Denim skirts, broderie anglaise and big hats: this season’s inspiration is the 1970s, as your mum wore it. Fashion editor Jess Cartner-Morley gets out the family photos, along with musicians Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Marina Diamandis and the Staves
Often, when I watch a season of catwalk shows, the same character keeps coming into my mind. This is not because I’ve got special powers; it is sort of the point of having a whole month of fashion shows – to establish the character who defines that season. It’s in the clothes, obviously, but also the music, the hairstyles, the way the models walk. The character might be Paloma Picasso one season and Debbie Harry the next. It’s been Michelle Pfeiffer in Scarface at least twice in the past decade, and it’s Grace Kelly about one season in three. But watching this season’s collections was a first. Because the catwalk muse was my mum.
OK, not my mum specifically. A lot of people’s mums. All those of us with 1970s childhoods – which, the front row demographic being what it is, is a lot of us – were having the same experience, because the muse for this season is the 70s Mum. The silky, thrift-shop faded blouses at Chloé, the denim skirts with plaited leather belts at Gucci. The pinafores at Sonia Rykiel, the broderie anglaise blouses at Erdem. These were glossily updated versions of clothes we’ve seen in our childhood photo albums. If you can picture yourself learning to ride a Chopper bike or watching Happy Days on TV, then the mum you can picture in the background is the woman you want to be this season.
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