The Bright Young Twins

"I think me and Harriet lead lives that people wouldn't expect us to..."

Photo: Katie Holt

The The Bright Young Twins are Harriet and Aimee; two young beautiful women who describe themselves as "vintage creeps with questionable tastes". You can probably understand already, having looked at the image above and read this brief introduction, as to why I wanted to talk to these girls!

How did it all start?

H: It was your idea!

A: I suppose it was my idea, but we've both been reading blogs for some time and I thought 'come on let's do it!' We just decided that, we wear a lot of outfits anyway and since we read so many blogs we figured by writing our own we could 'give something back'. 

H: We took so much inspiration from the people we followed on the internet that we felt we could inspire other people to do what those people did for us.

Are there any blogs in particular that you regularly read?

H: Confessions Of A Female Drag Queen has to be our favourite, (A: Oh yeah we love that girl!) Stella Rose is just amazing. 

A: Oh and Fashion Forestry and Hannah and Landon are two blogs we love. But the blogs we read have dramatically changed over the past two years. We just read so many! Ooh! Fairy Fay has just launched her blog, she's our housemate and has this gorgeous 60s Rolling-Stones-girlfriend thing going on with her long hair, she's really cool.

Did you expect Bright Young Twins to take off like it has? You have 991 blog followers!

A: I know! I don't think either of us expected it to take off no, the first three months were just like, our mums, nans and friends reading it!

H: I nearly gave up, it got to the point where I felt we were giving and giving and getting nothing back. The whole point was to share stuff and we weren't getting the feedback, I'd wear an outfit and then think "what's the point in photographing it if nobody's going to appreciate it?" But then we got featured on the Swedish blog Miriam Kafferep and on Casey's Elegant Musings and it just went from there. 

A: We also started going to parties like Blitz Party and the Chap Ball where we met other established bloggers like Fleur De Guerre which we were really chuffed about as she said she read our blog.

I don't see your blog as a "fashion blog" as you offer so much of yourselves to your readers. Was this a conscious effort?

H: Originally we were very much hoping to make the blog about historical garments and dating particular pieces and in depth posts on vintage styles but nobody read those posts! (But you can still find those in our archive). We looked at the blogs we read and why we like reading them and it's because they are about that person as much as they are about the clothes they wear. 

A: Definitely, like I think Harriet's right when she says there's an element of voyeurism with blogs. I think me and Harriet lead lives that people wouldn't expect us to. 

H: People seem to expect us to live a certain way, not to swear and be good girls! but we are not trying to re-live a certain decade. We just want to show how passionate we are about the fashions from those eras and how that fits into our very modern lives. 

A: We are very much feminists and that's something we wanted to stress in our blog. People have this idea that women who wear vintage are expected to carry the morals along with that time, which is ridiculous!

Do you think living in London gives you a greater freedom to dress the way you do?

H: I think I would dress this way no matter where I lived, but I love this city. It has an impact due to the fact we have access to so much more. 

A: There's never a point where we would change our style to suit our surroundings, we dress the same no matter where we go. 

Give us some London tips, shops, drinking or otherwise.

H: We love Spitalfields on a Thursday. It's definitely our favourite place to shop. We love charity shops but if we told you our favourite charity shops then we wouldn't get all the best stuff! And Paper Dress too - clothes and booze! 

A: We love bad bars. The irony is coming out now! We just love how the weirdest people would try and chat us up. But now we love parties...so Harriet's flat. 

Harriet, you and flowers! When are these gorgeous floral hair pieces going to be available to buy?

H: ...definitely by Spring next year?! I've just started working in a florists' so it's pretty tiring getting up at 5am everyday but yeah, I love flowers. I'm just lazy!

A: That's exactly it! People follow us more for Harriet's style, but if it wasn't for me then the posts wouldn't even happen! 

Aimee, congrats on graduating in English Literature! Has that been a big inspiration for your style?

A: I would say so, yes. I only started wearing dark red lipstick because of all the women in Dracula with their big plush lips not because of the magazines! 

Dressing certain ways attracts attention. Have you found this and how do you react to the extra attention?

H: In Berlin a couple of years ago, we were stood next to the Brandenburg gate and people were taking pictures of us instead of the famous monument right next to us! We were like, "It's over there!" 

A: It's not very nice. Harriet hates it and I don't like it very much either. 

H: I have a strong opinion on the whole thing. Why can't people leave each other alone? I'm not a freak show. I may think that I think somebody dresses awfully but never in a million years would I think I had the right to tell them! 

A: I suppose on the other hand, I've just come to expect it and accept it. You just have to deal with it.

H: I actually feel sorry for people. It's like, my hat is blowing your mind right now, it's a hat!

It was an absolute pleasure to meet the Bright Young Twins, keep up to date with all of their latest posts as they get up to goodness knows what wearing goodness knows what! 

Gina x