Don't sweat the retirement wardrobe: The MET validates the comfy.

Part of The Met's Costume Art Exhibit, the aging body, sophisticated, not declining

When there's more casual than business casual in your closet, you may be retired. Sweat pants and hoodies are not only comfy, but fashion to be acknowledged. Just this month, The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art put the spotlight on senior leisure ware, and we applaud the acknowledgement as we slip into our velcro-strapped sneakers and adjust our elastic waistband pants.

Earlier this month, the much-hyped Met Gala, where fashionistas and celebrities dress to an annual theme and climb the stairs of the grand Manhattan museum in red-carpet style, kicked off the "Costume Art" Exhibit. Unlike many of the elegant or elegantly outlandish attire of the Gala attendees,  "Costume Art" takes a step away from the "classic beauty" standards and looks at high fashion's often-ignored population including the "corpulent" and "the aging".  As reported in the Chicago Tribune/May 3, this is the most "consciously body-positive show the museum has attempted . . .[featuring] a group of new mannequins, based on real people with a wide variety of body types."

They point to the mannequin, in the aging body section, wearing an oversized gray hoodie with large lettering boasting, "I'm Retired. (This is as dressed up as I get)."

Pair your fashion sense with a cup of tea from Harney's The Met collection. 

My daughter-in-law, and lifelong New Yorker, Jenna, attended the current "Costume Art" exhibit and sent the proud hoodie-wearing retiree image to my husband, Chris, and me. After just blogging about another portrait embracing non-classic beauty standards at The Met, Too Real to be Liked? Mary Cassatt's Lady at the Tea Table without Filters, this comfortable and content retiree not only made me smile, but cheer the solidarity in the unconventional.

The aging body display shows "commonality - those things that unite us all. . . [it] seeks to reframe as a mode of sophistication rather than biological decline".

I'm rather fond of that outlook. And, though, I, too, enjoy sporting shapeless sweats whenever I can, I do try to rise to the occasion that requires heels, fascinators and - the biggie - a belt. 

While we're contemplating all this fashion, we recommend a cup of tea from one of Harney's The Met Collection.  One of our favorites is "Taste of British History", it's a take on classic Earl Grey, with black and green teas and bergamot oil. (You can purchase at The Met or Harney and Son's website.)  

The Costume Art Exhibit started May 10 and runs through January 10, 2027. Our next trip to NYC, I plan to visit The Met - what I wear there is TBD.  😉