“太太团”时尚为缘何风光依旧？.doc

Why Wag fashion is still where it’s at Jess Cartner—morley Every culture tribe has its day on the front pages, its moment in the full unforgiving glare of being where-it’s-at. The hippies had Woodstock in 1969; the acid house generation had the summer raves of 1988—and the Wags had Baden—Baden in 2006,when the wives and girlfriends of the England football team stole the attention of the entire British media from right under their spouse’s noses. It ended badly, both for the footballers and for their better—looking halves. The term Wag, previously an innocent acronym of “wives and girefriends”, became a totem of a shallow, consumerist and celebrityobsessed culture. Four years on, as he names his provisional World Cup squad, Fabio Capello has made great show of sidelining the Wags, the implication being that Alex, Coleen, Carly et al wrecked their boys’ focus and fitness in 2006, presumably by clattering into their hotel rooms giggling and tipsy on their Louboutins and then disturbing the athletes’ beauty sleep by wanting to hold late—night marital conferences about what best to wear to brunch with the girls the next day—an analysis which strickes me as both far fetched and misogynistic, but never mind. This time, the Wags are apparently to be accommodated in a sort of holding pen out of harm’s way, possibly in Mauritius, and only allowed to visit the players for one day after each game. But against all the odds, the Wags are back in the fashion game. In the four years since the last year World Cup, they have regrouped, adjusted to the new culture terrain, dialled down their aesthetic to suit a sobered world and are back where they belong—setting trends. Like it or not, the Wags matter. They are far and away the best stlye bellwether we have, because they occupy the strategically important territory between cutting—edge fashion and the mainstream. Yes, their look is derivative, but that’s the whole point. What makes the Wags important for fashion—watchers is that they