Helen Mirren at the “The Hundred-Foot Journey” New York Premiere

Darlings, we’re going to indulge in a little red carpet psychoanalysis and tea leaf-reading.

Consider Dame Helen:

PinHelen Mirren attends the premiere of “The Hundred-Foot Journey” at Ziegfeld Theater in New York City.

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It’s interesting to us that she chooses to dress this way because honestly, we’ve never met  – and can’t imagine – any woman in her sixties wanting to dress in lacey retro styles like this. And with good reason, we might add. It’s just smart for any person past forty to make sure they’re not rehashing styles that were in vogue when they were young because it looks like you’re trying to hold onto the past (see entry for: Ciccone, Madonna)  The silhouette, crinolines, basic pumps and cardigan all could have been worn by little Helen at her first Freshman dance (or whatever the English equivalent may be). Additionally, it’s odd to us that she adopts these very grandmotherly styles – except grandmothers haven’t really dressed like this in decades. The effect is this odd combination of looking matronly while chasing her own youth at the same time. Or at least that should be the effect, because for the most part, this really works for her. We imagine a sassy haircut and a sassy attitude (not to mention a still-killer bod) go a long way in mitigating any negative effects in her style choices.

Anyway, our point is, her style took a turn in this direction roughly 4 or 5 years ago and we wonder if it wasn’t in response to all the “Helen Mirren is SO hot” rhetoric that bounced around the celebrity-sphere at the time. Once she got snapped wearing a bikini, it became quite the thing to declare how much everyone wanted to Be or Do Dame Helen. We still think she could stand to loosen up just a bit, but in a way, we admire her for holding onto her dignity and saying through her style choices, “That’s quite enough of that, thank you.”

[Photo Credit: Darla Khazei, PacificCoastNews, Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images]

• Helen Mirren
• Movie Premiere
• Red Carpet