College Fashion?*

*This article actually refers to those who are clearly interested in fashion at college!

The current fashion hierarchy at college is far from the magazines and the catwalk shows, it resembles more the street-style websites such as FaceHunter (though obviously paired down, this is Grimsby after all) or '(s)he who wears the most vintage wins' and anything outside of this is nicht gute. It's sort of like this:
Charity Shop "Chic" (err horrible word)
The Entire Contents Of Topshop
The Entire Contents Of Primark (y'know the semi-okay stuff if you forget the ethics behind it of course)
BELOW THIS LINE YOU ARE NOTHING, I REPEAT, NOTTTHIIIIING.
What I like about it is just several years ago, going to Oxfam and trailing through the clothes there would make you a sure target for bullies for years to come, you cheapskate git. But now the iconic dressers in college have carefully put together 'thrown together' looks about them. Maybe it makes sense in this economic climate, that buying 5 tops from a charity shop could equate 1 poorly made top from Topshop that will no doubt fall apart at the seams after a few washes.
This sort of dress isn't reserved solely for the girls either, many stylish boys are 'at it' - denim shirts, tacky-tastic jumpers that look like Christmas presents from cruel family members are the common items of status but I've spotted a few others.
It's what I love about Grimsby, we're about 2 years behind London or any fashion capital though make that 20 years behind Paris - have you seen the work of Saint Laurent and Chanel? Personally, I'm all for monochrome and everyone having matching black bobs and peg trews but that's yet to come.
In the mean time, I'm going to dress like your gran, meet you in Oxfam in 10.

There's something about Luella

My taste in fashion fluctuates all the time but there's one designer who's always been a constant source of lovely.
Luella Bartley is a woman who knows a thing or two about horses, British-ness and fashion and after naming her first collection 'Daddy, I Want A Pony', she became a firm favourite with the fashion quirks like Daisy Lowe, Lily Allen and even cooler Thandie Newton. The current SS09 collection is a real mix up of colours, patterns and net veils - like Anna Piaggi exploding into 20-odd looks - lilac, the brightest orange and pink, purple (as well as some beautiful equestrian nods with the riding hat and jacket) and more than a few more! I also like the way it slowly becomes muted towards the end of the collection, with granny-purple brocade trousers.. Not to mention the florals (some of which make me feel I've seen them before..) which brings me to what I like about it - I like that it seems to obviously resemble 'recycled fashion' (something we're easing into now we're firmly in recession) with all these fabrics sewn together to make one garment ('Frankenstein's Monster Styling' anyone? I can certainly imagine her shrieking "it's alive!" after creating the collection) as well as the way it resembles 'inhibitionless' (?!) old ladies who seem to wear anything and everything they own all at once (fig 1. your grandmother) - a hideous generalisation in 'Ask Hadley' supported this when someone suggested all Italian women of a certain age start to wear fur coats and ooze glamour (I added the last bit, I love fur coats.. ...faux fur, I'm no murderer)
But back to Bartley, I giggled like mad looking through the collection, baffling in colour/fabric clashes as it was, it was still genius.