Continuing my occasional attempts to turn this column into a book club, I’ve got another goodie for you: The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson. If you liked The Streets, the other book I raved about, you’ll like this. I did. My mother did. What more could you ask? It’s just out in paperback, so over to you.
I managed to stop reading it long enough to realise that I have a wardrobe crisis: I don’t like any of my skirts. They’re all the wrong length. On-the-knee pencil skirts look dated; minis feel wrong. Given that I wear skirts to work most days, because my legs are one of the few parts of my body that I don’t heartily dislike, this could prove to be an expensive problem.
What I want is something properly mid-calf and not, as most midis turn out to be, on the knee. Worn with spikes – obviously. Duh. Mid-calf feels grown-up and feminine and right. More specifically, being at the slightly bonkers end of the spectrum, I want a skirt that doesn’t exist: a black, mid-calf, slightly flared one, which I saw Victoria Beckham wearing in a blurry photo earlier this year. I’ve been stalking this skirt on her website, hoping she puts it into production; every day, I’m disappointed.
The time has come for me to formulate a plan B. If you want a full-skirted midi, I love Beulah London’s swishy, mid-calf Evangeline, which comes in black, white or a print (pictured, £250; beulahlondon.com). Whistles has the Mika knitted skirt (£155) and the navy Ivy skirt (£125; whistles.com). Studio Nicholson has a navy silky quilted skirt (£257; my-wardrobe.com).
If you’re a pencil skirt girl, Roksanda Ilincic’s Arwen tweed pencil midiskirt is chic with a twist (£775; net-a-porter.com), as is Isabel Marant’s Dixon stretch-wool blend black midi (£205; net-a-porter.com) and Iro’s Kaya black jacquard pencil skirt (£135; harveynichols.com).
Advertisement
If you want leather, M&S Autograph has a luxury long pencil skirt in pale blue or black (£199; marksandspencer.com) and Zara has a pleated faux leather midi for £39.99 (zara.com).
Personally, I want something flat-fronted and slightly flared – knife pleats and full skirts are no friend to those of us with high waists and big boobs. I’ve fallen in love with Marc Jacobs’ camel, wool-blend, stretch-cady skirt (£700; net-a-porter.com), although what on earth stretch cady is I have no idea. I’d buy it myself if I had £700 and wanted a camel skirt, and at some point in the next ten minutes I may well convince myself that I do.
In the unlikely event that I fail, Zara has a camel double-buckle skirt that’s not a million miles away for £59.99. I’m also eyeing up The Row’s Annikenn draped crepe skirt (£630; net-a-porter.com) although a sensible person – not a charge anyone has ever levelled at me – would probably steer towards BHS’s fit and flare black crepe poly-mix (£20; bhs.co.uk).
It is now precisely four minutes since I typed the sentence about the Marc Jacobs skirt. Oh look, what’s that in my Net-A-Porter basket?