Milan fashion week: Miuccia Prada returns to feminist form

February 23, 2017, 12:19 pm

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Fashion’s premier feminist launches a collection that looks at the progress – or lack of it – in gender politics

Fashion’s premier feminist, Miuccia Prada, timed this return to form to perfection. In a season when slogans of female empowerment are a catwalk must-have and movie stars have been ripped off moodboards in favour of suffragettes, Prada have come roaring back to life in Milan.

Her recent collections have lacked a little urgency, but this one was a punchy reminder that Prada was using fashion as a way of talking about the female experience many years before it became fashionable.

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What I wore this week: kitten heels | Jess Cartner-Morley

February 24, 2017, 6:00 am

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Yes, the kitten heel is back – but how do you avoid looking like an early noughties throwback?

Oh, the bliss of a kitten heel. Enough of a lift to add two inches of leg, which, not to tar the rest of you with my short brush, makes a significant difference. Enough “polish” (dreadful word, sorry) that you look “done” (again, yuck, but you know what I mean). And yet comfortable enough to wear all day, safe to cross the road at a clip when the lights are about to change without putting yourself in mortal peril, low-key enough that you don’t stimulate midlife crisis gossip in the office. What’s not to love?

Well, that’s exactly the problem. The kitten heel is a bit too nice. Too polite. It is easy and amenable, helpful and practical – the trophy shoe of duty, not dancefloors. (Not for nothing is it beloved of the royal family.) It lacks edge, which is exactly why the kitten heel fell from fashion favour a decade ago. And why its comeback, as declared by Vogue at the beginning of this year, is A Good Thing, but not quite as straightforward as you’d think.

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Dress to protest: why the Oscars red carpet is set for a revolution | Jess Cartner-Morley

February 26, 2017, 1:00 am

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The ceremony’s biggest political statements might come not from the podium, but on the catwalk outside, as the stars hit the campaign trail Hollywood cares about most

Hollywood has had a lot to say for itself recently. Meryl Streep, a 20-time Academy Award nominee, riled the Trump White House with her Golden Globes speech. Tom Ford, who directed Nocturnal Animals, refuses to dress the first lady. George Clooney says of Donald Trump: “I didn’t vote for him, I don’t support him, I don’t think he’s the right choice.” Natalie Portman, meanwhile, took to the podium at last month’s Women’s March in Los Angeles to call for a women’s revolution against the US president. Graydon Carter’s Vanity Fair, the publication of record for the west coast entertainment industry, has pulled no punches in its editorial attacks on Trump. In the new America, Hollywood has become the opposition.

As a result, this Oscars night could look unusual long before the speeches begin. The red carpet rivals the best picture announcement for the biggest part of Oscars night. This is a mufti moment for the actors – a rare chance to play themselves rather than their characters, to remind the public of their beauty or their magnetism or their sweetness, or whatever it is that gets their target audience on side – so what they wear matters.

The Oscars red carpet is a snapshot of our feminine ideal that has global reach. Even small recalibrations have meaning

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Who won the Oscars 2017 red carpet? Political upset is the new normal

February 27, 2017, 2:11 am

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In a charged year of firsts and surprises, stars came out in support for the ACLU, sealing-wax red gowns and plenty of statuette gold

Is the Oscars about style or substance? That was the question about this year’s ceremony. Would frothy La La Land prove that escapism triumphs over all, or would the Oscars play it serious by paying homage to Moonlight?

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Perfect fit: Luella Bartley joins Calvin Klein

February 27, 2017, 4:05 am

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British designer Bartley will blend her trademark London cool with the US brand’s progressive ideals and minimal aesthetic

Just when you thought the new Raf Simons-led Calvin Klein couldn’t get any cooler. Two weeks after a standout debut show at New York fashion week, the house announced the hire of beloved British fashion scene stalwart Luella Bartley as head of global design for Calvin Klein Jeans, the accessibly priced and denim-led part of the brand.

Bartley, along with Katie Hillier, is half of the cult Hillier Bartley label. But both Bartley and Hillier have a formidable track record bringing their London cool to more commercial brands: while Hillier has collaborated on accessories with everyone from Marc Jacobs and Joseph to Victoria Beckham to Asprey, Bartley is credited with the Gisele bag, which was a smash hit for Mulberry, and at Marc for Marc Jacobs designed an influential motocross-themed collection.

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The soft power silhouette: an hourglass for a new era

February 28, 2017, 9:57 am

≫ Next: What I wore this week: the wide-leg trouser | Jess Cartner-Morley

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From Gucci to Armani, fashion has drawn a wearable new shape – and redefined femininity for this age of female solidarity

In the spirit of nostalgia for the good old days before politics went berserk and dominated everything, today I bring you the Milan catwalks as good old-fashioned light relief. With all due respect to the pussy hats at Missoni, the headscarves at Max Mara and Alberta Ferretti, and the feminist slogans at Versace, we are now three quarters of the way through the month of fashion shows, and it seems to me high time we paid attention to what we are actually going to wear next season.

This is what next season looks like: it is a skirt or a dress that hugs the waist and is at its most fitted (while not skintight) from waist to hipbone, then swishes about a bit – possibly with a split, or a few pleats, or an asymmetric handkerchief hem – ending somewhere between the bottom of the knee and the ankle. Or it can be wide trousers, but cut so that they have the same feminine shape, with a high, fitted waist and a loose leg. The shoe probably has a bit of a heel, but it’s definitely a walkable height. It is not so high as to make the shoe the focal point of your look, but not so low as to make a shouty statement about flats, either.

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What I wore this week: the wide-leg trouser | Jess Cartner-Morley

March 3, 2017, 5:00 am

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You don’t have to be as tall as Karlie Kloss to pull off wide-leg trousers (but it helps)

When I write my memoir I’m thinking of calling it How To Survive In Fashion Without The Right Legs. The struggle is real, when the clothes you like all seem to have been designed with Karlie Kloss in mind. Karlie Kloss is six foot, of which substantially more than half is leg. She and I are different species.

This is not a problem unique to me. And neither is it just a miniskirt problem. Fashion’s current challenge to us norms is the wide-leg trouser. Nothing tricky about a wide-leg trouser, you might think – they are comfortable, they cover everything up – but that’s not how it works. You can’t conflate “comfortable” with “easy to wear”. Easy to wear is an outfit in which you can spend the day feeling confident about what you are wearing, not constrained or compromised by your clothes. Comfortable is a bathrobe. Completely different.

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Vivienne Westwood is the star of her own show at Paris fashion week

March 4, 2017, 9:37 am

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Designer makes catwalk debut modelling two looks from new collection designed by her husband, Andreas Kronthaler

Vivienne Westwood does not design the clothes on her catwalk any more, since she officially handed creative control to her husband, Andreas Kronthaler, last year.

But any Vivienne Westwood show is still very much the Vivienne Westwood show, and at Paris fashion week on Saturday it was she, not Kronthaler, who received a standing ovation when the designer made her catwalk debut modelling two looks from the collection.

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Paris fashion week: Balenciaga awes with grown-up chic collection

March 5, 2017, 10:50 am

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Creative director Demna Gvasalia leads the move to “cool and elegant”, while Céline champions architectural minimalism

“I want it to look cool and I want it to look elegant. Those are the most important qualities,” said designer Demna Gvasalia, talking about his new collection for Balenciaga, but he summed up the aesthetic of Paris fashion week.

The high-energy sportswear which dominated the catwalks last year is nowhere to be seen this season. Nor are the catwalks channelling trophy-wife luxury, hot-chick sex appeal, or boardroom power dressing. Cool and elegant grown-up chic is the only way to go.

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Fur flies as Stella McCartney unveils 'skin-free skin' in Paris

March 6, 2017, 4:16 am

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Designer and agitator for animal welfare showcases cruelty-free fashion in equestrian-inspired autumn collection

A few minutes after her catwalk show had finished, Stella McCartney was discussing the collection backstage when she was interrupted by photographers demanding a photo opportunity with her famous front row guests.

Valuable though these images are to her brand, McCartney stood her ground. “No, this is important,” she said, turning her back to the cameras to continue explaining how she hoped the jackets and shoes on her catwalk could challenge the role of leather in luxury fashion.

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Goodbye to teenage kicks: in a ridiculous world, fashion gets serious

March 7, 2017, 5:07 am

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This week in Paris, designers reclaimed fashion for adult women with barely a Hadid sister – or a crop top – in sight

During the month of fashion shows, which finish today in Paris, there has been a lot of style news – but not much of it has been about where designers stand on hemlines or the catwalk’s prevailing wind towards knee-high boots. Instead, we have talked about pink pussy hats and slogan T-shirts, Ralph Lauren and Melania Trump, retail’s tussles with Ivanka, sexist dress codes, headscarves and the drive toward diverse model casting.

Well, of course we have. But it would be stupid not to look at the fashion content of the catwalk collections as well. Stupid is a strong word; I use it deliberately. Yes, this feels like a moment for direct action, and therefore slogan T-shirts resonate. But the fashion that happens on the catwalk – shifts in silhouette and mood and tone; opaque references and obtuse proposals about what to wear – is how fashion engages with the world around it in a more subtle sense. And fashion has more to say about the female experience than you can fit on a T-shirt.

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In Paris, Chanel lights the rocket under a new space race

March 7, 2017, 5:16 am

≫ Next: Gigi Hadid makes Zayn Malik her muse for Versace

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A 35-metre-tall rocket that lifted off the pad at the Grand Palais at the climax of Paris fashion week was a reminder that no one can match Karl Lagerfeld for blockbuster creative firepower

Space travel stands for many things – the future, bravery, wonder, touching the very edges of what it means to be human – but, on the last day of Paris fashion week, what it represented above all was supremacy. Just as the space race was a way for superpowers to flex their muscles with the world watching, a 35-metre-tall rocket – which launched 10 metres into the air – was Karl Lagerfeld’s way of reminding the audience that no one in fashion can match Chanel for blockbuster creative firepower. Lagerfeld remains the master of this universe.

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Gigi Hadid makes Zayn Malik her muse for Versace

March 8, 2017, 7:01 am

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Confirmation that, in the Instagram age, the model has become the photographer. And that’s good news

Donatella Versace has hired supermodel Gigi Hadid and her pop star boyfriend Zayn Malik to be the stars of the new Versus campaign. So far, so standard. Except Hadid is behind the camera.

The star of the Victoria’s Secret catwalk, model-who-goes-out-with-a-pop-star is subverting a few passive-pretty-girl cliches in this campaign. In her only cameo, all that is visible are her high-heeled boots as she stands astride the bare-chested figure of her boyfriend, who is gazing submissively down a Chateau Marmont bed. She’s the creative, he’s the muse.

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What I wore this week: a tomboy dress

March 10, 2017, 4:59 am

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This is a season when women who don’t necessarily normally do dresses can do dresses

This season, if you want to do feminine and graceful, you wear trousers (wide-legged, extra-long) and if you want to look tough and all-action, you wear a dress. No, you heard me right. Wait, you got the memo about this being the age of gender fluidity, right?

This, as a result, is a season when women who don’t necessarily normally do dresses can do dresses. I’m going to go with “tomboy dress” as a phrase. Tomboy dresses can be sporty like this one, fastened with oversized ringpulls instead of buttons, or drawstrings instead of sash belts. These are not so much a new take on the dress, as the final frontier of athleisure. The aesthetic of the gym, having already attained ultimate wardrobe-creep by coming to define pre-6pm wear on non-working days, now has designs on what you wear to work.

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Raise your game: how to elevate your wardrobe

March 14, 2017, 10:57 am

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This season, the high street is the place to go for that single, game-changing item to help transform your outfit. Welcome to the age of inexpensive It purchases

What is an elevator piece? It could be a fabulous tasselled earring. It could be a shirt with corset lacing at the waist or a sweater with ribbon ties at the cuff. It isn’t any one thing to buy, in fact, so much as a whole new way to shop. It is a one-click shortcut, the single game-changer item that lifts the rest of your look.

I know what you’re thinking: blah blah, It bags, investment dressing, statement purchases. Heard it all before, love. Well, actually, no. The point about the elevator piece is that it doesn’t have to be expensive. All these picks are from the high street. The elevator piece brings added value not in its label, but in its fashion content. Welcome to the age of the Inexpensive It purchase.

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Gritty in pink: reclaiming fashion's most controversial colour

March 15, 2017, 5:57 am

≫ Next: What I wore this week: a sweatshirt tucked into jeans | Jess Cartner-Morley

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Pretty, unthreatening, demure? Not any more. Loved by Gucci, modern feminists and men, in these post-gender days, pink has gone rogue

Gravadlax. Rose quartz. Calamine. Taffy. Watermelon. Elastoplast. No, it’s not the world’s most esoteric shopping list, but the colours you need in your wardrobe this season. The names are bewildering, but the message is clear: this season is about pink. But not as you know it.

When this spring’s collections hit the catwalks last September, New York’s post-punk, rave-referencing Marc Jacobs stirred controversy, with the flamingo- and fuchsia-coloured dreadlocks worn by Kendall Jenner and the Hadid sisters, sparking a row about cultural appropriation. Next came London, where milliner Stephen Jones dreamed up outsize pirate hats to match Ryan Lo’s Venetian harlequin-printed jumpsuits in fuchsia satin.

The colour is as likely to be seen in a menswear collection as it is in the little girls’ party dress department

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What I wore this week: a sweatshirt tucked into jeans | Jess Cartner-Morley

March 17, 2017, 6:00 am

≫ Next: Maria Grazia Chiuri on fashion, feminism and Dior: ‘You must fight for your ideas’

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I’m not going to lie, this one is a challenge. I tried a style I’d seen on Miranda Kerr. I looked like Napoleon Dynamite

Time was, you would no more deliberately tuck your sweatshirt into your jeans than tuck your skirt into your knickers. Sweatshirts were all about laid-back cool, while tucking in was for teachers’ pets and Simon Cowell. Well, all change. Tucking your sweatshirt into your jeans is to now what shoulder-robing was to last autumn, and what popping the collar of your jacket was to the year before.

I am a big fan of a free styling hack. It can alter your look as dramatically as a new handbag, which represents a significant saving at today’s prices. But I’m not going to lie, this one is a challenge. I tried it with a white sweatshirt and high-waisted skinny jeans, a look I’d seen on Miranda Kerr. I looked like Napoleon Dynamite.

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Maria Grazia Chiuri on fashion, feminism and Dior: ‘You must fight for your ideas’

March 18, 2017, 1:02 am

≫ Next: Curated ears and chunky rings: welcome to the new age of jewellery

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Dior’s new creative director – the first female in its 70-year history to hold the post – is fascinated by modern women and how she can reflect their lives in the clothes she makes

It is Christian Dior who gazes down gravely from the portrait in oils, whose dresses are in the silver-framed photographs that sit at an elegant slant beneath the white orchids, and whose name is stamped in distinctive sharp-serifed font on the reception desk at Dior HQ on Rue de Marignan. But the living, breathing creative force of today’s Christian Dior, who darts in shaking the rain out of her tousled bob, is a woman. What’s more, Maria Grazia Chiuri is nothing like the full-skirted, doe-eyed figure whose image is conjured up by the name Dior. She wears a black sheepskin coat, flat buckled black shoes and black trousers with a Mod-sharp crease.

When you are a woman making clothes for women, fashion is not just about how you look, but how you feel and think

It is impossible to work in fashion now if you don’t try to understand the new world

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Curated ears and chunky rings: welcome to the new age of jewellery

March 19, 2017, 3:01 am

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Forget everything you thought you knew about earrings, bracelets and pendants – the bijouterie rulebook has been rewritten for spring/summer 2017

Diamonds are no longer a girl’s best friend. Women who once wore double strands of pearls now have multiple ear piercings. Silver and gold go together. Welcome to the new age of jewellery.

Don’t worry. This is not one of those “There are no rules, just be yourself!” articles. We all know those are a lie, right? There are always rules. Fashion is about making it clear that you know them. Nailing this season’s look – be it the right trainers, modern brow arch or correct number of buttons done up on your shirt – says to the world: I know what’s up. You walk into a room and, before you even speak, your message is clear. “Modern life? I’ve got this.”

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How the phone case became the most important part of your wardrobe

March 21, 2017, 11:31 am

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This year’s must-have accessory isn’t a handbag, it’s a Louis Vuitton phone case – sealing a trend that speaks volumes about our selfie-obsessed times

At this exact moment, which of the following is closest to your person: your wallet, your keys, or your phone?

The answer is most likely your phone. They have become the things we are never parted from; they are the things that most quickly induce bag-scrabbling panic if they momentarily disappear from our eyeline. So it is only logical that this year’s It accessory isn’t a handbag, but a phone case.

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