It's Lacroix, Sweetie

Daddy does not have guilty pleasures. Daddy has taste, and taste occasionally keeps the television on past midnight.

If you ask him, he's reading. If you ask him what he's reading, he's rewatching Absolutely Fabulous for the ninth time, with a glass of something cold, mouthing the lines along with Patsy.

Tom Ford? Maybe. Gucci? Yes, obviously. But Daddy would like to go on the record, just this once, and then deny it later: Eddy was on to something in the '90s.

Sweetie, Darling: The Show

Absolutely Fabulous premiered on BBC Two on 12 November 1992. Jennifer Saunders, one half of French and Saunders, created it, wrote it and starred as Edina "Eddy" Monsoon, a London PR woman who has devoted her whole life to looking fabulous.

Joanna Lumley played Patsy Stone, ex-model, magazine fashion director, and the reason cocktail hour starts at breakfast. Julia Sawalha was Saffy, the daughter with the only functioning brain in the house. June Whitfield was Mother. Jane Horrocks was Bubble, the assistant who should never have been hired.

Thirty-nine episodes, five series, a 20th-anniversary run and a 2016 film. The plot rarely mattered. The clothes always did.

And the line Daddy hears every time someone asks where he got his jacket: "It's Lacroix, sweetie. Lacroix."

Daddy's Favorite Episodes (He Denies Having Favorites)

"France" (series 1, 1992). Eddy and Patsy book a château in the South of France and land in a rustic cottage with no food and no wine. An old Frenchman keeps calling round with a message neither of them can follow. Bubble understands him perfectly: the château was down the road the whole time. Then customs finds white powder in Patsy's luggage. It turns out to be harmless, and Patsy is horrified to realize she actually enjoyed the ping-pong. And over Monopoly with Bubble, Patsy settles the rules: "Listen, you little stoat. I own Park Lane. I can borrow as much money as I like." Daddy's entire financial philosophy, in one line.

"Morocco" (series 2, 1994). Marrakech, a photo shoot nobody shows up to, and the two of them lost in the desert until they stumble into Saffy in a burqa. Earlier, Patsy sells Saffy at the bazaar. Asked if she's eaten, Patsy: "No, not since nineteen seventy-three." Waking up by the pool, Eddy just wants to "catch up on a bit of luxury, sweetie." Daddy has never related to anything more.

Series 3 (1995). "Door Handle" sends them to New York over one piece of kitchen hardware, which Eddy finally photographs at the Four Seasons. A design obsession Daddy respects. "Jealous" ends with them waking up on a rubbish barge bound for Ostend. And in "Happy New Year," when her long-lost sister turns out to be 72, Patsy asks: "My God, then how old does that make me?"

"The Last Shout" (1996). The finale that wasn't. A ski trip to Val-d'Isère, a near-death experience with God played by Marianne Faithfull, and Saffy's wedding, gown by Christian Lacroix, who appears as himself. Eddy swaps the bridesmaid for a Gucci model, stops the ceremony, the gospel choir launches into "Oh Happy Day," and the groom leaves with the Gucci girl. Eddy and Patsy take the honeymoon. The most fashionable wedding that never happened.

What Eddy Got Right

Eddy dressed like a department store fell on her, and she wore it like she meant it. That's the lesson. Not the caftans. The conviction.

Patsy understood the other half. A great piece looks better next to something plain. A sharp cut makes a basic look expensive, and an expensive thing looks relaxed beside a basic. Daddy calls this high-low. The girls called it Thursday.

Fashion runs in loops. What looked absurd in 1992 is on a runway now, and what's on the runway now will be absurd again by 2035. The pieces that survive every loop are the basics: a good tee, a real sweatshirt, honest denim, a loafer that knows who it is.

The same goes for the house. Daddy still gets his wicker baskets from Don Alfonso de Colombo. Valid business expenses, darling. Everything worth owning keeps coming back around. Daddy just keeps it in the closet until it does.

British humor, great styling, and two women who never once apologized. Eddy would approve of the list below. Patsy would steal from it.

Dress Like the Girls: Three Looks, Your Call

Daddy won't tell you what to wear. He'll tell you who to wear it like, and you decide how much Gucci the month can take.

Some of the links below earn Daddy a little if you buy through them. None of the looks were built around that.

The Patsy. Never as loud as Eddy. Sharp, a little cruel, always expensive-looking. A Velva Sheen v-neck, dark selvedge from Blackhorse Lane Ateliers, Gucci Jordaan loafers with no socks, and a Guest in Residence cashmere cardigan over the shoulders, like she's leaving the party early with your husband. The swap: no Jordaan budget? Any sleek black loafer, worn like you don't care. Lunch optional.

The Eddy. More is more. Eddy never picked one statement when she could wear four. A navy Hiro Clark sweatshirt with two or three vintage brooches clustered at the shoulder, white Gucci Ace sneakers, and the energy of someone who flew to New York for a door handle. The swap: skip the logo, keep the brooches. The brooches are the Eddy part.

The Saffy. Sober, sensible, and secretly the best-dressed woman in the house. A Uniqlo merino cardigan, a plain white tee, and white Common Projects Original Achilles Low sneakers, whose only branding is a small gold-foil style number. Expensive, and nobody can tell. Very Saffy. One heirloom on the cardigan: a 1970s 18k gold flower brooch, eight textured petals around a single 0.15-carat diamond. Saffy wears one brooch. Eddy wears four. The swap: classic Converse Chuck Taylors do the same quiet job, and she'd approve of the savings.

Daddy wears all three. Sometimes on the same Thursday.

Stock Up Like Eddy: Daddy's Discovery Sets

The clothes are only half of it. Eddy never met a beauty counter she didn't clear, and Patsy never paid for a thing that fit in a handbag. If you want to be absolutely fabulous, do what these ladies definitely would: stop off, stock up, and buy by the lot like it's the last hour of a sample sale.

Same three girls, three boxes. Each one is a full FLESH routine, so you're buying an order of operations, not a pile of jars.

Saffy: THE RITUAL$69.00Add — $69. LACTEA, SURGE, BASIS. Cleanse, flood, keep, twice a day, no drama. For skin that's sensitive and dry in the same sentence. The sensible choice, obviously.

Patsy: THE RESERVE$105.00Add — $105. SURGE, DENSUS, IRIS. Built for long flights, dry air, and faces that went out and came back. IRIS handles the evidence under the eyes. It won't ask how old that makes you.

Eddy: CATENA$125.00Add — $125. REINFORCE, JUVENTAS, PRIMA MATERIA. Peptides in every step, face to eye to cream. For her fortieth, and every birthday she's denied since.

Also in the bag: AURORA$75.00Add ($75) for a three-minute morning, ELYSIUM$115.00Add ($115) if you only buy one box this season, and THE TRINITY$115.00Add ($115), the correct gift for the man who keeps asking what he should be using.

Buying for the whole flat? Take two. Eddy would take six and expense them.

Cheers, Sweetie

So no, Daddy has never seen Absolutely Fabulous. He doesn't know what Bolly is. He has never once said "Lacroix, sweetie" to a man complimenting his sweatshirt.

Wear the loafer with the tee. Wear the sneaker with the cardigan. Wear it like you meant it, and deny everything.

Who's your Daddy? Daddy Jo.