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.
