If you like it, wear it

No shouldn'ts

My very cool friend Rose Rouse recently asked me to do a Q&A for the The Advantages of Age Substack that she edits - AofA is a social enterprise Rose co-founded with Suzanne Noble which challenges the media narrative around ageing.

They have been described as ‘the punks of getting older’ by the Sunday Times, so you can see why I like them.

It was great fun doing the questions because I genuinely love being 65 and I enjoyed counting the ways.

One of which is that marvellous mantra, which I heard first from Dame Judi Dench: ‘Behold the field in which I grown my fucks. Lay thine eyes upon it and thou shalt see that it is barren.’ I love that.

But the last question had me a bit stumped. It was: ‘What was a recent outrageous action of yours?’ I couldn’t think of anything because I think everything I do is normal. Don’t we all?

The best I could come up with was: I wore leopard print and camo together yesterday.

See above and below.

I’m rather mad about it. Not least because it’s on some kind of official list of Things You Shouldn’t, which also includes Socks and Sandals and Double Denim, both of which I’ve been working like a pro for the last forty years.

Mad about all of it. I love avocado bathrooms too.

As for the rest of the outfit, I’ve had the boots for years, a New Look cheapo superfind. They are perfectly comfortable and great for dancing in. I always have a good time in them.

The fabulous Zara coat is a new addition, incredibly kindly given to me by my friend Susie Howard, who is the Official World Kveen of Leopard Print, which we call Pard.

She’s also fond of an online browse and after dealing for this coat recently she didn’t think it worked for her, so she sent it on to me.

What a pal, eh? And by no means the first package of pard joy I have received from this quarter. I always know when it’s a parcel from Susie, because even her paper packing tape is printed with the luscious spots.

The camo pants were from a random Google search, years ago when they were hard to find in real life in non-army sizes. They arrived as cargos which aren’t flattering on the shorter leg, so I unpicked the thigh pockets leaving a pleasing fuck-up-erment. I also chopped off about 30 cms of fabric off the bottoms, leaving the edges raw.

I like to make clothes my own.

Underneath I had my Fleetwood Mac T shirt (slightly embarrassingly from John Lewis, not a vintage store in Tallahassee, but I needed it), with the finishing touch of my new favourite badge: ‘Madam President – and Tim!’ in Barbie script.

I felt like the real me in this get up and had an absolutely brilliant time at the party I was on my way to in these pictures. Of which more, in my next post.

Is there anything you feel you ‘shouldn’t wear’? I’m interested to know – but please wear it anyway.

The uncropped frame of this picture. It has a Martin Parr quality I really like. It’s a shame there’s no ice cream van. I don’t know why my feet are like that, but it felt right at the time. I must say it does pleaseth me how well aligned the two pard prints are, they vary so much.

PS Thanks for all the pledges

A massive thank you to all the people - including lovely new ones - who have pledged to subscribe to this Substack, when it goes live as Paid, which is going to happen later this week.

As I’ve said before, like all the other professional writers on here, Substack offers a wonderful opportunity for us to continue to make a living from what we do - while offering readers material of the same quality they find from us in newspapers and magazines.

I’d even say better… because what you get on here comes straight from the writer to you, without any interference from editorial positions. For that reason, I know I’m not alone in finding the freedom of writing on Substack absolutely wonderful.

I also love the direct contact with readers via comments and I’m looking forward to us having lots of fun together on here.

For those who don’t feel able to commit to paid, I totally understand and there will be one free post every week.

Onwards!

Maggie xxx