Monday 27 June 2011

Uptown Girl

With the warmth of the sun back to air our summer clothes, it really is time to think about your winter wardrobe. I say this every year to deaf ears but the window for coats is a small one. If you haven't got it by the first week of September, you will be officially on sloppy seconds.

All around the high street is suffering with a lack of consumer confidence and therefore a lack of spending. The clever retailers will be looking at keeping their costs down to ride this all out so don't make the mistake of thinking stock levels will be what they were before. It won't mean bargain's galore - just less availability.

This season there will be lots of collarless coats a la Prada's influential chic European Sixties homage. Lots of masculine jackets and coats with a minimalist vibe plus longer ones. Miu Miu and Gucci to name but two kept the nostalgia for 40s and 70s alive respectively.

Gucci has got it covered on the coat front. I'm afraid it is an uber chic, almost dare I say Liza Minnelli-esque, look for coats, jackets and accessories. It's a step away from the formality of the lady like look that has dominated of late when it comes to winter coats and despite the shaggy collars, coats and snakeskin leather jackets, this is no boho rock chic look - we are talking an uptown girl! I suspect this look will be a slow burner but a strong finisher for the adoption of trends. Mainly as it allows you to emulate the look with some handy wardrobe items, the fedora, the skinny belt, the faux fur collar, knee high boots, your pussy bow shirt. You might like to get dying the faux fur collar (a cold Dylon dye should work a treat in a teal or violet) and getting use to dark lipstick again with sleek hair rather than bed head. But if you fancy injecting colour, then use the Gucci colour palette as your base with its gorgeous use of teal, violet, ochre, orange, fuchsia and burgundy, with navy, grey and black as neutral options. Of course look to Zara to provide the affordable high street options!





11 comments:

  1. Those colors are delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I missed the window for coat shopping this year, now I'm resigned to wearing some hideous grey lord of the rings thing, I bought in a moment of stupidity last year. A good coat is so hard to find!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Divine - and I love the first coat. We're in the middle of winter down south and its been cold - not European cold, but Africa cold and our buildings are not built to retain the heat :-( so this coat is ueber appealing. Wish I had the money to fly north for some shopping.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love this luxe, 70s-80s city look, and agree that it will be adapted from accessories at first, both because of ecomomical reasons and because it's so easy to do that way. It's what I plan to do for sure! Furry collar (and hat) at the ready along with my purple snakeskin belt (at the ready for when it inevitably cools down to winter temps this week...ha!).

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi my dear-the accessories definitely luxe this look up, I really love the mix of opulent colours too, very decadent and rich xxx

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh I can't see past the fur stoles, I would love to own something that glam.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great to see some colour for winter.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The color scheme here is beautiful. I would have never thought of mustard, purple, brown AND red/burgundy and it works marvels !

    ReplyDelete
  9. "teal, violet, ochre, orange, fuchsia and burgundy..." Delicious. My poetry.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for commenting, much appreciated. Sorry about no longer offering anonymous comments but spamming had become a very annoying issue. xxx