Trends are fun to talk about, but they don’t feel real until you see them, totally unforced, in the wild. I recently stopped by Poketo, a gallery-meets-lifestyle store in L.A.’s burgeoning Arts District. One of the most stylish women I saw there was wearing a chambray shirt so oversized it fell into an A-line, a pair of black ankle-length trousers, and clogs. Not the girlish, almost-pretty kind of clogs—the black leather orthopedic kind. Her style was practical, unfussy, simple. But more than anything, she reminded me of my fourth-grade art teacher.
Art-teacher chic—loose tunics, big ceramic necklaces, modest shoes—has become the go-to uniform for fashion-y women who are done with overdone.
“My assistant buyer always calls her style ‘art-teacher chic,’ so it has definitely been on my radar,” says Jen Mankins, owner of Brooklyn boutique chain Bird. “I like the idea of a 1970s Upper West Side art teacher—like Woody Allen’s second wife, Robin, in Annie Hall.”
It’s sort of always around, this art-teacher thing. “I feel there has always been an undercurrent of this look in the designers I work with, such as Rachel Comey, Suno, and Marni, as well as influential brands such as Prada,” Mankins says. “But more recently, I think a defining proponent of this trend has been Phoebe Philo at Céline, with her oversize coats, long skirts, big knits, and big flat sandals.” For Spring, Comey designed a denim apron dress that was hand-flecked with paint, as if the wearer had just spent three weeks in a pottery class. CP Shades, a three-decades-old line that deals primarily in loose tops and dresses made from natural fabrics, has been one of Bird’s top sellers this season—its chambray linen V-neck dress and tunic feeding right into the frenzy.
The idea was even more pronounced in the Resort 2015 collections, where both emerging and established labels presented their own versions of what an art teacher should look like. At Objects Without Meaning—a newish line out of Los Angeles—designer Alexandra Michelle paired her printed coveralls with long necklaces strung with ceramic geometric shapes. Acne Studio’s Jonny Johansson showed a purple V-neck dress worn over matching leggings—and sensible flat booties, of course. The Row’s mid-calf skirts, Enzo Bonafè oxfords, and cap-sleeve coats could belong to a faculty member at the world’s most elite private school. While Object Without Meaning’s Michelle says that she’s not thinking “art teacher” when she’s designing, “I definitely wake up in the morning knowing that I need to be comfortable today.”
Indeed, art-teacher chic is part of a bigger a movement toward relaxed fashion, whether that means couture sneakers or normcore jeans. But will women forgo their waists in droves to experience the ease of an art teacher’s uniform? “I think the style comes out of a desire to look and feel interesting and creative without being too masculine or overtly sexy,” Mankins suggests. Although that doesn’t mean she won’t tweak the look just a little by occasionally showing a slice of skin or swiping those clogs for stilettos. “Like most trends, it should never be executed too literally.”
