The Style Tribe

During my first week back at uni, i attended a lecture by ex-Harper's Bazaar Dubai Deputy Editor and Nat Mags Web Editor, Alexandra Shakespeare, entitled "Street Fashion", in which we learnt about Streetstyle; The best ways to present it, where it comes from and some of the most famous streetstyle photographers. One of the tasks she set us, during the lecture, was to name as many 21st Century style tribes/subcultures/clothing categories as we could, and then to put ourselves into the category that best described us. We came up with a selection of groups, like: Indie, Prep, Goth/Edgy, Surfer/Skater, Slones, Vintage, Glam/High Maintenance, Casuals, etc.

I know that some people like to belong to a group, and feel as though they're a part of something but i'm not one of those people. I feel as though it's difficult to put people into categories as they have so many different sides. The day that i had this lecture i was dressed down, and pretty casually, often unlike me usual put together self, so i felt as though my outfit didn't really portray my sense of style. After discussing with some girls from my course, we came to realise that everyone had multiple styles as some days you can want to dress really girly, but others you want to don your leathers to become a rock chick. So, overall, i think it's very difficult to stick someone in a category and say "this is who you are" because, more often than not, you're going to be wrong. People change. In the lecture, a girl made a statement that she thought that everyone has a label, and no-one is totally unidentifiable, and as much i feel that, generally, people aren't totally unidentifiable it's also difficult to give everyone one, straight forward label.

I've taken some 21st Century "dramality" (drama/reality) television programmes, that everyone knows and everyone is talking about to show different styles of people, but that actually it's pretty hard to tell how different they really are.

Here are two images, one from The Only Way is Essex and one from Made in Chelsea, showing people from the London borough of Chelsea, and the others, obviously, from Essex, UK. Now, for those that know these programmes, it's quite obvious which is which, but for those who don't, i think it's a little bit harder. Thinking with an open mind, after much deliberation and picking at the differences in the images, you'd probably come to the conclusion that the Top image is of the Made in Chelsea girls, and the bottom from Essex, but i still believe that it's difficult to stick people in a category, because i think the girls all look pretty similar, but if you knew about them, or who they were, you'd know that they're very different.

What do you think about labels? Which style tribe are you?

K|xo

(All images taken from Google Images)