Leading article: Back in style

Monday 06 November 2006 01:00 GMT
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Here are some clues about whether you are really with the zeitgeist. You rave to friends about Comme des Garcons and McQueen but secretly buy "easy-care" trousers and "slip-on"comfy slippers for those private moments at home.

You rave about cool, white spare interiors, but preferred your grandmother's hopelessly cluttered sitting room, complete with antimacassars, spindly tables, potted aspidistra and shelves weighed down with china shepherdesses. Your floors are all stripped to the wood but in your heart, you would so love to roll around on your neighbour's fitted, deep-pile carpet.

Well, fear not. You may have felt guilty for years about people discovering your nasty little style secrets but revolution is at hand. Vogue, whose lightest word on questions of style are the fashion world's equivalent of papal pronouncements on matters of faith, is about to shake things up. Tack is back. "Downmarket" is now "upmarket" and items once branded as irredeemably naff are about to rechristened as must-haves.

Oh, what howls of horror will emanate from many a trendy home as cherished and fought-for values are suddenly dumped. It is the overdue revenge of the maligned chavs, of course - the vindication of their Essex homeland.

How will the humiliated stylistas take this blow? On the chin, one suspects. Get ready for the sight of fashion victims hurriedly flaunting visits to (reopened) burger bars and wearing new, bunny slippers - outdoors - with challenging stares. As for merchandisers of bric-a-brac, they can expect a run on sales at Christmas.

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