‘I guess I had written off flares, to be honest, and had started thinking of them as comedy fashion’
This is not a drill; this is actually happening. Flares. Believe me, no one is as surprised as me. I did not anticipate, even when I watched 1970s styles crop up again and again on the catwalks for this season’s collections, that I would be wearing flares either on this page, or in real life. I guess I had written off flares, to be honest, and had started thinking of them as comedy fashion. The sort of thing you would wear as part of a themed disco fancy dress outfit, along with stupid sunglasses and a nylon afro.
Essentially, like Michael Fish and the hurricane, I underestimated the strength of the 1970s revival we are experiencing. The good news is that what is appealing about flares never changes: they break the rules, challenge fashion’s straight-and-narrow mindset, and that’s always an appealing gang to be in. Also, the width at the ankle is flattering to the girth of the thigh. On the other hand, that rule-breaking mindset is so closely associated with a certain era that it’s not easy to wear flares without actually looking groovy.
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