Lingering over the Sunday New York Times Style section and T Magazine insert is a pleasure not to be missed. My focus is on these sections that provide me with ideas and inspiration related to lifestyle, fashion, and interior design including stories about the people who create fashion and interiors. When we lived in Galveston, Texas we used to walk to a local shop where they made breakfast burritos and sandwiches. You could buy a paper from the stack and sit on a stool at the counter, alternately reading the paper and watching traffic go by on the Seawall Boulevard.
Now I take the paper online and can read these sections anytime, anywhere. How does this connect with the photo of a cropped utility jacket? First, the back story…
(Simbarashe Cha and New York Times)
A recent discovery in the New York Times Style section is the work of Simbarashe Cha who attends fashion shows and related events and documents street style or the way people are wearing clothes in unique and individualistic ways. Simbarashe Cha takes the photos and writes comments underneath to draw attention to what is distinctive about the styling; in this case the ribbon tie over the trench coat.
While most of us may not have a stylist or a person who advises us on style, we can, through a perusal of photographs in style magazines, fashion show videos, online shops and like sources, discover new ways to wear what we already own. With this in mind, I am going to include regular posts titled ‘Style Notes’ which will feature inspirational photographs exemplifying ways to wear clothes and notes about what I am learning from professional stylists to enhance my own style philosophy. This first ‘Style Note’ is dedicated to the cropped utility jacket.
(www.nssclub.com)
The classic utility jacket has experienced a resurgence of popularity. As you can see from this decades old photo of Audrey Hepburn wearing one, the utility jacket is not just for working out on the ranch!
(Gucci.com)
Shortly after the Milan Fashion Week you could watch the Gucci Fall/Winter 2025 collection show online at the Gucci website. This is Look 25. Note the top based on a utility jacket shape and paired with a split front pencil skirt.
(Photo by Alesandro Lucioni)
This photo is from the Valentino Spring 2024 couture show. A daring, high-low pairing of the sporty utility jacket shape with an extremely full ball skirt which looks to be made of silk taffeta.
This ensemble from the Frankie Shop site pairs a charcoal-colored cropped utility jacket with a below the waist long split skirt. The idea of a long skirt with a cropped jacket is my take-away
Another image from the Frankie Shop. This styling gives me an idea to wear my khaki- colored utility jacket over a black turtleneck sweater with a black skirt.
(thefrankieshop.com)
The look of the sleeves pushed up and puffed out and the jacket partially unzipped is a fascinating way to style a utility jacket. To do this you would need a jacket with the capability to zip and unzip in two directions. We may try unzipping from the top and pushing up the sleeves.
Here is my utility jacket paired with a split skirt I made last winter.
The jacket with a black turtleneck and skirt. The skirt was an evening skirt with a slight train but it didn’t look good after dragging across the limestone here and is much more usable as a midi skirt.
Here is the utility jacket worn off the shoulders a bit as an evening jacket with a blue-black taffeta ball skirt I made years ago over a black tulle skirt worn as a slip.
Stay tuned for more inspiration from fashion pages to the closet!
