13-08-2025
The no-nonsense outfit you'll wear on repeat, from £17.99
Sales of co-ordinates increase every year. Without becoming overly philosophical on the matter, cometh the hour, cometh the outfit.
In a mad, mad world, co-ords represent orderliness, bringing a sense of control to a wardrobe that might otherwise be filled with anarchic elements that refuse to work together. Even Chanel's recent couture show – aimed at the kind of women who have personal stylists and actual maids to take care of their clothes – featured them.
Co-ords may seem a small life step in some respects, but small steps can take you on a big journey.
You want to know something else? Many women – I know this from your emails – find dresses a pain. Back in the day (and I'm not talking about Dickensian times, but the 1980s and early 1990s, when Vogue and Butterick sewing patterns weren't just a retro, Etsy kind of pastime), you could easily run up one that actually fitted, or find someone who'd do it for you for a reasonable fee. Good luck finding a flattering dress on the high street today.
For those of us who love the feel of a vaguely swishing hemline (after years in trousers, I'm enjoying wearing skirts this summer), a skirt co-ordinate has everything going for it – not least the knowledge that when you buy both pieces together, the proportions will look right and give the same elongating visual effect as a good dress.
I've been getting a lot of wear from this brown Me+Em set, which has proved so popular they've also done it in ivory and black. Ideal for when you're on a city mini-break (I was in Paris for the couture shows when this picture was taken) and need to magic up the maximum number of looks from your hand luggage.
These incremental advantages are a big deal – often what stopped me wearing skirts over the past few years was not being able to find a top that didn't look a bit off with the skirt or cut me in two. Handy, too, is the way you can wear something that feels casual and still look pulled together, such as the stripy linen set here from Kindred of Ireland, a wee independent label that's going gangbusters in the US.
If you're thinking co-ords may just be a summer thing, I see them on the horizon for winter. Trousers are included. I don't just mean the conventional tailored suit with a blazer – trousers (and tailored shorts and Bermudas) now come with matching shirts and tunics, less formal than a tailored suit but sleek. Knitted co-ords are also increasingly popular.
Best of all, you can buy the top and bottom in different sizes – the next best thing to getting a dress made to fit you. On holidays, co-ords are particularly handy – including, perhaps surprisingly, shorts co-ords. Split them up by the pool, then wear them as a set with glamorous jewellery for laid-back evenings.
The real lesson here, as stylist Annabel Hodin once told me, is that if you see a top or jacket that looks as though it was designed to be worn with some trousers or a skirt hanging near it, buy both if you can. It might sound extravagant, but proportionally and colour-wise, it will work. And that, ultimately, is money wisely spent.
