It’s a great season to buy a “personality skirt”; the kind that puts pep in your step. This summer, it’s with minimal irony that we welcome back the Uptown frou of Serena van der Woodsen’s early Aughts wardrobe. Specifically: the bouncy, leg-baring joy of the puffball skirt—a hallmark of the incoming Bubble Girl look.
East London-based designer Aaron Esh, a rising star of the capital’s fashion scene, is backing the mood. His muse wears a polished grey wool skirt suit with cherry-red mules, and a wash of pale grey eyeshadow. Bally’s new creative director Simone Bellotti, Kiko Kostadinov, and the king of clever, cloud-like volume, Louis Vuitton’s Nicolas Ghesquière, are all on board with this season’s revisionist preppy look, which speaks to the squeaky clean lifestyle cues that are currently lighting up our IG feeds.
During decades gone by, clothes gave away their wearer’s job or taste in music. Today, the way we dress communicates the finer details of our optimal lifestyle choices. A Vogue editor worth their salt will be able to detect your retinol percentage, whether you’re a Bio Sculpture or Dior Nail Glow girl, and how long you’d be willing to queue outside Buns From Home, all on the basis of your Vestiaire wishlist.
The Bubble Girl aesthetic is pinned to a fresh faced Rosalía wearing a Paloma Wool dress and athletic ballet flats in Los Angeles, a mostly empty cup of ice tea at her feet. She’s Iris Law during a creative recharge in Tokyo with flecks of gold glitter adorning the bridge of her nose. The twenty-something fashion consultants you follow on IG who prefer to make mood boards at 10pm on a Thursday night than to party, are Bubble Girls. (They likely have a breakfast meeting on Golborne Road following a 7:30am Barrecore class in Notting Hill). The Bubble Girl is busy and anti-hedonistic. She book-marks Adidas Jisho yoga flats on Vinted, and scours her DMs for a personal assistant who can help archive her vintage Margiela collection. She stows her essentials in a well-loved Balenciaga City bag, and never lets her phone battery die.
The Bubble Girl uniform? A puffball skirt (obv). She has Fanci Club’s puffed mini and vintage Jil Sanders bloomers on rotation. But, this is about reclaiming a Noughties party wear staple for daylight hours, so heels—unless it’s a Chloé wedge—are off the menu. The Bubble Girl is shipping for Vivobarefoot Asana Yin ballerinas and a translucent knee sock. Until at least the August bank holiday, the only cover-ups worth considering are a Ghesquière-era Balenciaga parachute jacket or a Barrie by Sofia Coppola cardigan.
Here’s the thing: you’re going to need a bubble skirt and the PR contact at Barrecore in time for summer. We all are.
Shop Vogue’s edit of bubble skirts below:
Pair with Vogue’s edit of ballet flats, below:
This article originally appeared on British Vogue.
