How the ‘frazzled English woman’ aesthetic became this season’s hottest trend

We talk a lot about how quickly the fashion world recycles trends these days — with decades that feel like they’ve barely passed suddenly coming “back” into fashion before we even had time to process them being out. And yet, one era persists: the Noughties.

Fashion has moved through the resurgence of Y2K’s various moments — double denim à la Britney and Justin, low-rise, white vest tops, Pamela Anderson’s bimbo chic and indie sleaze — but it has remained entrenched in the same decade. There is something about Y2K that just will not budge.

Just when you think it’s on the way out, the Y2K revival will throw up another old aesthetic to keep us running on that noughties hamster wheel, too deep in the pocket of Miss Sixty to ever fathom crawling out. And its latest addition? The Frazzled English Woman.

Australian fashion magazine Russh coined the term in September, predicting it to be one of the big trends of this autumn/winter season and beyond. They cite examples such as Kate Winslet’s character in The Holiday, Keira Knightley and Laura Linney’s characters from Love Actually and, of course, the OG frazzled English woman: Bridget Jones.

The Frazzled English Woman (FEW) has an office job, is most likely middle class, wears a lot of knitwear, tailored shirts, A-line skirts with opaque tights and probably owns a fair few skinny scarves and chunky belts. She’s most likely to be found in a Nancy Meyers or Richard Curtis rom-com (where turtlenecks abound) or penned by Helen Fielding, and she is in a constant state of being mildly to majorly flustered.

It quickly became a talking point, with TikToks on how to get the “frazzled English woman” look reaching over 30.1 million views and hundreds of Twitter users suddenly dissecting its origins, with some even dubbing it (the even more niche) “Islingtoncore”.

One of the TikTokers inspired by Russh’s identification of this trend is Stephanie, better known by @fffigs on TikTok. “A few weeks after seeing Russh’s TikTok I was walking down a hill with my umbrella blown inside out, shopping bags in my hand and my scarf tangled. Then I thought about that TikTok and decided to make a video around the style,” she says.

Stephanie’s video was a hit. It’s one of the most viewed videos under the “frazzled English woman” search term, with 196,000 views (and counting), and 50,000 likes to boot. “The response has been lovely,” Stephanie says. “Lots of people are comparing it to how their mum or teachers used to dress. I generally think people think of it as a warm and nostalgic style and understand exactly what the vibe is.”

But in case you still don’t, Stephanie her gives top tips. “I think the essentials would be scarves, midi skirts and baker boy hats. Avoid trying to look too neat as I feel like it’s all about miss matched colours and layers!”

As usual, the trend hit the runways months before it hit the TikTok algorithm, with elements of the FEW aesthetic rearing its head in a host of the fall 2022 ready-to-wear shows. Charlotte Knowles’ sustainable south London brand KNWLS featured aspects of FEW’s feminine messiness — right down to the opaque tights — and Miu Miu’s longer length skirts — yes, we’re finally done talking about *that* mini skirt — exemplified her officewear chic.

Even moments in Chanel’s Fall collection were frazzled-English adjacent, with thick knits, scarves on show, covered legs and an over-reliance on necklaces.

It’s starting to make its way to the shelves, too — just take a look at WE-AR4, one of the latest additions to Selfridges’ hallowed halls, with its tailored, low-waisted skirts, classic British knits and peekaboo collars. WE-AR4’s creative director Michele Rutigliano understands that her brand leans easily into the FEW aesthetic: “History repeats itself,” she says. “I love that Y2K workwear has made a resurgence and coupling it with a catchy new acronym makes it modern.” She notes aspects of WE-AR4’s latest collection: “Asymmetrical silhouettes, exaggerated collars and cuffs,” which are all very FEW.

WE-AR4 lends itself towards recyled trends via its very ethos, too. Their items are made from recyled high-quality deadstock, so trend cycles like this are exactly what fuels them. “[We’re] taking the best trends and the most iconic silhouettes from certain eras and putting a modern twist on them,” Rutigliano says.

The positive thing about FEW is that unlike most of the resurrected Y2K aesthetics, it’s based predominantly on characters who don’t have it all “together”. Their hair is limp and messy, shoved back in a claw clip, and their clothes are slightly ill fitting and either a little too frumpy or a little too tight.

The Frazzled English Woman is well and truly back, and you can bet the streets of London are going to be the prime haunt of this new breed of It girl.