Can a fleece ever be fashionable?
| By Megan Lane and Tom Geoghegan BBC News Magazine |
They wore leggings and stompy heels. We, however, stood out in a red fleece. A bobbly, basic, and decidedly unironic fleece. Its one possible claim to fashion fame is that it looked a little like the red fleece Rageh Omar wore in his "Scud Stud" days of reporting from Baghdad.
 |   Fleeces and sportswear are extremely fashionable now. We just watched the Christopher Shannon show and he used it (pictured above). Anything can be fashionable, it's how you wear it. This fleece is very basic but you could wear it as a dress, over leggings and big heels  TopMan stylist Mary Mullally, 31 |
Despite its near total absence from the catwalks of this week's London Fashion Week, the fashionistas who populate this biannual style bash couldn't help but cosy up to this ever so humble garment. Perhaps it's the chance to wrap up warm...
Polarfleece first went on sale in 1979, trademarked by New Hampshire's Malden Mills. Made from polyester microfibre, it drew moisture away from the skin, freeing ramblers and climbers from the prickly discomfort of waterlogged woolly jumpers. Today polar fleece is a generic term for the fabric, rather than a brand, and is the nation's outerwear of choice, whether for pottering in the garden or out on a bracing walk.
It is practical. Cheap. Lightweight. It's dry almost as soon as it emerges from the washing machine, and is made from the plastic bottles we toss into recycling bins. It adds warmth, but is less bulky than a coat.
But stylish it is not - a fact conceded by those whose dress sense is carefully scrutinised.
|  The gratifying thing about a fleece - aside from the warmth - is that it simply never has to look good Emily Maitlis |
"The gratifying thing about a fleece - aside from the warmth - is that it never has to look good," says BBC newsreader Emily Maitlis, whose favourite off-camera outfit is a fleece with jeans and ballet pumps. "It is a declaration you simply don't mind. Hence the joy. Anything aesthetic is an unaccustomed bonus."
Unaccustomed indeed. For despite its slimming shades of grey, navy or black, the fleece is boxy of silhouette and zips tend to woggle unflatteringly over one's torso.
Fashion staple
But don't yet rule it out as a style statement, says Professor Penny Martin, of the London College of Fashion.
|  Fleeces have an unfashionable reputation because they're fluffy. But fleeces are stylish. I love this one, I love the colour. It's better zipped down, and with a few layers, maybe with a scarf to bring it up Model Dominique Hollington, 19 |
"The fleece jacket has been designed with practicality in mind, but with a tweak of the proportions, perhaps across the hip, and a rethink on the fastenings, I can imagine it being used by a menswear designer.
"After all, where did jeans come from? Nineteenth century workwear, given a little bit of a twist in the 1950s to become a contemporary choice."
As if to prove the point, on Wednesday, the last day of London Fashion Week, designer Christopher Shannon used fleece in his sportswear-themed collection.
Professor Martin says an unfashionable fabric will suddenly hit the catwalk and then be picked up by the High Street when an entrepreneurial manufacturer targets an up and coming designer, offering sponsorship to use their cloth.
"It's not going to happen that we all suddenly decide it'll be nice to be warm and the fleece will become fashionable. That's not how it works."
Club attire
As is so often the case these days, the High Street is there first. Retailers of "yoof" favourites such as wet-look leggings and tube dresses - American Apparel and Uniqlo in particular - already sell tight, bright incarnations of the fleece, the perfect top layer for their clubby, casual, urban wares.
|  I wouldn't mind a fleece, it's good for outside when you're cold. In a few years it will be in fashion again, but with more seams and in different colours. It could work if it was wide or slim. Also some better quality zips - metal instead of plastic Vibeka Kaae, 26, design assistant |
Which is apt, as what originally helped propel the fleece out of its outdoorsy niche was the acid house scene, says Rosemary Harden, curator of the Fashion Museum in Bath.
Clubbers dressed for comfort in trainers, backpacks, baggy T-shirts and trousers - and donned fleeces to head home in the thin light of dawn.
"There was the mountaineering Berghaus crowd, obviously, but fleeces were being worn in clubs in the 1980s and made by brands such as Duffer of St George. That propelled them into the mainstream, and then, awful awful, the fleece became the sort of thing your mum would wear."
Those who once threw shapes on the dancefloor now indulge in pastimes such as rambling and gardening. And what do they wear? Fleece jackets. Fleece hats. Fleece scarves. Fleece gloves. No wonder outdoor shops proliferate on High Streets and shopping centres up and down this land.
|  This needs accessorising, maybe cut the sleeves off. I do own one, which I wear when it's very cold. It's a fashion staple. You might think people here would slag it off but fashion people aren't like that. I like this fleece. Top-notch, 10 out of 10 Model Jono Namara, 21 |
The Ramblers' Association Walk magazine is almost entirely illustrated with people in fleeces, young and old.
The fleece has helped lure us outside in our leisure time, says Minnie Burlton, the magazine's gear editor.
"Its warmth to weight ratio has simplified packing for a weekend away walking. Once you'd need loads of cotton and wool layers, now you just need a fleece and an outer layer to keep the wind out."
And gone are the days of pulling on still-sodden socks and jumpers the day after a drenching.
"If your fleece gets wet, it will dry if you put it on a hanger behind the door. So if you go on a walking holiday to the Lake District, for instance, you can stay at a B&B. A walkers' lodge with a drying room is no longer essential."
The fleece jacket has also helped democratise the school uniform, offering a more casual choice for head teachers keen to foster collegiate pride and nip competitive dressing in the bud, without asking parents to shell out for blazers and ties.
From baby blankets to kit for polar expeditions, the fleece keeps us snuggly.
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