Get Dressed: Enter The Crone

From Advanced Style

Hark! Old is new again, y’all. Now one can be vintage down to the roots. Out with traditional interpretations of advanced age signifiers (ill health, grouchiness, frailty) and in with the celebration of wisdom, self-knowledge and freedom – and grey hair! According to articles like this one in American Vogue, grey (and white) hair is in. But here on the Dog Blog, we’re not into trend-watching cuz we recognize that there are as many ways to get dressed as there are to grow old, whether one chooses to “age with grace” or decidedly without, or fake advanced age until you make it a little further along your mortal coil. With this in mind, I’ve decided to take this trend and amplify it by suggesting going Full Crone. More after the jump!

From Advanced Style

David Byrne’s daughter, Malu, goes grey.

Model Kristen Mcmenamy

Daniel Day-Lewis at the Oscars

Claire Boucher a.k.a. Grimes

president-barack-obama-takes-oath-office

That silver fox, President Barack Obama

So, there are a lot of recent examples of folks going grey. But how else could one invoke the confidence of advanced style? Here are some options and related old lady goddesses to consider.

Day coats/ voluminous jackets: Cozy and a bit kooky, loose long jackets make for an uber comfy silhouette that suggests a busy grandma with a lot thinking, crafting and baking to do. Best paired with leggings or other close fitting option on yer gams. Shawls, capes, long skirts and a general Stevie Nicks vibe can inspire similar feelings of witchy comfort. Goddess archetype: Mother Holle (German) – The Wise Queen of Winter.

via The Snork Maiden

Eye glasses / eye-glasses chains: Nothing suggests you’ve had time to read all the books in the library like a pair of spectacles! Leash those lenses with some eye glass jewelry too, whydontcha. Goddess archetype: Macha (Irish) – The wild woman who battles against injustice to woman and children.

Audre Lorde

Paul Smith at London Fashion Week Fall 2012

Vlada Roslyakova @ Ulyana Sergeenko HC, S/S 13

Animal familiars and talismans: My deepest unattainable super power desire is the ability to train my cat to drape herself across my shoulders like an animated stole, because nothing says Wise Woman like She Who Communes With Beasts. In lieu of an actual animal familiar or family pet, might I suggest animal prints and other evocations of fauna. Any power animal will do, but for the sake of keeping this blog post reasonable in length, let’s stick with dogs and cats, shall we? Goddess archetype: Ama No Uzumi (Japanese) – A Shinto ancestral Goddess of longevity, protection and psychic abilities.