Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Evening Standard

Entertainment

OPINION - Enough of polite beige — how to embrace loud luxury this autumn

Luxury Victoria Moss Joseph Birkenstock Tekla

One of my favourite phrases picked up from the past few weeks of fashion shows was a line from the Moschino collection — loud luxury. Personally speaking, I’m so bored of the whole dressing like a rich person obsession (do look away from TikTok drones waxing nonsense into their devices on what to buy from Zara to look expensive). Serious question — can you have too much polite beige?

What I do want right now is cool, cosy, comfort and to swathe myself in knitwear. Fully ignoring weird blasts of clement weather — that chill in the air is coming, it’s time to de-moth and prepare. I’d also very much recommend a swipe of Merit’s highlighter, whatever is in it makes me look much more alive than usual.

Without wanting to date myself too much, one of my first forays into desiring fashionable things was fumbling over jumpers at the Harvey Nichols’ Joseph concession in the Nineties. I’d save up babysitting money to drop on those ribbon-edged tops in the sale. The striped black and white bags were endlessly tantalising, a kind of grown-up totem. It was one of the original purveyors of that tired phrase “stealth wealth”, well-made clothes with satisfying design details, a great knit with a sleeve that hung perfectly over the hand, expertly cut trousers.

News that Joseph is marking its 40-year anniversary of its own-brand collection is making me nostalgic, but that time period wasn’t all quiet clothes. To celebrate, its creative directors Anna Lundbäck and Frederick Dyhr have reinterpreted a 1988 Tricot knit into a leopard and black and white striped capsule collection, inset below. It’s slightly bonkers and very loud, but I’m into it.

In helpful shoe updates, Birkenstock continues its glow-up with a new collaboration with Tekla, the Danish bedding brand which has turned stripey towels and plain sheets into a sort of crumpled Instagram thirst trap. I’ve never met a fluffy shoe I didn’t want to put my foot into, and these sheepskin-lined slip-ons are a particularly heavenly option (also come in black). I’d do with a bare ankle now, and then a matching or why not clashing hued sock later on.

Last winter, the Birkenstock Boston was endlessly fawned over (for good reason — what’s not to like?) as a fashion editor favourite which meant they irritatingly sold out quite quickly, ergo, get in there quick if you want a fresh set.

I always like to have an eye out for a nice knit trouser. Last winter I lived in Sezane’s Matthew navy pair (£130, sezane.com) — which usefully wash very well in a machine and hold their shape. Jigsaw — which is remarkably good again under the eye of creative director Jo Sykes — has a boiled wool black pair which I’m into.

I’m also very taken with Herd, which promises knitwear “from farm to wardrobe”, where the entire process of making happens within 150 miles of the Lancashire farms the sheep roam in. The UK fashion industry — as in the actual industry of making clothes — has been largely decimated over the decades, so it’s always encouraging to find brands working with what we have here.

Nerd note: its buttons come from the last button factory we have — and are made from nuts. Nuts! I love its ruffled vests which are sweet on their own or layered over a T-shirt or shirt when it’s colder; there are also very good collared knits (do take Colin Farrell in The Banshees of Inisherin as a reference, here) and pleasing patchwork pieces; knitters note — you can also buy its yarn to fashion your own (£8.50, herdwear.co).

Knowing precisely where and how your clothes are made feels a bit like the ultimate luxury these days. And it’s all eminently more interesting to wear and satisfying to buy than a boringly sedate bit of oatmeal cashmere.