Category Archives: Fashion

Prada flexes its muscle with mashup of lo-fi and ultra-glamorous

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With its collection of cotton vests and showstopper coats, label brings to Milan catwalk what it does best

With Kim Kardashian in the front row and her half sister Kendall Jenner on the catwalk – a resurgent Prada is flexing its muscles, as the big hitters of Italian fashion jostle for position in the post-pandemic era.

With Gucci returning to the city’s fashion week for the first time since February 2020 and Giorgio Armani, who cancelled two January events during the Omicron surge, throwing his hat back into the ring with two shows, the competitive edge has returned to Milan’s catwalks.

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Hustle and hype: the truth about the influencer economy

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More and more young people are enticed by the glittering promises of a career as an influencer – but it’s usually someone else getting rich

I was a 14-year-old schoolboy when the rapper 50 Cent released Get Rich or Die Tryin’. The most precocious kids in class declared the debut hip-hop album an instant classic and hailed the rapper’s legend: “He’s been shot nine times, you know?” The failed attempt on 50 Cent’s life was at the centre of his sales pitch as the bulletproof king of gangsta rap. My friends and I were easily sold. His debut was the bestselling album of 2003, selling 12m copies worldwide. Curtis Jackson may have been born black and poor in New York, but as 50 Cent, he was now worth $30m.

There are few things we find more compelling than a fable of overcoming the odds and achieving self-made success. Everyone loves an outsider, because deep down most of us believe we are one, and each generation has its own version for inspiration. For me, it was the constant reinvention of the hustler made good in hip-hop that stuck.

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New York Fashion Week: inclusivity centre stage at raw and diverse Telfar Clemens show

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Brand delivers an assault on the senses with Telfar TV interspersed with live experimental jazz and sportswear-influenced clothes

The motto of Black-owned New York fashion brand Telfar is “It’s not for you – it’s for everybody”. If this has been hailed as a win for inclusivity, the epic show at New York fashion week was about defining what that meant for designer Telfar Clemens and his collaborators. A press release, handed out to guests, asked “how can a Black business with almost entirely Black customers - be the result of someone else’s inclusivity?”

The exploration of what inclusivity means to Clemens and collaborators was an assault on the senses.

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Wear a suit to the office. It’s a special occasion…

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Savile Row designer Ozwald Boateng says it’s time for a smarter look, tailored to a new era of hybrid working

He’s the designer famed for reviving Savile Row tailoring in the Cool Britannia era of the 90s with his sleek, jewel-coloured suits. Since then, office attire has become less formal and working from home has taken off, yet Ozwald Boateng believes rumours of the death of the suit are greatly exaggerated.

As he prepared to show at London fashion week on Monday after a 12-year absence, he told the Observer that he believes the suit will be seen as less an everyday work uniform and more as special occasion wear – but with many of those going into an office just two or three days a week making more of an effort and opting to dress more formally.

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Julia Fox steals the show as LaQuan Smith sticks to glamour at New York Fashion Week

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Red sequins, faux fur corsets and sky high heels from the celebrity favourite in a tribute to his late mentor, Andre Leon Talley

LaQuan Smith’s autumn/winter 2022 show at New York fashion week on Monday evening started over an hour late.

It soon became clear why – a celebrity was involved. Julia Fox, the model and actor who has had the lens of the paparazzi trained on her for months thanks to her recent relationship with Kanye West, opened the show and caused a hush across the audience.

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Naomi Campbell says becoming a mother at 50 ‘best thing I’ve done’

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The supermodel is pictured on the front cover of British Vogue’s March issue with her daughter

Naomi Campbell has described becoming a mother at the age of 50 as “the best thing I’ve ever done”.

In a photoshoot for the March issue cover of British Vogue, the supermodel will appear photographed with her daughter. Campbell has never revealed her daughter’s name, but she confirmed to the magazine that she was not adopted.

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Indian supplier to UK fashion brands agrees to pay £3m in unpaid wages

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Shahi Exports, which makes clothes for the UK high street, has agreed to pay staff minimum wage and arrears

India’s largest garment company has paid out an estimated £3m in unpaid wages to tens of thousands of workers, after two years of refusing to pay the legal minimum wage.

Last month Shahi Exports, which supplies dozens of international brands, agreed to pay nine months of back pay to about 80,000 workers, with further payments expected in the coming months that will increase the total paid back to workers to £7m.

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Too cool for the pool: how the Dryrobe became the most divisive thing you can wear

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They were invented so surfers and swimmers could get undressed without flashing. So why are Dryrobes – half-towel, half-jacket – taking over our high streets?

During the spring lockdown in 2020, Christopher Sloman was walking down a street in Hove when he saw what looked like a green dinosaur looming towards him. The 48-year-old charity shop worker was baffled by the figure in the distance – until he realised it was a woman whose coat was so oversized that her hands (one carrying a phone, the other a coffee) “looked really small,” Sloman says. “I thought: My God, what on earth is that?”

“That” turned out to be a Dryrobe – the £160 ankle-length, waterproof robe designed as an outdoor changing robe for surfers in 2010 which has become the go-to piece of kit for any half-serious outdoor swimmer.

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Bootleggers, bondage and law-breaking bashes! The scandalous history of the wild party

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From Prohibition-busting cocktail parties to all-night raves, illegal gatherings have been at the centre of modern culture for decades. So why do they still have the power to shock?

For more than a month now, the press has been full of stories of “illegal” parties in Downing Street. The government, we are told, has almost ground to a halt because of the scandal.

Given the coverage, one might easily get the impression that the law-breaking bash is a recent invention, something that could only happen in lockdown, driven by privilege and an unhealthy sense of entitlement. Yet the modern party began life as a crime just over a century ago, when the Volstead Act banned the production and sale of alcohol in the US. As the New York Times explained in 1920:

You cannot carry a hip flask.
You cannot give away or receive a bottle of liquor as a gift.
You cannot take liquor to hotels or restaurants and drink it in the public dining rooms.
You cannot buy or sell formulas or recipes for homemade liquors.
You cannot …

“Oh,” said the Bright Young People. “Oh, oh, oh.”

“It’s just exactly like being inside a cocktail shaker,” said Miles Malpractice.

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French fashion designer Thierry Mugler dies aged 73

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Mugler’s daring collections came to define 1980s power dressing, while he later dressed Beyoncé and Lady Gaga

French designer Manfred Thierry Mugler, known for the powerful-shouldered, cinch-waisted silhouettes that reigned over fashion in the 1980s, died on Sunday at the age of 73 of “natural causes”, according to his agent.

A former ballet dancer, Mugler’s bold collections – presented at highly stylised, themed runway shows – were at the forefront of the structured, decadent style that came to be known as “power dressing”.

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Hermès suing American artist over NFTs inspired by its Birkin bags

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French luxury brand says Mason Rothschild’s furry MetaBirkins digital tokens ‘rip off’ its trademark

French luxury group Hermès has started legal proceedings against an American artist over virtual versions inspired by its famous Birkin bags.

Mason Rothschild creates digital art that he sells as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, which can be traded online but ownership cannot be forged.

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Prada’s Milan fashion week show ends with Jeff Goldblum on the catwalk

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Hollywood heavyweights including Kyle MacLachlan bring coronavirus-hit week to a close

Prada called on Hollywood heavyweights Jeff Goldblum and Kyle MacLachlan to bookend its catwalk on Sunday afternoon, bringing a close to a quiet menswear fashion week that saw multiple brands cancel their shows in light of increasing Covid cases across Europe.

The appearance of the actors at the Fondazione Prada punctuated the second physical catwalk show from founder Miuccia Prada and her co-creative director Raf Simons since the latter came onboard in early 2020, marking an unprecedented union of two of the fashion industry’s most influential and famed designers.

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Nino Cerruti, pioneer of men’s ready-to-wear fashion, dies aged 91

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Stylish entrepreneur turned his family’s textile factory in north-west Italy into a global fashion brand

Pioneering Italian fashion designer Nino Cerruti has died at the age of 91, a source in the fashion industry confirmed to AFP on Saturday.

Cerruti was one of the leading figures in men’s ready-to-wear fashion in the 20th century, with a style that was at once elegant and relaxed. His Cerruti 1881 brand became renowned and in his heyday he dressed many a Hollywood star.

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British Vogue hails new era with nine African models on cover

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February issue cover shot is an important statement of anti-tokenism, says magazine’s editor

British Vogue has hailed a new era that spotlights African fashion. The magazine’s February issue features nine dark-skinned models of African heritage on its cover, including Adut Akech.

Seemingly referencing Peter Lindbergh’s “Supers” Vogue cover from 1990, which introduced the world to the idea of the supermodel, the shot is a challenge to the traditionally white fashion industry, which has, since the murder of George Floyd, been under pressure to change and become more inclusive and diverse.

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‘Unmatched’: contents of 70s French power couple’s final bolthole up for auction

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Sotheby’s to sell designs and artwork of François Catroux, decorator to the stars, and his wife, Betty, muse to Yves Saint Laurent

In 1970s Paris, Betty Catroux and her husband, François, were the glittering couple at the heart of French high society and what used to be known as the international jet set.

She was the androgynous model and darling of the French designer Yves Saint Laurent, he the self-taught interior decorator who transformed the mansions, grand apartments and chateaux of the super-rich or royal, among them the Rothschilds, Diane von Furstenberg and, later, Roman Abramovich.

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Back to black: goths go mainstream in corsets, leather and lace

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Inspired by Kourtney Kardashian and Megan Fox, searches for ‘gothcore’ grow as people look to express darker emotions

It’s been 20 years since pallid faces, dark eyes and black clothes haunted UK secondary schools and shopping centres. While some might argue that they never left, merely retreating into the shadows, the consensus for 2022 is that goth style is returning to mainstream culture with a vengeance.

There are some differences this time. The modern goth is more likely to take inspiration from ultra-glam “hot goth girlfriends” such as Kourtney Kardashian and Megan Fox and the fashion world darlings Rick Owens and Yohji Yamamoto than the Marilyn Manson-loving self-proclaimed outsiders of the early 2000s.

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Fashion designer Gabriela Hearst: ‘I could always have gone back to selling cattle’

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She’s New York’s most in-demand fashion designer. But for Gabriela Hearst, starting out on a remote Uruguayan ranch has proved to be her most valuable experience

Hang on, wait there a minute, I want to show you something,” says Gabriela Hearst, hopping up from her chair in her airy Manhattan office and reaching for something on the shelves in the background of her Zoom frame. “These are my journals from when I was 16 or 17 – let me check the date, um 1993, yes I was 17 and look!” She flattens a page full of colourful teenage drawings and holds it up to the camera: “I designed a whole freaking shoe collection!”

That these journals remain within reaching distance of the fashion designer’s desk in her Chelsea studio is testament to the fact that despite the success she has achieved, Hearst never forgets where she came from. As creative director of her award-winning brand, founded in 2015, and a year into the same prestigious role at the fashion house Chloé, it would be an understatement to say that Hearst is hot property in the fashion world right now.

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On my radar: Moses Sumney’s cultural highlights

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The singer-songwriter on Balenciaga’s visions, the mountains of North Carolina, and the haunting power of Eve’s Bayou

Singer-songwriter Moses Sumney, 29, grew up between Ghana and California and studied creative writing and poetry at UCLA. His piercing falsetto and genre-defying music have brought him critical acclaim, starting with his self-recorded 2014 EP Mid-City Island, followed in 2017 by his debut album, Aromanticism, and the 2020 double album Græ. Sumney has collaborated with musicians including Bon Iver and James Blake and toured with Solange and Sufjan Stevens. His latest project is Blackalachia, a self-directed concert film created in association with WePresent, shot over two days in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, where he lives.

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The art of Yves Saint Laurent: design house marks 60th anniversary

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Five Paris museums to display fashion designer’s creations with artwork that inspired them

Simultaneous exhibitions to mark the 60th anniversary of Yves Saint Laurent’s first collection are to be held by six leading Paris museums in an unprecedented tribute from the art world to the late French fashion designer.

The events at museums, among them the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, will reveal how the celebrated couturier was inspired by some of the 20th century’s greatest artists including Picasso, Matisse and Mondrian.

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Grace Mirabella, 70s and 80s US Vogue editor, dies aged 92

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Mirabella was editor of the magazine from 1971 to 1988 and was a non-nonsense champion of practical fashion

Grace Mirabella, the editor of American Vogue throughout the 1970s and much of the 1980s, has died aged 92.

Mirabella was a non-nonsense champion of practical fashion. She succeed the more whimsical and bohemian Diana Vreeland as editor in 1971 and remained in the role until 1988.

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