When Lurie turns 60, she suddenly realizes that, after a lieftime of slavishly following fashion, designers are lo longer making clothes for her.

At first my feelings were hurt. Hadn't I loved fashion and been faithful to her all these years? Just as one avoids the songs that recall a lost lover, I stopped reading her magazines, even in a doctor's office. As a result, I felt first panic and then a rush of euphoria. I was abandoned and alone, yes, but I was also free: after more than 60 years, nobody was telling me what to wear.

Lurie embraces the new comfort by letting her hair go gray (yay!), abandoning heels and uncomfortable trends, and wear the outre clothes she loves. She and her friends find this process liberating, and if the options are either throwing in the towel or plying the toxins, this is certainly a more wholesome - and appealing alternative.

But why are these the only choices? It often seems that when "elder style" is regarded at all, it's with a sense of curiosity: I love the street fashion blog Advanced Style, but sometimes what we herald as avant-garde is really just a holdover from another era, and the taint of exoticism can rankle. Sure, plenty of people come into their own - aesthetically and otherwise -as they age - and every Iris Apfel and Nan Kempner are classic examples - but a part of me wishes we could applaud them merely as "fashion icons" rather than applying a special, "aren't they cute/inspiring/amazing" old person lens.

Which is why Fanny Karst is encouraging. With typical fashion immoderation, Karst designs exclusively for older women - her models range from 60 to 80, and the clothing is designed to flatter silver hair, older figures and the tastes of a generation "left behind" by fashion. It's lovely, and so are the clothes, but it still leaves older women isolated. And even in this collection, there's a smattering of self-conscious cuteness: Models sport tees that read, "Not at your age"; and "Let's begin at the end" which, while light-hearted enough, kind of undermines the dignity of the enterprise.

Then too, anyone who can afford Karst's pieces can probably afford those of more staid designers - think Donna Karan, Armani, Ralph Lauren - all of whom make pieces that can be worn, in their "classic" formulation, by women of any age.The larger issue would seem to be the trickle-down; where now high fashion is available to younger women at high street prices, this is still largely untrue for Karst's demographic. Or is aging gracefully, with all its earth-mother connotations, simply too terrifying for Fashion to contemplate? Ever the iconoclast, the peerless Abigail Lorick put Mimi Weddell in her latest catalogue (see picture) and it does indeed serve to show the versatility of her clothing. We're not expecting the industry to crank out an "all-olds" issue, nor is this what we want. It would just be nice if older women weren't regarded as an ignored minority by the fashion industry: it's a growing demographic, and, the way things are going, the only one which will still be able to afford fashion in six months.

The day I threw away fashion [Guardian]

Granny takes a trip [Guardian]
Advanced Style

• Moddle Erin Wasson declares that in '09, "I'm definitely devoting myself to saving and adopting more animals... Yes, I can only imagine how crowded my house will be by 2010!" [Refinery29]

• Abigail Lorick's '09 plans are closer to home: "My New Year's resolution is to get health insurance. And to be more selfless." [Refinery29]
• Daisy Lowe, Gwen-Stefani's sorta-stepdaughter and Mark Ronson's sorta-girlfriend, looks appropriately It-Girly in her new Marc by Marc Jacobs ads. [Sassybella]
• Anthropologie, in a continuing bid to pretend not to be a major conglomerate, launches in-store craft workshops. Says the chief merchandising officer (CMO?), they “aren’t designed to sell anything...We wanted to share something really personal, which is our creative side, on a one-on-one level,” and it's not their fault that they're surrounded by stuff people can buy! [WWD]
• I know everyone's saying "Mimosa" is the new black for '09...but what no one seems to get? People like black because we can actually wear it. [BoingBoing]
• Things have gotten so bad that the Liz Claiborne CEO is flying coach. Not being sarcastic; it's bad enough without knowing what you're missing. [WSJ]
• Thakoon is pleased about Michelle Obama sporting his resortwear: “A print dress? On TV?” Panichgul notes puckishly. “There’s change you can believe in.” [Style.com]
• Amid turmoil, American Apparel names new CFO. Worse still, the Wall Street Journal refers to them as "a teen retailer." [WSJ]
• Slate's "Explainer" tells us what to do if our synthetic clothing melts to our body. Having read it, we'd rather just avoid having it happen. [Slate]
• Clothing manufacturers want stores to absorb the losses caused by slashed holiday prices. This is a no-win, fellas. [Reuters]
• We're all for Phil Collins' daughter starting an accessories line for a good cause, but when we were 19? We did a lot with volunteering. [WWD]
• Dame Edna is digging her gig as a MAC face. Quoth the drag diva: "I'm very lucky, because I do have fantastic skin...I'm sure Liz Hurley is a very nice girl, but it's time for her, Isabella Rossellini and Nicole Kidman to move over. Those girls are all passé now – tragically for them." [Telegraph]
• Bar Rafaeli, moddle and DiCaprio squeeze, draws shoot out, makes photographer miss dinner. [Fox News]

• I think we can all agree that there's a real dearth of trashy fashion lines by C-List stars. Thank god Tara Reid is filling the void with "Mantra." The new collection "includes t-shirts, dresses, bikinis, ponchos and hoodies decorated with beads and charms." [Perez Hilton]
• Which is good, because fellow I-don't-even-know-what-letter-Lister Kelly Osborne's reality show, Project Catwalk, was just dropped in the UK. [The Star]
• Janice on Tyra: "Nor did I ever get a note or call thanking me for helping to put her show on the map. Whatever. She’s not my favorite person." [NY Mag]
• Presses, stopped: "Barack Obama has a 33-inch waist, and his jacket is a 40 long." This info comes from his tailor! [Racked]

• This is how we want our birthdays celebrated from now on: "Rumor has it (Sonia) Rykiel’s daughter, Nathalie, has asked a host of international designers, including Karl Lagerfeld, Donna Karan and Jean Paul Gaultier, to design an outfit in the spirit of Rykiel to pay homage to the sweater queen as part of her jubilee." [WWD]
• Not surprisingly, French Vogue editrice Carine Roitfeld's Paris pad is huge, chic, less than cozy. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Just in time for alleged "Twilight vampire mania," black lipgloss is everywhere but on our mouths! [LAT]
• Both American Eagle and Chico's had better-than-expected profits, even though they had to slash prices/launch a "Debbie Phelps line" to do it. [NYT]
• Thanks to Nuclear Wintour, tennis has had the fashion seal of approval for a while now. No wonder Lacoste and Ralph Lauren can't keep tennis couture on the shelves! [WWD]
• Those of us getting nostalgic for the days when Madonna was awesome can check out icons of her sartorial career at a London exhibition next year. "Highlights of the 300-item show will include her iconic pink Material Girl dress, which she wore in the video to her 1985 hit, and the gown she wore playing Argentinian heroine Evita in the 1996 movie." [The Telegraph]
• Kate Moss talks dirty — or at least talks about talking dirty — in Interview, despite our specific injunctions to avoid speaking. Also does nude pictorial. (NSFW although it's "artistic.") [The Sun]
• And wanna see her in a Turkish bath? Knock yourselves out. [Fashionista]
• "Telephoning from his 152-foot navy-hulled yacht moored off the island of Capri,' Valentino acts exactly as one would wish an iconic Italian designer to. [BlackBook]
• Victoria's Secret model Doutzen Kroes: '"I always went over the top when I liked the guys! I would send flowers and love notes," the lovely blonde dished. "I'm sure they're laughing now, because they're like 'Oh, shoot!' But this was when I was 13. Men now send me flowers, and I like it that way,"' Oh, shut it. [Radar]
• Former model Carol Alt's novel: "I wanted to teach in an entertaining kind of way. I have a wealth of knowledge about the modeling industry and how to create a career, not just survive the season. I wanted to be able to teach the girls coming in to the business what it's all about and what to expect. Nobody tells them and they're shocked," [CBS News]
• "I Kissed A Girl" singer Katy Perry, and Betsey Johnson, who kissed Anna Nicole, love each other. [BlackBook]
• Lifetime piggybacks on its Runway coup with Blush: The Search for America's Greatest Makeup Artist. Two words, Lifetime: Top Design. [Variety]
• Olympic golden girls Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson, and Alicia Sacramone "will be the new faces of CoverGirl." Aren't they kinda young? [Chic and Untroubled via NY Mag]
• Elton John auctions deco brooch; apparently will fetch a lot of money. [The Star]
• J Crew's down; they're blaming "system upgrades" but I'm blaming "high prices." [WSJ]
• Mark Ronson's spinning at fashion week. I feel manipulated; why do I love them all of a sudden? [Fashion Week Daily]
• We're normally wary of fashion types co-opting lit cause they think it sounds cool or whatever, but the invites to Abigail Lorick (who does all the ghost designing for Gossip Girl's "fashion shows" nb) sounds genuinely rad: "it’s a battered copy of Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece “A Room of One’s Own,” all wrapped up in a silk scarf bow." [Style.com]
• London's Jewish Museum of Art launches an exhibit on "Schmatte Counture" that seems to have very little to do with either rags or fashion. [Telegraph]
• Free YSL bags! Well, sort of. "The limited edition cotton totes, designed by Stefano Pilati, are the latest wrinkle in the French house's ongoing "Manifesto" program, in which newspaper-style catalogues are handed out to women on the streets of key fashion cities. More than half a million copies of the catalogue will be distributed in Paris, New York, London, Milan, Tokyo and Hong Kong, with 5,000 in each city tucked into the black or white totes." [WWD]
• They're also hawking a $50-something bracelet. "For their latest fragrance and lip gloss (as seen on the cast of Gossip Girl, as well as model Coco Rocha), YSL did something major: They put both beauty items into tiny gold charms, attached them to a YSL bracelet, and sent them straight to Sephora." [Nylon]