As you may know if you read this blog, I have been trying to chase down a particular pair of pants for some time now - well I’ve finally found them.

The reason is, I am a boyshorts wearer. I used to wear French knickers, in the style Americans call tap pants, but for some reason these now seem hard to find - and they’re difficult to wear under jeans. But the problem with boyshorts is that they’ve changed style in the past five years. This is the kind of thing that drives me nuts in fashion. I know why it’s happened too - it saves the manufacturers money.

Once a design that grabbed hold of your bum and stayed there (thank you Sloggi shorts), boyshorts now all seem to be low-waisted and cut up both cheeks of your behind so that you spend all day pulling a wedgie out of your crack. Great. The Sloggis are still wonderful, but they’re a bit of a passion-killer. Why, I wondered, could nobody come up with a prettier version?

Enter Elilia’s ‘Cheeky’ panty, which looks to me like the perfect knickers I’ve been looking for.

(more…)

The EU has finally given Europe-wide police protection to Ayaan Hirsi Ali - and about time too.

Really, she should be given a medal.

Hirsi Ali, born a Somali Muslim, has suffered death threats since 2003 when she and her colleague Theo Van Gogh made Submission, a film that revealed the extend of violence against women within Islam.

Van Gogh was murdered in 2004 in Amsterdam (while he was cycling to work) and there are many extremists who would like to see Ali follow him. Van Gogh’s murderer even left a declaration to that effect pinned to his victim’s chest with a knife.

Ali has after all, commited the ultimate sin. She is an apostate - one who has lost her faith - which is punishable in Islam by death and nothing less.

(more…)

If you want a cleaner, less cluttered, more relaxed environment, wabi-sabi is the way to go

Wabi-sabi arose from Zen Buddhism but it enables you to live a simpler and less-cluttered life whatever your situation or beliefs. Earlier I wrote about the tokonoma, a special alcove or area that you can have in a room as a focal point, but here I’ll deal with surfaces.

In wabi-sabi, it’s very basic: you keep your surfaces clear, and if you can’t, you limit the number of things on them to three. Just follow this ‘rule’ and you’ll find it all comes together easily.

(more…)

Bobbi Brown’s Beauty Evolution is unusual in being aimed at readers of all ages, including women in their 40s, 50s and above.

The DH bought me Beauty Evolution for Christmas, as it was one of the books I earmarked, and I was very much looking forward to it (and he doesn’t mind it hanging around the house, as it has a picture of Chandra North on the cover!).

Bobbi Brown wrote Beauty Evolution when she was in her 40s (what she laughingly calls the ‘oh shit’ decade) and I wanted it because her approach to beauty tallies largely with my own in that she doesn’t believe in plastic surgery but in making the most of what nature gave you. Her epiphany, she says, came when, as a short, heavily pregnant makeup artist, she was required to make up several supermodels and realised that never - not EVER - would she look like them.

(more…)

I suffer from SAD - seasonal affective disorder. In truth, a lot of people in the Northern hemisphere do.

You probably know already if you’ve got SAD badly. It means you basically want to hibernate all winter - you can’t wake up, you can’t keep your eyes open, you can’t get enough sleep no matter how much you sleep, you eat lots and gain weight, and you generally feel low and depressed. February is about the worst month, but January’s no picnic either.

(more…)

No fashion-conscious woman can ignore the Oscars, but what were the women over 40 wearing in 2008?

The truth is, finding coverage of a woman over 40 at the Oscars at all isn’t that easy, as the photographers train their lenses on younger women, but thankfully this year the over-60s brigade did us proud.

Helen Mirren, of course, is always a standout. Mirren, now 63, has always had curves and usually chooses dresses with some volume to the skirt, that fit tightly to the bodice and cover her arms. This year was no exception as she took the floor in a gorgeous dark red silk number from Lebanese-born Paris couturier George Chakra. The gown’s Swarovski crystal sleeves were very unusual, like a built-in shrug, and a very useful idea for women who don’t want to display their upper arms. Right on the money, with all that glitter Mirren kept her makeup light and her other jewellery subdued (for all that it cost a million dollars).

(more…)

The Milan fall/winter collections are done about done with, so what do the Italians have in store for us?

The Milan collection is the biggie, let’s face it. The couturiers may strut their stuff all they like in Paris, but it’s the ready to wear collections that really influence what will be in the shops for the next couple of years, and the news from Milan was good for grown-up girls.

Personally, I always prefer the winter collections. Winter clothes generally are more sumptuous and the fabrics are nicer - cashmere, suede, yummy knitwear and slinky satins. They’re harder to tailor, too, so the designers actually have to know what they’re doing rather than just stringing two bits of cotton together and calling it a dress.

(more…)

Most of us know about the Dove campaign for real beauty, but many of us don’t realise quite how comprehensive it is.

For many of us, hitting 40 was a time when we actually became more comfortable about our looks and our bodies, finally achieving that balance between the person we thought we’d be and the person we actually are.

But life is different for our daughters.

(more…)

Women over 40 are increasingly marrying again, but getting married in mid-life throws up different issues from marrying when you’re younger. Not to mention the difficulty of finding that perfect dress…

Brigit Sapstead is having her wedding at Easter and it will be a time of great joy and celebration, but she’s found that things are more complicated the second time around.

(more…)

There are millions of atheists, but when we come under attack, we often can’t justify our viewpoint - what we need is ammunition

I was raised in a very religious household, with many hours of Sunday dedicated to praising Him in whichever denomination my mother favoured at the moment, but there was something about it that my intelligence couldn’t quite accept.

(more…)