Coming Around To The Poncho

The last time I wore a poncho I was about nine years old and my mum had knitted it. She knitted one for my sister too, it was white and turquoise with orange stars, had triangular fringed points and was (obvs) made of polyester. There are pictures somewhere of us in our matching knitwear and I remember loving the fact that you could ride a bike and keep your hands warm by draping the fringing over the handlebars, quite why I didn’t think about gloves I’m not sure.

I’ve steered clear of their recent revival because they still say 70s in big, unfashionable letters to me and there’s all levels of awkwardness with back packs/handbags/menopausal overheating to navigate that made me tired before I’d even tried one on. However, as with all things fashion, I’m thinking of changing my mind.

At a Winser London shopping event I attended recently I spotted the joyfully hued Yasmin Le Bon collaboration, which features an excellent poncho. Now, Winser is the go-to brand for many of my mates who have serious jobs that require them to look ready to conduct a board meeting at any moment, but you could never call it frivolous with colour. There are beautiful shirts and knits in blues and pinks, and an excellent shade of wearable scarlet, but hippy-dippy prints and colours? No way.

Which is why the Le Bon limited edition collab, with its Indian inspired prints and sunny shades of mustard, teal and densely juicy plum is a good idea, it injects some lovely contrast into the mix. As well as the colour and print, there’s something quaintly old-fashioned about the mini collection, which has been inspired by Le Bon’s love of vintage motors and tweeds, as well as her Indian heritage. The knitted, detachable collar for the herringbone tweed zip up jacket, for example, feels like something my mum would have knitted  -in matching colours- for my sister and I.

But it’s the old-school, triangular shaped poncho that’s the star here in my eyes. The moss stitch (I hope that’s right, knitter-geeks) is beautiful quality and actually looks hand knitted although, of course, it’s not.

And Yasmin apparently likes the Y formed by the neck line, I guess if your name begins with Y too, you can makes it yours. But it’s the blast of colour that appeals to me, that and the fact that it’s never really cold enough in London anymore to really warrant the purchase of a big coat…until it gets really cold then I move straight to sheepskin. It’s like a better behaved scarf, or a more interesting take on a sweater.

I fancy a sunny mustard one, which feels wonderfully autumnal (ahem, some might even say Halloweenish) but could move to seamlessly to festive-gold for Christmas. What do you think? Are you coming around to the poncho?

The poncho is available here,

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