Franz Bagay

Color = Confidence? The Surprising Truth About Fashion Over 50 and Our Color Choices https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NfTLg76SnU Margaret: Hi, everyone. It’s Margaret Manning here. Welcome to Sixty and Me. This is the place where women over 60 come to be inspired. My guest today is Susan Good. Susan “Honey” Good. Susan is a mother, a wife, and a grandmother to 25. She is also an author and has a fabulous website called HoneyGood.com. I'm so happy to have her here because Susan has dedicated her life really to helping women over 50 to find style and substance in their lives. It's just so wonderful to have her here to share her expertise. So, welcome, Susan. Susan: Thank you for having me. I'm very glad to be here. Margaret: I'm happy to have you here and I'm going to call you Honey because I know everybody calls you Honey. I want to make sure you feel super comfortable. So, hi Honey. Susan: I'm very flattered. Thank you. Margaret: Well, Honey, we are so glad to have you here because you have got a really fabulous website, and clearly a sense of style that is very authentic and beautiful. But one thing I wanted to ask you about was color. How do you think that plays in the choices that women make in establishing their style, and how it can affect you emotionally and personally? Susan: Well, even white is color, so if you like white, wear winter white. I love color. I love color especially, and to use as an accessory. I did look in to fashion. I look in the magazines. I notice the colors for the season. They're using a lot of plaid in their fabrics. A lot of oranges, browns, tans. I think you have to come to terms with the colors that make you feel happy to start your day because the world is a little gloomy at times and to be able to put out a pop of color just brightens up our day, our personal day. For example, in the morning, when I'm outside and it's even early in the morning, I wear my red lipstick. I don't think as you get older there's anything wrong with wearing red lipstick. Very honestly, I think red lipstick, it's just a very little bit. It's not like you're covering your body with it. It's very brief. It makes you alive. So, one color that that I choose to put on my face is the color red and I also love the color red, and how I'll use it as this: I will say we're an all-white outfit, and then I'll put on red. I'll put it on my lapel, or I put it on a hat. I'll put it at my waist. I've got that pop of color. Margaret: It's so easy to do that. It's one simple touch like that. Susan: If you think about it, there are certain colors that you may wear because fashion just dictates that for the season. I don't want you to think in those terms. I want you to think in terms of your style and you wear your color that suits you. You may really love the color blue, and it's one of the most peaceful color. It is the most peaceful color on the color wheel. Wear blue if it makes you happy. Wear plum. Just brighten up your life with your favorite colors. Margaret: I'm so glad you said that, Susan, because I think a lot of women in their sixties in Sixty and Me, they really don't follow the rules that we might have followed for fashion before, but they do still have this inner kind of sense that they should be conforming, that somehow being visible means being the same as. Like just making yourself blend in but I think that what you've just said is choosing those colors that really you feel good. It's way to go it because it changes your attitude, gives you more confidence in you and your walk. Susan: It does. Even with this flower, I could put it on a black coat and suddenly you have like a bounce in your step. Margaret: I actually just happen to see this hat sitting here because I just had it on my desk. But in summer, in the winter, too, I wear this black, and I put this hat on and just those three colors with black, it was really, really powerful. This color in particular is really nice with black. It's just fun for me. I always look for that color because I know it's going to be like that rose for you. It makes you feel good. Susan: I have something. Look at this, as an accessory. So, I'll wear something pink or I'll wear something white in summer, and very simple. But I'll carry this bag. Margaret: I love it. Susan: One of my daughters bought it for me. I love this. I had this a long time. Margaret: You have eclectic taste, but you don't go over the top. Actually looking to that color, I remember a lot of women in our community do say that they go more towards the dual colors as they get a little older, and they're like not so much into like the wooded, like you were talking earlier about browns and greens, not being really right for either of us. But we like those turquoises and the pinks and the maroon colors. They shimmer. They bring out that little glow inside of you. Susan: And why not even wear something that shimmers? You can do that with your eye shadow. Put a little shimmer in your eye shadow. Margaret: People say don't do that when you get older. What do you say to that? Susan: I like it, and I'm certainly not young. But I like my eyes to shimmer a little, and I have good eyes, and I like to wear black mascara on. Margaret: It's a very nice pose that you've got right there. Right now, you're frozen. Just one second. Let's see if it comes back. We're having the wind gremlins today. One second, Susan. Hold on a minute. We've got you freezing. I'm going to wait a minute. Are you back? Hi, you froze a bit there. Are you back now? Susan: Yes, we're back. Margaret: You’re back now. Okay, you froze there for a minute. So you're back. Good. Thank you. I forget what you were saying now, but I think we're saying that we like even a bit of sparkle that that's okay, too. Color is multi-dimensional, so if we choose like using a rose, we choose a little bit of purple eye shadow that sparkly, the color is what energizes you. Do you agree with that? Susan: Or look at the earring. It’s just a little color. Look at the very thin little belts. It has rhinestones. I don't know if you can see it. Margaret: That is actually the thing, that your color choices really are coming from deep inside of you. When people say that they have their colors done, that their summer, or whatever they are, but when you get older, I think you just kind of gravitate to the color. Like you said, plaid, and yellow for me. I never buy anything yellow, but you love orange. Susan: I wouldn't buy anything yellow either. Margaret: I don't know why. I don't own, or I’ve never owned a yellow. Even in my beads, I think I have a green there, but no yellow. But orange, I love orange, just love it. Don't know why. Susan: The two of us are just chatting without an audience. We basically know the colors we love. Put them on, and your day will be bright. Margaret: I agree, and even if you wear like we talked about earlier, a black outfit, or gray, or brown, or any kind of neutral tone, just as simple pop of color can make all the difference. I think it's really wise to note the impact that color can have on the way that the world sees you. Susan: And you know what else? I do believe that age is just a number. It's all up here. It's in our head. My husband likes to take me shopping on occasion, and look. Margaret: What is that, a skirt, dress? Susan: These are pants. Margaret: That works. Susan: When I wear them, it's out of the ordinary for me. But when I put them on and the rest of me is quite bland, I feel, “Oh my gosh!” I'm like out of my sphere and it's a nice feeling on occasion. So, don't be afraid to just be you. Margaret: I think when it comes to fashion, there are so many things that we can. I'm talking fashion now as opposed to style. I know you are such a very big fan of the concept of style rather than fashion, but color relates to both the external, the textures of the fabric that you're buying, but it also is like matching the inner glow, whatever color that inner glow is. It’s like the Shockers if you think about those things that we do. Just you're drawn to one or the other like you’re drawn to the blues, or you're drawn to the pinks. That's just part of getting older. You just kind of relaxed around it and just let that channel through you. Susan: Our color is just part of the total of us, and it's just go with your color. Just don't be afraid. Margaret: I think that that's great advice. I think that the more shimmer, the better, the more brightness, the more glow. It’s really what color is all about. It just ignites your inner passion and I always say that women over 50 are living with passion and purpose. We want there to be this element of seriousness and about being taken seriously. But also we're like come on, let's just play. Let's just play with lows, for goodness sake. Susan: You can use color in your glass frames, your glasses. Don't be afraid by frame setup color. For myself, I don't wear tons of color. I know these pants that I showed you are very colorful. But I'm basically dressed, my silhouette is usually one color. It could be white, gray, black, navy. No brown for me. Then the way I use my color is in a shoe. For example, I will wear a gray suit, a little gray suit. Every American girl will wear a grey boot or shoe, or a black boot, or shoe, and I'll pop find a pink pump, and all of a sudden I've got that splash of color. It kind of defines your personality. You could dress in one silhouette of color and then put your splash on your handbag, your shoe, your glass frames, your earring. Margaret: I’m really glad that you covered like those pops of color, like you don't have to go crazy. It's just a shoe, or the rose or something in your hair. But I think just in closing, I think it really does talk though, that something is so important to older women and that is this invisibility that we almost in some ways want to be invisible, because of the changes that we're going through. Our faces are changing. We've got a bit more weight perhaps around our waist, and it's like this constant conversation about color is just going to draw people to me. It's going to draw attention to the things. I'm not very comfortable with myself as an older woman. And I think what you're saying is use color to break through that. Even if it's a small piece of a rose, or a scarf, or shoe, use that to fight the feeling that you want to hide because you're not quite comfortable yet with being over 50. Susan: Another thing about invisible and visible is that your beauty is internal. Eighty percent of all of our beauty is within us. It's our smile. It's a wink. It's a when you go up to someone, and you don't like hardly touch them, but give a squeeze to the shoulder. That’s real beauty. Don't forget that. If you can remember that, and remember all the passages you've already been through in your life, and how wise you are, I think you may walk taller and feel happier about yourself. I know I do. I do. Margaret: Well, you have got a fabulous presence, and a lovely smile. You are walking the talk here. So, thank you, Susan, so much for being with us and sharing your insights. I'm sure you've inspired a lot of women today. Check out Honey's website, HoneyGood.com, and hope that you enjoyed our conversation. I certainly did. Thank you, Susan. Susan: I certainly did. Thank you so much. Bye, bye. Margaret: Bye, bye for now. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our Sixty and Me YouTube channel, and also visit our website. We are a strong and dynamic community of women over 60. We're challenging aging stereotypes, and every day we share fascinating stories, interesting questions, and great conversation.