Style at any age: London Fashion Week

It's official. 80 is the new 18. Today's The Times Magazine features The Grey Best-Dressed List, a celebration of the top 40 most stylish dressers over 60. And Ronnie Corbett. I would include a link but it's hidden away behind that pesky News International pay wall - and you can probably guess most of the stars anyway. Some of my favourite Fashion VIPs are included: Vivienne Westwood, Daphne Selfe, Keith Richards, Bill Nighy, Charlotte Rampling, Lauren Hutton. I won't go on, but as 69-year-old model David Gant says, 'I think we've started recognising that there are older people and middle-aged people out there who want to wear clothes too.'
 
With that in mind, I popped over to London Fashion Week yesterday. Where one fashion show was enough. I felt like punching the woman next to me for constantly waving her mobile phone in my face. Thank god it wasn't an iPad. Yep, there was a fair amount of tablet-waving going on too. Are these people even looking at the clothes? Bring back the notebook and pen, that's what I say. Far more civilized. Fortunately by the time I met fellow blogger Michelle from Allways in Fashion (above), for a coffee and a chat, I'd calmed down. Ordinarily, I'm a bit of an anti-social networker. It's not that I'm unfriendly, it's just that I'm time poor. Anyhow. Michelle is over in London, from Texas, for a few days and so it seemed like the perfect opportunity. We had a blind date, which was very nice. And if I ever get to the Rothko Chapel, we're going to meet again. As you can see, this 70-year-old fashion insider is an extremely stylish dresser. She's predominantly wearing Anthropologie, with a leather top from Zara and Michael Kors sunglasses.

After lunch, I was drawn, like a French paparrazzo to a topless princess, towards the fabulous Orsola de Castro. Just look at those gold trousers. Unfortunately they're from a small inexpensive shop somewhere in Spain, though I have noticed Cos has a pair of silver sparkly slacks this season, if you're in the mood for fancy pants. The Italian founder of sustainable fashion label From Somewhere has been mentoring design students from Central Saint Martins and is at Esthetica to promote this collaboration. People, you are looking at the queen of upcycling.




So, who would you add to The Grey Best-Dressed List 2012?