"Little Women Style" Will Take Over 2020, Trust Me
I’ll say this once and never again: Amy was right and Jo was wrong. That’s when it comes to the power of books anyway and that ‘Perhaps writing will make [things] more important.’ Amy’s hypothesis will be proven, I believe, by the effect Greta Gerwig’s film and the resurgence of the novel it has encouraged will have on the way we dress over the next year and perhaps longer. And I promise there’s reason to this other than the fact I’m trying to make my acronym WMJBOAWI (would Meg, Jo, Beth or Amy wear it?) happen.
Jacqueline Durran won the Academy Award for best costume for Little Women and wow, did she deserve it! The costumes in the film are intricately designed and constructed. For example, each daughter has an individual colour or two that they wear throughout the film, with Marmee wearing a combination of them all (this is the same with their hair styles). Also, Jo doesn’t wear a corset which ‘lends a freedom to how she can move’, which, for me, added a lot to Jo’s characterisation in the film, especially in the dance scene and hill scene with Laurie, when the way in which she moves is so distinctive. Speaking of this scene, notice that the waistcoat Jo is wearing is the one Laurie wore when Jo jokily got down on one knee to him earlier on in the film.
The costuming of the film fascinates me because I think it is so fundamental to why it worked so well and how, despite the many film adaptations of Little Women, this one captured the essence of the novel in such an evocative and imaginative way. For me, the colours of the film was a significant part of this and much of this is down to the costuming. Period film costuming is often grey and dull and hardly inspiring. But Durran opted for colourful costume, which is actually factually accurate in terms of what people were wearing contemporarily. As Gerwig explains in this video, fabric dye was new and exciting in the late 19th century and so it was trend-forward to wear brightly coloured clothes.
This attention to detail in the costuming in Gerwig’s Little Women is undoubtedly a significant reason as to why the film’s dress has been so inspiring for many. But this has only spurred on the “Little Women style” obsession that has been growing within the fashion industry for some time. This mostly takes the form of prairie dresses, championed by brands like Batsheva and The Vampire’s Wife, but anything billowy, floral and/or made up of pastel checks resembles “Little women style” enough for me to deem it so.
So why has this style of dressing gained so much momentum? Like many trends, I think it stems from a sartorial nostalgia of sorts, when wearing your third best dress to lounge around the house in was the norm. Don’t get me wrong, I won’t be trading in my pyjamas any time soon, but sometimes I get bored of casual dress codes, especially given the fact that my life provides very little opportunity for formality, sothe idea of wearing a beautiful, extravagant dress for no reason excites me.
Further, it’s comfortable! Long billowy dresses mean lots of room for food babies (the one I’m wearing in these photos even has an elastic waistband: swoon!) and they’re practical all year long. In winter, with tights and in summer, without (they’re especially great if you don’t want to get your legs out, for whatever reason).
The dress I’m wearing here is from Nobody’s Child and I adore it. I’ve been loving wearing it in winter (with tights and thermals underneath) and I am looking forward to taking it into spring with, I get excited just thinking about it, bare legs! I love wearing this dress with more masculine pieces like these ankle boots to channel my inner Jo and I think the myriad types of styles this trend can work for is one reason why it will take over. Nobody’s Child is great for “Little Women style”, especially if you’re looking to find it from a brand with ethics at its heart, and I’m currently trying to avoid the website in order to protect my bank balance.
“Little Women Style” is a romantic, nostalgic and fun way of dressing and one that, when the situation allows, I’ve rarely been straying from. Anything to be more like Jo March and, luckily, it’s not quite as difficult as writing a book about your family or turning down Timothee Chalamet’s marriage offer.
My Ideal Saturday
Happy Friday! I hope you're enjoying this beautiful sunny weather as much as I am and that you have a nice chilled out weekend ahead. Today I'm sharing an outfit from last Saturday and I'm going to be telling you all what I got up to during the day because it was my favourite type of Saturday ever- one that doesn't happen as often as I'd like. I was intending on including some photos of the day taken on my film camera with this post however I actually took some film to get developed on Saturday and it came back totally blank- a sure sign that my camera was broke, so I couldn't take any pictures on it that day. That was the only part of my Saturday that wasn't ideal. Anyway, some photos of my outfit will have to do for now- hope you don't mind!
I spent Friday night at my boyfriend's so woke up at his beautiful house in the Georgian Quarter of Liverpool, where these photos were taken. The Georgian Quarter is one of my favourite areas of Liverpool and I am unbearably jealous that Sam is renting a room in a student house there this year! We spent the morning lazing around in bed, watching the end of the film from the night before whilst eating crumpets, before getting out of bed just before lunch time to get ready for the day.
We then headed into the centre of Liverpool and our first port of call was Max Spielmann to get my film developed. At this point I was cheery and excited to get my film back (notice how I'm going to skip over the part where I collect my film to make sure this post stays true to its title). We then headed to Pret-A-Manger for lunch. Pret is my favourite place to go for lunch as they do so many great vegan options and are always switching them up and the food tends to be quite healthy, which is always a plus.
Then came my favourite part of the day- shopping! I wasn't intending to buy anything (famous last words) but did actually end up buying a chunky knitted jumper in Urban Outfitters (which isn't really appropriate for this week's heatwave but it's never a bad time to buy a jumper in the UK) and some more summery pieces in Topshop including this polka dot crop top, which I'm already getting my wear out of thanks to the heatwave, and this skirt.
Before heading home, we stopped for some ice cream at Paolo & Donato's- they do great vegan ice cream (and non-vegan too) and seeing as this was one of the warmest days so far this year (will I ever stop talking about the weather?), it felt wrong not to stop for ice cream. After we finished eating, we headed back home, stopping to take these photos on the way.
The evening seemed to come around really quickly, probably thanks to our late start, and pretty much as soon as I got back to Sam's, I was leaving again to meet my friends for some food and drinks in Liverpool's Baltic Triangle. We started off in The Botanical Garden- an outdoor gin bar which is so picturesque (although, ironically, I don't have a photo of it) and had such a nice atmosphere with great music. After one drink here, we crossed the road to the Baltic Market, a warehouse with various independent food stalls, a bar and live music. This is definitely one of my favourite spots in Liverpool and is just as good in the day as it is in the night so it's definitely worth a trip. I enjoyed a delicious veggie burger and chips (not quite as healthy as my lunch) and spent the evening chatting (and singing) with my friends. I've felt so lucky to be able to spend so much time with my friends who have been part of my life for 8 years, some of them more than that, over the Easter break whilst being home from UNI. I've been wanting to write a post about valuing friendship (and especially female friendship) since starting my blog now because it's something I've been thinking about a lot recently, so look out for that in the next few weeks (or possibly months depending on how efficient I am).
After my idea of a perfect day, I was home to my family and in bed by midnight, which honestly made it all the better because I bloody love a good early night (I'm such a 19 year old granny). I think I enjoyed this day so much because it was the perfect mixture of relaxed and busy, plus I got to spend time with lots of loved ones, and this is how I would spend every Saturday if I was able to.
I feel like I can't just not talk about my outfit when all of the photos in this post are based around it, so I'll tell you a bit about it. Starting from the bottom up, I recently picked up these Nike Cortez trainers in the ASOS sale because I've been looking for a pair of pastel-coloured trainers for a while now and these seemed to fit the bill perfectly. They are unbelievably comfortable. I am the most blister-prone person known to existence and I wore these for days at a time without breaking them in with no blisters in sight. I wasn't expecting them to go so well with this top but they really do and I feel like these co-ordinating pastels are what make this outfit so spring-appropriate. I didn't actually like these jeans/trousers from Topshop when they originally arrived on the post but, stupidly, I took the labels off and so couldn't send them back. But they've actually really grown on me now and I felt confident in them all day. Although it's not something that shows in my blog posts, I use tote bags almost every day because they're so practical and easy to wear. This one I picked up at one of Black Honey's shows a couple of years ago because I love the print (and the band) and it's lasted so well- the cost per wear is probably down to less then a penny, thanks to how often I use it and the low price.
I hope you've enjoyed hearing about my ideal Saturday and it's maybe given you some ideas as to how you can spend your weekend. I'd love to hear about what your perfect Saturday would sound like in the comments!
(Just a quick disclaimer- some of these photos were taken on my phone and others on my camera so sorry for the differences in quality/location!)
Top- Nobody's Child (old, similar here)
Jeans- Topshop (only available in petite and tall now)
Gilet- Topshop (sold out and can't find anything similar, sorry!)
Shoes- ASOS
Tote Bag- Black Honey Merchandise
Sunglasses- Warehouse (old, similar here and here)