Collecting her OBE from Buckingham Palace on Sunday, dressed in a definitively un-shouty black shift dress and pair of black pumps, British fashion designer Phoebe Philo was a lesson in quiet cool. Inspiring legions of minimalist fashion bloggers, Phoebe has come to define how modern women like to dress – thanks to her role as Stella McCartney's design assistant and then creative director at Chloe and now as CD at Celine.
Not sure you've been touched by Philo? Apologies for sounding very Miranda Priestly, but we dare you to find one of the below that hasn't made it into your wardrobe:
1. Chunky wooden sandals
That whole ‘chunky sandals’ with a floaty dress (and occasionally a pair of ribbed socks) is pure Alexa, right? Wraaaaang. Pure Philo, babes. All pared-back minimalist-fem, you can see the shoes threaded throughout her work at both Chloe and Celine, like these from her SS10 Celine collection.
2. An all-white get-up
Thinking about trying out a white tee or blouse with equally polar vortex-y jeans this spring? (Do it.) Perhaps you've been ogling Aluna Francis of AlunaGeorge in magnificient ice-white Richard Nicoll on stage, or blogger Sandra Haglestam at LFW? We're afraid to say you're late to the party. Celine was totally already doing that for AW13.
3. A floaty evening dress
Remember this Sienna Miller dress? That, no doubt, you tried to get a rip-off version of to wear to your sixth-form ball? Yep, that excellent eveningwear was all down to Phoebe P.
4. Fugly sandals
Wanna know where the penchant for ugly-ass sandals started? Two years ago. With Birkenstocks. You can blame Celine SS13. Their 'firkenstocks' (fur-lined Birkenstocks, retailing at $900) opened a can of whoop-ass on the growing alt-footwear scene that even the staunchest of anti-eco sandal wearers now find themselves struggling to resist.
5. High-waisted wide-leg trousers
High-waisted wide-leg trousers are a Philo staple (Phoebe wears a black pair like they're her uniform). When Kate Moss wore a pair of high-waisted, stone-washed, wide-leg Chloe jeans in 2006, the new ‘jean’ caused major waves and Topshop reactively produced a near-identical pair. Which you no doubt purchased.
6. The Chloe Paddington bag
Remember when you wanted a padlock on your handbag? Any padlock? Yep, that was Phoebe, with her Chloe Paddington bag. You probably wanted one, couldn't afford it – but bought a fake from a Bangkok market. That soon disintegrated, thus teaching you a very important lesson about buying counterfeits.
7. The oversized white dress shirt
A white shirt? We can hear you scoff. Well, yes actually. It wasn't exactly ‘cool’ to wear a crisp white shirt, like a secretary-cum-schoolgirl until Phoebe produced a collar-less, frayed long white shirt in her debut SS10 collection for Celine. To the understated designer, it's become very much like her uniform, along with a pair of wide-legged black trousers.
8. The polo neck
Sometimes it's hard to remember what life was like armed with just a jumper drawer of crew-necks and V-necks. As seen in Phoebe's AW11 Celine collection of white jersey polo necks, the polo is a Philo staple. Makes us wonder how we coped in pre-polo neck days, when you couldn't hide your neck wattle nor tuck your hair into your polo neck like the supercool PP herself.
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Pictures: Jason Lloyd-Evans, Getty, Rex
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.