From Her Majesty to Meghan, this year’s style winners
From Her Majesty as style muse to a new princess, and mini skirts to modesty, 2017 has been stylish indeed. These are our editors’ and my fashion highlights
1 The Queen did battle with Jackie Kennedy
Both have inspired designers for decades but The Crown on Netflix and Jackie on the big screen reminded the world of their respective merits. From The Crown we could deduce that the Queen was an actual fashion plate, albeit briefly (this was the period that Erdem focused on in his September show, to be precise, the moment in 1956 when her Majesty met Duke Ellington in… Leeds). And Jackie, well Jackie was icily composed and elegant even at her most destroyed. Perhaps this is what Kim Kardashian was trying to channel when she paid $379,500 for Jackie’s Cartier Tank watch at auction in June. Lisa Armstrong
2 Donatella Versace faced down the past
Her spring/summer 2018 show back in September wasn’t an exact rerun of the 1991 original when Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell and Tatjana Patitz lip synched down Gianni’s catwalk to George Michael’s Freedom ’90. But it did feature Carla Bruni, Helena Christensen, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi and Cindy Crawford, whose daughter Kaia Gerber also appeared mouthing, “It’s the one good thing that I got.” But why did 2017 go back 26 years to come up with the year’s biggest fashion moment? Because 1991 seems like a time when fashion was more spontaneous. Because we will never completely get over our fascination for that generation of supermodels, or how they are ageing (with help from Botox and filler administrators). Because we have warmed to Donatella Versace’s survival story. Because Gianni’s clothes have been discovered by a new generation. And before we sink into gloom about the present, let’s not forget that back in 1991, five women in their late forties would never have been allowed on a catwalk, no matter how glamorous they were. LA
3 Fashion discovered politics
From the pink luxe pussy power beanies at Missoni and Maria Grazia’s selling-like-hot-croissants “We Should All Be Feminists” T-shirts at Dior (one of which has just been chosen as dress of the year at the Fashion Museum Bath) to the re-emergence of vociferous fur protesters outside shows and Gucci’s renouncement of fur (the house gave it the ultimate fashion brush-off by declaring it is no longer “modern”), this was the year fashion realised that adopting a lofty, above politics stance no longer cuts it when you’re part of the political narrative. Predictably not all of fashion’s hobby horses remained fashionable for long. Older models, the look of late-2016, have already been jettisoned but for the moment at least, big causes are box-office gold. LA
Melania felt the heat
From that slightly overwrought blue suit at the inauguration to the Dolce & Gabbana on-tour wardrobe, Melania Trump has played
First Lady dressing by the rule book – albeit one written in about 1962, with some beauty pageant occasion wear thrown in. There’s no naysaying Mrs Trump’s striking looks, yet there’s a joyless lethargy to her elegance, and designers have queued up to say they won’t dress her.
Her reticence to talk in public has made her something of a hostage to her sartorial choices. Not good. Hurricane Stiletto, when the First Lady boarded a flight to Texas in 100mm heels, saw ridicule reach Gale Force 10. LA
5 The style set sparkled
At this week’s Fashion Awards in London, sequins were the hit of the evening thanks mainly to Michael Halpern, who won the prize for womenswear emerging talent. Though Halpern is by no means alone, with sequins currently in every shop window and at every price point, and no less exalted labels than Gucci, Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs choosing to show sequins in their spring/summer 2018 collections. Sequins after New Year’s Eve? Now that will be something.
Charlie Gowans-Eglinton
6 Madame Macron donned a mini
France gained a First Lady in May and – zut alors – she is 64 and an enthusiastic fashion fan. In style circles, talk has centred around Brigitte Macron’s knack for bringing a frisson of cool to diplomatic duties, with the mini skirt being chief among her wardrobe signatures. Thanks to an agreement with Louis Vuitton, barely a public appearance passes without her sporting a short shift or pelmet skirt. The look has already spread to the Paris catwalks, where hemlines were raised by many of the most influential designers, but can anyone carry off a Macron mini with quite the same panache as Brigitte herself? We fear not. Bethan Holt
7 Modesty had a moment
While Anthony Vaccarello showed briefer-than-brief mini skirts and near-topless dresses on the Saint Laurent Paris runway (and Madame Macron doubtless placed an order), the rest of the fashion world took a puritanical turn. Modest fashion – never really the type of thing to get the blood pumping in the past – showed up everywhere from Emilia Wickstead to Max Mara, where Halima Aden, one of the year’s breakout models, appeared in a hijab that coordinated with her belted camel coat. The Modist, a new ecommerce site geared towards covered-up elegance, further crystallised the mood. And we all wore long-sleeved midi dresses through the summer. But it took The Handmaid’s Tale to underscore how thoroughly the modest message had reached the fashion mainstream, with any discussion of the television adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel inevitably alighting on some version of, “Yes, but don’t you just love the clothes?”
Emily Cronin
8 Markle-mania swept Britain
A new royal style watch began on Nov 27, when Prince Harry finally confirmed that he will marry American actress Meghan Markle next spring. Markle’s fashion influence had been steadily building ahead of the proposal and a clutch of dedicated fansites have accordingly popped up on the internet – but are we really all rushing out to copy her look? Parosh, makers of the bottle green dress worn for her engagement interview, reported selling out of said style within an hour, while the small batch of her £495 Strathberry bag was gone in 11 minutes. Sunglasses brand Finlay & Co has given the most concrete proof of the “Meghan effect” so far, though, selling £20,000 worth of her £120 sunglasses in the 24 hours following an appearance at the Invictus Games in September. But will the frenzy last into 2018?
Caroline Leaper
9 Models found their voice
Having majored in economics and political science at Columbia University, Cameron Russell was already breaking the mannequin mould: her 2012 TED talk on the modelling industry has had over 20million views (and another 13 million on Youtube). But it was when, in the light of the Weinstein scandal, she began posting other models’ anonymous stories of abuse on her own Instagram account that she really gained the world’s attention. Starting the hashtag #Myjobshouldnotincludeabuse, Russell gave models a platform – and doesn’t look set to slow down any time soon. CGE
10 Rebels walked the red carpet
Generally, red carpet style falls into two camps: the ethereal (saccharine tulle dresses) and the provocative (sheer, slit, micro-mini et al). Neither seems to cater particularly well to women past 40, who are steered towards “age-appropriate” covered-up dresses and trouser suits in black and navy. But Susan Sarandon, at 71, seems loathe to give up more exciting fashions, from the red thigh-high leather boots she wore to the premiere of documentary Soufra in New York last month and the very low-cut, slit-to-the-thigh black gown she chose for the Venice Film Festival, to the full-length black leather skirt she paired with a white blouse for Cannes. And Sarandon has backup. Fellow Hollywood Grand Dame Vanessa Redgrave wore Converse on this year’s Cannes red carpet, while Uma Thurman and Emma Thompson parted the clouds of pastel chiffon in leather jackets. At any age, that’s nothing less than style rebellion. CGE