Clothes that sit away from the body look grander, more elegant, more all-round fabulous than skintight ones
On the meta-issue of how to wear clothes in 2017, there is one essential piece of fashion advice which I am borderline evangelical about. Sometimes I have to restrain myself from running after women in the street and wrestling them to the ground in order to drum it into their heads. It is this: that loose clothes now look smarter and more modern than tight clothes. There is still a hard-to-shake-off mindset which tells us that loose clothes are casual – pyjamas, tracksuit bottoms – and that smartening up means tight skirts and fitted jackets. That making an effort means wrangling with Spanx and fastening your belt on its tightest notch. And it’s just not the case. Clothes that sit away from the body look grander, more considered, more elegant, more all-round fabulous than skintight ones.
Many women seem to feel that wearing clothes that do not trace the outlines of their body will somehow place them at a disadvantage. And if your gameplan is simply to maximise eyeballs on you, then sausage skin dressing is undoubtedly effective. But we can do better than that with our clothes, I think. Quality rather than quantity of audience engagement. And I have a proposal for you sceptics, if wearing a fluid, sack-shaped dress to a meeting sounds more alarming than wearing nothing at all. August is the ideal time to experiment, because this is silly season, and that applies to your wardrobe too. You don’t have to power dress. This is the ideal moment to loosen up.
Related: What I wore this week: the new kaftan
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