The white poplin shirt I’m wearing has fabric patches with popcorn, a lipsticked mouth, a drink, an ice-cream cone and the exclamation, TOP!
Let’s start with what this look is not about. It’s not about classic elegance or investment dressing. It’s not about timeless style, or the lifelong project of curating one’s own signature look. It is about a fashion hit, a quickfire pick-me-up. Now, this is tricky moral ground, and rightly so, because being conscious of buying clothes that will get multiple wears is an important part of consuming ethically. But if a white shirt with a difference can give fresh legs to a wardrobe when your sensible trousers and skirts are boring you to tears, then that makes sense as a responsible shopping strategy. Sometimes, when you feel like you’re sick of everything you own and have nothing to wear, all you need is one new piece that will turn old standbys into a new outfit.
I’m not going to overcompliate it: a garment with patches is a fun piece. The trend comes from some high-end catwalks, too – notably Gucci and Marc Jacobs – and, after having been alighted on with glee by streetstyle photographers and bloggers (they look awesome in a detail shot) is all over the high street.
Patches seem like a classic summer silly season trend, but they represent something telling about the mood of fashion as they are both unisex and countercultural. Unisex in the 2016 sense, which is not the old-school, grey-marl mode, but the ebullient, colourful unisex that Alessandro Michele is celebrating at Gucci. And countercultural in the outsider chic way that runs through catwalk fashion now, from Vetements with their vaguely threatening metalhead font hoodies in Paris, to Christopher Kane’s obsession with outsider art. Bright fabric patches, like dungarees, speak of nostalgia for the innocent utility of what you wore when you were 10. They are associated with fandom, with political movements, individualism, freedom of expression.
I’m not sure if the message of this shirt goes any deeper than: this is summer 2016. As we established, this isn’t a highfalutin trend. Enough said?
• Jess wears shirt, £25.99, zara.com. Skirt, £79, cosstores.com. Shoes, £85, dunelondon.com.
Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Laurence Close at Carol Hayes Management.
.png?w=600)
