Has anyone else wondered how it is that whenever you see Americans in the media they are all incredibly stylish, but then when you go shopping at the local mall you are surrounded by nothing but tacky cropped tops and garish tracksuit bottoms. Really, there is nothing there (Alexander Wang's SS10 varsity inspired jackets is probably the closest 80% of all Americans will be to being on trend) Which begs the question of where do all the stylish Americans buy their clothes?? (if anyone has an answer to this then please do let me know) This mystery got me thinking of where we Brits buy our clothes, and i had what you could only describe as an epiphany about the British highstreet.
There are two scenarios that i would like to quickly share with you to add context to, and have affected my view on highstreet fashion.
Scenario number one: Last winter i bought some amazing thigh high suede boots that i lived and died in, and which attracted all sorts of attention. The thing is, every time someone asked me where i got them from i cringed and mumbled something about a thrift store that i conveniently couldn't remember the location of. Did this make them seem a more desirable? Maybe. But that fact that i was i so reluctant to disclose that anyone could actually walk down the road and buy them for twenty quid has been bugging me ever since...
Scenario number two: Someone at work complemented me on my patent woven stitch bag, and asked where i got it from. So i told her, "Zara" and then for some unknown reason waffled on about how i didn't really like it but it was SUCH a bargain i just couldn't turn it down. The truth is i love my Zara bag and, despite the fact that for the last 22 years my mum has been telling me i'm going to get mugged and should essentially walk down the street in the fetal position, along with the fact that all of its zips have now broken and continue to show the rest of the world my most prized possessions - i still won't turn it in. Why? Because it's a great bag.
The thing is, i love the highstreet. And it knarks me that i feel embarrassed to tell people i shop there. The reality is, in no other country is trend-led fashion so accessible to the masses. Gone are the days where you went to Topshop for a sturdy pair of jeans, or to H&M for a staple white tee. These are the places where you go when you are wanting to pick up the latest "sport-inspired" a la Wang or "underwear as outerwear" a la Prada led pieces for the summer. Probably the only good thing that came out of the recession was that highstreet design sharpened as people's price points dropped, which resulted in everyone being able to taste a piece of the stylish but affordable pie. I think it is this huge amount of option that is offered to the public that makes London one of the most changeable and vibrant fashion capitals of the world. And yes, we are all starting to get bored by Kate Moss' 8 millionth collaboration with Topshop, but Christopher Kane's embellished dresses and printed tee's were a refreshing, albeit short, distraction for the punk-prone British public. The fact that Topshop's Unique line is being shown on the runway, and was commented as having "so much wit and ingenuity...that you felt mushrooms might even have been involved in the creative process" (Tim Blanks) is a significant signal to the ever growing interchange between high-end and highstreet design. Many an editor would have laughed if asked if Topshop would show at LFW 8 years ago. My point? Times are changing. And so should our opinion of highstreet. I'm not saying we should walk about with the latest 'River Island' logo print bag stapled to our foreheads, but perhaps we could at least embrace highstreet and acknowledge it less like a leper relation. It's about the clothes, not the label, right??
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