What do you wear?
Here in France one of the things that has stood out is how there generally seems to be one line of fashion and people follow it. There are, of course, the different groups – you will get goths (in black), for example – but the locals here have also asked me if I’ve noticed this trend, a trend seemingly of following the fashion that high street shops present. I’ve frequently come across young people in heels, wearing a lot of make-up and with carefully combed hair, even when they’re not even going anywhere special. Maybe there is one image that lots of people are aiming for.
Do you think about fashion?
Perhaps it is just from my experience, but in England young people can wear anything and everything these days. There are many fashions to be followed, including the one of the high street shops, but following no particular fashion at all is also ok. In Falmouth, home town of an arts university in the south of England, the streets are full of students wearing clothes they’ve bought from vintage markets, from charity shops, from high street shops, or which they’ve found in their parents’ wardrobe. Anything goes. Another stereotype, but still true, in places like Cambridge and Durham you will find students in gilets, and shirts crested with the Jack Wills logo. In London no second person will look the same. For the young people of Britain any hair colour, style and shape has the potential to be liked. You can wear what you want – even if you don’t wear it with high street style. Your style is your choice.
Do you make your own clothes?
Two of the ladies I have lived with here in France have been helping me learn to knit. The first one is a knitting-machine! She learnt to knit because she and her siblings had to knit socks and gloves during the war, or they would have been very cold. Making quilts, knitting accessories and editing clothing has even become more popular among young people in England today.
As I worked at a charity shop this morning and bought myself two items of clothing for 3 euros in total, I wondered why French young people don’t seem to dress themselves more from such shops. One student at school here said to me that she thought it was a shame – she’d noticed that being able to wear whatever you want allows you to express your personality through your clothes. I wonder how ideas of fashion will continue to develop here.
Do you like to follow the latest high street fashion or do you prefer a more individual look? Do you know how to knit?