A CASE FOR CULOTTES

A pair of billowing culottes, Breton stripes and a walled garden awash with fragrant buds and blooms on the cusp of a summer resurgence... Forget Brixton, we felt like we were in the South of France when we were out shooting this on a balmy May evening. Aforementioned culottes are my favourite recent purchase and were a dead cert for summer after I spied them on the catwalks at the likes of Chloe, Stella, Roksanda Illincic and Acne. They inject a gentle sophistication and ease into my often quite jean-led wardrobe, plus they're a roomy and comfortable compromise for indecisive, cooler weather, whilst still hanging onto the all-important summer momentum. While this is a dialled-down, off-duty look, there's definitely a case for streamlining culottes into a more grown-up, summer-evening-cocktails kind of ensemble. I'll be teaming them with a crisp white shirt and lace-up block heel sandals to amp up the smart factor in an attempt to recreate something you might dig up from Vogue's 1970s – or even 30s – archives. And they'll be the first thing making their way into my suitcase for an imminent trip to Antibes.

Culottes | Zara

T-Shirt | Boden

Slides | Birkenstocks

Jumper | Victoria Beckham

Bag | Cambridge Satchel Company

Bracelet | Thomas Sabo