The Times - UK (2021-11-10)

4 Wednesday November 10 2021 | the times

fashion

The scarf influencer. It

is indeed a strange new

world into which Covid

has delivered us.

I couldn’t be happier.

About the scarf situation,

that is. I have always had

a thing about them, and if

they are long and stripy, so

much the better. One of my

earliest memories of my very

old, very dear friend Rachel

pertains to — don’t judge me

— her scarf. Sure, she had

excellent chat, but she also

had a striped Nicole Farhi

scarf in shades of purple that

I couldn’t take my eyes off.

Eventually I tracked down

similar and wore it until it

was more hole than scarf.

I have been channelling

Tom Baker again since I

got my hands on, or

rather wrapped my neck

up in, one of the new

striped styles from

Penelope Chilvers. This

small British brand is

rightly famed for its

artisan-made boots (I

love the chocolate

suede cowboy ankle

boots, £259,

penelopechilvers.com)

but is also worth

monitoring when it

goes off-piste.

Its scarfs are a

case in point. They are indeed inspired

by a certain time traveller, Chilvers

tells me, yet have — needless to say —

a supra-Tardis fashion edge. “We

chose stripes that incorporate all the

colours of the season in one piece.”

Made in Scotland, they come in two

colourways: one (mine) majoring on

lilac, blue and yellow, the other pink,

green and orange (£149, the latter

available to pre-order,

penelopechilvers.com). My only

criticism is that, should one be moved

to plant a tree while wearing it —

don’t ask, but last week I was — it can

rather impede one’s spade work.

A second favourite comes from

another small British brand, Hades,

which specialises in ever-after

knitwear and has just turned five

years old. Its iteration is also

Scottish-made, and comes patterned

with a giant letter of your choice (£90,

hades-shop.co.uk). Twenty-two letters

of the alphabet are available — I pity

any poor Queenies out there — each

rendered in a different pair of

colours, such as bright blue and grey

(the “A”) and pale green and grey (the

“M”). (Self-obsessed, moi?) While we

are on the subject of Hades, its

alphabet crewnecks and cardies are

just as covetable (from £180, hades-

shop.co.uk).

A third favourite — also from a

British brand, also made in Scotland;

spot my theme — is Brora’s cashmere

“Love” design. It comes in three

colourways (pale blue and red/purple

This season’s statement

accessory is a scarf. The

bigger the better. I’m in,

says Anna Murphy

F

orget the hemline index.

Introducing the scarf-

length index. Right now

the more scarf you have

about your person the

merrier. No surprise.

After all, one synonym

for a wool scarf is

“comforter”. And who isn’t in the

market for some of that this winter?

Will we lock down again? Won’t we?

Should we be going out as much as we

can or staying in as much as we can?

No one knows the answers. So we are

taking comfort in our comforters,

finding security in our security

blankets. In scarfs we trust.

The super-scarf — super not just

because of its length and/or width, but

also the fact that there is something

special about its colour and/or pattern

— is a mood-lifter as well as a neck-

warmer. It’s another variety of booster,

if you will, the sort that doesn’t come

with a sore arm. The super-scarf

makes you feel super too. Not full-on

superhero, maybe, but a step up from

bleurgh — which in November 2021 is

saying something. It is the only

wardrobe update you need this season.

Such is its ubiquity among

influencer types at the moment

that when they hang out together it

might easily be mistaken for a

Doctor Who convention, one at

which every attendee is pashing

hard on the fourth Doctor. He’s

the one who sported arguably

the most famous, and perhaps

the longest, scarf in history. He

fought extraterrestrial Daleks

while wearing his. We are

taking on the all-too

terrestrial coronavirus with

ours. His enemies had

“Dalek bumps”. Ours have

crown-like spikes.

I happen to think it is

significant that these

days even influencers

— the kind of women

whose usual default is

to promote bare

midriffs and nude

sandals — should

be advocating an

item of clothing

that was, until

recently, merely

(horror of horrors) sensible.

The fastest way to update your

Copenhagen £60, uterque.com Berlin Paris

i

£29.99, mango.com