a question of style

Are us Brits more fashionable than Europeans? It is something I have genuinely often wondered (perhaps due to my spending a lot of time in rural France at my Grandparent's house) as even a younger me picked up on French teenagers never looked as good as the ones back home.

So what is it that makes us stand apart from the rest? Because it definitely isn't the standard of shops, yesterday I visited Barcelona itself to find H&M, Zara and Bershka had some of the nicest clothes I've seen on the high street in way too long. Maybe, I thought, it could be a matter of how we actually style the clothes. As we live in a colder climate we have a tendency to layer clothes while French/Italians/Spaniards have to wear as little as possible to be stay cool, that being said I've been to Paris in October and seen much more fashion, is it because it's Paris, I already hear your argue, or because of ability to layer. Now, I'm not saying the layers maketh the style but I know it helps, despite being a summer baby and adoring the heat I do feel a millions times more comfortable in my winter clothes. 

I thought then, maybe it is a personal thing and I just prefer what we tend to wear.  As I was in a spot of internal bother I did what any blogger would do, I consulted Harpers Bazaar.  Number one on their most fashionable women of the year list? Italian Gabriela Perezutti Hearst.  Damn.  Not a Brit in sight until Kate Moss at number 12.

Instead I consulted Wonderwall's 20 under 20 list.  Sure enough Soarise Ronan hit number 12, One Direction number 7 (it totally counts) but nothing else.  I almost felt like quitting my tirade to find the answer.  But then it happened.  My mum walked into the kitchen where I sat with  my head in my hands thinking I must be the only one to think this way, and she said "hey Ellie, there's got to be more shops around here than what we've found" (it really is dead, there is like a garage, a supermarket and some restaurants) and it hit me like a tonne of bricks.  British people are not so much 'more fashionable' but have more access to clothes deemed 'fashionable'.  It is three miles from where I am to the nearest town, and a (rather pricey, not to mention crowded) 40 minute train journey to a city with an abundance of clothes stores, in Britain I think we take for granted the immediateness of clothes.  There are not many places that are more than a train journey from a city, and although we complain a lot of our local towns aren't that bad.  

Obviously all of this being said, it's just a generalisation on my part. Not every Brit is fashionable, not every body else isn't. 

G E N E R A L I S A T I O N.