Fashion and music have always gone hand in hand. In fact, both industries are often hugely influenced by the other. If a band doesn't look good, their music doesn't get noticed. If fashion doesn't keep up to date with what all the cool people are wearing, the clothes don't get noticed. Countless musical icons from all sides of the music industry have created a unique image in the past, causing their legions of fans to steal, borrow and copy their 'unique' styles.

As the years have gone by, music has had more and more impact on the fashion world and the clothes we all wear today. With music scenes and fashion trends moving just as fast as Usain Bolt after too much sugar, it's becoming difficult to just keep up. So after the rise and fall of nu-rave and nu-grave, Pete Doherty finally coming close to tabloid obscurity once more, who are the current trend setters of today?

This year has seen the likes of The Foals tear through the music scene, hitting the charts with their indie excellence and creating a real buzz on the dancefloors. Being one of the big recent breakthroughs, their style and dress sense has also soaked through to the fashionable youth of today. According to Topman, the look 'fuses 50s rockabilly with underground band styling, oversized ginghams and flashes of colour worn against bold black and white'. Foals singer Yannis Philippakis certainly works the image, his influence causing waves of imitation across the land, an abundance of check shirts and skinny jeans, short haircuts with floppy fringes, maybe even the odd nose piercing to boot, it's a look that's been picked up and is doing the rounds all across the country at the moment.

MGMT have been another of the big breakthrough bands this year and, although their fashion sense seems to resemble some kind of hippy version of Joesph and his technicolour dreamcoat, aspects of the look have certainly caught on. Mostly noticeable during the summer and in particular at the music festivals across the country - at Reading it was impossible not to see someone who looked exactly like the singer - an array of 'natural' colours, tie-dye, retro jewellery and headbands.

For every music scene there has always been an element of style over substance. Since The Horrors came about around two years ago, the skinny jeans and big hair followers never really disappeared, infesting the capital and beyond you can often see those dark clothed waifs staggering about in skinny jeans and eye liner, rarely straying into any territory that could be deemed to be uncool.

Posted In Features, Dec 03 2008. Words - Bradley