Fashion: On the street: Looks like teen spirit

They customise their style from high-street, home-made and thrift- shop. Adam Fulcher meets some teen queens in Oxford Street

Emma Clifford 19, sound engineering student, from Loughton, Essex. She wears turquoise leather coat, $40, second-hand from Australia, second- hand T-shirt from Ibiza, jeans from Birmingham rag market.

"I love Seventies patterns and flares. You find the best stuff in second- hand shops, but I sometimes go to Miss Selfridge or Top Shop. This has been my style for a couple of years now. This coat was a brilliant find but the sleeves are a bit short; maybe I could put some fake fur around the cuffs... I got it when I spent six months hitching in Australia, which was amazing. You'd never catch me in a fluffy girlie dress; I'm happier like this. And I don't buy magazines for ideas. My parents have never commented on the way I look. Maybe they'll say `Put a coat on' if it's cold, but that's it."

Claudia Laing 16, fashion student and part-time shop assistant, from Hampstead, north London. She wears sheepskin coat from Tenerife, black lacy slip dress from Miss Selfridge, black boot-leg trousers from Morgan, platform boots from Camden Market, London.

"These boots have got `Go sexy' on the heel so I keep that bit covered up - I don't want comments. Dresses over trousers have been my style for over a year but it's become really fashionable so I'll have to change. Gaultier is a favourite because he's outrageous. I shop at Miss Selfridge and C&A and go to Top Shop most days for ideas. I have just bought a pink stretchy mini-skirt. Sometimes Mum will say, `I don't like that' but she'll never stop me from wearing anything."

Eva Einarson 15, schoolgirl, from Norway. She wears blue jumper with fluffy neck and cuffs, black flared cords and cannabis leaf woolly hat, all from Carnaby Street; white sunglasses from Portobello Market, satchel, Eva's own design.

"This is my first trip to London. I've been shopping in Carnaby Street and Portobello Market, where I bought a feather hairband. I like the hippy look, flared trousers and `space' type fabrics. I also make a lot of my own clothes, either designing them myself or copying them from books. Mum gave me a great book she'd kept from the Sixties which has brilliant pictures so I copied a pair of very flared trousers and put hand-painted panels at the knee to make them even wider. Mum gives me pocket money if I want to buy things but one thing I will never buy is fur."

Preethi Sundarm 15, schoolgirl, from Denmark. She wears blue T-shirt from Top Shop, navy cords from H&M Hennes, hat from Canada.

"I've just had a henna tattoo on my arm in Top Shop but it won't show up until tomorrow. I'm here on holiday for a week with a group of friends and we've been checking out Shelley's, Miss Selfridge, Portobello Market and the new Top Shop, which is huge. Top Shop in Denmark is much smaller, but they have the same sort of fab things. I don't wear a uniform for school and generally go like this, casual style - I'm a bit of slob really. Fashion is not that important to me, and my parents are cool about the way I dress. They give me money when I want to buy clothes, but that's not very often. I just like to look nice."