AW12 trend report: My Whistles picks


Last weekend I was featured in The Guardian, picking out my favourite high street pieces from Whistles. I chose its boyish coats, tailored tees, a little red long-sleeved dress, a pyjama-style blouse and some minimalist leathergoods as my seasonal edit. I’m super-fussy when it comes to high street shopping as I tend to swerve ‘trendy’ fashion (I prefer things that last), so my current go-tos are COS and Whistles, with a top-up from Topshop and a men’s jumper or two from Reiss.

Whistles is an interesting high street case study as it’s carved an identifiable look for itself without chasing trends. Every season it carries well-cut silk shirts, slim trousers, tailored blazers and coats with just enough fashion flavour (say in the colours or fabrications) to keep them contemporary. In fact, this weekend Whistles will show its Spring-Summer 2013 to press at London Fashion Week, an echo of what Topshop has done for the last few years with Unique. By showing alongside London Fashion Week designers, it’s positioning itself a notch above its high street contemporaries and asserting its non-reliance on catwalk trends (although it can always plug those trend gaps later if it wants to). What I like about Whistles is how it keeps a house signature without being predictable…