hilkat

When it comes to fashion and style, I’ve always had a problem with following the rules. Being the type of person who usually does the complete opposite of what anyone tells her, and a big fan of getting her own way, I invariably refuse to fall into line and do the same as anyone else. Despite searching the English language for a single word to describe the way I dress, I have never come up trumps and found one. The closest I came to it was ‘eclectic’, although I think ‘schizophrenic’ might be a more accurate portrayal, since my style changes completely from day to day.

Despite being twenty-four years of age, I still think of picking an ensemble as if I were playing with a dress up box. Fashion and clothes provide you with the power to be whoever you want to be, and I like to use that as much as possible. I tend to have several looks that I alternate depending on my mood, what I’ve been reading, what I’ve been watching on TV and who my current style icon is. One day I could be a 1940s siren, complete with flicks of eyeliner and pencil skirts, the next I could dress as a surfer chick with flip flops and baggy jeans. The beauty of fashion is that you can completely reinvent yourself on a regular basis; at the moment I’m loving the clashing fabrics and bright colours of Luciana, but next week there’s a good chance I’ll be working the French bohemian thing.

So whether you need a bit of inspiration, or whether you just want a bloody good laugh, I have decided to open my wardrobe doors to show you some of the oddities inside. Rather like a treasure trove. Or the sideshow of a circus, depending on which way you look at it…

Dresses

I am a big fan of dresses, and have many of them in an array of patterns, colours and styles. I usually either wear them over jeans or on their own with big heavy boots – I might walk into a bar and see another woman wearing the same dress as me, but I could guarantee she wouldn’t be wearing it in the same way. After all, the last thing you expect to see a delicate dress topped off with is a pair of black motorcycle style boots.

My pick of the moment is my button-fronted leopard print dress, which I got from H&M sometime last summer. Animal print is one of those funny trends that never really disappears - it fades for a while and then appears once more when you least expect it. It’s a complete statement piece, and there’s a hundred different ways to wear it, whether over skinny jeans and a printed t-shirt with vintage heels, on its own with chunky boots, or even open as a light coat.

Layering

Nothing makes a look your own like unusual layering. Short sleeves over long, vests over dresses, waistcoats over floaty tops, skirts over trousers – you name it, you can layer it. As well as adding interest to the outfit, layering is the perfect way to hide areas that you don’t particularly want to show. For me, it’s the tops of my arms and my legs– I have always thought them to be too skinny and ‘twig-like’, but by wearing more than one top I can create the illusion of bulking them up a little. However, if you’re going to use layering in the summer make sure you use light garments otherwise you’ll end up hotter than the sun!

Vintage

Vintage, retro, unique…there’s no escaping it, they’re all words for second hand. Personally, I don’t think enough people are taking advantage of charity shops or the vintage section on Ebay, as they really are a goldmine if you like clothing or accessories with a little bit of individuality. Some of my favourite pieces are second hand, and the best thing is that they were a complete bargain – where else can you get an outfit for under a tenner?

Clockwise from centre:

• Red 1980’s dress, £8.00
• Blue denim waistcoat, £5.00
• Black bag with gold detail, £8.00
• Mesh cardigan with rose print, £4.99
• Brown tooled leather bag, gift, found while travelling in New Zealand
• Brown leather belt, £25.00 (more than I would usually pay but it was London and I was in love with it!)
• White belt with gold detail, £9.99
• Gold frame sunglasses, £4.99
• Print scarf, gift from a friend
• Black belt, £6.00
• Leather patchwork bag, £3.99

Some of these prices are steeper than your average charity shop, simply because they came from shops that dealt specifically in items more than twenty years old. The funny thing is, the most worn item from the list above is the £4.99 cardigan – it now has holes in the shoulder, but I refuse to throw it away as I love it so much!

Accessories

Accessories are the key to making a look stand out from the crowd and I find it hard not to over indulge in this area, as there are so many fabulous things out there to tempt me. I’m a big fan of hats – there’s nothing more useful on a rainy day – and I adore scarves and jewellery. The thing with accessories is that you have to be careful how many you wear, otherwise you end up looking like you rolled in your cupboard and left the house without looking in the mirror. Trust me – I’ve walked down the road on more than one occasion, shedding sunglasses, bracelets and belts as I went!

So, in a nutshell, that’s pretty much how I get dressed every day. My one rule is, if in doubt, wear the lot!

I hope you enjoyed peering into the contents of my cupboard – I wrote this article purely because I love seeing how other people dress and what goodies they have in their wardrobes. Since I’m completely nosy, you can write a bit about what makes you a style guru and send it to me, complete with pictures, at vicky@hilkat.co.uk. The most interesting fashionistas amongst you will appear in the ‘Girl, You Got Style’ section. (Just so I know it’s not a technical fault email meant for Rich, make sure you put ‘Girl, You Got Style’ in the subject bar.)

Coco Chanel once said, “fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is something in the air. It’s the wind that blows in the new fashion; you feel it coming, smell it… in the sky, in the street: fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening…” Ms Chanel did not say, “well, you know, if your wardrobe isn’t made up entirely of designer clobber, you’re clearly an unfashionable peasant. Now where’s my Evian?” Despite being one of the most renowned couturiers of all time, and the founder of the most classically famous design house in the world, Chanel knew the score. She celebrated fashion as a way of expressing not only the individual, but also the world around us.

Sadly, this isn’t the case of many so called “fashion lovers” of today. I’ve heard tales of girls who spent their entire student loan on one handbag, meaning they had to beg their parents for rent money and eat Smartprice beans on 12p bread for the rest of the semester. The worst thing about this (apart from the obvious – have you ever eaten Smartprice beans?) is the fact that the majority of these girls are paying a vast amount of money for the privilege of owning an item by a design house that they know absolutely nothing about. Ask them why they like Marc Jacobs or Louis Vuitton, and you’ll be met with a blank stare. Question them about who the head designer is at that particular couture house, and they start to look uncomfortable and edge away from you. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with people buying designer clothes. What I have a problem with is people buying stuff that is dictated as fashionable, without being able to answer a question as simple as “why do you like that?”

Fashion is about identity, it’s an expression of yourself, both inside and out. It’s about creativity, passion, showing the world who you really are. Clothes give you the power to be whoever you want to be that day; a 1940’s sex siren, a rock chick with holes in her clothes and a cigarette smile, or a ghetto fabulous superstar. Fashion is supposed to be about fun and frivolity, not wearing something a magazine told you was the latest ‘must have’ that you had to take out a mortgage to purchase. £1500 for a dress? I don’t care if the queen herself bled her fingers to the bone hand sewing on diamonds, I would not pay that for any item of clothing. Fuck, I probably wouldn’t pay that for a car.

The society we live in today is based upon cultures of consumption; desire is manufactured, and women are manipulated into thinking they can be better people if they have this handbag, more successful if they have these shoes and more attractive if they buy this lipstick. The whole point of fashion has been lost amongst multi-million pound companies and glossy magazines, all convincing people that they need overpriced clothing. Identity has completely disappeared, as people wander down the street all looking exactly alike; robots and clones on the conveyor belt of life. The desire to look like everyone else is completely lost on me; personally I shop in second hand shops and H&M. Topshop, Miss Selfridge and the like have veered into the realm of stocking only ridiculously expensive catwalk copies, and lets face it, where is the fun factor in turning up to a party only to be faced with three other girls wearing the same dress as you, one of whom is the hostess?

In an age where freedom of speech is considered so important, how has it come to the point where personal expression has become so stifled and smothered? Clothes should be used to express the real you, hide the flaws, show the perfections, change your personality and show the world what YOU want to show it. Not to show the world that you can go into Topshop and buy the exact outfit on the mannequin in the window, or that you can pick up a glossy magazine and purchase exactly what they’ve instructed you to.

You want my advice? Go and buy Pop magazine, take a trip to a second hand shop, have fun with fashion and give two fingers to the world of couture.

Dedicated follower of fashion? I don’t think so, thanks.