London calling: Back to the streets
LONDON — Hometown of übermodel Kate Moss and celeb designer Stella McCartney, girls about town Alexa Chung and Daisy Lowe, the antiquated Harrod’s and the grubby Portobello vintage market… London is the setting of quirky, offbeat fashion that continues to captivate style watchers worldwide.
For those who can’t resist the ring of the cash register (or the silent swipe of plastic), the city offers everything for your mood — from the five-floor frenzied Topshop on Oxford Circus if you’re feeling cheap, to downtown scouring at Shoreditch vintage shops for the thrill of the hunt, to Rei Kawakubo’s fashion-as-art masterpiece Dover Street Market, “where fashion becomes fascinating.”
Though it still has the feel of a European city, London proudly hosts a masterful mix of old and new. Residents have clearly embraced the idea of the mall, with the popularity of Westfield Centre, a beautifully designed complex with the sleek polish of Hong Kong’s shopping meccas. Meanwhile, the Jean Nouvel-designed mall One New Change (yes, it is new), with its dramatic view of St. Paul’s Cathedral, offers shops like Superdry, Banana Republic and Reiss all under one roof. The elegant tailors of Mayfair are, of course, just a picture of the past; today, the area gets more visitors for Abercrombie & Fitch’s pulsing shop floors with models cum salespersons, and a modern breed of glamour has been brought in by Tory Burch on New Bond Street.
Beyond the shop face-lifts, London’s city streets are still the most fun proof of its fashion sense. A recent visit to the capital affirmed the fact that English girls, definitely not as perfectly groomed as New Yorkers (they’ve mastered the art of the seriously messy hair) or sartorially-driven as Parisians, just manage to dress up daily in no-fuss, up-to-date street looks that makes us fancy them so! The city has a style that stays with you. It’s kooky, edgy, artsy, and just plain cool.
