Don't Drink the Kool Aid

I was shopping with my daughter last week, browsing the popups in Soho,  exploring the racks of clothing I normally would not look at. I was having fun pulling garments I thought my 28-year-old daughter would like. As she is getting older, my choices are becoming more skilled and she actually tries a few on:)

The store was a boutique size and quite intimate. The sales girls were offering advice and encouragement hoping to help and of course, make sales. We all could hear each other's conversations.

The customers were under 30, including the saleswomen. I and one other woman were 60+. We all were mingling and enjoying the atmosphere. Then I heard the other customer speak to the sales associate. She was apologizing for her age, saying she was just an old woman and most of the inventory was not going to work for her. Her words stopped me in my tracks. I was so saddened, but not surprised. 

As women, we tend to apologize for way too much during our woke hours. Such a bad, bad habit. I do it myself, maybe more than some since I am Canadian :)  I am constantly trying to withhold at least a few ‘sorry’s during my day. Compounding our culturally engrained tendency to apologize for mostly nothing we have done wrong, we start to apologize for aging. We actually say sorry to the world because we are still up and running!

I quietly slipped the woman my business card. I would never interfere with another business's sales, but I felt so strongly about connecting to her, I introduced myself, and my online store for women over 50. 

I believe women can wear anything they want. I have no judgment. If they love it, believe they look great and feel great, go for it! But, if women struggle with their identity and are confused about how to present themselves to the world they lose confidence. 

If you can rediscover yourself, and connect with your identity and all the awesome traits you possess, your sense of style will follow. What you wear is basically an expression of who you are inside.

Or course I did not spew all this to the woman in the store, but I so wanted to! By stating she was just an old lady, she was shrinking herself to invisibility. She was riding the cultural rollercoaster. She was verbalizing what we are told to believe. 

Don’t drink the kool aide.