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Before you turn away in horror, stop. This school uniform is not the one you used to know. Banish all thoughts of your formative years, Grange Hill and the Hammersmith Apollo on a Friday night, because spring heralds a fresh take on the blazer, blouse and knee-high sock. Fashion starts a new term.
When redesigned for grown-up women, the student style, as Marc Jacobs has shown in his most recent collection, merges the ingenuity of a rebellious teenager with a dash of womanly sophistication.
You can see the source of Jacobs’s inspiration in his own clothes. To look at him you’d think he’d just emerged from an art college in New York’s Upper East Side: bespectacled, suited and booted — and looking not unlike your old English teacher. Jacobs loves the look of a smart suit, but he teases its formality by leaving the tie in the wardrobe and swapping the brogues for adidas trainers. No great shakes, you might think — British men have been doing this for the past decade. But when it translates to a fashion collection and, more importantly, to womenswear, this twist seems novel.
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Pinafore dresses, his standard, oversized sack coats, primary-coloured V-necks and silk shirts with built-in ties all took their place on the catwalk — along with a uniformed brass band and a baton-twirling majorette to reinforce the theme.
With structured shapes and boyish tailoring, these defiant school heroines neatly dismissed the cutesy high-school sweethearts of yesterday, typified by Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan.
And likewise, if you decide to reacquaint yourself with socks, ties and pleats, there are a few things that you should bear in mind: