Diane Ackerman 
That’s the thing with the Paris show schedule: From designer to designer, show to show, a mood shift is positively guaranteed. That was certainly the case when going from the bravura maximalist theater of Alessandro Michele’s runway debut for Valentino to the cheery welcoming calm of Margaret Howell’s showroom, where Howell and her design directors … Read more
Associated with everyone from Bet Lynch to Mel B, and sometimes dubbed a “neutral” by fashion insiders, leopard print is such a stalwart of style that it can be dated back to ancient Egypt. But in 2024 it is having something of a fashion moment once again. Last week Kate Moss wore a leopard print … Read more
When things get really bad, at some point one has to convince oneself they can’t get any worse. To that end, Mira Mikati is determined to keep looking on the bright side, come hell or high water. “If you think there’s no chance, then there isn’t,” she said during a preview. “I always believe that … Read more
A British fashion designer said rediscovering one of her long-lost designs, which was found in an Oxfam charity shop after nearly 40 years, had been like seeing a childagain. Jean Pallant was told the orange coat with large buttons she created at her kitchen table in 1988 had turned up in a donation bag at … Read more
So much for British creativity. Ashish Gupta entrusted the art direction of this lookbook to former Fashion East-ers James Theseus Buck and Luke Brooks of Rottingdean Bazaar, along with the photographer Annie Collinge. This is the same trio that won this year’s Grammy for best recording package. However they seemed to be phoning it in … Read more
Valentino was the hottest ticket of this Paris fashion week, and the show had a sense of occasion to match. A vast floor was laid with smashed mirror tiles, glittering like a ballroom after an earthquake. Five hundred armchairs and a smattering of glowing lamps lay beneath a shroud of white sheets, as if a … Read more
I’ve been waking up on Sunday morning to watch a streaming (or, back in the day, TiVoed) episode of last night’s Saturday Night Live since I was in middle school. It’s a ritual I’ve come to depend on, even when the episode in question is a little lighter on laughs than one might hope for. … Read more
While for many people the question of being dressed boils down to whether or not a pair of trousers is on the right way round or a matching pair of socks has been mustered from the laundry, for Victoria Beckham, the notion of being in a state of dress, or undress, is much less quotidian. … Read more
It was a big week for fashion sightings. The spring 2025 shows during Paris Fashion Week, for one, have served up plenty of A-list spottings—and mix in some big Hollywood premieres (Joker 2!) and the annual Albie Awards in New York City, and we suddenly had ourselves a celebrity-filled few days. The best dressed stars … Read more
My sister-in-law gets her dairy products delivered weekly from an outfit called Milk & More, whose business model is designed to preserve the legacy of the traditional milkman. A routine weekly order suits her family very well, though sometimes they do accrue an excess, which they often give to us. She recently dropped by three … Read more
