I’M READY TO GO INTO COMBATS

IHAVE said in this column more than once that I’m not keen on revisiting trends that I wore the first time around. If I remember rightly, I first made that statement after some cruel owner of perfect thighs brought cycling shorts back into the equation – a reminder for any one who missed that particular gem – I was a big fan of cycling shorts back in 1994, Benetton was all the rage and knee-length stretch jersey was the fabric of choice.

I also remember a phase of girls wearing black ones under their school skirts. I can’t remember if this was a trend or merely to avoid any embarrassment during an all-girls school mean-girl trick of pulling your heavy nylon skirt up!

Then came bum-bags, or to give them their Noughties moniker, “belt bags”. I grew up seeing Jazzy

Jeff and The

Fresh Prince sporting day-glo ones and vowed I wouldn’t be caught wearing one past the age of 13.

Then came the return of streetwear to the mainstream. First, Supreme x Louis Vuitton, then Gucci, then finally the high street got in on the

act and all of a sudden it was no longer just skater kids and festival revellers slinging their bum bags cross body.

Suddenly I found myself thinking how practical they were and screengrabbing the ever-so-natty APC belt bag and its less expensive COS imitation for future reference.

Luckily for me this is fashion and as far as I know no one (other than me) is chronicling my words in an attempt to catch me out, so I’m happy to now shamelessly contradict myself and dive into a trend I first adopted in my late teens when Natalie Imbruglia (remember her?) and Jlo were wearing them, (most people credit All Saints but I was never a fan). I’m talking about the combat trouser. This isn’t a return to Brit Pop 1997 though. Army issue pants are not being resurrected, this time around utility trousers are smarter, more polished and worn with barely-there sandals and silky blouses, unlike me circa 1999, there isn’t a cropped candy floss pink fur jacket in sight.

Some things really should stay locked in fashion’s Room 101...

Precious cargo: Loose fit trousers £25.99, Mango