By Mia Massaquoi
Cherryn is a fashion student at the University of the Arts London (UAL). You can’t help but notice how edgy, sleek yet bold her style is. She’s usually never seen without at least three thrifted pieces on, so she’s no stranger to a charity shop or vintage store. She’s working towards becoming a stylist, and her ultimate dream is to style for K-pop groups.
We made our way down Brick Lane, home to the UK’s biggest Vintage market, to see what she could scavenge from the massive selection of shops. Revival spoke to her about where she gets style inspiration and what pieces she chooses to pick out.
Cherryn gets her inspiration from aesthetics like Rock Star gf/indie sleaze, alternative and early Y2K. Overall she favours a dark aesthetic. The bold outfits of Kpop idols also inspire her, with her biggest inspo coming from girl group Aespa’s futuristic cyberpunk looks. Her outfit on the day was a black collared shirt, layered with a pinstripe waistcoat and black contrast baggy jeans. She topped that off with one of her closet staples, an oversized leather jacket.
Most of her outfit was thrifted from charity shops and vintage stores; the jacket and bag were borrowed from her mother, who got her into secondhand shopping. “Yeah she’s the one that took me to Brick Lane when I was younger and charity shops as a kid, she’s the reason I like them now,” Cherryn said. She said she also usually sports a vintage designer handbag from her mother’s collection.
We start at Rockit, a trendy Vintage store with locations in Brick Lane, as well as Camden, Covent Garden and Cardiff plus an online shop. The store has vintage and reworked pieces alike, under their Rokit Originals line. Rokit is quite popular online with a whopping 55k followers on Instagram.
The first Item Cherryn picked up was this plaid grey maxi skirt, giving grunge, academic vibes .”I like the pink pattern and I’ve been into the pleated style lately. Also, maxi skirts are trendy right now and one of my fashion staples”
This Black ruffled cardigan also caught her eye
“I like these little details by the neckline, and I like how it doesn’t have buttons, just tie strings, very Y2K”
How does this align with your style?
“The colour itself is like a charcoal grey, and I like dark colours. For me, it’s quite experimental cause I wouldn’t usually wear ruffley type of things, but I wanna try to style it; it’s quite playful”
I spotted her checking the tag to see the materials and asked her how important material is to her. ‘”Care about materials because the material is too cheap; I can only wear it like three times before it becomes trashy. This one is 75% Acrylic 25% polyester; it feels alright”. Quality is super important when looking for long lasting pieces.
The last thing she picked up in Rokit was this leather Jacket
“Well, the asymmetry of the zip and the buckle details are really cool, and I feel like I can wear this with literally anything”
Next up was Brick Lane Vintage
The interior was giving retro, urban artsy vibes packed with clothing sure to make a vintage lover squeal with excitement.
In here she was eyeing the leather jackets, hoping to add another of these versatile pieces to her collection. She found this bomber style jacket and emphasised to me that it was important for the leather to be real and good quality. “I’m not sure about this because it doesn’t say whether it’s real leather or not, if it was real I’d definitely get it.”
