The trouble with being over fifty is that everything starts to change. By sixty, gravity has started to pull hard and by seventy there is an urgent need to cover up some of the wobbly bits.

The female ageing process has not been helped by society’s worship of youth and airbrushed beauty. Yet despite the youth-obsessed society of which the fashion industry is only one reflection, women continue to need to feel good about themselves, to nurture their self-confidence; to re-educate themselves about what works and why, to seek new doyennes of style and to retain beauty that is attainable past the first blush of youth.

In this timely new edition of her tongue-in-cheek look at the fashion world, Kaaren Hale gives us her take on the industry and how to confidently find your own style in an ever-changing and confusing landscape. The women of her generation are the product of the conservative Fifties, the Swinging Sixties, the boom-boom Eighties and sober Nineties.

They have enjoyed many heydays and aren’t ready to give up just yet. So why is it that the fashion industry, with few exceptions, directs all its ideas to the very young? Although the lack of style mentors and fashion choices is disheartening, women do not have to fill their wardrobes with dreary clothes, insensitive to the high-spirited girl inside them who still craves fashion adventure.

They may not have Donna Karan to guide them personally through the minefield of middle age, but they can learn from their peers who already know how to do it – and enjoy the ride. This is a book for a generation of women that has done it all, seen it all and still wants to look – and feel – good.

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