Off Duty Styling
My personal email inbox is a mess, trigger warning for anyone who shudders at the thought of such chaos, I have 4583 unopened emails, many of which will be purchase confirmations, Uber receipts and mail outs from brands, a large chunk will be from the various fashion newsletters I subscribe to. For whatever reason the titles of these fashion newsletters didn’t do their job as click bait and I scrolled past them, I am fascinated by the science of email titles, it is someones job to analyse and create headlines that entice us into opening the companies emails. Even though I know it is trickery, I am not immune to it and there are a few fashion related email headlines that are guaranteed to have me clicking through and browsing.
My email Achilles heel, the title that I am always seduced into clicking is “off-duty styling” ever since the term entered my consciousness many moons ago when off duty model was the style to aspire to the first incarnation i recall was with original supermodels, Cindy, Linda, Naomi, Helena, back then it was paparazzi shots of them heading in or out of an airport, wearing the creme de la creme of 90s fashion, minimal leather jackets, belted jeans and a giant tote bag, now its what models wear between runway shows, on-duty is the clothes they are paid to wear, off-duty is their own clothes, a formula that manages to be nonchalant yet edgy, undoubtably made better by the wearer being a natural clothes horse.
Since then the term off duty has expanded to include all famous people caught on camera when they aren’t filming or attending an industry related event, regardless of money or level of fame some women just nail off-duty styling better than others, the people who get it right understand the balance, great off-duty styling demands a certain level of chill, she needs not be burdened by the need to wear a heel or form fitting clothes and dresses rarely feature, off duty is a separates game.
Famous women who get off-duty right all the time include actress Sienna Miller, Katie Holmes (formerly Mrs Tom Cruise if you haven’t heard her name in a while) and I have to reserve an honourable mention for Claudia Schiffer, who despite rarely being photographed always hits the off-duty mark perfectly. I should note one of my reasons for choosing these women is because they either live in the UK or in places such as New York who despite having far better summers that we do, is subject to the seasons and in particular winter, no point me wistfully lusting after the wardrobe of an LA dwelling celeb whose warm weather wardrobe would never survive in our climate.
Across the pond but on the East coast, Katie Holmes sticks to simple looks but always with a point of interest, barrel leg jeans, interesting flats and her coats are always stylish but serve a purpose, keeping her warm and dry in the New York winter, she’s been wearing a quilted coat by British designer Marfa Stance, whose “modular” coats come with a hefty £1000 price tag but can changed by adding, removing and changing hoods, liners and collars to update the look or make it more seasonal, that’s enough thing about off-duty styling, its always practical.
Sienna Miller despite being known for her love of all things bohemian recently described her style as simply “jeans and a nice jumper” but of course its not just as simple as that, there is wearing jeans and a nice jumper and then there is styling jeans and a nice jumper and Sienna does the latter, she adds interest with layers and accessories such as a hat, she was recently snapped in an Adidas bucket hat & Urban Outfitter jeans making her off duty look as affordable as it is aspirational, now that’s an email title I would click to read.
