Alexa Chung

The new must-have wardrobe staple? That’ll be PVC

25 February 2014

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Having traditionally been the sartorial domain of Catwoman and sex shops, PVC and high-shine fabrics have gotten a bit of a bad rep over the years. However, this season the catwalk has given this much-maligned fabric a new lease of life and it's gotten a bona fide high-fashion makeover. So move over skinny jeans, as the PVC skirt is where's it's at this party season. Picture Editor: Sandra Waibl

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Proving that the PVC/vinyl trend is going strong, Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery wore this skater style dress with glossy PVC trim for an appearance on a US chat show - and looked pretty incred, if we say so ourselves.
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When Cara Delevingne shimmied down the Topshop Unique Autumn/Winter ’14 catwalk in this skater-style patent mini, cropped top and gorgeous luxe coat it sent our fashion pulses positively racing. Was this really happening? Was PVC about to make a comeback?
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Sure enough the rest of the show saw its fair share of glorious high-shine, wet look skirts from mini skaters and figure-skimming pencils to full and fabulous camel PVC midi-skirts.
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An Aran sweater, a JW Anderson patent PVC skirt and a pair of sweet bow pumps: Alexa Chung reached style nirvana as she arrived for Anderson’s autumn/winter 13 show.

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And it wasn’t long before the A-List started to follow suit, too. With one of her biggest hits being a song entitled S&M, it was little surprise that Rihanna got in on the PVC/latex skirt trend early doors, rocking this most excellent bright red version with a 90s-tastic denim mac.
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But for true confirmation that is all well and good where it concerns the case of the PVC skirt, we only had to spot Alexa Chung working a knee-length black pencil version with a cosy cream knit and we wanted in. Immediately.
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But we’d only really envisaged that we’d like this trend in black and a couple of bold and bright colours; blush pinks and camels had not figured onto our fash-dar at all. That was until Kim K stepped out in this gorgeous PVC pencil skirt and all our previous misconceptions about PVC skirts were buried, never to rear their judgemental heads again.
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Alexa’s pal Pixie Geldof did a Rihanna and a went for a hot bright and whilst we would have preferred a styling with a tucked in shirt, suddenly coral pink PVC skirts were top of our wish list.

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Or do we want a baby pink one like Amanda De Cadenet Taylor’s?
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Although Alexa’s mini is slightly more matted than the others, this shiny fabric still sets it apart from regular leather-look skirts and is an easy-peasy update for your wardrobe in 2014.
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Ever the fashion rebel though, Alexa really tested her patent mettle in this all-in-one PVC dress. Keeping the look feminine with a skater style skirt and simple strappy design at the top, rather unbelievably it was another resounding victory for PVC.
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Vanessa White and her Saturdays bandmates have also taken up the PVC gauntlet, regularly stepping out in high-shine designs but we’re not convinced of this A-line teal version.

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Proving the power of the pencil skirt though; Vanessa looked chic, smart and bang on-trend in this simple, patent knee-length design.
[b]So, if we’ve whet your appetite for all things patent skirt, click on for some great High Street options to trial the trend yourself.
Silver Vinyl Pencil Skirt, £30 at Topshop
Oxblood Patent A Line PVC Midi Skirt, £38 at Lavish Alice
Metallic Pencil skirt, £32 at Dorothy Perkins