‘People my age know how to get dressed’
Alyson Walsh tells Caroline Leaper why she is speaking up for fashion-conscious 50-somethings
It has been 12 years since Alyson Walsh founded her blog, That’s Not My Age, and, she says, age-diversity in the fashion industry has improved considerably in that time. “Initially, I wanted to prove that midlife had evolved,” she says. “In real life I would see lots of stylish women of all ages, but it wasn’t reflected in the media. All you would see was either much younger models or age-defying celebrities, and neither appealed to me. I wanted to read about fashion in a way that was a bit more relaxed and normal, like the conversations I would have with friends.”
The 56-year-old former fashion editor at Good Housekeeping joins The Sunday Telegraph today as a new Weekend Style columnist, covering Virginia Chadwyck-Healey’s maternity leave. Here, she says, she hopes to communicate more of the ageless style advice and inspirational outfit ideas that have attracted a dedicated readership to her blog, as well as almost 53,000 followers on Instagram.
For more than a decade, Walsh has been at the forefront of the industry’s movement to include a more realistic range of women within advertising campaigns. “Fashion has always been obsessed by the young and, while it has changed dramatically, there’s still room for improvement,” she explains.
“I often get included in these media round-ups of stylish women over 50 and we get called the ‘Instagrandmas’. It’s used as a term for all these women who have got grey hair; some are in their 70s, some in their 50s. I don’t have kids. I’m not a mother, let alone a grandmother. It’s annoying that people group women together based on what they look like.”
The result, she says, is a new set of stereotypes that need to debunked, and Instagram is a perfect platform. “Yes, there’s now an older model in the advertising campaign, but it’s typically a very tall, slim older model with long, grey hair,” she says. “Not everyone over 50 looks like that. One of the most positive things about Instagram is that you can find and follow stylish women of all ages – Lyn Slater, Sophie Fontanel – pictures of these women are popping up on my feed all the time.”
On That’s Not My Age, Walsh shares regular outfit photos with her audience, while starting conversations via posts on everything from how to find the best “straightforward summer dresses with sleeves”, to “has grey hair changed the colours I wear?”
Walsh’s wardrobe is full of easy but elevated outfits to wear every day, whatever your age. Typically you might see her wearing a mixture of quality high-street finds from Cos, Arket, Uniqlo and John Lewis, with a few designer investment buys peppered in from Weekend Max Mara, or Margaret Howell.
“I’m quite careful when I shop,” she says. “I stalk more expensive things; see it and wait until it’s in the sale before I buy. I like to suggest things that people will really love, that are good quality and that they will find useful and get a lot of wear from.”
The response to her posts, Walsh says, has been extremely positive. She has built a community page for likeminded women to share tips on everything from the fit of good clothes on the high street, to why “comfort clothes” are considered a dirty word. “No pictures of me are Photoshopped, what you see is what you get,” she laughs. “The response has been fantastic online. People contact me to say, ‘you encouraged me to grow my natural hair colour in’, or ‘you inspired me to look in this shop’.”
Sharing pictures of herself online initially took some getting used to, Walsh says. As Good Housekeeping fashion editor, her role was typically to give out advice from behind the scenes. For the first four years, she says, she photographed her outfits from the neck down, so as to not show her face.
“When I first started, everyone was anonymous. As it developed I realised it was more important for me to become the face of it, and that actually that was what women wanted to see,” she says.
In her columns over the coming weeks, Walsh says that she hopes to show Telegraph readers how to enhance their existing everyday style, rather than adopt a radical new look.
“You can’t patronise people. If you’re over 50, you’re probably thinking, ‘We know how to get dressed, we’ve been doing it for quite a long time.’ I want to give people guidance rather than rigid rules, and suggestions to inspire them. I grew up at the tail end of punk, and other women who were teenagers in the Sixties were going to see the Rolling Stones – we’re generations with our own styles, our own ideas.”
And for anyone who hasn’t quite decided what their own “personal style” is, Walsh has a fast track to finding it.
“You can practise style like you would practise making your favourite pasta dish,” she insists. “Spend time going through what you’ve already got, get in front of the mirror and try on outfits to figure out what works together. When you’ve practised your look, you can get a bit experimental and throw a few more new ingredients into the mix. It means you’ll have a few recipes that you can turn to next time you’re in a rush in the morning, instead of throwing on outfits and hoping for the best.”
Alyson Walsh’s Weekend Style column will begin next week. Adrian Clark’s Off The Cuff column returns next week.
‘Not everyone over 50 is tall and slim with long, grey hair’