Member-only story
Am I Too Old to Dress Like This?
Give me all the crop tops, space buns and immaturity, please.
In my early 20s, I had a 6-year relationship with a man 17 years older than me. We met in Barcelona, where none of us immigrants really had an age or socioeconomic class.
We just were, each of us as immature as the rest. It was liberating.
We’d work, go out, go to the beach, spend four months every year with nothing but Havaianas flip-flops on our feet. Barcelona is a beach town, and a party town.
Later, I moved to Buenos Aires with my boyfriend, and suddenly we were thrown into a serious city and a society with marked class distinctions.
My boyfriend got back to working as a lawyer, in a real office. It was no longer the immigrant life, even if I am an immigrant. We were supposed to be adults. He needed to wear a suit and tie every day.
In his free time, he’d still dress the way he used to in Barcelona. The only difference was that in Buenos Aires, people started telling him that at some point he’d have to grow up and stop wearing Converse Chuck Taylors and t-shirts.
“You’re over 40,” they’d say and roll their eyes. “Grow up.”
Do you really have to? Is there a time when I get too old to dress the way I want?
