The stylish joy of not going out
Cosy cashmere is the cure to January blues – though these luxe versions are too good to save for home, finds Emily Cronin
I’m in a war with my sweatpants. These particular ones are about 12 years old, purchased in my university bookshop, with ragged hems and an elasticated waist that passed its best-before date about a decade ago. No matter my efforts to resist them, they keep rising to the top of my drawer of shame (you know the one). Which makes it all too easy to change into them as soon as I get home from a long day at the office. “Eez one of the things I like about you,” says our new (French) au pair. “You go to work so dressed up, but zen at home, you are… you are...”
Schlub central? The mayor of loungewearville? I can handle that. I don’t know about you, but after all the sequins, party dresses and ill-advised high heels we are purported to have embraced during the holidays, all I want to wear in January is anything soft. This month is all about self-care fashion. Box-set fashion. Fashion that says, “I can’t muster the energy to care about anything happening beyond the confines of my sofa.”
The season of JOMO – that’s joy of missing out – dressing has arrived.
“Christmas has become quite a stressful time of rushing around and shopping for everyone else. It’s actually a bit of a relief when you get to January,” says Madeleine Thompson, a knitwear designer. “It’s time for yourself, and if you’re going to spend money on yourself, it’s got to be something good. People want to be comfortable.”
Ample brands cater to the Netflix niche. Cashmere In Love’s split-front cashmere pullovers and ribbed, cropped, woolblend trousers have just the right weight to keep their shape through whatever the day may hold, whether it’s brunch or a multi-episode TV binge.
London-based Aessai makes a convincing case for layering with its Uruguayan blanket wraps and ponchos. Toast’s featherweight woolcashmere lounge jumpers feature extra-long, slim sleeves, “so they feel really snuggly,” says Laura Shippey, head of design – knitwear is the brand’s most important category.
Olivia von Halle’s roomy, silk-cashmere Missy tracksuit has converted the body-con crew (Gigi Hadid and Jennifer Lopez are fans). The White Company recently reported another record year of earnings – all based on the universal appeal of the perfect cashmere bed sock.
And Thompson hopes that customers will view her retrostriped jumpers and tracksuit bottoms as “friends” they can count on anytime they need assured comfort and fit. “I want you to open your wardrobe, see your tracksuit pants and matching top, and think, ‘You know what, I’m going to look good and feel good today’.”
If this sounds almost too cosy to be classified as fashion, take a look at the spring/summer 2018 catwalks.
Phoebe Philo, the Céline designer, and Calvin Klein’s Raf Simons must have had naptime on the brain when they sent models down the catwalk clutching blankets (fringed slogan blankets at Céline and vintage American quilts at Calvin), and the Hermes show opened with a blanketlike cape.
It’s filtering down to the online marketplace too – global fashion search platform Lyst says that searches for scarves have increased by 31per cent in the past two weeks (the Acne Canada blanket scarf has been the most popular), while “striped jumpers” have been searched for over 12,000 times in the same period. On Pinterest, saves related to “giant knitting” are up 200per cent (Google “chunky mohair tube scarf ” for a sense of how far this can go).
By now you may be seeing my threadbare sweatpants in a new light. Let’s be clear: this is not exactly that. What sets the new JOMO brands apart is a relatively luxe point of view (von Halle’s Missy tracksuit costs nearly £1,000) and the conviction that you should – no, must – wear these pieces out of the house. “It’s totally wasted if you only wear it at home,” Thompson says.
The key is to seek pieces with a more refined shape. “The silhouette is really important,” agrees Shippey. “If it’s just some baggy old thing, you’re not going to feel great in it.” Smarten it up by mixing soft with hard
– a cloud-like jumper will work well with raw-edged denim or a leather skirt – or pair cashmere tracksuit bottoms with a sharp blazer.
Helpfully for anyone whose work space temperature seems permanently stuck on “Arctic Circle”, cardigans aren’t going anywhere. Cashmere In Love’s velvet-backed design is elevated enough to be part of an office or even evening look.
A note on care: as our spending on cashmere spirals ever higher, looking after these pieces becomes all the more critical.
Anyone worth her Bella Freud slogan jumpers knows to turn cashmere inside-out and cold wash it with a good speciality detergent. Never wring or machine dry; lay flat to dry away from direct sunlight and heat. But the most important step is storage. Thompson suggests folding cashmere jumpers into their own Ziploc or vacuum bags, with lavender or cedar balls tucked in before sealing to shut out moths – which match Voldemort in ability to strike fear in cashmere owners’ hearts.
But choosing the right JOMO garb begins long before you get the chance to wash anything. Start by committing not to bring anything into your wardrobe that you wouldn’t be as happy to wear outside as in.
I’m retroactively applying this tonight, trading my tired sweatpants up for some striped cashmere tracksuit bottoms. They’ll feel more luxurious on the sofa, and they’ll look it, too, when I wear them to yet another children’s birthday party over the weekend. It would be a shame to waste them on Netflix, after all.
Hear more ideas on how to beat the January blues on Fashion Unzipped, the new podcast from the Telegraph fashion team, on itunes now