HERE WE ARE IN GINZA

(the magazine, not the district)

If you've been following our Instagram account (what?!  you don't follow our Instagram account?!), you already know that we're featured in the August issue of Ginza magazine.  We're standing next to copies of the magazine at Kinokuniya, the local branch of the well known Japanese book store, and we're both holding it open to our page.  You probably can't tell, but those are pictures of us all over page 72.  (Valerie has already laminated that page so it will last for 10,000 years.)

But don't take our word for it.  We've blown up those tiny little figures so you can see for yourself that we're not pulling your leg.

AND we had the extra added pleasure of seeing ourselves on the table of contents page.  We're teeny tiny, but we're unmistakably there.  We added the red circles so you can find us more easily.  (Double click on any of these photos to get a better view.)

While we were at Kinokuniya, we met this handsome young man, Bryan Beaudoin, who generously offered to take our opening photograph. Turns out he also speaks Japanese and even offered to translate the article for us.

You can see the cover of Ginza on the display table, but we've blown that up for you too.  We can't for the life of us understand why we're not on the cover (or even mentioned on the cover - imagine!!!), but we figure we'll work our way up.

Now we can hear some of you asking "Yes, but what does it SAY?"

So here's Valerie's not-so-bad translation.  Anyone with a better translation is welcome to write in!

Ladies' Gorgeous Days

Valerie and Jean met at a vintage show in 2008.  When they saw each other's style, they felt an immediate connection.  When they started going around together, they were mistaken for stylists, artists or designers.  Because numerous people said 'you should have a blog so we could see more pictures of you', the next year they started a blog.  The blog, which they started for fun, has made more inroads than they imagined, and they received support not only from their own age group, but from young women as well.

This is what Jean and Valerie say about the world of fashion, where the needs of women of a certain age are ignored by designers, editors, magazines and advertisers:

"We're not dead and we're not invisible."  

"We want to break down the attitude that older women should not expect to be fashionable, and rebuild it." 

"If you think of the fact that 33% of Americans are over 50, designers should imagine what would happen if you could raise sales to that population."

Valerie lived in Japan in the '80s.  Both say the audacious '80s form the basis of their style.  Their favorite brands run the gamut from Issey Miyake to Alexander McQueen, with special mention going to New York-based Chromat.

Some of the advantages of aging?  'I'm not swayed by the opinions of others.  Experience gives me confidence in my own decisions.' (Valerie); 'There are no rules.' (Jean) 

One can't help envying these real fashionistas.


We said a lot more in our original interviews, but we're not going to go into all of that.  Our readers know us, and they pretty well know what we would say.