Revamped Elegance: The High Fashion Resurgence of Sloane's Classic Aesthetic
In the realm of fashion, a shift is underway, as the trend inspired by traditional British aristocrat styles evolves from "quiet luxury" to "lazy luxury." This transformation brings a blend of elegance and comfort, making luxury fashion more accessible and appealing for a broader audience.
Quiet luxury, a trend that emphasised timeless, high-quality pieces with minimal branding, focused on refined, investment-worthy items like cashmere and precise tailoring. Key features of this style included timeless pieces, a minimalist aesthetic, and investment pieces often found in brands like Loro Piana and The Row.
However, the tide is turning towards lazy luxury, which combines elegance with comfort and relaxed confidence, perfect for casual, upscale settings. This new trend incorporates elements like big cotton sweaters, leather flip-flops, and relaxed fits, offering a more laid-back yet still sophisticated fashion aesthetic.
One of the key inspirations for this evolution is the style of Princess Diana in the 1980s, with women looking forward to spring showers and embracing items from Alexa Chung's latest edit of Barbour's waxed cotton must-haves. The Wincanton tweed jacket from Cordings, as worn by a character in The Gentlemen, has also gained popularity.
Erdem Moralioglu's AW25 collection for Barbour translates the company's heritage of practical, utilitarian, outdoor details for contemporary, urban tastes and combines his own 'language of the feminine.' Jack Carlson, CEO of Rowing Blazers, has revived the 'Warm & Wonderful' knitwear design worn by Princess Diana in the early 1980s.
The new, tweedy, corduroy generation is seeking identity and tribe, and their clothing choices hint at an elevated lifestyle, gracious formality, rarified tradition, and a code of conduct. TV star Claudia Winkleman's striking ensembles for the BBC show Traitors are inspired by the Princess Royal's country-chic looks.
Young men are dressing in baggy Oxford wool pants from Toast, Guernsey knits from Labour and Wait, beaten-up Purdey jackets, and sturdy shoes by Grenson. If in doubt, searching for Harris Tweed on eBay is recommended.
The sartorial/socio-cultural shift observed is a generational move away from transient and ephemeral trends towards more substantial and meaningful styles. Guy Ritchie's TV series The Gentlemen has led to a run on traditional menswear items from Cordings of Piccadilly, such as the denim blue shawl-collar cardigan and the grey herringbone donegal coat.
The revived knitwear design, along with other pieces from Princess Diana's 1980s country casuals closet, have been reclaimed by younger stylists and categorized as 'quiet luxe.' Director Emerald Fennell's wardrobe choices for her dark, country house weekend satire Saltburn lean towards subtlety, with less emphasis on designer names and immediate luxury.
Authenticity, craft, properness, time-honoured silhouettes, and a hint of generational love for equestrian pursuits and blood sports are valued in the old money clothes trend. The look is often foxed and lovingly worn, with garments having lived a little, mostly outdoors, and brand new wellies and no scars or creases in one's waxed field jacket are red flags.
Simon Mills, a journalist, writer, editor, author, and brand consultant, and the Bespoke editor at Wallpaper* magazine, has been at the forefront of this shift, having forged a prolific freelance career specializing in lifestyle features. He began his career on Just Seventeen and Smash Hits before moving on to work as a freelance writer for The Face and i-D. He was also the Sunday Times Magazine's deputy editor. Since then, he has forged a prolific freelance career specializing in lifestyle features and was a contributing editor at British GQ for 15 years.
In this season, there will be a luxe take on the barn jacket (from The Row and Prada) and an AW25 collection by Seoul-based label SYSTEM that channels 'posho Brits' raiding a dressing-up box during a decadent country weekend. More than $8 million worth of the re-dux black sheep jumper have been sold, primarily to women born after Diana's death.
The aroma of wet labrador on one's clothing is a definite bonus in the old money clothes trend. Old money clothes are often worn with a born-to-this nonchalance, as seen in the TV series Succession, with characters wearing their posh hunting attire without any visible designer labels.
As we move forward, it's clear that the influence of Princess Diana's country casuals will continue to shape the fashion landscape, offering a relaxed, yet sophisticated approach to luxury fashion that values timelessness, quality, and a hint of tradition.
In this shifting fashion landscape, the 'lazy luxury' trend, influenced by Princess Diana's 1980s style, is gaining prominence, combining elegance with comfort for a casual, upscale aesthetic. Home and garden brands, like Barbour and Cordings, are reviving traditional outdoor details for contemporary urban tastes, catering to the new, tweedy, corduroy generation's taste for a relaxed yet sophisticated lifestyle, as exemplified by TV star Claudia Winkleman's ensembles and the revived 'Warm & Wonderful' knitwear design by Jack Carlson.
This evolution in fashion-and-beauty also extends to lifestyle, with trends favoring timeless, quality pieces like those found in brands like Loro Piana and The Row, now accompanied by elements like big cotton sweaters, leather flip-flops, and relaxed fits. This generational move away from transient trends towards more substantial and meaningful styles is evident in the sartorial/socio-cultural shift, as seen in TV series like The Gentlemen and Succession, where characters wear high-quality clothing with a hint of tradition and classical elegance.
