COVER STORY
This is spring/summer 2018
IF YOU TURNED up to a fancy do wearing an 18th century jewel- encrusted frock coat with silky running shorts and hi-tech trainers, you’d be the height of style this spring.
True, a jewel- encrusted frock coat is probably not something you have knocking about in your wardrobe and, since stealing one from the V&A’S costume archive is not an option, the alternative is to buy one from Louis Vuitton, the brand that is espousing this exact look for spring/summer 18. Except it’s not really much of an alternative when the price of said frock coat starts at £8,850.
But the takeaway from the catwalk’s most desired (and least attainable) look sums up the big new shift in fashion: the powering up of sportswear and, most importantly, the mixing of it with the most opulent and luxurious pieces you can lay your hands on. Sequins with sneakers? Yes. Rhinestones with running shorts? Definitely. And when are we to wear it? Absolutely any time you like – except for an actual physical workout. No one is going to blink twice if you wear your souped-up, box-fresh, hi-tech trainers to dinner with a dazzling gold lamé suit or your bumbag with a wistful party frock.
The result of all this is a wildly eclectic and fiercely glamorous season. But which glamour are you? Do you fancy the stripped back boldness of a Tom Ford fuchsia pink trouser suit? Or the turban-to-toe razzle- dazzle smorgasbord of Gucci sequinnery? It’s the yin-yang of glam.
As for what to wear to work, the options are equally diverse. Trouser suits are still going strong, but why not try your charcoal twopiece with a neon green football sock, à la Miu Miu? The ¾-length pencil skirt has zoomed ahead in the lust-have stakes but, if wiggling’s not very you, try striding around in a long floaty pleated number. If you’ve already got your head around the all-in-one, go for the more daring, slouchier boiler suit. Make your new jacket the lightweight parachutecagoule and watch out for your spring stalwart, the trench – it’s had a jazzy makeover.
Colours are easy: seek out anything that belongs in an ice cream tub. But if you choose just one shade, make it lilac. And do go wild with pattern – checks, spots, stripes, all good, but you’ll get extra points for resembling a perambulating work of art. And for that, look no further than Versace’s Warhol prints – the heirloom investments of the season.
Finally, if you want to be at the frontier of fashion, go raw! See hessian, macramé, rope and raffia – if ever fashion was showing signs of wokeness it’s now. So, it’s time to buy more consciously, choose more carefully, buy better but less. That might mean a lovely new pair of jeans – any shade will do. Just don’t forget your trainers. And bumbag.
trend with energy: it’s the unexpected clash of full-on sportswear with wildly opulent luxury that makes us want a hotline to the Louis Vuitton store to find out when the world’s most desirable trainers drop. (Early February, we’ve been told…)
it’s the ultimate 2018 ‘it’ bag. Don’t say: ‘Fanny packs? Isn’t it time we stopped wearing relics of the 1980s?’ Do say: ‘I can’t believe these versatile hands-free bags have taken so long to come back into fashion!’