The only problem is that they are revering the boomer fashion ethos the way it was 40 years ago: peasant blouses, headbands and hippie-inspired attire. But dress like their boomer parents do today? Think how the boomer generation felt about wearing their own parents’ polyester suits and dresses, and you’ll get the general idea.

As the grim serial of untimely demise of boomer-centered fashion and retail boutiques attests, something has gone terribly awry with marketing clothes to boomers. Whether it’s the fashion and retail world’s miscue or a generation’s fashion sense that got left behind in the march of the decades, is a topic we will be exploring over the course of this blog series.

I will start right off the bat by saying there is big interest in the topic by the boomers, themselves, as witnessed by the rise to the top of best-seller lists by such fashion advice books as “How Not to Look Old” by Charla Krupp, “Staging Your Comeback: A complete Beauty Revival for Women Over 45” by Christopher Hopkins and “Dressing Nifty After Fifty” by Corinne Richardson. For this series of blogs, we undertook an in-depth interview with the next of our generation’s fashionistas to take boomers on: Sherrie Mathieson. She is the author of “Forever Cool: How to Achieve Ageless, Youthful and Modern Personal Style for Women and Men”, a new version to be released by Random House in mid-April of 2009. Sherrie gave us a sneak peak of her insights and philosophy. Mixed with our own knowledge about adult development and the history of the boomer generation, FH Boom is ready to name and discuss the key boomer fashion archetypes, cite some trends, and most of all, issue timely guidance and warnings to fashion designers and retailers who have already wasted way too much time and energy missing the mark.

In the next blog: The boomer fashion landscape.

Carol Orsborn