Back at the beginning, I pictured The End Of All This as one big afterparty, with sequins and party shoes and champagne toasts and perfume-scented hugs. I know, right? Either the line between being an eternal optimist and a total moron is a fine one, or – well, I’m sticking with the fine line thing.
Anyway. Here we are, and the neat denouement doesn’t look to be the way this thing is headed. Instead of flinging our tracksuits into the laundry and shimmying into our best frocks, it feels, at the time of writing, more likely that we will edge out of lockdown wan and wary, blinking in the sun.
But still, we are going to need to get dressed. Like, pick out clothes and consider which shoes work with them, rather than wear loungewear all day and slip on the same pair of trainers for the supermarket as for your run.
The way I dress has changed in the past six weeks. For instance, I haven’t worn a single pair of tailored trousers. Or a structured jacket. It’s not just that the armour of public-facing fashion has been irrelevant to life in a domestic bubble; it’s also that cross-legged on a chair is the only way I can sit at my laptop at the kitchen table all day without my back killing me. So I end up dressing for work as if I was going to yoga, and now I’ve got a comfort habit I’m not sure I’m ever kicking it.
A knitted two-piece like the one I’m wearing in the above photograph feels like an option. Tracksuit-levels of comfort, but a whole lot smarter. Anything that comes in a matching set makes you look together, being visual evidence of planning. Tidy wardrobe, tidy mind, etc. Fine-weave stretch knits are fabulously glamorous in a Kardashian kind of a way, but they tend to be a little unforgiving after the long lockdown chowdown, so look for a textured or cabled surface like this one.
These are my own shoes. They were birthday present Manolos, about eight years ago now, I think. They are a little scuffed and much beloved. I haven’t worn these (or anything like them) in almost two months. When I do, I know that they will make me happy. But for now, I’m staying in my comfort zone.
• Jess wears khaki top, £17.99, and skirt, £25.99, both zara.com. Heels, her own. Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Alexis Day using Fudge and MAC Pro
