How to pull off the 'posh girl scruffy look'

[watchforthesnail]

i work in a very naice store, i see so many of these girls/ women a day. You know the look, all underdressed, but also looking very expensive/classy but not over done.

Is it alook that only money can achieve? ( i have none) where would i start?

I think ive got the hair down ( ish) but have no clue on the make up either.

[Parisisalwaysagoodidea]

Kim Sears could do that look beautifully if she did her hair and makeup like she usually does then had a kip before she went out.

[noddyholder]

I think she dresses terribly and just over groomed.

[MrsCR]

God I never really pin pointed this look before and now I just want want want it!!

My limb joints just aren't thin enough, shoulders too broad (narrow shoulders helps no?) and hair not long enough

Hmmm

how do these girls do 'evening'?

[ToastedTeacakes]

I sometimes wonder about this fairly recent interest in wanting to appear wealthy, which seems to go hand in hand with a resurgent fascination with the British Royal family. I guess I don't get it, but maybe that's because I was a teen in the 90's and kind of started out with an attitude of sticking the finger up to the aristocracy, preferring instead to explore my identity via fashion, which at the time didn't appear to involve itself with class.

I wonder if this has something to do with the political times we live in? Back then, we weren't exactly anti establishment, just a lot less focused on dressing to impress. It never occurred to me to examine how classy I might look or how others might actually perceive me. And I don't think that this was strictly about being part of a youth culture either: I have only noticed this shift to obsessing over class and luxury since the internet somehow normalized 'luxury' as a seemingly necessary element of self worth. Now I see young teens chasing Chanel, Dior, etc.

I do think it has something to do with the web, but can't place exactly when this shift occurred. Perhaps about 5 yrs ago? I believe that we have become more geared towards an obsession with luxury/class as opposed to self expression, creativity and individualism. It kind of fascinates and puzzles me, and I will admit that I am just a little bit affected by it myself, too.

Sorry to send the thread in a weird direction, but I do think it is at least partly relevant, and quite interesting, and there must be others here who have wondered about it, too?

Why are we so keen to appear wealthier nowadays, culturally speaking? What other values are we kicking under the carpet?

I like my luxury now and again. But I sometimes miss the way we used to question (and actively avoid) the established norms and the all pervading media which we would actually openly laugh at. We didn't want to look as though we came from the Home Counties. We didn't consider the royals to offer anything of worth. Do they now? Is it such a disgraceful concept to actually be proud of hailing from a working class or even middle class background?

I guess I just don't understand.

[kittysaysmiaow]

I love this look. Where do these girls get their slouchy bags from?

[noddyholder]

Toasted lots of my friends dress like this and aren't trying to appear wealthy I think some people naturally look and dress that way regardless.

[noddyholder]

I do agree re individuality though although you can still incorporate it into this look. I am more perturbed by the little girls who all look like Cheryl cole with big eyes and hair etc

[ontheotherside]

ToastedTeacakes, I see where you're coming from. I find it strange to think that people want to adopt a 'look' that isn't theirs, or authentic. I think the Internet has a lot to do with this - forums like this are a perfect example. And the fact that consumer culture offers endless choices and the relative cost of clothing is cheap, so you can see the look you want and set out to emulate it. It's sort of anti-fashion really - neither slavishly following the latest trend or being totally eccentric and doing your own thing. It's about adopting the clothes of a 'tribe' but not your tribe.

Teens chase after Chanel etc because our outrageously materialistic, uncreative consumer culture is telling them what they ought to have, and they swallow it ("because you're worth it"). You can buy 'Chanel' sunglasses in Primark for a fiver, and look just like the C list really tv celebrity you saw in a magazine. Clothing is cheap and disposable, so instead of picking what you love and sticking with it, and combining old things with new things, you just chuck it all out for a new 'look'.

The other thing that puzzles me about this and you have identified, I think, is that the clothes and accessories of wealth and privilege in this era are largely about conformity, and I am puzzled by that on a personal level because I am not that interested in conforming, and for me style is about looking like yourself (the best version of you) rather than like someone else.

The thing I find most amusing about this though is that in aping this look with cheap stuff, it's totally missing the point that the main thing about these women is that they are very wealthy. It's just not going to work in Peckham, no matter how many Primark vests you layer, or what shampoo you use. Because women who look like this belong in Kensington and Chelsea.

I have to know though, OP, how did work go without the eyeliner? :)

[Parisisalwaysagoodidea]

MrsCR

For evening I think messy hair still and slightly stronger eye makeup.

Clothes wise not much in the way of bright colours and pattern. Traditionally elegant clothes that are 'toughened up' with above nonchalant hair and makeup.

IMO Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are the queens of scruffy glamour

MK&A again here

[ovenchips]

I have no right whatsoever to be on a Style and Beauty board but the look you are all describing reminds me of loads of young women I used to see shopping on the King's Rd. Looks v natural from a distance and only when you get close up do you see all the (v discreet) grooming that's gone into it. I think King's Rd was them in their natural habitat.

Jemima Goldsmith also strikes me, especially in her younger days, as the epitome of this look.

[coffeeinbed]

I don't think this particular look is trying to appear wealthy.
It's all understated, slightly beaten up, lived in, accessorised with just the right bits.
It's the lack of obvious labels and trying too hard that makes it.

I don't think it can be done on the cheap I'm afraid.

[Somethingyesterday]

ToastedTeacakes You raise a fascinating point - but I disagree with you. People have been dressing to ape their "betters" through all time and all cultures. The internet might be the current bringer of the news, but I'm not sure there has ever been a time when personal display was not "aspirational".

[ontheotherside]

That's true, somethingyesterday, but define 'betters'. Clothing is usually aspirational (once people are beyond only affording functional) but it's the target of that aspiration that's interesting. In the 1980s as teenagers we certainly did not want to dress like Diana and Sloaney girls - we all wanted to look like Bananarama!

[noddyholder]

Paris scruffy glamour is exactly right. I don't think its a rich thing its a style that has evolved from various looks Its a bit sloane ranger and a bit Anita Pallenburg

[Somethingyesterday]

ontheotherside

Yes! Because Bananarama were at the top of your particular tree. At that time....

Re the tribal thing; tribes are just spread a little wider nowadays. It doesn't mean that people don't have the same sense of belonging. And they'll dress to imitate the leaders of the tribe.

[travailtotravel]

Oh dear god woman, you're not fat - this is me

and look great without eye liner. Am I brave enough to try?

[ontheotherside]

lol, those were the days :)

Hmm, but usually you dress to join the tribe too, don't you think, to identify people like you and identify with them. So all Bananarama fans looked the same, all the surfer girls looked the same. But this (and what I see in Primark when I visit with my DD) isn't quite the same thing, somehow. I can't quite articulate why - will have to think about it.

Perhaps it's just that this look is so far from my own personal aesthetic, and my work brings me into contact with many of these women, that I can't find much love for it.

[herecomesthsun]

Oh, I remember the eighties very well . If I could have chosen I would have looked like Chrissie Hynde. I thought she was so cool. She was so cool. Unfortunately, I had a very curvy shape, so even with a BMI of 19, I didn't suit black drainpipe trousers.

I experimented with a look that suited my shape, but the look that complimented my colouring and shape best emerged as Nigella-esque, whereas I was hanging out with various sorts of Marxists and the Chrissie Hynde look would have been far more congruous. I did try incorporating some Goth elements to try and balance it out...

No, I never tried to look like Diana; I thought of Sloanes as somehow being a different species to me, and rather looked down on them as being almost certainly less intelligent than me, and reliant on the chance trick of being born into money.

I can't do much dark eye make up now, it only accentuates any dark circles under my eyes; in my 40s I find myself more and more heading for a classic look...

[Somethingyesterday]

ontheotherside Perhaps the people you're describing are the ones who simply haven't found their tribe - and, flailing around, just land on the most accessible square.....

[Phwoarblimey]

How does one emulate this look if they have thin wispy hair? It's not really possible, is it? All these yahs have masses of lovely thick hair. I think that 90% of this look boils down to very good genes.
Jemima goldsmith very good example.

[lurkingaround]

I have just watched another an episode of Phineas and Ferb with the DCs. Even Phineas have Ferb have one of these girls. Flawless Girl, is her name. She has it all, the hair, the height, the skin. And she even glides. The episode is about a company selling products so you can look like Flawless Girl, and how Phineas et al expose the company and make us all realise what a scam it is. So here we are, all growed up, looking for it again.

[lurkingaround]

Flawless Girl's own web page

[Chubfuddler]

I LOVE phineas and ferb

Bow chica bow wow

[libertychick]

Toasted I think it goes in cycles - early/mid eighties was the 'Wall st' 'Greed is good' era and people aspired to look like the Dallas/Dynasty ladies and loved the royal family. Then in the late 80's/early 90's culture shifted and it was cool to be 'northern' and working class - I was in uni in the early 90's and my peers were very leftie, loved bands like Oasis, Stone Roses, Pulp etc and the uniform (for we all conformed in our non conformist way) was jeans, desert boots/converse/doc martens with band t shirts or paisley shirts, baggy jumpers and army surplus store jackets. We are probably overdue a lurch back to proper, unplucked eyebrows, hairy legged scruffiness!

[lurkingaround]

I know!! I also love Phineas and Ferb. It is one of the few kid shows I can watch with more than a bit of glee.