If you’re a die-hard romantic with an innate sense of style, perversely The Feast of St Valentine is probably the day you dread the most. Wilting bouquets, candles stuck in cheap Chianti bottles and over-blown quilted schmaltz from all manner of greeting card purveyors – it’s enough to make you flip the V sign.
Thankfully romance – at least in the sartorial sense – is not dead. Love is a many splendoured thing and thankfully full of humour and wit as well; something designers have being playing with since Schiaparelli locked lips on jackets and Valentino fell for red.
Wearing your heart on your sleeve – or your chest, or your neck – this lover’s day will be much more chic than schmaltz. Artist Rob Ryan has collaborated with Tatty Devine to deliver romantic missives in metal to hang around your neck. Both JC de Castlebajac and Antoni & Alison cannot still their beating hearts, proudly displaying them on graphic knitwear. Peter Jensen and illustrator Julie Verhoeven are star-crossed lovers, smooching all over lip-print dresses and if all this lover’s talk makes your see red, make sure you it’s from the natty Redgrave coat by designers Goat.
Just remember, lovers come and go but a good wardrobe is the basis of a long and happy life.
A coat from Goat
From Rob Ryan’s collaboration with Tatty Devine
Knitwear by JC de Castelbac
by Marie-Louise von Haselberg