The furry gilet falls into the following important, underdiscussed category: things I love and wish weren’t as naff as they are so I could indulge in public. See also: elaborate hot chocolates with whipped cream; romcoms with actors from Friends.
A furry gilet is so cosy. But it isn’t cool. It is a bit School Gates Glam. As in: yummy mummy, car keys in hand. The gilet over skinny jeans, say, or over running leggings and a sweater. And School Gates Glam is probably my least favourite dress code in the world, my issue being that it is a peculiarly infantile form of glamour. It is glamorous in the way a three-year-old in a nylon princess dress is glamorous: ie, the wearer believes herself to be glamorous, rather than anyone else.
I wish it wasn’t so. I feel the appeal of the furry gilet as much as anyone: cosy, duvet-like, Flintstone primal. And it’s January. What’s not to love? Well, mainly the naffness. But I am not giving up on the furry gilet. With a bit of strategy, we could make it work.
This is not a snobbish thing, by the way. The answer is absolutely not to buy a posher one. The one I’m wearing is £40 from H&M, and I like it much more than any of the more expensive ones I tried on. Having experimented with what does and doesn’t work, here are some tentative guidelines for non-naff gilet wearing.
Firstly, don’t wear it with skinny jeans and high-heeled boots: this is walking cliche territory. Try it over something modern and clean-lined. A tunic, wide-legged trousers and trainers would totally work. Maybe something sporty, but not in a bodycon way, or something a tiny bit odd: this skirt, with its trompe l’oeil jumper-round-the-waist detail, is suitably off-the-wall. Most importantly, wear the gilet open, not belted, which parks the look firmly back in SGG territory – and seldom looks good because the proportions are all wrong unless you are 6ft tall.
We can reclaim the gilet back from naffness with these rules. We can layer up in an intriguing, Nordic way, as if we were collecting kindling. Even if we are, in fact, on the school run.
- Jess wears faux-fur gilet, £39.99, hm.com. Top, £49.99, mango.com. Skirt, £100, annsofieback.com. Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Laurence Close at Carol Hayes Management
