Style Icon: Princess Julia

PrincessJulia090514As an impressionable young wannabe from the sticks, arriving in London in the early 80s I discovered that the club scene wasn’t so different to Northern clubs I had grown up with. Filled with the drag queens and “weirdos” we so loved, my friends and I certainly looked the part but we were always on the fringes of the ‘it’ crowd. The really cool kids who had grown up in London or the suburbs took their looks to a whole different level and had a confidence we out of towners could never hope to achieve.

Princess Julia was a DJ at the Astoria when I first encountered her, tiny and perfectly put together her look was always darkly mysterious, slightly romantic and very very neat, like a gothic Miss Haversham. I was fascinated by her and developed a distant girl crush, in that way you do at clubs. You see someone every week, admire their outfit and possibly imagine what their lives are like on the other 6 and a half days. These days we could google, Facebook and Instagram stalk them and even possibly strike up a conversation on Twitter, but I think I preferred the mystery of not knowing about those weird and wonderful club people.

A couple of years ago I was out with one of my friends who is a regular at the George and Dragon on Hackney Road (PJ is also a regular) and I was introduced to her.  I immediately turned into my angst ridden 20 something self and went completely mute, unable to get past the fact I was talking to someone I had considered way out of my fashion league back in the day.

In recent years Princess Julia has become something of a grande dame of the 8os club scene, speaking at events and regular contributing to iD, QX mag and Revoltage, as well as DJ-ing at art and fashion events.

Designer Peter Jensen chose Princess Julia as his muse for his Autumn/Winter 15/16 collection, using some of her artwork as prints.

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The range is the perfect combination of prim, pretty and edgy and pretty much sums up her style.

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Peter Jenson A/W 15/16

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Princess Julia back in the day

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Princess Julia now (and with the late Steve Strange)

 

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