I’ve been thinking a lot about something the fashion designer Bella Freud said recently, which was that she aims to create clothes that make you feel intrepid. This was such a nice way of expressing what great clothes do, which is not just to give you confidence, but also to connect you to the world. What you wear is the membrane between you and, well, everything else. Good clothes make you feel comfortable within your skin, and they can also make you feel like a player.
Fashion to make you feel intrepid comes in many different forms, and looks different for each of us. A jumpsuit makes me feel so brave that I could jump out of a plane. (I could never, ever jump out of a plane. But it’s a nice fantasy to inhabit, as I zip myself up.) A trouser suit can be brilliant: very armoured, but very civilised. Night-out dressing requires its own kind of bravery: you are, after all, taking a leap into the dark.
