And so another set of shows has come to an end and with it the game I like to play with myself every season. It’s when I have on or about my person something that isn’t posh, but that I wager might be mistaken as such. Will I fool the eagle-eyed fashion pack, women who can usually tell at 50 paces whether something is Arket or Alaïa? I was definitely the winner this time.
I don’t know what it says about me that I find the challenge of mistaken identity an entertaining one, but the fact is I do. I think I might blame my father, always something of a practical joker. He has been known to take matters considerably further than me. There was one particularly memorable drinks party at which my parents didn’t know anyone where he passed himself off as a vicar. Successfully, I might add. Thankfully I wasn’t there to bear witness.
My game is pretty benign in comparison. Not least because I don’t lay any ersatz claim for my cuckoo in the nest. I just wait and see whether it gets noticed, and what gets said. This time around it was a squidgy faux-leather handbag from Essentiel Antwerp that I got last year, and which is available in a new-for-2022 iteration in red, brown and black (£145, essentiel-antwerp.com).
I know the front-rowers who are interested in high street and the ones who wouldn’t stoop. It’s the second lot I am gunning for. And, ooh, how they tumbled like dominos on this one. There was one woman who I have never seen carry a bag that costs less than £3,000 who veritably swooned over it. How I loved that moment when I told them where my bag was actually from and what it actually cost, and saw the horror cloud their face.
The go-to brand for smart and cool
I know exactly what I need to look my best. It’s a combination of smart and cool. If I don’t look like I have made an effort, then I appear “meh”, not to mention middle-aged. That’s why second-hand usually makes me look second-hand; why anything that isn’t pristine makes me appear less than pristine. Déshabillé is a disaster as far as I am concerned. Nonchalant is a no-no.
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Yet to be straight-down-the-line smart can be almost as problematic for me. Smart isn’t necessarily the simple solution it presents itself as. Or at least it isn’t any more. Because smart can really easily equate to dated and dated can really easily equate to ageing. If you are wearing the same smart clothes in the same way as you were 20 years ago then I can say pretty confidently without having seen you that the end results will not be serving you as well as you deserve.
There is one brand better than any other at squaring the circle that is smart and cool. It’s a small British operation called Anna Mason that was founded by an alumna of brands including Valentino and MaxMara about a decade ago.
A warning: it is expensive, because it uses the best fabrics and because it makes clothes to order using its own on-site seamstresses, thus burnishing its zero-waste environmental credentials. This also means that although the sizing is standard you can ask for a tweak here and there (a bit shorter in the sleeve or whatever). And if you go into the brand’s new London showroom, a beauteous mews house near Hyde Park, staff can measure you up and suggest more precise tweaks.
Certainly, with prices starting at £390 for a blouse, £385 for trousers and £525 for a jacket, this is investment dressing, but it is that in the truest sense. These are properly special clothes designed and built to last, and they are far more affordable than most of the clothes I have seen on the catwalks over the past month. If you have money to spend, and if you are a grown-up wanting still to appear grown-up but also to add a fresh, youthful and — yes, I am going to use that word again — cool edge, this is the brand for you. These are clothes that attract attention but are the opposite of showy.
When I ask the charming Anna Mason to sum up exactly what it is she does she laughs. “I have no idea,” she says. “I just do it. I suppose I start with what I want to wear and take it from there.” I think that is part of her genius; that she creates a real wardrobe that’s designed to be worn, whether it a just-flouncy-enough dress, a sharp blazer, or an upscale “le jogging”. “I hate normal track pants,” Mason says, with a laugh. “I hoped calling ours ‘le jogging’ would signal they are something different.” They are.
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Her aesthetic is unique, combining polish with what might almost be called boho if it weren’t so chic. I even discern a bit of New Romantic in the mix, although that might just be me, coming of age in the 1980s as I did. (But then Mason is of a similar vintage.) This is a label that is not — perforce — for everyone. However, if you have the wherewithal to make it yours you are very lucky indeed.
Instagram: @annagmurphy
