Our national style is ‘not too polished’, apparently, and ‘a little bit undone’. Can we be a bit more specific?
Chioma Nnadi, who has taken over at British Vogue, says she has settled back in seamlessly after 20 years out of the UK. “I realised just how much growing up in London shaped me,” she told a Vogue Club podcast. “I’ve been talking a lot with my friends about this idea of British girl energy; it’s just an irreverence, kind of a cheekiness, it’s not too polished, and it’s a little bit undone …”
British girl energy, eh? I love this: time for us to claim our own style identity, like the French or the Scandinavians; something to be spoken of in vague, reverent generalities. This could be our new Cool Britannia moment, without the Gallagher brothers ruining everything. But what is BGE, beyond Nnadi’s idea of cheekiness and lack of polish?
Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist
