The brand’s creative director shot to international fame for creating the Princess of Wales’s wedding dress
Sarah Burton, the creative director of Alexander McQueen who designed the Princess of Wales’s wedding dress, is leaving the fashion house after more than two decades.
In a statement released on Monday, Kering, the brand’s parent company, announced that its show on the 30 September during Paris fashion week will be Burton’s last.
Continue reading...Previously unseen documents to go on display at V&A alongside evidence of her collusion with Nazis
A major retrospective of Coco Chanel has unearthed evidence that the fashion designer was a documented member of the French resistance. The previously unseen documents will go on display, along with contradictory evidence that she operated as a Nazi agent.
The documents relating to Chanel’s activities in wartime Paris strike a serious note within what is likely to be the most glamorous exhibition of the year, with more than 50 tweed suits – including a bubblegum pink set belonging to Lauren Bacall – on view at Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto, when it opens at the V&A in London on 16 September.
“We couldn’t do a show about Chanel and not address her wartime record,” said the curator, Oriole Cullen, who has expanded a show first created at the Palais Galliera in Paris in 2020 with a new curation that delves more deeply into Chanel’s links with Britain as well as her wartime activities.
Previously unseen documents highlight the name “Gabrielle AKA Coco Chanel” on a list of 400,000 people whose part in the resistance is backed up by official records. “We have verification from the French government, including a document from 1957, which confirms her active participation in the resistance,” said Cullen.
Watchdog alleges US-based site misled consumers about pricing, renewal and duration of memberships
A popular online dating site has been accused by the consumer watchdog of entrapping singles by only showing them blurred photos of their matches and then locking them in a cycle of membership renewal.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launched federal court action against the US-based eHarmony on Thursday, alleging it breached consumer law by making misleading statements about pricing, renewal and duration of memberships.
Continue reading...More than a third of runners at this year’s Mexico City Marathon have been expelled after organisers say they cut out sections of the 26.2 mile course.
An investigation was launched after complaints that runners had used cars, public transport and bikes to cheat during the race on 27 August. Tracking data then showed that thousands of participants had not passed some of the 5km checkpoints that monitor whether runners have completed the entire race.
Continue reading...Riding most popular in Victoria and the Northern Territory with Tasmania at the bottom of the pile, new survey suggests
A pandemic bicycle boom has faded, with the latest statistics showing many people feel it is too dangerous to ride on Australian roads.
There has been a steady decline in people cycling at least once during a 12-month period over the past decade, from about 40% in 2011 down to 34.2% in 2017.
Continue reading...‘Just about perfect’ weather conditions mean berries are abundant – ideal for bank holiday weekend foraging
The sun shone at the right time but not too harshly, and the rain provided just about the perfect amount of watering. As a result, gardeners, foragers and fans of fruity puddings in many parts of the UK are relishing one of the most abundant, juiciest blackberry crops for years.
“It’s a really good year,” said John Myers, the head gardener at the National Trust’s Ham House in London. “Conditions have been just about perfect. We had a nice May and June when the temperatures were good. June was warm but not too hot, allowing the flowers to take up enough nutrients and the pollinators to do their thing. Then after June we had quite a lot of rain, which did the berries a world of good, plumping them up. In the last few weeks it’s been warm, meaning they’ve ripened really well.”
Continue reading...Almost one in three people aged 18-34 have been messaged by staff after giving personal details to a business
Almost one in three people aged 18-34 have received unwanted romantic contact after giving their personal information to a business, a UK poll has shown.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has called for recipients of such texts to come forward to help the regulator gather evidence of the impact of this phenomenon.
The ICO has an online form for people who want to report an experience of unwanted contact.
Continue reading...Singer tells 42 million Instagram followers she ‘couldn’t take the pain any more’ but would stay strong
Britney Spears has spoken about the recent announcement that she and her husband, Sam Asghari, are to divorce, telling fans she “couldn’t take the pain any more” but will remain strong in the face of adversity.
Asghari cited “irreconcilable differences” in documents filed at a court in Los Angeles, which also revealed that the couple separated almost three weeks ago. The documents said he intended to obtain financial support and legal costs from Spears.
Continue reading...Singer Eva Amaral this week created headlines by baring her chest at a festival, joining a string of other artists asserting this freedom in the name of defending women’s rights
In the middle of her performance at the Sonorama festival in the northern Spanish town of Aranda de Duero on Saturday, Eva Amaral was about to lead her band Amaral into her song Revolución when she took off her red sequin top and threw it on the floor.
“This is for Rocío, for Rigoberta, for Zahara, for Miren, for Bebe, for all of us,” she said, listing the names of fellow artists before uncovering her breasts. “Because no one can take away the dignity of our nakedness. The dignity of our fragility, of our strength. Because there are too many of us.” In a concert marking the Spanish band’s 25-year career, going topless was a way of defending women’s dignity and freedom to go nude, and “a very important moment”, Amaral later told El País.
Continue reading...When Britain’s wonkiest pub was destroyed in a fire and the ruins demolished, it sparked protests and made headlines around the world – but why?
Thanks to a bad case of subsidence the Crooked House in the Black Country, had become a landmark. Punters talked about how its alarming lean made you feel drunk before you got to your pint, while badly made shelves were said to be ‘as straight as the Crooked House’.
But then it was bought by developers, caught fire and was immediately demolished. For many people it seemed like a symptom of how loved, local pubs were disappearing, while the nature of the pub’s destruction also raised interest across the country – and beyond.
Continue reading...Ralph Percy lost an application in 2021 to build 80 flats on part of his Grade I-listed Syon Park estate
An attempt by the Duke of Northumberland to replace allotments with dozens of new homes on his west London estate is simply an effort to line his “already deep pockets”, a public inquiry has heard.
Ralph Percy, the 12th Duke of Northumberland, lost an application in October 2021 to build 80 flats on part of his Grade I-listed Syon Park estate after the council received more than 900 objections from local residents to the plans.
Continue reading...Ukrainian church has traditionally observed the holiday on 7 January, in line with the Moscow patriarchy
Ukraine has moved its official Christmas holiday to 25 December in a break with the Russian Orthodox church, which celebrates it on 7 January.
The bill signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday highlights the deepening rift between churches in Kyiv and Moscow since Russia’s invasion of its pro-western neighbour.
Continue reading...People buying full-face masks alongside hats, fans – and hats with inbuilt fans – as temperatures rise above 35C
In scorching Beijing, “facekinis” are the hottest new fashion as surging temperatures shatter records.
With the air temperature rising above 35C (95F) and the ground surface temperature soaring as high as 80C in some parts of the country, residents and visitors have taken to carrying portable fans and covering themselves up to avoid getting burnt. Some hats even have fans built in.
Continue reading...The traditional staple is losing the battle with more convenient and cheaper alternative foods
The Dojima branch of Yoshinoya in Osaka is doing a roaring lunchtime trade. As soon as one diner vacates their counter seat, another takes their place, while staff take just seconds to assemble the next order of the restaurant’s trademark dish: gyūdon.
The Observer has joined the rush, ordering a set lunch of seasoned beef and onion on rice, and side dishes of pickled cabbage and miso soup – all for a extremely affordable ¥632 (£3.46).
Continue reading...UK capital as ‘huge generator of wealth’ under threat as a third of visual artists struggle to pay for studios
What makes Britain’s capital city so magnetic? Familiar landmarks? The nightlife? Or its financial, fashion and art trades? Maybe. But behind the glamour and money a network of artists is giving London the crucial appeal of a place where new things happen, while working on the edge of poverty.
A survey released on 13 July is to reveal just how close many of London’s visual artists are to giving up on a career that has pushed them to the bottom of the pile. Close to a third of those asked said lack of funds might force them out within five years. And just under half said they cannot afford to build savings or pay into a pension plan.
Continue reading...Call for high fees to be scrapped as church marriages fall by half in England and Wales between 1999 and 2019
High fees are putting church weddings beyond the reach of many couples and should be scrapped or set at a nominal amount, according to clergy in one of the most deprived areas of England.
Marriage fees, which can be as high as £641, are a contributory factor to the decline in church weddings, they claim. A proposal to be debated this week at the Church of England’s ruling body, the General Synod, calls for fees to be abolished or reduced to a minimal amount “in order to demonstrate the church’s commitment to marriage and pastoral care”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Trading standards body warns shoppers with severe allergies could face ‘tragic consequences’
More than a third of foods labelled vegan contained animal products, research has found, prompting experts to warn shoppers with severe allergies they face potentially “tragic consequences”.
Forensic scientists found traces of egg or milk in an array of goods that were labelled as vegan or plant-based, with trading standards bosses calling for legal protection to stop consumers being “exploited by unethical food businesses”.
Continue reading...From Ghent to Galway, Amsterdam to Edinburgh, everyone is tiring of rowdy drunkenness. Is this the end of the foreign stag weekend?
Name: The Great Stag Ban.
Age: Recent.
Continue reading...Mattel says the Barney movie will be inspired by Charlie Kaufman, while Barbie director Greta Gerwig is planning two Narnia movies for Netflix
The Daniel Kaluuya-produced movie featuring Barney the Dinosaur will be an “adult”, “surrealistic” and “A24-type” film inspired by Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze, it has been revealed.
In a wide-ranging report on the film-making plans of toymaker Mattel in the New Yorker, Mattel Films executive Kevin McKeon said of the project: “We’re leaning into the millennial angst of the property rather than fine-tuning this for kids. It’s really a play for adults. Not that it’s R-rated, but it’ll focus on some of the trials and tribulations of being thirtysomething, growing up with Barney – just the level of disenchantment within the generation.”
Continue reading...David Chang has two Michelin stars and intriguing views on how to cook everything from mac and cheese to lobster
Name: David Chang.
Age: 45.
Continue reading...