When everything old is new again … I’m even older
Model Gigi Hadid, in Paris, with a looks inspired by the late Princess Diana. Photo: Getty
So I think we’ve all got the message that it’s all about florals for spring…ground-breaking (in the immortal words of Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada).
But there is another trend being touted that has stopped me in my tracks.
Apparently it’s all about an oversized blazer with shoulder pads, and a baseball cap. And “mom” jeans.
The muse is a youthful Princess Diana striding across a field – the look turned up in Paris Vogue on Hailey Bieber and in real life by one of the current queens of Nineties redux, supermodel Gigi Hadid.
I most definitely did the big-shouldered tweed jacket and high-waisted jeans look in the early nineties, complete with a turtleneck sweater and Robert Clergerie penny loafers. And white ankle socks.
This entire look is back, bar the frizzy fringe and thick eyebrows … and they may be headed our way, too.
But with a baseball cap? No. Someone young and cool could no doubt pull off that look. I feel like I used to – but put it on me now and those blazer, baseball cap and mom jeans will scream “I’d like to speak to the manager” white woman.
I’m struggling with the floral dress thing too, damn it. I wore those in the Nineties too, with black 1940’s style sandals and red lipstick – but I’m not exactly sure if I can do it second time around.
I bought one on a whim last month, a floral print knee length dress on a black base with a scooped neckline and elbow length puffed sleeves but I can’t shake the mutton dressed as lamb vibe.
I modelled in the kitchen for my husband who said all the right things, like “You look lovely, it’s a very pretty dress” while I whined about looking old.
I was wearing a similar black floral Cacharel dress when I met him in Paris in the mid Nineties, so no doubt the dear man was being nostalgic for a time when I quite nice to him.
I seem to remember I was also wearing fishnets stockings back then and I’m not confident that I will ever be seen in public in those again, although I do have a few languishing in my lingerie drawer purely because I love them.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3fbTG3o1KW/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
The problem as you get older is that you’ve worn every trend and they are all coming back to make you feel ancient.
“Can I wear ankle socks with sandals like those marvellously chic older women in Milan do?” I mused out loud to a friend at the salon the other day, causing my hairdresser to rush in from out the back literally yelling “Noooooooo!!”
So it’s a constant wardrobe cull.
You will never see me in Peter Pan collars, halter necks, shorts, high heels, low cut tops, button earrings, face powder, pale blue denim (too Kath and Kim) and floral one-piece swimming costumes.
I guess it’s not worth asking my hairdresser about his opinion on boilersuits.