Dressing Appropriately for One's Age

Lately, I've been thinking more and more about age-appropriate dressing. At 33, I'm doing a wardrobe update of sorts, adding more "grown-up" pieces—e.g. shift dresses, collared (sleeveless) buttoned tops, and skirts—infusing the same pops of color and play on prints that I've come to love all these years.

Oddly, I dressed more like a 30-year-old in my twenties and a 20-year-old in my thirties; a teen when I was a tween and a tween when I was a teen!

That said, I'm a lover of clothes (and accessories!). I remember as a child, my mom and I would go on regular visits to the town's seamstress who would make us pretty things that I will brazenly say resemble Resort pieces in a prepster kind of way. Back in the day—which really isn't too far back as this was only the eighties—it wasn't unusual for people to go to a family tailor or seamstress to have clothes made.

Fast forward to 2013, we have Zara, Gap, H&M and a hooplah of ready-to-wear pieces that frankly, do a fine job of translating high fashion to us mere (rent-paying) mortals. I'm just a bit more scrutinizing of fabrics these days, after having read "Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion," a thoroughly researched book by Elizabeth Cline. Check out this New York Times review.

So, back to the age-appropriateness of my wardrobe. I've recently put together a peg that more or less encapsulates my game plan for this age and stage. It's a happy hodgepodge of pages clipped from the March 2013 issue of Vogue that I've been using as a guide for shopping. (Trivia: I'd inadvertently picked out Pantone's "color of the year," emerald green, as seen below on the Eres ad. Who knew?)

Clockwise from top left: structured "corseted jacket" with tortoiseshell-plexiglass belt and breastplate, Alexander McQueen; cutaway top with "fishline detail," Alexander Wang; black tweed top and shorts, Sandro; happy pops of colored enamel, Revlon; model-y looks e.g. silk pants paired with a printed blazer, A-line demi and pencil skirts by Proenza Schouler (the latter look as seen on Victoria's Secret model Miranda Kerr, I totally intended to copy with a recent purchase of a sheer black top and brocade skirt); cute green bra, Eres; scents from Balenciaga and Narciso Rodriguez.

Oh, and yes—my take on age-appropriate dressing? Wear what makes you happy, confident and comfortable! True, I do cringe at the sight of skimpy clothing, especially on mature women and teenagers... or make that, in general. But then that's just me, I may have grown more conservative over the years in terms of that balance between going short here, long there; business in front, party in the back, etc. But, who knows? Maybe one sweltering day I may just bust out a tube top and mini myself!