6 1G T Wednesday April 10 2019 | the times

Trousers, £38, Fashion blogger asos.com , £59.99, Roberta Benteler Editorialist CEO Kate mango.com Davidson Hudson Goodbye, skinny trousers. Hello, Hepburn pants High-waisted, wide-legged trousers Emma Willis in , £35; are in. Don’t panic, says Harriet Walker trousers, £42, next.co.uk

f you have ever suspected that One doubts whether Hepburn put so most fashion trends are for the much thought into it. very tall and very thin, I’m afraid Victoria Beckham has long been a the street-style set’s new fan of the look and includes several favourite look will do little to pairs in most of her catwalk persuade you otherwise. The collections. Gigi Hadid wore some on comes in quite handy. Yet too. And keep things lightweight up vogue among the A-list and the the red carpet recently, as did Charlize can you wear them if you’re top to avoid a muffin top.” Insta pack is for a style of Theron and Rachel McAdams. The under 6ft 2in? As with so many “statement styles”, Ihigh-waisted, wide-leg slacks known actress Olivia Wilde is a repeat Yes, says the stylist and Hepburn trousers require a bit of among fashion editors as “Hepburn offender, but I’m all too aware that this body-mapping expert Anna planning, but once you get the hang trousers”, after their most famous list might not do anything to change Berkeley. “If you’re short, of them, they will become a regular in wearer (Katharine, not Audrey). your mind on whether they work in don’t go too full with the your wardrobe. I have a pair that are She wore hers with chic silk , real life. fabric or it will make you look so comfy I think of them as jogging starchy men’s with their collars At fashion week — also not real life, shorter,” she counsels. “High bottoms for the office. popped, naturally, and androgynous I know — they came in vibrant waists are fine on petites, as First, are you prepared to wear (my, she was yar). She shades of yellow and red, as well long as it’s right for your heels with them? Most people find accompanied them with brogues, as neutral khaki and impressively proportions. So if you have this style requires a little boost, tennis and heels, and an spotless white; as casual, paper shorter legs and a long torso, otherwise you can look a bit swamped. unerring sense of effortlessness. In bag-waist chinos or sharply tailored go for it, but always add heels.” You want the trouser legs to drop my experience, this style of trousers as part of a trouser ; in a slouchy, “Height definitely helps,” cleanly, with no bunching at the requires near-constant attention — mannish fit or nipped in at the waist Victoria Beckham says Vogue’s fashion features bottom. Ankle will work now, have they caught on my heel? Are to give a classically feminine corset editor, Ellie Pithers. “Shorter then strappy in summer. they dragging along the ground effect. In short, they were styled women should consider If you’re firmly flat-footed, all is behind me? — so much so that according to every taste, worn where the cuff hits the ankle not lost — consider wearing your Vetements’ version comes with a little formally and casually, for day and for — at the skinniest point for Hepburns with thick-soled trainers, cut-out hole to your stiletto night, so if you can find the right maximum flattery. A crisp as I do. You just need enough lift through to avoid tripping or tearing. pair, they are the sort of thing that front pleat can slim the thighs so your hems don’t pool on the the times | Wednesday April 10 2019 1G T 7 fashion Is she ever going to take that blue off? By Harriet Walker f the many Jan clothes they wear the most. peripheral What is May’s twofer but a players making coat that is recognisably less the most of the useful than one you already Brexit chaos have, only with a built-in Oto soak up some extra backstop? What does her limelight, there is only one having another of the same you wouldn’t mind taking style, but in black, say about home with you. Sturdy, her ability to look beyond the pragmatic, a classic light deal, I mean coat, that is on blue — no, not Ken Clarke: the table? Theresa May’s coat. Maybe that’s unfair. May At a time when her party has spent her premiership seems to have left her out in trying to marry expectations the cold, the prime minister with reality, and this coat is has never looked cosier. She the very embodiment of might be remembered for compromise. The fact is, having lost a majority in the once you have decided on House of Commons, but she and bought a winter coat has doubled her presence in with short, bracelet sleeves, the cloakroom. There are it is difficult to go back to those saying privately that the shop and ask for a long May’s £750 tailored wool Feb extension because your coat, with its removable wrists are cold. That’s why puffer layer, may yet prove to it makes sense to have be the most high-functioning another, more sensible layer member of the cabinet. It — often known as a Starmer has certainly had more — to fall back on and deploy staying power than any only when you can no longer of her Brexit ministers. feel your hands. The garment in question is It’s a sign of chronic news known in fashion circles as a overload when viewers are as twofer and is by the Italian familiar with the wardrobes label Herno, a brand that of power as they are with its the Duchess of Sussex has corridors, but the outerwear also worn and which of Laura Kuenssberg et al has specialises in precisely the become a regular fixture on sort of trans-Alpine our screens during the outdoorsy glamour that process of taking back makes British people control — more regular than suspicious. Why should March the leader of the opposition, the important business in fact. Mark my words, these of staying warm be will be part of history: complicated by anything future generations will marvel so frivolous as looking not only at the omnishambles, good, you might ask. It’s a but also at how we used to tricky balance to strike — have winters, as they sit this proud nation once sweating in the desert that was demonised a man for a once Grimsby. donkey he didn’t May’s coat carefully even wear. over the next few days, for it Admittedly, £750 is a lot may yet be the harbinger of to spend on a coat — even Brexit: will she remove the on two coats — but factor in insulating layer or double every fashion editor’s (goose) down after her trip favourite formula, the cost to Brussels? per wear, and the price Twitter: @harrywalker1 (divided by the number of times worn) becomes a little Katharine Hepburn This week less eye-watering. May has worn her twofer to church in Aylesbury, ground; Katharine would not approve Pithers, a willowy Hepburn type, to PMQs, in Brussels Last week of a soggy cuff. recommends Uniqlo’s dark green and in Strasbourg. Where to look? My first stop would canvas take, in the sale for £19.90 It has accompanied be Zara, which has plenty of options, (unqilo.com), while other editors were her to the indicative from summery linen beige to more in Ulla Johnson’s pink corduroy pair votes, the alternative heavy-duty utilitarian green khakis (£300, net-a-porter.com, and close to votes and the (£29.99 and £39.99, both zara.com). sold out). For the less rangy and those no-confidence votes. I also like Topshop Boutique’s black who can’t quite face the full Katharine I’ve counted her satin pair (£85, topshop.com) and (I hear you), there’s no shame in wearing it no fewer Finery’s, which come in a navy satin opting for a cropped version. Cos’s than 20 times — that’s and work well with boots (£79, belted paper bag culottes are a £37.50 per wear at the finerylondon.com). Arket’s wide fluid versatile way in (£69, cosstores.com), very most, even before wool trousers in black are the real as are Topshop’s casual tie-waist style, you consider that this Hepburn deal (£99, arket.com), but it is which comes in a range of shades (£29, coat might just be Me + Em’s Transformer trousers that topshop.com). May’s only friend. scoop the prize — at £189, they’re not I’m sure that many of you will remain What price cheap, but they are versatile. They can unconvinced, and I understand why. constancy? be worn full-length (and they come up Before people asked which Sex and the If people tend to end long), but can also be turned up and City character you were most like, it up looking like their popped with a handy press-stud for a was which Hepburn — for the Audreys dogs, perhaps they cropped look — voilà, two looks in among you, there’ll be LBDs aplenty on also take on the one (meandem.com). these pages very soon. qualities of the