When the BBC's documentary on society magazineTatler, Posh People: Inside Tatler, aired yesterday evening, we witnessed copious spray-on denim, not-so-natural blondes, a graffiti-covered castle, thrift shopping at Portobello's Poundland store and Jilly Cooper sporting an on-trend draped scarf. Is the fashion sense of the upper classes evolving? And just what do we know about Sloane style now?
Tattoos, androgyny or die-hard hip-hop fan are not really the hallmarks of a Tatlergirl - or are they? Take Cara Delevingne, Edie Campbell, Jean Campbell, Suki Waterhouse, Alice Dellal and Lady Mary Charteris - the group of "posh" mostly early twentysomethings who have risen to the top of the international fashion world. Their cover-girl good looks are equalled by good breeding, but it's their instinctive (as opposed to inherited) sense of style and raw, self-deprecating British humour that unleash daily Instagram storms. In the wake of the hipster backlash, never has "posh" had such broad possible appeal, or seemed quite so fun.
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| Jean Campbell |
Cara plays a streetwise Brit team captain with Pharrell or Selina Gomez in tow, Edie is the outdoorsy one, Jean the ethereal catwalk crush, while Suki sits at Harvey Weinstein's table, and Mary epitomises glam rock'n'roll. The girls' low-maintenance, homegrown look is particularly prized by Chanel and Burberry - the latter's coveted campaign is a fashion industry finishing school for the new generation of "posh" girls scooping the lucrative spring/summer '15 campaigns. Edie, Cara and Suki are all Burberry ad alumni as is Kate Moss, the posh girl's ultimate style heroine.
"Posh is more relevant now," says Sophie Goodwin, Tatler's style editor (seen delighting over Poundshop finds in episode one of the magazine's BBC documentary). "You used to have to be super-groomed and monied. Now it's about anti-polish." It's also about having a business plan - west London's bright young things are most likely to launch their own or a collaborative fashion brand, like Hannah Weiland's faux-fur label Shrimps or Theodora Warre's eponymous jewellery line.
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| Suki Waterhouse |
The Chelsea girl's also adapted her late-night scene. On a school night she's at Loulou's, the Firehouse or Little House, while house parties are seeing the strongest revival since the Eighties, with Scotland becoming the destination of choice for wild weekends in the country. Internationally, the classic Sloane's jet-set trail has faded into non-existence - the new rule on travel is to keep it strictly best friends only and install the privacy of a secluded party whirlwind anywhere in the world you can access on air miles. The dress code? Black-tie hang-ups don't apply, this is about occasion-less dressing that works in any time zone and enables the most fun. Cara, after all, is rarely seen in anything but trousers, advocating her own brand of tomboy realness rather than supermodel glamour - her go-to red carpet look is a fearless slashed-neck suit and scraped-back hair.
Likewise, boarding-school styling tricks prevailed on the winter catwalks - parkas or knits paired with shimmering minidresses, kilts and ornate heirloom chandelier earrings are the latest indicators of a deliberately-don't-care socialite style revival and there isn't an alice band in sight.
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