Is the fashion industry finally ready to embrace the grey pound?

As nichification defines smaller communities and fashion tropes, there is one market segment that has remained largely forgotten by the fashion industry: the over 50s.

New research has revealed this group has the financial prowess to be seen, heard and dressed well, as older people will spend 2.9 billion pounds on clothes and accessories, up 21 percent between 2011 and 2018.

It is no wonder, as getting older has many synonyms, none of which are particularly fashionable or flattering: long in tooth, lots of mileage, no spring chicken. A stark contrast to the joys of being in one’s prime, juvenescence and the springtime of life.

At the Future of Ageing conference held in December a group of fashion and beauty industry experts argued that the industry needs to address its institutional ageism if it is to make the most of the potential of increased spending by older people.

Over 50s a key consumer base

Research by the International Longevity Centre (Maximising the Longevity Dividend), shows spending on fashion and shoes by older people will increase by 11 billion pounds (60 percent) from 2019 to 2040. By 2040, people aged 50 and over are expected to be this sector’s key consumer base.

Diane Kenwood, journalist, blogger and ILC Trustee said: “For too long the fashion and beauty industries have been bewilderingly resistant to recognising just how fashionable and stylish the generation of older consumers are and want to remain. The potential of these consumers is huge and it has been shamefully side-lined. I do, though, sense a shift in attitudes starting to stir, and I’m hopeful that change will gather momentum. Helping to realise the potential of this demographic and the opportunities they offer is one of the key pillars of our work at the ILC.”

Tricia Cusden, Founder of makeup brand for older women Look Fabulous Forever added: “We baby boomers are ageing in a completely different way from our mothers and grandmothers. It’s time that the fashion and beauty industries wake up to the fact that we are generation fabulous not generation frump”

Professor Julia Twigg Professor of Social Policy and Sociology at the University of Kent concluded: “Ageism means that the fashion industry still struggles to engage successfully with the older market, though it is worth many millions.”

While greater age diversity has been seen in high end fashion advertising, such as Celine featuring 82-year-old author Joan Didion in a campaign, or Saint Laurent working with Joni Mitchell, youth is what sells, as opposed to the idea of mortality.

Ari Seth Cohen, author of Advanced Style, told the Guardian: “Fashion and beauty brands have been ignoring their older customers for ages. Rather than trying to reach this savvy demographic, they prey on their insecurities and use fear and ageist propaganda to sell beauty products that promise the ridiculous and harmful ideology of ‘anti-ageing’.

Baby boomers have spending power

David Sinclair, the director of the International Longevity Centre (ILC), said ageism was deterring older people from splashing out and that the hoarding of savings was harming the economic prospects of the young.

“Much of the baby-boomer population — and particularly those in their seventies — have significant financial and housing wealth, and if they are not encouraged to spend, it will be bad news for younger people,” he told The Times.

Whether it is feasible to spend an inheritance on fashion and frivolities is dubitable, but there is no question older people are neglected from the fashion conversation and brands are missing opportunities from this growing and spending demographic.

Image: Pexels