There’s a scene in The Golden Girls, season 8,012, where Sophia Petrillo is nowhere to be found, which is sitcom code for, of course she’s in bed with a man, for sexy-times purposes. I want to say that it recalls a similar scene from Season 2 Episode 6 of Waiting for God, but technically speaking, even though Tom and Diana’s consummation-and-discovery scene is much better/funnier/weirder, The Golden Girls got there first.
Sophia is 60-something playing 80-something, and is wearing what constitutes lingerie for that demographic in a 1980s sitcom vernacular: a nightgown I realized I own.
It adds up, costuming-wise, as the I think $45 CAD nightgown is one I got at M & F Linen, a shop in Toronto’s Little Italy that caters to the real-life Sophias of the world. (Pictured, my new one.) My concern that this shop will not be there forever makes me think I should probably stock up further at some point. It’s not as if these are close-fitted garments that I am about to age out of, although my big regret is not learning about them back in the days when maternity was of relevance. They’d have been the perfect pregnant-in-summer dresses, but will be equally perfect that-era’s-behind-me-in-summer dresses, too.
I also have a bamboo bag from Plaiter Place, the bamboo-stuff store on Spadina in Chinatown, that is yeah probably the Sophia trademark. Others there, even more so.
Then there’s my dress (pictured, right), from Siberia Vintage, that is more of a Sophia-in-daytime look, and there I am less sure. It’s very Little Old Lady and clearly selected to age her the requisite two decades. Is this something I am going for? Not that there’s anything wrong with looking 60, but do I want this, at 40, for myself?
And yet there’s a way that dressing older can make you look younger. Lamb as mutton. (Not that Estelle Getty or I would constitute “lamb” but you get the idea.)
When I was not quite so middle-aged, I don’t think I really understood the whole over-whichever-age fashion rules. I imagined it was about propriety or something. I didn’t get that wearing an outfit at 40 that you’d have loved at 20 reads, to anyone who sees you, as trying (and failing) to look 20. Even if that’s not what you’re going for! Even if you just like bright colors or shiny materials or are (as a short person) drawn to shorter skirts.
You can be DGAF about this, or even, with enough swagger and attention to proportions, carry this off. (It might require being Linda Rodin specifically, now that I think of it.)
Anyway, that’s my warmer-weather wardrobe, for the curious. Whose ranks are, I am sure, tremendous.
Not sure how well I'm contributing to the ranks part (does BMI count?), but you can count on my wholehearted tremendousness.
I love the nightgown/dress. The blue dress is so 80s that it's impossible for me, an 80s kid, to see it clearly. The dusty blue! The Swiss dots! The collar! I would have seen that dress at church regularly and probably dressed my little sister in it. I think you look nice in it but I have no idea how it will hit the general public (who I suppose will not care at all).