This Wednesday was going nowhere fast. The week is slow, the coffee isn’t hitting, Fashion Month continues to beat me into submission. But then, from the clouds: one perfect Jonathan Bailey fit, my soul to keep. Over in Paris, Jonathan Anderson has just made his debut for Dior and while womenswear might not ping your radar, Bailey’s corpcore fit should.
Sitting front row to watch pretty dresses and tricorne hats sail by, Bailey was dressed like a sexy office drone, the apple of the department’s eye and prime workplace crush. As soon as I saw it, my fingers flew across my Slack keyboard, typing eloquent and succinct prose: “Oh fuck yes.”
You see, Bailey has done something I believe in deeply: slut out an office fit. (I type this, by the way, while wearing a shirt and tie and no trousers. Do NOT tell my HR department.)
Over a standard issue blue shirt and striped tie, Bailey had on a Dior printed navy quarter-zip, which was pulled down just enough to frame the tie. On the bottom half, Bailey had on straight-leg blue jeans and some brown mule shoes we dare say falls neatly into the ‘unsexy shoes’ trend we’ve been pushing. No shiny leather loafers here, just brown suede and an endearingly frumpy round toe.
Neil Mockford
Separately, the components shouldn’t work. It should be too middle-manager, working-professional. It should be too Severance-but-not-even-zeitgeisty. But, strangely, wonderfully, Bailey makes it work. It makes me want to purchase one immediately, and god help whichever Canary Wharf yuppy that gets in my way.
Maybe it’s the shape through the trousers, which are wider and slightly relaxed. Or perhaps it’s the bagginess of the sweater and its hoodie-like pockets that give a more petulant and youthful spin, rather than finance department ladder climber. Or, you know, it could be the fact that it’s Jonathan Bailey. Either way, the end effect is my watercooler fantasy, the subject of Slack whispering and clandestine after-work drinks.
Will the quarter-zip have another resurgence? I’m betting on it.
