A double-breasted blazer was the first thing I bought for this new season. Heretically, I don’t adhere to the industry edicts about snapping up coats at the end of July. My back-to-school moment happens at New York fashion week in early September, which is invariably roasting hot and yet wall-to-wall with women showing off their new outerwear. This season it was oversized teddy-bear, faux-fur coats in lipstick red. Which are divine, and I absolutely want one – but not yet. Some showgoers manage to pull them off – perhaps if you are truly, glacially ultra-cool you can lower your own body temperature – but for me they are out of the question until it’s actually cold enough. Being comfortable in your clothes is sometimes framed as the polar opposite of chic – the elasticated waistband, let-yourself-go look – but to me, it works the other way around. Great clothes are the ones that make your day feel easier and lighter, not the ones that are a burden.
Not that I am pretending to be immune to that late-August hunger for Something New. Far from it. This season, I absolutely had to have a double-breasted blazer the moment I got back from holiday. A lightweight jacket is the most direct way to ring seasonal changes, because it shapes the most visible part of your silhouette as well as fitting the climate. The jacket had to be a blazer, because I suspect that this autumn I am mostly going to be wearing longish, loose skirts and fluid trousers, and a blazer is the most elegant complement to that.
But why double-breasted? Isn’t that a bit naff? Just a tiny bit… wrong? Yes. That’s exactly why I want one. I am militant about being physically comfortable, but open-minded about clothes that test the psychological comfort zone a little bit. Actually, more than open-minded. I am positively in favour of it. Clothes only count as fashion, as opposed to just clothes, when they do this. You have to be careful not to confuse clothes that are a healthy psychological challenge with those that are literally problematic. If you do, you end up with a cupboard full of shoes that made you feel amazing when you tried them on but which are too high to actually wear (take it from one who knows). A double-breasted blazer is just far enough from the comfort zone to feel like fashion. But not enough to bring you out in a sweat.
• Jess wears blazer, £65, marksandspencer.com. Dress, £129, warehouse.co.uk. Boots, £189, kurtgeiger.com. (Chair, £175, grahamandgreen.co.uk.)
Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Samantha Cooper at Carol Hayes Management.
