I can’t be the only one to have had longstanding leather coat issues. For anybody who grew up watching ’Allo ’Allo! the idea of channelling Herr Flick could never be that appealing; the way he squeaked his way into a room, so rigid as to look like a piece of furniture that had somehow cut loose. Oh yes, and the fact that he was a Nazi.
My Flick fears were confirmed in the workplace. I used to have a leather coat-wearing colleague — now a household name — who would always arrive for meetings late, and loudly, in best commandant style. “I think he needs oiling,” a wag once observed.
Then a few weeks ago I spied the autumn/winter Céline advertising campaign — in particular the soft-as-butter navy leather coat, with its gathered neck and drawstring waist. Suddenly there was nothing I wanted more than a leather coat. This is testament to Phoebe Philo’s ability to create in you a desire you’ve never had. Yet it also shows that leather now bears no relation to leather then. Buy at the top end of the market — the Céline coat is £7,050 at celine.com and you can’t get more top than that — and you will be wearing something almost as soft and light as slub silk.
Luckily, more affordable leather has transformed too. It may not quite be butter, but it’s certainly not lard. My advice is — as always — to do what Philo would do and avoid black. Hobbs has the collarless navy Bosherston for £799 (hobbs.co.uk), Reiss the chocolate Amile for £795 (reiss.com).
The designer Betty Jackson is a long-time fan of leather coats. “I love how the leather gets more beautiful as it ages,” she says. “Don’t choose a colour you will fall out of love with in three months’ time. This is an investment piece.” I can certainly imagine living happily ever after with the bottle green leather trench she has designed for her Betty Jackson.Black label at Debenhams (£250, debenhams.com).
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These days even leather trousers are viable for those of us who can barely remember our twenties, as the 71-year-old Angela Rippon proved this week. My go-to brand is Gestuz; I covet its cropped wide-legged Coco pants, even if they break my “no black” rule (£240, coggles.com). No oilcan required.
A brush with fashion
The Frieze Art Fair returned to London last week and as always it was an oddly depopulated affair. Not in the sense of visitor numbers — it is more rammed by the year — but what was on display. Contemporary art rarely bothers itself with people, partly because it rarely bothers itself with painting. Portraiture is by and large left to photographers.
However, for centuries artists made their living from portraiture and, by extension, from fashion. Many of history’s greatest portraitists — from Thomas Gainsborough to John Singer Sargent — had to be as good at rendering the clothes of the rich, because they were the rich themselves. Sargent’s celebrated Portrait of Madame X, for example, is as much a portrait of a dress (and what a dress).
The National Portrait Gallery has just published a fascinating book, A Portrait of Fashion, which surveys the past six centuries of dress as depicted in art in its collection (£24.95, npg.org.uk). One of the earliest paintings is a stunning 16th-century portrait of Katherine Parr, believed to be by “Master John”, the lynx fur-lined sleeves on her brocade dress rendered hair by hair..
One of the latest paintings is a 1927 depiction by Anna Zinkeisen of her sister Doris barely wearing a microscopically rendered Chinese shawl. There’s a wartime self-portrait of Anna too, dressed in Utility-wear overalls, her hair pinned into rolls, her face made up like a cover girl’s. As the book’s author, Aileen Ribeiro, observes: “Elaborate hairstyles and make-up were used by women to vary the monotony of a limited wardrobe, and to enhance their femininity and self-esteem.” The book does as much advocacy for the power of dress as for the power of the portrait.
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Earrings that work hard for you
The other night I had to go to a very flashy fashion do, and I really wasn’t in the mood. I know; poor me, right? Having to drink champagne at someone else’s expense and hang out with the Beautiful People. But I found it so hard to drag myself off my sofa, and when I eventually did I couldn’t face the faff of dressing up. What did I do? Precisely one thing. Put on my divine dangly cornelian and pearl earrings from Pebble London, the best purveyor of semi-precious jewellery around (£145, pebblelondon.com).
These ear baubles alone were enough to propel daywear into evening wear. How do I know? Because three people complimented me on them, and this at a bash where cocktail attire and diamonds were run-of-the-mill. If you wear earrings this great, nothing else gets noticed. (OK, I probably couldn’t have pulled off a scuba suit, but you get my drift.) Anyway, it’s made me want another pair of Pebbles. I have my eyes on these freshwater pearl and agate ones (£120), but there are dozens of gorgeous options from which to choose.
Instagram: @annagmurphy