Into the wardobe.

  

Ever since the age of seven, I have been thoroughly convinced that my life would be richer were I Lucy Pevensie, the heroine of C.S. Lewis’ ‘The Lion , the Witch and The Wardrobe’. How much more interesting things would be would be, how much more magical, if I could climb into my mother’s huge closet and, instead of playing hide and seek among the thick jungle of coats and dresses, tumble backwards into the icy wonderland of Narnia- all valiant adventure, Turkish delight and talking animals.

 

Of course, I suppose that even if your wardrobe is not a portal into the thrill of a frosty otherworld, adventure can still be sought and won from its depths. Playing dress-up as children taught us no less. I personally liked to prance around my bedroom, the contents of the costume box strewn all over the floor, dressed as a Turn Back Time era Cher or, in marked contrast, a sheep with a shearling coat draped artfully over my back.

 

  Unique, Burberry Prorsum, Boy by Band of Outsiders

Bringing magic and literary nostalgia back into the icy bleakness of Winter, many looks on the Fall runways have reminded me of the childish Englishness of C.S. Lewis’ Pevensie children, and the fantastical creatures that inhabit fabled Narnia- the bestial madness of Unique’s antlered ice maidens, oversized bear fur jackets at Burberry Prorsum that look to have been snatched from the back of Mummy’s wardrobe by a little girl eager to have snowy adventures (with her sleeves rolled up to her wrists, of course), and Boy by Band of Outsiders’ take on the prim Englishness of the Pevensie's, with a touch of fox fur for good measure.

I think it's time for us all to take a gallant leap into the depths of the wardrobe, fur collars, conversational wood creatures and all (if only for fashion's sake).