I watched a documentary over the weekend that got me thinking.  It also got me weeping a bit at the end.  I surprised myself by watching the whole thing through, despite the harsh critic that kept dismissing all the subjects as flaky and insubstantial. The movie is Advanced Style, by Ari Seth Cohen and filmmaker Lina Plioplyte.  Cohen has a blog by the same name that goes back to 2008, and documents all the stylish older women he has met over the years.  All are over 50, but most are 70 +.    He also has an earlier book by the same name.

My favourite character in the film is the woman on the cover of the DVD, Ilona Royce Smithkin.  Smithkin is an artist of some notoriety, as well as a cabaret performer, and art teacher.  She wears beautiful long red eyelashes that she crafts from her own hair.  Now in her nineties, she will no longer buy green bananas in case she doesn’t live to see them ripen.

Meeting Ilona alone makes this movie well worth watching, and you will also meet many other icons of style in the New York fashion scene.

Generally, I tend to dismiss fashion as vapid distraction.   Even though I have decided I like this movie, it isn’t about to change my dress style.  Yet, I can’t help but feel happier seeing how the old crones in this film make older women feel empowered, and how they light up the lives of those around them.