Fashion

Fashion advice for those experiencing symptoms of menopause – particularly hot flushes – has rarely ventured beyond wearing light, loose layers. Now, however, several brands are developing clothes with technology designed for menopausal women. An anti-flush nightdress is the bestselling item for clothing brand Become, which was launched in 2016 and has this year seen sales rise by 213%. Another brand, Cucumber Clothing, sells garments made using “volcanic mineral to help keep your body at the ideal core temperature”. Its range includes nightdresses, track pants and pyjamas. Fifty One Apparel, launched last year with the slogan “cool clothes for hot women”, says its technology “ensures heat is taken away from the body and stored and released back when the body begins to cool down”. The Fifty One Apparel owner Louise Nicholson said: “I had a textile agency and was selling fabrics to the big retailers. I was listening to a guy on the … [Read more...] about At last… the world of fashion embraces the menopause

If you thought stickers were the preserve of toddlers’ books and playgrounds, think again. Branded stickers are now among the fashion industry’s most sought-after items, something to slap on laptops and lunchboxes as a way of conveying an affinity with a label at a fraction of the cost of buying its goods. Last week, skateboard brand Palace released its winter sticker pack and it sold out within an hour. With other rare versions, such as a single Supreme x Playboy sticker, reselling online for as much as £200, the big-name fashion brands are also jumping on the bandwagon. Calvin Klein Jeans recently made stickers using a classic 1980s image by Richard Avedon of Brooke Shields, while the fashion brand Coach has produced leather stickers, and Berlin’s hip o32c magazine featured sticker sheets from Louis Vuitton’s creative director, Virgil Abloh. A partnership between the luggage manufacturer Rimowa and Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson yielded a limited … [Read more...] about Get stuck in: how the humble sticker went high-fashion

Sophia Kokosalaki, the London-based Greek designer, has died at the age of 47. Kokosalaki was known for her talent for drapery and clothes that had a female-friendly glamour. They were worn on the red carpet by Chloë Sevigny, Kirsten Dunst and Jennifer Connelly. The fashion world took to social media to express their grief about the news. Journalist Melanie Rickey, writing on her @fashioneditoratlarge Instagram account, called Kokosalaki: “a brilliant and hugely talented designer who reinvented drape and Greek craft into exquisite high fashion.” Fashion critic Sarah Mower posted a picture of the designer bowing at the end of a catwalk with the caption: “Mourning the loss of dear Sophia Kokosalaki, a great talent, sister pioneer of the London fashion new wave of the 2000s, Greek fashion heroine.” Kokosalaki introduced her label at London fashion week in 1999, and was part of a generation of fashion talent in the capital in the early noughties. A graduate of … [Read more...] about Fashion designer Sophia Kokosalaki dies aged 47

The climate crisis was on the agenda again at London fashion week on Monday, with sustainability experts and activists taking part in a symposium at the Finnish Institute focusing on creativity and sustainability. It was in keeping with fashion week so far, which has seen Extinction Rebellion activists stage a “die-in” and swarm the Victoria Beckham show, one of the week’s highest-profile events, hoping to force the industry to take the climate emergency seriously. The symposium was a follow-up to July’s Helsinki fashion week, which is open exclusively to designers and brands who produce sustainable collections. Similar events have already taken place in New York, and there are more planned for Paris and Milan – part of a programme focusing on sustainability and the identity of each host city. For London’s instalment, which was chaired by Helsinki fashion week’s founder, Evelyn Mora, creativity was deemed an appropriate topic given the British … [Read more...] about ‘It’s finding something new in the old’: how fashion can confront the climate crisis

I love fashion. I love going to catwalk shows. I love getting dressed up. I love the illicit thrill of some frippery I can’t really afford, accompanied by the rustle of tissue paper in a crisp shopping bag – a sound bested only by a champagne cork popping. And that’s not even the half of it. More than anything, I love the thrill of the high street chase. I love stopping a woman on the street to ask where her dress is from, and hunting it down and ordering it from my phone at the bus stop. I have been known to go weak at the knees over new suede boots and I will never, ever have enough earrings. But you know what else I love? Living in a climate that doesn’t fry me alive. Oceans with fish and icebergs in them rather than plastic. Mars is a long way – and besides, Elon Musk? No thanks. Which means I need to love clothes in a way that doesn’t create huge amounts of waste and use a disproportionate amount of the world’s carbon budget. It is obscene … [Read more...] about The fashion editor’s eco-makeover: can I rethink my love affair with clothes?