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"Rose" by Susan Rios. Check out Pierside Galleries online for paintings by her, and other good artists.


Dear Lydia,I believe you have struck a nerve with your recent blog postings =regarding feminine dress, especially for "older" ladies (such as =myself!) =20

If some enterprising young people wanted to start a modest clothing =business that offered nice dresses, coats and aprons they would =certainly have my business, as long as there was something in my size.I laughed to see you describing the "nursing home look" that has become =de rigeur for so many elderly women. Since I've worked in long term =care for the last 18 years or so I knew exactly the look you were =targeting.

As a matter of fact, I can remember early in my nursing =career when it was a very common sight to see an elderly nursing home =resident still with her lovely long hair which we nurses would carefully =comb out each morning and help her to style in the manner she preferred. = Now all we see are those unflattering short, permed and frizzy =hair-dos, which some of us privately refer to as "cotton-tops". This =style is far more trouble to tend to than long hair as it needs constant =re-perming and clipping off of damaged ends. How this ever became =popular is beyond my comprehension!We must continue to do all we can to inspire others to transform this =alarming trend of ugliness!

I eagerly await your next posting on LAF.God Bless,Susan TynerBoise, Idaho

Comment: this style is nothing more than a popular youth style from the 50's and 60's, that soured when the people promoting it got old. While just about anything looks cute and trendy on a perfect, youthful body and face, it never looks as good on an aging woman. There are a couple of classic styles that look good all the time on any woman. The Victorians seem to understand the effect of clothing on age, and the younger women were dressed very similarly to the older ones. Look at photographs and notice there were neither youth clothes nor elderly clothes--just the classic white, pin-tucked blouse that flattered the neck and face, and the flowing skirts that were suitable from home to market, and were appropriate everywhere.

My husband was commenting on the looks of the elderly women in a farmer's market we visited today. They seemed to have no idea what their rear ends looked like with their pull-up pants and big shorts that looked like giant diapers.

The tops were usually ugly horizontal stripes in different shades or brown or gray, that reminded one of fallow ground with no color. Their short hair that was stickery and in clumps only made their wrinkled faces look harsher. The men look fairly normal, but the women----I just can't talk about it any more right now. It breaks my heart. Young girls grow up yearning for grandmothers that are the ultimate in femininity and grace, and these little girls look up to bare, wrinkled knees, dimpled skin, and thighs laced with blue veins. What a view to inspire the next generation.

How in the world do we expect a multi-generational relationship to occur with the younger generation being mentored by the older, if the older ones look so creepy that the younger ones avoid getting near them. The same could be said of the younger ones, who create a barrier by the way they dress, too. I have no idea what is to be done.

I suppose, in a small way, we ought to be the best example possible. Ask ourselves, "If everyone was as careful about they way they dress as I am, what would the women today look like?" In the religious world, we realize that we have a responsibility to draw others to our message of Christ and Biblical principles.

If we are careless and unattractive in our clothing, how can someone think that we will care about their souls? We may be creating a barrier there. We need to reflect the beauty of the Creation by our clothing.

This is the theme of the "Garments of Praise" video that we made and submitted to a film contest. We hope it will be available to everyone soon, and that it will be a great source of inspiriation. For sure, the feminists will make hearty fun of it, but that is to be expected of anything that is sweet and innocent or lovely.

I can't imagine any of these artists painting romantic pictures of these styles. It is still possible to dress femininely, though, as these paintings by Susan Rios are of fairly recent styles.