There are flutes and there are trumpets. There are milkmaids and bishops. Anne Boleyn has skin in the name game, as does FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan. I’m talking about sleeves. The statement sleeve has been the hardiest fashion silhouette of the past decade. The swinging 60s had the miniskirt; now we have the mega-sleeve. Because there are endless shapes and sizes of sleeve, it feels like a different look every season. Shoulders were sharp a few years ago; last year was all about puff. But what we have here is one overarching trend: a statement sleeve has become a key detail that makes an outfit look modern.
Cast your mind back, and you will recall a time before that when sleeves were, well, arm-shaped, and their only notable detail was whether they were short or long. Long sleeves were what you wore on cold days or if you didn’t like your arms. Short sleeves were for summer, or all year round if you had Michelle Obama-ish triceps, widely understood to be the external manifestation of a dynamic and highly disciplined character type, therefore to be displayed whenever possible.
A statement sleeve is a bit like having impressive triceps – it makes you look instantly up to date, and as if you have made an effort – and you don’t even have to go to yoga. The interesting sleeve phenomenon is an inclusive trend, too. An oversized or fluted sleeve pretty much looks the same on anyone, which isn’t the case for, say, skinny jeans.
Different shapes send different messages, and perhaps it’s time to attempt a taxonomy of the statement sleeve. A puffed sleeve can be light and airy, the sort of thing Snow White wore, choux-bun sweet and best accessorised with a pet bluebird. Or, a it can be linebacker-wide and dramatic, adding a Henry VIII heft across the shoulder. These are both puffed sleeves, but they send very different fashion messages.
A sleeve that gives an angular shoulder always make you look like you mean business, while lots of soft fabric suggests sweetness and light. Which is why those leg-of-mutton sleeves that were big in the 1980s (Diana’s wedding dress, for instance) look a bit bonkers, as the messages cross over. They are part Wall Street trader, part Disney princess.
A bishop sleeve is full all the way down, and cinched at the wrist, while a balloon sleeve has most volume in the middle, around the elbow, tapering along the forearm. The rounder, more balanced the shape, the softer the effect. A fluted sleeve gets wider from top to bottom, while a bell sleeve is slim from shoulder to elbow, then widens to, well, a bell. The flute and the bell have a different vibe from a puffed sleeve – a little more unexpected, a little more intriguing. (Anne Boleyn’s were fluted.) Are you following this? In short, a little less garden party and bit more art gallery, if you know what I mean.
The statement sleeve is brilliantly easy to wear until you try and put on a jacket or a coat. The sausage-stuffed sensation of wearing bishop sleeves under a tailored coat would test the patience of, well, at least a bishop, if not an actual saint.
This is a fashion problem, and the only solution to a fashion problem is a fashion one. Sleeveless knits are everywhere this autumn, precisely because this is a brilliant top layer when you need something warm that won’t cramp your style. Since style is what this arms race is all about.
Model: Mei Mei at Milk. Hair and Make-up: Carol Morley at Carol Hayes Management. Top: Essentiel Antwerp. Polo neck: Next. Trousers: H&M
