The return of grey is a cause for celebration

I’m terribly excited with the discovery that grey is autumn/winter’s go-to neutral. Yay! Grey is the new black/brown/beige! At last, a trend that should be an absolute doddle for Invisible Women – if ever a colour had our name on it, it’s grey. The grey resurrection ties in with the industrial utilitarian vibe running through the high street, so prepare for big zips, heat-sealed seams and even the odd flash of hi-vis reflective tape. This is very profit-savvy of our frenemy Mr Fashion, because it runs contrary to all the prettiness around over last winter and during the summer. I conclude that the less imaginative and more easily led among us will feel compelled to rush out and replace all our clothes. Thank goodness then for an older, wiser and greyer head that insists we carefully store things away for future years because they’re “keepers”. So far, I’ve dug out an Ossie Clark for Radley dove grey flutter-sleeved frock from 1970-something; an enormous knobbly wool All Saints cardi from a few years ago; a pair of lined grey flannel Oxford bags from Toast and a grey tweed pea coat with a faux-fur collar (prescient sale buy last year).

Grey is a marvellous colour for redheads (me) or anyone else for that matter but the gentleness of it must be enlivened with a shot of something eye-catching. Pair charcoal grey with a vivid scarlet lip, an anarchic shade of orange or a blast of lime green. To bring grey bang up to date take accessories away from the mauves and purples, which are its natural partners. If you think wearing grey with grey hair is also a step too far then may I refer you to the carbon-fibre Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, or the peerless Dame Helen Mirren. Grey puts the bones into a winter wardrobe. Banish thoughts of fog and Scotch mist and think instead of graphite, iron, elephants and concrete – strong things. Grey is strong but in a non-showy-offy kind of way. Grey supports. Grey supplies the canvas on which to paint your Pollock, or Lichtenstein.

I wonder if it’s a coincidence that at the same time as we’re seeing a resurrection of grey, the totemic colour of an invisible generation, we’re also seeing the vanguard of a new movement in fashion advertising. There is Charlotte Rampling (“dramatic depth, unstoppable character”) for the Nars Audacious lipstick collection – look no further than Carmen to add the lipstick full stop to your grey look. Open a magazine and Ines de la Fressange skips across a page as the face for Uniqlo. Elsewhere, Jaeger’s mother/daughter campaign shows off Wendy and Jodie Kidd, Tessa Codrington and Jacquetta Wheeler, and Liz Casey and Jasmine Guinness. Finally, there is Angelica Houston for Gap. I admire and appreciate beauty but in the young it’s rather like the attractive hoardings put up around buildings to hide construction work – behind every twentysomething face there is a sixty-year-old one under construction. I’m delighted to see acknowledgement of the older, stronger beauty that is a foundation for the younger, more fragile kind. This older beauty should be seen so that it can inspire us as we ourselves age.

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Of course, the tide won’t have incontrovertibly turned until we see older models routinely accepted on to the pages of magazine fashion shoots but this sudden change of heart is surely cause for optimism. The trick will be in maintaining momentum. A flash in the pan reaction to current pressure and a fleeting desire to woo the (mythical?) riches of the “grey pound” won’t do it for me. I appreciate there must be compromise but any inch I give will be in exchange for a generous mile from the media. We’ve waited a long time for this. In the meantime, wear your grey with pride – and massive architectural jewellery.

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