When have we grown too old to be ourselves? That question came to the forefront of my mind as I was assisting a woman in her mid 40s. She looked incredible in a vibrant and colorful dress that hugged her body just right, her eyes shining with the knowledge of her beauty. Then she turned to me and said: “It’s beautiful, but I’m too old for that.” With a resigned smile she turned back into the dressing room and left me at a loss for words. I didn’t know what to say to someone who looked happy and beautiful in an outfit, but ultimately thought about societies view on what women are supposed to wear past their 20s.

Even after she had left her comment still made me think on the unrealistic way we, as a society, pressure women to dress past a certain age. We all go through transformations, that is a part in growing and reaching new things, but to strip an integral part of ourselves away out of fear of ridicule or humiliation is ludicrous. Our tastes evolve over time and our choices morph into its next level but what is irrevocably our own is our style. Because style isn’t necessarily ‘fashion’ it is our unique flavor of self-expression, the flair and confidence we bring to an outfit. Style cannot be trained or bought, it is inherent and part of our minds and our bodies. While trends come and go, style sticks with everyone individually. So we experiment with trends and ‘fashion’ but our style shines through and makes it unique to us.

So to tell a woman to change her style because of her age, ethnicity, body type, hair color, etc. is telling her that her soul and mind need to change. But how can we change the fact that a lot of our current society is narrow minded in the way of personal self expression? We need to challenge them head on and invoke the curiosity of others by being unapologetically ourselves and express our style within ourselves and our appearance.

Become ageless in fashion and maybe we’ll be able to change at least one part of the bigger picture and pave the way to acceptance, so that we can break down dozens of walls more heavily secured by intolerance. A droplet of water onto a still lake will still push ripples, it just needs to let go first.

Chantal Eisinger