Last weekend, shivering in a skimpy Halloween costume in the smoking area, someone asked me where I thought I was on my “style journey”. Rather than dismissing this as the drunken wittering of a man dressed as a court jester at a warehouse in east London, I gave the question some thought and realised I’d come full circle. I’ve been through the regrettable Fila Disruptors phase, the baby-pink phase and the generally-doing-far-too-much phase, but now, in my late 20s, I’ve found myself returning to how I dressed as a teenager: blond(ish) hair, bare legs and navy jumpers.
It’s a look that can be traced almost entirely back to Alexa Chung’s noughties influence: navy knits, little skirts and unbrushed hair, a powerful styling trifecta I’m unable to escape even today. As British ’s fashion features and news director Alice Newbold once wrote: “To call Chung an influencer has always felt reductive. Yet she is, bar Kate Moss and Sienna Miller, Britain’s most famous modern-day fashion export.” And, perhaps more importantly: “She’s also the most normal.” This is, after all, a woman who, when asked to share 40 pearls of wisdom on her 40th birthday, made sure to include: “Wherever I travel, I always regret not packing a navy blue jumper.”
I’m not alone in this. With the announcement of the Met’s 2027 Costume Institute exhibition, extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday, there seems to be a palpable appetite for keeping things simple. Not that this is a paean to the Calvin Klein minimalism of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s ’90s wardrobe. The navy jumper I’m talking about is a softer, scruffier proposition. Sure, it’s not the most exciting garment, but nor does it have the severity of, say, a crisp white shirt, which demands a steamer every time you wear it. The navy jumper looks better a little bashed around, with bobbles and threadbare patches.
More than a decade after images of Alexa, navy knit on, sitting front row at London Fashion Week in 2012 were seared into my brain, the navy jumper remains my sartorial safety blanket. Variations on the theme make up the majority of my wardrobe, from slinky cashmere to threadbare Edinburgh Woollen Mill cotton and dog-hair-covered specimens that shouldn’t be seen by the general public. I’ve dabbled in other looks, but the less said about those, the better. For now, you’ll find me in a navy crewneck and knee-length skirt, channelling Alexa at the Christopher Kane autumn/winter 2012 show.