Until 1988 River Island was called Chelsea Girl, proving once again that the 80's almost ruined fashion. It also proves that sticking the word 'girl' onto something makes it automatically awesome (Elle mag, Disneyrollergirl, my blog...) as it references the Sixties, that hedonistic decade that brought us freedom in the form of drugs and miniskirts. Anyone who agrees with this will then be pleased to note that the high-street shop is bringing back its formerly redundant name by labelling a vintage-inspired capsule collection with it.
As is often the case with River Island, the items edge on the verge of being tacky. For once I quite like this effect though - has anyone ever bought any vintage that actually comes from the peace and love decade? It's always a bit shiny and brash, and can be accessorized perfectly with pale lips and spidery eyelashes.
Collection launches in Selfridges and will then be in selected stores from Thursday 24th March.
(Images: Vogue and Sugarscape).
I remember Chelsea Girl well. It's funny to think I used to feel grown up getting clothes from there, it'd be the opposite now.
ReplyDeleteTo me, River Island clothes seem to be designed for females below average height who are size 4-10 max.
The tshirt is quite cool but I find a lot of stuff in River Island is over-embellished and like you said, kind of tacky.
ReplyDeleteIt is an amazing collection, really beautiful prints and NO tack
ReplyDeleteLucy - I don't buy much from there as you have to weed out a lot of crap to get to the good stuff. Not pleasurable when you're not going to get a bargain.
ReplyDeleteScarlet Owl - It seems like they embellish some of the stuff so that they can raise the prices! Just because there's some beading on a top shouldn't make it £20 more expensive..!
Anon - Yea, I do like it, I think you can argue that prints can err on the tacky side always, but I think that's a good thing : )