Ralph Lauren brings his Caribbean beach house to Manhattan

February 12, 2018, 11:53 am

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Reassuringly familiar style on show, though aesthetic edges towards parody at times

Ralph Lauren is shorthand for a lifestyle. The fashion empire of the 91st richest American is built on selling a tastefully expensive American dream. So as an escapist fantasy from a chilly New York fashion week, Ralph Lauren recreated a vignette of his own holiday home in Montego Bay in a cavernous former rail depot in downtown Manhattan.

In front of an audience which included the actors Katie Holmes and Hilary Swank, the catwalk descended from the deck of a wooden beach house with white shutters, cane furniture, hurricane lamps and porthole mirrors.

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Fuchsia pink, leopard print and ‘Pussy Power’ bags: is this what female empowerment looks like?

February 13, 2018, 7:59 am

≫ Next: What I wore this week: a turtle neck

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New York fashion week gave us some edgy, interesting trends, from Victoria Beckham’s shaped leather dresses to Alexander Wang’s wet-look belted coat. But does championing a cause always make for brilliant fashion?

I learned a new word at New York fashion week: gynarchy. I had to look it up; it means rule by women. Designer Prabal Gurung chose it to sum up his show, where sarong-inspired draping in pinks and reds referred, he said backstage, to the matriarchal Mosuo tribe of China, and to northern India’s Gulabi Gang, all-female vigilantes fighting against abuse and oppression of women. The same day, Diane von Furstenberg said at her presentation that “with everything that’s happening with women right now, I personally am more committed than ever to the empowerment of women … the DVF woman through the generations has always been about a woman being in charge.” Jonathan Simkhai, meanwhile, took inspiration from portraits of suffragettes. “This moment seems particularly relevant now, when the inner strength of so many women has been at the forefront of our American consciousness,” he explained.

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What I wore this week: a turtle neck

February 16, 2018, 5:00 am

≫ Next: Anti-fur protests set to fly as activists target London fashion week

≪ Previous: Fuchsia pink, leopard print and ‘Pussy Power’ bags: is this what female empowerment looks like?

The polo neck can’t stay in fashion for ever, so prepare for the inevitable with this sleeker, sportier alternative

What did we wear before polo necks were a thing? It gives me neck chills just thinking about it. A cravat? Seems unlikely, but I cannot honestly remember. I have worn a polo neck, either by itself or as a base layer under a shirt or dress, pretty much every other day this winter and last and the one before that. A polo neck is cosy without being bulky, modern without being mannered. It just works.

At some point, the polo neck will be over and I need to prepare myself for this eventuality. It will fade from favour, slip down the ratings from on-point to passable until we reach the day when bumping into someone you know while wearing one is borderline awks. Like getting spotted in Uggs. (A dog comes in handy here. Seriously, you can get away with wearing any old tat if you are walking a dog. A year and a half into dog ownership, I can report confidently that even if you look like you styled your outfit while escaping a burning building, no one will judge you if you have got a cockapoo with you. I don’t know why this is. It is not like a dog gets to spring a walk on you. Anyway.)

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Anti-fur protests set to fly as activists target London fashion week

February 16, 2018, 9:55 am

≫ Next: Christopher Bailey bows out from Burberry under a bold rainbow

≪ Previous: What I wore this week: a turtle neck

Animal rights campaigners plan largest demonstrations in decade as designers move away from fur

Boosted by the vogue for veganism, animal rights activists plan to target London fashion week this weekend with the largest fur protests seen at the event in a decade. Ed Winters, the co-director of Surge, which orchestrated anti-fur demonstrations that attractedmore than 250 people in September, a rise from 120 the previous catwalk season and 25 in September 2016, said “we expect those numbers to continually rise” .

There is, however, unlikely to be much fur on the catwalks. Over 90% of designers taking part in LFW have confirmed to the British Fashion Council (BFC) that they will not be using fur. But research by the University of Copenhagen reports retail sales of fur in the UK in 2016 were £162m, up 350% from 2011, as inexpensive real fur has become commonplace in fast fashion.

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Christopher Bailey bows out from Burberry under a bold rainbow

February 17, 2018, 4:04 pm

≫ Next: Designer label Preen launches collection starting at just 65p

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An adventurous last show from the form-breaking British designer who reinvented Burberry

For 17 years at Burberry, Christopher Bailey has rejoiced in rain. It is, after all, both quintessential British weather and the perfect setting for a trenchcoat. But for his last catwalk show for London Fashion Week’s biggest brand, the sun came out and Bailey’s reign ended beneath a rainbow.

The show opened with Adwoa Aboah in rainbow stripes on a white silk skirt and closed with Cara Delevingne under a rainbow fake fur coat. Puffa jackets and hi-top trainers came with rainbow stripes, and a trenchcoat and a blanket cape in a technicolour version of the distinctive beige check. This season the Burberry check is rainbow-hued, a symbol of the firm’s financial support for LGBTQ+ charities.

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Designer label Preen launches collection starting at just 65p

February 18, 2018, 7:06 am

≫ Next: Blackout on the red carpet: ‘best dressed’ a non-issue at Baftas

≪ Previous: Christopher Bailey bows out from Burberry under a bold rainbow

Catwalk label’s postage stamp collection features Finella dress worn by Duchess of Cambridge

Preen, the catwalk label designed by the husband and wife team Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi and worn by the Duchess of Cambridge and Gwyneth Paltrow, has launched London fashion week’s most affordable collection, with prices starting at just 65p.

However, the bargain buys are the size of a postage stamp – literally. A six-stamp collection celebrating 20 years of the brand has been issued by the Isle of Man, where both Thornton and Bregazzi grew up. The first-class stamp features the red Finella dress worn by the duchess on a royal tour of Canada. The bodycon “Power Dress” that first made the label famous is honoured on another of the stamps.

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Blackout on the red carpet: ‘best dressed’ a non-issue at Baftas

February 18, 2018, 12:40 pm

≫ Next: London fashion week storms the palace (and the galleries)

≪ Previous: Designer label Preen launches collection starting at just 65p

Women dress in black to turn awards ceremony spotlight from clothes to the fight for equality

• Baftas red carpet: from Angelina Jolie to Lupita Nyong’o – in pictures

The red carpet was a less colourful place at this year’s Baftas than it used to be, but a much more vibrant and interesting one.

An open letter signed by 190 actors had called on women in the film industry to wear black and to “use our power as communicators and connectors to shift the way society sees and treats us. We need to examine the kind of womanhood our industry promotes and sells to the world.” The all-black dress code was followed by almost all attendees – though the most high-profile woman of all, the Duchess of Cambridge, was a notable exception in a dark olive gown.

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London fashion week storms the palace (and the galleries)

February 19, 2018, 11:05 am

≫ Next: From rainbow stripes to high-tide trousers: eight styles rules from London fashion week

≪ Previous: Blackout on the red carpet: ‘best dressed’ a non-issue at Baftas

Buckingham Palace showcases Commonwealth talent as Erdem portrays ruling-class glamour

Erdem snaked a catwalk through the National Portrait Gallery, Christopher Kane commandeered Tate Britain, Jasper Conran hosted his guests at Claridge’s, but the contest for most glamorous venue for London fashion week was over the moment the Duchess of Cambridge sent out invitations for a reception for the Commonwealth fashion industry at Buckingham Palace.

Monday evening’s event was in honour not of a single star name, but of the scope of design talent and craftsmanship across the Commonwealth. Fashion labels including Burberry and Stella McCartney, as well as New Zealand designer Karen Walker and Bibi Russell from Bangladesh, were partnered with craftspeople from countries with which they had never previously worked and challenged to make a collaborative dress. From the palace, the dresses will travel to Australia House, where a public exhibition will be curated by Vogue’s Hamish Bowles.

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From rainbow stripes to high-tide trousers: eight styles rules from London fashion week

February 20, 2018, 8:27 am

≫ Next: What I wore this week: lilac | Jess Cartner-Morley

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The twice-yearly celebration of style finishes today. Having taken in five days of catwalks, we outline everything you need to know about next season’s trends

With the red carpet blackout sweeping the board at the Baftas as well as the Golden Globes, the colour you wear is now a political statement. The only combination more woke than black? The rainbow.

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What I wore this week: lilac | Jess Cartner-Morley

February 23, 2018, 5:00 am

≫ Next: Dior delivers 1960s feminism to a new generation in Paris

≪ Previous: From rainbow stripes to high-tide trousers: eight styles rules from London fashion week

For the next six months, at least, a colour that has recently been confined to National Trust gift shops will be on every shop floor

Context is all, Margaret Atwood wrote. I couldn’t agree more. I mean, I wouldn’t even make a decision as to which earrings to wear without looking in a full-length mirror. Possibly that wasn’t exactly the point she was making, but still.

When you wear a colour, context can change everything. If you wear a white dress to someone else’s wedding, or a gold dress when everyone else is on a red carpet blackout, then context is definitely all. Whether it is in or out of fashion alters our perception of a colour. Wearing pink used to signify girliness; the rise of millennial pink means that it is now a unisex choice, but puts you firmly in the Snapchat generation.

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Dior delivers 1960s feminism to a new generation in Paris

February 27, 2018, 10:32 am

≫ Next: Paris: nerves abound at first Lanvin show under Chinese owner

≪ Previous: What I wore this week: lilac | Jess Cartner-Morley

Maria Grazia Chiuri continues theme of female empowerment but with a more tomboyish edge

Maria Grazia Chiuri, the first female designer of Christian Dior, has a specific idea as to her role in the new wave of feminism. Fashion, she believes, represents the public face of femininity. “My job as a designer is to create the wardrobe for the image that women want to portray of themselves,” she said backstage at Musée Rodin, after a show which opened Paris fashion week. “We have to listen to women, to hear what is the point of view of women now, of the new generation.”

It is four seasons since Grazia Chiuri’s opening gambit as Dior designer was a T-shirt reading “We should all be feminists”, and the cry is as loud as ever. The venue for the latest show, an ultra-modern boxed marquee in the museum garden, was papered inside and out with slogans of female empowerment, such as “Women’s rights are human rights”, slapped on top of vintage magazine covers.

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Paris: nerves abound at first Lanvin show under Chinese owner

February 28, 2018, 8:20 am

≫ Next: Shockwaves in Paris as Riccardo Tisci named new Burberry designer

≪ Previous: Dior delivers 1960s feminism to a new generation in Paris

Did designer Olivier Lapidus do enough to keep his job at France’s oldest fashion house?

Lanvin, the oldest surviving house in French fashion, took to the Paris catwalk on Wednesday for its first outing since being bought by Fosun, the Chinese conglomerate that also owns Club Med.

The deal is significant at Paris fashion week, where most heritage brands are still owned by French-based groups. It is the highest-profile fashion acquisition to date for the Chinese group, which also owns a stake in the American firm St John Knits. Fosun has assets estimated at $75bn (£54bn), and is expected to invest about €100m (£88m) in a bid to restore the house, founded by Jeanne Lanvin 129 years ago, to its former glory.

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Shockwaves in Paris as Riccardo Tisci named new Burberry designer

March 1, 2018, 2:48 am

≫ Next: An ode to the 70s at Natacha Ramsay-Levi's sophomore Chloé collection

≪ Previous: Paris: nerves abound at first Lanvin show under Chinese owner

Appointment of Italian creative at the traditionally British brand hints at a radical turnaround plan

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An ode to the 70s at Natacha Ramsay-Levi's sophomore Chloé collection

March 1, 2018, 8:15 am

≫ Next: Loewe aspires to be the thinking woman's favourite in Paris

≪ Previous: Shockwaves in Paris as Riccardo Tisci named new Burberry designer

In just two seasons, the Louis Vuitton alumnus has made taking on a heritage house look easy

“The frustrated desires of the bourgeoisie” was how Natacha Ramsay-Levi described the mood of her sophomore collection for Chloé. The just-below-the-surface simmer of insouciant sex appeal is what Paris fashion week sells. (For the more in-your-face version, take a look at Milan.)

It is a mark of her talent that Ramsay-Levi has made nailing the Chloe house style in just two seasons look easy. After a debut show that paid direct homage to the chic looks of founder Gaby Aghion, this second season continued to play to all the label’s strengths, but was more focussed on one trend: the 70s.

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Loewe aspires to be the thinking woman's favourite in Paris

March 2, 2018, 6:10 am

≫ Next: The Oscars' rainbow moment: fashion's colourful stand for change

≪ Previous: An ode to the 70s at Natacha Ramsay-Levi's sophomore Chloé collection

Designer Jonathan Anderson makes a grab for sophisticated terrain occupied by Céline

Into the gap left at Paris fashion week by the departure of Phoebe Philo from Céline, enter Loewe. Philo’s successor, Hedi Slimane, is soon to begin work on his new-look Celine, to be unveiled in September. But in Paris another British designer, Jonathan Anderson– born in Northern Ireland, based in Dalston, feted in Paris – made a decisive grab for the hallowed ground occupied by Céline, the fashionista’s favourite label.

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The Oscars' rainbow moment: fashion's colourful stand for change

March 5, 2018, 1:11 am

≫ Next: The return of gritty chic: what the Paris shows mean for our wardrobes

≪ Previous: Loewe aspires to be the thinking woman's favourite in Paris

Not all protests have to be monochrome. Film stars struck blows for feminism at the Academy Awards in dresses of pink, gold, red, yellow … and furry slippers

For once, the most memorable image of women at the Oscars wasn’t a youthful beauty smiling nervously on the red carpet or weeping glittery tears of gratitude while clutching a statuette. It was best actress winner Frances McDormand, who skipped the red carpet part of the evening entirely, having the female nominees in all categories get to their feet. Mudbound cinematographer Rachel Morrison and costume designer Jacqueline Durran, nominated twice in her category for Darkest Hour and Beauty and the Beast, stood alongside directing nominee Greta Gerwig and actor Margot Robbie. McDormand was in gold, Meryl Streep in red, Saoirse Ronan baby pink, Gerwig in yellow. The four other nominees in McDormand’s category shared a hug. There was no blackout tonight, but this rainbow was the next best thing.

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The return of gritty chic: what the Paris shows mean for our wardrobes

March 6, 2018, 10:00 am

≫ Next: Gender equality takes centre stage for Louis Vuitton show

≪ Previous: The Oscars' rainbow moment: fashion's colourful stand for change

From black leather to sharp blazers, the autumn shows in the French capital have a direct impact on what we wear. Prepare to subtly shift your wardrobe from sweet to sleek

I am not going to tell you about any of the most exciting things that happened at Paris fashion week. I have nothing to say about Bananarama singing He Was Really Saying Something as a live accompaniment to the glitter-bombed finale of the Sonia Rykiel show. Zero hot takes on fashion’s ongoing love-in with Stranger Things, which saw 15-year-old actor Sadie Sink (Max in the second series) make her catwalk debut for Japanese streetwear label Undercover. I am even going to spare you my first-person account of the hype-gone-wild scrum outside Virgil Abloh’s Off-White show, even though I have a purple bruise on my leg from being knocked to the ground. You will notice from the photos that I have deliberately not picked out the Insta-bait activist-chic slogans at Balenciaga or Christian Dior.

Let’s forget all of that, and focus on what Paris fashion week means for what we are going to wear. There is so much to see at fashion week that this can be obscured, but it is – surely – still kind of the point. Fashion weeks should inform you about whether you need to persevere with socks and sandals (spoiler alert: no) and whether the midi-skirt hemline has sufficient legs to justify buying another one (yes). It should give you a steer on the pieces to dig out of storage (anything in black leather) and the quick-win accessories that will keep your look current (oversized earrings). I am as intrigued by the possible future directions for fashion suggested by flight-of-fancy catwalk and front-row antics as anyone, but I also need to find out whether next season is about a rounded or pointed toe before I buy any more shoes.

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Gender equality takes centre stage for Louis Vuitton show

March 6, 2018, 1:52 pm

≫ Next: The Fashion - hair eartuck

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Nicolas Ghesquière’s ‘quintessentially French’ show in Paris was an old-school catwalk masterclass

On the last night of a month of fashion weeks, Hollywood decamped to Paris for the Louis Vuitton catwalk show. Emma Stone arrived fresh from the Oscars along with fellow actors Sienna Miller, Michelle Williams and Jaden Smith.

The clothes were “quintessentially French”, said designer Nicolas Ghesquière after the show, which repurposed the sculpture galleries of the Louvre as a catwalk. “I looked back to the French women who surrounded me when I was growing up. The women who taught me to be the person I am today. There is a particularity to French women, and this is quite a strict collection, I think.”

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The Fashion - hair eartuck

March 7, 2018, 12:00 am

≫ Next: What I wore this week: a pencil skirt | Jess Cartner-Morley

≪ Previous: Gender equality takes centre stage for Louis Vuitton show

Simple, nuanced and just the tiniest bit nerdy. There’s only one way to wear your hair this season – and it doesn’t involve a blow-dry

• Read more from the spring/summer 2018 edition of The Fashion, our biannual fashion supplement

“It’s such a dorky thing to do. Like you can’t find your alice band and you’ve got to do your maths homework.” Tilly Macalister-Smith, a British fashion writer based in New York as director of content for DVF, is talking about the power beauty move of the moment: tucking your hair behind your ears. Forget twice-weekly blow-dries, dip-powder manicures and dragons’ blood sheet masks. The beauty hack of the season is literally at your fingertips. Hook your hair behind an ear or two and you’re good to go.

Tucked-behind-the-ears hair boils down to practicality. Which is precisely why it is in vogue now

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What I wore this week: a pencil skirt | Jess Cartner-Morley

March 9, 2018, 5:00 am

≫ Next: Déjà you? The rise of the five-year trend

≪ Previous: The Fashion - hair eartuck

This is a skirt you can develop a proper crush on

I would do a kneeslide across the room, if that were a physical possibility in this outfit. It’s not, but that’s how happy I am about the return of the pencil skirt. I have grown very fond of the floaty midi skirts I’ve spent the last few years wearing both on these pages and off. They are marvellous, those skirts. Comfortable in every season, appropriate for any scenario. They behave themselves, never show you up, never let you down. They have done me proud. So I feel kind of bad admitting this, but if I’m being brutally honest, I don’t think it was ever true love.

A pencil skirt, though. It’s just… different. This is a skirt you can develop a proper crush on. This is a skirt you resist buying the first time you see it in a shop window, find yourself thinking about and then, before you know it, stalking online. A pencil skirt can raise eyebrows, it can make you miss your train. A good pencil skirt is just the right amount of wrong.

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