An ode to the scarf

I have a bit of a thing for scarves, for three important reasons. One, I have worn them every day for the past 15 years and now my face looks odd to me if I can also see too much of my neck. Two, they are the only accessory known to be impervious to the demands and brutal attacks of babies and toddlers (and can in fact become extremely useful additions to your repertoire, in terms of nursing cover/toy for a baby/buggy cover/cloth for mopping up sick – maybe not one for the cashmere) and three, because they can be employed to drape over areas you would like to be draped over (i.e. A cheap and ill fitting top – or, say, my entire mid-section for much of the past 6 years) and, of course, I think they can look pretty nice.

Actually as a timely interjection scarves make a great gift because in general, it is quite hard to find really crap scarves, especially in any decent shop – so they are fairly failsafe. Even a design I wouldn’t have chosen for myself becomes a fun addition to a scarf collection for the odd outing.

Do I sound keen enough on scarves? I really like scarves!

Here are some nice scarves that are around at the moment that you might want to buy for someone, or more likely yourself.

Starting at Jigsaw, one of my favourite accessories lines at the moment –

This comes in a number of colour ways if you wanted to be more adventurous than me, but I think the grey is pretty classic:

And similar with a nice print here:

Jigsaw have a number of faux fur scarves in at the moment too which are a nice wintery option.

I do like an oversized scarf, and if you do too then I think this cashmere travel wrap from John Lewis hits the spot, and in a number of colours:

Or a less oversized, less spendy but still cashmere option from John Lewis – a snood is always a good option to ease you into scarf wearing if you get in a knot about how to tie a scarf (NOT EVEN AN INTENDED PUN)

This Whistles print number is a little out of my grey-black-navy colour scheme, but a very nice scarf for those of you more open to a bit of colour:

Mango does a number of less ‘investment’ type pieces which, lets face it, is handy when you are looking after small children – like this simple spotted staple to have in a collection:

Or some plain colour options like this:

A slightly more luxe option at Net-a-porter – maybe one to keep away from the baby after a feed:

I also love the scarves that The White Company do, but not all seem to be on the website? Worth a pop in if you get chance though.

I should add that having spent some time browsing hundreds of scarves to put together my favourites, I can confirm that actually, it isn’t so hard to come across really crap scarves, and if you are buying one as a gift then pick one of the above, or at the very least steer clear of anything super ugly.