Why everyone’s talking about... Jumpsuits

WORN by Hollywood actresses, pop superstars, Olympic athletes – and Kwik Fit mechanics – it’s the hottest fashion item of the moment. So what’s the deal with jumpsuits? Versatility and simplicity are key. It fits all occasions – useful for working from home, lounging on a sofa and socialising all in the same afternoon. ‘It’s so simple, you just throw it on and go,’ fashionista Lisa Snowdon told ITV’s This Morning last week. ‘On those days when you don’t know what to wear, it’s an outfit ready to go. It suits all ages and all body types, too.’ And all price brackets: from £24 for an Amazon Essentials design to a £2,800 Chanel number.

So who are these celebrity fans?

Too many to mention! In the past month alone, jumpsuits have been worn by Emily Blunt, Liz Hurley, Christine Lampard and Margot Robbie (below, on the red carpet for The Suicide Squad’s

LA premiere). Also by Finnish

Olympian

Lizzie

Armanto, who skateboarded in one she designed herself. Vogue called it ‘one of the best uniforms’ at the Games.

Perfect for action women, then?

It all started from practicality: deriving from the boiler suits worn by labourers in industrial workplaces. The word ‘jumpsuit’ was coined for the tighter variants worn by pilots in the 1940s. Women working in factories in the Second World War also started wearing boiler suits.

Well, they’re easy to wear…

Until you want to go to the loo, that is. That can be a palaver.

And the future?

Left-wing collective the Rational Dress Society is lobbying to make them a universal uniform to ‘end the consumption and waste’ of the fashion industry. But even they admit everyone wearing the same outfit has ‘dystopian connotations’ of cults and prison garb. Talking of which, Donald Trump’s opponents are trying to get him into a fetching orange, Guantanamostyle jumpsuit right now…