How Celine Dion showed us the life-enhancing power of fashion in 2017

How Celine Dion showed us the life-enhancing power of fashion in 2017
f the role of a stylist is to simply hunt and gather outfits for a money-rich, time-poor client, then Law Roach has gone above and beyond his duty this year. Under his watch, Céline Dion, the stadium-filling singer who had stuck to an often unexciting, occasionally cheesy sense of style since she wore that backwards white tuxedo and tilted hat to the Grammys in 1998, has become Vogue’s unlikely new darling - at the age of 49.
The phenomenon was crystallised at July’s Paris Couture Week, where Dion sat front row next to US Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and was photographed for the brand wearing outfits by Gucci, Dior and Giambattista Valli - a first for the Québécois artist, who released her first single 22 years ago.
While it may have looked like a sudden introduction to the fashion world, Dion and Roach have actually been planning the ascent for a year, testing the water in acid...
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Meghan Markle joins royal family

Meghan Markle joins royal family for Christmas lunch and her outfit of choice sells out
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been photographed on their way to a royal family Christmas Lunch at Buckingham Palace, joining the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as well as other members of the family at the Queen’s request.
While the only images of Markle in her Self-Portrait nightshade midi dress were from the car, meaning we only got a glimpse of her well-coiffed hair and lace neckline, the dress is now sold out online.
With guipure lace detailing on the bodice and a grosgrain waistband leading into a solid crepe A-line skirt in black, the look is simply perfect for lunching with the Queen and Christmas festivities.
Markle will spend Christmas Day with the royal family, having reportedly been invited to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Anmer Hall home in Norfolk for the season and a spokesman for Kensington Palace confirming we “can expect to see the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry and Ms Markle on Christmas Day.”
The royal family traditionally spends Christmas in Norfolk celebrating at Sandringham House with the Queen and Prince Phillip before taking on royal duties on the 25th.
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Baby, It’s Cold Outside!

Baby, It’s Cold Outside! Wrap Yourself in One of These Straight-Off-the-Runway Blankets
More than anything this holiday break, we’re looking forward to sinking into the couch and staying there. Too bad, then, that we have to get up from our hibernation burrow to 1) attend family dinners, 2) help cook said dinners, 3) visit a relative who lives an hour away in the middle of nowhere, and 4) wait in line to buy Star Wars tickets with a nerdy cousin.
Just in time, fashion has bestowed upon us a true Christmas miracle. The soft, warm house blankets on the Fall runways are finally available to buy and wear. Yes, wrapping a blanket normally reserved for the couch or bed around your shoulders is an acceptable—no, chic—style choice at the moment.
Take Phoebe Philo’s Céline blanket as a prime example. The brightly colored wool throw can be draped over one shoulder, or both, to add a bit of hygge (a Danish word that translates to “cozy”) to a sleek suit or dress. The American flag quilt from Calvin Klein will give a patriotic pop to a simple sweater and jeans, while the Louis Vuitton version is perfect for a lazy logo-maniac. Whatever your off-the-couch and out-of-bed style may be, the point is that it’s time to embrace the idea of taking your security blanket with you. Nobody wants to venture out into the cold, but at least now we can look good while doing so.
Here are 12 of the most wearable blankets to throw on and go.
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Inside Julie Macklowe’s 40th Birthday Bash at La Goulue

Inside Julie Macklowe’s 40th Birthday Bash at La Goulue
New Yorkers are all about two things: food and real estate. And last night, those worlds converged as luxury skin care entrepreneur Julie Macklowe hosted her 40th birthday bash in grand fashion at a revived Upper East Side dining staple, La Goulue. Inside the reopened space, guests including Coralie and Dennis Paul, Aby and Samantha Rosen, and David and Libby Mugrabi sipped on cocktails, watched festively clad dancers, and nibbled on delectable bites from the French boîte. Afterward, everyone let their hair down and boogied late into the night to tracks spun by Questlove while a Flour Shop cake was a sweet punctuation to the evening.
If we’ve learned anything from 2017’s wild and wacky fashion, it’s to expect the unexpected. Austere minimalism went out the window in favor of a magpie-like love of glitz, glamour, and granny-chic style. Artists outpaced musicians as the coolest collaborators. And a new crop of models brought their outsize personalities to the catwalks in New York, London, Milan, and Paris.
Even in this time of change, we’re putting our money on nine trends that will dominate fashion in 2018. And if they don’t, well, don’t worry—we’ll be the first to tell you.
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How a fashion buyer nails personal style

How a fashion buyer nails personal style
Candice Fragis is the 37-year-old buying and merchandising director for online fashion retailer Farfetch, which means her job is, effectively, to shop for a living. As she's perfected the art of buying pieces we'll all want to buy too, Fragis has also picked up plenty of pointers for curating a personal look which is as bold as it is is bespoke.
Here, she offers her tips...
Avoid trends when buying staples
''I look to designers to buy my investment pieces like outerwear, knitwear and evening wear and I avoid anything too trend-focussed, because these are the pieces with which you build your wardrobe,'' Fragis explains. ''Where as if I'm looking for something that's trend-led, I think the high street does a great job with that.''
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Adriana Lima posts cryptic

Adriana Lima posts cryptic message about body positivity and unfollows the VS Angels on Instagram
As far as Victoria’s Secret Angels come, Adriana Lima is officially the queen. Since walking her first Victoria’s Secret show in 1999 at age 18 and going on to walk every year since (that’s a whopping 18 shows to date), Lima is officially the longest serving Angel in VS history.
So it comes as no surprise that her latest Instagram post has got fans talking due to its out-of-character admission from the supermodel.
Posting to her 11.5 million followers, the mother-of-two shared a cryptic message discussing everything from body positivity to the pressures of being a woman, going on to detail a “sexy video” she was meant to appear in, but pulled out of after “something had changed in me”.
“Even though I have done many of this type, something had changed in me, when a friend approached me to share that she was unhappy with her body, then it made me think.... that everyday in my life, I wake up thinking, how do I look? Was I going to be accepted in my job? And in that moment I realized that majority of woman probably wake up every morning trying to fit in a stereotype that society/socialmedia/fashion etc imposed.... i thought that’s not a way of living and beyond that.... that’s not physically and mentally healthy, so I decided to make that change..... I will not take of my clothes anymore for a empty cause…..” she wrote.
In the photo post above the text, a message (presumably penned also by Lima) talks of the “unfair” and “superficial” values imposed on women, promising for the change to start with her. “I will start with me. I refuse to embrace that. I am next to you. And I will stand by you. Let’s fucking change the world,” she wrote.
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THE SPRING SUMMER 2018 TRENDS YOU SHOULD WEAR THIS PARTY SEASON

THE SPRING SUMMER 2018 TRENDS YOU SHOULD WEAR THIS PARTY SEASON
Head-to-toe sequins, the return of the '80s LBD and ruffles upon ruffles-this year, fashion became decidedly fun again and the SS18 runways were chock-full of looks destined for party season.
In a year where optimism, femininity and an interacting multiplicity of colours converged, designers appeared to be making the case for really getting dressed up again.
Statement earrings, embellished shoes and evening-wear appropriate pantsuits-it only takes a cursory glance at the runways to see that, en masse, tastemakers have embraced glamour again.
With all things maximalist in full swing, there has never been a better time to embrace sartorial extravagance.
Here are the spring summer '18 trends you'll be wearing this party season.
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The fashion word of 2017 has been revealed & it'll make you want to fist pump

The fashion word of 2017 has been revealed & it'll make you want to fist pump
When you think of fashion in 2017 what word springs to mind? 'Comme des Garçon' in honour of the Met Gala perhaps? '80s' in honour of the era's influence, maybe? 'Rihanna' possibly, because of well, Rihanna?
Well thanks to the whizz kids at global fashion search platform Lyst, the fashion word of 2017 has been announced. Can you guess it?
Power. Yes, 'power' is the fashion word of 2017.
We're guessing it has something to do with the rise of power dressing; power suits, power shoulders and power proportions are all fashion phrases that we've been using a lot this year.
Lyst analysed thousands of online editorial articles from 2017 to find the most used fashion words of the year. They analysed text from over 30,000 articles written over the course of 2017, across 100 different online fashion and lifestyle publications. The articles were broken down into their 8,610,630 component words to scale of the most important words of the year.
Following 'power' in second is 'woke' (LOL), in third is statement (we get it), and fourth is floral (hardly groundbreaking).
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Kanye West proves you don't need fashion week if you have Kim Kardashian West

Kanye West proves you don't need fashion week if you have Kim Kardashian West
Unfortunately for Yeezy fans Kanye West decided to opt out of fashion week in September but that’s not to say the brand hasn’t been working on a marketing plan.
Tapping his wife, the world’s most famous reality TV star, Kim Kardashian West has been busy walking about Los Angeles in her Yeezy finest. According to E! News Kardashian West wore nine Yeezy season 6 outfits in one day – that’s got to be some kind of record – and was snapped every time by the ever-present paparazzi.
It seems Kardashian West gave herself the ultimate challenge - wear nine Yeezy outfits in the space of 24-hours and see if the world notices, which obviously we did. Considering Kardashian West is one of the most-photographed women in the world, it makes sense to debut a clothing line on her and let the world shop the look via the images.
The range includes taupe, brown, grey and washed-out black shades, with Kardashian West showing off crop tops, leggings, bike shorts, caps and sports bras from the collection.
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ALEXA CHUNG'S 'HOT ONES' EPISODE IS 24 MINUTES OF FASHION-NERD DELIGHT

ALEXA CHUNG'S 'HOT ONES' EPISODE IS 24 MINUTES OF FASHION-NERD DELIGHT
In this house, we at Fashionista very healthily worship Alexa Chung, and have since at least 2009, when the then-26-year-old "It" Brit moved to New York to host MTV's "It's On With Alexa Chung." We've chronicled the ebbs and flows of her career with as much precision as we have the designers of major fashion houses, from her Longchamp campaigns to her book launches to her makeup lines to, most recently, her eponymous fashion brand.
You can imagine our delight, then, when we learned late last month that Chung had joined host Sean Evans on an upcoming episode of First We Feast's "Hot Ones," in which Evans interviews guests while eating progressively spicier chicken wings. (In the interests of journalistic integrity, we should report that Chung, who is a vegetarian, ate vegan nuggets.) Well, my friends, patience is a virtue, and that episode is finally here!
As it turns out, Evans is an enormous Chung fan himself, telling her at the start of the interview that "Hot Ones" is partly based on work she did in her early career, even going so far as to call her the "patron saint" of the episode. And, we get it: Chung is an excellent interviewer herself, but as per our speculation, she's also an excellent interviewee, using her 24 minutes of air time to rehash some of her more enlightening life experiences, like getting fired from a DJ set by Kate Moss at a Fendi party and feeling "like a piece of shit" having to corral celebrities while hosting the Golden Globes red carpet in 2011. At one point, Evans asked about the one thing that's "really as bad in the fashion industry as everyone says it is," to which the former model replies, "photographers being creepy," explaining: "It's always a little bit of a weird transaction, maybe. It can't not be," she said. "Because you're being observed and captured for a purely visual asset and they're the ones doing it."
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These Are 2017’s Most Popular Fashion Trends From All Over The World

These Are 2017’s Most Popular Fashion Trends From All Over The World
If you like to stay on top of fashion trends, looking at runway shows is a great place to start, but they’re not always indicative of popular trends in countries around the world.
Lucky for us, the folks at fashion retailer Long Tall Sally researched the top trends worn all over the globe. Not only is it interesting to see the trends people in other countries love, but the results also provide a little fashion inspiration for your wardrobe.
With the help of a trends expert, Long Tall Sally analyzed thousands of global trends via street style images, local influencers and Instagram posts. The trends were then cross-referenced with Instagram data from the last 12 months. The top trend in each country was determined by looking at the most frequently used trend-related hashtag.
For example, in Seoul, South Korea, oversized sleeves were determined to be the top trend, with 15,638 hashtags. In Bangkok, Thailand, millennial pink was all the rage, hashtagged 15,411 times, and over 2,420 Instagram posts in Nigeria showed love for off-the-shoulder looks.
The most classically simple trend, the plain white T-shirt, reigned supreme in France, while fashionistas in the United Kingdom were all about metallic shoes. In America, style differences between east and west were clear, with West Coasters loving their logo tees and East Coasters rocking colorful faux fur.
Check out some of the most Instagrammed trends from around the world below, posted by globe-trotting fashionistas from each country.
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Throwback time for fashion leads to innovation

Throwback time for fashion leads to innovation
As regular followers of Japanese fashion can attest, the industry can be seen as somewhat flirtatious, dallying with new debutantes, another sister brand, another collaboration, another short-term “limited shop” or another retail concept that makes the news but doesn’t really change the game.
It is tempting to focus on the frippery, even if we are aware that the clothes we deck ourselves in are on a fundamental level more similar than different as we drift from season to season. So why not take a moment to meditate on the retail and marketing concepts that have subtly changed our relationship with fashion?
There have been shifts exemplified by the likes of shopping mall Parco’s unexpectedly innovative new Parco_ya store, which opened in Tokyo’s Ueno district on Nov. 4. It might not have had the fanfare of an entry like the city’s new high-end Ginza Six building, but it marked a fundamental departure for Parco’s series of stores that are resolutely self-defined as “fashion buildings.” Despiteits cool underscore, Parco_ya is surprisingly traditional, or rather “neo-traditional,” given that Edo Period establishments couldn’t possibly have been quite as clean or glassy. Still, judging from the kamon-like (crest) logo to the bevy of traditional washoku cuisine eateries — a far cry from the allusions to the West favored by the Shibuya flagship — Japanese tradition is on-trend, even at a trailblazer like Parco
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Most children

Most children of the 90s will relate to a former irrational desire to own a pair of Buffalo trainers. The Spice Girls - who frequently endorsed the toweringly high shoes - sparked a ubiquitous trend for the statement shoes - although rumour has it that Victoria Beckham always hated them.
Well, proof that the 90s fashion renaissance is officially now complete, Buffalo trainers are back - and this time round, they're being positioned in a high fashion context. As from tomorrow (Friday 24 November), luxury store Browns Fashion will exclusively sell two of Buffalo's classic styles - and they've already attracted a waiting list.
"Buffalos were one of my all-time favourite shoes from the 90s, and I couldn’t be more excited for their return," said Browns womenswear buying director Ida Petersson. "We’ve had an incredible response from our customers requesting to be added to our waiting list and I’ll definitely be buying both pairs. I’ll be wearing them with either a pair of Ellery black vinyl trousers or with a floaty dress from the likes of Magda B, Vetements or Balenciaga."
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Why the fashion industry keeps failing to fix labour exploitation

Why the fashion industry keeps failing to fix labour exploitation
Worker exploitation is rampant in the global fashion industry, according to countless investigations, studies and reports. So why haven’t fashion brands cleaned up their acts?
Even if brands want to be part of the solution (as they are frequently asked to be) they are hindered by the current legal system. The problem is if brands are to eradicate labour exploitation, they must take more control of their supply chains. But if they take more control over their supply chains, they open themselves up to the risk of tremendous legal liability.
To effect real change in the global fashion industry, the countries where brands are headquartered need to reconsider their legal policies. The existing liability rules need to be amended to incentivise the brands’ direct involvement in labour issues in their chains.
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Seafolly are searching for their next model and it could be you

Seafolly are searching for their next model and it could be you
The next Gigi Hadid?
If models Gigi Hadid, Shanina Shaik and Jess Hart sound like company you’d like to keep, this latest news might just be for you.
Australian swim label Seafolly (you may have heard of them) are looking for a model to front their next campaign, meaning the likes of Hadid, Shaik and Heart might be closer than you think.
Looking for a “woman beyond a model, someone who personifies the Seafolly spirit and embraces the quintessential Australian beach lifestyle,” the search will be conducted on Instagram. In other words, it could be you.
Finalists will be announced every Friday in December (winning a $500 gift card in the meantime) with the winner appearing in an exclusive Seafolly shoot, receiving a Seafolly wardrobe valued at $5,000, plus a whole host of invitations to “exclusive events”.
Sound like something you’d be interested in? To enter, make sure you’re wearing the latest season of Seafolly, upload a photo of yourself wearing it in your favourite “summer spot”, tag @SeafollyAustralia, and hashtag #FacesOfSeafolly. Voila!
The winner will be announced on New Year’s Day in 2018 via Instagram.
Models including Miranda Kerr, Pia Miller and Jess Hart have been discovered through competitions, launching long and fruitful careers — proving you’ve got to be in it to win it.
Model in the making? Line up your photographer, stat.
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Rodgers tackled the challenge in fine fashion

Rodgers tackled the challenge in fine fashion
One yard the Ottawa Redblacks’ Diontae Spencer didn’t gain against the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Sunday’s CFL East Division semi-final turned out to be of greater importance than the 157 receiving yards he did amass.
Trailing 31-14, Ottawa was in a third-and-five situation on Saskatchewan’s 22-yard line with fewer than five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Eschewing a field-goal attempt, Redblacks head coach Rick Campbell opted to gamble. Spencer was a logical target, considering that he had piled up 153 yards on eight receptions to that point.
Ottawa quarterback Trevor Harris found Spencer on a short crossing route. There was only one problem: Kacy Rodgers II had diagnosed the play.
The Roughriders cornerback tackled Spencer one yard shy of the first-down marker. The turnover on downs effectively secured the outcome, and a berth in this Sunday’s East final against the host Toronto Argonauts, for the Roughriders.
Ottawa finished with 500 yards of net offence, but 0.20 per cent of that amount — the one yard Spencer could not get — carried more weight.
“I think it was huge, especially because Spencer was having a great game against us — particularly me — up to that point,” Rodgers said after Wednesday’s practice at Carleton University.
“We changed the coverages a little bit, but we basically stuck to what we knew. Based on my keys, I had an idea somewhat of what he was going to run once he motioned down. I just took advantage of that and really just took my shot.
“If he had run anything else, I probably would have been in a little bit of trouble, but thank goodness he ran what I thought he would and I was able to come up and just make a good play.”
Earlier, it did not look promising for the 25-year-old son of New York Jets defensive co-ordinator Kacy Rodgers.
In the first quarter, Spencer had beaten the junior Rodgers for a 56-yard touchdown pass from Harris. The Redblacks then unveiled an oft-replayed touchdown celebration that included Spencer being held in the air, parallel to the ground, by Dominique Rhodes and Juron Criner. Another Ottawa receiver, Greg Ellingson, then did the limbo underneath Spencer.
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Former Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman: ‘I find the idea that there was a posh cabal offensive’

Former Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman: ‘I find the idea that there was a posh cabal offensive’
The former editor of Vogue took a recent trip to Sainsbury’s at 3pm. “And to me that was so interesting. I’ve not been in a supermarket on a weekday afternoon for 35, 40 years or something. I was just interested in who was in there, what people are buying, what the parking was like. I’m interested in all this stuff.”
Since standing down in June from the magazine she edited for 25 years, Alexandra Shulman has been having the loveliest time. She has taken holidays, attended cultural events and, she says: “I have that sort of slightly horrible sort of happy-clappy feeling about me, you know, smiling everywhere as if I’d found God. It’s not like I was longing to be free from Vogue,” she adds hastily. “I just thought, 25 years is such a huge amount of your life to spend sitting in the same building.”She greets me with a demob-happy glow of contentment. The 57-year-old pads around her north London home making coffee, and laughs that even something as mundane as replacing her faulty doorbell feels exotic. She looks surprised when I ask if she misses the power of her former position. “No, I’m not really interested in power. I am interested in having a voice.” By the time I leave, though, she is looking increasingly uneasy about how what she has to say will be received.
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How Melania Trump Has Embraced Luxury Fashion as First Lady

How Melania Trump Has Embraced Luxury Fashion as First Lady
For better or worse, the First Lady of the United States is an important figure in fashion, and Melania Trump is no exception.
Starting with the glamorous white bell-sleeved Roksanda dress she wore to give her viral speech at the Republican National Convention in 2016 to the $595 black snakeskin Manolo Blahnik stiletto heels she wore en route to the devastation wrecked by Hurricane Harvey in Texas, Melania’s wardrobe has given the public plenty to talk about.
While her predecessor Michelle Obama used her wardrobe as a way to highlight fresh, up-and-coming American designers (putting designers like Jason Wu on the map) and to connect with everyday citizens (Obama loved a deal at wallet-friendly J. Crew), Melania has taken a different approach.
As a former model, the First Lady hasn’t shied away from primarily sporting glamorous, high fashion ensembles by international designers and luxury brands, ranging from Gucci (who made her infamous debate “pussy bow” blouse) to Christian Dior.It’s an interesting sartorial choice given that many First Ladies in the past made a concentrated effort to wear primarily American fashion brands, occasionally using foreign fashion as a means of political diplomacy for a state dinner or the like; it’s even more interesting when one considers her husband’s vocal “Buy American, Hire American” stance.But perhaps like her husband — who wears Italian-made Brioni suits and tiesfrom his own brand that are made in China — Melania appears to have no issue turning to designers overseas to supply her wardrobe.It is also worth noting that many American fashion designers have been outspoken about the prospect of dressing the First Lady, with prominent designers like Marc Jacobs and Zac Posen stating that they had no interest in dressing Melania; in contrast, Italian designer Stefano Gabbana of Dolce & Gabbana, no stranger to political controversy himself, has been an ardent defender of the First Lady and counts himself as one of her biggest fans.
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The Zara workers’ protest shows why fast fashion should worry all of us

The Zara workers’ protest shows why fast fashion should worry all of us
If I search for #Zara on Instagram, I can see well over 22m posts of people wearing clothing that was bought from the retailer, everywhere from Dublin to Dubrovnik, New York to Newport. If you’re reading this in an office, I’d bet you a tenner that someone, somewhere in the building is wearing a Zara shirt or jacket. In the UK, Zara has been a high-street fixture since 1998, and has a growing number of stores. Millions of us have brought the brand into our homes – and so millions of us should be shocked and infuriated by reports that factory workers in Istanbul have been hiding notes in the clothes that they have been producing for one of Zara’s suppliers, pleading for help. One note apparently read: “I made this item you are going to buy, but I didn’t get paid for it.” The workers were reportedly left unpaid after their factory shut down overnight.
In 2013, Rana Plaza, a building in Bangladesh that housed five garment factories, collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people and injuring thousands more. At the time, the tragedy was believed to be a wake-up call, one that would permanently change the way that the goods we consume are produced. Yet just 17 brands have signed the Apparel and Footwear Supply Chain Transparency Pledge, and there has been a spate of fires in garment factories.
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It’s too easy to dismiss the complaints of underpaid workers as a women’s problem. When we do this, we don’t acknowledge that every one of us is part of the solution, regardless of gender. I know many men and women who are horrified by the way so many of our clothes are produced, and are doing their best to consume more carefully, by introducing no-spend months or ensuring that they only ever buy second-hand clothes. However, we need a much more effective solution, and something that can be implemented at a higher level.
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Pieces that are going to last’: Erdem x H&M collection hits stores

Pieces that are going to last’: Erdem x H&M collection hits stores
Leopard-print coats, pyjama sets and sequinned ballgowns are set to be the signifiers of style this party season if the launch of Erdem’s collaboration with H&M is anything to go by.
The highly anticipated collection went on sale on Thursday morning. And while there were queues from midnight on Wednesday at H&M shops nationwide, far from the pushing, shoving and even police cars seen at its previous launches, a ticketing system – splitting shoppers into 14 groups of 20 with 10-minute time slots from 9am to 12.30pm – resulted in a civilised atmosphere: queuers could get their wristbands, head off to a nearby coffee shop to warm up, and come back at their allotted time.
Erdem Moralıoğlu, who launched his eponymous label in 2005 and has since then dominated red carpets and fashion awards ceremonies around the world, is a favourite with the Duchess of Cambridge and with unofficial brand ambassadors including Alexa Chung and Keira Knightley.
This collaboration, his first for a high-street brand, is not as cheap as H&M’s previous designer collections – prices range from £17.99 for a pair of tights to £229.99 for a full-length lace dress – but is a far cry from his usual price tag which lingers around the £1,600 mark. It also marks Moralıoğlu’s first foray into menswear.
“When I found out that he was doing menswear for H&M only, that’s what made me say, ‘Okay I need to have a piece of that,’ because that may be the only time he’s ever going to do it and it might be a collectable piece,” said Marcio Norborto, 38, a loyal H&M collaboration shopper who thinks this one has raised the bar. “Fast fashion is exciting and nice but I want to buy something that lasts a bit longer.
“When [Erdem] was asked why his pieces were more expensive than other collaborations, he said because he wanted to be true to himself and for it to be the quality he wants. I hope he has stayed true to what he stands for with his brand – that’s what I hope I’m buying.”
The partnership has also attracted shoppers who might not usually be seen in one of the brand’s 4,133 stores, including Gemma Baker, 29, a sustainability consultant. “I’m not normally the type of person who would queue for hours for clothes and, honestly, I try not to shop H&M because of the fast-fashion issues, but I’m making a moral exception.
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“I feel like if I buy one of the pieces from this collection it’s going to last a long time. It’s more expensive than the other H&M designs which tend to be more disposable.”
Designer high-street collaborations, which first prompted pavement mania with H&M and Karl Lagerfeld’s union in 2004 and were followed up by sell-out edits by Rihanna for River Island and Kate Moss for Topshop, are now a stalwart of the British shopping scene. This year has already seen collaborations between JW Anderson and Uniqlo; Ashish and River Island; and Sophia Webster and Puma.
As ever, accessibility is a big draw for fashion fans on a budget. “It’s really amazing that H&M does it as it gives people who can’t afford the high-end stuff the opportunity to own a luxury item,” said Daniel Bishop, 29, an illustrator – and 3am arriver.
At a preview on Wednesday evening, which was attended by fellow London designer Christopher Kane, Moralıoğlu said he was “happy to see so many people liking the collection and wanting to buy it”
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Basics with Beau: How Sean Cassidy is Providing Longstanding Fashion For Millennials

Basics with Beau: How Sean Cassidy is Providing Longstanding Fashion For Millennials
Twenty years ago, Sean Cassidy opened a three-unit mens specialty store after having met Parisian designer Pierre Lafaurie. Inspired by Pierre's authentic menswear, which encapsulated Sean's interest, the latter proposed that he should be the sole distributer of the heritage brand within the United States. This fall, Sean Cassidy in conjunction with Pierre Lafaurie have decided to unite once again to deliver another wave of essential French fashion to be injected in lower Manhattan.
  Beau by Emile LafaurieA selection from Beau by Emile Lafaurie.Despite the fact that Pierre Lafaurie's label has remained faithful to itself, it has taken a new approach to the modern and young menswear consumer, and it plans to deliver on it's promise. This promise is a capsule collection dubbed "Beau" which aims to provide a discerning customer who is inspired by the concept of a shared passion for new trends. Whether it is a choice of technical fabric or other distinguishing features, the reference is clear that young men are embracing heritage, honesty, and craftsmanship that inherent in the enigma of menswear. The updated designs appeal to a young man with a diverse range of environments. These environments throughout the week are ones that do not change on a daily basis, but rather an hourly one. In addition to putting a new spin on these traditional designs, Emile Lafaurie's menswear has taken on a new marketing campaign with Sean Cassidy as their exclusive distributor in the US market. In collaboration through Beau, they have introduced a new capsule collection to appeal to a younger generation of menswear consumers. What is interesting about this line is that it consists of forty pieces of suit separates, shirts and sweaters (as well as assorted accessories) which can be worn interchangeably. The result of this line is a contemporary feel that is polished, professional, but not to0 pricey. It is apparent that conventional office attire is taking on different forms; As a result, this has enabled the youth market to overcome the triviality of uniformity. Due to the sudden and historically unrivaled plethora of options within the landscape of menswear apparel offerings, Beau sets out to create a collection that will assist a man in looking his most professional while developing his distinctive balance between traditional excellence, and modern savoir faire. We had the option to speak to Sean store owner and Beau partner, Sean Cassidy, about the significance of good relationships relative to garment manufacturing, the concept of labeling a mass-market in fashion consumers, and how to look into the optimistic future with a crystal ball. Read more at:purple bridesmaid dresses | red bridesmaid dresses uk

These Female Fashion Entrepreneurs Are Changing the Way We Shop

These Female Fashion Entrepreneurs Are Changing the Way We Shop
Though at the upper levels of the industry, fashion is still a male-dominated business, it feels like many of the most noteworthy innovations in recent memory have come from women (which you know we're here for!). Female entrepreneurs have been out there making the change they—and customers—want to see happen: Just recently we saw the big breaks of companies like Premme(a clothing line launched by bloggers Nicolette Mason and Gabi Gregg that makes legitimately stylish statement pieces in plus sizes), Fashion Tech Lab (an institution focused on innovating the sustainability space launched by fashion force Miroslava Duma), and Anti Agency (Lucy Greene and Pandora Lennard’s modeling agency made up of a cool, downtown crew that aren’t models by trade). Out of all the thriving companies on our radar, there are three that stand out: The Modist, 11 Honoré, and Stitch Fix. They each target demographics that have been ignored in retail and aim to elicit a culture change in the industry—a shift we've seen overall as of late. Ghizlan Guenez started The Modist after years of not having a place to go to shop for modest clothing; Kathryn Retzer grew frustrated that designers weren't making bigger sizes due to no retail outlet buying them and started 11 Honoré(alongside cofounder Patrick Herning) to do just that; and things are booming for Katrina Lake at Stitch Fix, where they make shopping a highly personal experience via customized subscription boxes.
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It’s Always Fishnets Season Somewhere

It’s Always Fishnets Season Somewhere
The prostitute, courtesan, sex worker — all as presented in popular culture — are exerting a strong influence on the looks you may want to wear now.
In a recent episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the show’s star and creator, Larry David, casts an appraising eye on Paula, who is turned out in the standard-issue trappings of her trade.“Why this outfit?” Mr. David asks benignly. “Why not be wholesome?”Business might pick up, he suggests, if only Paula, who is sheathed in a merry widow and mesh hose, would trade up, swapping the drag for something more discreet.Paula considers, announcing brightly after a beat, “O.K., animal prints gone. Fishnets out of here. I think I can do this.”The scene is ripe with irony: Paula may be about to cast off her working girl uniform, but plenty of civilians — Beverly Hills matrons and their law-abiding like — would happily do the reverse, trading their uptight luncheon suits for latex and leather, all in the service of style.Continue reading the main story
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They won’t have to search far for a role model.
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The New Fashion Commandments

The New Fashion Commandments
High-Style Guru Reveals the New Trends — Think Velvet and No More Bare Legs
If you don’t have velvet in your closet this season, don’t go out of the house!” Such was the daunting command that Neiman Marcus fashion director Ken Downing delivered to a bevy of fashionistas who packed the second floor of Neiman Marcus in the Houston Galleria to absorb his take on current fashion trends.
And the ladies lapped it up like kittens at the milk bowl.
With an insider’s intel and a comedic wit, Downing challenged the flock to think beyond yesterday into this season’s fashion trends. Yes, velvet is a must. Shoulder pads are coming back, bigger than ever thanks to Balenciaga. True fashionistas will be dressed in red this season. And bare legs are no longer de rigueur.
“I spent my entire career trying to get you out of stockings,” he declared. “Now I want you back in stockings!” Indeed, practically every look that he presented included wide diamond fishnets, many in pink and red.
Downing waltzed his adoring fans through a colorful array of fashions playfully layered beyond reason. An example of the look: an Altuzarra jacket, over a Magda Butrym floral dress, worn with a Needle and Thread pink dress.
As for the color of the season, “I am obsessed with the rich reds,” he said. “I like bordeaux and burgundy juxtaposed with bright red and shocking pink.” Lending reality to that obsession, Downing mixed a wild palette of reds in his designer selections.
Special guest was his pal, jewelry designer Devon Leigh, whose oversized earrings were shown with every look. As Downing noted, “Big earrings take 10 years off of every woman.”
Additional Ken Downing fashion insights
— It’s all about the ’80s, a return to that new wave spirit.
— Asymmetrical earrings are the thing, be it wearing only one major piece or two different earrings.
—Shorts are everywhere going into spring.
— Biker jackets are a must.
— Saint Laurent hoodies are bringing street fashion into the designer world.
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HOW TECHNOLOGY IS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE FASHION

HOW TECHNOLOGY IS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE FASHION
Technology is really sexy! For me it's better than a thigh-high split in a skirt."
Stella McCartney may have delivered the line with a laugh while onstage at Vogue's Forces of Fashion conference earlier this month, but one got the sense that she was dead serious. The British designer was onstage speaking about ethical and sustainablefashion, and she quickly drew a connection between treating the planet well and updating the industry's old-fashioned — and incredibly wasteful, toxic and polluting — production methods. To her, incorporating new technology into that equation is an obvious choice.
"The younger generations, this is like a no-brainer for them," she said. "If you're lucky enough to have a business, I think you have to approach it this way."
McCartney's not the only one looking to Silicon Valley for ideas that could help catapult her company to the cutting edge of both design and environmental preservation efforts. From startups using bacteria to naturally dye fabric to established industry players using chemistry to close the recycling loop, a whole host of new discoveries are cropping up. Read on to learn about some of the most exciting developments that have the potential to change the future of fashion.
To see the negative impacts that fabric dye can have on the planet, one need only look at the rivers in China and Bangladesh that bear the color of next season's clothing due to improper dye disposal. The amount of water waste involved in dyeing is also problematic.
"A cotton T-shirt requires approximately 700 gallons of water to grow, produce and transport, with 20 percent or more of that water used in the dyeing process alone," explains Natsai Chieza via email.
Chieza is the biodesigner behind Faber Futures and a designer-in-residence at Ginkgo Bioworks, where she is working on a method that uses bacteria-secreted pigments to dye fabric. The technique dramatically reduces water usage, requiring less than seven ounces of water to dye a one-pound piece of silk, and the pigment itself is naturally and non-toxically created by the bacteria. While there are still obstacles to overcome before the results Chieza is able to achieve in a petri dish will be replicable on a larger scale, the sustainable fashion opportunity is so great that she's confident there will be bacteria-dyed clothing on the market before long.
"Interventions that tackle both water use and chemical use in the textile industry are incredibly rare, so this is an area of development many are watching very closely," she notes.
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Guo Pei: the Chinese designer who made Rihanna's omelette dress

Guo Pei: the Chinese designer who made Rihanna's omelette dress
hinese designer Guo Pei had been creating couture for more than 30 years when Rihanna stepped on to the red carpet in an extraordinary yellow cape two years ago. Dubbed the omelette dress for its striking resemblance to brunch, it went viral and made the world notice Guo’s work.
The dress wasn’t designed for Rihanna. In fact, it had been sitting in Guo’s studio for three years when the singer’s team came across it after making inquiries into Chinese couture during the run up to the 2015 Met Gala, the theme of which was China: Through the Looking Glass.
Beijing-born Guo, who turned 50 recently, cut her teeth in fashion design following the Cultural Revolution. As Cathy Horyn explained in the New York Times, her career as a designer “began when there was no fashion in her country”. For the past 20 years, Guo has focused on high fashion, specialising in technical work that is grand in dimension and scale and as intricate as that of any Paris couture house. It’s no wonder that she has appeared at Paris couture week, last year becoming the first Chinese national to do so.
The now-famous Yellow Empress cape weighs 25kg, has a 16ft train, features over 50,000 hour’s worth of hand embroidery and took two years to make. The sheer weight of the dress meant that, when it was first shown, at a 2012 show in China, the model made it only halfway down the catwalk before the lights had to be turned off and the show stopped so that she could remove the cape and return backstageRead more at:yellow bridesmaid dresses uk | champagne bridesmaid dresses uk

Space race: a new tome captures 70 years of Pierre Cardin’s designs
Pierre Cardin’s sprawling legacy of innovation might be hard to quantify, but a new tome from Assouline celebrating the 95-year-old designer, endeavours to do just that. Tracing a career that spans 70 years, the book outlines what it is that makes the influential designer’s work so compelling.
Cardin ‘infused his personality into his business’, Jean-Pascal Hesse writes in the book’s introduction. That infusion formed the DNA of Cardin’s brand: the geometry of his shapes and structures, and the relentless drive to experiment. The book surveys this, along with Cardin’s forward-facing philosophy of business. Consider his creation of what we would now term a lifestyle brand, something that in the 1960s was not de rigueur among France’s couturiers.
We are taken through the beginnings of Cardin’s influential career, from the Cosmocorps collections that made his name synonymous with the space age, through to furniture design and later experiments with structure, fabric and movement. But it’s the images from the 1960s that are among Cardin’s most loved from the book.
‘My favourite is obviously the period when I began to be known in my career for my very avant-gardist cuttings,’ he explains ahead of a Pierre Cardin pop-up shop at London’s Maison Assouline, opening today. ‘For example, the Cosmocorps line, which reminds me the conquest of space. I have always been marked by this opening towards space, the conquest of the moon.’
In an industry known for its obsession with newness and modernity, Cardin’s designs – the famous Bubble dress, or his Plexiglas jewellery – linger on in cultural memory as markers of innovation. And looking back, Cardin remembers the earliest days of his brand as being a fruitful, exhilarating time. ‘Undeniably at the beginning when I left Dior, I was motivated by a big ambition. I wanted to introduce my style more than anything.’
This is not the first Pierre Cardin book from Assouline, but as the designer points out, ‘it is a unique experience in the world of fashion to celebrate 70 years of design’, so this lengthy retrospective is merited. In a preface written by Marisa Berenson (granddaughter of Cardin’s former employer Elsa Schiaparelli), Cardin is described as ‘a man of paradoxes and contradictions... a man with no boundaries or limits in himself as in the universe’.
And Cardin’s work does not begin or end with clothing. Industrial design, furniture, interiors and automobiles all benefited from Cardin’s rigorous eye. But fashion is still at the centre of all that he does, even after 70 years. ‘Fashion is still the best way to express creative vision,’ he affirms. ‘I am first and foremost a fashion designer.’ But as Pierre Cardin shows, work across design fields is how he elucidates his vision of the world. ‘Fashion,’ he is quoted as saying, ‘is an X-ray of society.’ If that is indeed the case, then at its bones, Cardin’s society is rigorous, stylish and endlessly modern.
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The 7 women's fashion items that men hate
You may have noticed the short trousers (cropped kick flares, in fashion terms) Theresa May wore at the Tory Party Conference this week. You may have thought, "Good for you, TM, some fashion-forward trews". More likely you did a double take, tried to defend her ringing the changes ("She's got the legs for it") and then gave up, because frankly they did look all wrong.
I tell you who will not have appreciated these trousers, and that is men. Some, after suppressing the urge to shout "Kirk to Enterprise!" might have tried to get their head around them. The rest will have been thinking: "Aren't they too short? (Answer: yes)" or. "Are those culottes? I hate culottes." The overwhelming response will have been bafflement because cropped flares are firmly in the category of Clothes Men Will Never Like (excepting architects and people working in fashion).
The items on this list barely vary from one decade to the next. Women's taste in fashion changes and adapts but men's doesn't budge: they have a fixed shortlist of things that provoke a visceral negative reaction, and another list of things they like, without knowing why.
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Princess Diana inspires Off-White look in Paris

Princess Diana inspires Off-White look in Paris
The most important outfit shown at Paris fashion week so far was not an intricate silk gown or a tastefully cut trouser suit. It was a pair of white cycling shorts and a double-breasted blazer worn by Naomi Campbell as she stood in front of a troupe of 36 models dressed in looks inspired by Diana, Princess of Wales.
This tableau was the finale of Off-White’s spring/summer 2018 fashion show, held in the sumptuous 19th-century Salle Wagram theatre. Off-White is a youth-centric brand with a tendency towards irony – the straps on its most popular handbags look like police barriers – overseen by Virgil Abloh, Kanye West’s creative director. Diana was the inspiration for the collection, which sought to explore more complex territory than the princess myth of glamour and tiaras.
Some of the looks were loosely inspired by the princess, such as the first model’s leather skirt and matching leather blouson, its most Diana-ish touch the white popped collar. Others were more direct: here was Diana dropping the kids off at school in double denim, or Diana in her dotty pink dress, or Diana on her way to the gym, as suggested by Campbell’s cycling shorts.
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She takes her kid everywhere! Farrah Abraham poses with daughter at risqué fashion

She takes her kid everywhere! Farrah Abraham poses with daughter at risqué fashion show featuring Phoebe Price busting out of her lingerie
Farrah Abraham doesn't seem to be the most conservative of mothers.
The Teen Mom star was slammed years ago for posting to Instagram a photo of her daughter Sophia Laurent, aged eight, in a bikini.
Now the part-time porn star has brought her little mini me to a fashion show where women were dressed in lingerie.
The reality TV star walked the runway of the Anthony Rubio show in Los Angeles on Saturday.
She was wearing a black silky long dress with a yellow lace coat.
Her offspring also wore yellow and was seen backstage with mama as well as two models, 45-year-old Phoebe Price (in black lingerie and red boots) and Sophia Vega (in a sheer bustier top). Sham Ibrahim wore a red dress.
And Farrah was holding a dog that appeared to be hers.
Last week the TV star was in Greece modeling a swimsuit.
On Instagram, the vixen gave designer Catwalk Connection a shout-out while tilting her hips and offering the camera a wry smile.
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The 7 women's fashion items that men hate

The 7 women's fashion items that men hate
You may have noticed the short trousers (cropped kick flares, in fashion terms) Theresa May wore at the Tory Party Conference this week. You may have thought, "Good for you, TM, some fashion-forward trews". More likely you did a double take, tried to defend her ringing the changes ("She's got the legs for it") and then gave up, because frankly they did look all wrong.
I tell you who will not have appreciated these trousers, and that is men. Some, after suppressing the urge to shout "Kirk to Enterprise!" might have tried to get their head around them. The rest will have been thinking: "Aren't they too short? (Answer: yes)" or. "Are those culottes? I hate culottes." The overwhelming response will have been bafflement because cropped flares are firmly in the category of Clothes Men Will Never Like (excepting architects and people working in fashion).
The items on this list barely vary from one decade to the next. Women's taste in fashion changes and adapts but men's doesn't budge: they have a fixed shortlist of things that provoke a visceral negative reaction, and another list of things they like, without knowing why.This must be connected to anxieties about rogue dental assistants, Nurse Ratched, and memories of colonoscopies. We think they're fresh and Swedish, but men genuinely find them disturbing. On the plus side, they really like anything khaki and militaryesque, particularly jumpsuits (it's a Hot Lips thing, or possibly a Maverick/Goose thing).
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You probably think you won’t wear

You probably think you won’t wear these Milan fashion week trends, but you will
Iknow what you’re thinking: you wouldn’t dress like this if I paid you. Your dad’s 80s blazer, over a white lace nightie, with an upturned fruit basket on your head, punk choker and square sunglasses, a la Gucci? Er, I don’t think so. A cartoon-print Crombie coat with knee-high sport socks and winklepickers? Not today, thanks all the same, even if it is Prada.
Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re mistaken. You will dress like this. Not necessarily this week, or even this year, and not, I admit, exactly like this, because you would be bankrupt, and people would cross the street to avoid you. But still. The clothes you see here from Milan fashion week will have a huge effect on what all of us wear.
There is an often-repeated line about how Donald Trump shouldn’t be taken literally but should be taken seriously. That, basically, is the best way to think about Milan fashion week. In other words: scoff at your peril, because this is real life. What happens on the catwalk is exaggerated and skewed for effect, but it still directs what we all wear.
There is a knack to translating catwalk into clothes. First, don’t let the glitz and glamour distract you from the real story. You know how Agatha Christie set her whodunnits in exotic locations – the Orient Express, a Caribbean beach house, an archaelogical dig in the Middle East – in order to keep the reader from too swiftly identifying the bones of the plot? Miuccia Prada, Donatella Versace, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana do pretty much the exact same thing at Milan fashion week, sprinkling supermodels (Versace), sequins (Dolce & Gabbana) and lofty, backstage-TED-talk pronouncements about womankind (Prada) over the catwalks like so much dry ice, so that we are caught up in the narrative and forget that we are being sold clothes. And – remember the suspicious-sounding Mr Owen in And Then There Were None, who you think is the murderer but turns out to be just a pseudonym? – designers then throw red herrings into the mix. Racy slogans, Gigi’s abs, tiaras, fake-fur bum bags. All just misdirection.
To understand what’s really going on, make like an X-ray machine, and zero in on the silhouette. Are the clothes tight, or loose? Where does the hemline fall? Where can you see skin? What is happening at the neckline: is it one clean layer, or are there multiple collars? Are the lines angular or soft? Next, look for the pieces that link different looks together. Is there one garment that keeps reappearing? A colour, mood or decade that threads through different designers’ shows? These are the clues that will help you make sense of the catwalk. Spoiler alert: I’ve gone ahead and cracked the codes for Milan fashion week.
Don’t be fooled by all the cardigans at Gucci. Milan fashion week is never not about how to be sexy. Last season, the hotness was all in the ab gap. The wearing of an abbreviated top to display a slice of ab the height of a tequila shot above the waistband of your jeans or leggings, seen on every pavement this summer, was a look that came from these very catwalks a year ago. The new way to be sexy, as seen in Milan, is with a sheer skirt over visible big pants. This was seen at Roberto Cavalli and Fendi, as well as Dolce. For the non-Hadids among us, this is likely to translate into party skirts and dresses that have an opaque petticoat to the upper thigh, and a longer sheer layer over the top.What goes on just under your chin is the headline of your outfit. This isn’t a fashion fact, it’s a fact-fact: think ties, football scarves, Theresa May’s strong and stable necklaces. So even though Miuccia Prada said backstage after her latest show that the collection was a celebration of the female gaze and a call to the sisterhood to embrace direct action, I would argue that it was actually about a new collar situation incoming on the fashion horizon. The default catwalk neckline for the past year has been a polo neck under a slip dress or a coat. Here, by contrast, most outfits featured two sharp-collared crew-neck tops, one on top of the other: a shirt with a collared coat, as here, or a shirt under a boxy jacket. This catwalk is especially significant because the Prada and Miu Miu catwalks were instrumental in making the poloneck-under-everything trend happen, but the look happened at lots of places: at Jil Sander, where it was a white shirt under a black jacket, and at Bottega Veneta, where a coloured silk blouse was buttoned under a contrasting jacket.Eleven models on the Gucci catwalk wore checked blazers. Now, I don’t know how closely you watched the Gucci show, but you could have missed this even if you were there. Because one checked blazer was worn over a full-length white lace gown, with a straw spaceship hat; another over a Gucci-monogrammed skirt with polka-dot nude hosiery, high-heeled sandals, smudged orange lipstick and a fringe that is best described as “Farrah Fawcett sticks her hand in a plug socket”. Smoke and mirrors, see! Because the most significant takeaway from Gucci this season is not the Elton John tracksuit, but the checked blazer, which is already a front-row and streetstyle favourite this fashion month, and is hereby confirmed as a key look for next season, too.
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I do NOT like sex with old, obese men: the perils of being a stock-shot model
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It began on Twitter, of course, as these things do. A user called Craig Nunn (@hrtbps) wrote: "'Why not model for stock images?' they said. 'What could possibly go wrong?' they said." And he enclosed a picture from the agony aunt column in this newspaper, showing a concerned-looking young woman in expensive pyjamas beneath the headline: "I fantasise about group sex with old, obese men".
In truth, the young woman, Samantha Ovens – like all models – did know the risks. Stock shots, in case you weren't aware, are photographs illustrating general themes taken not for a specific purpose but to supply magazines, advertisers or anybody else with a library of useful images. Look up "mean boss" or "couple arguing" online and you'll get the gist. Having modelled for a few, you soon start to notice yourself looking worried about a mortgage here, or suffering from PMT there. But you don't expect this. Not this.
"I opened it up when I was with some friends," says Ovens, who had been tipped off at the weekend by the Twitter whirlwind. "In fact, I was with my partner's mum as well. I screeched with laughter and said: 'Oh. You have to see this.' There's me looking very anxious, and I bloody well would be, wouldn't I?"
The image in question had come from a "Colds and Illnesses" shoot she did two years ago, when she was 36. "I think they had me sneezing, curled up in bed, blowing my nose. There were loads of different versions," she recalls. Being gay in real life, but a specialist in portraying yummy mummies in the press and on television, she is used to a certain level of irony where all her work is concerned. But this was new.
And you do have to be careful. Ovens is a successful model, with past clients including Debenhams, Optical Express, Colgate and British Airways. At one stage she was lucratively installed as "the Harpic Power Plus girl". But big brands take some interest in a model's wider career, and can be reluctant to share them with anything too tawdry. "If I want to keep those kinds of clients, I make sure I protect my image, so to speak," she says. And has the Guardian damaged it? "It doesn't worry me in the slightest." (Indeed, she has gained around 90 Twitter followers as a result.)
There is, in any case, a certain vapidity about the world of stock shots, with all its perfect families and people who look fantastic even when they're ill, so a measure of ridicule goes with the territory. A case in point is the army of female models who are required to pose laughing with salad (a wholesome scene so popular with picture libraries that it has its own fansite). Just yesterday Ovens was looking worried again, this time illustrating "stress" in the Telegraph.
"How can you take it seriously?" she says about the obese old men debacle. "There are bigger things in this life to get concerned about."
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River Island is selling a £180 sleeping bag coat and fashion has definitely gone too far

River Island is selling a £180 sleeping bag coat and fashion has definitely gone too far
We thought we’d seen it all when ASOS released a range of questionable clothing items, and we lost even more faith when Spanx came forward with some arm tights – but it’s River Island who’s winning the ‘WTF?’ clothing award of the year.
The clothing brand has released an oversized sleeping bag coat which comes in pink and khaki.
It’s made using padded fabric and features a zipped detachable blanket, cuffed sleeves, a funnel neck and a concealed zip front fastening for extra warmth.
Honestly, while the coat does make the wearer look like a walking duvet, we’ve got to admit it sounds luxurious – the perfect coat to snuggle up in when you don’t want to waste money on the heating.
But that’s not the problem – the problem is that this coat costs a whopping £180 – and it seems to be inspired by what people living on the streets often have to wear to keep warm at night.
The sleeping bag coat was first introduced by Detroit-based non-profit the Empowerment Plan, which hires previously homeless women to make warm coats from sleeping bag materials for those still living on the streets.
The jacket, which can be worn as a coat, transforms into a sleeping bag and even into a shoulder bag, is constructed of durable, water resistant Cordura fabric from Carhartt, upcycled automotive insulation from General Motors, and other materials provided by generous donors.
Instead of selling the coats, the charity asks that those willing sponsor a coat – which covers the cost of labour, materials and overhead expenses – and ultimately gives someone in need something warm for the winter.
Overall, this wonderful idea will cost a sponsor £80, which is £100 less than what River Island is selling as a fashion statement.
We understand that to stay relevant, brands have to consistently come up with new ideas to wow their customers – even if those ideas are controversial.
But we have to question what the designers were thinking when they created a coat that looks more like a pink puffer jacket with a cape-like sleeping bag attached to it.
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Is there a protest message in your new jacket's pocket? You've been shop-dropped

Is there a protest message in your new jacket's pocket? You've been shop-dropped
This London fashion week, shoppers might find themselves pondering something a little more sobering than which bar does the most Insta-worthy Louboutin-inspired pop-up cocktail menu, or how to get front-row tickets to the House of Holland show. Craftivist Collective is a group of “gentle activists” that protests against injustices in a quiet, non-confrontational manner involving pretty, handcrafted gestures of defiance. In an attempt to shine a spotlight on the ethics of the British fashion industry, its members will be spending the four-day clothing festival in high-street stores near LFW’s Somerset House base engaged in “shop-dropping”. This involves creating messages of protest, taking them into retailers and planting them inside the pockets of clothing for consumers to find. The name stems from the fact that it involves adding extra items into stores, thus making it the antithesis of shoplifting – although retailers are unlikely to appreciate the additions.
“The shops have no idea we’re doing it at all, but I can’t imagine they’d be happy if they knew,” says Sarah Corbett, the founder of Craftivist Collective, which previously convinced M&S board members to pay the living wage by stitching messages on to hankies. “We’re targeting fast fashion shops that put profit over people and the planet, so I don’t think they’d be keen on us encouraging their customers to ask questions about how their clothes were made.”
The messages take the form of “fashion statements” that are neatly handwritten on miniature scrolls. These are tied shut with a ribbon bow and contain phrases such as: “Beauty is not just in the eye of the beholder ... It is woven into the very fabric of the cloth. Our clothes can never be truly beautiful if they hide the ugliness of worker exploitation.” On the outside, they say: “Please open me.”
Corbett started shop-dropping at Stockholm fashion week in 2014, in collaboration with Fashion Revolution, a campaign group opposing worker exploitation that launched in the wake of the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse, which killed 1,135 garment workers in Dhaka, Bangadesh. For the past three years, she has been running workshops that teach craftivists how to make the fashion statements. She brings a rail of clothing that lets them practice looking natural while sneaking scrolls into pockets; as a rule, it’s not a form of protest that works in large numbers.
“We want people to discover the scrolls later on so that it’s intriguing. We hope that it might create genuine curiosity about how their clothes have been made,” says Corbett.
“I genuinely love fashion, and during fashion week there’s a spotlight on the industry. I’d like to use that so we can think about how fashion could be beautiful on the inside as well as the outside.”
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Breastfeeding on the front row: a beginner's guide

Breastfeeding on the front row: a beginner's guide
When I got pregnant last year, the first thing anybody asked me was, how would I carry on working? Maternity leave was never going to be on the cards. As a fashion blogger and writer, I knew that, from a financial standpoint, work couldn’t come to a grinding halt. But I’m blessed with a mother keen on being a hands-on grandmother, who knows how to lull a baby to sleep with Cantonese nursery rhymes, and a partner who works part-time and is a firm believer in 50/50 parenting. As my due date loomed large, I blissfully thought things would just work themselves out
Back in January, a week after I gave birth to my daughter Nico, I was still working to a print deadline – dictating sentences into my iPhone and breastfeeding at the same time, before graduating to one-handed typing. Sure, I couldn’t move my bum off the sofa because it was so painful but, hurrah, I could knock out a few paragraphs about women’s tailoring.
It was really adamance on my part to keep working. My postnatal mind was suddenly preoccupied with nappies, nap patterns and breastfeeding latch techniques. Continuing to do something familiar was my way of taking back control of my sleep-deprived, cry-addled brain. So when the requests to host panel discussions, cover shows and go on press trips started to filter in, I said yes – and delved into the conundrum of doing the fashion thing and caring for Nico.
Dressing was the least of my problems. I’ve enjoyed hunting for tops or dresses with yankable necklines and billowing hems to facilitate breastfeeding, without having to resort to dull nursing tops. Retaining my personal style was one immediate way to feel like the pre-mother me, just by pulling on, say a favourite Molly Goddard dress while worrying over Nico’s slimy green poo.
Travelling with her has had its ups and downs. There were the easy trips such as a gentle Eurostar train to Paris for the Chanel cruise show, where Nico got to stay in a hotel room bigger than my house. I chortled at her gurgling in her pram at the Prada Fondazione in Milan, with Courtney Love on the next table. On the flipside I nearly had to lock myself in the bathroom on the flight back from the Gucci cruise show in Florence, as Nico screamed relentlessly and I could see Jared Leto(who features in Gucci’s perfume ads) wincing in his seat.
When I did have to leave her behind for the Dior and Louis Vuitton cruise shows in Los Angeles and Tokyo, it required weeks of pumping like a milking cow to build up a stash in the freezer, as well as the mental preparation for doing the dastardly thing of leaving a three-month baby. The week away will be remembered for the countless lengthy trips to the toilet, pumping milk out in order to maintain supply, while looking at pictures of Nico on my phone – like a non-sexual parallel of masturbating with porn.
The fashion industry, full of inspiring women who have done the motherhood thing and managed their careers, has been a source of support in my mission to work with baby in tow. But this full-throttle life has its pitfalls. At Paris couture fashion week, stuck in traffic and late for both a show and Nico’s feeding time, I felt a failure professionally and personally.
Back home, I imagined shards of judgment from other mothers – a self-imposed guilt dictated by the construct of a conventional maternity leave where you’re supposed to be nurturing your baby 100% of the time. But will Nico remember any of those times I’ve looked at her and momentarily wished I didn’t have to shove my breast into her mouth? Not likely. Will she care that she came along for the ride with her mother and her suitcase full of frocks to eight countries in the first six months of her life? Probably not. Will she one day, eventually, understand the importance of being able to work in a vocation she is passionate about and be a mother at the same time? I hope so.
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Netflix is two decades old, so which shows have influenced your wardrobe the most

Netflix was launched exactly twenty years ago this week, and over the two decades has accumulated over 100 million subscribers worldwide and provided us not only with a means of watching out favourite movies on demand, but also with a host of addictive original TV shows, films and documentaries.
In honour of the occasion, global fashion search platform, Lyst, have looked into which of the Netflix series that have captivated our attention over the years have had the greatest influence on our wardrobes.
These are the 5 stylish shows that have had the most potent effect on the way we dress..
. House of Cards
It's no secret that Claire Underwood, the formidable and exceptionally polished First Lady played by Robin Wright in Netflix' House of Cards, is a fictional fashion plate in her own right. From the perfectly structured tailoring that's nipped and tucked until it looks like a second skin, to the sky-high heels that she strides around in as if they were sneakers; her sartorial prowess has garnered more than 19,000 Instagram hashtags to date. Indeed, her glossy exterior has even led to comparisons being drawn between her and her off-screen counterpart, First Lady Melania Trump.
In the 30 days following the release of the third season of House of Cards, searches for 'women's tailoring' increased 18% compared to the previous month, with searches for boleros - a style that Underwood often sports - having steadily increased since the launch of the show.
What's more, when Wright's character appeared on-screen in an ivory Alexander McQueen sheath dress in the first season, Lyst saw searches for the style triple. And following the arrival of the latest and fifth season, this knock on effect shows no signs of waning, with the Dolce & Gabbana dress worn by Underwood causing 12,000 shoppers to search for the style.
Stranger Things
Eleven, the protagonist played by Millie Bobby Brown in Netflix' spooky show Stranger Things that launched last year, has also gained herself status as a style icon. Not only did she provide inspiration for an exceptionally large number of Halloween costumes last year (think smock dresses layered underneath lightweight coach jackets, paired with sporty shin-grazing socks), but a pink Peter Pan collar dress, which bore close resemblance to that worn by Bobby Brown's on-screen character, was viewed once every 3 minutes on Lyst last September.
“These spikes may have been caused by repeated exposure to the fashion trends on-screen, sometimes as a result of binge-watching, strengthening long term memory of items, in turn, affecting what you want to buy,'' says Barrie Gunter, pyschologist and emeritus professor in media.
And Eleven wasn't the only fashion influencer to emerge from the show. Barb, the red haired, glasses and plaid shirt- wearing character who mysteriously disappears early on in the first season, also gained herself a following, with 271 people typing 'Barb' into Lyst between August and mid-September, seeking to emulate her unique brand of geek-chic.
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Channing Tatum Reveals The 'Cruel' Proposal Prank He Pulled On Wife Jenna Dewan-Tatum
Asking someone to spend the rest of their life with you is a pretty big deal, let alone planning how you're going to get down on one knee.
So, spare a moment to think of Channing Tatum who recently revealed his proposal fail to wife Jenna Dewan-Tatum.
In an interview with BBC Radio 1's Nick Grimshaw yesterday, the Logan Lucky star revealed his proposal ended in tears, and not in a good way.
'When I proposed to my wife I did something pretty cruel because I thought she was on to me. I basically told her I never wanted to get married to try to throw her off,' the 37-year-old actor recalled.
'I told her, "I don't believe in the institution of marriage and I don't think I ever want to get married". She basically broke down crying,' he added. 'I thought, "This is not going well at all' so I had to propose to her sooner rather than later."
I mean, joking that you don't believe in marriage to the woman you want to marry isn't exactly the way to go about a proposal.
Fortunately, the actor - who met his wife on the set of the 2006 dance film Step Up and is father to four-year-old Everly - appears to have learned his lesson when it comes to romantic gestures and helped a radio caller surprise his girlfriend over the phone.
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