It’s been six months since Matthieu Blazy unveiled his debut collection for Chanel. In recent weeks that collection has landed in stores, with much attention and ‘sold-out’ status falling on the most-wanted pieces.
Accessories are among them (these two-tone slingbacks are divine!) but you can’t deny the collection’s selection of little boxy jackets among the biggest hits. The brown and ecru cropped jacket that opened his show (below) has quickly become one of the most sought-after signalers of fashion nous this season.
Jonathan Anderson too, made the little jacket a star piece of his arrival at Dior.
Undoubtedly both French fashion houses have a long history with the item. Coco Chanel redefined women’s tailoring from the 1920s with soft, comfortable tweed skirt suits that balanced structure and femininity – giving rise to the button-up bouclé jacket.
Christian Dior’s famous 1947 debut collection gave rise to the fashion world’s ‘new look.’ It included a now-iconic ‘Bar Jacket’ with a nipped in waist and padded hips to accentuate the wearer’s shape. This style has been revisited periodically over the decades by the house, and again by Anderson who shrunk it slightly and delivered it in a silk and wool tweed (below), embroidered with tiny multicolor sequins that beautifully catch the light.
Both of these pieces – and plenty of other jacket inclusions in collections – have underlined the desirable nature of pieces that look polished, but not stuffy – and work with a pair of jeans too.
Like all influential designer collections, their impact has begun to amplify in similar shapes and the clearly ‘inspired-by’ looks landing in slightly more affordable and accessible chain store collections.
Because we too, love the idea of a ‘fix-all,’ thrown-on jacket that makes us look pulled together and in-step with trends, we’ve collated our favourite pieces to shop now:
Cos
Maje
Karen Walker
Trenery
Juliette Hogan
Aje
Zara
