Fashion Victim: Keeping up with the beautiful people

Aug 7 2008 by Emma Johnson, Liverpool Daily Post

GREETINGS from sunny Ibiza. I am, as the black eyes and the blistered feet attest, nearing the end of my annual pilgrimage to the island that worships four four beats and dancing till dawn.

And, sartorially at least, I have to say it has been a successful trip.

No mean feat on the island of the beautiful people.

After many years of visiting the White Isle in my other professional guise of club bunny, I have learned that the normal fashion codes of the world do not apply once you get within its mystical borders.

Don’t get me wrong. Fashion is foremost for those who party here – it is just that what may work on the runways of Milan and Paris doesn’t always translate to club and bar hopping until silly o’clock in the morning.

PVC leggings, bondage boots and body con dresses may work in the VIP booths of Boujis, but it’s not a look you want to be rocking at Bora Bora Beach unless you want to be mistaken for a club drag queen.

Not that I have always got it right myself, of course.

I will never forget my first trip to the world- famous all-day dance club, Space, here in Ibiza.

Dressed in a skintight LBD and strappy stilettos, I could not have looked more out of place against the seasoned Ibizaphiles dressed in little more than bikinis and bangles.

These days, I am much more savvy. I know that really all you need in Ibiza is a caseful of kaftans, a beautiful bikini or three, a fabulous belt to pull it all together, a killer pair of heels, a tan and a knockout set of designer shades.

Whether you are dancing in the daylight hours, camouflaging under-eye bags the size of Louis Vuitton luggage or catching the famous sunset, the right pair of sunglasses can make or break your look out here.

Last year, it was Ray Ban aviators as far as the blurry eye could see, the year before Tom Ford’s Whitney ruled from Cafe Mambo to KM5.

This year, it’s an old school surprise with 80s favourites the Ray Ban Wayfarers – last seen on Tom Cruise in Cocktail and George Michael circa Club Tropicana – perched on the noses of everyone from the jet- setters to the indie kids partying down at Ibiza Rocks.

The one thing more conspicuous than Wayfarers on the island this year is the Liverpool ladies.

Naturally, they are all accessorised to within an inch of their tanned lives, all sparkly kaftans and gravity-defying wedges.

Bless ’em, they can more than give the glossy Euro-trash set, with their 90ft cruisers and Gucci addictions, a run for their millions.

Never knowingly underdressed, at least half a dozen of the Scouse girls on our flight out – which incidentally took off at seven in the morning – were wearing rollers in their hair a la Alex and Coleen.

Judging by the expressions, that was a new one on the Spanish passport control.