I spend a lot of time with ridiculously well-dressed women, in my work. But it’s not the ones rocking skin-tight Alaïa and heels, stopping six lanes of traffic as they arrive for breakfast at the Wolseley, who make me weak at the knees with girl-crush envy. It’s the ones with the effortless, understated style, who wear loose, neutral-toned separates that don’t scream fashion, and turn them into style magic. The ones who wear baggy trousers and look like they are in a Céline advert, rather than spend a grand in Céline and look like they’re in their painting clothes. The type who, when they drape a sweater round their shoulders, look like Grace Kelly strolling to a late-summer dinner in Portofino, rather than like a middle-aged woman who frets about coming down with a cold.
Because I’m not naturally this type of uber woman, I have a love/hate relationship with the trenchcoat. I was quite good at them back in the days when you wore them over a fitted dress. That was easy, because the neat shape underneath was a foil for the flapping lapels, and if you got in a crumpled tizzy you could belt the trenchcoat to smarten things up. But the sheath dress is well and truly over, and these days the understated types wear their trenches open over shirts and peg-leg trousers.
The dream is to wear a loose trench over loose separates, and to make it look airy in a bold, uncluttered, modern way. How to make this work? Firstly, don’t be overambitious with the trousers. You are not allowed skinny jeans, but a slim, tailored shape is fine. Second, get the neckline right: a shirt with a collar, with a little unbuttoning at the neck. We all know the rules about not showing too much flesh, but it’s useful to remember that it often helps to show a little skin at the neck or wrist or ankle. It’s not a sex thing, it just helps to show you are a warm-blooded human being, in the same way that smiling does. And third: fight with every ounce of your being the urge to tightly belt that trenchcoat. You need a will of iron to look this relaxed.
• Oversize trench, £39.99, hm.com. Shirt, £39, urbanoutfitters.com. Trousers, £120, and heels, £140, both reiss.com.
Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Laurence Close at Carol Hayes Management.
