Shirley Freitag has her eye on a coat for next fall: a Norma Kamali sleeping bag model in a searing shade of red. “It’s the one that that fashion guy Talley is always wearing,” she said, referring to André Leon Talley, the high-visibility style world fixture.

Ms. Freitag had stopped last week at the offices of Inspir, an upscale Upper East Side senior residence she hopes to move into once construction is finished later this year. Trim in a bottle green St. John jacket, skinny pants and sparkly black sneakers, she lowered herself elastically into a leather banquette, and got candid.

Keeping up one’s image takes work, Ms. Freitag said. Still, “I don’t even walk my dog without putting my lipstick on.”

You might expect that Ms. Freitag, a retired real estate agent in her 80s, would be over all that. You would be wrong.