THE SEVEN SIGNS OF A MIDDLE-CLASS WARDROBE
Every year there are fashion items that rise above fleeting fads to become cultural touchpoints; a way to take the sartorial temperature of the nation. John Lewis’s annual “How We Shop, Live and Look” trend report, now in its 11th year, is perhaps the surest barometer of what has captured the middle-class imagination over the past 12 months.
This year, you’d have been hard-pressed not to find at least one mother at the school gates sporting barrel-leg jeans (extra points if they were leopard print). Perhaps you, too, woke up in the morning and checked the stats on your Oura ring, before deciding that you could probably get away with wearing your Sienna Miller for M&S dress for another day in a row.
These were the seven cornerstones of the middle-class woman’s wardrobe in 2024 – the pieces that sold out time after time, and spawned waiting lists as long as the tickets queue for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. How many do you recognise? It’s time to play fashion bingo…
The barrel-leg jeans
Horseshoe, banana, balloon or barrel – whatever the somewhat unsexy name by which you knew this viral denim shape, you probably bought (or at least flirted with buying) a pair of curved jeans in 2024. At John Lewis, website searches for the style were up 60 per cent on last year, and it’s the bestselling jean shape for this season too.
“This versatile silhouette flatters all body types, thanks to its cinched waist and tapered leg, adding curves and balancing proportions effortlessly,” says Sacha Gomez de Zamora Ford, global president of 7 For All Mankind, for which the shape has been “one of the most in-demand categories of the year”. Thousands of us put aside our initial reservations and gave in to the lure of barrel-leg jeans: they look more modern than skinnies – which most of us have happily relegated to the never-again pile – pick up less dirt than baggy pavement-sweepers and are surprisingly flattering.
Leopard print
There was a time when leopard print made a statement (and not always a good one, at that). These days, it’s as much a part of the midlife uniform as a floral midi dress or a pair of white trainers, acting as the not-so-neutral foundation of many a fashionable look in 2024. Searches for leopard print blouses at John Lewis went up by 173 per cent on the previous 12 months.
While coats that walk on the wild side continue to sell out – neither Rixo nor Wiggy Kit can keep their versions in stock for long – leopard print jeans have prowled to the front of the pack. People travelled to different cities to find the wide-leg style from M&S, which sold so many pairs that most morning commutes now resemble a trip to Port Lympne Safari Park. No wonder M&S’s 2024 interim report, based on figures over the six months to the end of September, revealed in November that its womenswear category had reached its highest market share for 10 years.
The Oura ring
It’s discreet, but noticeable to anyone in the know. Trinny Woodall has one, so does Jennifer Aniston. And so, probably, does the woman who sits opposite you in HR. The sleek, gold or silver band of the Oura ring now flashes on practically every other finger, giving its wearer real-time updates on basal body temperature, stress levels, heart health and sleep cycles.
In June, Oura announced that it had sold 2.5 million rings and, according to Bloomberg, saw its annual sales double this year to roughly $500 million (£395 million). Since they launched at the department store in June, one in two rings sold at John Lewis is now an Oura, making this much more than just a tech product. An Apple watch has never looked so passé.
The rugby shirt
While Saltburn served several questionable scenes (leaving many of us unable to look at a bathtub drain in the same way again) it also prompted a fashion renaissance for that preppy classic, the rugby shirt. Sales of the style at John Lewis have grown by 30 per cent over the past 12 months, after iterations cropped up on high-end catwalks, from The Row to Loewe (as seen on Hailey Bieber). “The beauty of this top trend is that it’s easy to source and a cinch to style. I have found that menswear departments have some of the best options, as they offer that nonchalant, slightly oversized slouch,” says Joy Montgomery, shopping editor at British Vogue. “A simple block-coloured or striped style is what you want. Styling-wise, the rugby top looks great with a pair of wide-leg jeans and loafers.”
The ruffled dress
When Chloé’s new creative director Chemena Kamali sent models dressed in fringed jackets and flowy chiffon down the runway in February, the prognosis was clear: boho was back. And it didn’t take long for the trend to filter down to the high street. John Lewis reports that ruffles were a major womenswear hit, with pieces by Mango and Mint Velvet among the bestsellers. Two decades after she first captivated us with her low-slung coin belts and pirate boots, Sienna Miller became the It girl of the moment once more, thanks to a barnstorming collaboration with M&S. In June, her collection of lace shirts, printed trousers and silky slips dropped, with one standout piece that nodded to Miller’s hippie heyday: a ruffled, buttermilk yellow dress that’s now selling on eBay for twice its original £89 price tag.
Swiftie sequins
Nearly everyone spent more time than was healthy this year waiting in an interminable queue on Ticketmaster – and while Sabrina Carpenter, Coldplay and Oasis all whipped up their fair share of hysteria, no one could compete with Taylor Swift, whose recently concluded Eras Tour was the highest-grossing of all time, netting $2.07 billion (£1.69 billion). It was her outfits, however, that left a lasting mark on Britain: between June 7 and 22, the first UK leg of Swift’s tour, searches for sequin skirts at John Lewis jumped 98 per cent.
For those looking for a more eco-friendly way to tap into the trend, there’s always renting: “Searches for coloured sequins, particularly in association with dresses, have seen an uplift of 344 per cent in the last six months,” says Victoria Prew, co-founder of Hurr, adding that frocks by Clio Peppiatt – the very same brand worn by Swift herself – have been particularly popular. If you did invest, all those spangled outfits can come into their own once more over Christmas (although the jury’s out on the friendship bracelets).
The oversized tote
Blame it on Tom Wambsgans’ takedown of a £2,000 Burberry tote, which he so memorably described as a “ludicrously capacious bag”. In fact, blame it on the whole cast of Succession, which gave rise to the surging popularity of cream cashmere, simple black dresses and the whole “quiet luxury” trend, of which the extravagantly roomy bag was a focal point. This year just four of John Lewis’s bestselling bags were small cross-body, phone or clutch bags, compared with eight in 2023.
Instead, the fashion crowd craved The Row’s roomy “Margaux” in chocolate brown, venerably dubbed the “new Birkin” for its understated, stealth-wealth aesthetic. Everyone else bought riffs on the style from Cos, Massimo Dutti and Reformation, which will last well into 2025 and beyond.
2024-12-13T11:34:09Z