Louise Gray
This one time at an open day last year Arran fashion and I had to knock on the staff room door at uni to try and get a tour around the grove, it was only ya gal, Gray who opened up and asked if she could help us -and you know the scene in Notting Hill where Honey meets Anna for the first time (exclaims 'holy fuck' and continues to deliver a really uncool monologue about how she's imagined for yonks that they could be bezzie pals) well that monologue sort of ran through my head as time stood still momentarily but I did a bit of a Spike rather than a Honey and just mumbled and stumbled over some words. She actually had this slightly puzzled expression on her face and I don't know if it was at the sentence I eventually formed or if she was trying to work out whether me and Arran had matched my green coat and his green hair on purpose that day, (later in Leicester Square someone actually rode past on a pedicab and shouted at us asking if we were celebrating St. Patricks day early), what a wonderful anecdote that was.
It's difficult for me not to enjoy an LG collection. They're fun and ladylike but childlike at the same time in a playful sense and theres some pinks bits and some glittery bits and textured and embellished bits and mismatched pieces and exciting make-up and cool accessories and clashing prints, prints that aren't repetitive and boring. That more or less summarises why I really like her clothes so i don't know what to talk about for the remaining 119 words of this post.
Maybe it relates back to childlike things again and I think thats because I'm a bit of kid still, a twenty year old with the mentality of a five year old; I go mad for colour and textures and sparkles and i'm not sure why i'm that way inclined.
I thought i'd write a bit about Gray because she's my all time fave/spirit animal but thinking about it, her essence is completely fitting with riot girl culture; Gray loves a bitta d.i.y and self expression and being in control of your mind/your thoughts and not being moulded into someone else's ideals which is what riot girl culture was driven by, massively.
I would say Gray has definitely broken ground repeatedly with her collections and she's definitely cleared the path for like-minded designers such as Ryan Lo, Meadham Kirchhoff - pretty much all the Fashion East lot and even smaller brands like Discount Universe and Phiney Pet. In addition, the collaboration with Topshop opened up a whole new style of dressing made accessible for a younger market thus increasing popularity with said younger market; once upon a time ago it wasn't considered that cool to dress in a quirky way, embrace colour and glittery garms whereas today it is, the brighter, bolder and more you dress like a five year old, the more admirable and 'cool' you look.
My generation of Riot Grrrls don't really sport the Kinderwhore style as such, it's been adapted, there's no uniform and it's not so much a political statement now but more concerned with aesthetic, you dress how you want or how you fancy whether you fancy making an effort or not but there's an obvious interest in 90s revival; both grunge and Clueless/Romy and Michele's HSR phases have made an appearance in the last few years, more so the Charli XCX type style over the grunge. Even the almost-vintage Lizzie Mcguire thing is in happening and it doesn't really stop with clothing, how many editorials have you seen with the location being a pink, bedroom haven of all the fluffy and glittery room accessories you can possibly find? Going from rejecting social and beauty ideals to welcoming back colour-gender norms, being 'girly' is a current trend and as a girl who still uses her Claires Accessories jewellery holders, trinket boxes, fairy lights and has a handful of pompoms taped to the walls I can't actually tell you why it's trend-worthy, it just is, I can only compare it to babies being entertained by their play gym's I suppose; (excellent simile, Corinne) they just are.
Bedroom trinkets, Maisie Cousins photography, Abby May & Elizabeth Donovan collaborative project, Lazy Oaf x Nasty Gal. Made that pink jacket far right hand side of the rail. wot wot.
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