FASHION VERDICT

REMEMBER Eddy’s distressed denim onesie that her mother described as looking ‘as though your jeans exploded’? The hip-hop gold medallions over busy Lacroix? Patsy’s doubleC necklace and beehive?

Back in 1992, when Absolutely Fabulous first burst in a cloud of Swarovski crystals on to our screens, depicting the women who work in fashion as ridiculous figures resembling lampshades, in over-tight and over-bright Lycra and florals, covered in logos, it was meant to be a joke.

But fast forward nearly 25 years – and as we await the new Ab Fab film – the ridiculous has become routine, the tacky has become tasteful.

I blame London-based designer, Erdem, who went to town with florals, was embraced by Sam Cam and the Duchess of Cambridge, and made prints acceptable for evening. And so the industry embraced riot fashion – letting loose an eye-aching range of swirls and abstracts once consigned to designers’ dustbins. And the conceit proved profitable: while a monochrome minimalist shift can look current for years, a loud print is too noticeable not to be replaced after a couple of wears. Fashion, film and politics have embraced these maximalist trends so absolutely, you wonder what lengths (mini, midi, maxi, mental) Jennifer Saunders will have to go to for the film.

Here, Pippa Middleton and Rihanna get it right but the rest of this selection, recently aired by those who really should have known better, is far from fabulous…