Davina McCall thanks Amanda Holden for wearing ‘inappropriate clothes’ in midlife
Davina McCall has credited Amanda Holden with "breaking the ice" for middle-aged women to wear "inappropriate clothes".
The My Mum, Your Dad host, 57, says she now enjoys "dressing inappropriately for my age", something she didn’t do when she was younger.
"It feels really good. I wouldn’t have dressed like this in my 30s or 40s. I dressed so conservatively then," she tells The Sun's Fabulous magazine.
McCall says Holden, 53, to thank for showing that she could dress however she liked as an older woman. "Amanda broke the ice wearing unbelievably sexy outfits on her stonking-hot body during Britain’s Got Talent," she recalls.
"I was thinking, 'Thank you, Amanda', because she was making it OK for someone in midlife to look banging hot. So when I started wearing 'inappropriate clothes for my age', she’d already helped me with that. She was doing it way before me."
In 2022, shortly after turning 50, Holden said she got her inspiration from other famous women who are older than her and still "looking incredible".
"We’ve got Jennifer Aniston, Kylie Minogue, J. Lo, all looking incredible and these people are older than me, so I’m just inspired by them every single day," she told Fabulous. "Hopefully it means we can shift that old-fashioned attitude of, 'Well, I can’t wear that because I’m 51' or 'I can’t do my hair this colour because I’m in my 50s'. Also, not feeling you have to get to an age and give up on yourself."
Holden's daring outfits on Britain's Got Talent were known to cause a stir among viewers, many of whom complained to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom - once racking up more than 630 complaints.
Holden and McCall’s views on clothes for women in mid-life have been echoed by Victoria Beckham. In a 2022 interview with The Telegraph, aged 48, the former Spice Girl said she "never wants to play it completely safe" when it comes to her fashion choices.
Beckham said she was "dying" to wear mini skirts, which she and the rest of the Spice Girls were known for donning on and off-stage.
"I’ve lived in denim the past two years and that’s still a go-to, mixing them with men’s shirting or scarf-neck tie blouses which feels smart but relaxed," she told the newspaper.
"But now I’m ready to strut my stuff. I’m dying to wear minis, but how do I do that in a way that feels fresh and relevant?"
Read more about fashion:
Dame Maggie Smith's Loewe campaign proves working in her 80s looks good on her (Yahoo Life UK, 4-min read)
The trick to looking stylish in midlife? Dress like a Danish woman (The Telegraph, 7-min read)
How to wear the fashion set's must-have winter accessory (Red, 2-min read)
