Navy wool and cashmere coat Arabella | Coat Creators | £329
Do you find yourself shivering just from a thought that Donald Trump will become the 45th president of the United States tonight? Are you losing sleep over the endless articles about Brexit and its impact to the UK's and the rest of Europe's economy? Or maybe you feel sickened by Kim Kardashian sporting the red Vetements' sweatshirt emblazoned with the USSR's hammer and sickle those to many around the world stands less for a fashion but rather for suppression, occupation and labour camps in Siberia? Well, I'm personally bothered by all of the above. On the other hand, it's in my nature to try and find positives in every situation.
Well, personally I'm bothered by all of the above. On the other hand, it's in my nature to try and find a positive outlook in every situation. And the inspiring article by the Guardian's fashion desk has given a good reason not to shy away from the 2017 with all its coming challenges, but look forward and embrace its optimistically chic outlook. Let me introduce you to the positive thinking, rainbow stripes, sparkling yellow tones and some ideas on what to wear to spread the cheer.
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Most Januarys are broadly similar. The lunchtime wait in line at M&S to exchange that dodgy Christmas gift cardigan, the treadmills jammed with runners trying to remember how to work the controls, the Dry January martyrs making a massive song and dance about every Diet Coke in the pub.
But this particular January feels tangibly different. Seldom has a new year begun with a zeitgeist united in such bloody-minded optimism. The social media mood on New Year’s Day was a curious mix of blitz spirit (“We can do this!”) and VE Day demob-fever (“We did it!”). The afterburn of 2016 is being felt in our collective determination to bring a better year into being through sheer force of will. Last year had more than its fair share of obscure buzzwords – from Kondo to post-truth to hygge – but the first of this year is one that everyone can rally around. Optimism is so hot right now.
This is big picture stuff, but style is part of it, because on an individual level even big picture stuff gets expressed in small ways. Profound statements are posted on Instagram, and liked by your immediate family. And what you wear to face 2017 is a statement, too. In Susie Boyt’s book My Judy Garland Life, she writes that one of the lessons she learned from her heroine is that “Glamour is a moral stance.” Dressing to cheer and brighten the world in 2017 – whether by red lipstick or a Choose Life T-shirt – is a generous act. And so it is that the look of 2017 has a different slant to what went before. More cheerful, more colourful, more outward looking. With the benefit of hindsight, the athleisure trend that dominated the first half of 2016 seems to signify not simply the wholesome, healthsome vibe it represented at the time, but something about self-obsession and a brazenness about celebrating the shallows of humanity, which played out on a meta scale later in the year.
The across-the-board embrace of optimism chic as we begin the new year is also fashion’s way of getting back on to the front foot. From Christopher Bailey backing the remain cause to Anna Wintour campaigning for Hillary Clinton, the industry was at its most overtly political in decades last year, and ended on the losing side. But instead of retreating into default black – being jaded and aloof, and taking refuge in style as classic tropes rather than engaging with fashion in the here and now – fashion has come out on the doorstep for 2017 in glorious technicolour. So: here’s what to wear, now that positive thinking is the new black. Accessorise with a cost-effective lunchbox of leftovers and that shiny new gym card.
Rainbow stripes
Multi-stripe cashmere sweater | Orwell + Austen | £ 179
Don’t think we need spell out the symbolism here. The item that encapsulates the new optimism best of all is the Gucci rainbow sweater, which became a modern classic after it appeared on the Gucci runway, and shortly thereafter on Alexa Chung, in 2015. Or go for a unique alternative made with love from the latest Orwell + Austen cashmere collection.
Don’t think we need spell out the symbolism here. The item that encapsulates the new optimism best of all is the Gucci rainbow sweater, which became a modern classic after it appeared on the Gucci runway, and shortly thereafter on Alexa Chung, in 2015. Or go for a unique alternative made with love from the latest Orwell + Austen cashmere collection.
A la la land dress
Mustard yellow dress with a ribbon | LeMuse | £90
The first iconic style image of 2017 is Emma Stone dancing with Ryan Gosling in a yellow dress, in the poster for Oscar-buzz movie La La Land. Mary Zophres, the film’s costume designer, has said that she wanted the brightly coloured dresses of the film to “evoke some kind of emotion that lands in the subconscious or conscious”. The dress is not a high-fashion yellow, but the yellow of canaries and squeezy mustard and those light-up hexagons on Blockbusters, and this is exactly what makes it jolly.
Eighties nostalgia
Checked straight cut shirt in blue gingham | Talented | £95
The second series of Stranger Things won’t arrive till later this year, but the look will be everywhere long before that. The fashion obsession with the show that saw the cast hanging out at Louis Vuitton HQ at Paris fashion week has fuelled a fuzzy nostalgia for 1980s dressing as remembered through Spielberg-tinted glasses. Think: varsity jackets over check shirts, backpacks with baseball caps and oversized denim jackets over floral dresses.
The hot shoulder
Black wool coat with fur details | Julia Janus | Was £545 / Now £325
The ubiquity of the off-the-shoulder trend in 2016 belied the fact that those clothes were more challenging to wear than they looked. A top that relies on your upper arms being pinned to your sides makes it tricky to drive, or cook, or dance. This year, the lady-shoulder will be a focal point once more, but this time padded, pointed, ruffled or possibly all three.
The colour 'kale'
Natural leather satchel | Bagology London | £179
What’s in a name? Everything. What was once “army green” has been rebranded for a harmonious, vegan-friendly year with the name of Beyoncé and Gwyneth’s favourite superfood. With Pantone pushing green as the shade of the season for its associations of rebirth and renewal, the case for a new winter parka or handbag just got stronger.
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Words taken from Guardian website
Images from kristinagoeswest.com
