She’s a Lady: the ladylike trend for autumn/winter 2015

Below-the-knee skirts, ponies, tweed, primly knotted scarves and a penchant for pearls – designers like the Ladylike for winter

Photo by REX PENELOPE KEITH AND PETER BOWLES IN 'TO THE MANOR BORN' TV PROGRAMME

Penelope Keith’s terribly proper Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, heroine of To The Manor Born, probably isn’t who most designers have been looking at for their autumn/winter fashion inspiration. I say “probably” because there are, nevertheless, some striking similarities. The prim and proper gloves and debutante duchesse satin of Miuccia Prada, for instance, and the tweeds and pearly jewels of her Miu Miu counterpart. How about the mid-calf pleated skirts, caramel-coloured trench-coats and sensible loafers of Alessandro Michele at Gucci? Or those billowing taffeta ball gowns that trod the catwalk of Emilia Wickstead – she who also dresses various royal highnesses and aristocrats with dignity and decorum.

Those are great words when it comes to fashion: who doesn’t want to look dignified? Which is, perhaps, why the lady look is rearing its patrician profile in an age preoccupied with Kardashian excess and digital semi-undress. Doesn’t all that overexposed overexposing stuff make you want to knot yourself up in a high-collared, prissy silk blouse printed with ponies, pull on a pencil skirt – higher in the waist, lower in the hem – and chuck a Barbour on?

Barbours were rehabilitated a while ago from the mouldering bargain-bin of fashion: even Prince Charles’ appearance in a tatty and torn version couldn’t dull their appeal for a new generation. They see them as authentic and anti-fashion, I suppose, which is of course why they’re sported by many a Lady (with and without that capital “L”). They’re hard-wearing and last a lifetime, which is another attractive element of ladylike fashion: it doesn’t change much all that much. Fashion has flirted with it a few times – notably about 10 years ago, when Olivier Theyskens (a current contender for the role of head honcho at Dior) revived the house of Rochas with a flirtation with Forties and Fifties styling.

In Britain, we throw tweed into the mix and make it all more practical and less soignée. Sported by well-bred central Londonites, it was dubbed “Sloane” in the early Eighties; when worn by twenty-somethings, it’s sometimes playfully pitched as “Young Fogey”.

Nevertheless, the Lady look has qualities that are applicable to everyone’s wardrobes: namely, notions of permanence, of things being well-made, and made to last. Imagine your whole wardrobe as a Barbour jacket, or a Hermès scarf, or something else you can wear constantly without it falling to pieces. There’s something highly appealing about that – and about the practicality of a below-the-knee skirt, a hardy sweater, a decent-sized handbag and a flat shoe, all staples of ladylike style.

It sounds a bit stodgy – and granted, Audrey fforbes-Hamilton sort of was. But the lady look doesn’t negate sexiness: just a different kind of sexiness, like a lace shirt (buttoned up, with pearls) or pencil-skirt, or a draped silk blouse. Less Kardashian, more Bowes-Lyon.