Are We The Fashion Makers?

WHEN you're poring over magazines and flexing your fashion credentials every month without fail, do you ever think that the people who make up those magazines are looking right back at you?  That what you wear today could influence fashion tomorrow?  That's right, you're the underlying inspiration for the designers, as street style is actually the be all, end all and indeed starting point of the sartorial cycle in which we all live.

Ever since Vivienne Westwood made alternative fashion accessible with her aptly named shop 'SEX' in the seventies, the real people on the other side of the fashion line have influenced the designers' genius.  Progressing from punk, countless continuously changing style tribes are even now showcasing individuality to the extremes, proving that the true original thinkers are the young people getting dressed up to the max for everyday use.  Designers have cottoned on to this creative spark.  Anonymous muses are in abundance and it's this ingenuity and flare which we see stalking the catwalks and, in turn, strolling the pavements.

Of course more recently, it helps that the British high street has just got so amazing.  No longer does a girl need a high-power office job or access to Daddy’s bank account to be deemed well-dressed.  Now that good-quality and even designer-looking clothes are available without the evil price tag, designers are forced to take heed.  Cue diffusion lines.  Cue designer/high-street collaborations.  It seems that the modern high-street can do no wrong and is forging style icons all of its own.  Any homage to the high street must mention the T word: Topshop.  Womankind has a lot to be grateful to this fashion maverick for, as it closed the gap between the catwalk and the high street.  Even Kate Moss, the supermodel whose reign never ends, has lent her name to a number of highly covetable collections for the high-street giant, giving the nation the chance to play dress-up with the wardrobe of the definer of style. There have been uncountable designer collections.  Topshop even has its own catwalk line.  High fashion and high street can finally become one and for that Topshop, we salute you.

The rise and rise of handmade clothes and accessories, charity shop shopping sprees and that literally old favourite 'vintage' added new dimensions to the eclectic mélange which is British street style.  Designers like Luella Bartley are fascinated with the boldness and experimentation which comes as second nature to British fashionistas.  The indisputable best-dressed, these women (and men) refuse to be labelled, mixing second-hand, vintage, high-street and designer with a mix-and-match attitude that is without price and definition.

So next time you're flicking through your magazine, remember that the popularity of fashion bloggers such as Facehunter and The Sartorialist who photograph the überstylish yet unknown, continues to show how the Jimmy Choo could be on the other foot.  The people in the know are looking to the high street rather than the catwalk for ideas and the fashion they're finding is streets ahead.

Emily Rainton