Fashion

How to look rad with style guru Charlie Dawson

A new trend in 60 seconds

THE BOYFRIEND BLAZER
There are many things us ladies like to borrow (read “take”) off you boys – your work shirts to sleep in, your razors to shave our pins with, and your dessert – whatever it is. But this season we have no reason to borrow our fave item any more, because we have one all of our own. Praise be unto the fashion gods for… the boyfriend blazer.

Hurrah for dressing like a boy to, conversely, make our femininity all the more delectable! Never one to miss a trick, this was first pulled off to male-swooning effect by Coco Chanel who, in the 1920s, swiped the fishing tweeds from her then-boy (the Duke of Westminster) while all the girls about town were cocking their legs to the Charleston in fringed dresses. “More dapper, less flapper!” she cried.

Add Marlene Dietrich and Gwen Stefani to the list and you see that this here trend is going to make a style icon of you yet. So, ladyboys, how to nail it. You’ll need one slightly oversized blazer, buttons undone, with rolled-up sleeves and wide shoulders to make you look itsy bitsy and casually thrown together (pah!). This is also your tribute to the late John Hughes, since the look is borrowed from The Breakfast Club and its 1980s movie counterparts.

Throw your curves into sharp relief by wearing with boob-bindingly tight T-shirts and clingy mini-dresses, or continue the theme with roll-up or peg leg trousers and a battered satchel. If you want to sound the flirt alert, wear with a floaty frock with a hem that sits just a saucisson below the bottom of your blazer.

Never fear, this gender-bending exercise has been all over the catwalks, from Yves Saint Laurent’s super-slick blazer worn over a miniskirt to Hussein Chalayan’s worn with nothing but boots. So with celebs like Kate Moss, Rihanna and Vanessa Hudgens at it too, it simply begs the question... what the hell do we need a boyfriend for now?

We love

€35, www.newlook.co.uk
Stripy cuffs and lining take the “zzz” out of this blazer at New Look.

€52, www.topshop.co.uk
Coral, jersey and so very Molly Ringwald. Dress down with denim.

€58, www.asos.com
A black number as seen on Vanessa Hudgens. But don’t let that put you off.

WILL IT TRAVEL?

YES
KITTY BANG BANG, 25, LONDON
“Absolutely. They’re a fashion forward way for the terminally single to look as if they actually have a boyfriend.”
www.myspace.com/burlesquekitty

NO
ADRIAN MOORE, 40, PARIS
“The boyfriend blazer, finished off with multi-coloured oversized vintage Ray-Bans? Another few months and it’ll be just another forgotten trend.”