Lisa Armstrong The 10 cult buys of the season
ith the Bond Street arrival next Friday of Dior’s much salivatedover slingback kitten heels and feminist T-shirts, it’s fair to say that, fashion-wise, we’re currently in the equivalent of Oscar season. This is the time of year when the big (and not so big) brands drip-feed their fondest hopes for the coming months on to Instagram and the shop floor – and the fashion set, en route for New York fashion week, pursue them with deadly earnest intent.
Not all key items are equal. Some are profoundly unflattering, ludicrously expensive, or destined to be obsolete in three months. Others (the ones here) are worth camping out for – although no one should own all of them. That would be greedy and look ridiculous. However, we should take a cue from the fashion editrix: a few judiciously chosen It Pieces ensure you can carry on wearing pretty much what you wear all year round, secure in the knowledge that you look utterly, commandingly of the moment.
1. Dior’s kitten-heel slingbacks, £650 (dior.com), on pre-order now
The virgule- (or comma-) shaped heel and the delicate dressmaker nametag tape both tap into Dior’s vaunted heritage, while also being an unmistakable status marker. Selfies of fashion stylists who have “borrowed” them from shoots have been popping up on Instagram liberally for weeks, prompting the season’s first bona fide Waiting List and a thousand conversations about whether, at a hefty £650, the shoe will rapidly become too ubiquitous to constitute a good investment (#fashionworldproblems). This is a terrifically shrewd remix from new creative director, Maria Grazia Chiuri, that appeals to lovers of obvious bling and fans of delicate craftsmanship
alike.
2. Whistles Jerry coat, £450 (whistles.com)
One of the Telegraph’s fashion team had this wrenched off her back by a friend who needed to try it on, then and there, in the restaurant. Other prescient owners report similarly excited reactions from passers-by in the street. Lovely over skirts, slim trousers and chunky knits, this happy concatenation of springy fabric, playful but chic check, strong but not overpowering colours and a classic doublebreasted but slim cut is that rare thing: a cult piece with clear longevity.
3. Balenciaga’s Speed Runner trainers, £365, (brownsfashion.com)
“Il faut souffrir pour être belle” is the fashionista’s version of the Lord’s Prayer. But when comfort comes his or her way in the form of something truly culty, the contentment cup runneth over. A sports shoe, by one of the hottest labels, and oh look, in pretty colours… No wonder Browns has already sold out of the Speed Runner twice, and has a list as long as the London Marathon of ardent customers for
the April batch.
4. Loewe’s elephant bag, £875 (loewe.com)
Can you fit anything useful in it? Will it perplex all your sensible, non-fashion friends (assuming you fraternise with any)? Does it cost rather a lot of money per square centimetre? Loewe’s dinky leather pachyderms score high on all the important contrarian cult definers. If you’re elephobic, steer clear of any venue hosting a fashion event for the foreseeable.
5. Joseph’s Scuba joggers, £185 ( joseph-fashion.com)
That joyful chemical combination of technical-looking fabric (80 per cent humanmade polyamide) and sleek tuxedo, these track pants work with jackets and slogan tee’s, heels and flats, and speak to several fashion obsessions right now. They sold out twice last winter. Sensibly, Joseph has now reissued them for spring.
6. Any ruffle by Johanna Ortiz – such as the embellished silk peplum skirt, £1,425 (harrods.com), below right
This season is awash with ruffles, some so limp you want to hose them with John Frieda volumiser. Not Colombian designer Johanna Ortiz’s. The frank, bold, scene-stealing ruffle is her speciality. Ortiz herself manages to make even the biggest and the bounciest look cool and casual in khaki cottons. She’s also at that sweet spot in her career: blipping brightly across the fashionista’s radar screen (and repeatedly selling out in Harrods) but not yet a mass name. Let it flounce. This is where the big waiting lists at Harvey Nichols are. Not so surprisingly, after a hundred sightings on the catwalks and Michelle Williams’s (or her stylist’s) deft tying of a simple velvet ribbon at the Golden Globes. If your neck doesn’t have the obligatory length required for mid-throat adornment, console yourself with a pair of Marni’s fabulous disco ball earrings (£320, matchesfashion.com, right). Guaranteed to make the plainest outfit Studio 54-worthy.
8. The slogan T-shirt
So much competition in this category, but in the final analysis, the most sought-after are Gucci’s vintage Nineties reissue (£320, net-a-porter.com), spotted on every fashion blogger, and the more political “We Should All Be Feminists” message from Dior. Whatever your reservations about commodifying a political movement, you have to concede that Maria Grazia Chiuri’s timing was spot-on when she turned the models at her first Dior show last September into prototype Gloria Steinhems and Betty Friedans. Hopefully, most consumers will recognise that it takes more than a £490 T-shirt (dior. com) – even one with an unarguable message in its customised typeface – to make a true feminist. But there’s no doubting the sincerity of Chiuri’s intentions. Italians have a higher tolerance for seemingly contradictory gestures – think of the young Miuccia Prada going on procommunist marches wearing YSL. Plus, as MGC is the first woman to lead the house of Dior, a 55-year-old working mother who’s juggling life in two countries with considerable good humour, while nursing one of the world’s most revered fashion
Fashion blogger Chiara Ferragni wears the Gucci vintage T-shirt
houses and scoring not one but two cult buys in her first season there, she surely embodies the feminist principles.
Moreover, by placing her message in a luxury, high-fashion context (what better way to modernise a trouser suit?), she’ll be reaching women who might not normally be receptive to any kind of socially progressive message. And what’s to stop younger fans making their own DIY versions? Take that, Breitbart.
9. Balmain double-breasted blazer, £1,275 (matchesfashion.com)
Spoiler alert: the laser(-cut) blazer is set to be one of this season’s front-row staples. The dilemma here is that while Balmain’s creative director, Olivier Rousteing, alienates as many customers as he delights with his endless cheekboned selfies on Instagram and his enthusiastic group hugging of the Kardashians, his blazers come in multiple colours, are amazingly well-cut and so whiplash-sharp that you could cut your jaw on one of those shoulders.
10. Chanel’s Huile de Jasmin, £97 for 50ml (chanel.com), out in March
A face oil based on an original formulation created by Coco in 1927, with packaging that so closely resembles the original, you feel chic just having it on your bathroom shelf, this is formulated to make skin look luminescent, with jasmine oil from Chanel’s own fields in Grasse – as well as camelia and jojoba oil. As a two packet of cigs a day woman, Coco knew all about the importance of repairing skin. Launching in March and only available on Chanel.com and in Chanel’s own boutiques, this has cult status written all over it.