Camden Fashion

Camden Market is made up of many different markets. The first market was called Camden Lock because it was next to the canal. It first opened in 1972 and is now one of the largest markets in the UK.

Half a million people visit Camden market each week. And with hundreds of stalls, there’s something for everyone. But Camden is best known for fashion and famous for punk.

Everyone knows what punk fashion is but 30 years ago it didn’t even exist. Clothes like this seem quite normal now. In the 1970s it shocked many people because it had never been seen before.  

Punks were young people who were anti-government, anti-popular music and anti-fashion. Punk music was loud, wild and about breaking all the rules. Punk style was the same.

Punks created their own cheap fashion with torn clothes, safety pins and spiky hair. 

Punk fashion is still here today and it’s still about rejecting ordinary fashion and standing out, but there are lots of ways of looking different.

Camden isn’t the only place for fashion. London Fashion Week, held twice a year, is a great place to see clothes by British designers and the latest new fashion trends. 

British fashion is very important; creatively it’s very important all around the world. Lots of the kind of fashion trends that you and I end up wearing started out on the catwalks in London.

British fashion is different from the fashion that comes from different countries around the world. Often the shape of the clothes is a bit more aggressive - maybe a bit sharper and we try to come up with looks that are a bit more imaginative so possibly they’re less wearable, less classic clothing, but always very exciting. 

Back in Camden there are still many other fashion trends. People mix different ideas and create new looks. Another style that really stands out is Cyber-Goth. 

So this is one of Europe’s biggest Cyber-Goth shops. What’s a Cyber-Goth? Take a look at these.

Carmen: So Jack, what exactly is a Cyber-Goth?

Jack: A Cyber-Goth is someone that doesn’t think about what other people think about them. And it’s someone with a very strong fashion sense. It’s kind of a mixture of varied stuff; like punk, Goth and American surfing scene.

Carmen: So, talk me through the influences of your look, the hair?

Jack: Well, my hair is a really, really lovely creation, I think. It takes everything from the punk style like colourful stuff – really standing out.

Carmen: The t-shirt?

Jack: My t-shirt is a Cyber-Goth futuristic style. It’s an exo-tubes top, which means, like, it shows the inside of my body. 

Carmen: The trousers?

Jack: I really like the American surfing scene – I’m really into that. So I wanted something to remind me of that, so I chose these really, really baggy trousers. 

Carmen: And finally the belt?

Jack: Twenty-first century.

So punk may be thirty years old but here in Camden it’s constantly evolving in the twenty-first century.