The Style Hawker: How to Rock the Season’s Hottest Skirt

Please welcome celebrity stylist (and mama of three) Annabel Kerman with our new column…The Style Hawker 

Hey mamas! I’m a fashion stylist who has worked as Style Director of a national newspaper in the UK, and as a freelance celebrity stylist for everything from the Oscars red carpet, to large scale international television shows.

I’ve linked up with Sassy Mama to bring you my take on working in fashion and living in Singapore. I’ll be decoding seasonal trends, revealing my style obsessions, keeping you up to date on fashion events and restyling the wardrobe of Sassy readers. Plus with three young children I’m dedicated to hunting out a bargain, and an affordable way to achieve trends.

I hope you enjoy…

TREND DISSECTION…

The Full Skirt

The Full skirt has long ticked the ‘timeless fashion classic’ box. But with Autumn/Winter resurrecting the midi length pleated skirt and magazine editors touting it as one of the seasons key shapes, it’s time to take notice.

If you’re a 1950’s girl at heart then knock yourself out: after several seasons of a more masculine aesthetic, this season’s return to femininity will feel well overdue. (I include myself in this category; I can’t get enough of a vintage midi skirt and a headscarf).

But don’t stop reading if the very idea of it brings you out in a cold sweat: The new breed of full skirt is less ‘retro’: still nipping in at the waist but in finer fabrics that skim the hips, worn with an altogether cooler attitude. The key is to de-girlie the rest of your look: In colder climates the look is teamed with a slouchy knit or blazer and ankle boots. Over here, a t-shirt and pumps will achieve the same result: the elusive ‘effortless’ tag. I bumped into an editor this morning – on the school run, believe it or not – and she was wearing a black vest, black lace pleated midi skirt, and Converse with slicked back hair. Not a hint of the debutante. She rocked it.

So in answer to your next question: YES you can wear a full skirt in the daytime, when juggling life and kids. It’s a simple and brilliantly effective look, requiring no more thought than the failsafe shorts you might throw on every morning, but guaranteed to get you more compliments — and what mother would argue with that?

Combined with the fact it hides a large portion of leg, gives you a waist, and a bit of grown-up sex appeal, surely we’re onto a winner. Just make sure the hem falls at the knee or below. And that it’s not made of taffeta, unless you want to look like you’re off to a child’s birthday party. Which let’s face it, you quite possibly are.