Lola Massey

Glimpsed in Owings Mills

By Tanika White | sun reporter

December 30, 2007

In the future, when one envisions ladies who lunch, consider Lola Massey, who owns her sophisticated style the way few young women seem to do. Hers is a throwback to another age, when women pulled it together from head to toe, even just to go to the grocery store. No pajama pants and Ugg boots, wrinkled athletic shorts and baby tees. Hers was an age when shirts were blouses, pants were slacks and clothes didn't see the outside world until they'd seen an iron. "Modern" may be what's in. But we think "old-fashioned" never looked so good.

Lola Massey

Age: She'll never tell

Residence: Owings Mills

Job: retired schoolteacher

Self-described style: "My style is mostly casual chic."

The look: Mahogany mink coat. Red turtleneck sweater. Black chalk-striped Ralph Lauren slacks. Black boots. Black Calvin Klein handbag. Red tam.

Where it came from: Mink coat, sweater and slacks from Bloomingdale's. Boots, she can't remember. Handbag from Loehmann's. Tam from Lord & Taylor.

Trained at Saks: "I have always been a pacesetter and a fashionable person. I worked for Saks Fifth Avenue after I retired from the Department of Education in Baltimore City. I worked for Saks Fifth Avenue in Owings Mills when it was there. That's the only job I ever had after teaching school. I worked in just about every department in that store."

Designer-dudded up: "Fashionwise, at Saks, I learned a lot about putting certain styles together. I became more familiar with other designers that I had heard about but had not seen. Nowadays, I do shop at Saks in Chevy Chase, and Neiman Marcus and Bloomgindale's and Nordstrom. Some of my favorite designers are Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton and Fendi."

Casual-chic defined: "It means that I'm going to be stylish in a casual way - a style that I wear in the daytime for shopping or for the theater or lunch or whatever. That's my main style. And with casual chic you want to be coordinated, with a nice designer bag, maybe a hat if you want to wear one, like a casual tam. And I also like the total look, where I have the same color. If I wear pants, my coat might be the same color and the shoes and the hosiery."

tanika.white@baltsun.com