A Land Girl boiler suit is fitting in these tough times
What better time to be pulling on a boiler suit? Utility wear and sturdy clothes feel right just now. Possibly an indication that we are taking things seriously, negotiating the current lockdown situation with the determination of Land Girls in overalls and sensible shoes. “We are dressing for ourselves and, crucially, for purpose,” concurs Daisy Bridgewater, founder of Spry Workwear. “I think we are all taking comfort in the idea that we will be able to get a lot of stuff done and dusted in this time of enforced confinement, whether that means repainting the bathroom or dealing with the filing cabinet – all the unfinished (or yet to be started) business of running a home. Wearing a boiler suit will at least signal your intention to get stuck in.”
What puts people off jumpsuits is going to the lavatory. Fear of Toilet Trouble. But a small shift in the way this wardrobe essential is viewed can change all that. Consider the effort saved getting dressed in the morning as a trade-off for the time it takes to go to the bathroom: or what I call The Boiler Suit Balance. Makes sense, no?
For me, revisiting the garment I saved up for as a teenage New Romantic has felt like a homecoming. I’ve rediscovered part of my style DNA. And though it sounds a bit excessive, over the past few years I’ve collected seven boiler suits. All different shapes, styles and fabric weights, from supersized army surplus to slim-fitting Seventiesinspired
overalls. This is Toast’s Japanese Indigo Cotton Jumpsuit. And although I’m a sucker for utility wear, I’m also quite taken by the Ray leopard print boiler suit, £110, from Hush – the perfect way to liven up a lockdown? Or if that sounds too much like the stuff of sleepovers past, there’s the Pippa jumpsuit in khaki, £99. Meanwhile, Cos has short-sleeved cotton jumpsuits for £89, and M&S has a denim drawstring waist design at £59.
My favourite all-in-one is from Spry Workwear – the company founded by Bridgewater, a former journalist, when she moved out of London to rural Suffolk. “I started it on a hunch that women might want something a bit better cut, and in a nicer fabric, than the overalls at the hardware store,” she explains. “I also wanted to make something locally, and something that would last.” Spry’s boiler suits are functional, stylish and guaranteed to garner compliments. Neatly fitted at the waist and long enough in the body (a key issue when you’re 5ft 10in), the navy blue twill design, £185, is a bestseller. Currently in production for summer is a lighter-weight ecru version, £175; because no woman wants to be boiling in her boiler suit.
And this is ageless fashion at its finest. See 78-year-old French designer Agnès Troublé (founder of Agnès b) on the cover of style magazine Exit’s spring issue – and pictured with the 73-year-old actress Susan Sarandon, earlier this year. Sarandon, another jumpsuit fan, is resplendent in one of the designer’s royal blue boiler suits and striped sneakers. Troublé has fine-tuned The Boiler Suit Balance, brilliantly. Her Awa jumpsuit looks like a traditional all-in-one, but the back of the garment is cleverly split into two separate parts: a shirt that tucks into trousers. Two zips on either side of the hips allow a bum flap to drop down at, er, your convenience.
Read more of Alyson’s work at thatsnotmyage.com