the times | Wednesday February 23 2022 V2 7
fashion
Archie Foal blends the elegant with
the practical, says Anna Murphy
The best jumpsuit to
flatter all figures
T
his column is in
honour of Pat
Turner, or perhaps
Patrice Headley,
who died last year
at the age of 90, or possibly 92,
or possibly 81. I never met her,
but I wish I had. The jumpsuit
pictured here — tailored to
flatter your figure beautifully
— is inspired by her (£345 for
the cord, £295 for the black
cotton, archiefoal.com).
The boutique British brand
Archie Foal was co-founded
by Turner’s (or Headley’s) son,
Julian Turner. Pat ran a trio of
fashion boutiques in the 1970s
in and around Leeds. “It was
that time when anything that
sounded a bit French was a
good thing,” Turner says. So
his mother went for Patrice
Headley as her shop name,
not Pat Turner. And would
pick up her son from his Leeds
prep school in her open-top
Triumph Stag in a tweed
jumpsuit tucked into knee-high
leather boots and nipped in
with a leather belt. Her car
was the colour of the corduroy
in which said jumpsuit has
been reincarnated.
It’s the elegant yet practical
aesthetic of this remarkable-
sounding woman — who did a
spot of modelling and rally
driving, as you do — that
informs the Archie Foal
approach in general. “People were
always asking her where she got her
clothes, even when she was in her
eighties,” Turner says. When he was
going through papers after her death
he found different birth dates on
everything. “Her passport was at least
nine years out.”
Archie Foal is such a great brand,
especially if you want country garb
that is just modernised enough.
Turner describes it as “not fashion,
but clothing with a fashion eye”.
Some 90 per cent of what it sells is
British-made, and all of it is of
superlative quality. Its knits are
another winner; to wit the slouchy,
high-necked Ida in red, cream or
navy (£235).
There is one other piece that is an
iteration of a particular item Pat wore:
the stunning chocolate brown
shearling bomber (£1,100). “Hers was
faux fur, though, as she was a lifelong
vegetarian,” Turner says. “I remember
some friends coming to tea and my
mum giving them hummus before
anyone knew what it was. They came
into school the next day and told
everyone they had been served grout.”
I mean, seriously. So many good
stories. Turner recounts how people
in his mother’s village came to her
door after her death to tell him “what
a lovely little old lady she was”. She
wouldn’t have liked that, apparently.
Then someone else turned up and
said: “I remember when your mother
was dancing in a gold bikini at the endof your swimming pool
in the 1970s.” (Yes, the
family home had a
swimming pool in the
garden.) “Now that she
would have liked,”
Turner says, laughing.A migraine (and
cheekbones) fix
In recent years I have
started suffering from
migraines, having
barely had a headache
prior to that. What’s
causing them has
proved something of a
mystery. For a while it
seemed to be linked to
a newly developed
food intolerance. (I
was ill with shellfish
poisoning, and
couldn’t eat shellfish
or fish for a couple of
years.) That eventually
went. But the
migraines didn’t. Next
I thought it might be
my hormones, but
they were tested and
were fine.
A few months ago
two people suggested
that it might be linked
to jaw tension, which
made me realise that I
have started waking
up occasionally with
the suspicion that I have been grinding
my teeth. One suggested a strange-
sounding gadget called a Patakara,
which was invented by a Japanese
professor at a medical and dental
college in Tokyo.
Imagine something that looks a bit
like a baby’s dummy, but which is
sprung, so that you have to draw
your mouth closed for it not to
drop out. The idea is that you use
it for up to 15 minutes a day to
exercise your mouth and facial
muscles. I know. Weird. You can
read all about it at patakara.eu,
but for ease I bought mine from the
UK-based company Sai Nutrition
(01923 822099), for £85 plus £8
registered postage.
Now this is not, luckily for all of us,
a migraine column. I am telling you
about the Patakara because in the
several weeks I have finally got with
the programme (yes, of course it sat in
my bathroom cupboard ignored for
months) my face has, as the website
promises, started to change. Most
noticeable so far is that my
cheekbones have become more
defined. The website claims the
Patakara offers “natural face lifting
and rejuvenation”. My early-stage data
gathering would suggest they might be
onto something.
I don’t think there has been any
teeth grinding, and so far the
migraines are on hold. Yet terribly I
am at least as excited about my
cheekbones.It’s ‘not
fashion,
but
clothing
with a
fashion
eye’, says
the label’s
co-founder
Cord jumpsuit, £345,
archiefoal.comthe trousers, cosstores.com). It’s the
big and boxy variety of tailoring that
is the streetstyler way to deliver
smouchy, often with some extra “ouch”
delivered by way of an underlayer of
hoodie or chunky polo neck or — just
to be unpredictable, not to mention
chilly — absolutely nothing.
Arket’s hopsack wool suit is
a streetstyler’s dream, the
fabric a loose basketweave that
is the epitome of smouchy,
not least because it doesn’t
crease and so is easy to
look after. Smouchy
definitely doesn’t
entail steaming.
(Although
Steamery’s
handheld
Cirrus No 2 is
the most user-
friendly, not to
mention chicest,
I have come
across; £110,
steamery.co.uk.)
That suit comes
in a range of
neutrals (I like
the chocolate
brown), a great
red-orange
and a cracking apple green
(£135 for the jacket, £89 for
the trousers, arket.com). I feel
happy — not to mention
smouchy — just looking at it.
Instagram: @annagmurphyeveryone thinks
is from Gucci)
and one in teal
(that’s the one that
somehow manages to be
low-key as well as look-at-me,
and is just so flattering to
the complexion). The fabric has
structure but is also soft, and the
cut is generous but not swamping.
Ker-ching.
A different route in would be
Free People’s velvet suit in scarlet or
fuchsia, which is so drapey it looks
almost — but ultimately not at all —
like pyjamas (£188, available in
large and small sizes only,
freepeople.com). Cos’s
windowpane-checked suit,
in blush on beige, also walks
the line between Wee Willie
Winkie and Annie Hall,
ending up definitively on
the side of Hall not Winkie,
which is — just in case I
haven’t made myself clear —
precisely where one wants to
be (£150 for the jacket, £99 for
Kate swapped
her slimline
trousers for a
waftier pair
Shirt, £325, trousers, £385,
serenabutelondon.comBlazer, £275, wide-leg trousers,
£185, meandem.comOversized blazer, £340,
trousers, £220,
essentiel-antwerp.com