Culture Shock

London is filled with many different boroughs, each having their own culture and scene. Within these places, a wide variety of fashions can be found.

The area that sticks out to me the most is Camden Town. The streets in this area are filled with many punks, goths, hardcore kids. Stores that align Camden Street include Doc Martin, Levi's, Converse, and many small shops with leather apparel, (dumb) graphic shirts, body jewelry, and every other piece of flair for any goth to be in heaven. Mohawks, ripped jeans, and facial piercings/tattoos are the most commonly found statement found here which makes it such an amazing place culturally.

Another area that I find more appealing is Oxford Street.
This is where all the big shops are located such as Top Shop, New Look, House of Frasier, Selfridge's, and Urban Outfitters. Many young kids around this area are supporting the latest fashions and fads. The sidewalks are jam packed during the day time with almost every shop imaginable located here. There is something for everybody. When I leave, Oxford Circus will be much missed, its a shopaholics dream.

Another area with good fashion is off of Liverpool Street.
Here, two major markets are located. Spitalfield's and Brick Lane. Many indie kids roam this area with excellent vintage stores and hand made clothing and accessories located at the markets. Much art and music can be found in this area which brings a lot of hip culture here. This is the best place to find a lot of vintage inspired looks.

All the boroughs bringing different cultures and fashions make London such an amazing place. Also, I must mention how much of an impact music has on fashion here. When going to clubs, you can tell what kind of people will be on the dance floor. My favorite is going to the places that play 60s music because, in my opinion, everyone is dressed so well. Loose fitting shirts with skinny belts, tight skinny jeans, high waisted skirts, loose messy hair and bangs, its all the perfect combination for a night out on the town. I have become such a big fan of this culture.


Being my last week here, I am quite sad to be leaving all of this. It's quite different from the states. People dress so well in comparison and the fashions are amazing. Mainly things you wont see many people wearing in good ol' Indiana, unfortunately. But maybe its my mission to help bring these London fashions back to the states.

baggy vs. tight

Lately I have seen two extremes on the streets of London.

Baggy and Tight

The baggy look has been seen with jeans:
As well as jackets:
I'm not sure I could necessarily work this look, but I would be willing to try. Here is a look from TopShop that emphasizes the "sporty" style.
Nobody in Indiana would ever be willing to pull this out of a closet, thats why I like the streets of London so much. Possibilities are endless. The one thing I don't find attractive about this sporty/masculine/baggy look is that there is no emphasis on the woman form. That seems to be the gist though. When worn, the shirt must be tucked in, if not, the look would be total baggy = a potato sack? Thats no good.

This leads us to the other extreme... tight clothing.
This definitely accentuates a womans body figure, but again, only certain people can pull this off. This look is pretty 80s (which seems to be the look at most stores here). These dresses should definitely be worn with heels, if your going to show all that leg off, you better make them look good, right. This is definitely more a look for going out at night, but if you've got it, flaunt it!

Free Press!

As the clock ticks 4, the busy Londoners can expect to wait a little longer than usual while transporting through the Underground.
No need to fear though, let the London Paper or the London Lite take away time to waste.

Inside this free paper handed out daily outside all tube stations contains news articles, daily sudoku, and a section featuring the latest fashions. What great free press for all the stores which make it into these papers!

Millions of residents flip through these pages daily. Its always so interesting for me to look at the fashion section because they do offer such excellent insight for an average person. Its not only targeted towards women though which I think is great. I've already realized that men dress a lot better here in UK than in the US but I love seeing that they are interested in fashion as much (well maybe not that far) as women.
Some days they will have stuff for women, men, work attire, beach, going out, you name it, they will cover it. A wide array of stores are used as well.
The last London Paper I looked at featured office attire. Included was a variety of pictures showing off great finds for work. Prices ranged from 30 pounds to 199 pounds and stores included places like Marks & Spencer, Jaeger, and Dorthy Perkins where you can find on any major street such as Oxford.

I think having papers and fashion sections like these encourage people to go out and get the latest fashion which is a good way for stores to get free advertisement.

Fashion Weekend 2009

Nikki and I attended Fashion Weekend put on by Elle.

To be honest, it wasn't as exciting as I expected.

Starting off, we got our goody bags. Inside was:

• A bathing suit
• Bronzer
• A magnet
• The bag itself
• Snacks
• A mango drink
• Perfume
• Tampons
• Hair Gel

I was pretty excited about that stuff. The tampons... random though.
Next we dabbled into the exhibitions where labels such as Luella, Michael Kors, and Juicy Footwear were set up. Besides the ones I have just listed, the exhibitions had not so top of the line clothes. They were very basic, not made well (some had holes or were pilling like crazy), and many looked like clothes my mum would wear. I think the only thing that really caught my attention in the area was the jewelry. I couldn't bring myself to buy anything, but they had gorgeous gold pendents, bright plastic broaches, and vintage necklaces.

The last thing we did was attend the Catwalk. This was very exciting! It wasn't a show with one designer. The idea behind this catwalk was to show off the latest trends for the 2009 spring/summer season. The scenes were split into American Idol, Domestic Goddess, African Queen, and Ethereal Nude.

• American Idol went to show that the 80s are in full swing with acid washed denim, florals, and big bows, generally titled, Trailer trash chic.
• Domestic Goddess had a very 50s look including light colored hand gloves, pearls, and tweed overcoats.
  

• African Queen was all about tribal prints, harem pants, and the maxi dress representable to a bohemian look.

• Ethereal Nude was a bit more sexual compared to the rest. The idea was to show that there are nudes for every skin tone with lightweight fabrics detailed by sequins and golds.

This was very fun because they used clothing that everyone can wear compared to what I normally see on a catwalk where designers go out on extreme limbs with crazy cuts and styles.

I think an experience at the real Fashion Week would be a little more rewarding, but I definitely got a peak about how things are run there.

London Loves the 80s

I have lately taken a liking to the tabloid magazines in London. They publicize their celebrities as much, if not more, than we do in the states. One magazine that I'm quite fond of is LOOK. It's supposedly contains "More Fashion Than Any Other Weekly!"
The magazine shows off the latest fashions and trends for the cheapest prices in stores all over London. My favorite section would have to be High Street Hottest featuring the latest looks for a few selected popular stores including Urban Outfitters, Miss Selfridge, Top Shop, Zara, and Primark, to name a few.
In the issue for the week of March 9th, LOOK features a section titled "On-Trend Spring Outfits From 15 Pounds!" This is the type of thing that American magazines are missing, with the key fact being that everything on these pages are actually trendy and cute. (I'm sorry but Vogue features too many name brands while Nylon shows off styles NOT found in Indiana.)
Anyways. With these trendy spring fashions, one theme can be found in all of the sections and it screams 80s! Bright colors, bold florals, animal print, jumpsuits, tight-fitting minis, acid-wash, and volume tulip skirts seem to be all the craze. When I was in Top Shop recently, the same could be said. I saw everything mentioned as the newest fashions in LOOK.
I'm confident in saying that America is not ready for this.
Even friends on this trip keep saying,

"I love this dress and I could totally wear it here, but all my friends would make fun of me back home."

Thats when I want to say,

"But then you can start the trend along your friends! How can they not see that as exciting!?"

Basically what I'm trying to say is that:
1. London is a lot more fashionable with trends than the US
2. Fashion magazines cater to all types of people living in London
3. Its time for the 80s revival
4. I wish people would become more confident in what they wear. If you like it, wear it!

(Audrey, sorry I have been a bit behind on my journals. It has been a little hectic with our spring break and not having internet. Everything is back to normal though and by this weekend I will be back on track with them.)

London Fashion Week

My friend Robin attended London Fashion week this year. (So jealous!) When she came back I had a million questions to ask her like, what did you do there, how was the catwalk, did you see any celebrities, how did people dress, whats in your goody bag, etc. To answer my questions, she responded with this:

What did you do there?
"We sat a tables and kind of kept with those people the whole time. First we went through a room with all kinds of booths set up for different designers. This is where all the buyers were checking out the upcoming styles and buying for stores. Then we had a speaker who told us about upcoming styles, where the fashion industry is heading, etc. Then we went to the catwalk."

How was the catwalk?
"I saw Jenny Packham's show. It was amazing. The music was really good and the way everything was set up fit well. I liked her evening dresses more than her other designs, but that is what she is known most for. She designs red carpet gowns."
Robin showed me pictures and videos from the catwalk. From what I could see, the dresses were gorgeous. They all had nice flow to them, made with a silk that fit well together flowing in the light.

Did you see any celebrities?
"No, there was another American girl next to me and she kept asking if I saw anyone in the front row, but I couldn't see any."

How did people dress?
"Not many people were dressed up in really nice dresses or anything. Most people were just wearing day dresses. Some people were in jeans. The speaker who I saw was just wearing a yellow dress with a black belt. Thats pretty much what everyone there wore. It was simple."

What did you get in your goody bag?
"A magazine, a book about fashion week, hair protein?, alcohol, a reusable bag, and I just picked up a bunch of business cards and fliers for different designers."

After talking to Robin and looking what she had brought back, I realized that London Fashion Week was different from what I expected. During New York fashion week I know there are more well known designers who have been in the business for years and have a good reputation. This is what I thought London Fashion Week would be like, but I have realized that LFW has more break-out designers. I think comparing London Fashion Week to New York Fashion Week can say a lot about the two places themselves. From what I have gathered, London has a lot more "high street" fashion compared to New York and I think that kind of shows with what is at each Fashion Week which is interesting.
I just hope one day I will be able to experience either Fashion Week, but until then, I will be attending London Fashion Weekend put on by Elle Magazine this week.

When in Paris...

Last weekend I was so ready to spend plenty of time shopping in PARIS! I couldn't wait. The first full day spent there, my friends and I walked around and came to shops such as Chanel, Dior, and Versace to name a few. Yeah... way out of my price range.
On the streets everyone wore black, it was worse than in London. I spotted some younger girls wearing fun street fashion, but it was kind of rare in all honesty.
After my observations, I realized that the people of Paris are classic, staple item sort of people. Not really what I was expecting.
This made me realize that there is a huge difference, that I was not aware of, between London and Paris fashion.
In London, shopping is a lot easier to access for people of all price ranges. On one end of the spectrum is Primark that offers dirt cheap clothing that is not necessarily going to last you very long and then there is Harrods which offers all high end designers. In between there are MANY stores offering different styles, brands, and target customers.
In Paris, there are high end designer stores, big department stores (like Harrods), and that is about it. We were talking to some friends from Paris and they told us that if we want to go shopping to visit this one department store which they claimed to be excellent. Upon our arrival, our first glance was "Hey, this looks like a great place," but once we actually looked around, we realized that this is just a department store with high end designers in different sections. It made me think: does the young crowd of Paris really think that "average" clothing consists of Vivian Westwood and Chloe?
Another difference is that in London, certain areas are designated to be shopping streets such as Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus and all different stores can be found on these roads. In Paris, there are areas called Operas which are their shopping districts but still the clothing is for customers willing to pay higher prices.
I could be wrong though, maybe shopping is just more difficult to spot in Paris.
Either way, I would much rather go shopping in London being a twenty year old woman who loves shopping.