The Jilly Cooper Effect Has Hit Fashion

If you’re currently devouring the shoulder pads, pussy-bows and pie-crust collars with as much relish as the sexually-charged plot lines while watching Rivals, then you’re in good company. The fashion in the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s ’80s literary romp is as deliciously Lurex laden as one would hope from a period piece about power plays in power silhouettes. Call us nostalgic, but do some of the Quality Street-coloured peplums, ruched leg-of-mutton sleeves and Pat Butcher-esque costume jewellery actually kind of work? Perhaps we’ve been blinded by all the bonking (sex appeal is, after all, one of the biggest trends of next season!), but several big-name brands also concur that there’s much to reassess in the bold, brash style tropes of a decade that celebrated excess.

Louis Vuitton SS25.

Kristy Sparow

“In the period that we live in, it’s always a comeback to something else,” said Nicolas Di Felice of the industry’s cyclical nature. While the Courrèges designer, like Pieter Mulier at Alaïa, experimented with the idea of continuous loops in clothes, time-travelling creative Nicolas Ghesquière landed slap back in the ’80s via the Renaissance. It worked! His exaggerated cinched and puffed-sleeved Louis Vuitton pieces came in colour-pop stripes with fistfuls of beaded necklaces jangling down the chevrons. “If you don’t put yourself in aesthetic danger every season, you’re not playing the game of fashion,” Ghesquière told Vogue. Brave is the LV ambassador (Zendaya, perhaps?) who will take those zingy pedal-pushers for a spin next spring.

But then again, Londoners – who already swear by Talia Byre’s Dennis the Menace-striped tops for off-kilter daywear – will also be doubling down on her signature print with matchy-matchy draped jersey tops and leggings that called to mind the fitness aesthetic of the more-is-more era. Vogue staffers are already plotting out their pre-orders for the – wait for it – wrap dress that’s bounding into view (as well as Dennis, Byre was inspired by the feel-good Pantones of cartoon favourites Scooby-Doo and The Flintstones).

Saint Laurent SS25.

Marc Piasecki

The easiest way to tap into the ’80s resurgence is to size up your suiting. Saint Laurent was one of the most lauded shows across the board, thanks to Anthony Vaccarello’s homage to the house founder’s signature boss-man tailoring, complete with bookish spectacles worn on the runway by Bella Hadid. God that layered-up look – think: aviators, bombers and trenches thrown over louche office separates – had swagger. Almost as much as the brocade and lace eveningwear centred around boxy jackets with shoulder pads that jutted out (excellent for bagging your spot at the bar) and ruffled miniskirts in canary colourways. If Saint Laurent has, in past seasons, been the progenitor of naked dressing, the YSL woman is now letting her inner maximalist loose. Finally, she won’t be cold.

Stella McCartney also read the strong-shouldered suit and capacious trench coat memo, and proved that great design never comes second to the environmental manifesto she has always made a priority. Editor favourite Julien Dossena continued the piled-on aesthetic he does so well at Rabanne, with foil-decorated basics under big sheeny blazers for a futuristic spin on tailored-but-fabulous fashion. And there were flashes of Jane Fonda-esque style – from Miu Miu’s stacked belts to Vivienne Westwood’s leotards over leggings – elsewhere during a month that left the notion of quiet luxury in the dust. Like Jilly Cooper – sorry, we mean fellow ’80s icon Cyndi Lauper – would say, girls just wanna have fun for spring/summer 2025.