Can you tell an £895 Burberry cape from a £25 Ikea blanket?
Cara Delevigne and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley have both modelled blanket capes for Burberry but are they acceptable outerwear? The blanket is having a moment, despite the potential for looking like you are recovering from illness or have slept on the street Burberry's £900 cashmere and wool cape were the toast of their autumn/winter show They can slide off, you can’t run in them, and you have to drink coffee extremely carefully
By Catherine Ostler for the Daily Mail There are obvious difficulties in wearing a blanket in the street. For example, a few days ago I met a very fashionable person wrapped in one in the country, and was not alone in assuming she was recuperating from something nasty. Or, at worst, people might think you’d slept in a doorway and got up to stretch your legs.
However, absurd as it sounds, the blanket (or poncho, drape, cape, wrap, maxi scarf or whatever you want to call it) is having a moment. Burberry’s, thick, 15 per cent cashmere, 85 per cent wool blankets in yellow, blue and red — and costing nearly £900 — were the toast of their autumn/winter show this year, and looked rather fetching (not a hard task, admittedly) on Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Cara Delevingne. To someone like me who loves their bed and hates getting out of it, wandering around draped in a blanket is a good halfway house.
There are drawbacks, however: with no toggles anywhere, they can slide off; you can’t run in them, and you have to drink coffee extremely carefully, in case your blanket slips off, taking your mug with it.
But can they really be an acceptable form of outerwear?
And as they are after all only blankets, would anyone actually be able to tell the difference between this autumn’s designer creations and a £25 one from Ikea?
This reliable M&S wrap is all Ribena and summer pudding colours, with a fringe. It’s easy to wear, with no special wrapping required — and as it’s knitted, its weight stops it from sliding off. You could tie it at the front if you needed your hands free. I looked a little like a tarot-card reader, but it’s pretty, and either bohemian or dressy depending what you wear it with.
BEAT THE CHILLS
Check wool and cashmere blanket, £895, burberry.com
The original Burberry masterpiece that kicked off the blanket trend. This does feel very expensive, which is lucky because it is. It’s very thick — perhaps overly so for a transitional autumn day, but wonderful on a chilly, breezy one. As it’s heavy, it stays on better than most.
The utilitarian option. I have to admit that when draped by a stylist — I certainly couldn’t manage to make it look stylish myself — you might think this was designed for a person rather than a sofa. But it feels rough and scratchy. I got the sense that if I lay down in a London park, people might start parking their flasks and sandwiches on my back!
CREATIVE COLOURS
Multi block poncho, £129, jigsaw-online.com
Jigsaw’s attempt is made of lovely fabric, with rough, blankety edges, and it’s in strong colours just like the Burberry one. However, there’s so much of it you could set up camp in it, so careful draping is required. I wouldn’t wear this one anywhere near an escalator.
Tasselled and, washable, this grey-and-white blanket goes with anything and is very easy to wear because it’s thin enough to be flexible, thick enough to be warm, cosy as afternoon tea and incredibly comforting; I didn’t want to take it off. In fact, I didn’t take it off for hours. But you do have to part company with it when drinking coffee, or you’re asking for trouble.
