[ ClassicalX ] Katherine ditches high fashion for £60 Topshop dress

Katherine Jenkins looked a million dollars when she stepped out in a polyester dress costing just £60.

The mezzo soprano ditched her high-fashion look for high street this week, when she visited London’s on-trend Ivy restaurant.

In a dramatic departure from her designer gowns, the award-winning singer revealed a up-to-the-minute take on fashion today, choosing a thigh-skimming dress from model Kate Moss’ range for Topshop.

The ethnic style Hippy tunic dress, in this season’s key paisley print, was cinched at the waist with an interlocking belt, also from Topshop, emphasising the 29-year-old’s enviable curves.

Teamed with must-have oversized earrings and a glitzy gold clutch bag, Neath-born Jenkins looked happy and relaxed as she drove away from the restaurant with a friend.

It’s a very different look to her usual immaculately groomed, high-glamour style, epitomised at the Brits in 2006 by a sequined red number which divided fashion experts’ opinion.

But the new image, reminiscent of actress Sienna Miller’s 2004/5 boho style, pictured right, last night received high praise.
Fashion designer and S4C fashion presenter Huw Rees commented: “I love what Katherine is wearing!

“At last Katherine looking young and fresh and having fun with fashion. The smock is bang on trend and the mismatching of the belt and jewellery make it appear that she is at ease with this look.

“Being petite both in stature and dress size, this short, very girlie look compliments her perfectly.

“The colours are quite exotic, the deep Prussian blue with the orange ethnic print, and again she is having fun with statement jewellery, these earrings would look fab on stage but it’s great to see her utilising her wardrobe and playing around with the look.

“I feel a lot of people will be both surprised and shocked, this certainly isn’t the full-on, polished, sophisticated performing Katherine, but a relaxed good-looking woman enjoying fashion.”

On Glamour magazine’s online “Do” or “Don’t” poll, she scored an almost unheard of 100% “Do”.

Jenkins has increasingly cultivated her fashion profile over recent years, with numerous appearances at London Fashion Week and Vogue’s A-list parties, often on the arm of friend and designer Julien Macdonald.

Her credentials are cemented because this latest look features a piece supermodel Moss counts among her favourites.

A spokeswoman for retailer Topshop said: “Katherine looks great in the Hippy dress, it is one of Kate’s favourite from her current collection.”

However, not everyone is a fan.

Wenda James-Rowe, fashion expert and director of Cardiff-based The Style Team, said: “I don’t like it, it’s not what we are used to.

“She’s usually got a very classical stylish, whereas this dress she’s in is very boho, very ethnic and I don’t quite think she can carry it off.

“She’s such an iconic figure and were used to seeing her very stylish, so it’s a look that I don’t think particularly works for her. I think she’s more of a jeans and a jacket girl when she’s casual.

“It’s not that it doesn’t look good, it just doesn’t suit her personality.

“I prefer seeing her in the Roland Mouret dresses and in pencil skirts and blouses and that kind of look, this is a little too boho, casual ethnic.”

Source: Western Mail