Surf

I enjoy a bit of 90's grunge as much as anyone but I feel the irony of it is a little lost on me because I didn't look cool in the 90's, so it's not like I want to revisit a look which holds stylish memories for me. I started high school in 1995 and I think probably my most formative fashion years developed here; I always enjoyed pushing the boundaries style wise so being shoehorned into a vile uniform day in, day out made me really appreciate being able to dress as I liked on weekends and non-uniform days. At primary school I quickly carved out my own niche inspired by...well, I can't really say what I was inspired by as a pre-teen because I don't think I ever really thought about it; I used to wear what I liked and that was the end of it. I loved stealing bits and pieces of my mums, including vintage tees with odes to New Zealand printed on them, wafer thin Snoopy graphic tees (they were probably vintage to mum so by the time they got to me they were riddled with holes and soft as a blanket, and I loved them) and in particular a Lonsdale grey sweat which had belonged to mum in her dancing days (she was a Sadler's Wells ballerina.) Her diminutive stature meant that by the age of 12/13 I was catching up to her height wise, I did gradually overtake her but not by much! We shared the same shoe size for a couple of summers (3) so I was also able to steal her shoes but in one final growth spurt I went up about half a size so she could luckily retain hold of her vintage shoe collection too. Though I have tried on more than one occasion to crowbar my feet into her incredible collection of '70's boots. My standard issue for primary school (where the uniform vibe was much more relaxed and there were no strict rules-this was the early 90's remember, we still got milk at break time) was a blue uniform sweatshirt (we had helped to redesign the school logo, which was printed on the sweatshirt and included dolphins and the earth, so few made any resistance to wearing such an item) and then whatever you chose for the rest. I favoured a pair of sawn off Levi's denim bermuda's, which is actually the only thing I can ever remember wearing to primary; I'm sure I didn't wear those in the winter but I'll be blowed if I can remember what I actually DID wear. Anyway I used to wear my denim cut offs with Dr Martin boots and I loved them,  I had a shiny black pair which I lived in and was super proud of, until I got to high school and made a friend called Lucy who had a floral pair of which I was insanely jel.

I do remember having a lumberjack shirt in the 90's, mine was a padded affair and me and my dad had the same one. Now I think that's quite cute but in reality it was probably incredibly lame! I wore that shirt until it literally fell apart and I have had a little flavour for a decent plaid ever since. I found this Quiksilver Women shirt on eBay and I paid about £6 for it, I used to work for Quiksilver and this shirt retailed at around £45 so I would call that a bargain! I love the beige plaid with the shot of hot pink running through it and the shirttail hem with the buttons; I love the amazing attention to detail Quiksilver always bring to their clothes. This outfit is my way of wearing a grunge look in a way that is true to my style; I'm no hipster so I didn't want to be literal about it and wear peg jeans and DM's with my plaid, though that does look cool if you can pull it off! I think it helps if maybe didn't wear it the first time around! 

This look reminds me of something I'd wear apres surf. In reality when I used to go surfing I would be all about the tracky bums and hoodies; it's nigh on impossible to get skinny jeans up salt tacky legs so they were always a non starter. But if I was slouching down a Cali boardwalk I think this would be a good look. I hope you like it too :)

XO Amie