A Dress Tale

Well, sisters are supposed to share everything, aren't they?

Fashion

Karen said: "On our first album we dressed ourselves, and on the second album we used stylists which was a big mistake, and they would come in with the frock from some really posh thing, and you’d go like, 'I’m never gonna wear that'. And then on this album (THWB), we’ve gone back to just buying the clothes that we buy, and then if you go in our dressing room here, I’ve got about 25 dresses with me just in case."

Karen: Clothes - mainly are second-hand actually - most of our clothes that we wear are second-hand - even that we wear on TV and everything we get - you know, we mix it with a few designer bits 'cos our stylist is all like "oh this is the new bit from Jean-Paul this and that", and we're like "who? what?"

We've got a stylist for TV's and things that we do in this country, but all of the rest of the time - mainly it's second-hand - me and Shell actually go shopping in Camden and Portabello and places like that, all the time, just for market second-hand clothes - it's our fave.

What about fashion mistakes?

Shellie: I've made plenty!

Karen: We do it all the time you know. It was really funny because we were talking about it the other day and Shellie is the type of person that gets away with anything - she can wear the most hideous things - and I think we get away with anything because we have the personalities to carry it off, but sometimes when you're not feeling that confident, and then you wear something totally outrageous or totally stupid to everybody else it's like - they go "what you wearing that for?" - and you're like - "Erm... I don't actually know...."!

Shellie: I used to love garish clothes, I used to go down the market, Camden market, and - buy 70's you know, rubbish basically, psychedelic stuff? - I love things like that, because in the morning if you're looking really great, which I do, if you put colours on you just feel better. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I always felt lively when I put colours on.

Favourite shopping sources:

Antique Clothing Shop in Portobello Road
Blackout II in Portobello Road
Steinberg and Tolkien
Cloud Cuckoo Land, Islington
Car boot sales!
Camden Market

Shellie's advice: "Don't follow fashion! If you've got your own style, people will copy you, then you'll be fashion."

Karen's advice: "Mix designer stuff with cheap stuff. I wear my Clockhouse trousers all the time, and my mates say 'ooh, daahling, are those Calvin Klein?' And I say "no, they're C&A Clockhouse!

"I got the black lace dress shown below at the Antique Clothing Shop in Portobello Road, and they cut it into a little top and skirt for me. I'm wearing this underskirt with it to give it volume.

'The red dress is from a second-hand shop in Islington, London, called Cloud Cuckoo Land. I thought it was a bit expensive for a second-hand dress until I saw the label! I love the big sleeves and the shape. You can't go wrong with a red polka dot number. I got the shoes in Italy and loved them - they're so wacky. I have so many black shoes so a red pair was great.'

The above photographs are taken from "Celebrity Looks" magazine. Thanks to James Sutton who made the original scans.

To read the whole article, please visit his site.

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