Honey, these boots were made for…hobbling? Nah we like to enjoy our nights out!
It’s a Saturday night, you already know the deal. Getting ready for the club with the girls but don’t know what to wear on your feet. For decades, heels have been the standard, but is that standard getting tired? You’ve noticed every week, more girls are sporting trainers and slides – you start to ask yourself, is this the new norm? Yep, gimme some of that comfort!
Obviously, The type of footwear worn on the night will depend on the club, its rules and possibly its location.
A major example of this can be Mayfair and Central London clubs, as they have a very specific standard for their guests.
“Girls have to wear heels to come to Mayfair clubs, if the girls aren’t wearing good heels the club doesn’t like it, they hate flats.”, says a promoter who works regularly at these venues.
In certain spaces, heels are still the standard for footwear as they are perceived as making outfits more put together. Clearly these guys don’t have a clue, but whatever. However, there are clubbing spaces where this is not the case and you can wear what you like; especially those with. An example being club events where there are sure to be mosh-pits; you want to avoid wearing open-toe shoes because imagine you ruin your fresh pedicure *gasp* or even worse, you break a toe!
So let’s take a quick look around a gal’s other options…
1. Heeled boots- This is a version of a heel that gives you a more sturdy balance whilst looking cute and stylish. They also give height without adding strain onto the feet due to the usually thicker heel. “If I want some extra height then I will wear boots to a party because they are the most comfy version of a heel and they go with so many outfits.”Says our pal, Stacey, 20 year old student from Stratford. And yep, it’s all around the socials. Rapper Ice Spice was pictured in a stunning pair of boots for a recent photoshoot for Marc Jacobs.
Pictured: @icespice – Instagram
2. Sliders – I don’t mean any regular slides – this isn’t a pool-side vibe – however, they have to be cute. With a design that gives it a pass for literally being slides and not heels. These could include fluffy slides, designer, or understated sliders with a nice design. ‘Sliders are more convenient and comfortable, I can last the whole night without my feet burning! I will usually take my slides from the cloakroom and change during the night’ – Says Soca afficionado, 22-year-old Amy from Lewisham. Supermodel, Bella Hadid, was spotted wearing a pair of fluffy sliders a while back. And if it’s good enough for a Hadid, then…
Pictured: Bella Hadid – BACKGRID and Teen Vogue
3. Trainers – if you’re going to wear trainers, make sure that they are pretty understated, such as a standard Air Force 1 or designer, such as an Off White shoe. Definitely don’t wear tennis shoes as the bouncers may think they’re too casual or very expensive trainers that you care about getting ruined. Platform trainers, such as Reebox Club C, are a great option as they are dressy whilst giving you additional height and comfortability. “I usually wear Airforces or Converses to the club because they go with everything! I will only wear heels if they are a part of the dress code. Mainly for comfortability and safety in case I need to run away.” Says mosh-pit participant, Valerie, aged 20 from Northhampton.
Former US President, Barack Obama’s eldest daughter, Malia Obama was seen rocking a pair of Converse, in case you need proof of how cool they are.
Pictured: Malia Obama – Splash and footwearnews.com
4. Combat Boots – to piece together a fire outfit, combat boots are a statement piece which serve as a comfortable, highly functional and chunky shoe. Favourites include those by Doc Martens, Calvin Klein and Guess. “I love wearing my Doc Martens to motives because I feel confident and comfortable in them and at the end of the night I am never in excruciating pain.” Says Caribbean club fanatic, 21 year old Seań, from New Cross.
Reality TV star, Kourtney Kardashian Barker, was pictured sporting a pair of Prada boots, which retail at $1,420 at Nordstrom. But do we care about her?
Pictured: Kourtney Kardashian Barker and Travis Barker – Getty Images and InStyle.com
It’s 2023, yes heels are great, but not everyone is a heel girl! Some of us want to feel comfortable whilst dancing the night away. You’ve got no choice now but to rock the boots, trainers – whatever tickles your fancy – and strut into that club like nobody’s business!
Pictured: Brandon (@perverse.cowboy) shot by Rae Tait (@dead.deeds).
From helping us to express political disenchantment to shattering constraints of the gender binary: 4 reasons why the buzz cut is an understated gift to subcultural Britain.
The hair atop the human head is anthropologically complex.
Culturally, it is one of the only parts of our bodies routinely harvested and altered in many ways for many reasons. For men in the western world, there is a rampant correlation between thickness and desirability: fuller hair signaling virility, and a short, conservative style conveying masculine authority. For women, long length traditionally poses a resource for limitless, intricate expressions of innate femininity.
Bollocks to all that.
While hair is susceptible to the allure of mainstream trends and conventions of styling in dominant culture, it is also something that can unify you with a philosophy or group of people more specifically aligned with who you are. At the same time, it is also completely personal, and a tool that can be used to assert one’s individuality. A style which is arguably overlooked and seen as devoid of character, but is more symbolic and versatile than any other in these respects (especially when thinking about British subculture) is the buzzcut.
Subcultures have been there to subvert the sensibilities of ordinary British society for decades. We have seen those belonging to these political undercurrents surface as ska-worshipping skinheads, punks, post-punks, far right militant groups, and ecstatic androgynous ravers, to name only a few. The slap-head sensation has been there to signify them all – unchanging in its form but always powerful and exact in expressing the attitudes of each subcultural iteration.
Here are four reasons, informed by the stories of three fashionable individuals, why the simple buzzcut remains a timeless and important style for alternative Britain.
For a musical demonstration of the importance of the buzzcut, listen to our Slapheads Soundtrack playlist to explore the prominent genres associated with the style.
Reason 1: Clean Slate for Style Experiments
The bald-but-not-quite simplicity of a buzzcut allows room for maneuver when it comes to experimenting with style. Sihle (she/her), 23, is a woman who enjoys the rich buffet of bygone styles to choose from in the present day, and having a shaved head is a huge part of exploring fashion as a means of expressing herself.
“Shaving my head has helped me to experiment identity-wise,” she says. “After I started shaving my head, I started to experiment with different colours without the fear of frying my hair or messing it up, because I could just buzz it again if I did. I have so many different colours to choose from, and I often like to style my outfits around the colour of my hair.”
The transformative process that Sihle describes in playing with the buzzcut style has a powerful inward effect too. Hair is instrumental in self-actualisation, and this idea is a core belief of Deptford-hair-salon-owner Tuttii (they, them), 34.
“When you go somewhere where the hairdressers actually listen to you, and they capture your vision or create something that really works for you, that can change your life,” Tuttii says. “That’s important to us as a salon, and why we have this space: it’s to transform peoples’ lives through their hair.”
Having been cutting hair since 2014, first from a caravan on the grounds of a disused school in South East London and then in their Deptford salon, Tuttii Fruitti, Tuttii provides a unique space for those who want to harness hair in a way that goes beyond grooming. Calling it “creative hair therapy,” Tuttii understands that the right changes to your style can be as empowering as therapy, and all you need to achieve this radical brand of emancipation is an electric clipper and a brave face.
Having less hair gave me more freedom in actualising every part of who I am.
Sihle, 23
Reason 2: Economically Sensible and Convenient
Perhaps a more tangible benefit of the buzzcut style, one can expect to be saving a lot of time getting ready for a night out and spending a lot less on styling products. Brandon (he/they/them/”it”/”whatever you fancy”) is a 24-year-old enthusiastic partygoer, intent on pushing the boundaries of his identity while navigating the boundless London queer scene. He is thrilled about his slap-head style.
“It’s the cheapest, most cost-effective way to maintain a hairstyle,” notes Brandon. “I can’t afford to be going to the barbers every month!”
By extension, for people of colour, hair density means your locks might take control of you, as explained by Sihle.
“I’m much more comfortable with it being at a shorter length,” Sihle says. “My buzzcut journey started when I turned 21 and I decided to just cut it all off. I was bored – my hair would get tangled because I didn’t take care of it as much as I should’ve. I struggled to maintain it; usually I would just cover it up in wraps or wear it in protective hairstyles like braids and stuff like that – but I just decided I had enough of living like that. I wanted to start my twenty-first year with a different look and different vibe, so I just shaved it.”
Reason 3: Destructive of Gendered Modes of Expression
In the Tuttii Fruitti salon, around 80% of the clientele are members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Those who identify as trans, gender-fluid, non-binary and many others with queer identities attend the salon because of its customer-centric approach; they aren’t prescribed conventional, gendered haircuts which don’t represent who they are. While Tuttii provides people a way to express their identity as extremely, artistically and individually as they want, they explain that the fascinating reflexivity of a buzzcut can undermine divisive constructs such as gender by obscuring its definitions and disembodying the concept.
“I love to shave my hair,” Tuttii says. “One of the reasons I love to shave my hair is because it makes me feel masculine. In myself, like in my energy and how I feel inside, I feel like quite a masculine person. I can actualise that feeling by shaving all my hair off. It’s so empowering; it makes me feel strong, and I just love that hard look.
“I think [the buzzcut] works well on everybody – it’s such a powerful look, but so versatile. Someone can shave their hair and it can make them feel really feminine, make them feel like their face looks soft and beautiful.”
Brandon plays upon the style in a similar way. “I shave it now because I feel genderless, I feel ‘cunt.’ Since moving to London, and experimenting with gender a lot more, going to raves and other events, having a shaved head helps me feel genderless. I feel like an alien little cunt and I love it.
“It’s hard to describe the power I feel,” Brandon adds.” It’s like an ephemeral mix of being masculine and feminine, and neither at the same time, and taking control of those distinctions myself.”
I shave my head because I feel genderless, I feel ‘cunt.’ I feel like an alien little cunt and I love it.
Brandon, 24
Reason 4: Powerful Symbolic and Cultural Versatility
Subcultural Britain has seen the buzzcut reappropriated, hijacked and weaponised as protest many times over the late twentieth century. Arguably, the trend began in East London in the 1960s, when Traditional Skinheads – contemporaneous, working-class bastions of reggae music – would don the style to mimic prominent West-Indian artists. Evolving from there as a symbol of subordination, the variety of ideologies the style signifies leaves it open to symbolic interpretation.
Tuttii explains: “The main thing is that every hairstyle is connected to an image. When people see someone with a shaved head and they’re walking down the street, a lot of people think that they’re hard or could be a troublemaker or something like that, because of the reputation skinheads have had.”
Tuttii in full clown get-up, an important way of expressing their identity in their 20s achieved with a custom buzzcut look (@tuttiifruittilondon).
“A certain choice of style does not always mean someone wants to express a feeling synonymous to that image. It all just depends on how you feel. That’s the beauty of a good haircut.”
The working-class associations of the buzzcut style form an intersection with gay culture, according to Brandon.
“Trigger Films, a gay porn studio from the mid-2000s used to film a lot of films called “Scally,” which is working class men in the chavvy look, tracksuits, skinhead hairstyle, shooting porn. I want to emulate that style. “Of course, I’m definitely on the [left-wing side of skinheads], like northern soul. On the flip side, I love gabba music, like shell-suits and tracksuits and frap-core. I don’t know to be honest, I’m spoiled for choice!”
Aside from political inclination, the buzzcut is a style that can help someone connect with their heritage culture. Sihle asserts that “hair can showcase peoples’ creativity and personality, especially in the black community. There’s a variety of fun hairstyles connected to black culture that not only represents it but helps people stand out and reveal their personalities.”
“In terms of the buzzcut, shaving my head helped me to become comfortable with having my natural hair too,” Sihle adds. “Having less hair gave me more freedom in actualising every part of who I am.”
Toilet attendants are an integral part of a night out in the UK who provide a splash of perfume and aspirin to clubgoers in a pinch, and, importantly, foster a safe space for anyone seeking refuge in the club bathroom.
It took me a few seconds to notice the penis paraphernalia, standing upright in a clear plastic cup, an assortment of pinks, nudes, oranges, and whites.
I would not say that they featured prominently on the toilet attendant’s table of goods, but they were not hidden either. Fitting, really, seeing as I was in the toilet of a nightclub where, frankly, everything goes.
Holding back a few giggles, I asked the toilet attendant: “What are those, Aunty?”
“Drinking straws,” she answered. Retailing for one quid each, I would say they were a steal. And they are fun and kitschy. Aunt Blessing is a hoot.
Welcome to the world of club bathroom workers, a regular fixture in clubs around the UK that sell a splash of deodorant and aftershave, refreshments and even flip-flops to clubgoers, and may clean as part of their job. In my experience, they may also perform emotional labour, providing a safe space for anyone seeking refuge in the club bathroom. Toilet attendants often work independently or as part of a venue’s staff. Considering that, as of April 2022, the national minimum wage is £9.50 and the living wage in London is set at £11.95, many of these workers subsist primarily on tips.
Aunt Blessing’s table of wares.
Aunt Blessing is a middle-aged Nigerian-born woman who now resides in London and works as a toilet attendant on the weekend at a buzzy nightclub in Brixton. I met her on a Friday night out in the city and we got to talk about her work, the means of taking care of her family and a taxing job. Statistics show that the cleaning industry in the UK employs more non-British workers than average, so I often encounter fellow Africans working in club bathrooms on my nights out.
“It’s very cold tonight but you people tried your best to come out,” she admonished with a laugh. “I know that I am looking for money, otherwise I would be in my duvet.” Inquiring about her hours, Aunt Blessing let on that her job is manageable “for now. I make enough money just to get by. Some days are better than others. Today was very quiet,” she said, gesturing to a collection plate with a few quid.
Aunt Blessing’s presence was warm and inviting, although I was under no illusions about the nature of our interaction as potentially disrupting her doing her job. Our conversation was interrupted several times by punters purchasing sweets and penis straws, punctuated with drunken politeness, before heading back to the dance floor. Nonetheless, Aunt Blessing let in that toilet attendants often go unseen or unacknowledged, and like many service workers, are treated like trash.
I make enough money just to get by. Some days are better than others.
Aunt Blessing
What’s more, extended working hours in a loud environment such as a nightclub come with significant health risks. A study published in the International Journal of Noise and Health found that the average daily noise exposure of participants working 20 hours a week in a club was 92 decibels. Over time, any exposure greater than 85 decibels for eight hours can lead to permanent hearing loss.
At the end of our chat, I asked Aunt Blessing what a night out for her looks like and I was regaled with tales of a youth well lived. “Make sure that you have fun, but you should always take care of yourself,” she shared. “There is a time for everything. Use your wisdom and keep your eyes open so that you will not fall victim.”
A young woman walked into the bathroom, making a beeline for the table of goods. “How much for this hair tie, Aunty?” The conversation begins again.
The Chronicles of a Loo LadyInspired by my chat with Aunt Blessing, I spent just under an hour as a toilet attendant in a Manchester club. Here’s how it went…
What do you wear to go and stand in a club bathroom? Your croppiest cropped top, of course. And a comfy pair of jeans, and sneakers.
One Saturday night in Manchester, I decided to don my best dress and fill the shoes of a toilet attendant for 45 minutes. I took my bathroom attendant duties very seriously, down to a pretty pink purse stocked with mini bottle of perfume, hand lotion, baby wipes, Halls Soothers and Ibuprofen.
I wasn’t sure what to expect - after all, I was going to be standing awkwardly in a private space trying to solicit conversation from strangers. But, as ever, the camaraderie in the women’s club bathroom is unparalleled. I set up shop next to the hand dryer adjacent to the bathroom door and this is what I witnessed.
A cacophony of voices, two besties belting U Remind Me by Usher with harmonies included. “The vocals are coming out tonight,” someone shouts. A mum in front of the mirror fixing her makeup, talking over the phone about a frozen chicken in the fridge: “I’ll be home in a few hours,” she assures the babysitter/partner.
“I spilt my drink all over my jeans,” I hear, and offer my baby wipes. A smile of appreciation. “Your bag is so cute by the way.”
A conference about a cool top from Primark and a glance of approval at a cute outfit. The laughter of familiarity shared by strangers at the sink and the screeching of the hand dryer. I offer the two ladies drying their hands some lotion, knowingly.
“Thank you so much!” one of the ladies says. “I always forget to bring my own, then I have to walk around with ashy hands.”
A smile, a nod, a glance of approval from across the room.
The 2000s babies are coming of age, hitting the clubs and reviving the shiny futurism of Y2K fashion. Get into it.
Ah, the 2000s.
The golden age of Disney Channel, reality television and out-there (read: extra-terrestrial) fashion with style marked by metallic fabrics, lush velvet Juicy Couture tracksuits and chunky shoes. Okay, maybe not of another world but informed by the future-forward sensibility of the new millennium.
Y2K, which stands for ‘the year 2000’, refers to a widespread computer glitch that was expected to occur in the minutes between 1999 to 2000. It didn’t happen, and now the term is shorthand for a playful fashion sensibility that characterised the era. Think apple bottom jeans and boots with the fuuuuurrrrr, a whole lewk.
Y2K style was all about maximalist experimentation, the blending of disparate aesthetics like the trashy-chic Von Dutch trucker caps and über miniskirts, which were the comeback kids of Miu Miu’s spring/summer 2022 collection. And, lest we forget, the extremes of baggy FUBU trousers and baby tees, bright colours and futuristic accessories, baby.
Two decades later, nostalgia for the early aughts has reached a fever pitch thanks in part to hit US TV show Euphoria’s ode to the decade in its wardrobe choices and a sentimental Gen Z who are at the forefront of the Y2K style revival on TikTok.
Fashion is cyclical and trends worn by older (sorry!) generations inform the self-expression of those who journey after them.
So, what exactly is the Y2K aesthetic? Scroll through the article for outfit inspiration from Gen Z-ers around the world.
Pictured: Maya’s friend models the skirt most fiercely (@mayatastet).
Meet designer Maya Tastet and her radical invention, the “Pee Skirt”, which promises to change the way women publicly urinate forever.
Go piss girl, but not here. Not there.
Not anywhere without getting your vulva out in public. Squatting over a piss-soaked toilet seat might be a second option, but you’ll be paying £9 to a bitchy barista to get access to it first.
It’s time to introduce Luxembourgish designer Maya Tastet. Coming from Europe with a stink on about the politics of female public urination, Maya presents a revolutionary new approach to relief for the modern woman: the Pee-Skirt.
Interested in toilets’ “urban and public presence and their unavailability to women”, Maya has designed a skirt which comes in many experimental forms, each intending to “serve as a protest for better infrastructure, questioning the social and material dynamics of the toilet experience for women.”
Here, Maya shares her inspirations and political motivations, and how she intends to clean up the messes of systemic gender inequality in toilet spaces like an angry bottle of Cillit Bang.
Describe the Pee Skirt. How does it work?
The Pee-Skirt allows a woman to piss as comfortably as men do. The skirt comes in multiple forms ranging from a casual, Marilyn-Monroe style flappy skirt, a high fashion-esque gown and a completely unwearable statement piece that takes inspiration from the cumbersome design of a life jacket. These forms all work in their own way as a clothing piece and a pop-up cubicle.
The skirts will use carbon gas dispersed through tubes woven throughout the fabric, allowing the skirts to take their cubicle form quickly and dramatically. Like an inflatable tent triggered by a toggle.
Along with my design for the Pee-Skirt, I am developing a whole line of pee-garments like trousers and vests that simplify the act of pissing. They too are meant to serve as a visual protest to show what discomfort women go through when they have no choice but to pee in the open-air.
The Pee-Skirt’s various forms and prototypes (@mayatastet).
What problems does the Pee-Skirt solve?
The design for men and women’s trousers are the same. I think that this is legacy of a time in which men wore trousers and women wore dresses, and so the design was adapted to the male body. But, in all the years women have been wearing them too, why haven’t they been readapted? For me, I’d love a zipper that went right down to the ass so I could pee standing up just like any man.
Women’s urinals should exist more for sure. You will encounter a lot of men’s urinals when there’s no toilets in public spaces, just because I think they’re small and vertical and they don’t take up space, but never any for women because of the idea that women need all the space in the world to piss. The Pee-Skirt proves this wrong, and offers a solution to these issues by providing women a portable private space, enabling an outdoor pissing experience already accessible to those with a penis without shame, without feeling gross – if men can do it, why can’t women?
My Pee-Skirt is a protest piece before anything else.
Although my design is practically applicable to some extent, it stays very conceptual. It doesn’t solve the problem for everyone. 40% of the world has no access to appropriate sanitation. For these people, open-air defecation poses huge health risks. I want my skirt to shock people into acknowledgement, because the alternatives that I suggest with this project are something no one wants. The skirt is a fight for better infrastructure around the world, and questions social and material dynamics for women living in cities.
I’d rather be a public urinator than soaked below the waist for the afternoon.
Maya Tastet
What inspires you as a creator?
I’m really interested in very mundane objects or systems that don’t get questioned a lot. I like using this fixation to explore the world around me. I’m very object based, and especially drawn to objects that create or shape a culture in small, often insidious ways.
So what is it about urination and toilets?
Last year, I was walking through central London desperate for a piss. I had a choice: I could either buy a £20 coffee to get access to a café toilet, piss in the street, which of course is illegal, or piss my pants. I mean, I’d rather be a public urinator than soaked below the waist for the afternoon, so…? It’s just crazy how relieving oneself like that is illegal. How can you attach a law to a behaviour we have no control over?
The toilet as an object is so taboo, and so it just doesn’t get questioned, but for me this is a huge misstep: the way toilets are built, with gender segregation so ingrained, the poorly considered designs and lack of facilities for women, its reinforcing this weird notion of propriety making us lose touch with the most human aspects of ourselves.
I mean, what I want is more toilets. What I want is to legitimise women’s presence in the city, and to change the discourse around toilet facilities and what they could look like in the future. What I want is for us to not to need this skirt. I invented it to start a conversation, to shock the world into action. The goal is to make the Pee-Skirt obsolete, and to un-censor our bodily fluids. If you want to get rid of public urination, don’t slap a fine on people and take away our right to piss. Build more fucking toilets.
If you want to help Maya with her pissy protest mission, divulge your most personal toilet memories for ongoing research here.
Pictured: handbag contents at Soul Lounge, Peckham.
It’s your girl T back again with another ‘What’s in her handbag?’ drop, and this time I hit up Soul Lounge in Clapham and Raffles in Chelsea to get you the goods.
Growing up, I was always told to never look in a lady’s handbag because it’s rude and you never know what you might find.
But that’s the point, no?
I wanted to see what random and unhinged things clubbers considered essentials for a Friday night out in London. So I hit the toilets of two different bars in south London, nosing my way into some lovely ladies’ bags, all for you guys.
Let’s take a trip, shall we?
Soul Lounge, Clapham High Street
Makeup Revolution Juicy Bomb Grapefruit X Revolution Satin Kiss Lipliner in Shade TGIF: “This combination is unmatched and should not be slept on. It makes your lips pop and it’s not sticky.”
Tobacco: “Spanish Marlboro Gold because the prices in the UK are not it!”
Baggy and Note: “Close cousins; one cannot exist in this world without the other.”
Apple AirPods: “To keep the vibes on the journey home.”
Vidal Zoom Strawberry Lollipop
Louis Vuitton X Takashi Murakami 2005 Cozy Coin Purse
Tampax Pearl Compax: “A tampon ‘cause knowing my luck I’ll be breaking my back on the dance floor and my period will decide to appear.”
Hash: “Skunk weed in London is full of chemicals.”
Marlboro Tobacco 30g: [Clearly cigarettes are going out of fashion, or we are just experiencing a cost-of-living crisis.]
Wrigley’s Extra Peppermint: “Because you’ll never know where your mouth might end up.”
House keys: “Even though I’m 99% sure I will not be going home tonight.”
Raffles, Chelsea
Trident: “Trident over Extra because I ain’t no a basic bitch.”
Oyster card
Nationwide card
Rizla Regular Green
ID
Elizabeth Arden 8-Hour Lip Treatment: “This lip balm is my f*g go-to, nothing keeps my lips moist like this. Though these days I can’t use it without thinking of Prince Harry’s todger.”
Too Faced Lip Injection Maximum Doll-Size Plumping Lip Gloss
Real Technique Mini Bronzer and Concealer Brush
Morphe Setting Powder: “To all the girls who need oil control, this is the one!”
John Frieda Frizz Ease: “To tame those fly-aways when things get untamed on the dancefloor.”
Nars Laguna Bronzer: “My go-to bronzer. I will always be loyal to this bronzer as long as she’s loyal to me.”
