These new romantics...

There was a time in my life - about thirty years ago, horrifyingly - when I would have found this girl irresistible purely on account of her hair.

I didn't ever have a problem with appreciating male beauty, which was lucky if you were a New Romantic, as it avoided a lot of uncertainty and confusion. And, peculiar perhaps to that fashion, it was the girl fans who best carried off the looks of the male pop stars. Thus, it was the young women who best imitated the haircuts modelled by Duran Duran and Japan (although I did try).

This girl's haircut is very reminiscent of Japan's David Sylvian's look during his brief tenure as a pop star. Try as I might, I could never get my hair to look like that.

But while the early eighties fashions make a half-baked comeback in the form of extravagantly coiffured, made-up, well-dressed young ladies, her companion was dressed in a t-shirt, with the kind of shaggy hair and beard that I have always envied. Basically, this couple encapsulated all my barnet-related ambitions :-/