We’re seven months into the year, but what style choices have you opted for? Are you jaunting around in your jorts and mesh ballet flats or still flailing in tiered florals and white (horrors!) trainers. Herewith your guide to nailing the 2024 mood. Brats at the ready...
Embrace your hot rodent
After last year’s pumped-up pecs courtesy of everyone’s favourite beach boy Ken, 2024’s expectations on men are more achievable. I mean, slightly. Generally speaking, you do need to be one of Hollywood’s current leading male darlings — see Barry Keoghan, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist, Jeremy Allen White and Timothée Chalamet. But scraggly haired, wily nosed men of London: lean into your moment.
Coldplay yellow
Alexa Chung’s latest Glastonbury look is one to add to the canon of Worthy Farm icons. Note the lemon-y lace slip — this is gaining immense “dress of the season” traction. Yellow has been skirting around the trend forecasts like a hungry pick-me-chick, but it’s time is now. To emulate Chung, we can direct you to If Only If — its deliciously yolk-y Emily style in silk satin is a great take (£220, ifonlyif.co.uk).
Anyone for Tenniscore?
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Wimbledon style had an earlier kick-off than usual this year with May’s release of Challengers, and the mood is back in earnest this week for SW19’s moment in the drizzle. We weren’t convinced the trend had IRL legs, but the endless flirty white tennis skirts spotted off-court have proved us wrong. And really, are you anyone if you’ve not gratuitously Instagrammed your I Told Ya slogan T-shirt? Loewe for influencers with their freebies, an Etsy dupe for everyone else.
The sock-metrics
Nothing will mark you as more out of touch with au courant styling sensibilities than the wrong sock. Yours should be pulled up to above ankle, a thick Sports Direct dazzling white number with some sort of sportif branding is correct (see Little Simz, a perfect example of what you’re aiming for) as is a jaunty pop of colour (see, Uniqlo). What is absolutely non-U is a trainer or foot-skirting pop sock iteration, these have quite rightly been proven to be an abomination of extreme déclassé proportions. To note: loafer, trainer or otherwise without any sock at all is also very wrong. The fashion gods have spoken.
Suiting for summer
The floral sundress cull continues apace. Chicest contender to take over is light of hue summer suiting, exemplified by Kate Moss in her sexy Saint Laurent split skirt-suit. Never has a tiered flouncy frock felt more irrelevant to a stylish summer solution.
The new Brat
Charli XCX’s album heralded the summation of the summer’s core mood — a messy kick in the face to those who have been seeking aesthetic perfection. No more! Trash bat style is now key. Don’t worry about anything matching or keeping your white vest clean. Elongated nails are part of this, but no one is going to care if they’re chipped. Lime bike green is the colour you never knew you needed, and perhaps you don’t.
Old Brat
Trench coats (oh, weather), baseball hats shoved on with everything, layered jaunty knits (see Clacton parliamentary candidate Jovan Owusu-Nepaul) and Judd Nelson-esque bovver boots are simultaneously having a moment around town — which is giving Bret Easton Ellis circa 1986 and the OG John Hughes approved Brat Pack vibes. If that means nothing to you, do catch up by watching the Disney+ documentary Brats.
Those that can, crochet
The Seventies nanna blanket fashion-mood is gaining pace. Taylor Swift (and boyfriend Travis Kelce in his own crocheted co-ord) cemented demand with her Chiltern Firehouse look. Ardent fans have even issued their own crochet patterns to recreate the outfit (Swift’s was purchased from Aussie high street brand VRG GRL). We’d personally caution wearing the look on vacay — the patterned-tanning implications are concerning.
Summer whites
Quiet luxury has slunk off, but left in its tasteful dust a striking white-trend moment. This isn’t undercover one per cent, it’s very much an in-your-face, I only get private jets and have several lackeys to do my dry cleaning mood. See Naomi Campbell at the V&A, Dr Jill Biden on the front of US Vogue and Jennifer Lawrence strolling around New York (paired with The Row’s £900 jelly shoes). For your more proletariat take: if you treat stains instantly, most things can be saved.
Skunk heads
Forget tasteful balayage, keen Gen Zs are approaching hair bleaching like a chess board — square sections of scorched bleach against darker blocks. We wish regional hairdressers the best of luck when this one filters out.
How short are your boxers?
There are two camps emerging in the short discourse. The boxer is a novelty, one-season wonder that you’ve got about six weeks left to jump on (we’re getting ours from Chillie London on Portobello). See Paul Mescal’s Gucci viral look, note the shirting addition — those city-boy-stripes are filtering into unexpected quarters. Your other option is the board short (denim or tailored cotton both ideal), a wide, above-knee piece which can be smart for work and chic for play — add an unexpected kitten heel to elevate for full fashion marks.
Leopard spotting
The perennial print has risen again, buoyed by the mob-wife leanings of this winter. Leopard is very clearly not just for faux fur coats, it’s a year-round joy. We’re leaning into a blotchier pattern — Ganni’s endless iterations have set the mark here. Maya Jama exemplified the new drive at the Serpentine Summer bash — note the matching headband and shirt over a string bikini. Mykonos, this is what’s coming for you.
Rooftops
Kensington is staging a comeback with the reopened Roof Gardens, which is throwing all other bars with views into the shade as the venue du jour. Stormzy played at the opening, Naomi Campbell hosted her V&A after-party there and the Delevingne sisters chose it for the launch of their alcohol-free prosecco. You might not have revelled out West since the Nineties, but W8 your time (again) is now.
How to new boho like Sienna
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More Noughties nostalgia thrown from our very own arbiter of flounce, Sienna Miller. From propping up the front row at Chloé’s new play for boho (keep an eye out for mega-wooden wedges this autumn) to her own M&S collection, Miller has brought back the posh-hippie style for us all to delight in once more. Her effect on us remains undimmed — those peg-leg jeans and frilled blouses are everywhere in town.
The baseball cap personality index
The humble cap has risen to be the core summer piece and the only way to semaphore your seasonal pretensions. How clever a slogan can you track down in a mass-produced high-street piece is a jumping-off point to craft a winning identity. The more niche the better. Idea books’ “out for lunch” is a classic, “Yoko Ono” via the Tate Modern shop has strong give peace a chance leanings, while for the undercover connoisseur we’re into the RSPB’s natty blue number.
Aperol shades
We might not be drinking the much-mocked Italian cocktail classic anymore (that’s a lie, we love them), but our lenses have certainly taken on an orange à la Pharrell Williams shade. So fun!
Push it
An unexpected curveball from the dubious Noughties playbook has entered the Y2K chat: the pedal pusher has made alarming inroads into aesthetic affections. It feels at odds with the general move to wide-legged trousers and jeans, but yin/yang, etc. If forced, we’ll allow that Cora Corré in her black pair with a Westwood corset is a strong entry for putting these back on the agenda.
The Paloma…
Mexican cuisine is having a riot of a trending moment, and no more so than the Paloma — call it a rebranded margherita if you must — but it’s being touted as the drink of the season. We know you’re still ordering Whispering Angel and dousing it with blocks of ice, and for that we have nothing but respect.
Mesh-y shoes
The ballet flat continues its ascent back into wardrobe staple territory (please someone save our arches) with its slightly less sweaty summer iteration in…(checks notes) mesh. These have become an unexpected win which in February we had no intention of taking seriously, but here we are — mesh shoes! For those late to the movement, we can advise that a pop of red is the sharpest way to dip a soon-to-be-quite-mucky toe in.
Merch wars
The Taylor tank pulled into London and shall return in August. Until then we must exist in a frozen state of cowboy boot ennui, balding sequin jackets, and attempting to spell out niche album tracks in our child’s bracelet bead collection. Didn’t manage to get a ticket to Wembley? We spy your Girls Aloud merch T-shirts and we raise you one custom-made “But Daddy I love him” top.
