Fashion 'Must-Haves'

“Snobbery is the pride of those who are not sure of their position,” said American poet Berton Braley. When the staff of British Vogue mounted a scathing attack on fashion influencers in 2016 for “heralding the death of style” by donning, “head-to-toe, paid-to-wear outfits”, many interpreted the ambush as the petulance of a bunch of print journalists put out at being usurped from the fashion spotlight. Their pride was hurt by the peacocking of this new wave of style stars.

Superciliousness has always existed in fashion. Even the language of the industry has an embedded snobbery; bespoke, Haute, made-to-measure, p.o.a (price on application for those of you who don’t know) reveal a world that for most of us is behind plate glass, only available to window-shop. Off-the-rack, meanwhile (the stuff most of us can actually afford) is a term infused with contempt and disdain. There is a lyricism and romanticism to descriptors like “bespoke” and “made-to-measure”, which make us feel massaged and soothed. Off-the-rack, instead, has the tone of a telling off.

“Must-haves” is another fashion term that patronises rather than pleases most women I know, because it dictates rather than orientates.

At its best, fashion invites and inspires women, but the hackneyed phrase ‘must-haves’ instead evokes images of Made In Chelsea lookalikes with expensive handbags huddled around their kale Caesar salads prescribing which fashion items the rest of us will be pressured into sacrificing our oat milk latte each morning to afford. It depicts fashion as something that’s exclusive rather than inclusive and it also encourages a kind of herd mentality where women of every size, shape, shade and attitude are encouraged to rush out to buy these supposedly life-enhancing must-haves whether they like them or not. There’s something cult-like about the whole process; yes you’ll fit in, but the trade-off is that you’ll lose your sense of self. But how you dress should never reflect someone else’s idea of who you are.

The must-have myth is a little like the capsule wardrobe cliché in my mind. Neither one is the basis for a wardrobe with longevity and personality, but both are in part responsible for the homogenisation of fashion, which has been happening for several years now. You can see it on Instagram. Women with complexions peachier than a baby’s wear Nordic fashion labels (forget those Scandi must-haves you bought three years ago; they’re so passé!) like Cecile Bahnsen, Stine Goya and Rotate and photograph themselves sitting on Anthropologie rugs in front of gallery walls. Journalist Jia Tolentino wrote in an article for The Guardian last year that “The ideal woman has always been generic.” It seems as if the ideal fashionista is becoming so too. When did fashion become less about individuals and more about “types”?

This industry has always been a juggernaut, but the speed at which it’s been travelling for the past decade is causing whiplash; more shows and collections, faster product cycles, new technology, digitisation, tweets and Likes, Instagrammers and influencers. Important and eventful have become confused and nobody can see the wood from the trees or the tulle from the toile. However, for the past three months, it’s as if the spinning top that is fashion has lost its energy, tipped over and rolled onto its side, presenting us all with a period of pause. Since lockdown, how many women have waded through their wardrobes wondering why they ever thought a boiler suit was a must-have? How many of us are tired of waking up with nothing to wear because those have-to-have leather leggings feel utterly claustrophobic and that essential trench coat makes us look ludicrously like Inspector Clouseau?

On the treadmill of our pre-pandemic lives, there was little time to mull over whether or not our wardrobes actually functioned for us, and whether any of those must-haves we’d bought were useful or just wasteful.

Speaking to WWD as far back as 2015, Giorgio Armani foresaw where the fashion industry was heading. “The same elements that decree [fashion’s] success can provoke its crisis.” The industry has become overheated and many of the messages we were once fully tuned into now sound like hot air. Although we’ve all believed the hype at one point or another - that a must-have will make all the difference between a mundane existence and a sublime one - we now know it to be a complete misnomer. Lockdown has given us time to reflect on the value of buying what we want to rather than what we’re told to. It’s also made me ponder that pretty brutal Yves Saint Laurent quote: “It pains me physically to see a woman victimised, rendered pathetic by fashion.”

Both industry insiders and consumers alike have been rendered fashion victims over the past several years, as we’ve all tried desperately to swim with the tide of rapidly changing trends, fads and messages. Now there’s a flood of content being shared about how to navigate what will be a tsunami of change. In its annual report, “The State of Fashion 2020”, the Business of Fashion explains that, “The Coronavirus presents fashion with a chance to reset and completely reshape the industry’s value chain.” It predicts that “a decade-long build-up of bargain shopping will be exacerbated by a rise in anti-consumerism,” and that “to reach increasingly...disillusioned customers, brands must find inventive ways to regain value and rethink their broader business mission.”

Regaining value is the key and slowing down is the only means of doing so. Livia Firth, the founder of the Green Carpet Challenge, has implored every journalist, designer, woman and man to commit to slowing down. She believes that if designers refuse to create more than four collections a year, journalists refuse to write about every single show and consumers refuse to buy the latest must-have, fashion will regain its power and hence its value. Even Victoria Beckham, who has thrived within the traditional fashion cycle for the past ten years, said recently she feels the calendar will have to adjust because producing so many collections each year will feel outdated post-lockdown.

Women must be empowered to free themselves of fads and be true to themselves. Only then will the hot pursuit of the next must-have feel truly outmoded and unfashionable. As shoppers, we need time and space to enjoy fashion rather than feel pressured by it. We need to filter out the fashion noise because “Fashion also needs pauses, and sometimes silence, to be fully appreciated.” That’s Giorgio Armani again; smart man. Open your wardrobe in the quiet and calm and ask yourself do you feel joy? Do the contents make you smile? Do you see enough of your personality inside it? Do you want to wear the clothes rather than just look at them? If the answer is yes to each of these questions then you’ve achieved the sartorial holy grail - a wardrobe that doesn’t sublimate your own identity in favour of any kind of archetypal look.

Anna Wintour once remarked in her brisk, clipped tones that “You either know fashion or you don’t”. That may be true, but we all understand now not to confuse fashion with style. Vogue may know fashion, but only you know your own style.

Marie Kelly, June 2020.