Liverpool: Capital of couture?

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By Ellen Kelly, Fashion Editor

International & Travel

Local shoppers enjoy Liverpool One; YouTube: Fashion guru Julian Bennett wants city's most stylish

(Pictures by Ellen Kelly)

In a city whose attitudes to style are often, to some, defined by fake tan and celebrity perfume, comparisons to the capital appear somewhat frivolous. And with the tracksuit donning, shaven-headed Liverpudlian stereotype still lurking somewhere in the background of minds, the concept of the city being placed with any prominence at all on the fashion map was, initially, perceived as ludicrous.

But with a fashion pack led by the likes of Coleen, Alex and Abbey, along with their Louboutins and Lanvin accessories, it is rapidly becoming harder to ignore Liverpool’s rising style status. After all, there aren’t many city centres where you’d be so hard pushed to find a single (female) soul dressed in jeans.

It is abundantly clear that the secret of that explicit Liverpool look is glamour, glamour, and more glamour. Living by style mantras that are starkly antagonistic to the women of the capital's sleek chic, girls from the Capital of Culture are quite frank in their affirmation of the term ‘less is more’.

Over the last three years, style across the city has become highly synonymous with glitzy, flashy glamour, and pays frequent homage to the houses of high fashion. It seems that the locals are developing something of a taste for the names that are so often reserved for the

runways of Paris or Milan.

And it was, perhaps, inevitable that the upmarket turn in style

coincided so nicely with the ‘WAG’ culture that the country has

lapped up so lavishly. With Victoria Beckham heading up the

fashion parade that stole the limelight from England’s

participation in the 2006 World Cupin Germany, it wasn’t long

before Coleen McLoughlin, Abbey Clancy and Carly Zucker

became household names, both slated and worshipped by

the press on a daily basis for their remarkable spending and

socialising habits.

Alex Curran was quick to join the ranks, marrying Liverpool

footballer Steven Gerrard in 2007 and thus securing her

place at the very top of the pile. Described by the media as

an ‘uber-WAG’, she was quick to become prominent on the fashion scenes of Liverpool and the rest of the UK, exercising her shopping expertise in her own Daily Mirror column and adding the finishing touches to the trademark WAG image.

The ‘WAG effect’ has been the cause of perhaps the most debate on the fashion radar since Madrid banned the size zero model. While critics slammed the outsized sunglasses and handbags combinations, the look spread like news of a Cricket sample sale on the streets of Liverpool. The concept of over-exposure – of perfectly-coiffed hair, extensively manicured nails and painstakingly matching accessories – hit the city, and thus, Liverpool style was reborn.

And it’s a far cry from the clichéd, often misled interpretation, aforementioned tracksuit in tow, that’s still in the minds of the fashion-uneducated. With the rise of boutique store Cricket, which shot to national prominence two years ago and stocks collections by the likes of Missoni, Cavalli and Marc Jacobs, Liverpool is foregoing its predominantly working class background and leading the rebellion of aspiration revolution in 21st century fashion.

Enter the birth of Liverpool Fashion Week. With proceeds getting underway in line with last year’s Culture celebrations, 2009’s event promised to be competing with the big contenders. And while perhaps it wasn’t quite yet in the same league as the capital – a distinct lack of size zero models and skyscraper spider heels noted – there was no arguing to be done with the city’s fabulous celebration of its passion for glitz, glamour and shopping.

Here in 2009, it is hard to ignore the city’s looming presence on the fashion radar. In an industry so vastly dominated by ‘who’s who’s and ‘what’s hot’s, it was inevitable that a city with such famed fondness for designer labels, and lots of them, would be rewarded with the occasional column inch in Vogue or Grazia. And while Anna Wintour may not be flying into John Lennon Airport any time soon, let’s hear it for the women of Liverpool, grooming and glamming themselves up to the nines to put this city on the map.

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