How choosing the right clothes can make you look 15 years younger
July 15, 2012 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
By
Lucy Waterlow
02:06 EST, 13 July 2012
|
02:06 EST, 13 July 2012
If you dream of looking years younger then forget the facelift and invest in a new wardrobe instead.
A study has found that an outfit can make all the difference to how old a woman’s face looks.
Researchers put the same 55-year-old in 12 different ensembles and asked the British public to guess her age. The results revealed that a well-cut wardrobe miraculously sheds up to eight years from a woman’s face. In contrast, ill-fitting, unflattering items can age her by seven years in the blink of an eye.
Holding back the years: This 55-year-old model was said to look eight years younger when she wore clothes that were fitting and flattering, left. But in the ill-fitting jeans and polo shirt, she was said to look 62-years-old
Former Clothes Show presenter Caryn Franklin who helped to carry out the tests, said: ‘This confirms what I have always known: that clothes are a very powerful beauty aid, and when women make clever clothing choices they are more youthful and fully of vitality in the eyes of others.
‘This is about taking control and feeling good about ourselves from the inside. Well-made, well-designed clothes, that create definition and enhance our appearance, can also empower us to feel good about who we are. When a woman is confident and radiant she is always beautiful.’
How to wear a mac: With a belt to pull in the waist, on trend accessories and fitted jeans, the model looked as young as 47, left, to those questioned compared to the unflattering look, right, that aged her
A 55-year-old size 12 model was pictured in different outfits with identical hair, makeup, lighting and posture.
Of the 2,400 Brits polled their guesses varied greatly from 47 to 62-years-old depending on the outfit.
Six outfits were taken from the isme.com, a mature women’s online retailer who commissioned the research, while another six were taken from the wardrobes of everyday fifty-plus women.
The face reflects the clothes: Those surveyed said the model’s face looked younger when she wore more fitted and trendy clothes, left
The team discovered that not only did all participants believe the model was much younger-looking when wearing the correctly fitted and styled clothing, they were also more likely to base their age assessment on her face.
Nearly two thirds (65 per cent) said it was the face that gave their age assessment rather than the clothes themselves which were judged by just 31 per cent – suggesting that style has a powerful subliminal effect on the appearance of physical features.
Don’t be frumpy: Wearing bold colours, a belt and tailoring makes the 55-year-old look much younger, left, than she did in a drab cardigan, right
When sporting on-trend skinny jeans and a short summer mac, three quarters of respondents believed that the 55-year-old model had the face of a 47-year-old.
However, when the same model was dressed at the other end of the sartorial spectrum, in a loose polo shirt over boot-cut jeans, her average perceived age was 62 – adding on an unwanted 15 years on the previous perception of 47.
Ms Franklin continued: ‘Women my age are experiencing increasing age-hysteria from companies selling expensive beauty treatments and invasive procedures that cost a fortune.
‘This research can reassure every woman that the best and most effective way to shed years and shine is to dress well.’
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Who wrote your article DM, Captain Obvious?
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I suppose that if you think looking younger than your age is important then you will already be spending money on expensive face creams and “young” looking clothes. I’m going on 50 and am more interested in trying to fit doing at least one thing I love (be it having a chat with a friend, swimming, running, having a pedicure etc etc) into each day than whether or not my clothes are slashing years off my face. I’m not bothered about looking my age. I’m sporty, happy and have always belived that a lived in face with bright, lively eyes was far more attractive than an over powdered, line free face. Aging is not an embarrassing veneral disease. It’s just life. Get on with it and stop worrying.
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Did someone get paid for this? I thought everyone knew that shapeless garments made you look fatter whatever your build!
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The more relaxed clothes make her look a nicer person though – less vain and conceited, and more as if she’s just getting on with life without worrying what others think.
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It’s funny how when giving her the drab clothes you chose ones too big that swamped her. Make the “young” clothes too big and she will be just as frumpy in those !
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I feel so sorry for women today. They have to have the right figure use the right face creams so that no wrinkles must appear , dye their hair and dress just so . When I was a young mother my priority was to live long enough to see my children grow up , to cherish them and provide a happy home . Nowadays how are women supposed to find the time or indeed money to spend on expensive clothes and anyway who gives a damn , apart from Liz Jones perhaps the ultimate clothes snob .
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Young, younger, youngest. This never-ending fetish with looking, feeling, SEEMING younger makes me cringe. I had a not-so-good childhood and youth, and have no urge to relive it, thank you.
I’m not ashamed to have a streak of grey hair, bigger hips, and droopier breasts. I’m long-married to my best friend, the mother of a wonderful grown son, and have had the same circle of close friends since long before nothing-but-”hot” Kim Kardashian was a zygote. *LOL* Yeah, I’m okay with my age.
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So if I wear the right clothes I can pass as a 6 year old? Interesting!
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Unless you are stick thin a woman should NEVER wear horizontal stripes!!!
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The woman modelling the clothes looks good for 55. In fact she’d pass for 47 and her skin tone looks healthy. The skirt and dress she’d modelling on the left flatter her legs particularly as she doesn’t look like she’s wearing tights.
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