’d never be able to wear again, my happy memory collection.
And I was shocked. It is minuscule — or should it be ‘mini’scule? When it came to this cover shoot, I didn’t believe it would fit around my waist 12 years later.
I got out the tape measure and that denim mini is 18 inches from waist to hem. 18 inches! Lord alive, what must I have been thinking?
I remember thinking I looked pretty OK. I wore it endlessly and I’m sure one of my toofrank-for-their-own-good girlfriends would have told me if I looked, as Charlotte fears, ‘like an old lady with a short skirt’.
So my advice to Charlotte is, yes, there comes a time to pack away childish things. By the time you get to my age, your minis will be languishing in your memory cupboard.