Ask the experts

Sometimes being a blogger is a bit like being a teenager again. I once asked Peter Hook where he bought his leather biker jacket, Mick Hucknall where he got his hair cut and Joe Strummer if he'd like a bag of chips - but that's another story. So now, many years later and with a blog for an excuse, I'm once again overwhelmed by the urge to march up to famous people and start asking them questions. Fortunately, I wasn't invited to this year's Academy Awards ceremony, but it only took a glimpse of the still-so-beautiful Bianca Jagger at London Fashion Week and I was off. Would she like to offer some style tips for my blog blah blah? ' Don't let people tell you what to do,' said the woman who rode through Studio 54 on a white stallion, and we know she means every word, 'I've had a sense of what I wanted to wear since I was twenty.' You're not kidding. From Halston to Yves Saint Laurent, statement coats to snakeskin boots, Jagger's self-assured attitude and singular take on glamour has always looked effortlessly chic. But what about now that she's older? 'Know your pros and cons. Highlight your pros and disguise your cons - and don't let anyone take your photo from below!' The last instruction aimed at the hordes of photographers lurking nearby may have something to do with flattering lighting/the double chin scenario (not that BJ needs to worry about either). Sound advice from a style legend.



Expert number two, the fabulous Hilary Alexander says, ' Wear amazing jewellery and enjoy clothes, but not in a mutton dressed as lamb way.' And then, apparently quoting Barry Humphries, and in full agreement with Bianca Jagger, the Telegraph's fashion director adds, ' Cover up the bits that aren't flattering, fashion is just a matter of hiding the body and the older you get the more true that is.' This is an area That's Not My Age has a fair amount of experience in - each summer I show less and less flesh, this year I'll probably be lying on the beach in a slanket.



As there were more bloggers at London Fashion Week than Spanx pants at the Oscars, it wasn't long before The Sartorialist showed up. And I was in like Flynn. 'When you turn forty you know who you are, as opposed to following this trend and that trend,' points out Mr Schuman, 'you start dressing for your best attributes. I know I did.' The man with a penchant for classic tailoring likes to 'celebrate style through a wide variety of ages' by documenting real people looking good on the street (as well as a few glamorous fashion editors and Kanye West). As his photographs prove, Schuman is an expert on ageless style:







Do you have any expert tips for looking style at any age?




Photos
Bianca Jagger polaroid: Andy Warhol from the LA Times
Hilary Alexander: The Daily Telegraph
Scott Schuman: Wayne Tippetts