Simple Pleasures: The Perfect Red Jumper

Red jumper by Isabel Marant (Spring Summer 2011)

Rockabilly Revival

Leave it to Isabel Marant to come up with a new take on 2 trends: leather and the 1950s. We have seen a proliferation of leather on the catwalks and at the most glamorous parties over the past few seasons: the biker jacket, the leather shorts, studded leather boots and now we have the leather capris! These are slim fitted, with zips at the side to maintain rock-chic credentials. Isabel Marant is the queen of sparking new trends due to her wearable take on effortlessly cool rive-gauche chic, and as a result, these red leather capris (pictured) have become one of the most coveted items this season. Kookai (apparently they have had a recent revamp) have done a copycat version at a fraction of the price. The trick here is keeping the rest of the look relatively simple and injecting an ironic dash of '50s rockabilly chic.

Hello Kitty

After years in the fashion doldrums, the kitten heel is officially back. Kitten heels were seen all over the Autumn/Winter 2010 catwalks: at Stella McCartney, at Valentino and at Isabel Marant to name a few, and they were recently given a stylish seal of approval by Alexa Chung at Paris Fashion Week, which will undoubtedly launch thousands of copycats, or copy kittens if you will. (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

Yet despite all of this, kitten heels continue to divide opinion amongst women. Are they elegant, or are they a little bit twee? Are they dainty and demure, or are they sickly goody too shoes? There can be no doubt that kitten heels are the Audrey, not the Marilyn, of the footwear universe. I can certainly see their appeal from a practical point of view, in that you can be 'wearing heels' yet still run around the perilous cobbled streets of London in a degree of comfort, and they don't turn you into a towering giant, which is certainly an advantage for a girl who is taller than 5"10.

However, it is the very word 'practical' that trips me up and has prevented me so far from purchasing a pair. It reeks of that other word that just doesn't sit terribly comfortably within a stylish vocabulary: sensible. I am on the fence for now (or maybe until I turn into Carla Bruni and marry a French statesman). However if you do insist on wearing them, pair with rolled up slim fitting trousers and channel rockabilly-irony as seen at Isabel Marant (pictured).