Recently, I bought a pair of shiny gold culottes. Please don’t stop reading now. I promise you I am still your go-to fashion director for advice about sensible black trousers and white shirts. I am all about black trousers and white shirts, except, of course, when I am about gold culottes. And increasingly, the fashion world, including yours truly, is about gold culottes. Or rather about show-off pieces that scream, “Look At Me Now!”
But whereas I limit myself to one show-off piece – I wear those culottes with something simple in either black or white – my more outré peers are going the whole shebang.
If I were the model Candela Novembre, for example (and what a very big if that is), I would probably be wearing those culottes with a top that’s silver, or geometric, or both. Street-style favourite Novembre is known for her adeptness with head-to-toe full-on-ness. For her, a low-key ensemble might be Kenzo geometric-print trousers in electric blue and pink with a quilted bomber in pink, red and blue.
Another expert at this very tricky game is Carolina Castiglioni, daughter of Marni founder Consuelo. She has been spotted sporting a fantastically mad red, white and blue diamond-patterned leather tank top with a red, black and tan striped leather skirt, all Marni, of course, while hanging out at home. (An Instagram stalker, me?) Then there’s the stylist JJ Martin, never one to walk away from clashing patterns.
The more – and the madder – the better seems to be the motto this season. But there is no pretending that this is an easy way to dress. At the risk of repeating myself, my advice is to apply the Golden Culottes Rule: one piece of madness per outfit; everything else unassailably sane.
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You could start with some bronze joggers from & Other Stories (£55; stories.com) or, if you are feeling slightly less brave, Hobbs’ floral trousers (£149; hobbs.co.uk). Shirts are a great way to add some manageable lunacy: Zara has a black floral shirt with contrast collar and placket (£39.99; zara.com).
Buy one or two show-off pieces and you start to realise how much fun there is to be had. And then you start to wonder if there might be even more fun to be had if you did, in fact, wear more than one at once after all. Tonight I am contemplating a floral shirt with those culottes; only contemplating, mind, but you never know …