Reader Q&A: our fashion editor Jess Cartner-Morley answers your questions

From 1h ago

The Guardian’s fashion editor Jess Cartner-Morley is now answering your questions about her career on the front row.

Key events

TeeDubyaBee asks: Is there a surefire sartorial way for a gentleman approaching 50 to impress the world, with minimal effort? Asking for a friend.

Jess:

double quotation markA straight-leg chino in navy or beige (try Cos or Ralph Lauren Polo); a good quality T-shirt (Sunspel, Arket, or James Perse) and a chore jacket always works.

eamonmcc asks: You are good at ‘de-snobbing’ fashion. Is that because of a conscious effort on your part?

Jess:

double quotation markThanks! I appreciate that. I don’t think snobbery has anything whatsoever to do with dressing well. The classiest people I know are those who have beautiful taste but zero snobbery.

PetertheGray asks: Why are so many high end items made from synthetic fibres? And are synthetics always bad?

Jess:

double quotation markThe answer to the first part of your question is just, price. As to the second part – as a rule of thumb, natural fibres are a sustainable choice. Virgin polyester – which is made from oil, and doesn’t biodegrade – is to be avoided. But there are also sustainable synthetic fibres. Look out for Tencel, which is the most common brand name for a fabric called lyocell, which is made from wood pulp, and is biodegradable.

Microplastic bunch of macro micro fibres granules grains abration polymer plastic — Microplastic fibres from cheap fast fashion are shed in the environment but there are also sustainable synthetic clothes.
Photograph: a-ts/Alamy

AugieMarch asks: Trousers. My premise is that trousers without side pockets are more flattering. Pockets — even ones sewn very flat — spoil the silhouette, both on slim and rounder figures. Why are they so hard to find?

playheals asks: What’s your view on fly fronts on women’s trousers? It can pull open over the tummy and add bulk. We inherited the fly from men’s trousers but side zips should be standard for women’s wear (apart from actual 5 pocket jeans – nothing against those).

Jess:

double quotation markI commend both of you for having figured out what you like and what suits you. That’s the hardest part. My personal bugbear front-fastening trousers where the ‘hidden’ hook-and-eye fastening is too close to the edge of the fabric so the metal keeps showing. Drives me insane.

FlusteredCustard asks: When I was younger (44 now) I thought older women who stuck to fashion formulas from when they were young looked vaguely silly and thought staying up-to-date, no matter your age, was the key to style. Now I am older, I find the clothing adopted by younger people to be what looks vaguely silly, and tend to dress according to my own, no doubt frozen, formulas. Where does the balance lie? Is there such a thing as mutton-dressed-as lamb?

Jess:

double quotation markHa! I am 53 so I’ve been debating this for a while! I do believe that staying current is part of what being chic is about. At the moment, for lots of people in their 40s and 50s, this is about wearing a looser silhouette than we are used to. Your clothes say a lot about you, and I guess one of the things that I want mine to say is that I’m looking at and engaged with the world around me even at my advanced years. I’d probably rather be mutton dressed as lamb than mutton living in the past?

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: Still wearing a cross-body bag and French-tucking your shirt? Sorry to say, your wardrobe is cringeRead more

Indigohippo asks: What has done for the mid-range shop and will it ever come back? The place that Topshop famously occupied (but see also Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, Oasis, Warehouse) when I was in my teens/20s is vacant. Now it’s all cheap fast fashion that falls to pieces or rather higher end (& Other Stories, Whistles, Nobody’s Child) which I love in my mid/late 30s but couldn’t have afforded at 20. Shops which sold affordable but decent quality clothes just don’t exist anymore or have been bought up by Boohoo/Sports Direct/Asos and are now shells of their former selves in both style and quality. Why? And will we ever see the likes of Topshop again?

Jess:

double quotation markI feel about high street shopping the same way I feel about social media: I lived through the bit when it was feel-good and optimistic and now it’s gone a bit nasty and it makes me sad. I miss the old Topshop so bad! Although they do have some good stuff again now, plus you can buy there without the money going to PG which is good. The silver lining of this though is that many of the younger shoppers who, as you rightly say, are priced out of the ‘haute high street’ stuff are shopping from car boot sales or on Vinted instead.

A man walks past a closed branch of Topshop — Closed branch of Topshop seen after the British online fashion retailer ASOS said it has bought the brand amongst others from the collapsed Arcadia group.
Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Redstar1000 asks: What brands produce comfortable (and stylish) trousers for post-partum bodies? I’m looking for a pair that fits well over my c-section pouch, still very noticeable one year after birth, sadly.

nardacnardac asks: I’m perimenopausal and suddenly clothes don’t fit round my waistline anymore. Are there any tips and tricks for dressing fashionably that will look sexy despite my thickening waistline? I don’t want to have a whole wardrobe of shift/tent dresses as my only option.

Jess:

double quotation markYou are in luck my friends. Defining, accentuating or narrowing the waist has been such a strong element of women’s fashion for so long (corsets!) that it can be easy to think of it as a non negotiable. But a lot of the best dressed women around right now are wearing generously cut shirts and not tucking them into their trousers at all. It’s very elegant when you get your eye in and it means you can pick a waistband solely on grounds of comfort. Alternatively, look out for trousers which are elasticated on the back half but look smart at the front. Me + Em do great ones.

A guest wears blue white striped shirt, yellow necklace, black Adidas pants outside Stine Goya during the Copenhagen Fashion Week — A guest wears an oversized shirt at Copenhagen Fashion Week this summer – a lot of the best dressed women around are wearing generously cut shirts right now. Photograph: Christian Vierig/Getty Images

paulrennie asks: Can the proper suit ever come back?

Jess:

double quotation markI can’t see this happening in the medium term. The overarching trend for decades has been the decline of men’s tailoring as a proportion of menswear sold. Hence why every designer got into sportswear and streetwear. Clothes have got more casual and more comfortable and most of us like it that way. In fact I was at the weekend I was walking through a back-to-school kids’ uniform section in a store and wondering how long it will be till schools ditch the matching trousers and blazers? It seems to me kind of wild that children are dressed more formally for school than their parents are for the office?

pleicetene asks: Yesterday’s article about the history of the weekend was great. Are you interested in fashion as cultural artefact, as a reflection of social and cultural history, and even a shaper of it sometimes?

Jess:

double quotation markAppreciate you! That’s so nice of you to say. I think all fashion journalists are current affairs journalists at heart. Fashion is a live conversation about how it feels to live in the world at this moment, that’s why I have loved writing about it for so long.

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Nepthsolem asks: More than a century ago Oscar Wilde wrote that “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.” Was he right then? Is he right now?

Jess:

Haha. Wilde was a very snappy dresser! The OG dandy, with his velvet jackets and long hair. He saw style as a way of rebelling against stodgy Victorian values – he hated corsets and top hats and thought clothes should be comfortable and freeing. He was anti-fashion-establishment pro-self-expression, I guess. Also, I guess we have to take him with a pinch of salt, since didn’t he also say “the only thing to do with advice is give it away, it is never any use to oneself” 🙂