Category Archives: Life and style

Sake takes UK by storm as Japan’s national drink goes mainstream

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No longer just drunk for courage at karaoke clubs, the ‘food-friendly’ rice spirit is becoming a first choice of connoisseurs

When sommelier Erika Haigh opened the UK’s first independent sake bar, in London’s West End in 2019, passersby would wander in and try to order milkshakes, bewildered by the unfamiliar drink advertised in the window.

“Today, that confusion has largely disappeared,” said Haigh, who has since opened Mai Sake, a shop offering tasting events and meals. “You can now go on a sake bar crawl across London, and you’ll find it featured on the beverage lists of many restaurants – including non-Japanese establishments.”

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Lake District caravan owners forced out by 60%-plus price rise

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A huge increase in fees means many vulnerable people have to leave the Derwentwater site they call home

Retired and vulnerable holiday homeowners claim they are being priced out of a “breathtaking” waterside campsite in the Lake District after the Camping and Caravanning Club raised one of the main charges by more than 60%.

The row at the static caravan park on the edge of Derwentwater, sometimes called “Queen of the Lakes” because it is cradled by fells, is over the “siting” fee owners pay when ageing vans are replaced.

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Celebrities turn out for Met Gala in high fashion – as it happened

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This blog has now closed. You can see a gallery of the highlights here and read our coverage of a nearby protest calling for a Gaza ceasefire here

Co-chair and absolute queen of meta-dressing – see the shoes with tennis ball heels she wore to promote sexy tennis flick, Challengers – Zendaya has arrived. Her stylist Law Roach has had the internet speculating, with a red herring post yesterday on Instagram that read “How did I forget that I have this dress in my archive!… we had the dress the entire time,” followed by a face palm enoji. But the floral Emanuel Ungaro couture gown he posted a picture of was clearly not meant to be. Of course Zendaya went for the drama of this gown by Maison Margiela’s John Galliano, complete with wonky silhouette and plumage.

The Met Gala is all about drama and the British actor Gwendoline Christie is certainly bringing it by slowly ascending the steps and giving a different pose at each level. The GOT star is wearing a red velvet gown and sheer tulle cape by John Galliano for Maison Margiela. She closed his spring ’24 couture show in January so it’s a natural fit. Although we do kind of wish she’d opted for that corseted rubber look. This feels a little less adventurous and tonight of all nights is when you can really push the red carpet boundaries. The bouffant is fabulous, wonder how many cans of hairspray it took?

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Experts condemn US tobacco firm’s sponsorship of doctor training as ‘grotesque’

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Philip Morris International has supported non-smoking programmes around the world ‘to advance its own interests’, say health professionals

The tobacco company Philip Morris has sponsored courses for doctors in multiple countries, in what critics have called a “grotesque” strategy.

Medical education programmes on quitting smoking and harm reduction in South Africa, the Middle East and the US have been supported by Philip Morris International (PMI) or its regional subsidiaries, according to advertising material seen by the Guardian.

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Designer Nancy Gonzalez sentenced to prison for smuggling crocodile and python handbags

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Celebrity fashion designer, who recruited couriers to transport bags from her native Colombia to US on commercial flights, receives 18-month sentence

A leading fashion designer whose accessories were used by celebrities from Britney Spears to the cast of the Sex and the City TV series has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty in Miami federal court on charges of smuggling crocodile handbags from her native Colombia.

Nancy Gonzalez was arrested in 2022 in Cali, Colombia, and later extradited to the US for running a sprawling multiyear conspiracy that involved recruiting couriers to transport her handbags on commercial flights to high-end showrooms and New York fashion events – all in violation of US wildlife laws.

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Does mysterious painting prove blue denim was around 200 years before Levi’s?

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Woman Begging With Two Children, by an unknown artist, shows what appears to be a denim skirt in 17th-century Italy

The origin of the world’s most enduringly popular fabric is in ­dispute, as a new exhibition spotlights a claim that firmly links denim with 17th-­century Italy and takes its history back 200 years.

Blue denim, that all-American ­symbol of informality and a life lived on the open range, is already also contentiously attributed to ­southern France, while modern jeans ­mythology still has it that Levi Strauss, a German immigrant, first came up with the idea of making workwear out of this sturdy cotton in San Francisco 150 years ago.

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‘It’s eating what the sea provides’: Galicia’s Atlantic diet eclipses Mediterranean cousin

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In Fisterra in north-west Spain, a diet rich in seafood, fruit and vegetables survives, and has been found to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart-related conditions

Seagulls shriek, boats bob and the morning sun silvers the waters off the Coast of Death as two sailors take a break from winding up their conger eel lines to ponder the sudden interest in precisely what, and how, people here have eaten for centuries.

Like many in the small Galician fishing town of Fisterra – whose name is derived from the Latin for land’s end, because the lonely peninsula on which it sits is about as far west as you can go in mainland Spain – Sito Mendoza and Ramón Álvarez are a little puzzled by all the fuss over the Atlantic diet.

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Fox bones at ancient burial site suggest animal may have been kept as pet

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Clues at Argentina site raise possibility mammal was buried with human owners about 1,500 years ago

The remains of a fox unearthed at a human burial site in Argentina dating back 1,500 years has raised the possibility the animal may have been kept as a pet, research suggests.

Experts say the remains predate the arrival of domestic dogs in Patagonia, which occurred about 700–900 years ago, with a number of clues suggesting the fox was seen as valuable, and may even have been a companion to the hunter-gatherers it lived with.

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‘I’m a little bit tired’: Briton becomes first person to run the length of Africa

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Russ Cook from Worthing reaches Ras Angela, Tunisia, after covering more than 9,900 miles in 352 days

After more than 9,940 miles (16,000km) over 352 days across 16 countries, Russ Cook, aka the “Hardest Geezer”, has completed the mammoth challenge of running the length of Africa.

The 27-year-old endurance athlete from Worthing, West Sussex, crossed the finish line in Tunisia on Sunday afternoon, and planned to celebrate with a party – as well as a strawberry daiquiri – having raised more than £600,000 for charity.

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Easter egg prices soar as cocoa crops are hit by climate crisis and exploitation

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Experts say the global shortage of the main ingredient of chocolate is linked to poor conditions for farmers supplying large companies

Every Easter, UK consumers collectively spend more than £1bn on food, drink, gifts, entertainment and about 80m chocolate eggs, racking up an average bill exceeding £50 each. But shoppers this year are paying more than usual: since last Easter, chocolate prices have increased by more than 12.6%, more than double the rise in supermarket food and drink prices.

The cost of cocoa, chocolate’s main ingredient, has been increasing all year, hitting a record high just before Valentine’s Day and again this week, when it was priced at more than $10,000 a tonne – meaning it is currently more valuable than several precious metals, and growing in value more quickly than bitcoin.

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Skins and feathers are as cruel as fur, the fashion industry is told

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Copenhagen fashion week is hailed for raising the bar on animal rights. But will the organisers of other fashion weeks follow?

Copenhagen fashion week has just announced that it will ban exotic skins and feathers from its catwalks next year, becoming the biggest industry event yet to do so.

“Skål to Copenhagen fashion week for raising the bar for other events,” says the vice-president of corporate projects at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), Yvonne Taylor. “Now all eyes are on other fashion week organisers, who must follow suit.”

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Vintage fans in London gear up to recreate 60s mood at festival of mod

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Tailor-made suits, live music and – of course – a scooter run are expected at this weekend’s celebration

Hundreds of vintage fanatics, dressed in tailor-made suits and berets, are expected to descend on London this weekend for a three-day event celebrating mod subculture.

Modstock, launched 30 years ago by a British vintage fanatic, Rob Bailey, and his organisation New Untouchables, returns for its fourth edition.

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Alan Titchmarsh’s jeans blurred by North Korean TV censors

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Footage of green-fingered BBC presenter obscured from waist down to hide ‘symbol of US imperialism’

His calm demeanour and wholesome vocation have apparently endeared him to one of the most authoritarian regimes in the world. But there is something about Alan Titchmarsh that North Korea’s censors can’t quite forgive – his jeans.

The green-fingered broadcaster and author of raunchy novels has been a fixture on state television since 2022, albeit with the addition of a blurred effect from the waist down.

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Banish creases with £4,000 ironing board from Harrods that comes with crystal keychain

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Swiss brand Laurastar collaborated with fashion designer Germanier on gadget said to half ironing time

What do you buy for someone who has everything? The answer, one suspects, is not an ironing board.

But for the big spender who, let’s face it, almost certainly never folds their own laundry, there is a new bougie appliance: a £3,999 ironing board.

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Workplace AI, robots and trackers are bad for quality of life, study finds

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Tech such as laptops, tablets and instant messaging has more positive effect on wellbeing, says thinktank

Exposure to new technologies including trackers, robots and AI-based software at work is bad for people’s quality of life, according to a groundbreaking study from the the Institute for Work thinktank.

Based on a survey of more than 6,000 people, the study analysed the impact on wellbeing of four groups of technologies that are becoming increasingly prevalent across the economy.

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First Princess of Wales photo after surgery released for Mother’s Day

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Picture of Catherine with her three children posted on social media with message thanking well-wishers

The first official photograph of the Princess of Wales after her abdominal surgery has been released to mark Mother’s Day.

A picture of Catherine sitting on a chair surrounded by her three children was posted to the Prince and Princess of Wales’ social media accounts on Sunday morning, along with a message thanking well-wishers for their support.

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Tokyo offers toilet tours amid flush of excitement over Wim Wenders’s Oscar hopeful

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Shibuya district is offering tours of its architect-designed public facilities that feature in Perfect Days

Japan’s hi-tech toilets have long fascinated visitors who rave about their heated seats, bidet function, automatic flushing, and even background noises to mask the unwelcome sounds that can accompany the call of nature.

Now, international interest in the country’s public conveniences is surging thanks to the German director Wim Wenders, whose film Perfect Days – the story of Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho), a Tokyo toilet cleaner – is in the reckoning for best international feature at Sunday’s Academy Awards.

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Chanel brings Hollywood and seaside chic to Paris fashion week

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Penélope Cruz and Brad Pitt star in a remake of a French classic as designer Virginie Viard turns the catwalk into a coastal boardwalk

The lights dimmed, and the Chanel show opened with Penélope Cruz and Brad Pitt on the catwalk. Cruz smouldered in a chic black polo neck and discreet diamonds, Pitt twinkly eyed in an open-necked white shirt. They gazed into each other’s eyes, flirted a little, and then – how could either of them resist? – embarked on a clandestine affair.

Well, almost. Cruz was, in fact, sitting demurely in the front row in a leather skirt suit, and Pitt was not in attendance. The rendezvous was on a short film, made for the show and screened above the catwalk, a remake of a seminal scene in Claude Lelouch’s Un Homme et Une Femme, a classic Gallic romance about a widow and widower falling in love that won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes festival in 1966. Lelouch, now 86, was also a guest of honour at Chanel’s show.

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Shein ‘considering London rather than New York IPO amid US scrutiny’

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Fast-fashion company believes it unlikely that SEC will approve US flotation, according to report

The fast-fashion company Shein is reportedly considering a stock market flotation in London rather than New York because of potential problems with a listing in the US, its preferred location.

Shein, which was founded in China but is now based in Singapore, is in the early stages of exploring an initial public offering in London because it believes it is unlikely that the US Securities and Exchange Commission would approve its initial public offering (IPO), Bloomberg reported.

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Vogue China’s Margaret Zhang, youngest person appointed as an editor at magazine group, to step down

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Australian Chinese former fashion blogger, whose appointment in 2021 was met with controversy, announces she is leaving the magazine

Three years after becoming the youngest person to hold an editor title at Vogue, Margaret Zhang is leaving her position as editorial director of Vogue China.

The Australian Chinese creative director announced her exit on Instagram on Monday, writing: “As we kick off a transformative Year of the Dragon, I’m excited to announce that I have decided to wrap up with Vogue and jump into the next chapter of my career.”

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