Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: to nail this year’s British heritage look, just study Rivals

Thanks to Jilly Cooper, tartan and tweed, waxed jackets and wellies are a style vibe right now

British heritage, in fashion terms, is a country where it is permanently October. A conker-brown and pleasant land, if you will. Brand Britain in the style sense comes into its own in autumn: roaring fires, muddy lanes, damp dogs. Waxed jackets and chunky knits, tartan and tweed, jaunty scarves to banish draughts. Clothes for going on a hearty walk, but with a hip flask in your pocket. Fashion has been mining this seam since long before Brideshead Revisited made battered evening dresses and Oxford bags look romantic, and it keeps returning, because trad British style is satisfyingly utilitarian while also being loaded with enough backstory (class, history, eccentricity) to be intriguing and reinventable.

Also: Rivals. It has taken considerable restraint for me not to mention Rivals in the whole of the first paragraph, because it is now a matter of mere weeks until we get our next Jilly Cooper fix and I, for one, cannot wait. Cannot wait for Cameron stalking the corridors in her foxy power suits, for Taggie in her cute jeans and jumpers, for Valerie in head-to-toe tweed and an aggressive amount of blusher. The success of Rivals has done for old-school British dressing what Emily in Paris did for the beret, only with better jokes and more adultery. Jolly hockey sticks style is the new French girl chic. This fantasy is homegrown, which makes it both more embarrassing and harder to resist. Just as Emily and her friends and frenemies are a camp send-up of fashionable Paris, Rivals is a fond, nostalgic semi-parody of the British wardrobe. The show’s costume designer, Ray Holman, has drawn on original 1980s pieces from Dunhill and Mulberry for inspiration. With Liberty fabrics, nods to polo uniforms and sturdy waxed coats, he has brought the Sloane ranger back into the fashion conversation for the first time in years.

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From five-fingered trainers to the shoeless shoe: what’s with all the freaky footwear?

‘Ugly’ shoes, once the preserve of the catwalk, have gone mainstream. Why are so many people taking a walk on the wild side?

Until recently, a busy commuter train would be packed with people wearing low-key, unobtrusive shoes. An elegant and inoffensive pump, a sporty trainer or a polite and basic ballet flat, they were the type of shoes that said background extra rather than main character energy.

But now change is afoot. Deliberately strange designs are reaching new heights of desirability. Polarising rather than pretty, these shoes tend to be flat, a little bit orthopaedic and, according to the internet, “ugly”.

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Lime bike jousts? Why youth culture is embracing the medieval era

From chainmail-wearing pop stars to high-fashion catwalks, the spirit of the middle ages is erupting into the zeitgeist

Medieval knights used to joust on warhorses with wooden lances, but this week in east London, two men jousted on Lime bikes with PVC pipes. This contemporary spin on a medieval spectacle is just one example of the spirit of the middle ages erupting into the zeitgeist.

As part of Frieze art fair, the artist Corbin Shaw staged a show called Feast of Fools. The “‘anti-Frieze” Frieze show took inspiration from a medieval festival where, as Shaw put it to GQ, “the peasant class could insult the rich”. In the video for Troye Sivan’s latest song, Party, the Australian pop star postures as a medieval knight.

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‘A form of anti-status status’ – how much would you pay for a plain tote bag?

The ubiquitous carrier has been given a four-figure makeover. But why has an everyday bag associated with running errands and US supermarkets become so aspirational?

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If you were in the blessed position of having £500 to spend on a bag, what would you look for? Would it be made of cotton? A nice light shade bound to sully quickly, like “paper white” or ecru? Would you want something that looks a lot like those ubiquitous totes sold by a certain US supermarket chain for a couple of dollars?

No, thought not. But there are plenty of options if you do. Phoebe Philo, former Celine designer and quiet luxury pioneer, offers a white canvas shopper, made entirely from cotton except for the silver brass hardware of its internal zipped pocket, for £450. Luxury Swedish brand Toteme’s “effortless tote bag” is made from organic cotton canvas and is available in dark brown, red or classic ecru. It goes for £510. Tom Ford’s version, at £1,600, differentiates itself a little, with a body made exclusively of cotton canvas but trims and handles from calfskin. Prada’s, which features leather details and metal hardware, could be yours for over £2,000.

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‘I wanted to create the female version of a man’s suit’: how Roland Mouret’s Galaxy dress took over the world

One the most famous dresses of this century, it was worn by royalty and A-list celebrities in the noughties. Its latest fans are Maga women. Here, the designer, and former mentor to Victoria Beckham, reveals the story behind it

The story of one of the most photographed and ripped-off dresses of the last 50 years came together with a simple zip. It was 1998; the designer Roland Mouret had shown his first collection at London fashion week and was looking for a way to produce good clothes at speed. He connected with a small British atelier and it was there that some old-school industry wisdom would alter his course: he learned that a longer seam doesn’t actually cost any more than a shorter one.

Despite his brilliantly instinctive approach to design, it was like cracking a code – and steered him towards the dress that would make his name. “My brain was buzzing!” he says. “I hadn’t thought about it before – if you extend a top by 50cm, it becomes a whole outfit. You just need accessories. Focusing on dresses gives you a signature piece at the right price.”

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