Tweed is it the domain of the elderly gentlemen, or can anyone partake?
The most egalitarian of fabrics, serving farmer to fop, tweed no longer represents the past, but a future friend of great longevity. Tweed was designed to provide all-weather warmth with resistance to wind, cold and moisture and yet be breathable and hardwearing, it is basically two hundred year old pre-curser to Gore-Tex.
Given the trend for all clothing to be considered in terms of the long-term investment it provides, tweed is heirloom dressing in all its glory.
Of course, from man of the land to latter day Madonna, tweed has always been associated with that ghastly genre, country casual. Mama Middleton is often seen hanging around the polo, snug in tweed protected from the cold and the riff raff alike.
But hang on a second; doesn’t tweed have an alter ego, like the rebel sister? Yes, Coco, we prostrate ourselves at your self-made feet, you took tweed and transformatively twisted it, making it chic and sexy and urbane. Chanel took the earth and warmth out of tweed and made it about the night and the city.
Is there a fashion-fixated girl out there who wouldn’t like a little Chanel Jacket to fling over her Acne jeans?
If we’re talking too rich for your blood, our own Donegal tweed is having something of a revival. Molloy & Sons are a traditional producer who creates bespoke textiles, which increasingly march down international catwalks. You may not have the cash for Chanel, or the cachet to craft your wardrobe in bespoke, but frockadvisor is not here to judge but to present alternatives.
LK Bennett has built a modern empire on lightweight tweed effect wools for the career woman, with Tommy Hilfiger providing an equally successful downtime alternative.
But there’s tweed and there’s tweed. The real deal is imbued with the smell of nature inherent in the wool and it’s natural oils. Vintage or pre-loved finds are no less precious than expensive new alternatives, try new retail jewel, No.38 on Dunville Avenue in Ranelagh or The Secret Closet in Howth for seriously good pre-loved designer offerings. Just don’t tell anyone else. Tweed isn’t always heavy and of the earth, but it is always kind of fabulous.
I have big boobs, I’d quite like to show them off, but it just seems a little out of step in fashion terms, am I imagining this?
You are indeed a fashion astute. Cleavage is a word that seems almost out-dated at this point. To cleave, a verb, meaning to stay really, really close to someone or something or to split apart using a sharp instrument. It’s sometimes hard to know which of the two contradictory definitions apply.
At a certain point in time, somewhere hovering around the late nineties, the shape of an exposed bust changed. With a well-fitting cantilevered bra, a buoyant gravity defying silhouette with two distinct and separately supported breasts became gold standard. This became the preferable replacement to a tightly packed mono-boob redolent of Elizabethan corsetry and early Wonderbras.
It was okay to expose your cleavage, it was fun and cheeky and carefree. Then, without warning, fun was taken off the menu. Necklines rose and the rolling hills of suspended breasts were shut away to keep sharp minds focused on the job at hand.
Now this presents issues. If you believe that your breasts are big, you either love them or hate them. If you hate them, you want to make them look as small as possible, tucking them under your armpits and wearing a bra, four cup sizes too small. High necklines, you believe, exaggerate the problem, making you look like a walking breast. ‘I can only wear V-necks’ you weep, frustrated by the Victorian offering available to you. If, however, you love your natural assets, all you want to do is get them out.
Both of you, listen to frockadvisor; the biggest gift you can give yourself is to visit a specialist bra fitter. This woman will transform your silhouette, lift your bust-line, lengthen your torso and usher you reborn into a brave new world. There are a few of these specialists dotted around the country, one of frockadvisor’s favourites is Clodagh Weber from Bramora, on Earlsfort terrace. She measures by eye without a tape and changes the lives of all the women with whom she almost comes in contact. With the right bra secured and socio-economic morals aside, high necks and low necks will look immeasurably better. It’s not the breast that’s fallen from grace; it’s the cleavage, be it really, really close or split in two with a sharp instrument.