How to do elegance with edge – tweeds and twinsets need not apply

As any committed Anglophile will know, we Brits enjoyed a four-day holiday from the 2^nd to 4^th of June in honor of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. And it seems it’s not just the nationals celebrating: style editorials inspired by HRH have been popping up on sites all over the American web (and yes, before you ask, they’re reputable. Even Net-a-Porter’s joined the fray). At first, I was a little baffled. The Queen is many things, but a style icon? I’m not so sure, old chap. I dismissed it at first, thinking it a quaint extension of the seemingly ever-pervasive American affection for all things English. But the more email subscriptions from high-end retailers I opened, the more high-fashion sites I surfed, the more prestigious magazines I read – the more it became apparent that for whatever reason, this obsession with regal style was becoming, in fact, more a trend than a passing fancy.

Doina Ciobanu at Lookbook

It took me a little while to ‘get it’, but an illuminating article in Harper’s Bazaar UK soon gave me a hint as to the reason for Liz’s new street cred. The Queen’s manner of dress, while perhaps not the haute blend of S&M and living art installation commanded by the likes of Carine Roitfeld, is indeed ladylike and elegant, the ‘poster style’, if you will, for a woman who is unafraid to be feminine. An extension of the sweetly girlish and somewhat saccharine styles seen bubbling down the spring/summer runways, it might seem a turn-off to today’s powerful, successful, ruler-of-her-own-kingdom woman, but on the contrary, this is not the look for Disney Princess 2.0, but for a strong woman possessed of her own power. In fact, this may be the only character able to get away with white lace pencil skirts and strings of pearls. Irony – that elusive blend of bad taste and laissez faire hauteur – and its inherent contrast are the true markers of great personal style – as Diana Vreeland said, “Too much good taste can be boring”. Bad taste is what’s interesting. Only the woman who is so in command of her world and assured of her own assets can take the reign(s), pun intended, of this style and make it fly.

Linda Tran N at Lookbook

Of course, twinsets and pearls and mid-height block heels all together are never going to look modern (that’s too much bad taste. Your spicy Bloody Mary shouldn’t be a microdermabrasion treatment for your throat). It’s all about the twist – elegance with an edge. Preppy or sophisticated elements should always be paired with something more ‘street’: Upper East Side lady-who-lunches meets Carine. It is neither a street style extravaganza nor a simply preppy, ‘classic’ style, but altogether something more mysterious and far more intriguing; infinitely refined. For example: a pair of cropped orange-popsicle pants paired with a short, structured white silk tee and a navy, white and gold costume-gem necklace as at home in the Hamptons as at a black tie event. Or a formfitting black top with flattering diagonal chiffon draping in the front offset by peg-leg peony-print trousers in pale blues. Complete either visage with a pair of sky-high, pointy-toed black patent pumps, a simple, slender gold watch, and Muffy, you’ve got yourself an upgrade.

Laura Hunter-Thomas,

Ici Fashion