The Closet Thinker: Perk up your pins

I know we're supposed to be veering towards gloominess at this time of year - tax bills, credit crunches - but I'm feeling rather cheerful today, having just inspected the budding spring bulbs in my garden. Perhaps it's the promise of early lilac crocuses, or the splash of palest lemon yellow narcissus against the dark earth, but I'm considering an uncharacteristic purchase of coloured jeans, instead of my usual daytime uniform of navy denim and a black jumper.

Certainly, there's a rainbow of choice in the shops this month - the antithesis of what you might expect, against a backdrop of doom-laden economic forecasts - but a swing from dark shades to light has some precedent in fashion history (the little black dresses of the Jazz Age, for example, superseded by pale satin gowns in the lean years following the Wall Street Crash, and thence to Cristobal Balenciaga's violets).
Gap, already doing a brisk trade in scarlet skinny cords, is launching a new line of pastel jeans this weekend, in rose pink, sky blue and lilac, while Boden has a design in tempting cyclamen (an exact match to the flowers that survived the shrivelling winter frosts in my window boxes). There's more inspiration at Donna Ida (including reversible denim by Bleulab, in cobalt, guava, and emerald green); or ardent fans of Pippa Middleton may be inspired by her appearance last month in Superdry's powdered-poppy jeans (£59.95, and still available last time I looked online). Alternatively, you could try the bright palette of Gwyneth Paltrow's favourite brand, Rag & Bone (iris, plum, magenta and jade, among other jewel-coloured jeans).

As for what to wear with any of these: I'm not sure if a black jumper is quite right; navy might be better, or grey, over a close-fitting white T-shirt? Pippa Middleton wore bubble-gum pink denim in January with a black and white checked shirt, a tailored black Zara blazer, plus black ankle boots and dark glasses; fine on her, but possibly too like a child's drawing of a caterpillar for me. Not that Ms Middleton is anything other than a butterfly - having emerged, apparently fully formed, from a hidden chrysalis, unblinking, into the light - but as yet, she comes nowhere close to challenging more grown-up style icons. Hence the question I now ask myself: would Carine Roitfeld (former Paris Vogue editor, now working with Karl Lagerfeld) wear pastel jeans? No, probably not, unless on a summer beach holiday; but she might just condone a sophisticated streak of tulip red, against the backdrop of a grey city street in February.





BY JUSTINE PICARDIE | 05 FEBRUARY 2012
http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/columns/justine-picardie/TMG9052114/The-Closet-Thinker-Perk-up-your-pins.html