I admit it - I had a hunch. But it was only when I reached the office that I knew for a fact: my outfit that day was a complete wardrobe catastrophe. I looked like the crazy lady, the one who seems to have no friends or family to tell her better. The school girl outfit I was wearing did not complement my shape, looked cheap somehow and most of all, it was not age appropriate.
This popular of late term is both annoying and completely justified in the era of Wisteria Lane moms. So as I was staring at myself in the outfit which made me look like a deranged, over-aged Gossip Girl fan or Amy Poehler as Regina's mom in Mean Girls, I wondered what was it that made it not age appropriate.
It wasn't the shorts, because I've worn them in a classy way before. It wasn't the school girl reference, because you can make it work in a chic way. What was it then?
In search of an answer I browsed through numerous articles attempting to explain the do's and don'ts of age appropriate, when I came up with a fun, fast solution: A quick self test to discover if what you're wearing is becoming of you, your mom, your grandma or someone's teenage daughter. I call it the Sense of Fashion Head Swap (being that the idea has already transformed into a new feature being developed as I write) and this is how it works:
The easy method
You take a photo of yourself in the outfit in question, and using the likes of Paint or Photoshop, you paste on your body the heads of the following characters:
1.Serena Van Der Woodsen - as the hot teenager
2.Cindy Walsh - as the classic mom
3.Kitty Forman - as the young granny
4.Kate Moss - as, well, a way to make you feel good
I have put myself on the operating table for your convenience, with two looks: the horror outfit (shorts and necktie)
and a fairly conservative retro dress.
Reading the results
It's easy: Whichever head of the first three characters goes best with your body - that's the age of your outfit. If you yourself are considerably younger or older than that age, you shouldn't wear that outfit, and should try on something more age appropriate.
As you can see, with me, the first outfit looked the best on Serena. Being that the character is, well, somewhat younger than me, it is not age appropriate.
The blue dress looked the best on Cindy Walsh, which as a character was slightly older than me. That doesn't mean it's not age appropriate, but that it might make me look older. I could easily go for a younger look.
And as for the Kate Moss photos, well, they only prove that a gorgeous woman can get away with anything, and that it's always fun to see your body attached to the head of a super model. But that's just a perk.
