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This was supposed to be an article about quilted fashion.
Quilting can be seen in all variations, whether as a light coat for the coming transitional period, as a vest, skirt, bag or high heels, even trolley cases and even entire sofas have recently been quilted.
While I do research on the Internet and read how popular fashion magazines, such as L'Officiel, Elle or Journelles, declare Stepp to be a trend, a term keeps popping up that is associated with it and of which I have had the impression for a long time that it is used completely indiscriminately, misleadingly and incorrectly in the fashion context.
The quilted jacket is supposed to be stuffy, or at least it used to be, because as soon as it appears on any Instagram profile of a high-reach influencer, that suddenly no longer applies.
“Bye Bye stuffiness!” It says on a popular blogazine.
“The new generation of quilted garments convinces the entire office.” It can be assumed that this fashion office would give its texts a very similar title if one declared sailing shoes, Ralph Lauren sweaters or the Le Pliage by Longchamp to be the current trend item.
The FAZ, of all people, only recently made use of the term narrow-minded, when the comeback of pearls was discussed.
Rihanna, Lupita Nyong'o and young designers helped the pearl get rid of its philistine image.
Note: It takes a tattooed, recognized cool singer or actress to give a tasteful accessory a new shine.
Apart from the fact that pearl necklaces were valued by a non-conformist Coco Chanel and big names in the scene like the former US “Vogue” editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland to the authentic Fifth Avenue ladies Charlotte York and Bunny McDougal and thus were all valued by different styles lastly adorn a not inconsiderable part of the FAZ's female readership.
In addition, the use of the term stuffy is simply wrong.
I come across it more and more often when people talk about clothes or styles that could be considered classic, traditional or reliably elegant.
Pearl paulas, boot stiffeners or Barbourbetties, so the cliché, like to define themselves with cashmere sweaters, twin sets, quilted, bouclé jackets, pearl necklaces, brooches, ribbon rings, silk scarves or bow hair clips.
It often means
stuffy
, as soon as a certain
item
is found in an outfit that could be associated with the style of clothing of such a Barbourbetty.
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There is probably no more devastating judgment than to tear an appearance as stuffy.
Anyone who thinks about their outfit, invests money in it, is fashionably informed and inspired, usually wants to be on the cutting edge, better still progressive, foresighted.
Those who are described as stuffy are exactly the opposite: petty, narrow-minded, adjusted, uniform, loyal to the line, pedantic, unworldly, petty, backward, petty-bourgeois.
The online synonym lexicon Woxikon knows 179 other synonymous, mostly negative words.
Of course, you can't help but label some outfits as stuffy.
But the fact that someone looks honest has nothing to do with the fact that their choice of clothes is a quilted jacket model or the brands behind it are called Polo-Ralph Lauren, Barbour or Tods, but with the fact that the clothes simply don't fit or that someone tries to orientate oneself to some ideal style without being inspired.
And only that could be described as simple-minded and thus stuffy.
Much more decisive for the overall look, on the other hand, is the fit and the way in which someone authentically interprets garments with associations.
And no, that doesn't mean that you have to wear your sailing shoes with ripped jeans just to try to break the obvious style, or to save yourself from the high street in tap copies.
Rather, you can rely on the effectiveness of timeless classics, arrange them a little less conformally or combine them into contemporary basics.
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At Chanel, the tone-on-tone wearing of classics still works reliably.
The looks may not always correspond to the current trend and you are not particularly progressive, but they look far more coherent than if you throw
together
all the
it-pieces
that are currently on offer.
Nevertheless, in the end, the twinset in combination with the pearl necklace is rarely worn by anyone in everyday life, and when it does, it is meticulously placed on emancipating the rest of the outfit in some form of established style narrative, such as the pearl paula or the Barbourbetty.
That could change as soon as classics are no longer labeled as stuffy. Cultivated, exclusive, distinctive, refined, dignified, noble, distinguished, tasteful, for example, in most cases it hits pretty well. Woxikon suggests 652 other, mostly positive words for the term "elegant", which I personally like best. Elegance is refusal, as pearl bearer Diana Vreeland said, and thus the exact opposite of stuffy.