Please write: dan@dancooper.tv
Return to Page One
Register here to receive Fashion Finds
email updates!

Written and photographed by
Aly Wolff-Mills.

What makes a London girl?

Whether a Sloane Ranger or a West End girl, there is something special about the Londoner. She may not be a native to English soil, but she is certainly a native to the shops that line the streets of some of the most well known shopping and fashion districts.

If she is young and has a wild streak, then she is Camden cyber-chic, buying ever increasingly taller platforms from the likes of Buffalo and Swear, and wearing them under neon synthetic fabrics which rival the sun for brightness. Sporting a pair of second-hand legwarmers left over from the Eighties over her platform trainers and leggings, she is ready for anything from clubbing to joining her mates in the local pub. A brightly coloured fake-fur bolero length coat keeps her warm when browsing the stalls of the market for more short smock-skirts with pockets and zips to go over the leggings.

Whether she just owns a few pairs of flared nylon trousers with flashing lights on the clips, or is a neon rainbow with plastic hair extensions and enough facial piercings to keep a metal detector busy for hours, the Camden cyber-chic walks the area with a peculiar bounce that suggests a permanent techno beat filling the air.

The stores that line King's Road in the boroughs of Chelsea and Kensington closely connect the Chelsea girl and Sloane Ranger. This stylish female tends to dress all in black but if the store windows give any clues to her upcoming summer attire, this woman will soon shed the clean lines of her black wool knee-length overcoat for bright pastel dresses worn over tight stretch culottes, and the street will be filled with the flutter of little butterfly hair clips. At the moment, however, the weather dictates that this London girl bundle up in warmer clothes, so long black trousers with a slight flare are a must.

The Chelsea girl also goes in for any kind of square-toed footwear. Black leather knee-high boots with three inch square heels and square toes, paired with straight dark gray or black knee-length skirts, are a signature outfit for this girl. But if it has a square toe, whether red snake skin print or patent leather, she will wear it with her dark blue denim skirts or her denim pedal pushers with five inch turned-up cuffs.

And somehow, despite the severe heels that she seems so fond of, the Sloane Ranger makes it out and home again laden with the fruits of her Chelsea shopping trip.