The Sloane Rangers ruled the ’80s and ’90s – and now a new generation is following their lead

Princess Diana favoured La Caprice which is now known as Arlington – where Princess Beatrice has been spotted recently – Alan Davidson/Shutterstock | GoffPhotos.com

Like a large volcano lying beneath Britain, the Sloanes never really go away. Sometimes they appear as a tame spout, at others as an irresistible flow destroying everything in their path. For some years they can appear to be dormant, but underestimate them at your peril.

Already this year, seismologists are picking up unusual levels of activity. Last week, the fashion press reported that the sockless loafer is back. Andrew Scott, the actor, was spotted wearing them on the red carpet for Ripley.

Loafers are in and socks are apparently out – WireImage

It is the stinky end of a general loafer revival. John Lewis, that impeccable barometer of middle-class habits, reports soaring interest. Gucci is apparently banking on its classic horse-bit penny loafers trotting off the shelves.

Tatler has asked whether, in response to the American country music trend (led by Beyoncé’s new album), our green and pleasant land might be facing a “horse girl summer”, with Zara Tindall its British flag bearer.

These developments offer more confirmation of a cultural shift that has been evident for some time now: the revival of 1980s West London chic. From fashion to restaurants, nightclubs and even neighbourhoods, these are heady times for 1980s Sloanes and the younger generations who like to imitate them.

Even before Leo Woodall managed to carry off a signet ring in One Day, a feat of accessorising long thought impossible, the signs were there. Nothing is so naff that it cannot be revived.

Leo Woodall’s character in One Day was the embodiment of the new wave Sloane Ranger – Netflix

Jeremy King must shoulder his share of the blame. His restaurant with Chris Corbin, Le Caprice, was already an established St James’s favourite in 1981. But under their guidance, it became the holy of holies for media and celebrity dinners in the 1980s and 90s.

It was Princess Diana’s lunch canteen, a favourite for Mick Jagger, Michael Caine, George Michael, Elizabeth Taylor, Bill Clinton, Kate Moss, everyone else. The head chef was Mark Hix, who these days has ascended to the lofty heights of Telegraph columnist. He described the crowd as a “who’s who of film, media, music, art and journalism”.

The celebrities kept coming to Corbin and King’s successor restaurants, like The Wolseley and the Delaunay, but they could not replicate Le Caprice’s intense chic, or the grip they held on the smart set. That’s why, following their hostile ejection from their own restaurant group in 2022, King set his sights on reopening Le Caprice, which he did last month.

Jeremy King (R) with Chris Corbin, 1985 – Shutterstock

He no longer has the name, which is owned by his more garish fellow restaurateur, Richard Caring, but he has the building, the monochrome decor, and the same dark blue neon signage for its new name, Arlington.

As soon as reservations opened it became the hottest ticket in town, and it has already welcomed Nigella Lawson, Tom Parker-Bowles, Anya Hindmarch, Claudia Winkleman and the Telegraph’s own William Sitwell. In a glowing review, he wrote “in opening Arlington, King creates what he does best: buzz”.

Around the corner on Jermyn Street, another phoenix of the 1980s is about to rise back to life. Tramp was the ne plus ultra of society nightclubs, a suite of subterranean wood-panelled rooms where the aristocracy and their hangers-on could behave as badly as they wanted, which was often “very”.

In its heyday, you couldn’t move before bumping into a James Bond or a royal or an actor. But in recent years it had become a ghost of its old self, tainted by being namechecked by Prince Andrew in his infamous Emily Maitlis interview.

“I don’t know where the bar is in Tramp’s,” he said, surprising given the small size of the club and large size of its bar. Now it has been taken over by Luca Maggiora, an Italian impresario with several other businesses in London, including Bardo of St James’s.

He has cancelled all but a handful of the memberships, with a promise to bring the club back to its former glory when it reopens later this year. The key, Maggiora told Tatler last month, “is for a founding member to come and recognise what Tramp was.”

Luca Maggiora now runs Tramp’s – David M. Benett/Getty Images for Charlie

Meanwhile, Julie’s, the Holland Park restaurant that was another regular Sloane hangout, is set to reopen under new management having apparently closed forever last year. Mick Jagger and Princess Anne were fans of the old place, where Kate Moss celebrated her 17th birthday.

The new boss is Tara MacBain, who used to be a regular herself. She is keeping things close at hand. “It is also no coincidence that our launch team consists almost entirely of west Londoners,” she said when announcing the relaunch.

“It is so important to me that everyone involved in the project holds Julie’s to the same esteem and that we continue its unique story. I am so excited to welcome both original fans and a new generation of diners through our doors.”

These places add to the sense of a resurgent British presence in an area of London that has become increasingly international. Their proprietors might initially be appealing to an older crowd but a younger demographic is reclaiming the Sloane spirit, too.

Last month Vogue declared that ballet flats, a Sloane staple, are the “IT shoe of 2024”. You can’t move for pie crusts and pussy bows and gilets. For inspiration, Gen Z draws as much from The Crown and social media accounts – sometimes satirical – as from the example set by their parents.

Lucy Boynton at the Chanel Metiers D’Art show in Manchester last year – Getty Images

The Duchess of Sussex has been spotted sporting ballet flats – WireImage

“The thing about Sloane style is that it adapts generationally,” says Tom Chamberlin, editor of luxury men’s style magazine, The Rake.

“The father wears the dock shoes while the son wears Loro Piana Walk. They are objectively different but subjectively, which is where all taste dwells, they are two of the same. The Schoffel Gilet is the same as the Purdey Gilet, the Barbour is the same as the Belstaff. This younger generation, at least the monied ones, take their cue from people like Gstaad Guy [an Instagram account satirising the monied young] without realising he’s a comedian.”

West London has benefitted of the past few years from a levelling-off in east London. If the popularity of London areas is a zero-sum game, one must fall as another rises. The early years of the new millennium were about the rise of east London, a process which began with the opening of White Cube in Hoxton the decade before and culminated in George Osborne being booed at the Paralympics 2012 opening ceremony.

During this time, no self-respecting Hugo or Penny would seek a flat in Fulham. Instead, they decamped to Clapton, Haggerston and Mile End, neighbourhoods their milieu would once only have flown over on their way to Val-d’Isère.

Restaurateurs and shops followed. Property prices and business rates have risen as a consequence, to the point that you scarcely get more push for your pound in parts of Hackney than you would in the Sloanes’ traditional hangouts. The centre of gravity has shifted back west, accordingly. Notting Hill was a culinary desert for decades, but is now home to Straker’s, The Pelican, Gold, Akub, Dorian and Orasay, among others.

All these rumblings are mere preamble, however, for the Sloane big bang of 2024: Disney’s grand, eight-part adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s classic 1988 novel Rivals.

With David Tennant, Aidan Turner and, er, Danny Dyer in the cast, it is sure to launch a thousand Gen Z imitations of Rupert Campbell-Black into a freshly welcoming West End. Whether that’s a good thing remains to be seen.

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