Why noughties skater gear deserves a place in your 2018 wardrobe

Having spent my weekend crushing on Busy Philipps — the actress turned Instagram stories sensation who launches her career as chat-show host next week — I want to wear little else but long-sleeved skater T-shirts and beaten-up Vans.

The iconic blue Motocross jacket worn by Philipps to play the iconic role of Lucy Kelly in early Noughties cult classic Freaks and Geeks is also, to borrow a phrase from Busy, “giving me life”. As you’ll discover if you choose to read This Will Only Hurt A Little (you really should. Philipps’s brutally honest memoirs provide the best insight into Hollywood’s dirty secrets and the perplexities facing women today you’ll read this year), among the teenage trauma and failed auditions is a whole lot of early Noughties nostalgia.

In fact, if, like me, you can remember the exact Sunday morning Philipps burst onto your screen all wild-eyed and oozing with attitude as Audrey Liddell in season five of Dawson’s Creek, you’ll find ample moments for personal style reflection in this book. See cargo pants, Raglan T-shirts and padded body warmers worn with knocked-up Converse and, always, a crop top.

With Noughties-inspired streetwear continuing to dominate the style zeitgeist, it’s a good time to fall back in love with the clothes of my (your?) youth. The looks we loved then — which borrowed heavily from skater culture but were worn mostly, in my case, to hang out around the local shopping centre— look as contemporary today as they did back then.

It helps, of course, that it’s the raison d’être for a host of the planet’s most in-demand labels right now. Among them Supreme, a streetstyle juggernaut, and Palace, the London-based brand which counts skater-inflected subculture at the heart of its DNA.

Last week, as proof of both its originality and celestial status among Gen Z teens (and their dads), Palace announced a collaboration with Polo Ralph Lauren. The resulting collection — which consists of menswear items such as tops, pants, outerwear and accessories, including a classic Polo Oxford button-down shirt featuring the logos of both brands — is set to drop “imminently”. And then sell out, of course.

Now while I fully appreciate that wistful reflections on the style I favoured as a 17-year-old Dawson’s Creek fan will never prove inspiring for Palace founders Lev Tanju and Gareth Skewis (urban London brand soaked in youth culture versus TV-obsessed cargo pants wearer from Fife mining village: you do the maths), I remain compelled to skating style. I’m sorry, kids.

Accordingly, among my current lust-haves is Supreme’s current collaboration with North Face — the leather mountain parka is among the coolest things on the planet right now. At £995, it’s also the most expensive. I’m also spending more than a necessary amount of time looking at tracksuit tops by Palm Angels — a venture that started life as a coffee book inspired by southern Californian skating culture.

In Phillips’s book, she professes to have been a 15-year-old skater girl who had never ridden a skateboard. Today London is positively brimming with her type. And so what, I say? A Raglan T-shirt, worn with an A-line skirt and a pair of olive green SK-vans, makes a great weekend outfit. Ditto a pair of carpenter-fit wide-leg jeans worn with a grey marl sweatshirt.

If you want to indulge your inner teenager without earning eye-rolls from the kids in line outside Palace, keep your logos to a minimum. Instead opt for the silhouettes, which are synonymous with the time. Layering your favourite T-shirt over a rollneck in a contrasting shade will give you the Lucy Kelly look of which dreams are made. Stussy is a good place to start. The brand’s women’s collection spans way more than hoodies and T-shirts with vinyl skirts and jumpsuits among the highlights.

And remember, you’re never too old to learn.