Martha Stewart pushes back on ageism in fashion for older women
Martha Stewart isn’t letting society’s views of how women should dress hold back her style − and fashion and gender experts say people of all ages can learn from her attitude.
While on the red carpet for the Fashion Group International Night of Stars gala last week, the businesswoman and television personality, 82, was asked by Page Six about the idea that people of a certain age should stick to dressing in a particular way.
“Dressing for whose age?” Stewart replied, when asked about the topic. “I don’t think about age. I think people are more and more and more (fabulous) than they’ve ever been in their senior years, and I applaud every one of them.”
Stewart has made headlines for posing on the cover of Sports Illustrated last year and for a pool selfie that went viral.
The star said her approach to fashion hasn’t changed all that much throughout her life. “I’ve dressed the same since I was 17,” she said. “If you look at my pictures on my Instagram, I look pretty much the same.”
Stewart isn’t the only public figure to come under scrutiny for the way she dresses. When photos were snapped in April 2021 of first lady Jill Biden, 72, wearing patterned tights, many misidentified the hosiery as fishnet stockings, and some were quick to label Biden as “too old to be dressing like that,” while others defended her. Similarly, Diane Keaton, 77, made waves when she sported thighhigh boots.
Style coach Megan LaRussa says Stewart’s comments push back against a narrative that women should conceal themselves more as they age.
“She’s not hiding herself just because she’s 82,” LaRussa says. “Where I think a lot of women can go astray with their style is they think, ‘Oh, I’m getting older, so therefore I need to hide my body,’ or ‘I can’t wear short sleeves anymore,’ or ‘I can’t stand out too much.’ ”
Why do people care so much?
LaRussa, who coaches clients of all ages, says it’s common for women to hear comments urging them to edit their dress, no matter how old they are.
In a Vogue cover interview in June 2021, Biden said it’s “kind of surprising, I think, how much commentary is made about what I wear or if I put my hair in a scrunchie. I put my hair up! Or the stocking thing,” adding the tights weren’t fishnets or lace, but “very pretty stockings.”
Comments such as these, LaRussa says, can come from well-meaning friends or sales associates who don’t realize the harm their words carry.
“It might be a client in her 70s who might say to me, ‘Well, my friends all say I can’t wear short sleeves anymore,’ ” she says. “I do think those kind of arbitrary rules can really limit one from expressing your real authentic style and feeling confident, and I think those types of rules are outdated now.”
‘This is what I look like.’
Marya T. Mtshali, a lecturer in Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Harvard, has told USA TODAY that “we have to change in our culture how we view women, how we treat women.”
Leora Tanenbaum, author of “I Am Not a Slut: SlutShaming in the Age of the Internet,” suggests that society effectively “banish the word appropriate” in the context of women’s fashion choices and age.
“I think the best course of action is for us to not apologize for our choices . ... Just own it,” Tanenbaum said. “This is who I am. This is what I decided to put on this morning. This is what I look like. Deal with it.”
“Own it because there are always going to be naysayers. I’m sure Martha Stewart experiences that on a daily basis,” LaRussa says. “As long as you’re confident in the decisions you’ve made and what feels best on you, then you’re less likely to feel put down by others and affected by others. And you can just own your own look, which is such a gift.”
Contributing: Sara M Moniuszko, USA TODAY