Under the Grandfluence: Judith Boyd (Style Crone)

10 min read

Annie Dabb talks to the colourful fashion grandfluencer Judith Boyd, known online as Style Crone

Dressed in a burnt umber patterned scarf, a hefty pair of vintage earrings and of course, a red velour fedora set at an angle upon her head, sits the bright and bold Judith Boyd, aka The Style Crone. She has over 124,000 followers on Instagram (@stylecrone) and 38,000 on Facebook (/stylecrone), as well as posting on her blog Stylecrone.com. Against a background of multicoloured scarves, Judith reveals the history behind her hats, and how she uses her fashion sense to fight fast fashion and ageism.

What inspires you to dress the way you do?

I started getting interested in what I wore intensely during the 1960s. In the 1970s I moved to Denver and I started going to estate sales. My friend then opened a vintage store—there were some really good vintage stores in Denver at that time—so I just started wearing everything that was second-hand. In the Seventies I was wearing a lot of oversized 1940s dresses, belted, with boots. I just started to love not being like everybody else.

"In the Seventies I just started to love not being like everybody else"

At that time there was no internet or anything, so vintage was reasonably priced. Then I got into wearing vintage hats and I would wear them to work—I worked at a mental health centre on an emergency team—they seemed to be OK with it.

What is it about hats specifically as a style accessory?

Judith Boyd (Style Crone) wearing one of her trademark bright hats

Judith Boyd (Style Crone) has a passion for colourful hats. Credit: Daniel Nolan

I created a hat room. I don’t part with the ones I love, they’re in there. I collect hats, and I sometimes buy from milliners to support the millinery industry. It’s a very beautiful art. It’s like the canary in the coalmine because in the Sixties, during the time of the Kennedys, hair became more important and hat wearing didn’t continue to be for everybody. I have a collection of almost everything. I also shop in consignment stores and thrift shops. I go to yard sales and estate sales, and now, it’s very important as far as sustainability is concerned not to buy new. I also support small artisans and businesses, but seldom do I buy retail, because of the climate and the planet.

Has your style evolved over the years and what has been the impact of sustainability on your style?

On social media I certainly see some wonderful things that I can incorporate into my own style, which is always evolving and becoming more experimental as I grow older. I turned 80 this year, so I just wear what I love and usually I wear a hat with it.

Due to climate change, we don’t have much time. Fast fashion has had such a horrible impact on the climate. Now, when I look back at the changes that I made in the Seventies, I’m very grateful that I did that, even though at the time I wasn’t thinking about climate change as I have been now.

I became very involved in the climate movement right before the pandemic happened and I learned so much about it. Now on Instagram I refer to what I’m wearing and comment that it’s second-hand first. I don’t criticise what other people do but I’m very strong about what I wear on social media and that it be something pre-loved.

How was the process of building your online platform and forming this strong community you’ve facilitated?

I started my blog in 2010. What motivated me to start was I became aware of Ari Seth Cohen and Advanced Style. He has been at the forefront of changing how the culture perceives ageing people and reducing fear and emphasising having fun and getting dressed up.

The other piece of it was that my husband of over 30 years, Nelson, had been diagnosed with a very rare cancer in 2005. My husband was very supportive from the beginning. He was my first photographer even though he’d never done that before, and I had never posted anything online about what I was wearing. My blog became a very important medium for me to not only dress up and lighten the devastating situation that we were in, but my husband and I connected through the lens, which was a different way of communicating. Nelson loved my style, he thought it was amazing. He was into hats too. We would always get dressed up every Friday night and go out. Sometimes we’d go out dancing with our hats, and sometimes out to dinner.

"Getting dressed up was a lifeline for me when my husband died—we had started this project together and I couldn't stop"

I started posting my features every other week. Because my husband was receiving chemo, I would get dressed up and, as we were in the exam room waiting for the oncologist, he would take photos of me. I would have my computer with me and as he was receiving chemo, I would post those photos. I would also talk not just about what I was wearing, but what I was feeling and the experience happening for both of us. It was a lifeline for me that he gave me this gift because, when he died, I felt like because we had started this project together, I couldn’t stop. I had to get up off the couch and get dressed to post. I talked about grief and death, and I posted about my reinvention. I started Instagram eventually and I’m also on TikTok now, so that’s the story of how I started. I keep moving forward because of how I started.

As well as the way that you eloquently express yourself on your blog, do you see your fashion as a form of expression as well?

Judith Boyd (Style Crone) in a purple dress

Judith Boyd (Style Crone) sees fashion and blogging as ways of healing and expression. Credit: Ari Seth Cohen

Writing is a muscle and the more I do it, the better I get. It’s very important what I talk about as well as the photos. For me, my style is my art. Because I worked in mental health and mostly in emergency (before I started my blog), I would put my outfit together as though it were a meditation, because I would only ever see people when they were suicidal, homicidal, gravely disabled or psychotic.

I felt that my outfits helped to create rapport with my patients, so now I continue to see self-expression as my art, my creativity. An outfit can speak so many words. I didn’t have any education in fashion, it’s just what I’ve learned over the years. The process of putting together an outfit can change my mood. I don’t really know when it’s complete until I look in the mirror and what is reflected back speaks to me.

I collect everything that’s wearable, so sometimes I might have to try on five pairs of shoes or whatever the composition is. It takes time and I’m kind of in the midst of chaos during that time.

Do you have a sentimental attachment to certain outfits or items of clothing?

I do have sentimental pieces in all categories, although I am downsizing now. If I could just talk about hats because that is my favourite accessory, there are some hats that I would never downsize because of their sentimental value, but that doesn’t mean that I wear them a lot.

I’m trying to be more discerning and that if I buy a hat now, it has to be a total showstopper. I don’t really have a favourite because there’s just so many I adore. I might not remember what I had for breakfast two days ago, but I remember most of the time where I got the hat that I’m wearing, even dating back to the Seventies.

You’ve talked about having worked at a mental health care centre. Do you think there is enough of a conversation around mental health for everyone, but especially for older people and for people on the internet?

I think the reason for me to talk about how I felt when I started blogging, and the fact that he [Nelson] was dying, was because I was used to talking to people about their deepest feelings in the midst of crisis. We were in the midst of a crisis, and I wouldn’t always talk about it to everybody else.

I was comfortable talking about what I felt and putting it as a draft on my blog. I could write about exactly what I was feeling in the moment. It was a form of journaling, of communicating with other people and with myself. Then I could go back to the draft and change it if I didn’t want to put it out there as raw as it was. Many times, I didn’t change very much of it, but it was truly a form of healing.

"I see getting dressed and writing as forms of healing"

I see getting dressed and writing as forms of healing. I found an entire community of people, and it was like I would get all this support from an area that I had never considered. That that’s what was given to me by starting my blog.

In terms of mental health, I’ve learned a lot about ageism. The book, A Manifesto Against Ageism by Ashton Applewhite really educated me on this “ism”. It exists all over the planet and we need to talk about how it feels to age. What it’s like to be 80.

What is it like to be 80?

Judith spends her time doing what she loves. Credit: Nicole Marcelli

When I turned 80 it was like, “wow, this is a large number”. It is a fact that I certainly have fewer years to live than I’ve already lived. I don’t know if I’ll be alive at 90, so I feel like it’s important for me to spend time doing what I really love.

Health is the most important priority for me. I’m a yogi, because it helps me to be flexible, not just with my body but also my mind. I eat a plant-based diet and I meditate, and I cultivate positive, healthy relationships.

There are so many things I can do that contribute to my health and my longevity, but there are a lot of things that are beyond my control. Hopefully I will continue to be healthy and enjoy my life, but if I’m not I will probably write about it…or wear vintage lingerie. I don’t know, I have a huge inventory of vintage lingerie. I just have no resistance to it if I love it.

Is there a difference between real life you and online you?

There are some things that I will not talk about that I feel are private. I have many parts of me. Maybe I’m more formal than I am in my private life, which might be sillier. I love to have fun; I love to dance. I feel like it’s like an iceberg and I show a certain amount of myself that I’m comfortable showing.

But when I look back on when I was blogging about death, which is taboo in our youth focused culture, that was showing a lot of myself. I was talking about my grief and just throwing it out into the universe. I was revealing a part of myself that sometimes I didn’t talk about even with friends. There are certain times online that I have really been transparent and there are other times that I have been more private, so I do what’s comfortable for me.

As for the community that you’ve built, are you more focused towards older people, due to your emphasis on fighting ageism?

I would say that I probably have more older followers, but younger people follow me too. All the way from the youngest that I hang out with, my four-year-old granddaughter, to people who are older than me. One of the ways to conquer ageism is to have relationships with people from all backgrounds and all ages.

I am very curious about people, and I like to learn about other cultures and people who are a different age than myself. I do have some younger followers. I could look at my analytics and tell you, but I don’t really pay that much attention.

Where did your name “Style Crone” come from?

If you look up the word “crone” in the dictionary, the definition now is “ugly old woman”. When I was making the decision what to name myself in my blog, there weren’t any words that describe older women. “Mature” could be any age.

I researched what crone really means across the ages, and there were times in more matriarchal cultures that crone was a very positive word. Older women were perceived as valuable because they would pass on their experiences to younger generations. I don’t think that as an older person that means that I’m wise. In fact, at this point in my life, I believe I know less than what I thought I knew in my early life!

"I wanted to bring back the word 'crone' as being seen as valuable—that we as older women are valuable"

There were many people that thought I shouldn’t use the word crone because it doesn’t have a positive connotation, but I really wanted to turn it on its head and bring it back as a word that could be seen as valuable. That we as older women are valuable.

I feel like it’s a political statement, showing up on social media, because of ageism. I have to continually learn because all the platforms are constantly changing. If I’m afraid, I feel like that is perhaps one of the things I should definitely do, to do what I am afraid of.

During the pandemic I was very isolated in not seeing people, so I learned how to take my own photographs, otherwise I couldn’t continue. I think it’s good for my brain.

In terms of the opportunities that you’ve had from your blog and social media platforms, what have been some of your favourite moments as Style Crone?

I love travelling with Ari Seth Cohen because he is usually meeting new older people. I travelled with him after the pandemic so that friendship is very important to me and has brought me many adventures.

Working as a model during New York Fashion Week for Denver designer CR Lee and being the first out and by far the oldest. I felt like that was a big accomplishment. I also modelled for the Neiman Marcus holiday catalogue and went to New York to participate in that photoshoot.

No matter where I go there’s always someone that I know—a milliner, another creator, it’s endless. The opportunities have been endless. I’ve been featured in the New York Times, Buzzfeed, ELLE magazine, CNN. Every time it’s a surprise to me because after all, I’m a psych nurse to my core! A psych nurse who has always loved to dress up.

I feel very honoured to have had these wonderful adventures at this time in my life. I know that Nelson is very proud of me. Since we don’t know what happens to people, I believe his energy has remained and that he is very proud of where I took it from where we began.

If you could say one thing with your platform, what’s the main message you’d like to put out with what you do?

Don’t ever limit yourself. If you have an idea and you’re afraid to do it, do it anyway. It doesn’t have to be an outfit; it can be anything. Ageing is to be embraced. Have fun. Do some of the things that you really want to do because our time here is very short.

"Ageing is to be embraced—have fun "

I look back, being 80 now, and I’m just grateful and thankful to be here and to be able to have these experiences. And hopefully I can somehow help someone else see that it’s OK to continue to do whatever you want to do. That refers to young people as well, because there is ageism for them too.

Banner photo: Judith Boyd (Style Crone), by Phillip Vukelich

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