Country piles are out, warehouse parties are in: meet the new Sloane Ravers

It has been more than 40 years since Sloane Rangers  forced their way into public consciousness.

It was a label dreamt up to denote a certain subset of young, monied socialites who spent their time prowling the streets of west London in want of something to do and people to meet, and, fortunately, they were easily identifiable.

They wore Liberty silk head scarves, tweed, riding boots (despite not being within 10 miles of a horse), and largely vacant expressions. Their tribal leader was Diana Spencer, soon to be the Princess of Wales; their safe space the King’s Road in Chelsea. They were, for all intents and purposes, ‘the set’. 

In 2017, though, their descendants are unrecognisable. Gone is the conservative fashion, the country pursuits and the strict postcode restrictions (though they will keep the education, inherited wealth and abundance of leisure time, thank you very much). In their stead? Music festivals, brightly-dyed hair, holidays in Ibiza, piercings and a laissez-faire attitude to personal hygiene. Weekends at their ancestors’ country piles are out, wide-eyed warehouse parties – at which they will personally DJ – are very much in. The Sloane Ranger has morphed into the ‘Sloane Raver’. And they’re causing havoc.

This week, for instance, tabloid newspapers frothed with the news of David Beckham’s unlikely friendship with the epitome of the new generation, Lady Mary Charteris. Reportedly, the pink-ponytailed 30-year-old – daughter of Lord Jamie Neidpath, the 13th Earl of Wemyss and 9th Earl of March – met Beckham in June at the Sloane Ravers’ annual pilgrimage to Glastonbury Festival, where they watched Ed Sheeran headline the Pyramid Stage. 

Hitting it off in the way two strangers easily can when listening to Ed Sheeran is the only alternative, Charteris and Beckham have been spotted meeting up regularly ever since, with the socialite apparently working hard to lead him astray, including joining him at late night spots around London. 

Victoria Beckham, meanwhile, is Not Okay with the arrangement. It may be that she is simply unhappy with the idea of her husband living out his midlife crisis with such a dearth of subtlety, or perhaps she’s heard the tabloid speculation about Kate Moss pushing Lady Mary into a swimming pool two years ago – allegedly provoked by the younger woman becoming a little too supportive of Moss’s ex-husband, Jamie Hince. Whatever the truth, just like her Downton Abbey namesake, it’s fair to say Lady Mary is having the last laugh. 

Charteris may be one of the more outrageous Sloane Ravers (the mostly see-through wedding dress she wore to marry musician Robbie Furze in 2012 didn’t suggest timidity) but she is by no means the most well-known. Whether they self-identify as such or not, long-term members of the tribe include Prince Harry’s ex-girlfriends Cressida Bonas and Flee Brudenell-Bruce, supermodel and actress Cara Delevingne, Lady Clara Paget and model of the moment, Adwoa Aboah. Then, bridging the gap between Ranger and Raver were sisters Astrid and Davine Harbord – for a long time known as the ‘Hardcore Sisters’ thanks to their devotion to a good time – and Guy Pelly, who may well turn up as Prince Harry’s best man in the near future. 

To readers who remember The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook: The First Guide to What Really Matters in Life – Ann Barr and Peter Yorke’s 1982 book on the King’s Road scene – many of those surnames will, of course, be very familiar. Like a lot of things in their lives, the Sloane Ravers have mainly inherited their status. But that isn’t to say there are no newcomers or bit-part players eagerly awaiting their moment. At their endless run of summer music festivals, the Ravers can be spotted making peace signs in selfies with the likes of Rita Ora, Alexa Chung and Nick Grimshaw, for instance. At Lady Charteris’s wedding, John Lennon’s son Sean took the photos, while Florence Welch (of Florence and the Machine fame) led the band.

Among the even younger crowd, the offspring of landed gentry has blurred with the relatives of celebrities particularly seamlessly. Kate Moss’s 19-year-old sister, Lottie, can be seen tottering down the King’s Road with the cast of Made in Chelsea on any given day, while Beckham’s eldest son, Brooklyn, Daniel Day-Lewis’s model heir, Gabriel-Kane, and Rafferty Law, the 21-year-old product of Sadie Frost and Jude Law, are never far away either. 

But what do they do? In the olden days, if Sloane Rangers were forced to work – heaven forfend – they may have done vague work for family friends, taken up the vacancy of Princess of Wales or been some sort of ‘dealer’ in the auction houses around west London. Now, if they are not actors or models, they gravitate towards travel, PR, fashion and creating doom-laden start-up businesses. Scarily, too, they could live or work anywhere: in the hipster-wrought capital of 2017, a Sloane Raver can be just as comfortable in north, east or south London – provided there’s a car on hand to take them back to SW3 at a moment’s notice, naturally.

In short, they’re taking over. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.