Pastoral chic: dressing for the summer you want, not the summer you have

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They say you should dress for the job you want, not the one you have. Many women seem to apply this approach to dressing for the whole of the summer season. In other words, we dress for the summer we want, rather than the one we are actually having. The woman in front of me in the queue for my 8am coffee, who had her protein pot held in the crook of her arm in order to jab non-stop on her phone during the transaction, was wearing a dreamy, rustic-linen midi dress with strawberries and leaves around the hem and bell-shaped sleeves. Behind me, a twentysomething ordering a matcha latte dug her debit card out of a cute heart-shaped raffia basket that held a water bottle from Barry’s Bootcamp, the cult fitness class.

This is about more than just wanting to be on holiday and having to go to the office instead. This is about what kind of a summer you are dreaming of, as you gaze out of the office window. It is about aspiring to a specifically pastoral aesthetic of meadows and picnics and daisy chains. To rockpools, not infinity pools; peace and quiet, not beach parties. It is poetic rather than high-rolling; more slow motion than jet set. It is a folk dress with a rope belt rather than Daisy Duke shorts. It is keeping your hair off your face with a fishtail braid rather than slicked back behind designer shades. It is a ribbon-tie espadrille rather than a sporty flip flop.

This is boho, but not as you know it. The new, aspirational pastoral-chic is quite different from boho-chic in its Sienna-Miller-in-a-Primrose-Hill-pub-garden incarnation. Where that look was streetwise and decadent, with oversized sunglasses and low-slung studded leather belts bringing a louche, on-tour-with-the-Stones vibe, the new pastoral is decidedly more wholesome. Prim, even. Topshop, whose party dresses have launched a thousand “You’re-not-going-out-like-that” stand-offs between teenage girls and their parents, is selling a floral tea dress with a floorlength skirt and a demure neckline in baby blue. High-necked, full-sleeved blouses, a garment until recently seen only in Sunday-night period dramas, are increasingly to be found in the office.

Pastoral romance ruled at London fashion week. Simone Rocha, one of the current stars of that event, put milkmaid puff-sleeves on long, virginal-whitebroderie anglaise dresses. In Paris at Valentino, the front row was packed with wealthy customers wearing the label’s long-sleeved, renaissance-princess-style gowns, while swooning over the new-season updates on the catwalk.

But this is about more than just catwalk trends. Summer’s pastoral shift is the most striking incarnation so far of the move towards modesty that has been evident in our summer dressing for the past decade. The rising profile of women who dress modestly for cultural reasons – visible on the street, in political conversation, and in a global fashion industry in which the Middle Eastern economies exert ever more influence – has had the effect of shifting our expectations towards a more covered-up wardrobe. Consider the end of topless sunbathing, and the rise of the “beach cover-up”, a category that barely existed two decades ago but is now considered a wardrobe essential. The old adage about not showing legs and cleavage at the same time is all-but defunct when most of the on-trend dresses on sale on the British high street show neither.

Not that the new pastoral chic is narrow-minded or parochial. The charm of the trend is that it is a sophisticated and worldly take on how to dress for a rustic idyll. Forget roses around the door, bunting, hand-knitted tea cosies, or any of those Keep Calm and Carry On cliches. The British elements of the look are gritty and specific – Shetland lace for long, flowing dresses at Alexander McQueen, fisherman-style cable knits for cream sweaters at Burberry – rather than the sugared-tea aesthetic of the Cotswold gift shop.

The look draws on folkloric, artisanal clothing from all over the globe. Raf Simons explored prairie-style quilting in his first collection for Calvin Klein at New York fashion week. Israeli designer Dodo Bar Or’s tasselled, softly coloured maxidresses take inspiration from the keffiyeh. New York label March11 is a worldwide fashion hit for its vibrant dresses based on the vyshyvanka – the traditional, richly embroidered Ukrainian blouse.

If the wide-eyed innocence conjured up by the pastoral puts you off, Sofia Coppola’s new film The Beguiled, set in a girls’ school in Virginia during the American civil war, might change your mind. As Miss Martha, Nicole Kidman rocks floor-length full skirts with long-sleeved blouses, and the full coverage is pushed close to something more fetishistic: high lace collars, rows of tiny covered buttons, gingham and polka dots. This look can be strict and businesslike, or it can be sweet and laidback. Just like summer itself, in fact. Even when the sun shines, life isn’t always a picnic. But that doesn’t have to stop you from dressing for one.Read more at:cheap formal dresses