Riot in the Streets: London, Summer 2007

This past August, I was lucky enough to visit London, England, my favorite city in the world. While there, I decided to capitalize on the opportunity of my being surrounded by people who don't dress like boring garbage all the time, and document some of the best examples of personal style that I saw. I have been procrastinating posting them to this blog for the past two months, but, seeing as I haven't posted anything of note for weeks and weeks, I think it's time to return from my needless hiatus and unleash some of these hot babes upon the world.

I hope to make Riot in the Streets into a regular Street Style feature on this blog. Some detractors might argue that street style has been shot down dead by the Internet/H&M/Nicole Richie, but I disagree. The psychology of how people dress themselves every morning and why they do it the way they do is a subject I always seem to find myself contemplating. So many people can't be bothered to make themselves look anything but middling, and I feel that it is my obligation to congratulate and make known the rare few who turn the everyday ritual of getting dressed into something innovative and celebratory.

And with that, here are my London picks:

left to right:

1. This girl is a great example of why I find street style so much more compelling than high fashion. Casual daywear, when executed correctly, looks infinitely cooler than all-jazzed-up rich people garbage. First and foremost: nice bangs. Secondly, I appreciate the fact that this girl was intelligent enough to find the exact most flattering jeans for her body type. Not very many people are smart enough to do that, and I know this for a fact because I spend approximately 90% of my time selling jeans to idiots. Her outfit would look so much worse if she was wearing purple skinny jeans or whatever. And last but not least, this is one of the coolest hoodies I have ever seen in my life. Some mornings when I feel like I have nothing to wear I think about this hoody and how cool I'd look in it. Seriously.

2. I don't even know where to begin with this one. My boyfriend wants to marry this girl, and I want to be her BFF. Or maybe just be her? To be honest, I don't know if I've ever seen anyone look cooler (except for maybe Maurice Gibb in the music video for Stayin' Alive). Everything about this girl's outfit is perfect. She's perfect.

3. This girl actually just got off a motorbike about ten seconds before I took her picture. If I had just spent an extended amount of time Vespa-ing around London, I would probably have sweaty hair, a red face, and dirt all over my clothing. Yet this girl manages to look more put together than the entire Royal Family combined. She should be in a Zara ad. Or on the Sartorialist. But no! Just nogoodforme.com!

left to right:

1. Talk about Rupert Grint Chic done right! I saw this boy walking with two of his friends in Camden Town. When I asked if I could take his photo for a fashion blog, he acted all, "Why would you want to take my picture?" Yeah right! As if you don't wake up every morning and perfectly tousle your ginger mop, not to mention roll up your burgundy corduroy trousers to exact perfect mid-calf length. But that's great! It's all worth it, because he looks totally hot.

2. I saw this girl reading British Vogue (which is just called Vogue there) while waiting for the tube at Notting Hill Gate. I love England- if this girl were American, she'd probably be wearing pink sweatpants with the name of her university stitched on the butt. But since she's British, she looks like Gwyneth Paltrow's rascally little sister. I can totally picture this girl fighting with her boyfriend in their Ikea-furnished flat and then exclaiming "Kiss me, you gorgeous arsehole!". Totally irresistable.

3. Isn't this girl the cutest thing you've ever seen in your life? She's actually as cute as a baby animal. With those teeth, any outfit would look fabulous, but I like how she actually does not give a shit and just threw on some okay jeans and a boring t-shirt. If someone had told me six months ago that I would ever respond well to a dyed-burgundy asymmetrical haircut I would've laughed in their face, but this cutie-pie proved me way wrong. It's a clever strategy to have your haircut make such a strong statement that you can slack off entirely on your outfit and still look more exciting than any other person in your whole city.

Posted by Laura in Fashion
Permalink | Stumble This! | Digg This! | |

+ Contact Us
+ HOME

© K. Asharya, L. Barker and L. Faulds. All rights reserved. All content cannot be reproduced without prior written permission.

;