Why the school gates are the new red carpet
Forget casual. Tomorrow marks the biggest event on the 2021 fashion calendar, writes Emily Cronin
Almost as soon as Boris Johnson had uttered the final opening-up date in his roadmap, retailers launched “June 21 dressing” as a shoppable category. It was a case of so long, leggings and loungewear; hello dresses and heels.
But I’d venture that the real date women are excited to dress for will arrive much sooner than that. Forget dinner parties, pub nights, holidays, weddings, sporting events. Get ready for March 8 – the biggest event on the 2021 fashion calendar so far.
“I’ve got my dress hanging on the outside of my wardrobe already,” says Ella Ringner, the Oxfordshire-based co-founder of fashion brand Yolke (and homeschooling supervisor to Scarlet, aged seven, and Blue, four). “Working and having the children at home, my uniform has been jumpers and comfy clothes, because I’m running around like a maniac all day. On Monday, I’m going to put on a new floral dress and feel happy, then skip away from the school gates and go out for a coffee by myself for the first time in ages.”
The first hint that March 8 dressing would be “A Thing” came from a friend. As a fitness coach, she’s someone with justification for living in her activewear, yet she purchased a floral midi-dress and new Converse trainers specifically for the first school drop-off. “I just need to feel like an actual human again,” she explains.
She’s not alone – even people who found the idea of school-gate dressing ridiculous in the past are getting into it. At least three other women I know have used the children returning to school as an excuse to buy a new outfit. “This school run will be the biggest outing anyone has had for months. Everyone’s excited to ditch the loungewear,” says Sam Silver, beauty director and nd co co-founder founder of This Is Mothership hip (@thisismothership). ip). She is planning to wear ra a monochrome checked cked shirt, jeans, “a coat t that’s not a parka” and leopard- eopardprint trainers to drop rop off her five-year-old ld son. “It’s like getting ng dressed up to go to o work, even though h I’m just going to go o for a walk around the block and head home again.” The March 8 dressing trend is being borne out in sales figures. At John Lewis, the week after the roadmap announcement saw sales of Hush dresses whizz up by 265 per cent compared to the week before. Whistles reported sales across its site were 14 per cent higher in the week after the PM’s speech, boosted by casual dresses and denim (356 per cent higher, year on year). At Harrods, ready-to-wear sales have shifted from loungewear to statement pieces, like Nanushka’s vegan leather shirt dresses and Hayley Menzies’s madcap cardigans.
While there are ample reasons why a woman might want to buy a new Ganni blouse, at least some of the spending must be powered by mothers celebrating this baby step toward normality. “I think I can speak on behalf of many working mothers when I say that I cannot wait for schools to reopen,” says Lydia King, Harrods’ buying director.
Not that it’s all about shopping. What women are most delighted about is the chance to wear their clothes – items from their real wardrobes, cherished but currently languishing. “We’ve got so many items in our wardrobe that we love that we haven’t worn for the better part of the year, that we’re so excited to get out again,” Silver agrees. I write this as someone who has always scoffed at the idea of dressing for the school gates. Surely it didn’t matter what you wore to drop your children off as long as you got there on time. But given that Monday will mark the first time I and so many parents will have seen one another at the school gates in months, the day feels like a reunion. The other trending topic around March 8 is what everyone plans to do after d drop-off. p One hundred per cent oof of parents, paren in my unscientific survey surrvey (WhatsApp (Wh groups), say thhey they have booked Monday off. The people pe I’ve only glimpsed g glimpse as shadows in the back o of Zoom lessons will be real r humans again. Ones On who can toss off passing pa compliments on a jacket, a handbag or a dress. Honestly, even e a “cute mask!” would do wonders right now. “You can’t really see people’s faces or expressions behind b their masks, so it’s quite nice to wear bright floral designs,” Ringner Ring advises. “And “when you’re colourful col and upbeat, it brings b joy. That kind of energy is catching… It I makes you think optimistically about when we’ll all be together again.”