Manchester's Style Cocktail- A Slice of Lemon and A Twist Of Melon(Man).




Many moons ago when I was a tad younger, me and my best friend used to have a little rule about dating; Always avoid a boy in a parka, Adidas Sambas and a Fred Perry polo with a champagne tipped collar. To most girls around the UK and the world, this is fine, no biggy, an easy feat. For girls in Manchester; you've just ruled out at least 40% of the city's male population. The point I'm getting at is, when I say I'm writing a post on Manchester style I want to make it abundantly clear I by no means plan on just talking about the ever present, ever flourishing, bucket hat wearing Manchester parody... Yes it exists.
Although (affectionate) mocking aside, there's something very impressive and admirable about the way us Mancunians approach our sense of style and I guess our lifestyle in general. Not content with what's going on around us, we've constantly changed it up and made it our own (and debatably better) from Music, to Literature, to poetry, to even politics (erm one of the biggest power babes ever and most prolific women's rights activists/suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst was born on our very doorsteps in Moss Side... Who knew this post would be educational, as well as moderately entertaining hey!). Apparently it's grim up north, well if it is so grey, than Manchester created its own colours and Tony Wilson wasn't joking when he said "we do things differently here". What's even more admirable is that even now, we've stayed true to ourselves and our culture. No one can say we're fickle and I think this is most noticeable in how our musical history has transpired into our present day fashion sense. From Northern Soul in the sixties, disco in the seventies (yep that's right, you wouldn't have the BeeGees if it wasn't for sunny Manchester... I'm a fountain of useless trivia today. Seriously for those of you visiting Manchester soon, if you need a tour guide, I might start taking advance bookings), rave in the late eighties, Brit Pop in the nineties and then of course the Stone Roses renaissance in the noughties. Our fashion sense has become a cocktail of various musical genres and as much as we joke about the stereotype there's something quite endearing about it and why shouldn't we be proud of it?! And after all karaoke wouldn't be the same without Wonderwall (I realise that sentence sounded remarkably like the lyric itself and it was 100% unintentional), lads drunken nights out wouldn't be the same without Waterfall and teenagers around the world would have nothing to cry over without Love Will Tear Us Apart...
You know on second thoughts maybe this isn't a post on Manchester style like I'd originally set out to write. I mean when I think about it, I probably wouldn't even know where to begin defining that. Maybe this is just a little accidental homage to one of my biggest loves and my favourite cities in the world, one to another...

(As well as giving you a brief history lesson.)
Sophia X 

Outfit Below
Skirt- Vintage but see a similar one from Archive by Alexa here

Photographs where all taken in some of my favourite spots in Manchester including; Wakefield St, Oxford Road, The Palace Hotel- Whitworth St, The Northern- Tibb Street, Northern Quarter.







2 comments:

  1. Lovely outfit, as always :) I'd really like to read a "Guide to Manchester" from you - favourite bars, places to shop, eat etc xx

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  2. You've worded perfectly why I love Manchester so much! And I'm Dutch!

    X Mandy (whatmandydid.com)

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