I’m really confused by slouchy trousers and haunted by 80’s flashbacks, what are the rules of this game?
Normally trousers are really easy to buy right? Wrong. Trouser buying is a pain in the bum, and the thighs. It’s almost as if they were invented for men instead of women.
The problem lies in our curvature. We might love the idea of a leg encased in the strict convention of a cigarette pant or the Bacallian flow of a high-waisted wide legged trouser, however often our physiology stands in the way. Trousers are difficult to get right. If your trunk is thick and your legs are skinny, trousers hang like sails in a light breeze. If your waist is slender and your thighs are rounded, often, the waistband sits out like an idle hoola-hoop.
Some time ago, the carrot leg shape became a bit of a game changer. Like a pimped Capri, the carrot uses deep pleating to give volume and a clever hiding place for excess baggage, while creating definition by staying close to the lower leg.
We know fashion doesn’t like stasis, so the carrot has evolved. The slouch is a development in style, like a posh lounging trouser. The key is that ankle area remains neat. The slouch looks exactly like it sounds, fluid and draped. Now here’s the inside scoop, the slouch is really good on curvy girls. No it won’t make your thighs look bigger, it will make your waist look smaller. The slouch is also the point at which comfort and style decide to commit. Here’s the caveat, let the trousers be the only relaxed part of the look. Offset with tailoring and heels to bring up the style quotient, one doesn’t want to look too relaxed.
Above: Wool silk joggers, €170, Jaeger London at House of Fraser Dundrum
My wardrobe is a dark abyss from years of serial colour avoidance. It’s official - I’m black bored, please help.
It’s an insidious thing, the black trap. You buy a couple of pieces and they go with each other. Then you buy another couple of pieces, and they go with the first couple of pieces. Your pavlovian impulses realise that a pain point is gone; you no longer need to worry about things matching because black matches black. And black is chic right? Coco Chanel revolutionised fashion by repurposing it away from the colour of mourning, making it the signifier of elegance. Black’s appeal lies in its ability to create drama, hence the little black dress. But drama is not continuously sustainable in any component of our lives, rather it is an infrequent punctuation lifting us out of the norm.
To break out of the prison of your own making there is one very simple first step - your footwear. Black shoes worn with colour look unrefined; investing in an alternative dark neutral will open up your possibilities, navy grey or burgundy being good starting points. In fact these colours make really good alternatives to that dreaded spine of black in your wardrobe. Swap out the basics, trousers, jackets and skirts. You don’t have to go cold turkey, black will always work in the mix.
At this point, start to think in tones, varying the range of your palette to create interest and complexity. Once comfortable with dark colour, lighten your existence with both soft and bright tones, reflecting your mood according to variance of your whims. It’s more dramatic to have a whim in full technical than in black and white. frockadvisor.com