• Martha Stewart responded to comments that she doesn’t dress her age.
  • “I’ve dressed the same since I was 17,” she said
  • She shares her thoughts on aging and fashion.

Martha Stewart always looks her best, but recently, the lifestyle mogul has had a particularly fabulous few weeks of dressing—and naturally, naysayers chimed in. If you didn’t see, the 82-year-old wore a sparkly high-slit gown, a little black dress, and a bedazzled pantsuit to various events in New York City, all documented on Instagram. And in a new interview, Stewart clapped back at the idea that she doesn’t dress her age with the most clever response.

She presented her case for ageless fashion at the Fashion Group International Night of Stars gala, where Page Six specifically asked her about “dressing for one’s age.” Stewart laughed. “Dressing for whose age?” she said. (What a great point.) “I’ve dressed the same since I was 17,” she continued. “If you look at my pictures on my Instagram, I look pretty much the same.”

Stewart added that she thinks everyone deserves to look and feel fabulous, regardless of the number of years they’ve lived. “I don’t think about age. I think people are more and more and more [fabulous] than they’ve ever been in their senior years, and I applaud every one of them,” she said.

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That sentiment was made clear when she covered Sports Illustrated Swimsuit at 81 in May. She knew the statement it made, and she stood by it. In fact, she loved that her cover gave other women her age permission to be bold. “That’s what’s happening. People are now reimagining their future. And that’s what it’s all about,” she told Variety at the time.

Stewart wants people to follow in her footsteps and take age out of the equation in terms of self-expression and opportunity. “Age is not the determining factor in terms of friendship or in terms of success,” she told Sports Illustrated. “But what people do, how people think, how people act, that’s what’s important and not your age.”

So why should it matter what Stewart chooses to wear? Thankfully, for as much criticism as she received in her Instagram comments, there was twice as much—if not more—support from fellow pro-aging cheerleaders—and we are certainly among them.

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Kayla Blanton

Kayla Blanton is a freelance writer-editor who covers health, nutrition, and lifestyle topics for various publications including Prevention, Everyday Health, SELF, People, and more. She’s always open to conversations about fueling up with flavorful dishes, busting beauty standards, and finding new, gentle ways to care for our bodies. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio University with specializations in women, gender, and sexuality studies and public health, and is a born-and-raised midwesterner living in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband and two spoiled kitties.