So how do you dress? You’re probably reading this and thinking: “Kate Moss? I don’t think so. She wears hot pants and waistcoats.” If pressed, you’d say you choose your clothes on the basis of magazine editorials, stuff you see on girls at the office, things that catch your eye in shop windows, but actually you’d be mistaken. The chances are you are wearing something similar to something originally worn by one of a group of famous young fashion-forward celebrities roughly a year ago.
Still not convinced? Hands up if you’ve got a pair of ballet pumps and three-quarter jeans — the chic mum’s summer uniform (Kate). If you’ve done boots over jeans (Kate). If your husband or your 10-year-old is wearing Crocs (Cameron Diaz). How about Sunset Boulevard sunglasses (Nicole Richie)? A white handbag the size of California (Richie, again)? Or bustier, tight boot-cut jeans and high-heeled sandals (the Waggery — take your pick)? Even though we might like to think of ourselves as tuned in to Karl Lagerfeld’s vision, the power to launch a trend now resides with the people who wear it, not those who make it.
Here is Rachel Zoe, a woman you may or may not have heard of, describing her style: “Skinny jeans and vintage tops and headbands, big glasses and big bags — it’s very 1960s to 1970s glamour.” Sound familiar? Zoe is stylist to, among others, Richie, Lohan, Mischa Barton and Keira Knightley, queens of the “headband, glasses and big bag” look that every British teenage girl has been working for the past six months. The look originated with Zoe, via girls who have more exposure than George Bush, and it’s affecting what you and I put on in the morning.
If you’re under 28, you know the labels that make up the celebrity looks — Chanel glasses, Tsubi jeans, Chloé bag — and you want the real thing or, failing that, the high-street equivalent. But most of us (the ones who aren’t nipping out to get cork wedge sandals the moment we see pictures in Heat of Paris Hilton wearing them) take our celebrity influence by osmosis. We absorb their impact on our shopping habits unconsciously, without necessarily knowing the names of those responsible.
Even if you never wear the big hipster belt over the floppy dress over leggings that became the only way to wear a frock this summer, you’ve got the hipster belt, for sure (that was Sienna). The cropped black leggings that have become a staple of every young girl’s wardrobe, worn with a blousey vest top? Stand up, Lindsay. Both Sienna and Kate have been wearing the fetishistic ankle boots set to be autumn’s must-have, for roughly nine months. Ditto the shrunken leather jacket that looks like it’s been accidentally boil-washed. (If you missed it on them, it’s on the rail in Gap now.)
And, ask yourself, why did you decide you needed a second Mulberry bag, really? What made you guiltily push the Bayswater to the back of the wardrobe and shell out for the Emmy? Not the fact that it caught your eye in a magazine ad. No, you saw it on the shoulder of one of the triple-Fs (famous and fashion-forward), and suddenly it seemed a crucial purchase. If these girls can have any bag in the world and they choose that particular one, well, that’s some endorsement.
Fashion used to be a subtle fusion of catwalk trends and street influences; the names to conjure with were Gucci, Prada, Balenciaga. Now the names that count are Nicole, Paris, Mischa, Sienna and Kate, and then there is a whole other layer of influences, stretching from Victoria Beckham via Coleen to Big Brother’s Chantelle. Straightened hair, the year-round glossy tan, cleavage and jeans, flash bags. It all filters down and settles on our backs. They wear it, we wear it, in some form or other, sooner or later.
And, make no mistake, this isn’t just about copying a lot of celebrities: taking our cue from these girls has changed the way we dress — not just the clothes, but the whole process. For a start, girls such as Lohan are not constrained by the fashion seasons. They don’t respect the shift from summer wear to autumn/winter. As soon as they see it on the catwalk, if they like it, they wear it. So they are driving fashion at a feverish pace, gobbling up trends and spitting them out faster than you can say: “Hang on, wasn’t that the next big thing?” Plus, they are out there three or four times a month being photographed in beach casual, premiere evening wear, jeans. They are working a lot of looks — not just red-carpet frocks, but string bikinis and T-shirts, and bits of tat bought in thrift shops — which means the scope for updating our wardrobes is limitless.
“They style themselves in a way that’s moved on to the next season,” says Jane Shepherdson of Topshop. “A year ago, when Sienna wore that gilet, we had to pull them forward fast and bump up the order. She was doing boho in the autumn, and we were expecting it to be a trend for the following spring. Girls see it, and they want it immediately, and you have to react fast.”
Retailers are now obliged to order stock according to the whims of the triple-F crowd. It may upset the schedules, but the effect can be beneficial. A few weeks ago, when Moss wore a pale-grey man’s suit (aka the new tailoring for autumn) with pumps and a white T-shirt, Shepherdson breathed a sigh of relief. As of that moment, the rails of grey suits that Topshop had lined up, waiting for the cold weather, were guaranteed sellers. “That was good for us because Kate is the one who always kicks off a new mood and shows people the next trend. And she’s a great democratiser of fashion, unlike some other celebrities: she has a wonderfully eclectic wardrobe full of vintage and high street, so it’s much easier to imitate.”
As well as the faster turnover, there are many more choices out there to be assimilated. Now we like our fashion the way we like our iPod music — mixed up and diverse, with a bit of irony and bad taste thrown in. Moss may show us the way, but we’re not listening to just her or the girls in Beverly Hills. At any one time we may have in our sights Hilton in her high-varnish leopard print, Lily Allen in her prom frocks, Zadie Smith in some 1940s vintage classic, Carine Roitfeld in punky black, Coleen McLoughlin in strapless designer chiffon, Russell Brand (why not?), plus the girl at the bus stop, in the white strangle-cut jeans.
Whereas the question you were asking when you were out shopping 10 years ago was: “Where is the perfect black trouser suit, like the one Gucci does?”, now you’re weighing up the vague urge you have for a bit of Waggery in your life with the desire to get a bit Jennifer Aniston in some boyfriend jeans and a sloppy cardie. The point is, you can no longer take refuge in those essential pieces that tick the boxes and see you through — the smock top, the pumps, the sequined shrug. On their own, they are not the answer any more.
There’s a lot of good and bad to be said for the new way of dressing. It’s much easier, for example, to be fashionable, whatever your age. There are rules out there, but nobody is really holding us to them, and the main reason for that is an overwhelming feeling that style and styling are what count now. It’s also easier to find something that works for you — with leggings or boyfriend jeans or skinny jeans or wide-legged jeans, there’s certainly room for manoeuvre.
On the downside, the triple-F crowd setting the agenda are all young, rich and thin. They don’t work — not in the real world of Tubes and offices. They don’t have to consider the weather, or bloating, and they have no reason to make it easy on themselves. (Why go out in jeans and a polo neck if you have all morning to choose between various layering options and hair bands?) Also, where there is choice, it is always harder to get it right.
In short, style used to be a lot easier to fake. Gone is the security of the boot-cut jeans and jacket. Even the trouser suit for autumn is a minefield of accessorising. “It is all about styling,” says Shepherdson. “You’ve got to be so clever now — does this go with a 1980s top, with a belt with a gaudy vintage clasp? Everyone is so much more knowledgeable and aware of what designers are doing and what everyone is wearing. There is a bit of:
‘I can do it — can you do it? Have you got what it takes?’” Her tips for what we should be wearing this autumn? Tartan? Chunky knits? Cocoon coats? Grey smocks, perhaps? How about the tunic trouser suit and those ribbed leggings? “My advice?” she says, without hesitating. “See what Kate does.”
Contact us | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | Site Map | FAQ | Syndication | Advertising
© Times Newspapers Ltd 2010 Registered in England No. 894646 Registered office: 3 Thomas More Square, London, E98 1XY