11/23/2017
In Praise Of Pencil Skirts
Fashion moments come in many forms. They can happen in an haute couturesalon in Paris or on a television screen; on the steps of a cathedral or falling out of a hotel bar.
My favourite recent fashion moment came in the corridor of a Milan hotel, where I happened to be trapped in a crush after a fashion show, directly behind Carine Roitfeld. Next to me was a senior editor from American Vogue, and for a full 10 seconds we both stood staring at Carine’s bottom, which was sporting a Givenchy black pencil skirt so divinely sculpted that it was, somehow, both filthily sexy and chic beyond reproach. After our shared moment of appreciation, the American reached over to Carine, tapped her on the shoulder, and complimented her on the skirt. Carine, the former editor of French Vogue, thanked her, and nodded in agreement. “Goes out, goes in, goes out” she said, while lightly tracing the curves of the back view of the skirt – out from her waist over her bottom, in again underneath it, and kicking out slightly at the back of the knee – with her hands. Then she flashed us that minxy, Cheshire cat grin over her shoulder and was gone.
A skirt that can make a grown woman come over all lascivious about her own bottom: we all need a bit of that in our lives, don’t we? (We also need to learn to accept compliments more like Carine. Her answer was so much more fabulous than the oh-my-god-this-is-so-old-and-I-think-I’ve-bust-a-seam response that many of us would have given.) The pencil skirt is the real hero of this season’s wardrobe. You’ve bought a coat, it’s too early to think about party dresses, and you’re already a bit bored by the jumper with a dog on it you ordered on a whim. Therefore, November is all about a pencil skirt.
Christina Ricci’s Pan Am uniform, coming soon to BBC2, promises to boost the pencil skirt back up the fashion ratings. To be brutally honest, Ricci probably isn’t going to rock a pencil skirt with quite the swagger the other Christina (Hendricks, in Mad Men) did (who can, right?). But what the Pan Am take on the pencil skirt does is move the look on from office-vamp territory. Pan Am is set in 1963, the same year as series three of Mad Men, but Ricci’s skirt is in a cheery sky blue rather than black, and not hobble-inducingly tight. This makes it very on-trend: Jonathan Saunders’s printed pencil skirts in soft, matt tones of tomato red, oatmeal and turquoise were the catwalk-to-front-row hit of the season. I have now sat next to that skirt so many times that I have almost convinced myself it is a good thing I don’t own it myself. (Not quite.)
The pencil skirt trend is a lifestyle thing. The typing-pool genes make it office-appropriate but the fashion angle gives it cocktail credentials, so this is a look that works morning to night, Monday to Friday. Kate Middleton often wears a pencil skirt on official engagements, because she is good at knowing how the media will “read” her clothes and a pencil skirt makes her look in step with working women. (She is also developing a signature narrow silhouette – pencil skirt and blouse, or shift dress – which, like the Queen’s hats and colours, makes her identifiable at long range.)
There are currently three pencil skirt types. The Posh Pencil, à la Carine, high-fashion and fabulously tailored (Givenchy and McQueen do the best, if you have that kind of cash). This kind of skirt will make anything – a simple blouse, a shell top and jacket – look amazing. Alternatively, you can do the Fashion Pencil, which is slightly longer (the seriously fashionable just love to wrangle with a tricky length) and in a slightly “off” colour or fabric. You can wear this with your dog jumper.
