the times | Wednesday January 26 2022 5fashion
upwards, I’m afraid, but a trouser suit
with a T-shirt and trainers would
make for Festive February chic. Hold
fire on fitted office dresses since
these still feel too corporate at a time
when you no longer have to pretend
you thought your gathering was a
work event.
Even pre-Covid, we recognised the
sartorial power of jeans and a nice top;
our collective stretchy waistbands and
near-total lack of social life means this
is the new black tie so wear with a low
or block heel and as bare a foot as you
can. Make sure your denim is high-
waisted and a little cropped, free of
any faux-whiskering or deliberate
distressing, and that your top has
something notice-me about it: a big
collar, plenty of frills, big sleeves.
The Danish designer Stine Goya
does peplum tops that are perfect for
the party-hesitant (uk.stinegoya.com),
while the British brand Mother of
Pearl is the fashion editor’s first stop
for shirts, blouses and even sweatshirts
suitable both for daytime and soirees
(motherofpearl.co.uk) — both are
rigorous on the eco front too.
You won’t be surprised to hear
that bouclé jackets were big news
outside the Chanel show in Paris
yesterday — there’s no easier way
to feel fancy than to pull on one of
these with your jeans. Chanel’s will
set you back upwards of £5,000,
but I love Self Portrait’s waisted
version (£400, self-portrait-
studio.com) or Zara’s white
double-breasted take (£59.99,
zara.com).
Finally, the details. A glam
evening bag you’ve had no reason
to take out for a while; fabulous
earrings that hopefully don’t
summon the early days of Zoom.
Experiment with heels again —
or, don’t. You’ll only need to take
them off to dance — but not,
thankfully, to any Christmas songs.
Twitter: @harrywalker1Cardi B variety — never gave up on
him, however. His sense of theatre,
his obsession with sex and selling,
made him perfect for our social
media-mediated age. His moment
had come, if it weren’t for the fact
that he had already had plenty of
those in his heyday.
His advice to younger designers was
to “be clear what you want to say.
Make sure that people get it.” Mugler
was always outspoken, particularly
when he started out, adopting the
verboten at the time language of drag
and addressing issues such as race and
ageing in his shows long before his
peers did. An exhibition of his work,
Thierry Mugler: Couturissime, is at the
Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris
until April 24.
One final Mugler moment to
remember him by: Cardi B giving it
her best Birth of Venus at the 2019
Grammys in a vintage number that
opened up like a pink satin-lined shell
— or possibly vulva — to reveal a
bustier that was barely a bustier and
some suggestively placed pearls. Totes
Botticelli, in other words. “That dress
is worth not being able to walk,” is
how Cardi B’s stylist Kollin Carter put
it. “I knew she’d be happy to just tiptoe
down the carpet.”J
olly holly and plenty of Bolly
isn’t exactly the vibe you
might associate with a
month usually celebrated for
its brevity, but prepare to
pop your cork — this
February won’t be like all the
other ones. Just when you
thought you had raised your tolerance
for joy by yet another pandemic
winter’s worth of jadedness, along
comes a reason to dress up again.
Friends tell me they are reinstating
the dinners they cancelled in
December because of Omicron fears,
others that they are using the
restaurant vouchers they asked Santa
for to spur them on through dry
January the moment they turn the
calendar page next week. So far I’ve
had three invitations for the first
evening in February — is Tuesday the
new Friday? — having not had any for
about six weeks.
Someone I know who runs a small
start-up has even rescheduled their
office Christmas party for the coming
month, although admittedly, that
amounts to three of them going to the
pub. Another pal says their company
has announced that the party budget
has been “ringfenced” and will be
deployed when appropriate. That the
phrase “party budget” has even come
up in conversation suggests someone
is desperately trying to gauge when
that tide of appropriateness might
next come in.
The directive is clear: it’s time to
make like Downing Street during
lockdown. Fill up the wine fridge and
get your mates round. Stock up on
Alka-Seltzer, book in the babysitter or
the blow-dry or both. Move the kids’
swing set. It might not be the same
nationwide bacchanal as the Friday
before Christmas but neither will you
have to listen to Fairytale of New York
regardless of venue. February has its
upsides after all.
As for the dress code. Well, there is a
demographic for whom this month has
always meant peacocking: fashion
editors. For them, February, and its
month-long circuit of important
fashion weeks, has long been a time to
wear the clothes they most want to
show off rather than the ones they
think might keep them warm. Here
they come now, strutting their stuff at
the couture shows in Paris this week
having embarked on Festive February
a bit early (always ahead of the curve,
this lot). To be honest, even they seem
a little hamstrung by the sartorial
befuddlement many of us are still
labouring under post-pandemic.
We’ve spent so long being comfy and
practical that shifting register seems
oddly forced.
With the exception of a few women
braving the Parisian frost in Paco
Rabanne chainmail minidresses this
week (more power to them), most of
the fashion set were in clothes thatpassed — for them — as borderline
sensible. This is good news for any
Festive February magpies hoping
to steal inspiration for a look.
The resurgence of metallic
“disco pants” is one such example.
The street-style set are wearing theirs
with plain blouses, neutral and navy
knitwear and blazers.
Wearing one thing that screams
“party” and another that emphasises
how comfortable you are is a very
strategic fashion editor power move
that will serve you well for the festive
weeks ahead. See also: full-skirted
dresses with hiking boots; a miniskirt
and big sloppy jumper; cigarette pants
and Birkies; any manner of silky,
slinky number with a blazer on top.
Razzed-up tailoring — by which I
mean a blazer glammed-up with a
blingy belt or lots of gold jewellery —
was another common theme. The
front row is full of clingy black bootcut
trousers (I like the £55 version in
recycled Ecovero at stories.com) and a
blazer is the perfect foil for these for
those nervous about their bottoms
(don’t be). For anybody trying not to
shop post-lockdown, pulling out
some long-forgotten suiting from
your cupboard is akin to splashing
out on a new tiara — at least, it felt
that way to me last week.
In fact, the endangered species
previously known as “workwear”
practically counts as cocktail
garb now.
The direction of skirt
hemlines continues to moveIt’s time to get
glam and rebook
all those cancelled
Christmas plans.
By Harriet Walker
Hooray, bring on Festive February!
Try razzed-
up tailoring:
a blazer with
a blingy belt
GETTY IMAGESAbove: influencers in
their party wardrobes.
Below: Alexa ChungLinda Evangelista, left, with
George Michael, and Jerry Hall,
above, wearing Mugler. Below: the
designer with Diana Ross in 1990vo om