A bit of advice

In The Fashion Lab Vogue Daily News

18 August 2008, 12:48PM

AS the modern fashion industry becomes increasingly globalised, style maven Daphne Guinness, writing in the Financial Times, is celebrating a return to individuality.

"Between couture fashion and street fashion, there is a certain continuity. It's great to go to London's Camden Market or downtown New York and see what the kids are wearing," she says. "Today, you don't even have to travel to do this; all you have to do is look at fashion blogs."

"On one site you might see a hipster in Williamsburg, New York, for example, in very tight, very shrunken jackets and trousers, and then you jump to another and see a different type of person wearing an oversized shirt, belted with silver tights. It's like a bunch of ad-hoc experiments going on all the time."

With the media focusing increasingly on which celebrities are wearing which labels - or, indeed, collaborating with them - seeking out individuals with style is more refreshing than ever before, Guinness adds.

"Celebrities almost never look good unless they are 'out' at something or other, while real fashion animals always look a little interesting, even if they are only going to Starbucks. Individuality will always exist," she asserts. "It's more that it has become very underground and doesn't infiltrate the mainstream as much as it should, so you have to search it out, which is getting more difficult, but also more rewarding."

"It's exciting to see people inhabit their look, wearing clothes from morning to night. Fashion at its most interesting and purposeful, whether it's the most expensive clothes being made or the least expensive, is not about showing off - it's about creation."