On my 40th birthday my best friend ordered a birthday cake for my party, from a du jour artisan London bakery. It turned up on the morning of the party day looking very plain, so she took it to a local Polish bakery, and asked them if they could decorate it with some fancy icing, saying “Naughty Forty”. Dressed up and ready for the party, she picked the cake up on the way to mine, only to find it had been fully white iced over, in hard royal icing, making it look more like a funeral wake fruitcake. And in bright turquoise icing on the flattened top, it said “1940”. It was one of the funniest things I’d ever seen.
Naughty 40s lived up their name, but what I wasn’t expecting was the Fuck You 50s, where I realised that a major part of transitioning to post menopause was shedding my old self by figuring out how to speak my truth, look my truth and live my truth. It was a bit of a bumpy ride, but oh so worth it.
Bring on the Sex Bomb 60s and 70s – it’s incredible to see the glorious Helen Mirren and silver fox Andie MacDowell killing it on the runway at this years Paris fashion week, along with a make up free Pamela Anderson. Change is afoot, at last.
And check out my heroine Iris Apfel, here celebrating her 100th birthday in 2021. Legend.
Fuck you fifties (and beyond) – no more rules!
