Mixing High and Low

Beukes, an events marketing assistant, describes her style as classic. She doesn’t follow trends and she dislikes the hype around disposable fashion. “In a matter of weeks, it’s gone,” she said. “I like to wear what I [buy now], next season.” So she buys jewelry to keep her look fresh. One pair of Beukes’s newfound earrings matches perfectly with an expensive hand-made necklace she purchased in Egypt. The dangling bits on her ears echo the polished limestone surrounding her neck. Beukes said, “I went to Portobello Market and looked all over town and could never find something that went really well with the necklace. Superdrug, who knew?”

Kate Moss and Sienna Miller are just two fashionistas famous for their distinctive ability to mix styles and labels. But the art of high-end, low-end combinations is so well practiced in London that women now call it ‘Boho’ style. Amanda Brewster, a frequent charity store visitor, describes herself this way. Brewster drops by the YMCA charity store on Googe Street in central London on a monthly basis, whenever she’s in town from her home located south of the Thames River, in Streatham. She uses vintage brooches, purchased from her explorations, to blend with her designer items and charity-shop clothes. “My mother used to take me into charity shops all the time when I was little and I hated it, and when I hit about sixteen and went to college, I suddenly realized what kinds of clothes you could get,” Brewster said. She’s not particularly into designer labels.  “If the clothes look good I’ll wear them.”

Across the Pond in Philadelphia, fashion junkie and aspiring accessories designer Eve Hall doesn’t care much about fine labels either, though she’s an expert at picking them out of the piles of fashion remains in many of the city’s wide assortment of second-hand stores. Hall calls her high-end low-end fusion “shabby chic.” She has a knack for finding 3- and 5-ply cashmere clothing, and loves St. John knitwear. Hall, too, is a charity store convert.  She has vivid memories of cringing with embarrassment outside thrift store entrances, while her mother diligently looked for bargains on Peter Pan collared uniform shirts to match her expensive private school tartan uniforms.