The 80/20 rule
Wait what, another rule? Absolutely one to be broken and here's how.
Two years ago, when I first took up the Rule of 5 campaign, I found a piece of advice on the
substack. She advocated for an 80/20 approach to your wardrobe - where 80% of your wardrobe needed to be good quality functional, foundational basics, and 20% ‘personality pieces’. These last being items that, when you walk in the room, everyone goes ‘Wow.’ Proper fashion clobber.I thought this was quite a workable approach, particularly since my wardrobe audit had revealed quite a lot of ‘wow’ and not many foundational basics. I realised it was this mix that was propelling me to buy so much stuff - because none of it was fit for everyday wear. It was a showy-offy fashion parade, and not a low impact wardrobe to save the planet. It needed constant replenishment and change over, like a magpie distracted by every starry thing that caught its eye. I might have invested in a pink floral Erdem coat, but I really can’t wear it every day without looking like an eccentric bag lady. If I really wanted to look like someone who’s got their shit together in the style stakes, I’d be better off with a navy Margaret Howell blazer, I (rightly) reasoned. You can wear that every day and you won’t ever hear anyone passing judgement - just look at Clare Thomson-Jonville, the latest Vogue editor. She relies on skinny jeans, blazer and vest for her daily, (I mean, weren’t we all doing that for a micro second in the 2010s?) and now Anna Wintour has plucked her from Instagram and given her French Vogue.
So Rule of Five Year One became about shoring up those high quality foundational basics. It started well, with an excellent white shirt, veered drastically off course with a now notorious pair of gold silk cargo pants, but a Maison Michel hat, a sensible Toteme layering pull, a second hand pale pink shirt, (very much office wear, but it was Gabriela Hearst) and a pair of flat black sandals began to tip the balance. I thought strategically about garments that could bring my more magpie pieces together, and last year a beige Mother of Pearl suit, a Margaret Howell blazer, (yep) and two knits (one navy from NavyGrey and a chunky beige polo from Herd) calmed the closet right down.
The result? Bored. I’ve spent months in a neutral palate of quiet clothes that have been extremely good for the lifestyle and the planet, but now I need some fashion excitement. 80/20? I’m thinking 60/40. Let’s see how this year goes because it may even end up 40/60. Pick your ratio, it’s yours to play with.
So this spring, as the year teases us with its push-me-pull-me weather, and the blossom begins to peek tantalisingly out of the trees, I am DONE with my winter clothes, DONE with sensible tailoring, DONE with quiet palates and DONE with quiet luxury. I want my luxury talking loud and proud. I want the the joy of a winning look-at-me dress swishing about my thighs again and I even find myself stalking Kate Moss-at-the-shows outfits.
(Side note: the shows were largely unremarkable in my view, with a few notable exceptions, after all the luxury industry has got so fat and heavy on its exponential growth it just can’t take risks anymore. All the big brands have fired their creative directors and are now floating rudderless through a non season. Nothing to see here).
So what to buy in March? March is very much a non fashion month. The industry tells us it’s the beginning of spring, but it hailed yesterday, so I’m not getting my legs out yet. I used to work with a fashion editor who insisted on buying her winter coat in July (“They’re all gone by September!”) but this is exactly the sort of toxic behaviour that got us into this mess.
So I went with a pair of jeans. This has been a long considered decision, (two years), and an investment from a brand that I have always admired and wanted to support. The brand is ELVDenim and is the brainchild of the stylist Anna Foster (i-D, Exit magazine, Lula). Anna didn’t understand why the denim industry was producing 4 billion pairs of jeans a year from virgin fibres, when denim is such a functional and long-lasting fabric.
Originally, denim hails from Nîmes, in France (‘de Nîmes’), where at the end of the 19th century a heavy cotton twill was outfitting workers. The American Levi Strauss was looking for such a fabric for frontier workers, workers who were on horseback all day and certainly not looking to carry a wardrobe round in their saddle bags. The rest is history. As recently as the 1980s we were being encouraged (thank you, Nick Kamen), to buy a pair of 501s for life - shrink them to fit in the bath and that was you done. It was only in the Noughties that the ‘jeans wardrobe’ became a thing, as J Brand perfected the art of the skinny (tragically mixing denim with Lycra so it could never be recycled), and pairs in white, grey, navy, stonewash and every other colour you can think of. A plethora of brands and revolving styles ensued, resulting in horrendous over consumption of a fabric that is seriously heavy on water and pesticides. Really, we should only own one pair of jeans. But how many pairs do you have?
Back to Anna. Buying up second hand jeans, she decided to rework them into modern, sophisticated styles that can be tailored to fit every ‘body’. Using two pairs and four seams, she began to synthesise her style: E.L.V. stands for East London Vintage, as all her collections are designed and produced in the British capital. As well as a circular solution for this fabric, she also prioritises reducing the transcontinental transport usually involved in jean production, and fair pay for workers.
Over the years the ELVDenim styles have proliferated (I went with the wide leg Freya in a dark denim), but are all, always made with vintage fabric. Anna now makes couture level capes and bomber jackets from off cuts, upcycles velvet and suede into patchworks, and has also turned her attention to discarded hotel bed sheets to make shirts. I have visited her in her studio a few times (anyone can go, and I highly recommend it as you should try jeans on to see which really suit you), and it’s a joy to see her stockpiles of denim, her seamstresses and creative team thriving on a restless energy to make this industry better.
The jeans are expensive - over £300, but that’s what it costs to make clothes like this. They will last at least ten years because ELVDenim will alter the length (should I shrink), the waistband (should I expand) and even switch out the panels (should I get bored of the colour wash), all as part of the service. They look great with trainers (and I have a few pairs I collected from Extra Butter in New York when I lived over there), and also a delicate pointy shoe, a stiletto heel and any old boot. I may regret getting them a little bit long as they are not going to work with a summer sandal, unless I invest in a wedge this year. But if that’s the case, I’ll take them up.
If you are a jeans person (and not everyone is), they are a brilliant low impact staple as you can make like a Vogue editor or use them for gardening. They should last a long time, they can be upcycled (I had an old pair of mine embroidered by Fanfare Label last year) and if you buy a fashion forward style and they go out of fashion, just stash them until that style comes back round again.
Either way, I’m sure you can tell I’m thrilled. I fantasised about buying these jeans for two years and now I have them. This is the joy of Rule of Five - the thrill of the chase. Anna helped me choose the right style for me, so they feel very individual, and they are tailored to fit. Vintage denim is much softer than new, so these two things combined make them the most comfortable pair of jeans I have ever owned. Even more comfortable than those 2005 J Brand skinnies.
How’s everyone doing on the five front?
By the way, if you are in, or coming to London on March 29th I am holding a circular fashion fair at House of Koko, in Camden. Full details here:
Sounds like a few Rule of Fivers need to start SEW-IT-YOURSELF on your old denims too? Please give it a try (Go over to instagram to @wastedthreadsofficial to download our free denim skirt upcycling pattern and instructions pack. It has been specifically designed for hand sewing or machine sewing, for those who have no sewing machine - yet)! Try this as well as going along to ELV Denim , especially if you are not in London!
After buying above my 5 last year due to an unplanned surgery, I hope to be back on track this year. I bought a pair of dark wash, straight slim jeans from my fav brand. My last pair had reached gardening jeans only status and so I reasoned a new pair every 3-5 years was ok. I also unearthed a pair of barrel leg jeans in the back of my closet that I had since the last time they were in, but never worn because the waist band needed altering. So, I decided to get them fixed and wear them too, giving me 2 pairs. Mostly, I've learned to think about what I would actually wear and what I just appreciate looking at with Rule of Five.