Ah, the Great British High Street – answer to all shit days at work, impromptu nights out, and quests for sartorial reinvention. A happy place, where the price tags are low(ish) and the denim is free-flowing. Also a place full of queuing – a thing we Brits excel at. Queue for the changing room? Naturally. Queue for the till? Of course. And now there’s one more queue for us to join – the high-street waiting list.
It started with Olivia Palermo (she of getting-married-in-a-jumper fame) and Alexa Chung. Palermo was spotted wearing Marks & Spencer’s tan suede skirt at NYFW last February, followed closely by Chung. At just shy of £200, this wasn’t cheap for an M&S skirt – but that didn’t stop the punters rolling in and forming one very long waiting list. And voila, those puppies sold-out like nobody’s business.
Need more proof? Let us consider Topshop Unique, and the floral tea dress to end all floral tea dresses. Alexa Chung wore it during LFW in February, started a waiting list riot, and the £225 number sold out within days of going on sale in June. So they made more. And guess what? Those sold out too.
Here’s my question – is the high-street getting better at predicting trends? Are we getting savvier about shopping? Or is Chung demon-headmastering us all through the medium of Instagram so that we all buy her stuff?
I have no answers for you. What I do have are suggestions of the things that you, dear reader, should line up for. The things that the Alexas and Olivias of this world will be wearing come Fashion Week. There is only one condition – if you see me in Topshop, turn a blind eye when I jump the queue – yeah?
& Other Stories, £55, available 7 September
Asos, £95, available mid-September
H&M Studio: Dress £29.99, Trousers £49.99, available 10 September
Topshop Unique, £145, available 9 September
M&S Per Una Speziale, £159, available in November
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.