"Do not carry everything anymore"
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN employee Katja Nele Bode spoke with 61-year-old Elke Giese about how women over 40 can find their fashionable style. Elke Giese is a graduate in fashion design and a fashion journalist. For almost 20 years she has headed fashion at the German Fashion Institute (DMI) and analyzed trends for industry and trade. Since the beginning of the year, she has been working on the question of what role fashion plays in aging as part of the project "Fashion Behavior Profiles 45-70".
WOMAN: Ms. Giese, how can we dress on hot days without yielding to this eternal summer trend of too much bare skin?
Elke Giese: This year's summer is color. I would like to have colored Chinos. Pink, yellow and green. With a white shirt blouse. Great. I can wear a comfortable shoe, and yet I send a whole new signal. Or a white, ultralight blazer with my sleeves up. I can have any figure and I would feel perfectly well dressed. Or a casual wild floral blouse. The new print techniques create color explosions that have never existed before. This has a volume that makes you happy and with which you can play. I do not need a strap dress for that. Women can stand out well this summer without having to show too much of themselves.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: That less is not always more - but that has not really got around. Especially prominent women show a lot of bare skin ...
Elke Giese: I agree with that. Since the undressing even increases. When an older actress shows her arms, I wonder: why is she doing that now? She can never keep up with a 25-year-old. This show is a desperate attempt to catch up with the youth. That can never succeed. But I remember Iris Berben at a big gala last winter. Everyone wore the usual fuss. But Iris Berben wore a white long dress, high-necked, and looked like a Greek goddess. That remained in the memory.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Being at any price sexy, especially as you get older, can make you sick.
Elke Giese: I do not find fashion so sexualized at all. Showing naked meat comes heavily from advertising, from private television. The medial image of the woman is extremely sexualized. Many women, even beyond the 50, believe that they have to keep up with them. Last nappa leggings and studded biker jackets were hotly sought after looks. The retailers mainly sold them to women who were 45 or older. There is a real competition among women: who is the sharpest. I call that the Americanization of the exterior, which the women allow themselves to be forced upon.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Are the women dealing with it?
Elke Giese: I think so. I think it can be very sexy and attractive not to show so much skin and flesh. I also know that most men do not find the nude so appealing. Nevertheless, many women today vie for attention. And the question is: how do I get them, even if I'm not an object style?
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: And? How can I get it?
Elke Giese: You have to put up with the fact that what is happening as a young woman does not happen anymore: someone turns around. Deep views in the tram. You do not get back even with the most beautiful scarf, which made you happy in the old days. I have a new freedom for that. I do not have to look so young and tasty anymore. I can also put on something crazy, try things out. You are free of evaluation, no matter if you have nice legs or not.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Have you become more adventurous yourself?
Elke Giese: Yes. I wore the shortest skirts of my life last fall. With thick tights and long boots. I used to always feared looks from behind. I hated my knees, thought, "You can not show them, put on pants." I have not worn any skirts for the past 20 years. Now my knees did not matter to me. That was really fun for me.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: What did the short skirts stand for?
Elke Giese: departure. The opposite of desperation. It is a new situation. For some women, this can even end in an appointment with the cosmetic surgeon. Or in the desire to rediscover oneself. I do not think much of the slogan: "She's 40 now, she knows what her style is." How exciting it was for me to put on slim clothes, jacket, and especially short. A revelation: It is very different. Every piece of clothing, whether short, long, wide, narrow, creates a unique movement.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: It affects the body?
Elke Giese: Fashion can create intense sensations. How does my body react when I try a dress? Flat shoes or high heels? It's very complex, which makes fashion with you.I suddenly had leg room, was finally able to step out.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: So we should decide ourselves when we are ready for a trend?
Elke Giese: Yes, because this former compulsion - now I have to make the skirt shorter, otherwise I am from yesterday - it has not existed for a long time. Of course, I discovered the short skirt because it was in vogue. But the trend would not have been for me.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: How do you develop a sense of which trend suits and which one to wave better?
Elke Giese: We are talking about women who already have a few years of experience with themselves. You know what you like and what you do not. I believe that priorities have emerged over the years: what do I get confirmation for, what makes me sure? I think there are sensible tendencies, if not a certain style.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Your own style is the high school, right?
Elke Giese: When we talk about style, one thing is very important to me: style is not something that is beyond fashion. We know these anachronistic women who wear eternally their three-quarter skirt or the avant-garde looks of the '80s that always look strangely out of time. This has nothing to do with fashion. If you are looking for style, you have to see fashion with your eyes open, perceive your trends. If you hide them, no style can arise.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: That's an invitation to see what others are wearing, what the designers are designing.
Elke Giese: Definitely. Fashion is a very important aspect of the present. For me, a modern personality is also an open-mindedness to fashion. But beware: It is fundamental to adapt a trend individually and cleverly. One has to manage to make a particularly good connection between character, physique and choice of clothes.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: What about the women who do not feel like fashion anymore?
Elke Giese: From my point of view, women have almost no choice: The social pressure to stay fashionable and attractive is increasing enormously. We have to work until the age of 67. The retreat into your own garden or into the private is not announced. In the public eye older leaders such as Hannelore Elsner or Senta Berger are setting new standards. Narrow pants, long boots, leggings - I see a lot of women in their 50s dressing like this. The withdrawn existence, the fewest women still want to live. Staying fashionable has become almost a necessity.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: At the moment simple, clear design is celebrated very much. Do you think that's exciting?
Elke Giese: Yes, you can always carry that. But you have to be a personality for it. There must be a good head on top of it. Therein lies the success of the very decorative fashion on the other side: The women feel they need this jewelry. Because they themselves are not attractive enough. The most brutal example of this is the Swarovski appliqués on a T-shirt that embellish the chest. Anyone who dresses simply and simply needs self-confidence, a good hairdresser and the right lipstick. But if a woman wants more decoration, I would never talk her out of it. Fashion always works in addition to the personality. Only when both play together, one creates impression. Everything else is catwalk. Then a great woman can stand across the street. But if she gets closer and does not emit anything, then her gucci bag will remain meaningless.
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