english eccentrics: spot the difference

I've been thinking about the little documentary that student Emma Allen & her friends are doing on British fashion, and how it's different from other regions. Maybe I'd feel this way wherever I lived, because I'd be looking for it, but it seems to me that what's going on in fashion right now, and this might not just be London, is a permission to be eccentric. To take classic concepts, to beg, borrow, and especially, steal, from every era that came before us. And then make it our own. With our own deeply held preferences for colour and texture, and our own collective references to a past that could well be before our mothers' or even grandmothers', time.

Case in point: this one shot of an anonymous girl @ fashion week. This is clearly 2009, but in pattern and texture, there are references as far back as that golden British era, between the Wars. It's Classics meets Alice In Wonderland, only she forgot her skirt. These are my favourite colours, by the way. And I love the way it's Day One of fashion week and she's sticking her hair in a thing. THAT takes total confidence! I bet she's gorgeous. Or at the very least, happy in her own skin. And that's where true style is born.

fur real: pia & her wonderfully vintage chocolate brown jacket, on portobello road

You know how sometimes you save a special project for a rainy day? Well, I do. Sometimes I postpone doing the things I like most. That's what happened with Pia, who I met on Portobello Road a few weeks ago. I just love her look: so gamine, so Audrey Hepburn, and such a delight to shoot! When she emailed, and admitted that I hadn't posted her shots only because I couldn't decide.



So I'm posting them all. What happened was, I had met a friend there for a coffee, then was roaming around the stalls, looking for a fake leopard coat like I posted the other day, and instead, came across that wonderful fake chocolate brown one I've been telling you about. Which I WILL shoot, I promise, soon as I become normal again (I'm typing this from my bed with 'the vapours', as Mr. Dot calls it, surrounded by tissues, cold cups of tea, and paracetemol packets).

Anyway, minutes after my new (old) purchase, with chocolate brown fur on the brain, I saw Pia with two guys (not in the shots). I said I loved her coat and asked to shoot her and she said 'that's funny cause he' (the bf, I assume) 'wants me to bin it!'



So I asked her to pose like this, to show you the holes more clearly. If this blog wasn't called 'street style london', I'd post simply this shot on its own: as abstract art.



It's funny, I was saying recently that what I want to wear now is fur, but not new fur: either good faux (preferably, like my chocolate brown faux jacket, vintage), or if it's real: vintage. Because it's guilt free ('I didn't kill it, it was already dead'). And sure enough: yesterday's Times Style Section: they talked about the very same thing.

But before anyone gets their knickers in a twist: I'm not claiming to have coined the concept. I just love coincidence, it's hard to explain. Yet can someone explain to me please: why is it there's all this controversy about fur, when we don't even blink about leather? Is it because we somehow don't think of leather as a skin, but fur seems so much more... cuddly bunny? Is it like the thing where you can't eat a whole fish with the eye showing, but fish fingers, no problem?



Just pondering... as I lie in bed with the Miss Haversham vapours. And oh: one of my favourite colour/texture combinations: brown fur or velvet, with something shiny & turquoise. I'd love these ethnic bangles with just about anything.

Re: sourcing. This is in Pia's own words, which I felt were so charming, I've added them verbatim:

"hey! thanks for the photos its really funny seeing them.. i felt realy nervouse at the time... haha! ok so the boots were a real bargain and still being sold at 15 squid from primark! brilliant find! the coat (i still have ;) despite my boyfriend hating it... you are now my reason i keep it haha!) is from portobello market infact. £50 and rabbit fur.. they still have really lovely ones there i noticed the day you took the picture. oh and yes it was my boyfriend he is called matt oldham and you can mention if you like. i dont mind. and the bag was £15 from absolute vintage near brick lane. and the leggings were from american apparel. once again thankyou. its been really exciting all this... simple pleasures. hope you're well! xx "

purple reign

Georgie & Estelle, Regent's Park.

The other day I said I hated grey, black, and purple together (and then, just to play a little head game with myself, I wore that combo all day - on the street!) but I was thinking, I really do love purple, especially if it's a bit on the plum side, and especially, with chocolate brown shades and textures, like fur.

Georgie's deep magenta romper is from Topshop, her vintage mink coat with red paisley lining, Alexandros. Estelle's strapless pink, grey, and black flower dress is by H&M (doesn't it look like a McQueen?) and fur jacket, vintage.



Right now, I am loving glamorous, elegant touches, especially dressed down and worn during the day. Put on your pearls, girls, and go out and reign like the Princesses that you know you secretly are!

Off to tea with my wonderful widowed scientist friend, Dennis, who is in his 80s. But first, stopping by for a chat with my other gorgeous friend, Barbara, who is 97.

xoxo