Take two office-blue shirts. This one by Wales Bonner forms a hazy aura. Ayuol’s belt is by Stefan Cooke, and her earrings and watch are by Cartier.
These macro shirt cuffs descend like bells to these gracefully flared trousers, both by Sacai. Chitose Abe uses precise tailoring to create this outsize cuff, sweeping from the elbow to frame, or envelop, the hand. Earrings by Cartier provide a point of light.
Uniforms are designed, variously, to create visual equity, to denote difference in authority or access, to inspire fear or familiarity, and to suppress individuality and promote the collective. They also offer endless opportunities for play and personalisation.
Coco Chanel began working with tweed after a love affair with a Scot. It became a Chanel signature. Ayuol, our model, grew up far away from either France or the Highlands in Perth, on the green west coast of Australia, with hungry crocodiles to the north and profound desert to the east.
Lines stream from the central hem on this dress by Stefan Cooke, opened out like washing on a line. Ayuol’s earrings are by TASAKI.
Ayuol's dress by Shang Xia is simplicity itself, made from layers of stretch cotton. Shoes by Manlo Blahnik provide an ornate platform.
Unusual tailoring technique sends a second seam running across the shoulder of this jacket by Eftychia. Even the jeans are cut on a bias, making them, as Ayuol notes, as comfortable as pyjamas. Her earring and ear cuff are by TASAKI.
Cartier has introduced a sleek update to its classic Tank Française watch. Its silver sheen meets the rows of rivulets that stud Ayuol’s shirt cuff by Wales Bonner.
This tasselled bag by Victoria Beckham (who also created Ayuol’s dress) looks like a squat Pekinese or a Lion’s Mane mushroom. Nao, the hair stylist, tackles the bag with a wide-toothed comb to make its silky strands lie smooth.
Perhaps the bag echoes, too, the judge’s wig – reminding us that something can go from distinguished to ridiculous to elegant and back again. In other words, uniforms – designed to establish clear power relations – are subject to aesthetic sedition. Power, as much as style, requires continual reinvention.