There was for at least 20 minutes on Monday morning a glimmer of sunshine, enough to warm the heart and tease that spring is easing into its quaint return. Ditch your winter coat, start moth-proofing your knitwear and lean into it.
In terms of wardrobe refreshers, you might want to shift your eye slightly. I think we can safely say that the tyranny of the floral dress has loosened its petal-strewn grip from around our décolleté. There’s a soupçon of Sloane in the air, mixed up with a little Provençal louche attitude. The new mood is a mixed bag of tailoring and laidback, a striped city-boy shirt with a wide-leg trouser. A pop of red can currently do no wrong. Little styling details and ways of putting things together will bring your existing wardrobe to life a little bit more. One step at a time, of course.
Here’s 12 pointers to help you along the way…
The vertical striped shirt
Huge news in stripes: ditch your Breton and go vertical. This may feel dizzying, but a crisp shirt in a chic coloured stripe is very much A Thing. If you’ve got extra to spend I can’t recommend Yaitte, a super-sweet independent London-based brand, enough. Its Buoy shirts are a signature (in mustard and green, £225, yaitte.com). With Nothing Underneath is a great one-stop-shirt stop and has a delicious green striped boyfriend iteration for £120 (withnothingunderneath.com); see also Hush’s brown and white striped Indy oversized take, yours for £79 (hush.co.uk).
Indy brown striped shirt, £79, hush.co.uk
The Boyfriend Tencel shirt, Forest Green Stripe, £120, withnothingunderneath.com
Embrace a denim skirt
I can’t tell you the amount of time I have spent trying to find decent denim skirts beyond the boring knee length style. But just like that, here we are drowning in the things. Stock up before they sneak off again. Levi’s has great maxi-length ones (in black, £80, levi.com). Zara has lots of styles, but I’m quite into its fish-hemmed panelled one (£35.99, zara.com). See also Jigsaw for its stylish frayed hem midi style (£95, jigsaw-online.com).
Mid-Rise Denim Midi Skirt, £35.99, zara.com
The easy dress
For those looking for a more au courant solution to the previous throw on a floral midi dress and be done with it, may I present the easy dress? Which does precisely that. Chuck on, look done and forget about it. The key is a loose but not oversized silhouette in a neutral colour that you can play around with layering in — pop a polo neck underneath, open shirt over the top; endless combinations will work. ME+EM is an excellent spot for a good frock, its textured maxi dress in cream (£195, meandem.com) is ideal. See also Albaray’s two-tone cream and black jersey tank dress (£69, albaray.co.uk), Hush’s Tatum denim maxi dress (£95, hush-uk.com) and Cos for its T-shirt dress with pleated skirt (£95, cos.com). Pair with your trench now, by itself later.
Textured maxi dress, £195, meandem.com
Tatum denim maxi dress, £95, hush-uk.com
The Shacket 2.0
A workwear jacket is the dependable staple every wardrobe should have. Handily, US brand Everlane has teamed up with London Fashion Week returners Marques’ Almeida for a rather cool collaboration. There are a few choice bits, but the canvas patchwork in khaki green (£232) is a real keeper. Available from March 24 at everlane.com. Wear it with everything and delight in a proliferation of pockets.
Everlane x Marques' Almeida, Canvas Patchwork Jacket, £232, everlane.com
Loafer vs kitten heel
Choose your footwear fighter. Ballet shoes and mary-janes are still happening, but omnipresent is the loafer, which is more serviceable to trough around the Tube in. Uniqlo’s C line by Clare Waight Keller has a great chunky pair (£39.90, uniqlo.com) while really, you can’t beat a classic G.H Bass Weejuns — its new white and black penny loafers are spot on (£160, ghbass-eu.com). The other resurgence is coming via the kitten heel. Russell & Bromley has an adorable silver bow-decked pair (£295, russellandbromley.co.uk) which will jazz up your most boring outfit; see also Charles and Keith’s cream tweed pair (£65, charleskeith.co.uk).
Left to right; Sepphe Cut-Out Tweed Heeled Mules, £65, charleskeith.co.uk, Pointed Bow Mesh Low Heel, russellandbromley.co.uk, Easy Weejuns Soft Penny Loafers, Black & White Leather, £160, ghbass-eu.com
Personality socks
Your easiest styling trick: socks. Specifically, ones which make your outfit look instantly more interesting. Example: your old blue jeans, white T-shirt? Add a jaunty block colour sock with a loafer et voila: instant personality beyond the crowd. Uniqlo and Arket are both decent places for stocking up, as is Pairs Scotland which has a fine red pair in merino wool (£15, pairs-scotland.com) Note: this absolutely does not include anything patterned. Horrendous.
Red merino socks, £15, pairs-scotland.com
Get on board with shorts
Younglings and the lithe of leg might be tempted into the micro styles which were in abundance on the catwalks, but for anyone with an actual job, turn your head to the new board short mood. Treat them as you would a trouser, ie make them as smart as you need. I like the idea of pairing with a T-shirt, under a shirt, under a blazer and then deleting a piece as the weather warms. For weekenders, Cos have a great denim pair (see also matching shirt), while Ghost London from its premium Studio line coming early April has the sweet Bella shorts in black satin which are very smart.
Frayed denim shorts, £85, cos.com
Bella shorts, £129, coming early April, ghost.co.uk
Totes again
Rejoice, giant bags are very much back with us, for all your schlepping-about needs. Note Kate Moss in the Cotswolds at the weekend with her sizeable woven basket bag; see also Taylor Russell with roomy Loewe matching with boyfriend Harry Styles and his The Row Margaux. Do the couple that It bag together stay together? Watch this space. Sézane and Whistles both have excellent basket bags that work in the city options (key, unless you are off to a country market). A bit of leather trim works wonders here. For something a little punchier for the commute, I’m rather taken with ANYDAY’s hot red tote for a very doable £49 (johnlewis.com).
Whistles, Zoelle Paper Weave Eyelet Tote, £99, coming April 5, sezane.com
Sia East/West Minimal Tote Bag, Red, £49, johnlewis.com
A blanc jean
No one was more surprised than I to find a wardrobe saviour in the form of a pair of white jeans. I can also disclose that I wore them on a flight and all day and didn’t spill anything on them which shows that maturity comes to us all. Mine are a palazzo leg from Good American (currently on sale on Net-a-porter if you’re quick). These want to be loose in the leg — we are not venturing into Nineties Liz Hurley territory. I don’t know what it is about white, but it’s an instant sharpener. Jigsaw has a great pair which are helpfully cropped above the ankle (£95, jigsaw-online.com). See also Arket’s roomily-legged Cloud pair (£97, arket.com).
Marsh Wide Leg Jeans, £89, aligne.co
Dress-down tailoring
A smart trouser is such a winner when worn with a T-shirt or other low key sort of top. We’re very much in high-low territory here. M&S has a great pair of beige slacks for a very friendly £29.50 while Uniqlo:C’s nicely wide-legged grey suit (worn by designer Clare Waight Keller with white trainers at a brand preview this week) is machine washable (£79.90 for jacket, £39.90 for trousers, uniqlo.com). For a slightly sexier mood, see Reiss’ camel jumpsuit (£248, reiss.com) which is very much giving Saint Laurent. Word of advice — ditch its slightly naff tie belt and add your own leather one for better punctuation.
Cotton Blend Wide Leg Chinos, £29.50, marksandspencer.com
Liliana, Lyocell Wide Leg Jumpsuit, £248, reiss.com
The joy jacket
Pared-back chic is all well and good, but where’s the spirit you might wonder? Sometimes you just need a wardrobe addition to bring you untold amounts of jolly joy — have a spring fling with a jacket that does just that. Pink City Prints’ block printed Margaret jacket in lime and pink is so cheering (£175, pinkcityprints.com). See also Toast’s kantha jackets made from recycled saris (£175, toa.st). For something wilder, Ganni’s leopard print is great fun (£295, ganni.com).
Lime Jungle Margaret jacket, £175, pinkcityprints.com
Leopard cotton canvas jacket, £295, ganni.com
The sleeveless knit
Get into these and you’ll never look back. Sandwich dressing is the new term floating about, which is essentially what we used to call layering, which is really just another way of saying wearing different pieces of clothing at the same time. It is exhausting, isn’t it? Still, a sleeveless knit will be your friend for now over a shirt/top/dress and under a blazer/trench/bomber, and later all by itself. Reformation is one of my favourite places for knitwear, its Marnie is a great roomy take in soft brown and cream (£148, thereformation.com). See also Uniqlo:C’s camel take with a cute red trim (£24.90, uniqlo.com).
Marnie Oversized Cotton Sweater Vest, £148, thereformation.com
