Swish, Swish: Why Fringing Is Paris's Shortcut To Swagger

EVERYONE from the ancient Greeks to Marilyn Monroe has had a fling with fringing. Homer's Iliad is full of references to tassels; Hera, for instance, wears a tasselled belt that is said to shine "and cause excitement" and Athena wears hundreds of gold tassels, too, "all of them cunningly woven, and each one of the worth of 100 oxen”. Fast forward to 1959 and Marilyn Monroe is wiggling round a train carriage playing her ukelele, wearing a black dress with a plunging neckline and a tassel-bedecked hem which swings and shimmies with her as she plays (it's called Some Like It Hot for a reason).

Keep that sass in mind for spring: fringing is everywhere in Paris, trimming crochet dresses at Acne Studios and body-con numbers at Balmain, shrouding the body at Nina Ricci in Sobrani cigarette pastels, and enlivening minimalist tailoring at Ellery. At Céline, where two of Phoebe Philo's buzz words were “joyful” and “playful”, tassels had serious swagger. Memo to self: come February, sensuality and swishing will go together more than ever.

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