Shine in silver!
How to wear the new season’s hottest metal, and why I'll always love a silver skirt.
Happy April!
At the weekend, out for a Mother’s Day lunch at our favourite pizzeria, I glanced down at my outfit and had a realisation: I would have worn exactly the same thing, 30 years ago (and probably had the same pizza).
The formula—silver skirt, some kind of white top, trainers—has been a personal favourite since my early twenties (90s photo evidence incoming). On Sunday morning, running late (clocks going forward = one less hour in bed), I panic-picked out a silver faux leather midi skirt (M&S, WISH I’d bought another one in the New Year’s sale for £5 now), white sweater, and sneakers. And I’ve just spied this almost identical Boden version, in the sale.
My Pinterest boards are full of some variation on the theme—fake leather, sparkling sheer, or sequinned—and the more dressed down, the better. I’ve never saved sequins for nighttime, or Christmas/New Year parties (but the post-winter sales rails are a GREAT source of new season finds! That said, given the sustainability issue surrounding sequins, specifically, better still to shop your own wardrobe, or Vinted, for pre-loved glittering options).
On the spring/summer 25 runways, Prada, among others, broke out the off-season sparkle. And ELLE recently declared that “Silver Is Spring's Breakout Colour Trend”.
And my silver-studded Pins tell a story.
This edition is for paid subscribers. Upgrade for less than £1 a week to unlock the full MBE archive of midlife beauty, style and wellness posts, and get weekday editions, PLUS The Weekend Edit each Saturday!
More than simply a case of shiny dopamine dressing, my love for a Bacofoil skirt, as my husband affectionately calls them, has deeper resonances.
I associate sparkling silver skirts with the early nineties, and summers in Italy with our family there. Along with the OG Bacofoil mini, I had a long, mermaid-ish one that I wore on repeat, until it became snagged beyond repair.
Remembering that skirt makes me think of the sea glittering in the Ligurian sun, ice cold strawberry granitas, and stiflingly hot car journeys along the coast and into the hillside towns, with their nerve-wracking hairpin bends and roadside statues of the Virgin Mary (Madonnelle). Relatives non-stop chatting and smoking, all the way. Completely mad. Bliss.