Love the London Look

Go Aggy!

After a recent trip back to London, the Poodle has a renewed love, adoration and appreciation of the sheer audacity of British fashion and fashionable Brits everywhere. The same goes for British make up, which is also loud, proud and experimental. Clothes clash, patterns out pattern other patterns, structured jackets are teamed with billowing shirts while pork pie hats are worn with floaty dresses, vintage jewels with neon lycra from American Apparel, lip liner, stars, face painting, stripes, big lips, big eyes, everything is a fashion possibility. There are no limits to the creative potential of what you’ll find walking around the streets of London.

Florence teams sequined hot pants with a flyaway dress...

If the world is Gok’s Fashion Fix, then London is most definitely Gok, with shock tactic fashion, naff high street kitsch and tongue in cheek styling to extreme. With more dash than cash London makes fashion about fun, trying things out in fearless style, and always a smile. Yes, I’m doing Desperately Seeking Susan today, and yesterday was Bat for Lashes... the influences are evident, music and fashion are irrevocably at one in London...

The Florence and the Machine floaty night dress and big boots topped off with a shocking scarlet barnett – all images are interlocked and inter-referenced and it’s this blatant nod to popular culture, historical vintage fashion or even runway references gone mad, that is so refreshingly quirky, cheeky and indisputably cool about the way that Londonistas dress. Take a look at Alexa Chung and Pixie Geldof, London's leading ladies:

Therefore, in contrast to Gok, Paris is most certainly Brix Smith Start (although much quieter and with 90% less peroxide). Paris is the capital of fashion, the home of Chanel, the domicile of Dior and the je ne sais quoi of Yves Saint Laurent, and naturally designer rules on these streets. Parisians are innately stylish – it is part of their genetic make up. They opt for simplicity, clean lines, clean colours, sophisticated outfits which are appropriate for all occasions and situations. Parisians combine quality, simple, wearable, expensive designer pieces in shades of black, white or navy, with varying combinations of other expensive designer pieces in brown, black or grey. So, even if behind the heavy 12ft ornate doors in countless Paris immeubles along Boulevard Saint-Germain there are fireworks of creativity shooting off in the couture houses, on the street in Paris there is a dreary albeit chic winter uniform obeyed by all.

Tatou goes for classy but conventional

Pour les filles:

Minimal make up
One subtle piece of jewellery
Black trench coat
Stockings
Boots in black or brown
Little black dress
Longchamp handbag

Pour les garçons:

Dark jeans (tight fitting)
Shirt
Cashmere jumper
Black or brown trench coat – can be in leather
Black smart shoes often with a pointed toe
Therefore it really is a lovely moment for the Poodle to venture on to the colourful chaotic streets of London to breathe in the humour, the style, the jumble sale chic and the kitsch eccentricity of it all. Thank you London! Apologies to Paris but when it comes down to it, it’s London that shouts fashion loud and clear, trends are taken off of the runway and interpreted in a multitude of individual British ways. Today is a proud day for the Paris Poodle to be an English rose!

Who wins in your fashion stakes? London or Paris?