Generation (Fashion) X

I used to think that today’s fashion industry was constantly evolving, changing and adapting to survive (after all, Drapers is always banging on about tough trading conditions). I believed that where the elderly of past generations had become caricatures of themselves, we were somehow removed from this same fate.

That was until a couple of weeks ago, when I saw a gang of school kids decked out in Kickers, Nike Air Max, Adidas sportswear and Elizabeth Duke jewellery. These are the very same items and brands that were ‘hip’ when I was a bairn! (Also, out of interest do you remember Fruit of the Loom, The Sweatershop, Kangol, Caterpillar, and Kappa – particularly the tracksuit bottoms with poppas down the sides? Shocking!). Obviously, myself and most of my class mates grew out of this ‘phrase’ at sixth form where we moved onto strapless, two-tone polyester boob-tube style dresses, denim skirts and questionable knee high boots (well it was the 90s) before reaching today’s current fashion destination (via some dodgy satin combats / vest combos and sacks and leggings). And I assumed that this was the natural course that fashion had settled on, like the seemingly random path a river takes that can not be duplicated. But then I see today’s school kids, if not wearing exactly the same as we were, are pretty bloody close and it has shaken my fashion beliefs to the very core. I mean, I will be the first to admit that I am not up with what the teenage kids are wearing these days, but I assumed that they were wearing their trousers and jeans below the crotch with only a belt to stop them falling down completely and doing stuff like sticking combs in their hair for decoration rather that practical hair brushing use. Something different and absurd and fun that I didn’t understand. This is was i-d magazine had lead me to believe at least. I certainly did not expect them to be wearing Kickers! KICKERS! The same brand of shoe that I begged my Mam to order from the Freemans catalogue in 1995 for the bargain price of £1.62 per week! Who would have thunk it?

I have often heard people say that our generation will not be the same as the previous and unlike our parents and grandparents whose style certainly nods at their heyday, we won’t be susceptible to the fashion time warp. We, in the time of fast fashion, ever changing trends and mass consumer spending culture are supposed to be immune to such a fate and destined to be ‘trendy’ until the day we die.

Well, where I may once have agreed with this statement (out of pride I guess, what self respecting Fashionista wants to admit that there will come a day when trends hold no interest or authority in their wardrobe making decisions?), I now have to say I think that it is utter bollocks.

Like many things, ‘fashion’ is not immune to ‘the circle of life‘ (And it moves us all, through despair and hope, through faith and love, till we find our place, on the path unwinding, in the circle, the circle of liiiiiiiife). We may be a generation of ‘fast’ consumer culture but as we grow older we are still susceptible to the same feelings and experiences observed by our parents, and their parents before them. We will become more self-assured, confident, happy, wise, comfortable, but also bitter, frustrated and a daily mail subscriber. This in-turn impacts upon our tastes and sartorial style and we deviate far less from our signature look until eventually we NEVER leave it. It is not a generational thing, it is an age thing.

So, unfortunately, though we may not want to admit it, this decade is defining our future style, when we grow old (dis)gracefully. People like Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney, Patrica Field and Rachel Zoe have left their notch on fashion’s bedpost.

Sooooo, what looks from this decade do we think we will we be rocking into our old age? Skinny jeans? Boyfriend blazers? Huge bags and sunglasses? Clashing colours and prints? Are we going to be a old generation of wrinkly Olsen-look-a-likes?! Whoever becomes our style ‘definition’, here’s hoping that some of the noughties less desirable looks (exposed muffin tops and Crocs) stay where they belong, firmly in the present. After all, no-one wants to see Grandma hobbling around in plastic coloured clogs with her belly out.

Edith

Mens Street Style

Obviously Some Like It Fashion is not going to give the facehunter or the sartorialist a run for their money, that is not what we are about here. But, when I saw Merrick Johnson in Selfridges last night, I couldn’t resist papping him. Edgy, relaxed and bang on trend, all achieved with a mix of designer and high street.

Merrick works for Puma

(do you see my subtle way of getting that across in the picture? World class photographer I am not, but perhaps the next Derren Brown?) in the press office and his style tip for this season is narrow turn ups.

Love the peg shaped jeans, love the rolled up legs, love the pop of colour in the form of a cardigan and silk scarf. Did I mention I LOVE IT?

Edith

Merrick’s jeans are Marc Jacobs, shoes are H&M, scarf is Hermes, t-shirt Ralph by Ralph Lauren, sunglasses are vintage and from LA, and the cardigan is Rudolph Dassler Puma (and is available from July).

The Facehunter-ing Sartorialists (Pssst, that’s you)

Once upon a time not so far, far, away, celebrities influenced the way we looked. We poured over pictures of them in magazines and watched their interviews on TV, all the while pretending to be interested in their latest release (when what we were really doing was dissecting and analysing their outfits to the minute detail. Remember buying the Posh and Becks wedding issue of OK magazine for the ‘articles’? Or still buying heat for the TV guide?).

However, recently there has been a shift away from this behaviour. More people than ever are looking at the everyday person on the street, using ‘real’ people for wardrobe inspiration. Blogs like The Sartorialist and Facehunter make this voyeurism easy (and more importantly, prevent us from getting lamped for staring at individuals that just have something). Should we find this move away from celebrity fashion towards civilian style surprising though? The great Sartorialist himself (Scott Schuman) admitted, “The reason I started the blog was because I was not feeling inspired by the guys I was seeing in magazines. I was wanting to refine my own style so I went out with my camera and started taking pictures (initially of men) that I thought would help me and inspire me in my choices”. Obviously, Scott is not alone in his thoughts; his site is classed as one of the most influential design blogs in the world and now receives a staggering 70,000 hits a day.

The evidence definitely suggests that the A-Listers have lost some allure to Joseph/Josephine Public on the street. But why is this?

OK, time for some speculatory work… The rise of the celebrity stylist is a big factor (and according to my fella, the fact that any Tom, Dick, or talentless Harry can be a celeb these days, but enough of that for now). You see, Misha, Li Lo, J-Lo, Keira, Demi, Kylie, Jessica (which ever one of them comes to mind), I could go on and on and on; they all have them. No longer confined to photo-shoots for magazines, stylists are now grooming / dressing (delete as appropriate) our starlets young and old. This all seems hunky dory until you realise that all of Hollywood and her Husband is being dressed by the same few people (most probably Rachel Zoe), and that this means they are all carbon copies of one another. The very people whose looks we once tried to emulate to the very button, now bore us to tears (or at least to the direction of the internet). Now of course, I am not so stupid that I don’t appreciate that these celebrity/stylist combos don’t sell clothes. Because they do, by the shed-load. Keira Knightly on a red carpet is worth millions to the designer that dressed her. However, while they may sell the dress, these duos don’t influence how we wear them anymore. We now look much closer to home for that inspiration.

So, yeah, wrap up that Olsen style scarf, I’ll take it! But you know what? I shan’t put it with some skinny jeans and a boy style blazer! No! Teaming it with a stripy tee and some wide leg turn-ups is what’s getting me going these days…

Now to conclude, what have we learnt today? 1. It is OK to buy OK magazine for the ‘articles’. 2. It is OK to buy a dress that looks a bit similar to the one Rachel Bilson wore that you saw when reading the ‘article’ as long as you style it in a different way. 3. It is OK to stalk people on the streets if it is in the name of fashion.

Edith

Image: top right from thesartorialist.blogspot.com

New York: The Style Myth

Contrary to popular belief, people in New York do not dress ‘cool’ like on Sex and the City. And so, I ask you good people; what the fuck? Does this mean we can’t believe what we see on television anymore? Is nothing sacred?

Well, good news, I am here to right this urban myth and tell you that while the vast majority of New Yorkers can’t be described as cool or stylish, they can be pushed into a very specific (and gawd awful) fashion pigeonhole. A pigeon hole that in my holy opinion should only be populated by five year old children. The women favour the distressed playground-look jeans, a baaaaaaad belt (think cheap looking, studded and big buckled), what appears to be their frumpy mam’s Manolo Blahnik wannabe shoes, a t-shirt made out of clingy jersey that rides up repeatedly throughout the day to expose their belly and finally some comedy sized sunglasses. And well, the men don’t do much better. Firstly, the shoes. The shoes! Why are they so fat? Everything is worn a bizillion times too big, making even the most handsome of men look like young boys wearing their older sibling’s clothes. I can only assume that this is in case they happen to fall off one of the many sky scrapers and need an emergency parachute. Who knew the perils of living in such a city, eh?

Whilst this NY fashion realisation saddens me deeply, it also makes me feel quite smug about living in London. Sure, we may have our own sartorialist cliches, but we also foster genuine originality when it comes to style. Every day on the streets of this fair capital I see someone wearing something in a way that inspires me, that makes me smile. Like today, a flash of ‘up yours’ rebellion in the form of salmon pink socks peeping from beneath a city suit made me grin all cheshire cat like. And a girl in a mauve tweed skirt, royal purple jacket and fuchsia pink scarf hopping over Blackfriars bridge was a delightful breath of colour in the sea of gray and black.

My point is this. During my visits to NY I haven’t ever seen a single person whose outfit made me smile and say ‘I like what you have done there, friend’. I haven’t even seen one person whose outfit made me smile and say ‘I don’t like what you have done there, friend, but I see what you tried to do and appreciate the sentiment’. My second point is this. During my visits to NY, I have seen hundreds of people that made me frown and say ‘Meh. MeeeeEEHHHhh, friend?’.

What I am trying to say here in my own long, rambling and incoherent way is that while TV and New York may lie to us, London does not. Embrace the people on the street, use them as inspiration when you get dressed. Every day, wear something, no matter how small (a brooch, some patterned tights, a yellow t-shirt, some patent shoes, or this fabulous crown) that makes you smile. If it makes you smile, there is a very good chance it will make others do the same. If everyone smiles we could even stave off the recession. Fact! Well, maybe not but at least the journey to work would be more pleasant and we can rest safe in the knowledge that the fashion crown is safely on Britain’s head. So go forth, friend, and spread the fabulous, smiley, fashion love.

Edith

Some Like It Hatton Garden

Imagine my glee (after complaining at length about seeing no-one interestingly dressed that day to Phoebe) on spotting the wonderful Kathy Bateson in Hatton Garden.

The black tights (sensible, sophisticated) with the frilly ankle socks (playful, retro), it’s subtle style genius! Bravo! Kathy, love what you did there.

Edith

Kathy’s coat is from Mind charity shop in Camden, London. The shoes are from New Look. The tights, socks and bag are from Topshop.