Fashion Fiction: Hip-Hopabilly in Helsinki

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Today we're trying out Fashion Fiction, a new column in which we attempt to imagine the backstory and personal lives of those nameless fashionable souls who inspire (or horrify) us from the pages of the world's most popular street style blogs.

Meet Gibby. That's not her real name. She used to be way mod but then she rediscovered her old punk cassettes from high school. And her old rap CDs from after the punk cassettes from later on in high school. I mean, she still has the red gingham curtains in her kitchen and the wall of Northern Soul records lining the hallway in her railroad apartment—but she traded the crumbling 1960s Vespa for a little white Japanese pick-up truck that starts no matter how cold it gets and is great for carrying amps belonging to that Social Distortion cover band she's been hanging around with. The rims are custom—they look a lot like those door-knocker earrings which she totally saw MC Lyte rocking in some Youtube video she watched drunk on 40s while trolling eBay for kerchiefs and turbans. Just don't call her rockabilly or hip-hop—she doesn't appreciate being cornered by labels. And definitely don't tell her that we are totally naming this look hip-hopabilly.

For the record, we love Gibby—this is how you wear pleated trousers and red lipstick. Gibby comes to us from day one of the Flow Festival in Helsinki and was captured by Facehunter. —Frank Gargione
· HELSINKI - flow festival, day 1, 08/14/09 [Facehunter]