I can be honest with you now. I wasn’t at all sure that it would work when I remixed my column into a more sustainable format last year. But I was sure that fashion was about more than just accumulating loads of unnecessary stuff, and I knew lots of you felt the same way.
I was also conscious of a gap between the way I really get dressed – a blouse I’ve just bought, but worn with last summer’s sandals and jeans I’ve had for a decade, say – and being photographed in outfits with price tags attached to every piece. I was anxious that my trusty old favourites would look shabby up against shiny new stuff under studio lights. And I fretted that the scent-trail of excitement, the thrill of the fashionably new, would go cold if I stepped off the new-clothes merry-go-round.
I have been beyond thrilled with the reaction. I love that so many women want to tell me, on the street or on social media, or by postcard, about the leopard print midi skirt they have had in their wardrobes for two decades that is a dead ringer for this season’s must-have. I love writing about how we all really wear clothes.
Nigel Slater wrote a recipe, recently, for strawberry, ricotta and pistachio choux puffs. (Bear with me – this is more relevant than it sounds.) I can’t bake to save my life, but I had most of a tub of ricotta left in the fridge and in June I can’t walk past a punnet of strawberries for sale, so I whipped the ricotta with blitzed pistachio crumbs and dolloped it on to strawberries. OK, it wasn’t Nigel-worthy but it was pretty good because the flavours worked brilliantly. Like a recipe, I hope this column can work as an inspiration rather than a prescription. A jumping-off point to shop your wardrobe, rather than the actual shops.
Today’s fashion recipe is simple. Monotoning – wearing one colour from head to toe – is the new colour blocking. This is a really simple way of elevating an easy-to-wear outfit into something with a bit of drama or attitude. If you have a pair of bright shoes you like, start there, then pull out everything in your wardrobe that is the same colour. If there’s a shirt and skirt that you had never thought of wearing together, try it. Finding new pairings that work among the clothes you already have is as satisfying as winning at Snap..
• Jess wears dress, £110, boden.co.uk and shoes, Jess’s own. Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Samantha Cooper at Carol Hayes Management using Mac Cosmetics and OUAI
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