Essex girl
In English slang, an Essex girl is a young, working-class woman with an unsophisticated attitude to life. The stereotypical Essex girl wears a short skirt, high heels and bleach-blonde hair, often pulled back in a severe style sometimes called an Essex facelift. She is likely to come from, or live in, the county of Essex although the stereotype is often associated with areas such as Dagenham and Romford which were historically in Essex and are now part of the London Boroughs of Barking and Dagenham and Havering respectively. She wears white slingbacks and drives a white Ford Fiesta. Essex girl is the female counterpart of Essex Man; both came into currency during the 1980s property boom, when sectors of British society enjoyed an affluence hitherto reserved for the middle classes. Latterly the Essex girl image has waned, to be replaced in part by chavette.
Similar to the dumb blonde stereotype, Essex girls are the butt of numerous jokes. Essex girl jokes were a craze in England in the autumn of 1991. Essex girl jokes, however, tend to be more rude and radical and often focus on Essex girls' promiscuity.
Essex girls on TV and in fashion
While the phenomenon of the Essex girl came into being in the 1980s, in 2005 the high-end designer company Dolce and Gabbana brought the Essex Girl look back in fashion (top picture). Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana expressed their love of all things English to London's Evening Standard. "The English have a unique taste .... We love to go around the clubs and streets in search of ideas."
Essex girl also made her appearance on British TV during the filming of The Big Brother show, as per Coventry Evening Telegraph [1]
A good example of an Essex girl is Chantelle Houghton who won Celebrity Big Brother in 2006 as a non-celebrity.
See also
External links
- Essex girl in "Big Brother"
- Essex Girl flounces back - Essex Girl in fashion
- BBC H2G2 article