Our fashion director Avril Mair answers your style conundrums and solves your sartorial headaches
I’m sure the sensible way to shop is to invest in a winter coat ready for autumn, but it still feels far too warm to be thinking ahead. Can you suggest a purchase that will fulfil my summer-induced urge to ‘buy now, wear now’ while also seeing me through to the cooler months?
I’ve just come back from a world tour of cruise shows and my style takeaway is that everyone’s wearing a khaki utility jacket. On women from Dior’s elegant PR director Sydney Finch to its designer Maria Grazia Chiuri and her daughter Rachele in Mexico City, not to mention, er, me, everywhere, they were thrown over sun dresses and evening gowns, a shorthand for just-dressed-up-enough chic. Mine is vintage Valentino, hunted down via Vestiaire Collective, which is a good place to look. If you want new season, Celine’s is simple, and Toteme has a great one with cargo pockets.
Can you recommend the best T-shirt to go under a jacket for work?
No matter how rich you might be, nobody needs a £300 dry-clean-only T-shirt. Look instead on the high street, where COS, Arket and Uniqlo have a cotton or linen-mix version to suit everyone. You need a certain weight of fabric and it has to be whiter than white. Avoid a high crew neck if you’re curvaceous; instead, find one that shows your collarbone (the jury’s out on a V-neck). If you like a looser fit, look in the men’s department. And if you do want to spend more, try Joseph or Sunspel.
I don’t want to ditch my entire wardrobe every season, but I do want to look like I understand fashion and am aware of trends. What can I buy to make me look au courant for A/W 23?
Accessories are always the way to update a look. Sometimes just a change of shoe can make everything feel fresh and new, particularly if it’s a bit unexpected or, as fashion folk like to say
