Get Chanel’s signature look with a High Street price tag this season: Tweed is back – with a twist

Elegant, timeless and ever so slightly intimidating, the beautiful bouclé suit is back with a bang, and women everywhere are going loopy for it. 

Could it be that after spending the best part of two years swaddled in cosy jogging bottoms, the prospect of a ‘serious’ outfit is rather exciting? Step forward then, this elegant little two-piece that offers a guaranteed way of looking smart, while leaving us feeling as frisky as a spring lamb. 

Fashion couture houses have favoured it for decades — it’s Chanel’s signature look. The secret lies in that word, bouclé. It’s French for ‘curly’ and refers to how the wool is spun from a series of looped fibres. It won’t crease. It keeps you warm. It was designed to bring freedom of movement and let air circulate. Importantly, although comfy, it exudes feminine power. 

Coco Chanel is said to have discovered the functionality of the then inexpensive tweed in the 1930s while riding with her lover, the Duke of Westminster. The fashion doyenne spotted how tweed stood up to rough bracken and spiky thorns (how else would sheep cope?). Anna Wintour has worn Chanel bouclé suits for decades and often ‘shoulder robes’ the jacket over a blouse or T-shirt to soften the look. 

Jacket, £75, and skirt, £40, joebrowns.co.uk; shoes, £35.99, mango. com; bag, rent from £4 a day, byrotation.com

Jacket, £329, skirt, £179, lkbennett.com; top, £12.99, hm.com; Gucci bag, rent from £79 a month, cocoon.club

With Chanel’s eye-watering prices out of reach for most, the good news is the bouclé suit has trickled down into the High Street. LK Bennett has a skirt and jacket (pictured, third from left) that can be paired with heels to ramp up the style. 

Left: Coat, £599, jacket, £399, and skirt, £299, winserlondon. com; shoes, £114, lkbennett.com. Right: Jacket, £400, and skirt, £219, maje.com; shoes, £32, asos.com; bag, rent from £4 a day, byrotation.com

Winser London offers a three-piece navy ensemble with a smart matching coat (pictured middle), an ensemble that will show any boardroom you mean business. Meanwhile, New Look is reporting a stampede for bouclé suits. Textile expert Angela Gilbey, who heads fabric sourcing for the High Street chain, attributes part of the appetite to the hit Netflix series Emily In Paris. 

Jacket, £116, and dress, £79.20, karenmillen.com; shoes, £259, lkbennett.com

Emily wears her bouclé suit with her trademark beret, Wintour chooses H. Stern diamonds, while Her Majesty The Queen accessorises hers with her signature Launer handbag, Hermes scarf and, on occasion, a corgi. The question is: how will you wear yours?

Jacket, £79.99, and skirt, £32.99, zara. com; shoes, £259, lkbennett.com; bag, £89, jwpei.com