26 The Times Magazineack when I was 20, I didn’t give any
thought to what 50 might look like
for me. But if I had, I don’t think
I would have imagined it to be this.
As to what 50 might feel like, if the
past is a foreign country, then the
future is another planet.
I turn 50 in a few days. Thanks
to yoga, I am in the best shape of
my life. I am a personification of
the fact that 50 in 2022 can look very different
from a generation or two ago. I am stronger,
more flexible and more toned than ever. I
have musculature in places I was only barely
aware of until recently. I can do things – such
as the forearm balance pictured here – that
were unimaginable to me even a couple of
years ago. I am so far past touching my toes,
something I couldn’t do at all at 30, that
I can put my palms flat on the floor. My most
recent achievement – and I still can’t quite
believe I have finally managed it – is to be
able to drop back from standing so that my
hands touch the floor and I am in the yoga
position known as wheel.
Next up is to nail a ten-second handstand
in the middle of the room. I had hoped to
pull it off by the time I was 50. Now I am
gunning for this time next year. One of the
things I love about yoga is that it gives you
a narrative of physical progression which,
unlike most other activities, doesn’t wane as
you age. I am better at 50 than I was at 40,
and I will be better at 60 than I am at 50.
Ageing and invisibility are often talked
about as being synonymous for women. Yet
I feel more seen, whether it’s in the yoga
studio or the cocktail bar, than ever before.
Ironically, one of the things that I was
particularly warned about with regard to
ageing out into obscurity – namely my
decision to embrace my natural grey hair- has proved to be my most high-vis act. Rare
is the week when one or two strangers don’t
come up and compliment me on my hair.
They might be male or female, young or old.
Quite often it will be a woman in her twenties
who has dyed hers a version of mine. When
I was dating, it was my grey hair more than
anything else that attracted attention.
I know that what I wear has a lot to do
with getting me noticed. Colour and a kind
of quirkiness have become my sartorial
default in a way that they weren’t when I
was younger. My thirtysomething fashion
colleagues can look cool in classically cut
neutrals. I look staid. And staid is not how
I want to look, because staid is not what I
want to be mistaken for. So if I wear a trouser
suit, it’s fuchsia. If I wear trainers, they are
leopard print. If I wear red lipstick, it’s the
most full-throttle red imaginable. (Relentlessly
Red by Mac, if you are interested.)
Certainly I work at looking my best. Not
just a five-times-a-week yoga habit, but also
a monthly facial and, when I am being
assiduous, daily facial exercises and massage.
I know I am lucky to have the time and
money to invest in myself, but – with the
exception of my Alexandra Soveral facials- what I do is far less costly than much of
what is marketed at women, and increasingly
men, these days.
Once you have learnt enough to be able
to self-practise, yoga is free. (Although I would
miss the community, not to mention the
full-throttleness, of my classes, at which
I am typically one of the oldest people in the
room.) My facial exercise regimen stems from
an initial outlay of less than ten quid, courtesy
of Carole Maggio’s Facercise book, my face
massage a £42 investment in Hayo’u Method’s
Jade Beauty Restorer, which draws on ancient
Chinese beauty methodology and really does
lift and smooth your face if used regularly.
Would I prefer not to have my frown lines?
Yes. But am I prepared to have botulinum
toxin injected into my forehead in order to
deal with them? No. Besides, as I practise
softening my gaze, and my approach to life
more generally, my lines are in turn softening.
Similarly, would I like my jawline to be
sharper than it is? Yes. But am I prepared
to do whatever it might entail – heaven
forfend – to facilitate that? No. Am I, working
in fashion, surrounded by women in their
fifties and sixties who have had so-called
tweakments? Yes. Am I also, yogi that I am,
surrounded by women of the same age who
haven’t, but who are endeavouring to live their
best lives? Also yes. I don’t judge anyone for
what they do to their face, but I know the
route that resonates with me.
As Coco Chanel famously said, “Nature
gives you the face you have at 20... But at 50
you get the face you deserve.” I am curious
about how my face is changing, about how it
will change in the future. Indeed, I am curious
about every aspect of ageing; about what it
will do to me and how I will respond. I am not
in the business of cheating, not least because
I happen to think that’s a loser’s game. I want
to live as honestly, in every sense, as I can.
Besides, what’s far more important to me
than my face or my body is how I am inside.
And I happen to think I am in the best shape
of my life in that regard too. What makes me
even happier than my new-found latissimus
dorsi is that I am a better person now than
I was at 20. I won’t bore you with the details,
but I have done the work and, though there
is still more to be done, and always will be,
I am pleased with how far I have come.
Mine is an existence that would have
been viewed as determinedly counter-cultural
a couple of decades ago. I wasn’t aware of
B
‘I have never wanted
to get married. I have
always been ambivalent
about having children.
I haven’t done either’
HAIR: DESMOND GRUNDY AT TERRI MANDUCA USING MOROCCANOIL HAIR PRODUCTS. MAKE-UP: ANITA KEELING USING WESTMAN ATELIER. PREVIOUS S
PREAD,
LOOK 1: EARRINGS, ALIGHIERI.COM; RING, ALEXANDRAJEFFORD.COM. LOOK 2: EARRINGS, VICKYSARGE.COM; SHOES, CHRISTIANLOUBOUTIN.COM. LOOK 3:EARRINGS, VICKYSARGE.COM; RINGS, COMPLETEDWORKS.COM, FELTLONDON.COM, FENTONAND.CO; SHOES, JIMMYCHOO.COM. YOGA MAT, LIFEFORM.COM
Anna Murphy in her twentiesBend it like Anna at 50: bodysuit, ernestleoty.com