Self-proclaimed ‘eldergoth’ proves at 57 years old it is never too late to express yourself

Growing up, Jane, 57, of Brighton, Sussex, expressed herself through the way she looked, initially dressing as a punk before adopting a more goth style in the 1980s, and as she got older she refused to hang up her fishnets and chokers, continuing to turn heads wherever she went.

While recovering from surgery in 2017, Jane honed her make-up skills even further, by watching YouTube videos, learning to contour, highlight and blend.

These days, it takes Jane, who has been married to husband Jonathon for 21 years, around an hour to do make her face up each day – longer if she is going somewhere special – and she finds most of her clothes in charity shops, customising them herself to give them goth twists. 

She said: “Once you get to a certain age, the truth is that you really don’t care what people think, and while I have dealt with lots of abuse over the years, nowadays I get much more of a positive reaction with people telling me they want to be like me when they’re older.”