bravo charlie tango

I’m not going to lie to you. I’ve been drawn to Free People since coming across them online about a year ago. I’m no dupe. Like a casual date, I know that beneath the pretty shell sitting opposite me there’s a hollow void, but I still accept an invitation to drinks every now and then. Whilst the cheesecloth pseudo hippie ethic of Free People doesn’t normally appeal to me, I do like some of their product, there are the kind of pieces there that, when paired with simpler, more polished elements, would make for unique layers and handy basics. I do not enjoy many of the ‘raw’ elements; lazy seams and dangly things connotate clothes imported on the cheap from sweatshops and sold at flea markets and fairs. Except that these ones are more expensive and marketed to free-beautiful-hippie granola yoga girls who, despite their deep spirituality, still need to look pretty on the outside and buy lots of clothes.

I mean, let’s face facts, Free People isn’t a independantly minded boutique catering to a intelligent shopper looking for something she feels like her spiritual, hippie self in, who doesn’t want to step out in chain store threads looking and feeling like Jane Doe. It’s parent company is Urban Outfitters and it operates the same way, by sniffing out mini-trends, and marketing them to young women at a rapid fire pace and inflated price. Not that I have a problem with that, let’s just not kid outselves about what we’re buying.

All that being said, I am enjoying a darker look for Free People for their July catalogue. They seem to put out a brand new catalogue almost every month with a new theme. Catering to the oh so fickle attention span of today’s shopper is their expansion plan, I guess. I recently read that the operation has infiltrated the UK with much success. Anyway, I am enjoying the dark, wintry, almost Gothic palette they’ve turned to. For the next four weeks. I dare say it will be whisked away next month before the girls get bored of it.