WELCOME TO a dishevelled UNIVERSE…

Scrolling on my phone the other day, I came across a video of a girl parading around in a cardigan, baker boy hat and skinny scarf. ‘Today,’ she crowed in an American accent, ‘I will be teaching you how to dress like a frazzled English woman’…

When I looked up the term ‘frazzled English woman’ afterwards, I realised I was late to the party. It turned out the frazzled fashion trend had been going strong for the past two years, and I had completely missed it.

According to my research, ‘the frazzled woman’ is dishevelled (think Bridget Jones); she is windswept, yet elegant at the same time. There is even a Vogue article dedicated to the term and the requirements to achieve the ‘frazzled’ aesthetic (cashmere and claw clips if you are wondering). The names Kate Winslet and Keira Knightley came up again and again- a perfect example of the trend being Keira Knightley in Love Actually in a baker boy hat, saying ‘I’m quite pretty.’

Something tickled me about the idea of an American influencer finding dishevelled Englishwomen endearing and even fashionable. As the Vogue article pointed out, there is a difference between the cute kind of Keira Knightley frazzled and FRAZZLED. When I think of that kind of FRAZZLED, I picture myself turning up to lectures, hungover, a vibrant sort of green, with an uncharged laptop and loo roll stuck to my shoe. Unfortunately, I fear that people would find it less cutesy if Keira Knightley was the hue of Shrek and said ‘I’m quite pretty’ trundling bog roll after her. This led me to ask myself whether Keira Knightley was really the right face of the frazzled English woman? Who was really frazzled enough to step into those shoes?

When, at that moment, I looked down at my odd socks and the cup of tea I had just spilt on them, I realised I was the woman for the job.

This article will be dedicated to all things imperfect, disorganised and dishevelled. Being a woman in a world which requires you to be perfect is exhausting. So, if you are feeling a bit frazzled, pull up a chair, make yourself a brew and dive in…

O’Neill, Lauren,’ An Actual Frazzled English Woman Dissects the Trend,'<https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/frazzled-englishwoman-trend>[01/05/2025]