I
Most of my nice clothes now are not very conservative. I need blazers and suits, which are terribly expensive if you buy the only kind that really do the job. I also need some more casual conservative options.
For my most recent talk I was wearing a straight black skirt, black heels and off black stockings, and an arty and interesting, but not flashy blouse in a print that had black in it. It was a good outfit for a symposium, but had the gathering been any larger, or had I been more than just a presenter, I would have needed a suit.
II
For professional dressing, Michelle Obama has the answer: get sheath dresses and long jackets in cool cuts, in the same cloth. This is infinitely superior to wearing suits because it is both more elegant and more comfortable.
These outfits, however, are not entirely easy to find. The ones with the short jackets and waist length jackets look retro, prim, and matronly. You must do this look with bold, dramatic cuts for both the jacket and the skirt — at least one of which must be rather long — or with very well cut jacket over a tank dress.
I used to have a very well cut longish sheath in a heavy knit. It might be that one should acquire the Ann Taylor Bateau Neck Tropical Wool Dress, and then an interesting series of jackets and blazers. It might also be that one should shop in France.
III
I have some very serious fashion advice, however, for women over fifty: examine and emulate the outfits of the professors emerita, in their seventies and eighties, who still draw on the style they put together in their twenties, thirties and forties. They put together a youthful, elegant look that is still appropriate for their ages. Many women at the full professor level have not yet achieved this. Older men look well kept by wearing leather shoes and good blazers, and getting regular haircuts. Women’s fashion is more complicated but shoes, jackets, and hair are still key.
1. Hair. Do not have a bad dye job. Do not let your haircut go. Do not have split ends.
2. Shoes. Wear something designed for a professional setting, not for a sport.
3. Glasses. Get contact lenses, bifocals, or progressive lenses. These pull your look together. Glasses on the end of the nose do not.
4. Jackets. These are exceedingly important. They really do make you look less matronly. This is increasingly important at your present age. It is so especially if you are not a thin person.
5. Good jewelry. Wear it. I know you got tired of it at some point but it really does draw attention away from wrinkles.
6. Exercise. Do it. If you are a thin person, for example, you may not realize you now appear to be wasting away. Exercise will remedy this.
7. Makeup. Yes, wear it. But put it on in very good light, wearing very good glasses. Otherwise it will be smudged and you will not know it.
IV
The worst full professor outfit I have ever seen involved Birkenstocks, bare feet and legs, a denim skirt, and a huipil. I have seen several people wear this combination at national conferences. It is at best an outfit for a thin college student with supple skin and lustrous hair to wear in informal situations.
If you must wear your huipil and you are not using full traditional dress, I recommend combining it with my recipe of the simple black dress, simple black heels, and dark stockings. I still think this would look best on a Mayan person.
This post has been written by Professor Zero, the current interpreter and performer of the ancient text. Professor Zero, the author, is of course Mayan, and he is constructed of stone. His clothes are carved in the same stone, and then painted to the desired color. Then his feathers and jewels are attached.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
I’m a terrible dresser but always enjoy reading the advice of people who know something about fashion.
I know what you mean about how well older women faculty dressed. You never really noticed what they wore, but they always looked right.
Great advice for everyone, actually. I think it was easier to dress in the 1990s, back when people still wore skirt suits–now, with the women’s work clothing options more varied and fluid, it’s easier to find stuff I want to wear, but it’s harder to know what’s appropriate.
I like your advice about shoes, hair, and eyewear. I’m hoping that my grey hairs, which are new, will look like blonde highlights for a little while…
OMG, is it now a “skirt suit” … ? Are options now more varied and fluid … is this why I have ended up with the wardrobe I have, and the doubts I have?
Rant: I absolutely hate pantsuits and wish they would go away. I do not think I have ever seen a good one. Jeans and a leather blazer are *so* much classier if you insist on wearing pants.
But meanwhile I am still riveted at the idea that “skirt suits” are no longer worn. Does this mean I don’t have to look for one … ?
I still wear skirt suits occasionally, but they’re less matchy-matchy–I have a cute green tweed jacket that coordinates with a rust skirt in the same tones and whose trim is in a similar shade of green, so that’s kind of a skirt suit. I’m with you on the pantsuits in general–I did buy one in the early 2000s, when they were briefly “in,” and I liked it because it was easy. But, I don’t wear it any more. Pantsuits seem to come and go rapidly–and since tenure (and since I live in CO), I’m now comfortable with jeans and nice shoes/boots and a blouse/nice sweater, at least in the classroom.
I’ve got 3 conferences in the next 3 months, so I’m considering finding something new–but since it’s spring, I doubt I’ll buy a suit. I think you’re right–a dress with a nice jacket or sweater-jacket, perhaps?
AHA, very interesting. It is the matchy-matchiness of suits I cannot stand, and that is why I so dislike pantsuits – they’re matchy-matchy right down to the ankle. Your skirt + jacket sounds good. I favor the dress with jacket or sweater-jacket. I want one, too.
P.S. I have totally joined the Michelle Obama clothing groupies and I am amazed I had not done so earlier. Here are some pictures.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/18/michelle-obamas-inaugurat_n_158916.html
1. Note the camel Narciso Rodriguez skirt + matching OVERcoat. Looks great but I am not sure about usefulness for me … and would like to see the whole thing in person.
2. Isabel Toledo suit. Still I want a sheath going below the knee with an interestingly cut jacket that goes to somewhere above the knee. But the suit without the coat is a dress + hip sweater. Perfect. So you can give your talk in that, then walk around outside wearing the coat.
3. Dresses for church and for inauguration ball are great. I am getting a crush on her, I do believe, she is so gorgeous and sexy. I can’t use the ball gown but the church dress could be good for class.
4. I also like the overcoat in the very first picture. And I see her birthday is January 17, which makes her a Capricorn, which explains a lot.
I want to shop but I think I’ll go work out.
Note: I should say something more about the bad dye jobs sometime, because I am not sure the people who have them realize it.
It takes practice and skill to choose colors and you should never stop consulting with a really good professional, even if you take over most of your own hair dyeing.
Postive: if you have partially gray or white hair, dye will look natural because it will not all come out one uniform color, but follow the already variegated pattern of your hair in a subtle way.
Know: your hair keeps darkening and your skin changes tone. What looked good or natural at one time may not now.
Disbelieve: that you should go lighter to look younger. Keep close to your natural level of lightness or darkness even if you change shades. Dyes come with darkness/lightness levels written on them. Find your natural one – your CURRENT natural one – and stay in that range. Remember that going too dark will wash you out, and going too light will emphasize hard lines and the loss of elasticity in your skin that you do not yet realize you have, but do.
Watch: for bad colors. You may not realize it if you dye your hair indoors or on a cloudy day, but your color may be or turn to a BAD FAKE. Candy apple red, pumpkin orange, violet and purple are not good colors and they do exist, unintentionally, on the heads of many.
oh! oh! jil sander for suits! and proenza schouler. they can be found on sale and yes, are investment pieces, but well worth it. sites like yoox.com are hugely useful, and almost entirely absent of matronly cuts.
also useful are good tailors (oh, pant length . . . how you vex so many), as well as nice fabrics–a linen suit for summer, a brushed wool for winter. invest in interesting shirts and blouses, make a statement with shoes (and appropriate insoles), and don’t be afraid to occasionally wear a tie, as long as it’s interesting. (etro or paul smith, for example, or a nice metallic brocade can do wonders for an otherwise-monochromatic look.)
OK I will check out these suits and sites, THANKS actually, they sound great. I love tailors and we don’t have enough. (They all seem to live in Peru — which is also a good place to shop for professional clothes — or Brazil.)
You are so right. And that yoox site makes me want to say hang the cost!!! It is beautiful!!!