Fabulous, Fashionable and Forty-Four

I am wearing leggings today on my forty-fourth birthday.

If you had told me twenty odd years ago when I last discarded these stretchy articles that they would make a return to my wardrobe I would have laughed. Leggings were worn by the young and trendy and they looked best on those with stick thin legs.

My legs have never been my most redeeming feature. For years I was haunted by the taunts of being called “tree trunk legs” by a lad in my class as we walked home from school. I’ve pretty much worn very long skirts and kept my pins covered up for the past twenty years.

The years roll by and by the time you find yourself in your forties there comes a peace of mind and more of an acceptance of your shape. You learn how to dress for the best and arrive at your own style.

My friend calls me “the glamorous one” of our group. I am most often dressed up for church and I am always colour co-ordinated.

So am I too old at 44 to wear leggings, co-ordinated with a long top and knee high boots?

I had some birthday cards that related to my age. One said

Never-mind – you may be older than you’ve ever been before…

…but you’re also younger than you’ll ever be again!

So profound.

Another card declared

We are not old - We are retro

I particularly like the use of the inclusive word “we”.

The card from my parents alluded to my style with a picture of a little girl wearing her mother’s high heels!

But one of my favourite pictures was this one from my mother-in-law

The disco diva with not a care in the world, singing her heart out, probably a little off key but with dazzling specs like that and such individual style and panache who would notice?

When I told someone I was going to be 44 she said, “You don’t look it and you don’t act it!” I didn’t take any offence. I still am the bubbly young girl on the birthday card, inside at least.

Of course now I have remembered why I stopped wearing leggings all those years ago. It wasn’t just that fashion moved on but they are forever falling down and when you go out you have to pop into every public convenience to yank them up again without causing a scene!  A middle aged woman surreptitiously tweaking at her undergarments is not a pleasant sight.

“No I really don’t need the loo all the time, I don’t have a weak bladder honest, it’s not an age thing, I don’t need Tena Lady - it’s just my leggings!”

I’m sure that something else will be in vogue soon – just hope it’s dresses because I got yet another one today from mum and dad for my birthday.

But that as they say is another story….