The Spanish Love British Fashion
British Fashion Finally Celebrated
At last our individuality and creativity is being celebrated, if not embraced by our continental cousins. No longer are we being accused of retrieving clothes from the unwashed pile and bad grooming. It seems that our minor offences of lack of preening and disregard for colour coordination are finally being overlooked as the Spanish and Italians are looking at the bigger picture.
More Choice for Cheap
Bored with the limited choice of either OTT fake gold jewellery and too tight jeans and trousers washed down with another generous helping of gold and sparkle in the form of bags and shoes, or the alternative simple but tired American preppy style, they are looking to break the mould. British fasion allows you to loosen up and do exactly that. You can have lots of well made knitwear for the price of your one boring, safe designer cashmere jumper without looking cheap. Until the quite recent emergence of Zara and Mango, coupled with our own Top Shop and H&M, cheap meant shoddy and good quality meant seriously expensive.
Experimentation
Now the Spanish young people are beginning to boycott bland Benetton and the like and are experimenting with style by looking for unusual, fashionable pieces that won’t break the bank. They no longer want to look the same- they are choosing to look different and break the conventions of what looks good and what doesn’t.
Spanish Vogue
The autumn/winter edition of Spanish Vogue pays homage to British style in a six page feature dedicated to what they call “Anglomania”. There is mention of how British designers are at the forefront of all the major fashion houses e.g. John Galliano for Dior and Stella McCartney for Gucci.Such is our worldwide impact on fashion that the Spanish language has coined numerous words and expressions including the following:
British Way of Life
El Tartán
El plumcake
El Country Life
el Englishness
el in
el out
It speaks of how not only is the phenomenon influencing fashion on the street but the espíritu ingles is also filtering into Spanish homes and interiors. Even the word el Shopping fills a void in the Spanish language to convey the idea of shopping but with a passion. The article goes on to describe us enviously as daring and experimental. From the perspective of the Spanish, we are very good at putting our own individual stamp on both high street and catwalk trends.
Brits are Cutting Edge
It is true that our own high streets have become more and more exciting over the past five years, with Top Shop achieving designer status and Stella McCartney doing a collection for H&M. Fast fashion is a way of life for us, whether it be music, interiors, clothes even our attitudes towards politics, we are constantly evolving at such an enviable rate that everyone else wants to be a part of it. You just need to go into any typical British high street store and hear the tills constantly ring to work out that British young people aren’t put off by rising interest rates and student debts. It’s fast affordable fashion in every sense that drives our cutting edginess.
Brits are Inspiring
Unfortunately, for so long the UK media in the form of magazines and television have been bombarding us with years of so called inspirational Mediterranean ideals that we have forgotten just what we are all about. I think that it is refreshing that our futuristic creativity and artistic approach to fashion is at last being recognised, if not admired and slowly imitated by the classic and conventional continentals. The Spanish fashions seem to lag a bit behind the British high street but they do eventually filter through and are often adapted to the spanish taste by Spanish fashion designers.