Style Rider: Elizabeth Sankey of Summer Camp Takes Cues from Her Favorite Movie Characters

Summer is the time for playful indie pop. It's also the time teenagers looking for adventure in the form of regimented daily activities head off to camp. But we all know what happens at camp after hours. The counselors turn a blind eye as their campers meet in the woods to make out, smoke pot, and drink their first beer. Ah, impressionable American youth! It's an aesthetic immortalized in movies like Wet, Hot, American Summer, The Parent Trap, and Friday the 13th. Something about partial freedom is what makes summer so special. It only lasts for a short while so you best squeeze everything you can out of it before the school year rears its ugly head. Summer Camp is also the musical moniker of married British couple Elizabeth Sankey and Jeremy Warmsley. Given their cinematic C-86 synth-pop (they even scored a film!) and lyrical content regarding American teenage obsessions, they couldn't have picked a better name.

When we asked Elizabeth about her personal style and favorite on-stage looks, we tapped into a wellspring of familiar influences: "I'm obsessed with films," she explains as soon we ask her about peronal style. "I'm always watching films, and I fall in love with the stories and characters and want to live in their world. The best way to do that, surely, is to dress like them." Summer Camp is a band that likes to have fun; check out their new album Bad Love or Elizabeth's literary musings for us or her own personal blog for proof. When you're performing on stage night after night, it's an oppurtunity to become someone else each time. Elizabeth has found a way to express her love for the films that taught her about fashion into various on-stage looks. So for this edition of Style Rider, here's Elizabeth emulating looks from her favorite American teenage flicks.

"I lost my SHIT when I saw there was a company making yellow plaid co-ords. They weren't even shipping to the UK so I had to do this backwards thing where I got them to ship it to an address in the US and then they shipped it to me. It was very expensive. I wore this to the London premiere of the teen film documentary we sound tracked last year called Beyond Clueless. I doubt Cher Horowitz would ever wear black boots, but obviously the hue of the plaid was completely in honour of her. And the Haitians. If you don't get that reference you'll think I'm nuts."

"This is when I tried to dress like a Heather from, well, Heathers. I love that boxy 80s look in theory, but in reality I felt very frumpy. When you actually look at what young women were wearing back then it was extemely prim and buttoned up, which made them appear way older. Even Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, her non-hooker look is a blazer, white T-shirt and mom jeans. Very grown up."

"This one was way more my speed. I was trying to do something Craft-esque. It comes off a bit fancy dress but oh my good lord I felt like such a bad ass. Also I don't know if you know this, but you're not allowed to be in a band unless you have a leather jacket. They, like, won't let you in the unions and shit and other people in bands send you hate mail and survey your house. Being in a band is a lot like being a Scientologist."

"I was trying to be Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo + Juliet, and I have no shame about it and would do it again in a heartbeat. Those are men's pants, and I have to say they fit me so much better than any ladies ones ever have. I'm all about DMs too. They're this amazing connection to British street fashion and are pretty timeless. My dad used to wear them when he was a skinhead (he wasn't one of the racist ones, I promise) with his Harrington jacket, and now he wears suede desert boots with his cashmere jumpers. My dad is the best. The Hawaiian shirt is my husband's; I just made him get his first pair of DM boots. I can be quite forceful."

"For our third album, which just came out, we were inspired by teen horror films and Point Horror books, so the 'look' or the 'aesthetic,' if you will, is all inspired by people from teen films. This was me trying to be Corey from Empire Records. We're filming our video for the next single tomorrow, and I'm dressing like Tatum from Scream, and I'm so excited about it."

Purchase Summer Camp's Bad Love here.