Blythe Danner - Aging Gracefully
The Clothes:
More than ever, as a woman matures it is important to select the right clothing to flatter your figure. If you are developing a matronly build, then consider more layered looks with garments that skim over bulging areas, and provide clean, simple vertical lines to help give a slimmer appearance.
Women who, like Ms. Danner, are retaining a good figure, but are dealing with the usual sags and signs of age, should opt for softer silhouettes and draping garments, in more neutral and softer colors. A softer color palette allows you to compensate for the natural fade in skin tone and can make little lines and wrinkles less noticeable by contrast. (Dark colors on the other hand, will emphasize the shadows of such lines and can make you look older.)
The key is to remember to focus more on playing up the positives, while drawing attention away from the less flattering features. If you have a paunch, wearing a tailored trouser with a tunic-style sweater or jumper in a soft fiber or a loose blouse just a touch longer than normal (to skim lightly over the area) will be much more effective at flattering you, than wearing a caftan-style dress in which all of your figure is obscured.
Shown in the photo, you can see how Ms. Danner's choice of a boat-necked blouse with the color blocking in the buttery-gold and champagne silk give both the softness of texture and color that makes the vital blue hue of her eyes and the splash of color on her lips pop. The result is that the eyes forget to notice the laugh lines and creping on her face and neck.
Ms. Danner has an oval face, but the oval is a little longer than ideal and her chin is just slightly more pointed. The narrowing of her face is enhanced by the lines of her nose. For this reason, most of her hairstyles throughout the years have featured a balancing trend of width.
The volume of the hairstyles (mostly as a result of natural wave in her hair) helps to make the face appear just the right amount wider in order to give the illusion of a perfect oval. The soft waves and curls also help to balance out the roundness of her cheeks and diffuse the lines present in her face.
You can tell in earlier photos that while not overly broad, her forehead is somewhat prominent, so, in order to bring the focus in to her eyes and prevent the viewer from directing all their attention onto the rest of the face, bangs are incorporated. Doing this reinforces that horizontal draw, and makes sure that the eyes are the strongest feature of her gaze.
Hair Styling:
We've noted already that Ms. Danner's styling has always incorporated what appears to be a natural wave to her hair. That being said, the specific styling shown features a plethora of loose wavy strands which creates diffusion and volume to broaden the face and counterbalance the lines of the face. By creating a competing texture in the hairstyle, signs of aging in the face are made less notable.
In addition, as she has gotten older, Ms. Danner has kept her hair generally shorter than in her youth. At its longest in recent years it will fall to the shoulders, and is usually kept to a length that falls to the chin or mid-neck.
Overall, Blythe Danner is an iconic look at a truly beautiful woman. She remains stunning without an excess of glitz and glamour and cultivates a look that is at once vital and wholesome. And the success of her look is largely the responsibility of her styling choices.
By avoiding many of the classic pitfalls of trying to maintain her hair and personal style to the looks she had when she was much younger, she has managed to retain a great deal of her youthful appearance by simply focusing on the features that are quintessentially her.
©Hairfinder.com
See also:
Hairstyles for elderly women
Age appropriate hairdos
Hair of the aging woman
