Autumn, winter and beyond

More and more, we’re enjoying how pieces might slide over into the next season (and the next, and the next). At Selfridges, our Project Earth initiative is interrogating how we shop and exploring a more sustainable way forward for fashion. Instead of wiping the slate clean for AW20, we’re drawing on styles with staying power, reviving old habits, rewriting rules just a little and holding onto the feelings that our clothes have brought us over the past few hunkered-down months – comfort, cocooning and calm.

One understated star of the show this season is the LBD (that’s ‘L’ for long, by the way). Sleek ribbing, earth-conscious recycled-polyester yarn and the simply slashed cuffs and neckline of Bevza’s version make it the archetype. It sums up the less-is-more mood of AW20 – what our Stylist Vincent Levy summed up as “the comfort and confidence to be found in minimalism”. With fleeting trends stripped away and the focus shifting to longevity, there’s plenty of room to find your foundation and dress it up, play it down, do as you please.

Speaking of doing as you please – why on earth was ‘comfort’ ever a dirty word for dedicated followers of fashion? After getting quite attached to loungewear in recent months – and knowing that brisk mornings will always circle back around – we’re eager for the familiarity of a knit (with a few unfamiliar new additions). Embrace Ottolinger’s gnawed cable jumper, be embraced by The Row’s tactile tasseled poncho, wade into winter in AREA’s oversized, subtly encrusted turtleneck and layer up with Nanushka’s fuzzy cardigan. These are all pieces that you’ll come to treasure when the cold nights start drawing in.

While we’re at it (‘it’ being a more mindful approach to getting dressed), we may as well have a bit of fun, right? Our stylists took a leaf from grunge’s book to coax out some nonconformity. There’s every reason to pull on your carefully pleated Acne Studios skirt with a hardy pair of boots (only, make them Bottega) or mix up Missoni’s spangled midis with a Dries Van Noten vest and heavy-soled loafers, rather than your usual heels. Don’t just save your star-of-the-show coat for the odd evening out, either – take it with you on a brisk trudge through the park. Go on, rewrite a few rules…