What sexy dressing truly looks like, in your 50s+

But if anyone knows how to do sexy, it’s Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, the scene-stealing star of Call My Agent! and Emily In Paris, who at 59 is making more headlines than ever. When I interviewed her last year, she said that the style of her character Sylvie in Emily in Paris, created with the help of Patricia Field, was based on that of actresses such as Katharine Hepburn and Joan Crawford who blended feminine and masculine to chic effect.

In real life, Leroy-Beaulieu dresses much like her character – in pencil skirts, loose, tailored trousers and satin shirts, the latter having become a signature. A silk or satin shirt is a great addition to the midlife wardrobe, as every French woman knows. What stops it from looking frumpy is unfastening that one extra button, and tucking it into your waistband instead of wearing it loose. Those self-conscious of their waists could try the “French tuck”, a styling technique whereby a portion of the front is tucked in, while the back and sides are left loose.

Fans also wax lyrical about Leroy-Beaulieu’s hair, worn long and tousled in a deliberately youthful manner at which many older woman baulk. The hairdresser Sam McKnight, most recently seen on a float at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee parade alongside his famous friends Kate Moss and Charlotte Tilbury, is adamant that women shouldn’t automatically ditch long hair as they age.

“Stay away from safe. That old adage that you should cut off all your hair is so old-fashioned and wrong.”

“Stay away from safe. That old adage that you should cut off all your hair is so old-fashioned and wrong,” he counsels. “I love women with long grey hair. Be free, be adventurous and embrace it. Doing something unexpected with your hair will make you feel younger. Hair is just as much about how it makes you feel as how it makes you look. What will age you are the sort of styles that people had 30 years ago. Being in your 60s and 70s doesn’t mean getting a short perm any more. That type of hairstyle has almost disappeared.”

No amount of hair dye, silk shirts or sexy tailoring will change the age discrimination that older women suffer. Our worth being determined by what we wear and how we look is an issue that understandably goads many into feeling pressured to keep up appearances for others and not themselves. The ever-stylish Naomi Watts recently recalled how she was told she’d become irrelevant if she got too old and was no longer ‘f—able’. “This is an ageist industry,” the 53-year-old actress said. Those sniffy about Liz Hurley’s thirsty bikini snaps perhaps haven’t felt the deathly embrace of society’s invisibility cloak, a discriminatory garment that only seeks out older women.

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Of course, women should only ever wear what they feel happy and confident in, whether that’s a silk shirt or a slanket. Sexiness means something different to us all and what you feel your best in can differ wildly from day to day. Who knows, even Liz Hurley might have put the safety pin dress away and be sporting jeans or leggings. Then again, don’t bet on it.

The Telegraph, London

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