Frontier Style: Wild and Dangerous

Although this week’s focus on the deadliest and most dangerous animals may seem a million miles away from the fashion scene, this is not strictly the case. In fact, in recent times both designer and high-street fashion seems to have moved further away from the ‘pretty’ and embraced the ‘tough’, teaming girly designs with leather jackets, boots and chunky jewellery. Today’s style actively combines contrasting clothing and accessories and has developed into a hybrid style - “pretty-tough”.   

Chunky jewellery is all the rage right now and edgy jewellery even more so. Just as we have embraced the animal print, so the jewellery has followed, and far from these designs being sweet our preference seems to be the wilder animals and their more dangerous attributes. Grace your fingers with various deadly animals like this black metal Spider Ring for £12, a statement Serpant Ring  for £8.00 or this bright blue Frog Ring which emulates the highly venomous Blue Poison Dart Frog featured on this week’s blog but keeps its cool with a slight Ancient Egyptian feel, all from ASOS.  

Even overly- girly brand Disney Couture is turning “pretty-tough” in its Pirates of the Caribbean range and with the Hinged Shark Jaw ring from The Little Mermaid collection.  

Alternatively you could unleash your inner animal, with the Knuckle Detail Talon Ring for £8.00, imitating fearsome claws in a way in which Lady Gaga herself would be proud. In fact it’s not just Gaga who has an eye for the bizarre, only this week Blake Lively and Sarah Jessica-Parker have captured headlines in their Christian Louboutin Lion Paw Pumps, mysteriously titled “Alex”, truly stepping out into the wild.

Street style seems to be toughening up to such an extent that our clothes and jewellery are not only emanating a sense of danger but also a sense of morbidity. Distressed detailing, skulls other deathly symbols are creeping over from “the other side” into our shops, markets and internet sites. AllSaints are famous for their graphic t-shirts which incorporate skeletons into iconic or everyday pictures, such as this Semaphore Raw Scoop tee for £40.

Alexander McQueen set the ball rolling on skeletal detailing with his own Skeleton-print Lycra Leggings, available on Net-a-porter for quite an expensive £315, but you can get a similar style for the more affordable price of £3.99 with these thick Skeleton print tights, which you can team up with big boots, over-sized tee and denim jacket to avoid looking too creepy.

So embrace the danger and make a morbid fashion statement, but mind you don't go too goth.

By Greta Hedley-Miller