A colourful fashion blog supporting independents & sustainable fashion in Bristol and beyond since 2011

Showing posts with label kawaii punk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kawaii punk. Show all posts

Monday, 22 October 2018

Typical Girls - Like Typical Freaks




The latest Typical Freaks anti-fashion, kawaii punk infused collection has dropped and No Debutante is loving it!

The SS19 collection features the signature scribbled, abstract screen prints, layered up on streetwear garms from denim jackets, short, boxy cotton skirts and embellished, high waisted mom style trousers to oversized long t-shirts, all styled up in textured layers of fun!

All images courtesy of Typical Freaks 



Typical Freaks SS19



Featuring azure and royal blues contrasted with white as the main colourways, with bright yellow and orange, mint green, rose pinks and reds joining them with an extra contrast of graphic black layered over the prints.

The No Debutante fave pieces from SS19 have to be the denim jackets, they come in all sorts of shapes from boxy and oversized to cute crops, all smothered with the random Typical Freaks scribbles and swirls with chevrons and checkboards joining the hand drawn Typical Freaks prints this summer.






Typical Freaks AW18

We can swoon over the spring summer pieces but in reality we are only just approaching AW18 and need a bit of autumnal inspo, I am not a dedicated trend follower and we can, of course, wear any of these garms all year round, but a little bit of AW style inspo is always welcome, especially when you are not, naturally, a winter type of person! The Typical Freaks AW18 collection does not disappoint!




Keeping that Typical Freaks style but with some new shapes added in for the colder months, this collection features, cute hand drawn grid prints (inspired by the grids on a cutting mat), ruffled hemmed oversized dresses, cuddly and bright printed scarves. 

(TIP ALERT- Make your scarf part of your outfit, not just an accessory you throw on to keep warm). 

Typical Freaks SS19 features colour blocked t-shirts and the bleached cotton skirts, jackets and trousers that are Typical Freaks staples, all emblazoned with the textured and abstract prints with layered up styling.




The main base colour for AW18 is black, contrasting with raspberry reds, lilac, mint green, azure blue, and white, with a subtle pop of yellow here and there. 

Typical Freaks create their own versions of prints, like a grid or checkerboard print, they sketch their prints by hand and then reproduce them as screen prints and often hand paint over the top of these, layering up those prints and creating theor own unique style! 

They have to be one of the only designers, whose sketchy and hand drawn fashion illustrations manage to look exactly like the finished garms! You know where you are with a Typical Freaks fashion illustration! It's a very inspiring process for a (wannabe/wish I had more time) designer. I love that everything right down to the long white printed socks (and sometimes even shoes) have had the Typical Freaks printed magic added to them. 




This collection features asymmetric panel tops, that that remind me of early Vivienne Westwood cuts from her punk and Pirate collections, not playing by the rules and creating their own shapes, using off centre cutting and DIY techniques. It's really rather clever, despite it's anti fashion/ ripping up the pattern cutting rule book ethos. Who doesn't love a fashion rebel?





The No Debutante fave from this collection and perhaps the most wearable (after the t-shirts) are the mom style high-waisted, colour block jeans. But of course everything is just fantastic and inspiring! 

With prices ranging from £150 for the denim skirts to a very reasonable £45 for a t-shirt, you need to be seen wearing Typical Freaks, with even more bargains to be found in their sale collections and on Depop (socks from £10 and tees for £20), every one can get a bit of Typical Freaks! 

No Debutante Loves Typical Freaks! 









Monday, 19 March 2018

Sista Fashionistas

I have many fabulous & creative friends, each have their own style & dress well, but there is one friend who is positively on the same fashion wave length as me. We barely see each other anymore & live in different cities but we always seem to rock up with similar looks. My fashion twin is Selena,we are sista fashionista's, who are inspired by street style, bright colours, clashing prints & have been working the Harajuku girl look since the early noughties. 

Streetstyle devotees No Debutante & Dilly Foxtrot on our recent meet up


I met Selena when I lived in Leicester (where I also went to uni), at the time we both liked skate style & punk so were already on a similar fashion vibe, we then discovered Fruits, a Japanese street style book & magazine that featured quirky, Japanese kids from Tokyo, wearing the most amazing outfits. I was hooked from the moment I bought that book & went on a hunt to buy as many stripey long socks & brightly coloured tights as I could to perfect my Harajuku (the area in Tokyo where many of the Fruits photographs were taken) look. Independently to me, Selena was doing the same thing.

Winter layering featuring my new favourite polka dot trousers, a polo neck & a Fix Up Look Sharp sweatshirt.


I am not as influenced by Tokyo fashion as I used to be, the original Harajuku scene ended years ago & Fruits Magazine,sadly, no longer exists. It was also kinda ruined a bit for both Selena & I by Gwen Stefani (who was one of Selena's style icons up until this point) Gwen in 2005, announced she had discovered a new look & started the Harajuku Lovers perfumes, had the 'Harajuku Girls' dancers in her shows & just completely took it for herself, Harajuku had gone mainstream, everyone was into it. 

The Fruits style had been sold out to the corporate giants & whenever something starts 'trending' like that I immediately jump off the bandwagon. Selena and I were late-comers to the scene ourselves back in 2001, as the Harajuku style was first documented by Fruits creator & photographer Shoichi Aoki back in 1997. I, like a lot of people, wanted to remain unique in my style, so the popularisation of kawaii fashion was a fashion nightmare for me, the high street went Harajuku! Nooooo! 

Selena rocking her layers in a mustard jumper & tights, with a cute monochrome shirt & camouflage shorts.
"I got the shorts in the mens department in Primark" 

There is another side to the Fruits style that I am not too comfortable with; these Japanese kids were mass buying clothes, they were from comfortable backgrounds, had disposable incomes & nearly everything they wore was branded with labels from Vivienne Westwood to Super Lovers. It was more bling than the DIY kawaii-punk style that it first appeared to be; although the styling was amazing, there was a price to pay for kawaii fashion & that's not just lining the pockets of big brands, it was also wasteful, unsustainable & ethically bad. Disposable fashion is not something I want to be associated with. 

I took my inspiration from the styling alone, there was no way I could afford Comme des Garcons & Jean Paul Gaultier, so I became inspired to make my own clothes & recreate the look mixing my existing wardrobe with clothes I had created & contemporary items from the high street. The Fruits styling was always about the accessories too, so that was another easier way to covet the style, I am highly inspired by streetstyle these days but the roots to my look stem from Fruits magazine & a need to wear playful, comfortable, non-conformist fashion. 

Don't forget the twinning short crop pink hairdos - another fashion coincidence! 

Selena is also a fashion blogger & is known as Dilly Foxtrot Investigates in the blogging community, the blog is based around childrenswear, as Selena (like me) also used to be a childrenwear designer & (like me) had to put a hold on her fashion career to look after her (yes, like me again) three children (I told you we were fashion twins) & (there is a pattern emerging here.....like me) started a fashion blog to keep spreading the fashion love whilst looking after small children; blogging was a away in, to remain in the fashion industry & by any means necessary! 

The Dilly Foxtrot Investigates blog covers topics from raising children to her latest fashion obsessions. I personally get just as much fashion inspo from childrenswear as I do from adult fashion, the colours, prints & shapes are always so playful, I'm gonna dress like a kid for the rest of my life! Being a blogger, Selena also gets it that I love to document what people wear, many friends like fashion but aren't too keen to have me sharing their looks on my instagram & blog, which I totally respect, Selena let's me photograph her which is inspiring & much more fun! 

Modern vintage twinning back in 2003


Despite our love of playful styling Selena & I are still inspired by underground fashion trends & streetstyle, which is why, even after not seeing each other for a year, except on Instagram (which we both love), we still manage to have followed similar fashion routes & end up looking like we planned to dress the same way. It's laughable really, as we both get comments from people about the way we dress, we know we don't dress the same as the people around us but somehow we seem to follow the same fashion paths without being influenced by each other. As Selena put it at our most recent meet up "People think I am unique, that nobody else dresses like me but I tell them, there are thousands of people who dress like me, all over the world, I follow them on Instagram!". 

We both agree that we love Instagram, it is so friendly, people actually talk & compliment you, there are so many different people to follow & it's great to connect with fashionistas all over the world who have the same fashion vision as you, which was a connection we didn't have before social media. This platform really works, if you don't get hung up on how many followers you have, blissfully ignore the false/ like for like followers & just follow people that generally inspire you, it will make you feel happy, supported & inspired in a positive safe place. Spread the fashion love we say & find your fashion twins they are in this big world somewhere, in their thousands! 





All photography by No Debutante

If you are having a fashion event, a new collection or fun event you would like No Debutante to promote please get in touch!

No Debutante promotes fashion independents, new designers & sustainable fashion. 

Check out my work with Bristol 24/7 magazine here under my name 
Emma Gorton-Ellicott

If you are interested in collaborating with No Debutante or getting featured on the No Debutante blog please contact me nodebutanteblog@gmail.com

Keep up with No Debutantes OOTD posts, collabs and current fashion obsessions posted daily on all of the following. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest all under the #nodebutante name. 

Thanks for checking in Fashionistas
ND xx 







Monday, 5 February 2018

Winter Wonderland

It seems like winter never ends here in the UK, with snow on the horizon temperatures are set to plummet. For years I refused to give in to winter, I hated it & found it very restricting fashionwise but the last few years it has come as a surprise to me that I don't mind winter, I almost look forward to a bit of winter fashion & masses of layering! Don't get me wrong, I still wear a lot of what some would call 'summer items', I manage to make (most of) my wardrobe work all year round & layering is the key. An array of coats, jackets & faux furs certainly help to keep the winter blues away, keeping you warm and stylish through those chilly months. By just experimenting with different coats and hats you can keep your look fresh instead of wearing the same coat for the whole winter. Don't forget to add pops off colour too, the weather may be dull but you are not! 

Here's a few of the No Debutante outfits from winter 2018. My colour scheme is unusually co-ordinated for me this winter with monochromes, candy pinks, bright red & cyan blues being the colours of choice, alongside oversized tops, culottes, velvets, mesh dresses, cute prints & my new favourite pink Monki beanie. 

Cuddly layers, keeping it cute with pink colour blocks

Beating the winter blues by layering up a t-shirt & a sheer dress

Oversized winter reds

Layered up mesh dresses

Fun polka-dot & heart print layers


All photography & styling by No Debutante

If you are having a fashion event, a new collection or fun event you would like No Debutante to promote please get in touch!

Check out my work with Bristol 24/7 magazine here under my name 
Emma Gorton-Ellicott

If you are interested in collaborating with No Debutante or getting featured on the No Debutante blog please contact me nodebutanteblog@gmail.com

Keep up with No Debutantes OOTD posts, collabs and current fashion obsessions posted daily on all of the following. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest all under the #nodebutante name. 

Thanks for checking in Fashionistas
ND xx


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