Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn is transporting us back to 2007, with her Noughties take on Brideshead Revisited, where instead of boaters and waistcoats, this posh crowd have that sloppy manner of dressing that was a dishevelled mix of soggy Ugg boots, concealer as lipstick and Juicy Couture tracksuits that reigned in collegiate universities. Fennell has explained that the fashion from this era added another dimension to the storytelling – “it had this look that is kind of wonderfully tawdry and very much feels like another period. There’s something delicious about going back to the era of circle belts, slouch boots and iPod Shuffles.”
The costumes are just as coded as the finery in any period drama – instead of wigs, however, it’s Christopher Kane bodycon and popped-collar polos that conveys an elitist social heirarchy. It’s easy to dismiss the fashion in 2007 as ugly and passé, however there was more to it than neon glasses and slouchy boots. There was a new energy and vibrancy to London Fashion Week – this was the era of Brit models Lily Donaldson, Agyness Deyn and Lily Cole, while there was also a new roster of emerging designers added to the schedule. The spring 2007 show was Christopher Kane’s debut collection after graduating from Central Saint Martins, while fashion darling of the moment Marc Jacobs hosted a one-off Marc by Marc show in Claridge’s. “This sort of thing does not happen in the raw basements of London Fashion Week,” Sarah Mower wrote about the event at the time, which had Sofia Coppola and Selma Blair on the front row.
At Burberry, Christopher Bailey introduced a new logo for the Prorsum line and created a uniform for the Notting Hill It-Girl crowd of headbands, tights and mini trench coats. Henry Holland, meanwhile, started selling his slogan T-shirts on MySpace in 2006 and staged his first London Fashion Week show for spring/summer 2007 as part of the Fashion East schedule, where Giles Deacon, Agyness Deyn and Gareth Pugh all wore his cheeky T-shirts.
This was also the year that Kate Moss launched her first ever collection for Topshop (and stood in the window of the Oxford Circus flagship like a real-life mannequin), the fashion editor and muse Isabella Blow died and the theme of the Met Gala was “Poiret: King Of Fashion.” Keep reading for 21 forgotten fashion moments from 2007 we are revisiting thanks to Saltburn.
