A grand exit: why four-figure coats have become a high street fixture

Posted on February 13, 2025 by Admin

From John Lewis to Cos, high street stores are selling coats costing more than £1,000 in a move to cast themselves as ‘luxe’ brands

If you were given £1,000 to splurge on the high street, what would you buy? Perhaps a head-to-toe new season wardrobe from Zara? Enough knitwear to see you through several winters, or maybe a lifetime supply of socks from Marks & Spencer?

Whatever you decide, you’d need to factor in the cost of a taxi to lug all those bags back from the shops. Or at least, once upon a time you would. These days, a grand is easy to spend on a single item – and it’s all thanks to the rise of the four-figure coat.

Cop26: Meet nine fashion designers making real change

Posted on October 29, 2021 by Admin

From upcycling to educating, Fashion Open Studio has enlisted nine pioneering designers for a series of online workshops to mark the United Nation Climate Change Conference

Is it actually possible to reduce the fashion industry’s impact on the environment? Nine pioneering designers from five continents are showing that it is. Masterminding a series of solutions to some of the challenges facing their own communities, they demonstrate what we can learn from local indigenous knowledge and how to work within the limits of our natural resources.

In the lead up to Cop26, the designers were asked to respond to the climate change talks’ themes of adaptation, resilience and nature for a series of online workshops created by Fashion Open Studio (the initiative set up by Fashion Revolution) in partnership with the British Council. If you happen to be in Glasgow between November 4 to 11, you can take part in workshop events around the city, or to watch previous events and find out about upcoming workshops online, check out fashionopenstudio.com/events. In the meantime, here are the nine names to know: