John Lewis says '50 is the new 30' in fashion. I've known this for years

By embracing ‘slouchy glamour’, writer Jo Elvin says she looks more stylish now than she ever did in her 30s - Andrew Crowley

I’ll admit it. As a younger woman in my 30s I really bought into the myth that turning 50 would be the moment that everything – hair, skin, life itself – would turn grey. I assumed I’d be wearing gaberdine frocks covered in fussy florals, and matching them to that week’s tinted hair rinse. I thought I’d look like the oldest one off The Golden Girls. God love ‘em, they were pretty much our only visible representation of women over 50. Old people – anyone over 35 – did not exist in TV or film.

These days, our poster children are the likes of Kate Winslet, David Beckham and Eva Longoria, all of whom turned 50 this year. Yes, I know we can’t all be gorgeous celebs with a chef and a trainer on the payroll. And yet… I don’t know if it’s the access to Botox, or just laying off our Boomer parents’ staple diet of red meat and cigs, but I do think we’re in better nick than they were at our age. I for one am pleasantly surprised to discover middle age is not the sad final frontier I’d been dreading.

Kate Winslet, pictured at a Westminster Abbey carol service this December, is among the poster children of chic fashion at 50... - Samir Hussein/WireImage

And now, John Lewis has discovered something that we Gen Xers have known for years: we’re the youngest old people you’ve ever seen.

The retail giant has released its annual “Shop, Look, Live” report – a reflection on, funnily enough, how we’ve shopped, looked and lived in the last year. And they’ve discovered that, throughout 2025, we 45 to 60-year-olds have been shopping with a more youthful vigour and outlook than any middle-aged generation before us.

John Lewis declared: “50 is the new 30.”

Echoing my wrong-headed youthful fear, the report says: “Not that long ago, 50 was a milestone that signalled a donning of slippers and an embracing of middle age. Now it’s an excuse to refresh your wardrobe, hit the gym, throw a big party.”

True enough. Our generation was never going to age in the same way our parents did and we’ll certainly never want to dress like them. Probably the most telling sign that we’re a whole different species is the finding that one in five midlifers admit to borrowing clothes from the teens in the house. Guilty. I might have been seen in one of my 20-year-old daughter’s vintage band T-shirts, it’s true. Can you imagine our parents ever rummaging in our closets? Even if my mum had ever wanted to wear my “Frankie Says Relax” T-shirt, she’d have never been brave enough to try. More shocking, though, was the day my daughter dragged me into Brandy Melville – where rumour has it it’s illegal to enter if you’re over 25 – and it was me who bought the baggy skater jeans.

Ready to embrace casual-wear in a way their parents’ generation never would, one in five midlifers admit to borrowing their teenagers’ clothes

But while we may be blurring the lines between “grown-up” and “kiddie” dressing more than any other age group, this isn’t about trying to look like the person we used to be. Honestly, you couldn’t pay me to dress the way I did in my 30s.

I actually can’t believe what I put myself through back then, all in the name of fashion and a younger woman’s idea of “professional polish”. For decades, I was the editor of one glossy magazine or another and felt a duty to look the part. Jeans? Strictly a weekend thing. Track pants? They were for frumpy jazzercise mums, I’d have rather died than even own a pair.

Elvin, a former magazine editor, would never be seen in a pair of jeans outside the weekend - Jeff Gilbert

No, I was all sleek pencil skirts, form-fitting dresses and tailored dark suits. And heels, heels, heels. The higher the better, with absolutely everything. I amassed a torturous collection and strapped myself into them at least five days a week. I strode into boardroom meetings in my towering YSL Tribute sandals, and tottered over cobblestoned Parisian streets in Dior stilettos. But I also sprinted for the bus and joined the Pret lunch queue in them too. Day in, day out.

Elvin with Geri Halliwell at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards, 2008 - Getty

I know I’m not alone; the John Lewis report found that nearly 70 per cent of Gen-X customers say they’d have never dreamed of wearing trainers to the office a decade ago. As it happens, 2015 was the first time I dared to wear a pair to – gasp! – a fashion show in Paris, teamed with a well-tailored purple suit. It took me a while to comprehend a whole new sensation: comfort. It felt almost anarchic.

Of course, trainers now dominate our everyday aesthetic, especially for the office, and their biggest fans are the over-50s. John Lewis found that more than 70 per cent of us bought a new pair of trainers in the last year, compared with 64 per cent of 18 to 25-year-olds. More men than ever are turning away from their traditional dress shoes in favour of Adidas Sambas. Which is quite something for the children of the power-suited 1980s, who believed for decades that trainers were for jogging and jogging only.

No longer just for jogging – Elvin’s generation is increasingly embracing trainers in more traditionally formal settings

But two major cultural resets have helped to usher in a wardrobe revolution that has reinvented middle-aged dressing, and one was already well under way by the time I’d braved those fashion week trainers. Remember “normcore”? It took me a minute to recalibrate my settings to like it, but now I’m wholly grateful for a fashion movement that rebranded elasticated waistbands and flat shoes as chic.

Then of course came the biggie – when the pandemic and working from home made heels redundant, it was always going to be a job convincing us to put them back on.

And think about it: these two movements coincided neatly with my generation hitting our own hormonal revolution. Menopause plus knackered knees divided by oh so many nice trainers to choose from equals a joyous new vibe. It’s relaxed and comfortable but still easily tailored to look just stylish enough. We move with ease and confidence in our new “uniform” of wide-legged trousers, loose dresses, over-sized jackets and trainers. And we’re fully done worrying what the boss, the potential new boyfriend or the girls in the office think. Reaching your 50s is to reach the point in life when the only one you’re dressing to impress is yourself.

And here’s the thing: This new “slouchy glamour” makes us look better than we ever did in our 30s. So much fresher than all those corporate shirts we wore when our faces were actually fresh.

Fifty is the new 30? I’d say it’s cooler than that.

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