The Style Maven: global traveller

Kate Finnigan dreams of travelling through clothes.

BY Kate FInnigan | 08 July 2012

Photo: LAURA CALLAGHAN

I was in a swanky part of town the other day when a chic woman with silver hair and a rather nice Fendi handbag caught my eye. As I turned to watch her go, I saw the underside of the upturned collar of her denim jacket, embellished with coloured beads and ethnic-style embroidery. It was a nice touch, lending the subtle impression that this was a well-travelled woman, someone who had seen The World.

I like to think the jacket had been bartered for at a noisy market in Jakarta, but actually she could just as well have picked it up on the British high street. The global-traveller trend, having been spearheaded by designers such as Isabel Marant, Michael Kors and Burberry, has been a hit here this spring - something of a touchy subject for Marks & Spencer, which admitted back in April that it hadn't bought enough 'tribal print', poor things.

Perhaps you didn't spend April banging on the doors of M&S demanding a Masai-inspired style fix but the idea might be that bit more appealing by now, when you are either preparing to jet to some exotic clime or feeling furious that you're not. This trend works either way. If tickets for the Full Moon party on Koh Phangan are already yours, Marant has provided the perfect wardrobe.

But if you have no chance of hearing the sunset drumming on Benirrás beach or spotting an elephant in Namibia, a pair of printed trousers from Asos Africa, a Peruvian-style embroidered top from Zara or a silver 'taco' bracelet by Lucy Folk might make you feel better about the fact.

Rebecca Osei-Baidoo, the womenswear buyer for Browns fashion store, which has bought into the trend with big names like Burberry (now on sale) and smaller ones like Dezso - a jewellery line designed by a Mexican living in Jaipur - says the emotional pull of 'global traveller' has been significant to its success.

'Travelling makes people dream - that faraway beach, that place we found in Marrakech. Maybe we aren't spending as much money as we were on holidays but this look gives you a little bit of that feeling in your real life', she says. 'We can still dream through our clothes.'

From left: Stretch-cotton jacket, £345; Chloé, net-a-porter.com ; Stretch-cotton shorts, £35; Asos Africa asos.com ; Cotton and silver bracelet, £55; Lucy Folk, matchesfashion.com