Spring is for the Girls

Spring is for the girls

Spring has been gentle; Winter was hard. My body was in free-fall after a heartbreak in the cold. Too often I’ve let the season wash away in anticipation of Summer. But it is a period of coming back to life, and this year more than ever. I died in Winter, before April helped me to remember the feel of sun on skin and how warm rain smells like renewal. Spring has felt so gentle, so feminine; I remembered that I was a girl and that I could be alive again. Softer days are easier to live in.

Femininity turned falling into floating - there is something so precious about being a girl. About the softness of dancing in underwear listening to pop music, putting on a pot of coffee and waking up waiting for it to erupt, lighting a candle before bed because the glow is softer than the lamp, drinking wine in London with sisters, collecting books, clothes, and little things that can fill my room. It is ok to love the clichés, they have been kind to me. They have held me like the arms of a friend who has rushed to my make-do flat while I sink to the bottom of the ocean. 

Fashion is nothing if not an expression of self. Dressing with femininity has been only right for Spring. The sweetness of soft materials, muted colours, girlish silhouettes, ensembles that appeal to the feminine eye and not the male gaze, is my quiet and personal nod to a healing interior. Clothes are a second skin, less vulnerable than the real thing but still a part of you. The layer that protects the inside, but speaks in silent conversation with the social world in which the body exists. 

It only makes sense that this season has been about feminine expression. In forms that resemble the styling of Florence-Émile Morin for @greyroomshop on Instagram, the work of designer Lucila Safdie, Kylie Jenner’s wavy hair, Pinterest pictures of girls in bedrooms reading books. For a visual representation, look at my moodboard.

Girlishness is very much in but has always had its place in Spring collections and can be seen in old and new. More recently, there was the soft girl-playing-dress-up-esque couture from Chanel Spring 2024 Couture, with the show even featuring girls girl Margaret Qualley. Or the flowers, bows, baby blues and muted pinks of Simone Rocha, Spring 2024 ready-to-wear. Playing with shapes and softness, Sandy Liang SS24 ready-to-wear, further compounded the message: Spring is for the girls. Delving into the archives, the collections of Miu Miu Spring 2001 ready-to-wear, D&G Spring 2002, and Jill Stuart Spring 2006 ready-to-wear, capture a gorgeous girlish youthfulness.

For me, this translates to a Spring uniform of: worn, soft jeans and delicate pumps, off-the-shoulder tops, low rise skirts, cashmere jumpers. As well as: slouchy hoodies, midi skirts, military jackets, Bailey Bow Uggs, Miu Miu handbags and Isabel Marant heeled sneakers (a year-round staple honestly). It’s also, messy hair, hooped earrings, Glossier ‘You’, and MAC ‘persistence’ for cheeks and lips. Oh, and white and pink tulips - my room’s uniform.

In these months before Summer, layering will get its day in the sun, before the city’s warmth is the only layer needed. Statement girlish pieces, like short sleeve tops or wrap skirts, can be juxtaposed with casual items, such as warmer jackets or jeans, to create intentionally soft but striking looks. Looks that are unapologetically girly, in a Sofia Coppola, only girls would get it, lipstick kiss on your coffee cup kind of way.

It might sound silly, but I have decided I can give importance to the things that feel right. As a newly single girl in her 20s, all that is gentle, pink, and for the girls, feels right and therefore important. Dressing to reflect that is for me, a secret nod to my inner, healing self. It is a comforting embrace, girlhood, somewhere to retreat to. Here, I can pull my knees up to my chest and wrap my arms around myself.

As the days get longer and warmer and brighter, I will take hot showers and listen to Lana Del Rey, Ethel Cain, PJ Harvey, and Adrianne Lenker. Wearing pink gingham pyjama shorts and a soft white vest over a freshly washed and moisturised body, I will lie in bed and watch HBO’s Girls, or read Little Weirds by Jenny Slate. I will run to Paris for the day, just because I can, feel inspired to write this, take risks, and love the things that I love. Spring is bringing me back to me.

Some girl-inspired collages for Spring