Sarah Lang wonders if we’re going ‘basic to basics’ with clothes. Is the appeal of uniform dressing that it’s much easier to get ready, or is there something deeper at play?
Recently I noticed that, in Wellington, basic is back when it comes to clothing – or it sure seems that way. I mean, Lambton Quay and its surrounds have always been fairly black and white, but the Cuba Street precinct looks more monochrome than it used to. It’s Spring, yet there are fewer pops of bright colour.
Then it struck me that I’ve gone more monochrome myself, which is unusual for me. Without really realising it, I’ve just been wearing the basics.
So, is basic back? Is monochrome a trend? It seems so, according to Penny Goldston in Marie Claire. Penny writes that, “in New York, London, Milan and Paris, the catwalk was awash with black and white looks, from Gabriela Hearst to Dior, Prada and Chanel. It didn’t take long to trickle down to the masses, including yours truly.
Just this past weekend, at London Fashion Week, I couldn’t help but notice that editors and the street-style set were wearing almost exclusively monochromatic looks. At Molly Goddard, you’d have been forgiven for thinking the bench I was seated on was mimicking a game of draughts or chess.”
Has this monochrome trend trickled through to New Zealand? Having wandered through some clothing stories, I think so. And on New Zealand magazine Denizen’s website, there’s an article about ‘Monochrome Mania’ called ‘Timeless not trendy, monochrome is chic in every situation’. I liked the look of the ‘skater skirt’ but it’s… $4989. Seriously?
With the high cost of living right now, few of us can afford pricey clothes, let alone designer pieces. We need basics that go with everything – and these tend to be black or white. Some of us are wearing the same outfits every week (obviously, washing them in between).
The Freedom of Uniform Dressing
At high school, I was glad to wear a uniform. That way, none of the ‘cool girls’ (I was NOT one of them) could look me up and down as they did on mufti days. As for party-wear, a group of us girls would save up to catch the bus from Whanganui to Palmerston North because it had a… Glassons!
When I was at uni, Glassons was supplemented by op shops and clothes swaps. When I started working at a large company, I still wore the same clothes: a bit vintage, a bit hippy, with plenty of patterns. No-one there – especially the girls in marketing – dressed like me. Someone there once told me that a skirt of mine looked like a 1970s wallpaper. “Hey, I’ll take it!” I said. “I like 1970s wallpaper!”
Some say that clothes can tell you a lot about a person. But there can also be a disconnect between what you wear and how you feel. You might be wearing a bright outfit and be having a terrible week. Or you might be wearing all grey and be having a wonderful week.
The Case For Boring Clothes
‘Boring’ clothes aren’t ‘bad’. In a recent Vogue story called ‘The Life-Changing Magic Of Wearing Boring Office Clothes’, the writer describes “clothing that makes you realise just how liberating it is to feel anonymous from time to time. And clothing that does away with the popular adage of ‘bringing your whole self to work’.
It can, after all, be a lot of labour to telegraph every nuance of your remarkably colourful inner life. There is power in keeping a little something to yourself – and, perhaps, just dressing to get the job done.”
Meanwhile, a story in The Atlantic called ‘The Case for Boring Office Clothes’ makes quite the convincing case. Olga Khazan writes about the aesthetic of Ann Taylor: an American clothing chain which, to my untrained eye, seems a bit like Max or Pagani, but with fewer colours.
As Olga puts it, “the tried-and-true, white-collar women’s retailer is in the strange position of being both ubiquitous and ubiquitously mocked”. (Max, Pagani, I’m not suggesting that of you.)
Olga writes that “people who dislike Ann Taylor sometimes argue that its unoriginality can reinforce the idea that professional women should resemble a shift-dress-clad, anonymous army. One way of changing the notion that women must look or act a certain way to get ahead is certainly to let us wear the craziest, most fun, most ‘us’ outfits imaginable.
But uniform corporate dressing has an upside, too. Male innovators are celebrated for wearing the same gray hoodie or charcoal suit every day in hopes of reducing their decision fatigue. Why not celebrate the women who choose to dress somewhat boringly so they can apply their energies elsewhere?”
Of course, wearing bright, interesting outfits doesn’t always tax your energy, but clothes shopping sure can tax your energy and your wallet.
But might there also be something else behind ‘back to basics’? Does fashion feel sort of frivolous given all the chaos and suffering in the world? Are we feeling the need for uniformity and simplicity in a world that is anything but?
If we’re just wearing the basics, we aren’t necessarily saying that we don’t care about fashion, or outfits that reflect our personality or our mood. Maybe it’s more that, right now, we’re too desperate for wars to end – and for Trump to lose – to care much about fashion or curate our outfits right now. At least, I think that’s the case with me, and some of my friends.
And that’s okay. My colourful clothes will keep.