5 style tips from Baddie Winkle, Instagram's outrageously stylish 89-year-old great-grandmother

 Helen Ruth Elam Van Winkle, a.k.a. Baddie Winkle, is confounding every preconception which you might have about a. an Instagram star or b. an 89 year-old great-grandmother. Four years ago, with a little help from her great-granddaughter Kennedy, Winkle became an Internet hit thanks to her ultra bold, fearless and eccentric personal style.

There are few fashion frontiers Winkle will not cross- mini skirts? No problem. Leopard print? Bring it on. Dungarees? They’re one of Winkle’s favourite items. It’s an attitude which is not only age-defying but also determinedly unswayed by any of the usual dos and don’ts. On the day that we meet, for example, Winkle is wearing head-to-toe blue camouflage print with a crystal choker and perspex flower earrings.

With over 3 million followers on Instagram, there’s no doubt that Winkle is living out her Eighties to the full- and seemingly enjoying every minute of it- but her message goes beyond the artifice. Having lost both her husband and her son, Winkle says that clothes have helped her to gain confidence and happiness in the face of her losses.

And while not all of us would be brave enough to adopt Winkle’s unique approach, she does have some advice to impart...

1. An older lady’s best jewellery friend is a choker

Winkle is all about wearing jewellery around her face (better for selfies, she declares) but there’s one item in particular which she counts as a secret weapon. “I love a choker because it covers up the neck wrinkles, I have so many of them. Now I’ve got all my friends involved, so I’ve started a trend- I have plain ones, leather ones, jewelled ones.”

2. Think beyond your usual shops

“I’ve always loved to shop, it’s one of my favourite things to do.” It might be an obvious statement considering her new career but Winkle likes to mix up the places she frequents with everywhere from online shops to her local mall and L.A vintage stores being top of her list. Last year, she even appeared in a campaign for Missguided, whose usual customers are girls in their 20s. “I never wanted to wear ‘old people’ clothes so I’ve always dressed young,” she says.

3. Don’t think about looking ‘young’, focus on looking good for your age

“I haven’t had anything done to me!” Winkle protests when the subject of plastic surgery arises. “I think I look old and I don’t really like that.”

Old, maybe, but for a nearly-nonagenarian, Winkle looks remarkable. She puts this down to the good old-fashioned advice of using moisturiser and staying out of the sun, although she only officially stopped sunbathing two years ago- “I’d come in and look in the mirror and think ‘oh my gosh!’ Now if I want a tan I get a spray tan.”

She’s also adopted some millennial favourite make-up tips courtesy of Kennedy, with contouring and highlighting now part of her beauty routine.  

4. You can never hope to pack light

When we meet, Winkle is on a ‘bucket list’ world tour courtesy of Hotels.com which has involved stops in Paris, Brazil and at Niagara Falls. So, how did she tackle packing for such an adventure? “It was very hard. I packed comfortable clothes mostly because I was going to be on the go but I didn’t pack a lot of the fancy clothes I usually wear. I bring a lot of accessories instead.” She has also been shopping as she goes, with a purple beret and a crochet jumper among her haul from Dublin's vintage shops. 

So packing light is not a priority, and Winkle says there’s no point worrying about it: “you always have, you always will,” she shrugs. Whether Kennedy, who has been accompanying her great-grandmother and her three suitcases feels the same, is another matter.

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5. Use clothes to give you confidence

“I’ve been though a lot of tragedy in my life,” says Winkle, “but that’s helped me to be outgoing I always knew what I wanted to wear, whether anyone liked it or not. Now I do some wild things. Clothes give you confidence, if you look good in them then you want to wear them.”

“The more confidence you have, the better off you are and my clothes give me that. I know it’s hard for some people but being on social media has helped me a lot. I always thought I was shy but I don’t think I really was. My family and friends think I am fabulous.”