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. Bamboo Sleepwear
“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 thigh-high 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.' "
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LaRussa, who styles clients of all ages, says it's common for women to hear comments urging them to edit the way they 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 like 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."
Society's fixation on what women wear starts young, Leora Tanenbaum, author of "I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet," previously told USA TODAY, adding that, even though the expectations for women change over the course of their lives, they remain stifling nonetheless.
"When you're younger, the pressure is to look sexy, to look hot," she said "As you get older, and you kind of age out of those pressures and expectations, you're still supposed to conform to a very narrow set of rules and guidelines that are never really spelled about what you're supposed to look like physically."
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Marya T. Mtshali, a lecturer in Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Harvard University, previously told USA TODAY that, in order to solve these issues, "we have to change in our culture how we view women, how we treat women."
Tanenbaum suggests society effectively "banish the word appropriate" in the context of women's fashion choices and age.
Another step is for women to become more unapologetic overall, Tanenbaum said.
"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."
Plus, LaRussa says, the more women empower themselves, the more they empower others.
"Own it because there are always going to be naysayers. I'm sure Martha Stewart experiences that on a daily basis," she 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."
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Cotton Sustainable Underwear Contributing: Sara M Moniuszko, USA TODAY