Fashion beyond silk

I have a pile of hand-wash only clothes, which I’m lazy enough to let pile up until either I have a fit of industriousness and get it done, or relegate them all to a second dryclean pile and drop it off somewhere. With the excuse of not having hot water at the moment (see Renovating Horror Stories) I took a whole lot of silk pieces off to the drycleaners. Smarting from the bill – I could have bought a new dress for that amount! – I wondered what alternatives fashion designers were looking at. Silk is lovely but it’s not the easiest of materials to wash and wear. Where are the cottons? Linens? Actually, summer collections have seen a lot of these easy lightweight fabrics, but it gets a bit trickier as we start looking ahead to winter. As I went online window-shopping (conveniently masquerading as work) I’ve compiled a few pieces that seem like you could chuck them in the washing machine (though don’t hold me to this, I’m sure the labels cover for all eventualities with a dryclean only instruction.)

Karen Walker does a lot of silk dresses, but she also does some great pieces in punchy textured cottons. This stripe is summery and fun.

Twentyseven Names have done some relaxed shirts and skirts that are both wearable and fashion-forward. The designers have such a great hold on colour and check out their awesome lookbook styling.

Katie Battersby is a queen at making clothes that work with busy lives. Vintage fabric appliqués are sewn on loose linen dresses – unique but also not precious.

Ingrid Starnes’s winter collection is full of 1950s silhouettes with, again, a lot of silks. But this maxi dress was an interesting choice for easy fashion – a bit different, but still elegant with a masculine twist, and it looks like you could thrash it – which is really starting to appeal.