4 1GT Wednesday September 16 2020 | the times

fashion

This broderie blouse offers a hint of

flesh-flashing, says Anna Murphy

What to wear for

an Indian summer

T

here has been surprise at

this week’s Indian

summer. But I would say

a glorious meteorological

last hurrah is one of the

things for which our September

can be counted upon. When I was

a child there would often be that

precious weekend, typically one

or two weeks after school had

restarted, when the weather would

reconfigure into something akin to

the peak summer we in truth may

or may not have enjoyed.

So a large amount of camping

equipment would be packed into

our very small car and we would

set off late on Friday night for

some snatched sun next to the

donkey sanctuary near Salcombe

in Devon. I remember those trips

more than others precisely

because they felt like such a

gift. OK, there was that one

occasion when Dad forgot

the tent poles, but usually

everything was perfect.

Which is why, years later, I

have largely made my peace

with the peaks and troughs,

and troughs, of British weather.

When it is good it is doubly enjoyable

because of all the times when it isn’t.

And when that good arrives at a time

when you are girding your loins for

it not to be, triply so. On the best kind

of September day — during which

there’s an autumnal edge to the

August sun — there is nowhere

I would rather be.

There’s a similarly enjoyable

ambidextrousness to the clothes I

am wearing. I want pieces that look

forwards and backwards at one and

the same time. That remind me of

summer, but also prepare me for the

new season. That can be worn when

it’s warm, but will also layer up well

when temperatures fall. That function

just as well for work as for play. I find

that wearing clothes that effortlessly

make those shifts, backwards and

forwards, often from one day to the

next, help me to do the same. If you

shop in a cognizant way, clothes really

can make life easier.

A blouse comes into its own at the

moment because you can vary the

weight of your bottom half easily

depending on what, on any particular

day, the universe is providing. The

present standout for me is this

broderie number from the small

British brand Nrby Clothing,

available in fuchsia and navy

(£125, nrbyclothing.com).

I have always loved a bit

of broderie, but now, when

much of my face is covered

up a lot of the time when I am

out and about, I like its modest

variety of flesh-flashing even

more. Other broderie options

include & Other Stories’ pretty

collared button-through with

scalloped hem, in black or white

(£65, stories.com) and Arket’s white

tie-neck (£69, arket.com). Then

there’s Me+Em’s cream or black

frill-trimmed style (£95,

meandem.com) and

Wyse London’s white

(£130, wyselondon.com).

All of the above

would serve brilliantly

when it’s warm and just

as well under a knit or

jacket, or both when it’s

cold. And that’s even

before we factor in how

professional dressing has

become for many of us

about a top half that

delivers — to mangle

1960s slang with what, in

2020, has become a way

of life — Zoom zazziness.

The Oxford English

Dictionary says that

“zazzy” was in origin

a cross-fertilisation

of “zippy” and “jazzy”.

Yep, could definitely

do me some of that.

Invest in a piece

that could be deployed

when drinking an evening

Aperol spritz in a

still-sunny corner of

your garden, and again

when powerbroking over Zoom

the next morning, and, well, I class

that as an achievement amid the

existential flatlining.

Check it out online

It’s supposedly London Fashion

Week any minute. Which supposedly

segues into the shows in, first, Milan,

then Paris. You will be unsurprised

to learn that it is very much not

business as usual this time. The

London nomenclature was already

erroneous, given that it was a handful

of days rather than a week.

With a few exceptions, our capital

remains great at nurturing new design

talent, but rather less good at turning

it into a sustainable brand. Not that

the other European fashion cities are

any better; their weeks may be more

accurately that, but they are populated

by labels founded decades ago, often

by individuals who are long gone, or

slowly going.

It’s nearly a century since Thomas

Burberry died. (I imagine Heaven

for him might be akin to that

puddle-splashing scene in Singin’

in the Rain, although obviously,

unlike Gene Kelly, he would

be wearing a trench.)

The Burberry show is

usually the only true event

of London, a celebrity-fest

with no corner left

unchecked. (Sorry.) Not

this time round. Tomorrow

it’s a digital-only affair.

Although if there is any

brand that can pull off

something zazzy online, it’s

this one. Also zazzy is Burberry’s

newly launched pocket bag,

especially in its classic plaid (£1,250,

burberry.com).

Instagram: @annagmurphy

Burberry pocket

bag, £1,250,

burberry.com

t

It combines the

slick tailoring

of a jacket with

sexiness, says

Charlie Gowans-

Eglinton

I

f you were one of the many

who swapped desk for

dining table at the start

of lockdown in the UK,

I have some questions for

you: how long did you keep

up appearances? How long

did you continue to dress for

the office, put on lipstick and

perfume? Shower? How long was

it before you put on a pair of

pyjamas, or contributed to the

tracksuit-bottom sales boom, or

attended a Zoom meeting dressed

only from the waist up (I always

wore knickers, honest)? Days?

Weeks? A month?

The longer you were out of the

loop — and by the loop I mean

waistbands without stretch in

them — the longer your wardrobe

rehabilitation might take. It’s not as

easy as just giving up those trackies:

first you need to admit that you have

a problem, then you need to to do

something about it.

What you need is an intervention

buy. An item of clothing so glam, so

sharp, so not-a-tracksuit that it breaks

the habit. Nothing that could lead to

backsliding. Not jeans: too farmers’

market. Not a snuggly new jumper:

that way bedsocks lie. No, this calls for

something extreme: tailoring.

A blazer might work, and it requires

minimum effort; you can chuck it over

jeans and a T-shirt and imagine that

you look like Emmanuelle Alt, the

editor-in-chief of French Vogue (and

the best advert for having “a personal

uniform”, something we fashion

editors like to bang on about, which

basically means finding what suits

you and sticking to it). But does your

blazer — that grey/black/navy one

you used to wear on meeting days —

spark joy or does it just remind you of

buying an egg and spinach pot and

a packet of popcorn in Pret?

So. Not a blazer then. But not not a

blazer. A little blazer dress — the new

LBD, a blazer/dress hybrid. The LBD

has all of the tailored slickness of the

former, but with added sex appeal —

not something I used to look for in

my workwear, but then an LBD isn’t

only for the office. It’s a hybrid buy,

one of those pieces that can be

recontextualised (via the media of

shoes, hair and handbags) for work or

a night out. If the phrase didn’t make

me feel queasy, I’d say it was an

exemplar of “desk-to-dinner dressing”.

Before we go any further, let’s

address the miniskirt in the room: they

are short. You might have noticed

hemlines creeping up on catwalks and

your local high street, if you’ve walked

down it of late. The miniskirt is back.

Don’t panic. If you weren’t panicking,

you’re braver — or perhaps shapelier

of leg — than me. But these miniskirts

aren’t the knicker-flashing horrors

of our youth. The androgynous

associations that tailoring stirs up

balance out a short hemline, as do

the long sleeves of most LBDs.

I’d hazard a guess that some of the

versions worn by fashion types are in

fact just bum-skimming blazers, not

hybrids at all, their pick being from

the trendy label Blazé Milano. If you’re

on the shorter side, you might find

this is an option for you, but most of

us will want the extra length offered

by an LBD. As when shopping for

a blazer, neutral hues will prove the

most useful in your wardrobe. Black

is classic and easy to shoehorn into

most dress codes, be they office or

evening. The Scandinavian brand

Rotate Birger Christensen’s Fonda

(DK3,500, or about £430,

rotatebirgerchristensen.com) is well

cut, with gobstopper-sized crystal

buttons worthy of any cocktail hour

(it also comes in white).

Monochrome houndstooth is

equally timeless; see Essentiel

Broderie blouse

by Nrby, £125,

nrbyclothing.com

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LBD? Yes, little