Thoughts and prayers go out to Dua Lipa, a woman who spent a great proportion of 2023 on yachts and pool-side loungers and beachside balconies, but is now forced into returning to work. She might have worn triangle ʙικιɴιs and sheer cover-ups to sail around the Peloponnese in Greece and off the coast of Ksamil, Albania, but Dua has since been pH๏τographed in a sensible dog-walking coat and some stolid jeans.
In the tradition of heartbroken souls, this is a psychic break that has expressed itself through a sudden change in hair colour and a complete Instagram clear-out. The siren-like vacation pH๏τographs have been replaced with one singular image teasing her upcoming album visuals: body wrapped in a Union Jack-printed Helmut Lang vest from 1994. Her blanketed puffer is somehow just as British. It makes me think of primary school teachers corralling children into a playground. Elle Fanning (who is not British) wore a similar coat while strolling through New York yesterday afternoon.

Dua and Elle seemed to have styled themselves in one another’s mirror image, dressed in longline padded coats with sturdy jeans, a black top and leather flats. But here is the difference: Elle’s look was a little more classic (aka, she wore loafers and a roll neck) while Dua’s was a little more “fashion” (aka, she wore Tabi flats and a Britpop polo shirt). She might not be posing against ocean vistas, but Dua is nonetheless sitting somewhere just outside of what might be deemed “quotidian”.