Funny how the 30-year-old-Ugg-wearer says women should be able to wear what they please instead of having to dress age appropriately, yet she reinforces that very notion when she advises the mom to go ahead and wear the Uggs but “not with a mini skirt.”

But – how about a stylish boot with that cozy cozy wool lining? I have some wedge boots – but they are just not as cozy as I imagine the shearling could be.

Ah, Manolo, I wish to try to change your mind on the tattoo. No, I do not think it is seemly for woman or man of a certain age to have tattoos. I generally advise against them. But I am a woman of a certain age, and I have a very very large and prominent tattoo in a sometimes visible location (it’s a dragon, beautifully rendered by a reknowned Hollywood artist, on the underside of my arm) that I have for 25 years. Ah, the time, it flies!

While I would never now get one, I like that I have it. It reminds me of when I was, in fact, 19 and reckless, wanting to do the dangerous things, rebelling against everything and every one, refusing to believe that I would grow old (“why do I care what it will look like when I am 40? I will all gross-looking and old then anyway because I’ll be 40!” Youth.)

And maybe this is my vanity talking, but even today, now that I am now one of those women of a certain age, when the tattoo peaks through the rest of my “chic older woman uniform” with the doctorate and the Hermes scarves and the very expensive, classic-but-not-trendy handbags and expensive-classic shoes that the tat reminds me that there was time when I would drop everything and run to Mexico for a month, plop on the back of a man’s motorbike for wild weekend of sex and beer, and spend my last $5 on flowers for my terrible apartment because my room mate was sad—things I would of course never do now. I like the person I am now, but I also like the person I was then, and the tat reminds me of her. That reckless girl is a part of the glorious woman of a certain age I am now, and I wouldn’t erase that girl’s decisions for anything. She made some bad choices, sure, but she was really special, too.

I say that if you like Uggs and a mini skirt, you wear ’em, in my book, and it’s not that I necessarily care that an older woman dresses one way or another. It’s that youthful trends tend to be so relentlessly ubiquitous. I am a college professor, so I deal with hundreds of young things in their minis and Uggs and flip flops (our bookstore sells them! This is a sign of the apocalypse.) I wish women would dress their age not for any real reason other than I think diversity in style is a very good thing. If Tina Turner can wear sparkly capri pants at age 70 with her 5-inch heels, I say wear what you want, when you want, even though Tina-Turner scale fabulousity eludes most of us.

Why does “fun” have to be equated with “young”? Does the fact that a style is favored by teenagers automatically make it livelier that something that looks better on adults? Personally, I’m having a lot more fun as a grownup than I ever did as a kid, and my shoes are better too.

Honestly, I thought the reason that the Manolo recommended the Uggs be limited to the 16-and-under set was because they could be thought of as “too young to know any better.”

Ah, the eternal Uggs debate…they are not and never will be chic or sophisticated. And the Lohans and Hiltons of the world may have forever tainted them by pairing them with miniskirts.

But Uggs are fabulous for what they are – which is warm, comfortable slip-ons that are perfect for walking the dog, doing errands in the neighborhood, running to the corner bodega for milk, etc. I will always have a pair and I am long past my teenage years. The wedges look good but I wouldn’t wear them for the above-mentioned outings.

Now that everybody and their dog has one there’s nothing more conformist than tats. For example, if you watch the NBA the really radical, almost shocking looking guys are the ones with unmarked skin. I have vivid memories of my 19-year-old self and I’ve never needed some tacky image etched on my body to make me remember. I did, however, buy a beautiful little necklace with the saying “she lives in her own little fairy tale” scripted in black on an opaque sliver of glass. It reminds me of the things my mother used to say to me. I’m happy to wear the necklace on occasion but I wouldn’t want that slogan on my body. Chacun a son gout but I will be really happy when the tat craze fades away.

And the divine Tina Turner can do – and wear- whatever the hell she wants. She’s always fabulous, no matter what.