Stepping out in style
NEW WAVE: Graduates of Northern Ballet’s Academy wear Ted Baker’s new range. Words/styling: Stephanie Smith. Pictures: Simon Hulme.
LEGANCE is the watchword for our current decade of style, as fashion experiences a sustained period of polish and grooming. It’s led by the young, as fashion should be. Today’s young people are smart dressers, far more so than their parents and even their grandparents’ generation.
While many 40-somethings to 70-somethings are quite happy to spend their time, certainly off-duty, in a casual blend of jeans, boho-chic pieces, linen and loungewear, today’s style-conscious teens and 20-somethings prefer to keep it sharp – boys in narrow trousers, fitted shirts and jackets with neat knitwear; girls in sleek fitted dresses, minimalist mini skirts, blouses and cropped knits, with statement accessories to admire and covet.
Ted Baker is a brand that captures the stylish elegance of youth with real panache, thanks to a focus on quality tailoring, attention to detail, beautiful fabrics and a quirky sense of humour and individuality, characterised by intriguing prints and textures, clean lines and shapes, plus a penchant for co-ordination without looking overdone. The autumn Curiosities collection is a beautiful blend of artful prints, painterly florals, jacquard and paisleys.
It began as a shirt specialist in Glasgow in 1987 – following an idea Ted had while fishing, or so legend has it – and soon became the place to buy contemporary men’s shirting, with stores opening across the UK including the Leeds VQ in 1993. Ted Baker womenswear launched in 1995. The company branched out across the ocean, with a standalone store in New York in 1998, the same year the website went live (we’ve had websites that long?). Now there are Ted Baker stores throughout the world, with childrenswear, eyewear, fragrance, men’s grooming, watches, homewares – truly a lifestyle brand.
It was the ideal choice for a focus on special occasionwear with a youthful edge, and so for this shoot we chose as models students from the Northern Ballet Academy, to mark their graduation as they leave Leeds to continue their dance studies across the country. The academy, which provides world-class dance training for all ages and abilities, is the only recognised Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) specialising in
Today’s young people are smart dressers, far more so than their parents.