Morning:
14°c
A bloke in a quilted Barbour jacket and tasselled loafers is barking orders into his mobile phone.
But we are not in Chelsea: we're in Dalston, home of a thousand and one kebab shops and a clutch of faded nightclubs with names like On The Rocks and Passions.
Though it may not be immediately apparent when you alight from the overland train at Dalston Kingsland station, according to no less a tome than Italian Vogue, Dalston is hot, a ringing endorsement that will have residents either rolling on the floor in mirth or patting their biker jacket-clad backs in self-congratulatory agreement.
Even the 149 bus seems to swagger as it shunts its way down Kingsland Road.
More pictures: Dalston's fashion superstars
Anyway, the quilted Barbour jacket is far from the last one I'll see all evening, for they appear to be quite the thing in E8.
So, too, are biker jackets, tomato red hair, plaid shirts, tea dresses, turned-up jeans and white plimsolls, which seem to be standard issue among Dalston's inhabitants, whether they be man, woman or beast.
The plimsolls are brandless and hail from any number of shops but are most cheaply procured from a doorway in Cheshire Street, where a man sells them for a fiver.
At The Cat & Mutton, at the London Fields end of Broadway Market (one of the blokes in the 118 ads works behind the bar. Well, of course he does!), the mood is jovial. Everyone is drinking pints outside. The boys look better than the girls but the girls still look good.
They look a lot better than the girls in neighbouring Hoxton, simply because they're not really trying so hard. Hoxton girls possess that knowing, buttock-clenching trendiness that suggests that when they're not out drinking, they're at home in their flats making videos of themselves to post on Facebook.
Our next stop is the Moustache bar, an intimate drinking den in the basement of a barber shop at the Stoke Newington end of Dalston. It's closed.
Maybe they saw us coming and turned the lights off. We did used to be fashionable, my hubby and I, but while age cannot weary us, the years have certainly condemned us to a wardrobe that would be unlikely to pass muster in E8.
Next we're off to Dalston Superstore, a newly opened space where the barman is really friendly, despite our clothes.
At one end of the bar, a girl in a white prom dress and ankle socks is swigging a bottle of pear cider, one eye made up in spidery lashes and heavy eyeliner, Clockwork Orange-style. At the other end sit Christopher and Tammy Kane, stars of London Fashion Week, who work out of a studio nearby.
So, too, do the designers Marios Schwab and Gareth Pugh, which probably has much to do with why Dalston is currently usurping Hoxton as a place of anthropological interest among the “style cognoscenti”.
The pear cider is bloody lovely, and Dalston Superstore conjures that magical sensation where you feel you're at the centre of the universe. “It's like the Orchard Bar,” says hubby, and he is right.
The Orchard Bar is in downtown New York, and something about the Superstore's minimalist concrete surfaces reminds us of it.
As the bar fills up with prom-queen girls and check-shirt boys who look like interns from Postcard Records, we breathe it all in through our eyes and sigh. For to be young and in Dalston seems like a very nice thing indeed.
More pictures: Dalston's fashion superstars
Reader views (18)
haha, sorry but reading these comments, there bloody hilarious. I'm 14, lived in hackney all my life and love it. Best place to live. It is the most cultraly different place in london, no scrap that, the UK.
Yes, I know there's crime and murderungs here, but where can't you find crime! The only reason people think of Hackney as more dangerous than other places is because its more advertised here by the media. Hackney is getting better and turning its self around and it is beacsue of these 'trendys'. So don't be so prejudice.
You're the ones who say that people are to scared to go out at night or to scared to do anything, well they are the ones changing it.
- Isabelle, East London, Hackney, Dalston well just off Kingsland Rd to be exact
This article is a depressing reminder of how close to 'over' Dalston is
- T, Dalsron, London
I have to say I agree with Hannah and applaud her conscientious efforts to shake and wake Londoners up to the truth of Hackney and Dalston. I knew someone who lived in the heart of Hackney Central who couldn't invite me to their flat because the police were busy with a murder scene in the lift on their estate. I was also informed that most Hackney girls on these estates carry guns in their cars and handbags for protection. Sitting through a bus in Homerton produces enough adrenalin for me to know that this entire "fashionista" end of East London is far from "nice".
Dalston might seem trendy at the moment but under the magnifying glass you really would not want to risk your life at any hour of the day there.
- Carolyn F, West London, England
Has any area in London ever had so many people who claim to be artists and yet produced so little art?
- Pauline, London
Can not believe all the negativity coming out here, GREAT pictures, GREAT read, Great find, i like the article and love how its been written, love the superstars especially barrister on shorts and afro man. Bricklane has always been seen as the only trendy place even though people that visit it are probably not from there so it is nice to see Dalston and so on get their well deserved shine.
- Smith John, Bethnal Green
Sorry, but I didn't see one outfit in this collection that I would be seen dead wearing! However, the East End of London going back years ago was always known for it's sharp styles and fashion sense. I lived there and would always clothes shop there over the West End any day of the week! What happened!!
- Sheila, San Mateo,Calif.
Keep out of Dalston you pretentious middle class o so right on pretenders,You are not wanted neither are you needed,and you know you will only get into trouble,you cant hack it.
- Kev, London-UK
Do you get paid to write this rubbish?
- Glenn, London
These photos all look very nice but none of them are actually taken in Dalston, they are all taken in Broadway Market which is very different to Dalston. I live in Stoke Newington and have to go to Dalston a lot and unless your under 25 and very 'fashion' it's not so nice.
- Sammy, london
neither Cheshire street nor Broadway Market are in Dalston.
But do go there, trendies, please, and leave Dalston alone.
- Jenny Green, Dalston, London
Good Afternoon Bob.
When you see that bloke in pink underpants; will you mention that he also needs a pair of trousers to go with his pink underpants?
- Mickyinlondon, london
I live on Broadway Market and these freaks have ruined it. Bring back the good old days when The Dove was peaceful and generally a good old boozer all the freaks went to the Cat & Mutton. How times have changed!
- Bob Tail, London
Quote: Ian, Cranbrook, Kent.
Obviously Mickyinlondon does not know it all that well.
Hello Ian of Cranbrook Kent; well as it happen’s my grandparents, their ten children, including my father, and all us siblings 24 in all; lived just off the Kingsland road, and the Stoke Newington area etc; so I know Dalston very well, I even used to have pie and mash most weeks on the Kingsland road itself, and shop in the market for my granny etc.
Read Hannah, East London; in her post she speaks about Dalston day and night; this is more the truth of Dalston; and I tend to drive through it now as fast as possible.
If you think its so great; why are you living in Cranbrook Kent?
You could move into Dalston full time; instead of just working there in daylight; and save the travelling home to Kent every night etc.
Personally speaking, and as a life long Londoner, driving a London Taxi for nearly 40 years; I prefer Fulham today; it’s not far from the Kings Road, and very nice at night as well.
But good luck Ian, so far you have been lucky...Mick.
- Mickyinlondon, london
It's the best place in london!
- Arena, East London
I work out of Dalston during the week and like the area. Given the choice of location between say, Fulham and Dalston, I would choose Dalston any day. Obviously Mickyinlondon does not know it all that well
- Ian, Cranbrook, Kent
"For to be young and in Dalston seems like a very nice thing indeed". Naive statements like this emphasise how little these Shoreditch fashionistas and London Fields yummy mummies with their organic obsessions really know about the area.
It may be "a very nice thing" for some, but try telling that to the teenagers who are in fear to walk alone outside the estates at night... As someone who works with young people from the area, I'm saying this out of a concern that all of us need to wake up and realise that actually there is a side to youth culture in this area that is far from "nice".
A change needs to come that starts with people realising what is really going on in their local community (several young people having been murdered in the area in recent months) and not sitting around posing fashionably but seeing if we can all make a difference to make Dalston and Hackney a truly "nice" place to live.
- Hannah, East London
What a bunch of states...Embarrassing
- Shelly, London
I drive as fast as I can when passing through Dalston; it has as much class as a second hand stale Big Mac.
- Mickyinlondon, london
