Define old
Everyone’s suddenly very excited about the over-50s. Somebody should tell them there are four generations in there.
Somewhere right now there's a strategy deck that puts a 52-year-old who still goes clubbing and a 92-year-old in sheltered housing in the same segment, slaps on a stock photo of a woman laughing at a cup of tea, and calls it silver. "Old as opportunity" is having quite the moment, popping up in everything from agency decks to industry reports, and almost none of it stops to define old.
One box, five generations
Most of it draws the line at 50, and some of it doesn't bother with a line at all. Business of Fashion has been describing the over-50 as the "silver generation" since its State of Fashion 2025 report, (BoF–McKinsey, The State of Fashion 2025). Its latest Debrief podcast, The Generation Fashion Forgot, goes further, folding people in their 40s, 50s and beyond, along with tastemakers in their 60s, 70s and 80s, into a single forgotten generation.
Lovely to be remembered, but look at who's actually in that 50+ box. In 2026 it holds anyone born in or before 1976, which sweeps in most of Gen X (FITH defines us as born 1965 to 1980, so now 46 to 61), Generation Jones (the late Boomers born roughly 1954 to 1965, who never felt very Boomer either), the rest of the Baby Boomers and what remains of the Silent Generation, from people who queued for Oasis tickets the first time round to people who queued with ration books.
Would they ever describe “people under 50” in such binary terms, as though a 16-year-old and a 45-year-old wanted the same things? Yet once the first number starts with a five, four decades become one consumer, presumably in sensible shoes.
Would they ever describe “people under 50” in such binary terms, as though a 16-year-old and a 45-year-old wanted the same things?
Do generations still work?
It's the question we get asked a lot at FITH, usually by someone very keen on mindset over age. Mindset matters, of course, but so does when and where you grew up, which is why generational thinking still earns its place. Shared history used to define a generation. For psychologist Dr Jean M Twenge, it's now technology, specifically the age you met it and what it did to the shape of your life (we met it via Ceefax and a ZX Spectrum, and it shows).
Meanwhile, Professor Bobby Duffy argues for separating genuine cohort effects from the effects of ageing and of the times we all live through, which is precisely the distinction a single 50+ bracket erases.
Generations are porous, which is what makes them useful. Boomers shaped Gen X, Gen Alpha are busy influencing Millennials, and no generation makes sense on its own. Gen X sits slap bang in the middle as the bridge, looking after Boomer parents while raising anything from Millennials to Gen Alpha, and fielding tech support calls from both directions.
Which makes it all the funnier when Gen Z commentators wave us off as empty nesters with Millennial kids. Plenty of us are still raising Gen Z, some are doing the school run for Gen Alpha, and in 2015 more babies in England and Wales were born to women in their 40s (Gen X women, in other words) than to women under 20, for the first time since 1947 (ONS). One of our interviewees has a five-year-old, and the nest, in many cases, is still painfully ankle-deep in Lego.
The questions worth asking are what a generation absorbed, from whom, and what it's becoming next. That last one rarely gets asked about anyone past 50, because most models still assume a tidy three-stage life of education, work and retirement, and Gen X has never been much good at tidy. Mindset and generation aren't rivals either, which is why our X Types are typologies built on how people think now, read through where they came from.
We’re rebellious and mischievous, resourceful and oh so resilient, but quite simply we’re sick of this shit. We’re the people who refused to stop dancing for the best part of a week at Castle Morton, we don’t need a handrail to get across the room. Meet us where we are.
Who's telling our story
Part of the reason Gen X gets lost is that much of what's written about us comes from people who weren't there, armed with whatever the internet serves up first. That's how a generation of British teenagers who spent their weekends raving in fields, warehouses and squats got filed under grunge, an American story most of us caught on MTV, if at all (we made the case for rave over grunge in Repetitive Beats, Unrepeatable Culture). And when rave does get a look in, it's usually boiled down to acid house and a smiley face, when the scene splintered into hardcore, jungle, drum and bass and garage within a few short, sweaty years.
Nights out get the same treatment. A recent trend report on Gen X in clubland signed off by suggesting brands lay on events with "early finishes, greater accessibility and unique touches to appeal to over-45s audiences"*, which is a bold call when 41% of people over 45 go clubbing at least once a month (Night Time Industries Association).
“So, don’t treat me like I’m done. Actually, you need me more than ever because I’ve got all the wisdom, all the money, all the experience… So why are you ignoring me?“
FITH X-er Interviewee, August 2026
The X-ers we interviewed came in all flavours but for the most part they’re rebellious and mischievous, resourceful and oh so resilient and quite simply they’re sick of this shit. They’re the people who refused to stop dancing for the best part of a week at Castle Morton, they don’t need a handrail to get across the room. Meet them where they are.
Nuanced, niche and complicated
That's why FITH's first study went straight to source. We sat down with Gen Xers for in-depth interviews and built the X Types, ten typologies defined by how people think and consume now. Formation matters, so to hammer the point home we built each typology around the subculture that shaped its formative years, or in some cases didn't. Some trace back to Goths, B-boys or Britpop, while others, like The Local and The Universal, owe nothing to youth subcultures at all. That's ten ways of being Gen X, in just one of the five generations crammed into that box. Our working principle is "nothing about us without us", so ask Gen X, and ask enough of us to make sure it counts.
Come and argue with us in person at What's Next for Gen X, at The Sloane Club on Tuesday 24 November, 6 to 8.30pm. Expect top-line findings from the X Types, a Style & Culture deep dive and a panel asking whether fashion has forgotten Gen X. Early finish optional.
We're not Silvers, we're not Seniors and we're not your grey pound. By all means call us an opportunity, but define old first.
Sources
BoF–McKinsey, The State of Fashion 2025 (via BoF, Business Monthly)
BoF, The Debrief podcast, "The Generation Fashion Forgot" (BoF Instagram, 2026)
ONS, Births in England and Wales 2015 (via Financial Planning Today)
Night Time Industries Association, over-45s clubbing frequency (as cited in Repetitive Beats, Unrepeatable Culture)
*we’re not naming the trend company here for obvious reasons. DM if you want to know who.
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