People complain about trends getting saturated, ‘done’ and really over-exposed all the time. I have always held the belief that people who are wearing a particular trend in their minds, have gone out and tried to put a personal stamp on it. Afterall, there are few that are ever going to be 100% original and with myself included, none of us like to think we are simply one of many flocking to a trend.
Lately, however, my eyebrows have started to raise a little at the sort of style cloning I have been seeing on the streets. I start to get weary and lose that belief I was talking about above. When you see identi-kit outfits worn in exactly the same way, with the only variant being perhaps the origins of the clothing/accessories, you start to doubt whether we are individuals (I mean the word in the scientific sense). I’m not sure what to term it and though I have no photographic evidence to support my identi-kit clone observation but there is a uniform (and I believe this isn’t unique to the UK) that has been formulating for a good few years and now finally, they are running about in their droves.
It’s the combination of the following items reciped in the following way…
Take a leather jacket, usually from All Saints and pair with a long-ish t-shirt and black leggings. Then load up on lots of Urban Outfitters jewellery (usually a plethora of pendants). Add a keffiyeh/shemagh scarf that you can buy in their bucketloads at vintage stores/Topshop or again, UO wrapped around the neck with a triangle pointing down towards the chest. Finish with a wide leather belt (optional) and some flat pixie boots (vintage/Office/Topshop/etc…).
Now I repeat, there is NOTHING wrong with the recipe. It’s like a tried and tested formula. It’s now practically the roux sauce of street style. I’m not making some kind of revelatory observation but am starting to just get plain scared. When you walk out and see 19 girls dressed in this exact way (I really mean it when the recipe is not tampered with…. the above is followed to an absolute t) on one street (Neal Street in Covent Garden to be exact) you can’t really be anything but peturbed.
When I said I had belief that everyone puts a personal spin on something, it is based on my assumption that well..er..our brains are all different? I really want to go on believing but seriously – 19 girls on one street in the same outfit is the stuff surreal sci-fi movies are made of.
very sad but SO true.
and you know that those same girls would have looked at people wearing the same outfit 2 years ago and thought ‘omg leather jacket? tights with no feet?! is that girl crazy?!’
Susie, you got it in one!
The majority of girls in my area and sixth form
I see plotting around in this get up is crazy!
Yes, it does look good. But who wants to be a clone? Stuck in a trend?
What makes it worse is that they traipse down to Covent Garden every weekend thinking that they are cool, and ‘in’ with the London scene.
Seriously. Stop it. Now.
I concur, that formula uniform, I have noticed it a million times. IMO, that is the exact same concept as those preppy people (A&F, Hollister); who thinks they are all different, yet they are basically the same. Amongst high streets, it is about the formula, not the logo/store. I hope I am making sense here.
I live in Vancouver, and here it isn’t just the girls who wear this uniform. It’s the guys too, just replace flat ankle boots with Nike high tops or shitty falling apart canvas shoes.
Obviously missed this hoard in Covent Garden today – although there were a _lot_ of people, in hoards of all varieties.
Were these 19 separate people – or a massed conglomerate, adhered by this recipe?
OMG, I surely cannot claim i COULD be NOT one of them. it’s shit to admit but I guess i AM. maybe?
But on a side note, I always wonder how our decade will be described once when a new book about years of fashion comes out (like in the 70s they wore flares and in the 80s they had weird haircuts) – so this must be the look that will be representing this our 20th decade maybe.
actually i am not 😀 but could be! i’m a victim to be clear.
i think this is an urban thing. huge swaths of america certainly don’t look like this. it’s all relative. i live in brooklyn and loads of girls wear that layered ‘zany’ thing we see on this blog and it’s just as much a uniform as this.
I posted about somethign quite similar to this recently. it’s strange seeing so many look-a-likes walking the streets and it’s hard to say that there’s something off about it because style is individual. it just has always seemed wierd to me when individuals choose to dress the exact same way at the exact same time. i have to say though that as much as it has become one of the staple looks of the past few years, it’s one that looks good in a cooky kind of way. it’s going to be the kind of style kids of the futures will point at in magazines and say, ‘you actually wore that ??’ and then, a few yeras late they’ll love it as much as we all do…kind of like the 80’s….haha
i totally agree. and i’m halfway round the globe from UK! just replace the boots with either black pumps or colouful canvass shoes, and the leather jacket with something considerably more wearable in hot weather and you get the exact same uniform.. plus its irritating the stores are accommodating this style and it takes away the joy of shopping for me. i can’t seem to escape this.*sobs*
whoa, how can the “zany, layered look” be uniform?? Doesn’t the word “zany” embody individuality? At least, that’s what I think.
I dunno if Susie’s identi-kit formula is so popular in America, but I HAVE seen it. There’s some more popular formulas, but I can’t exactly think of them right now…
this is a cobrasnake pic of the kind of look susie’s talking about…too bad you can’t see their feet!
http://www.thecobrasnake.com/partyphotos/whores/IMG_8619.html
i wear the palestinian scarves, and yes I would wear it with a longish shirt (because I happen to like slouchy boyish long shirts) and leather jacket, but I refuse to wear leggings or oddly shaped flat boots. Also I feel I have some sort of authenticity behind me wearing the pal scarf, it is a part of my background/culture.
I feel every region/area has it’s clone look, perhaps where I live AF/Coach bag/Frat/Sorority look/pink&lime green look.
many people struggle to figure out their personal style. it’s hard, because not everybody is visually creative. and that’s probably why fashion journalism is such a big industry.
blame it on the Olsen twins hahaha
Weird, I live in Southern California & I’m the only girl at my school that wears a leather jacket? But that’s only because of global warming and now it’s freezing all the time (okay like in the fifties) which merits leather jacket wearing! Plus I like the structural outline the shoulder pads give, it is very suitably androgynous piece of clothing, like jeans.
TOPSHOP CHAVS!!!!!!!!!
# 1 Rule of Hipster Clones: Deny being a hipster!
i think the whole premise behind the hipster/scenester look of homogenized
‘individualism’ is ironic (people need to stop ‘daring to be different’ and just be themselves)but that’s the nature of counter-culture and the spread of it’s ideals/music/
fashion.
look at what happened to any of the undergound cultures of the past, whether it be rock’n’roll/beat/folk/mod/punk. hmmm after ’77 punk a glossified, marketable musical genre called ‘new-wave’ bombarded the mainstream air-waves in the 80s.
it’s the same ‘trickle down effect’ which Miranda Priesttly so eloquently pointed out (about that certain shade of blue) in The Devil Wears Prada, only in reverse- the ‘trickle up effect’ for the influence of street fashion.
Mass marketing and homogenization of both counter-culture/ street cutlure and high fashion is just the nature of the beast. this merging of high/street/mainstream fashion is what makes fashion all the more fascinating.
which is probably why so many fashion followers around the globe identify and idolize the likes of Marc Jacobs and Kate Moss with their culturally eclectic hi-lo fashion aesthetics (both light-years ahead)and have become such iconic, relevant fashion phenomenons.
I completely agree, I’m at art college at the moment and all the girls dress like that. Still, i do like those scarves and that jacket….
Haha! A couple of friends I know came to mind on that post…I’d never thought of wearing that combination myself, though. Shemagh scarves don’t suit me, I’d personally wear pixie boots to best effect with my bright red tights and an LBD, an any Urban Outfitters pendants I do own are worn on their own. Why wear so many pieces which nobody will compliment you on when you can wear one that everyone will notice?
I am yet to see or meet anyone who I can honestly say is ‘original’ or even close. The ‘scene’ kids all look pretty much the same, the ’emo’ kids all look the same and even when you see all the people who spend their lives looking for ‘individual’ pieces in charity shops and put them together in their own ‘individual’ way, actually all end up looking like variants of each other. And the harder people try to be different, you can bet your ass there are a million others trying harder. And the people who seek to be ‘individual’ are usually the ones listening to what’s considered socially acceptable ‘fashionable’ music (Klaxons anyone?) and going to socially acceptable ‘fashionable’ clubs (Boombox for example) because it’s human nature to want to belong in some way or another. No-one, with the exception of perhaps a hermit, lives a truly unique existence and if you did, how lonely would that be? So even people who dress off-kilter will in some way want to connect with other like minded people.
i read this blog quite often, and thought i should finally post a comment, as i always find Susie’s posts on individuality/personal style/identity interesting. I think its so interesting how fashion is about belonging but standing out. I agree w/ so much about what has been said and this type of prepackaging really highlights the issues of identity within fashion.
i live here http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/25/news/rstyle26.php
different recipe, same result
soooo boring and tired of being always the weird one
It does upset me somewhat when I see droves of these people on the streets, on campus, everywhere. It’s quite sad that so many people lack an individual style. And there are so many more problems with the whole thing. For a start, the idea of the keffiyeh scarves as fashion items doesn’t really seem a good one – people neither knowing nor caring what they symbolise and just purchasing them from Topshop really does make them look quite foolish.
During the winter the same thing was going on where I live with the jeans tucked in flat knee-high boots. Every second girl on the street was wearing the same outfit. (yes, the place where I live is more than a year back with trends and usually tends to translate them in an illogical and terrible way)
Surely, fashion has been full of followers though time immemorial. Just like music, those who actually want to be ‘different’ are far and few between. The great majoraty of people see their clothes as a way to fit in and be liked. (I’m sure I live this way, to an extent.} I don’t think it’s anything to be sad about – it makes it easier for people with ‘original’ ideas to make an impact. And then they are invariably copied, and the cycle continues.
I know that scary feeling when everyone appears to be in uniform though…
x
Here in Singapore it is exactly the same. Waistcoats are a big thing now and I counted some five girls on one street wearing one, usually over a long tank and skinny jeans, lots of black eyeliner (even 13-year-olds can do it now), and lots of long necklaces or pendants.
A few months back, the look was vintage-y looking dresses with black tights, round-toe pumps, a big belt, and sometimes, a headband. It was cute to see it once. It was painful to walk down the street and see it repeated at least 10 times.
But I think this is completely inevitable. That’s what a trend means – everyone is loving it and doing it. For true lovers of the look (me and my waistcoat), the only way to survive this is to grit your teeth and soldier on with the look long after everyone has abandoned it for the next big thing.
Oh dear I have an All Saints leather jacket! But I’m not one of them there clones OK! Actually, my solution is to be two or three seasons behind. Hence I’m still wearing my skinny jeans tucked into stack heeled boots, two tone mohair stripy sweaters and Lacoste polo shirts. Even better is to stick with basics – Gap, Levi’s, Converse etc. If you’re not IN fashion, you can’t be OUT of fashion, no?
the recipe tastes fine but is utterly bland
I would just like to say well done to Susie for managing to do the whole ‘mix and match’ designer, vintage and high street thing with her own spin and managing to always look brilliant. Also, she possesses that covetable quality which made Mossy such a style icon; the ‘I wish I had thought of that’ factor.
Thankyou for always being inspiring and original Susie!
P.S Not meaning to be stalker-ish but don’t you live around Muswell Hill/Finchley? If so then I have to be even more repsectful of your style because they are NOT the most cosmopolitan areas of London are they.
yup. i am another vancouver person. and that’s the outfit. i default to a look like that when i want to throw something on. it does make most people look good though.
A lack of individual thought pandemic ? It’s like paint by numbers , only replace paint with ‘style’.
ha! that link to the cobrasnake had the url /whore. i guess u could call this look topshopwhore funny thing is most sloanes think theyre original this is scary…..but its better than being a chav after all?
Pah, come summer, they’ll be stuck, in that it will be too hot for scarves, leather jackets and boots.
Of course on the other end of things, there is the possibility that there will be some kind of new formula.
More than likely it’ll be a new dressing formula.
i think I’d rather be a chav than resort to this tedious uniform – at least they have no pretentions about who they are trying to be. I agree that there are only so many permutations of uniqueness, but each individual, as susie says, should be able to give a look their own twist, and that’s what you can find in susie’s blog, and a few others like facehunter.
What irks me most about this look though is that most of its adherents seem to have this arrogant attitude, as if they are so unique, daring and special, sneering away at the local chavs, when their’s is the most mindless look of all. blegh. And as someone said above, taking the scarf without regard to anyone of its symbolic significance really cheapens it, and in my eyes at least, makes them look even more like total trend whores. double blegh.
its funny that we talk about these poor girls from cobrasnake as “whores” and “clones” because the picture is taken in hollywood — i work and live in the area, and almost no one here dresses like that for going out. these girls did, and they probably thought they were being novel and original. i know that new york and the rest of the world is over this look, but it just got here. we’re just getting over our “zany layering/boho beach babe” phase. sadly, we’ll never be over our “Paris Hiltony slutty dress” phase. lol. oh well. can’t win them all right?
but i do concurr that it’s not right to wear these scarves without knowing their true meaning – it’s disrepectful to use someone else’s symbol as a passing fad.
vancouver is a slew of that. But girls dont seem to pot for leather jackets that a much less tailored than the all-saints one. Can we kill the Keffiyah craze already?
It’s clear that the identi-kit or formula uniform style of dressing is alive and well all across the world. Where I live, this is a fashionista’s world, not the world of the ‘trend setter’. The ‘trend setter’ doesn’t wear this uniform en masse, rather they wore it 6 months ago, and have now abandoned it for the next look, which will be adopted by the masses in months to come.
I agree what others are saying about wearing the scarf (or anything else) w/o knowing their meaning, while the scarves essentially don’t have a particular meaning, they are commonly associated with Palestinians, and that in itself has a wide range of connotations.
So it would be irritating to me that someone went and bought one of these scarves and are wearing it because they saw some “hipster” or whatever the term is wearing it on some shot from misshapes, etc…
But I believe someone else said, that soon this would be “out of fad” and the mindless fad followers will be eating up the next thing, and the people that wear the look with an authenticity will continue to wear it.
i want that leather jacket – where is it from??
I understand being sick of trends, but people should not be so judgmental. You can have a view but some of the comments are a little mean. People dress in a way that’s comfy for them, so what if it’s similar. Not everyone is fashion obsessed. They shouldn’t be criticized for that.
I know this is a fashion blog but I am not cool with slamming people who don’t use style as a personal outlet for who they are.
Funny cos I’ve never seen anyone dressed like that around here. It’s lots of Jack Wills jogging bottoms tucked into Uggs, pashminas, ‘bed hair’, personalised hoodies – total Sloaney style. Or skinny jeans/denim skirt with leggings, black flat leather boots, the long heart Topshop pendant and a plain top.
Lots of the Palestinian type scarves around though. It’s ironic, because one of my friends bought one just before the craze, to show she supported the Palestinians, and then they were everywhere, simply as a fashion statement.
Holy crap, I’d just drafted an entry for my blog along these same lines referencing that same scarf. I really try not to have that knee-jerk high school ‘Gah, everyone’s wearing the same thing’ kind of reaction but it’s hard when certain elements become so ubiquitous.
i love this post
and i was just discussing this topic,
“hipster” is the new “punk rock” of the fashion world-
(it’s dead.)
xo
I like your style!
I live in stockholm and I can sadly tell u all that this ‘phenonomen’ is sooo common in this city. It saddens me that people have so little imagination and creativity. (sorry 4 poor spelling.)
Everyone at my university (which is in a suburban area) dresses either as the “identikit” hipster Susie’s talking about, or the A&F/Hollister/Coach/Juicy Couture “Sloane/preppy” that some of you have mentioned… so I’m damned either way.
(btw, those Sloaney/preppy girls in uni aren’t TRUE preppies; true preppies wouldn’t be caught dead in the new Abercrombie cos it’s too nouveau riche for them. ;))
haha.
at my borading school on the east coast… everyone works so hard to stand out that we all end up looking exactly the same,
our current style formula:
+skinny jeans(sevens or AE)
+patterned(not the checkered ones!)van slipons , oddly colored converse, vintage leather flats, rounded toepumps
+V-neck loose tank top(urban outfitters,boutique-y type, forever 21)
+ ‘so ugly its cute’ sweater,shrunken or oversized (your grandmas closet, thrift store, H&M)
+ vintage wool pea coat
that was over the winter, we do mostly dark neutrals with pops of colors cus like everyone is a hippy, spandex are over done and soo last season,
for the spring it seems to be:
+cotton minni dresses
+vintage slips
+black lingerie
+plaid bermudhas
+american apparel beaters
+vintage sunglasses
+flip flops, berkin stocks
+over sized bags
+bed head
(i just wear jeans and tee shirts.. with some vintage stuff i pick up over the weekends as accents.. some how i seem to stand out more)
I think I should add that I’m not wishing for everyone to ‘stand out’ or ‘be unique’ in the way that they dress. I’m merely commenting on how an outfit that started out as a ‘hipster’ ended up becoming very watered down and mainstream. In the UK, I blame the high street stores but also, I do feel that some people are following the look without really ‘rocking’ the look if you know what I mean. People here have said that they like the look and I have no doubt that they look fantastic wearing it but then as it weakens and becomes more a copy and paste formula, somehow the outfit doesn’t ring true anymore.
More senseless babbling to add to another spiralled out post commentary. Thanks for everyone’s input. I find it immensely fascinating seeing where everyone is coming from (both geographically and personal standpoints).
Pseudo-individuality at its best! I end up looking like some freak because I dont choice to subscribe to the current trends like my life depends on it. And then I never know what to wear cos I dont want to look like a clone – damn its a hard life…I think I’ll have to go back to customising and making my own clothes.
I Live in Los Angeles and the EXACT same tragically hip uniform can be seen all over the city!!! isn’t it a tragic
Well i totally agree with you on this point
very nice
looks nice
very good
very sweet