I went shopping to find out. The Westfield centre in Stratford in East London, to me, is a kind of hell. Every shop pumping music from dodgy speakers, too many people lacking spatial awareness, and it’s hotter than the Mediterranean in June. Not great for puffa jacket wearers in doors, especially if also wearing thermal undies. However, I thought it a good location to meet people wading the last dregs of the January sales and incoming fresher stock. To have a look at what is new in fashion …read more

At least, not as nice as I thought… When I began researching fashion at street level back in 2005, interviewing for the FashionMap at Nottingham Trent University, in collaboration with the Future Laboratory, I became immediately aware of my assumptions of other people before I approached them to interview about their clothes. It shocked me as I’d mostly considered myself a good person, equal, but there I was, in Nottingham city centre with sweeping statements flying out of my mouth about people …read more