Blog Review: Advanced Style

The art of dressing up has always had a positively cathartic ability to impact on the lives we lead – aesthetically, emotionally or physically. Say it how you will, clothes have the power to change how we feel and behave. Nothing could be more present in the fabulous blog titled ‘Advanced Style’.

Created by Ari Seth Cohen, ‘Advanced Style’ documents the stylish forays of the older generation, lifting the lid on the truly radiant world of senior style. A world in which personal edge and telling a story with the clothes one wears is the day to day routine. Cohen photographs these sartorial ‘stories’ around New York and occasionally internationally. For his inspiration he’s quoted as saying that it’s not only his subject’s fashion choices, but the way in which they embrace life.

Along with the street photography are wonderful video interviews. These snippets into the lives of some of the blog’s devoted models include tours of their wardrobes, favourite shops and social haunts. What becomes apparent when you listen to or read what these women say about the chosen clothes is a true belief that joyful dressing reflects an enriched and wholesome life. It would seem that along with lives rich in glamorous panache are lives rich in happiness. They talk of a ‘healing’ quality that dressing provides both in terms of their day to day lives, but also in providing a smile for the person they pass in the street.

Advanced Style is sure to make you want to run straight to your wardrobe and put all the gifted pearls of wisdom into practice like going that extra mile with a turban or an over-sized brooch, and always working a hat when visiting the supermarket thinking ‘if they can do it so can I!’ This goes beyond creating a platform for those whose style is perhaps not always widely represented. It displays the definition of range of styles in the most vivid way – beautifully and refreshingly devoid of multi-conglomerate branding, where pure individual creativity reigns true. Combine this with the subject’s complete faith in their personal fashion mantras and it would seem that nothing bad could ever happen. It’s the ultimate armour so to speak.

Cohen talks of creating a network of discussion and the combination of videos and photographs doesn’t only do this but creates a fabulous sub-culture akin to a youth movement in which youth is not a criterion of entry. This magical members club is both inspiring and heart-warming and for that it is a privilege and a pleasure to visit. There is a properly stated bravery in the statement in what Ari is putting together here, which is truly empowering for anyone at any age: be creative and dress how you wanna!

-  Louis Romanus