The Alexander Report

The fashion world is a strange place. Weeks before many of us have bought what we imagine we’ll be wearing for the summer wardrobe, the projections for autumn 2010 are already out from the oracle of the high street fashion directors, a move prompting this article – well, what else is there to do when the moguls are so loose-lipped? A few months back we did an article running parallel with the opening weeks of London Fashion Week on feminine minimalism – a leading style that seemed to have been jostled out of the pecking order by the more spring and summer relevant Global Traveller look, though the former had been set to be the darling of women’s fashion 2010. That remains to be seen; it has simply taken another season for those ideas to come to fashion fruition. Autumn 2010 is set to see the emergence of the high street interpretation of this new angular and stripped-down look, with major outlets openly linking themselves to the Phoebe Philo-inspired doctrine. So it sounds a little theoretical, but what does feminine minimalism entail, or, how do we wear it? At this early stage, the focus seems to be on two things; plain structural shape and clean lines throughout. Tunic-like tops and dresses are a favourite so far, with a contrasting colour for the fitted trousers or angular skirt for the bottoms. We’re talking camel coats, most definitely, and reports from the Guardian are championing the sheepskin jacket as possibly the most integral variant. For trousers, there’s a reported amount of re-jigging of shapes and cuts in the high street brands, each looking for a way to encapsulate the minimalist reliance upon silhouette in the best degree. Kick flares and boot cut trousers with severe creases are likely to go down well with this look. For colour we’re talking a glaucous palette range of bluish greys, café latte browns and as little ornamentation as possible. It seems altogether quite predictable that a swing in the opposite direction from colour prints and floral mayhem would somehow ensue, but there is a serious fashion intent behind the high street incarnation of feminine minimalism. Though a term coined by some of the biggest designer names in the fashion world, it is still a malleable idea, and we are likely to see the high street taking considerable risks in inventing the look over again in order to secure individuality. If you’re hunting down the components of this look as we speak, keep an eye out for almost clinically-pure dresses, with ornamentation only in the form of winged or flange detailing; tan shoes are a must for one of no more than three core colours. With coats and jackets think structure, clean lines, and rather brutally-plain materials, for a boxy kind of feel.