The Times - UK (2022-02-23)

6 V2 Wednesday February 23 2022 | the times

fashion

How to rock a

suit now — go for

smart but with a

touch of slouch

I want to look sleek while feeling comfortable.

My new uniform delivers both, says Anna Murphy

I

t’s official. From Thursday life

goes back to normal. So what

happens to our wardrobes? Do

they go back to normal too?

I don’t know about you, but I

have been rehearsing normality

as much as possible for a while

now. And I have been

monitoring what I reach for in my

wardrobe as I do so. The past couple

of months have been, among other

things, a kind of dress rehearsal.

Our clothing choices — which are

often made subconsciously — can

reveal what we are missing, what we

are craving. What I have noticed is

that 2022 has been all about smartness

for me so far. After that long period of

enforced casual dressing I absolutely

cannot bear not to look smart.

Every day is a dressing-up day.

Not in that OTT Roaring Twenties

marabou-with-everything way that

people were predicting in the darkest

days of lockdown. But I want polish, I

want sleekness. I do not want anything

that reminds me of binge-watching

Normal People while binge-eating

Minstrels.

What I want, in short, is tailoring.

Which is why in recent weeks I have

found myself wearing a suit not only

in the week but — and this is

unprecedented for me — on at least

one day every weekend. You can’t get

smarter than that, right?

Except smartness isn’t quite the

right word, in truth. Because I also

absolutely do not want to be

uncomfortable ever again. I want to

look smart, yet feel slouchy. Actually,

I want to look both smart and slouchy,

because straight down the line smart

can come across as try-hard, not to

mention old-fashioned. Effortful is

now the ultimate faux pas.

And so, because this is a whole new

concept for me, I have had to come up

with a whole new — not to mention

somewhat ridiculous — word for

that cross between smart and slouchy.

Introducing smouchy. That’s how I

want to look and feel. It’s an aesthetic

hybrid that may as yet represent a

road less travelled, but which, if my

extremely satisfactory experience is

anything to go by, I wager will soon

become a veritable M1 of a dress code.

It’s certainly shaping up to be the

signature look of 2022. Even the

Duchess of Cambridge swapped her

slimline trousers for a waftier pair in

Copenhagen yesterday.

Luckily smouchy isn’t hard to shop

for these days. Partly that’s due to

newfangled fabrics such as stretch

wool, silk or corduroy, which mean

that you need never feel buttoned-up

again, even if you are. Partly it’s due

to the alchemy of 21st-century styling:

a bit of athleisure here, a clompy boot

or trainer there will transform even

more conventional tailoring.

My 2022 uniform — yes, I have

worn it that much — has been a

stretch corduroy suit from the British

brand Aspiga (£205 for the jacket,

£125 for the trousers, aspiga.com). Full

confession: I like it so much that I now

have two, one in fuchsia (that’s the one

Kate’s

slouchy

pants

Velvet suit, £188, freepeople.com