Jackie Jou discovers how street fashion brings the capital new attitude…
– Introduction
– Spitalfields Market
– High Street
– Regent Street
– More…
The sixties were swinging, the seventies went hippie, the eighties spawned punk, the nineties got grunge and today? According to Gity Monsef, Creative Director of Fashion and Textile Museum, “the world is getting smaller – everything cross-integrates. London is a place of eccentricity and creativity and possibilities – it’s more about expression than anywhere else in the world.” Over seven million people in London, and each authentically contributes their own individuality to the human project.
Out on the streets of London, the fabulous, the kitschy, the sophisticates and the slovenly mingle with equal propriety. All of these people pass by one another every day and never say a word. Instead, the casual once-over is employed – usually taking five seconds unless one wants to risk looking lewd or menacing – where someone drinks in a stranger from head to foot, to gather all the information they need to sartorially categorize another. The streets are the equalizer; they take everyone and throw them in the same melting pot.
However, the first move (usually determined three seconds after the once-over) breaks the object into humanized form. The labels melt away and we have a person, a place and history.
I wandered the London streets to find out what peoples’ fashion tells about this big city, or what the city tells about it’s fashion…
