Vırginia Chadwyck-Healey Dressing for Britain

Check out this fusion of French style and British tailoring created by a Spanish-born designer

Tartan dungarees by a French brand with a head designer born in Spain. You couldn’t make it up. This is the juncture at which style finds itself, as if geopolitics has woven its way onto fashion’s moodboards.

Today I’m sharing one of my favourite recent discoveries and it comes from Paris. Maria de la Orden, one of the most stylish women on the fashion scene, combines the nonchalance of French style with the crisp lines and great cuts of boyish (British) tailoring. Eclectic, yes, but it works. If you’ve noticed a shift in the fashion zeitgeist you are not going mad, you are indeed seeing the resurgence of “Granny Chic”. Crochet knits, Fair Isle, country tweeds, sheep jumpers and pinafore dresses – not to mention the Zoom-fuelled revival of collars. Frill collars (very Debo), Peter Pan collars, pussy bow collars, floral scalloped collars… 2020 has been a curious potion of the old mixed with the new. Even Gucci has partnered with Liberty London for a capsule collection. Nostalgia sells.

During lockdown, we found solace in the simple things. Fashion designers absorbed and acknowledged this new pace and set about creating designs that allow us to continue our new planting/ weeding/ baking/ foraging/ painting/ sewing hobbies in style. Maria de la Orden has responded to all of the above.

Originally from Spain, she is a keen traveller. Not easy in 2020, yet her designs have continued their creative, cosmopolitan journey, bringing quirky artisanal ideas from abroad, and blending them into a streamlined collection that works on both sides of La Manche.

It’s been part of her make-up since she was a little girl. “I have always liked being different style-wise,” she says. “My mum dressed me well with brands from other countries, when you couldn’t find these in Spain. When I started to make my outfits myself, I loved to add some personalisation to my clothes.”

That personal touch has now been channelled into pieces with surprisingly reasonable prices, that look great. From tartan dungarees you can actually move in, to beautiful cashmere shirts (yes, shirts) and checked capes, de la Orden – who also runs the successful label La Veste, a zingier little sister to this brand – has a calm assertion in her output. And