I always thought that You've Got Mail was what living in New York would look like. Walls full of book cases and fresh daisies every day and a light-filled apartment big enough for two on the Upper West Side. How wrong I was, but how right Kathleen Kelly's wardrobe is in this movie. It's that 90s minimalism that invaded everything post-Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, when all anyone wanted to wear was turtlenecks and beige slacks and a man's white shirt. I love that this style is having a resurgence, it's clean and crisp and fresh as a morning in spring, something so simple that you look twice for what you've missed. It's slightly out-sized, like too-big pyjamas and cosy grey sweaters, but the skirts are always fitted and the tee shirts tucked into belted trousers. It's like the slightly more modernised Annie Hall - another fantastic New York City living movie. No bright colours, no bells and whistles, just simple cardigans and shirts, tunics and jeans, and one or two great coat with fur on the collar. The kind of stuff that Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren peddle with baby-faced models in the ads, but it's still good, you know? Healthy and fine-boned and raised on milk and corn. That's what Kathleen Kelly looks like.
My favourite scene in this movie is when Joe Fox (F.O.X) turns up at Kathleen's absolutely wonderful, book-filled apartment unnanounced. She's sick and wearing a pair of stripey pyjamas and so she throws on the nearest thing - a gloriously beige trench coat - and shoves the piles of tissues in her pockets and belts the whole lot. I loved that look. I loved how massive the trench was on her, and how the pockets seemed neverendless, and how great it looked with the collar of her pyjama shirt poking through. My godmother has a trench coat just like this. It's Burberry and it's the most perfect shade of greige and it has a removable lining. She let me borrow it when I went to Scotland many years ago, and I've been longing for something as perfect for a while now. It's one of those things, you know, either a trench coat is perfect, or it's not. I think I'll be holding out for the TOME one next season.
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