Meet the wardrobe staple that'll make getting ready Fashion

Meet the wardrobe staple that’ll make getting ready for work really easy

There was a time, not so long ago, when it was nigh on impossible to imagine a more timeless up-top look than a starched shirt with the collar buttoned up tight. It was no nonsense and felt so pleasingly pared-back that you couldn’t imagine how it would possibly be usurped. And now here we are, breaking free from the rigour of those masculine influences in favour of the breezy femininity of the blouse. Who’d have thought it?

There’s been a 40% increase in blouses arriving in shops over the last month, according to retail data analysts Edited. H&M has 214 products under their ‘Blouse’ tab from evening appropriate gothic black lace to botanical printed and sheer.

Topshop’s Design Director, Jacqui Markham is also reporting a resurgence in demand for blouses over the past six months with printed and striped casual blouses proving particularly popular. Even COS – traditionally a destination for mannish shirts – have added soft drapes, ribbons and scalloped collars so that many now err definitively into blouse territory.

Image: teal bridesmaid dresses

‘The blouse is very much a wardrobe staple for which M&S are famous,’ says Belinda Earl, Style Director at Marks and Spencer. Fashion insiders have long scouted out one of the iconic British brand’s 80s styles from charity shops, but Earl promises it’s an item the store is investing in heavily right now. ‘For the coming season we see it elevated to even greater importance as a hero piece in its own right,’ she says, pointing out the ruffled cotton and daintily printed chiffon styles arriving soon.

The blouse has a history of cleverly spanning the frivolous and the practical which might explain why today’s iterations are proving so appealing. Before the 1900s, they were either the scratchy uniform of the poor or the ostentatiously frilly garments worn by dandies, sailors and Romantics. Then as separates took off for women in the 1900s, blouses became a canvas for opulent embroidery and embellishment before eventually seguing into hippie trail must-haves and workwear staples in the 70s. ‘They were our attempt to be feminine but fit into what was then a male world,’ said CEO of Hewlett-Packard Meg Whitman in the documentary Makers: Women Who Make America of the pussy-bow style blouses Margaret Thatcher made popular.

‘I have always loved the associations of the blouse: it’s about empowerment, emancipation. It’s about taking a traditionally masculine item and reinventing it as unabashedly feminine,’ says Leila Yavari, Fashion Director at Stylebop.com.

The beauty of the current blouse revival is that they work perfectly for that very modern 9-9 dressing dilemma – that is, an outfit which sees you through from work to evening drinks or dinner. Just think of the way that Radio 4 Today programme presenter Mishal Husain has been spotted wearing a fluid cream silk blouse regularly, something which seems like the ideal shortcut to looking chic when you’re getting dressed at 3am.

It shouldn’t matter that the blouse – that perennial item that helps getting ready for work easier – has been legitimised by the catwalk. But it’s always nice to see high fashion and practically coincide. The Spring/Summer ’16 collections offered up a myriad of blouse references from Marc Jacobs’ glamorous 1940s Americana designs – recently worn with aplomb by Olivia Wilde – to Gucci’s geek chic pussy bows via Isabel Marant’s Rajasthan-inspired embroidered versions.

It’s nice then that there isn’t a single blouse ‘look’ to clinch right now, rather it’s about choosing one you love – be it Vivetta or Jupe by Jackie’s playfully prim cotton blouses or the Hitchcockian elegance of Joseph and Red Valentino. But getting the styling right is key. “Personally, I wear mine tucked into wide leg trousers or raw indigo jeans with heels. It’s very Lauren Hutton – understated, with just a hint of sensuality,” advises Yavari. And who doesn’t want to buy into that aesthetic?