My ‘smart’phone thinks I’m black! It started when I began to research black culture, and more specifically, black women’s hair and beauty on social media. My search page on Instagram is now filled with people that don’t look like me – for the record I’m a white middle-aged woman of British/Italian descent who is now … Read more
London’s first Première Vision Denim tradeshow has finished, and what now? Orders have been taken, fabric sampled and visitors have been updated on the latest fabric and fashion trends. One thing is clear, all of these denim businesses are now actively working towards reducing their impact on the planet – or are they? In an … Read more
You could ask how a book on tailoring fits into the fast-paced, tech-driven world of today – how is it relevant? Isn’t the craft dying out, or at best shrinking? What comes to mind when you think about a tailor, what is it you picture? An elderly gent in a cramped room marking fabric with … Read more
The conversations between street photographers are often cut short, what might be considered rude behaviour – checking over the shoulder of the person you’re talking to and/or walking off mid-sentence – is perfectly acceptable outside any Fashion Week show. One of the questions that usually gets asked is “Where are you off to next?”, or “Are you going to___” fill the blank with any of the ‘Big Four’ names. These places monopolise press coverage and the direction of trends. Right now the running order for the womenswear circuit begins with New York, then London, Milan and Paris. Of course, there are fashion weeks happening all over the world – Malta Fashion Week anyone? – but, for second-tier cities it is hard to be heard against all the noise from the established Big Four.
I thought I knew a bit about the Italian fashion giant Gianfranco Ferré, after all I used to own one of his bags but, as it turns out, that was a bit of a red herring; because it was through that bag that I made a lot of assumptions. The main one being that the … Read more
You could be forgiven for thinking that the fashion industry isn’t the best friend of the planet. Much of what we hear in the news highlights the mountains of waste, the colossal amounts of water used in clothing production and it seems we’re personally responsible for the tiny polyester particles that find their way into … Read more
