By Antigone Phili INTERNATIONAL CORESPONDENT
What? Could it be—is it really that time again…. For a London street fashion update? I do believe so. Don’t groan too much, think of it as me helping you out and welcoming you into the world of trends. You belong here, popsensers, just the way these street fashionistas / fashionistoes belong in Popsense.
My journey to the city started out rough. Not to put anything against my mother when I say this, but the roughness all started when… My mother insisted on coming with me on my search for trendy British folk. Yes, my mother. No, no, not my brother. You’re reading this correctly. My mother. Yeah, the one who gets tired after fifteen minutes of being in a department store, well, she wanted to come with me to a day-long city “adventure” where all I do is walk up and down the street and get stared at or get hit on by old men. And yes, I’m talking about the mother that all of my older brother’s friends are scared of. Oh, her. That mother.
Despite the fact that my mother and I are one of the most dynamic duos known to man, we are also known to bite each other’s heads off with sarcasm (and sweetness, of course!). Well, thanks to our bickering and “off beat” morning, I forgot the completely necessary Popsense cards. Yes, those are the one and only Popsense cards that have only been received and seen by the trendy Londoners. Oh, what is that? You.. you like the cards? Want one? Really? Well, catch my eye and find me at Oxford Circus in London on the weekends. Anyway… Without the Popsense cards, I felt like my mission was incomplete. Mother didn’t understand how necessary these cards were. Me + Cards + Fashionistas = Fashionistas have website name + like pretty cards + go on website + see themselves = Happy fashionistas.
Mother thought instead of the Popsense cards, since there was no time to go back home and get them, I could just go to some shop, get their business card and write Popsense.com on the back. Oh god, no. I objected immediately. Popsense would never stand to be on the back of someone elses business card. Popsense is a damn individual who deserves to be on colored paper tags, written in metallic markers outlined in fine colored pencils. Well, mother did not want to go with me the next day to the city again. I was on my own. But I was still stuck – I mean – I was still bonding .. with her, for the rest of the day. After a short-lived not-so-popsense adventure, we were tired and decided to saddle up at a pub. No ordinary pub, of course, this was The George. About a block before The George was another pub, The Cock, but we opted out of going there. I don’t know why she was so unenthused.
Well apparently The George was the perfect choice. As we sat down, even my mother could not help but notice the four well dressed men sitting at a table beside us. As I went up to the bartender to order, my mother wasted no time being shy and immediately started a conversation with these four young hipsters. Turned out that not only were they well dressed, but they were also in a band. Very fitting.
Let’s evaluate these men one by one, starting from the left. Man number one was rocking a leather jacket. And who the hell cares if it’s cold and rainy in London, he was wearing sunglasses- and yes, he rocked them. Matching with his other boys, he wore some faded skinnies that helped tone down the leather jacket so he wouldn’t look too biker-like and added indie flare instead. Not that I’m against the whole biker look or anything but… you know. He did well.
Guy number two, red cardigan man, was a bit more daring with his red and blue. I don’t know why, but I always have respect to any man who can wear / will wear a scarf. Some men feel that they are above it. Anyway, the fact that he matched the red cardigan with the belt, sunglasses, and shoes was indefinitely hip. But of course, the way he finished it off with a blue striped v-neck really toped it all off.
And alas, we have guy number three and guy number four. These boys somewhat matched, and they were looking quite classy and trendy at the same time. With their black not-all-buttoned cardigans, they kept a clean look. The plaid shirts underneath gave it the urban, street-fashion cool look by adding color (and of course, you can never go wrong with flannel/plaid.) The skinny jeans also made the look infinitely cooler, and I give big kudos to the man on the far right for brightening up the look with white skinnies. Anyone who wears white skinny jeans is fabulous, and most likely Popsense worthy.
Well, my dear popsense children, if you’d like more of these men, you can check out their band—One Eyes Blue. If you’re into 50’s-esque music, you will definitely dig their sound. It’s something different and fresh, check it out and give these hipsters some love. Here’s their myspace.
Now don’t think the job was done by this point. I still had to go back the next day and fulfill my duties to find more street fashionistas on my own. Mother woke me up early that day, as usual, so I got to Oxford Street at around 10:45am. It soon occurred to me that not just hipsters, but normal people in general do not go out at 10:45am. They are sleeping. They are not leisurely shopping at such an early hour during the summer. They are sleeping like normal people would. (Besides Jeff, because Jeff doesn’t sleep. Stelios doesn’t sleep either, aside from when he’s falling asleep at non-sleep related places. Ali is nocturnal. Those are the only exceptions.)
But, of course, I refused to let the fact that barely anybody was on the streets get me down. I could find them. For hours I roamed the city, going up and down the same street and in and out of shops. It was tough, but I was determined. I didn’t really care that the shop assistants were giving me dirty looks since all I did was look sketchy by going in and out of their stores only focusing on the people rather than the clothing that the stores displayed.
Finally, as I left TopShop for the seventh time, I found some popsense. A young fashionista was headed my way—I wasted no time feeling awkward about approaching her to ask if I could take her picture, and sure enough, she agreed. What I thought was so fabulous about this outfit was the fact she could look super trendy without being obnoxious. She didn’t have to wear any bright colors, no super short skirt or anything of that sort. She kept it chic and simple and was a perfect example of simplicity at its best. So please, ladies and gentlemen, popsensistas and popsensistos, do us all a favor and take a tip from this young lady: You don’t need to always be overly vibrant and have “wacky” clothes to look fashionable and catch someones eye, sometimes it’s best to keep it simple.
After this encounter, my optimism and determination definitely began to rise. I had to cross quite a few more streets until I was successful again, but I finally found my next popsense gal. She was definitely very enthused. Not really. At all. Actually, I think she wanted to slap me. That’s alright.
“Excuse me? Hi, I’m writing a column on street fashion for a pop culture blog. Could I take your picture?”
“..,What for…”
She kept walking. I ran after her, babbling like a mad woman trying to explain myself again. Eventually she stopped walking and agreed to let me take the picture. It took long enough. Anyway, her outfit was pretty damn cool. She managed to pull off the look of shorts with tights, which I don’t see very often. From the scarf and necklace to the pointy, shiny black shoes, she really pulled this look off. Pretty good for an angry popsenser.
Unfortunately, my time at Oxford Street had run out and I had to hurry over to orientation at my new school soon after my encounter with angry trendy girl. As I walked through the doors to orientation into a room full of seated, quiet people, it occurred to me that I was a bit late. A man was giving a speech. And, well, I was by far the most flamboyantly dressed person in the entire room and anywhere within a 10 mile radius of the school. So, due to that fact, everyone held their stares for double the amount of time than one usually would when turning around to stare at the awkwardly late person who just burst through the back doors. That’s okay. It was worth it.
And don’t worry, Popsense, new “fashion adventures” will be taking place soon. And from the looks of it, if I spend any more time with my mother, things could get a little dangerous. As mother and I ventured off to a town notorious for its massive flee market a few days ago, we noticed a gang of about 15 to 20 hardcore punks. Now, I’m not one to be intimidated by this, because I don’t know why a bunch of kids with two-foot tall died mohawks, chains, piercings, plaid skinny jeans, and most likely knives—should scare me. Especially if they’re in all together in a massive group. On the hunt. To kill me. (I sort of have a wild or… “vivid” imagination, sometimes, I don’t know.) I recently learned that London has quite the history of knife violence, quite a few people people have been stabbed, and there many teen gangs. Well, there was only one way for me to get down the street, so I figured that I could just go around all of these punks and avoid any violence of any sort. My daredevil mother had a different idea.
“Hey!!! Come here, come take a picture of these guys for your street fashion thing!! Quick, look!! Come take a picture!!!”
Her shrill voice gave me chills. At this point I was ready to go into hiding. I didn’t see any shields or bullet proof vests in sight. I looked at my mother and ask her sincerely, “Do you want me to get stabbed?”
She took another look at the gang and scurried along past them. We decided not to walk home after that, instead we got a taxi. And left. Within seconds.
Oh, popsense. You’re such a risk taker, you.
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In PopSense's earlier days, we bothered ourselves with petty battles against the mindlessly popular Disney Channel band, "The Jonas Brothers". Today we feel that we have matured a bit (cough), but we still can't help but return to a question at the heart of our struggle with these celebrity super powers. Were the fans of the Backstreet Boys and NSync quite as rabid as those of the Jonas Brothers. Take a moment when you can and just look at the comments I've received on my Kevin Jonas mockery video, they are malicious to say the least. Were the boy bands of the 90s just as miraculously beloved as these Brothers? Leave a comment to let us know what you think!
