STYLE October 2007

BY JOSH SIMS

KEY TRENDS FOR MAN

1|TWEED
Slightly professorial and beloved of the aristocracy, tweed at first does not seem like a modern fabric. But this season Daks, Armani, Dior, Etro, Prada and YSL, among many big brands, disagree. They recognise that not only is the traditional Scottish fabric hard-wearing - it was the original sportswear fabric back when sports were conducted on heaths - but that it gets better with age. And it need not mean a palette of sludge shades or an outrageous check. Rather, subtle patterns and a softer feel give rise to a more contemporary, go-anywhere and with-anything tweed. Academics should invest now.

GET THE LOOK Tweed coat from H&M, £99.99 www.hm.com

2|WAISTCOATS
As traditional as the suit, and worn in some form or other since the Middle Ages, it has taken several seasons of jackets-and-jeans (and with it a new appreciation for tailoring) for the waistcoat to make a convincing comeback. Now it’s here in a big way. Costume National, D2, Daks, Armani, Hermès, Etro and Paul Smith all have them in their collections for this autumn/ winter. Functional (it has those extra pockets and gives an additional layer of warmth), smart (it adds a sober authority to a suit) and when dressed down, very rock ‘n’ roll (worn with a T-shirt, it’s singer/songwriterly), the waistcoat is what the male wardrobe has long been missing.

GET THE LOOK Waistcoat from Top Man, £30, www.topman.co.uk

3|BRACES
With connotations of working men’s clubs, skinheads and the power-dressing ’80s, it has taken decades for braces - the kind that hold your trousers up, not your teeth together - to be readmitted to the male wardrobe. But from their French revolutionary origins via youth culture and Wall Street, their return is long overdue. Offering a burst of colour or pattern across perhaps otherwise plain attire, braces also give you somewhere to stick your thumbs when putting the world to rights. Neil Barrett, Rykiel Homme, Alexander McQueen and Moschino have all reintroduced what - leading to all manner of embarrassing confusion - Americans call suspenders.

GET THE LOOK Braces from Top Man, £10 www.topman.co.uk

KEY TRENDS FOR WOMEN

1|CAPES ’N’ WRAPS

If there’s an annual winter purchase many make, it’s a coat. But this season there is a genuine alternative: the cape or wrap. They’re loose, so comfortable to wear, versatile, fitting over anything from a tight shirt to a chunky sweater, and dramatic, with hints of Elvis, Dracula and many a superhero. Capelets extend barely below the shoulders and are a real fashion item. The more useful hip-length version, however – from the likes of Veronique Branquinho, Roberto Cavalli, Diesel, Costume National and Moschino – is just as contemporary, even if the cape itself is as old as the Roman Empire, an essential unisex garment in Elizabethan through to Victorian times and, for women, worn to accompany high glamour of the ’30s and ’50s. The cape is also somehow very English – and now very chic again with it.

GET THE LOOK 1940s-style cape by F&F at Tesco, £40 www.tesco.com/clothing

2|FRILLS

Recent seasons have pushed clean lines and geometric forms, so designers were bound to react with a style more flouncy and fresh from the dressing-up box. They may have stopped short of a tutu, but frills abound. ‘No-frills fashion’ was the watchword in the wake of the high-street value retail boom this year. Now we have ‘real frill fashion’: from Marc Jacobs and Jasper Conran’s frill-fronted shirts to Valentino and John Rocha’s layered skirts and Giambattista Valli’s frill-edged tailoring, these frills are anything but matronly. Rather, they bring a touch of the old-fashioned romantic back to the catwalks.

GET THE LOOK Evening dress with frill by Harriet’s Muse, £450, www.harrietsmuse.com

3|MASCULINE

The 1890s saw a then-outrageous vogue for women wearing men’s clothing but the trend first really took off in World War II, when women wore trousers for factory work. In cultural terms, iconic figures of the past century have all played with the androgynous style: think Frida Kahlo, Lee Miller, Marlene Dietrich or Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles. Masculine dressing – a look suggested this season by the likes of Dolce & Gabbana, Nicole Farhi, Margaret Howell, Ferregamo and Paul Smith, with their sharp suits, crisp shirts and blousons – can suggest power and also enhance femininity.

GET THE LOOK High-waisted trousers from F&F, £12 www.tesco.com/clothing

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