You may not be familiar with the term “inverted notch lapel”, or what it might look like. Until now, that is, after two of the country’s most high profile women stepped out wearing it.
The first was the new Princess of Wales, who wore the Karen Millen Forever dress in sunshine yellow for a visit to a maternity ward. Kate rarely puts a fashion foot wrong so, as PR opportunities come, this is the holy grail. The Kate Effect is as powerful as it was 11 years ago when she married Prince William and, at the time of writing, the dress is already sold out in every size.
The other person modelling this style, Prime Minister Liz Truss, wore a red Karen Millen dress for her leader’s speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. This in itself is not new; she has several dresses like this in different colours. For her, the inverted notch lapel is almost a style signature.
Truss’s look has gone viral on social media though, because it appears to be uncannily similar to the dress worn by Emma Thompson in the dystopian Russell T Davies drama Years and Years. It could even be the same one. Named the “Forever” dress, Karen Millen has been selling it in various iterations since 2015 and it’s a consistent bestseller. At £225, it’s not cheap, but also not prohibitively expensive. It’s inclusive too, available in sizes 6-26.
“This style originally started as a sleeved midi-pencil shape silhouette, but it now extends into a range of styles creating our Forever family,” says Karen Millen’s head of design, Bonnie Godsil. “It comes in A-line to pleated, sleeveless to short pencil versions.”
The fact that Thompson plays an ultra-far-right politician in a terrifying imagined future in Years and Years is less than ideal for Truss. As Davies himself pointed out on Instagram: “This is getting weird.”
Cultural references aside, the inverted notch lapel is popular for a reason. It’s flattering. Isn’t that what we all want from our clothes? It’s an interesting neckline, revealing a bit of skin, but not enough that it’s flashy or indecent. “The V-neck does all the right things,” says personal stylist Annabel Hodin, who regularly works with women in the public eye. “It elongates the neck in an unprovocative but very feminine way and allows for delicate but pretty jewellery. This highlights the collarbone and draws the eye upwards. The neckline also creates a narrow shoulder effect. This all exudes confidence very subtly.”
We know that both the Princess of Wales and Truss are fond of delicate jewellery; the inverted notch allows the PM to put her “Circle of Truss” necklace front and centre.
Both of these appearances also represent something of a ‘moment’ for Karen Millen, which was acquired out of administration, along with dusty sister brand Coast, in August 2019 by the Boohoo Group.
While we won’t see Karen Millen-clad editors on the front row at London Fashion Week anytime soon, it is becoming a reliable source of workwear for women in the formal workplace. Carrie Johnson wore a rented Karen Millen dress to Queen Elizabeth’s funeral last month. Another unlikely high profile fan is Dr Jill Biden, who wore a feather trimmed black dress to the Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, DC.
But it’s not just famous women – it’s regular women who desperately need smart clothes for work and don’t have the time to trawl the high street for other options. They need clothes that aren’t cut too low at the chest, don’t expose their upper arms, conceal their knees, and allow them to get on with their work without being distracted by their clothes. They are the lawyers, finance executives and general managers at fine dining restaurants. Ask those women where they found their well-fitting skirt or sharply cut dress and they’ll whisper, “Karen Millen”.
Except that whisper, thanks to the Princess of Wales and Truss, is a little bit louder. Karen Millen, fashionable or not, fills a valuable gap in the market. The secret’s out, and before long, that whisper will be a roar.
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