Sorry for yet another post, you're all right, I don't think I go without being on the forums for a while

Anyway, I've got a play coming up in September (I'm only in one scene.... but I beat 10 people to the role this time, oh yeahhhh!) and I've got to play a mother in her mid-thirties. Usually the wardrobe would provide costumes, but this time they thought we could. It's with another 'woman' the same age as me, and we're just randomly chatting somewhere in the play, and we're quite well spoken but gossiping. When someone watched our bit they said it reminded them of the old ladies in monty python, only less eccentric

So what do motherly women in their mid-thirties wear? Its supposed to be smart casual, but we're not allowed to wear jeans in case we wear tight skinnies. Black flared trousers? Heels? Red lipstick? A white shirt? Or is that too smart? I have no idea how to dress older but not old

Depends on what demographic we're talking about. If you want to play a chav mum, you'll need kappa tracksuit bottoms, an inappropriate low cut pink top, flat shoes, a sovereign ring, big hoop earings,a giro in one hand and a fag hanging out of your mouth Don't forget the cushion under the top as being seen without having a 7th one on the way by a 6th father would be a crime...

Or more sensibly, black flared trousers sounds ok - quite a few women I know around this age wear those. A smart-ish blouse would be ok but not too overboard on the makeup as by the time they hit their 30s, most sensible women have gotten over the idea of plastering their face with 3 inches of foundation Shoes with modest heels would do, I'd think, if only for practical purposes

*waits to get shot down*

I wear skinny jeans and I'm in my mid/late 30's To be honest most of the mums at the school gates are either in Jeans or work suits - check out the adult section of the Next Directory and you pretty much have your answer.

Anyway - sounds like fun, so hope you enjoy it.

D x




No, you won't get shot down from me - if I try to find Mascara at Christmas it's a nightmare trying to find one that hasn't gone all gloopy, and I found the lipstick I wore on my wedding day the other day

quick check of wardrobe and it's 90% black. Bootcut trousers and shirts the norm. Again wouldn't go with alot of make up, understated would be a suitable term

So did I! (It was 33 years old) I even tried putting some on, but that was a big mistake - it smelt and tasted somewhat rancid. It really is time I turned out that drawer!

.

My friend and I were gutted when we found out we couldn't wear jeans. They said "Find something your mum would wear" and we went "excellent!" and thought jeans and stuff. Then they said "but no jeans, I don't think 30 year olds would wear jeans" (the 'costume ladies' as we call them are 70 or 80, but they're quite sweet. they chat to us absentmindedly in the dressing rooms and laugh at our "strange ways" apart from one woman we all call the devil lady, because no matter how nice, polite or courteous you are, she is a b-i-t-c-h. she argues with anyone. I suggested maybe it was because we all treated her like she was a cow, and thought maybe we could all chip in to buy her (and the others) a present (choccies) to say thanks at the end of the show, and start smiling and being nice. She was still a cow. So now I just sit back and enjoy the flaming arguments between her and the more fiery members of the group )

But yeah, I don't actually know ANY 30 year olds. I know 20, 40, 50, 60, 70 and 80 year olds. But not thirties

Surely everyone wears jeans - I live in them!

What!!???!! Mid thirties woman speaking here. Jeans are my mainstay in clothes. Also have a pair of black cobats for casual summer wear. But also wear dresses, fitted tops with leggins etc. Fave pair of jeans right now are skinny fit.

Today I'm in shorts!!

Think a previous poster hit the nail on the head with some 30 something women look 25 (yes even mums - "Yummy Mummies" is a current term)

And some look 50 much earlier.


many of the mums in our playground at pick up time are quite fashionable. But there are those that pootle about in joggers etc. Rather depends on job/lifestyle I guess.

I only ever wear black trousers and WHITE blouse for my band uniform

Exactly!!!! Even the costume ladies were wearing jeans

But some of the things teenagers wear around town these days. I think they're worried we'll walk on to stage trying to be a 30 year old woman in tighter than tight short shorts with our bums hanging out and a thong visable. I'm starting to sound like an old lady!

depends if the mum is the "has to look better than her kids" sort or the "doesn't bother on her own account as long as the kids are all right" one. But yes, you could do worse than walk past the local primary school at collecting time, and squint at the parents hanging around there. The youngest would be in their twenties, the oldest are probably grannies helping out, but the thirties only look a teensy bit more mature than the twenties ones.
I'm gobsmacked that jeans would be considered no-go - they're a staple over decades, now.

I think jeans would've been good as long as it wasn't tight ones. Something simple but nice? and a bit of light eyeshadow with mascara for make-up. Probably no eyeliner.

I suppose that the thing is, if you wear skinny jeans etc and that's your usual style, you won't look any different and you're trying to add 20 years. (In my mid-thirties I had two young children and I can't remember what I was wearing, but I think I looked permanently exhausted )

Try the Boden look (boden.co.uk)

I've never owned a pair of jeans in my life! Took against them in my schooldays when people tended to prefer either Levis (as we called them then) or cords; I chose cords. Somehow, I've just never fancied wearing denim.

Actually, I hardly ever wear trousers now, as they just don't suit my plump, dumpy figure. No-one needs to see my overlarge rear in trousers! Of course, I'm a good 20 years older than the lady bobziekins is playing, and I agree that it's unusual for 30-somethings not to wear trousers.

I think we need the context - are these women in their 30s professional working women? Yummy mummies? Chav-tastic? All very different...as this is drama, you'll be forgiven for sterotyping rather than just going for everyday-person (i.e. jeans!)

I'm only just out of my thirties and I've only just stopped dressing like a student My jeans and sloppy Ts have been backburned for trousers and blouses (euaghhh I know.. OLD!! but actually fairly smart although I think I look like a mother and housewife and I'm neither!)


THANKFULLY I spend most of my days up to my elbows in oil paint and turps... and what do I wear under my apron..... jeans and sloppy Ts

But never skinny jeans - I honestly don't think anybody looks good in them


However, I would suggest trousers and a blouse... whatever your mom would wear to meet friends for coffee

Sorry to be picky, but it's "mum", we're not in America So many people I know are starting to use that particular Americanism, and it really grates on me...

*crawls back under a rock*

Depends on family tradition; I do know someone whose mother has always been mom, she's mid-30s and from Leicestershire...mother's have always been mom/mommy in her family! People do always think she picked it up from her year working in the US, though

Whenever I holiday or work abroad, I always dig my heels in and refuse to be assimilated as regards pronunciation of English words I drove the people in Sydney crazy by refusing to pronounce the "ou" in router the same as in "ouch".

ofgs!!!

I refer to my 'mother' in English, Scottish, American, French, Latin and Spannish and a good few pet-names too... and she still answers to all them. None of are in any doubt that we're Scottish..

I would like to say it slipped out but it didn't - I used it deliberately.

Sorry - didn't mean to upset you Solari Sorry if I sounded cross.

You didn't (on either count), don't worry!

It's the normal spelling in the Midlands, Solari - not an Americanism at all.

Weirdoes!

Haha that particular one drives me mad too, though obviously it's realistically none of my business what people want to call family members - my brother calls my mum and dad Jules and Vorgie, for some weird reason, and I tend to call them mummy and daddy unless I'm upset with them, cause I just never grew out of it!

I didn't know it was a midlands thing as well as an American one though.

I think if you're going for stereotypical mid-thirties woman, you'd have to go for smart black or brown trousers, and maybe a flowery blouse. I'm not saying that that's what your average mid-thirties woman would wear, but for the sake of drama, to suggest you're "grown up" I guess you kind of do have to dress differently to normal.

Though, I've often heard high-waisted jeans be referred to as mum-jeans (or mom-jeans, I guess) so...

I was just going to suggest that too - good thing I read the whole thread!

As mum in her mid-thirties I can tell you I DO wear jeans - but not skinny ones! In the summer I tend to wear linen trousers, t-shirts and in the winter I wear more skirts, dark tights and boots. Currently in maternity wear though so you could always go for that "look". Actually I think you could wear absolutely anything ......

NO. Sorry, but I'm not too keen on that idea. They look so gross

The boden site is brilliant (I wouldn't be able to wear any of it now, but when I'm 30 I'll be heading straight over to it!) but a bit too eccentric for these ladies.


I'll tell you about the situation- it's a play about bullying. A gang of teenagers about 15 or 16 bully a new boy in their class, and end up killing him by chasing him onto a railway line and killing him. Then it has policeman interviewing everyone.

I play one of the gang members' mothers (a bit stupid though, the person who is playing her is a good two feet taller than me, and 2 years older). I'm chatting to this other mother somewhere (we don't know where, we just come on stage chatting) and we're basically gossiping about what happens, and about the victim's mum, how his dad was in jail, how my daughter "knew the lad, of course".

We've made ourselves well-spoken, snooty, and nasty.

Can I suggest biker boots then? (touch of Scottish irony of course......)



p.s. does anyone know where I can get a decent pair of biker boots - I find my 'boden' look is a bit boring

As another woman firmly in her mid 30s my wardrobe is quite mixed.

Jeans are there but not worn much at the moment as I'm a bit in between sizes and the ones I have are either a little tight or so baggy they look dreadful! None are skinnies - mostly either straight leg (my prefered cut) or bootcut (much easier to find!).

Currently wearing more skirts than trousers when trying to look a little smarter, but live in my purple shorts if nice weather and am at home. Skirt length has recently changed from always v v v v v long to sometimes knee length due to drop in dress size and realisation that I have reasonable legs! Never micro short.

Tops - cover the belly unless warn with a skirt that does that job!

Makeup - none existant or very little. I rarely wear makeup for work, but that is common to the majority of my female colleagues. If attending a meeting that I feel needs more attention to grooming, then subtle eye makeup and neutral lipstick. Only wear foundation/tinted moisturiser if having a particularly blotchy skin day.

Shoes - in summer strappy sandles/flip flops (of the slightly less plasticy types) pumps in winter pumps or boots rarely more than 1'' heel but that is more to do with my sense of balance.

My main criteria when selecting clothes at the moment are: avoid muffin top, avoid exposed belly, avoid trousers that are too big around the middle.

I wouldn't really wear black trousers with a white top - looks too much like waiting staff. If wearing black will be all black or black with a vibrant colour.

Then again I dress now pretty much as I have done since my mid 20s, but am more tolerant of showing my legs and less tolerant of worn out clothes.

Camden Market? (You'd need to check the stall survived the fire)
There's a shop in Edinburgh near the little dog's statue (Bobby?) that does all gothy style stuff (at least it was there a couple of years ago).
Ebay - my daughter sold her boots on ebay (to fund some other style of shoe!)

(I'm 33, by the way)

Just to give an example (if it's any help), I'm wearing a black asymmetric skirt with a black long-sleeved top, black boots and tights, but that is for the office and there is a dress code so I couldn't get away with wearing anything more casual than that.

Outside work, it would still be the jeans/t-shirts/hoodies that I've pretty much always gone for, maybe slightly less grungey-looking than the ones I would have worn 10-15 years ago. Again, not skinny jeans - bootcut are much better I find. Though in relation to the costume ladies' comments about jeans not being appropriate, my mum wears jeans (and skinny ones at that) and she's 60! I don't think it's possible to generalise anymore as clothes tend to be appropriate to what's required by circumstances rather than rigidly defined by age. So you should be able to get away with almost anything that you think fits the character

How about a bright cardi over a plain top + jeans?

We're not allowed jeans
Even though the majority of people on here have suggested that, and we protested when they told us, it still stays the same that we're not allowed jeans because we'll still look 14 or 15 and won't look like we're in our midthirties and mothers.

I might go for black trousers, a big wooly long cardigan and some kind of top underneath

Without wishing to rub salt into the wound, if you're much younger than the role jeans won't be convincing (ven less so if you're being "snooty" and "nasty").

As I said in another post, Mrs Elephant works in theatre and my mother in law is an actress so I've seen this sort of thing done before many times over the years. Unfortunately, I think all you can do is to try lots and lots of alternatives (borrowed from mothers, aunts, friends, etc.) and, above all, have an exernal eye once you've narrowed down the choice (the director is the ideal person). It's almost impossible to judge for yourself.
Hope that's of some help

You're not going to believe this, but Boden now has biker boots!!! Seriously!

Have you seen the movie "Bridget Jones's diary"? Maybe you could take a few tips from her fashion style..she is supposed to be a typical 30 something

Bridget Jones is my idol!


Yeah, go on stage in your PJs. That'll do the trick!

I nearly did have to wear a nightdress once it was a play about evacuees and we all had to lie on stage, then each 'woke up' and did a monologue about our first night there. I'm so glad we didn't have to, we wore our 'school uniforms' instead, and those had granny knickers underneath. Phew.

But yeah, Bridget Jones! That's a good one. And all the people in Friends are that age aren't they?
Ahaa, tonight I'll be researching costumes, a good old night of Bridget Jones and Friends. Fun stuff:)

But yeah, Bridget Jones! That's a good one. And all the people in Friends are that age aren't they?
Ahaa, tonight I'll be researching costumes, a good old night of Bridget Jones and Friends. Fun stuff:)
[/quote]

Make sure it's the later series, at the start Monica and Rachel are both only 26......... omg I think I know that programme way to well

Is it!? I've never come across it spelt that way.

Certainly was in Brum.

It really depends on what your character like. Is she mad or sad or happy or strict etc. etc.?

Actually it's 'mam'.

In Newcastle it definitely is, but people I've known from up there still wrote "mum" (maybe they were the exception to the rule).

well I'm not going to argue with how she spells it, which is definitely with an o !

My mother circumvents this by being known as mumsie. And she used to call her mother ma. She doesn't like 'mum' as a word...

It's usually written 'Mam' (or else Mother). Try finding a birthday/christmas card with 'Mum' on it here - it's not easy.

I'm using 'mam' where appropriate in my thesis, and things like 'keks' appear in the discussion as well.