In 1971, Manolo Blahnik created shoes for the designer Ossie Clark's catwalk show in London. Relatively new to shoemaking, the Spanish designer forgot to put steel pins in the heels of the shoes, which meant that models wobbled, unbalanced, down the catwalk.
Clare Vivier and Heather Taylor have perfected the art of hosting by dividing responsibilities, with Vivier focusing on wine and Taylor on flowers and dessert. Their friendship of 20 years has led to a seamless collaboration that enhances the dinner party experience.
Regardless of the address, the revered fashion designer always, unabashedly, combined old with new, shedding fresh light on various historical design movements and their most important pioneers. Most of these homes have been the subject of expansive magazine print features and the fodder of tabloid headlines but little focus has ever really been placed on his workspaces.
Participating in London Fashion Week is not a luxury but a necessity for any emerging brand aiming to go global. It's your ticket to the world of international fashion. - Katie England, Creative Director of Topshop and curator of the New Generation program
Fifteen years after the death of Lee McQueen, the brand is struggling to maintain momentum. The founder is a hallowed name in the fashion industry, and one of the few modern designers to whose character and story the wider public feel a connection. But the generation who wore McQueen's original bumsters have aged out of shock-value fashion, and the name has less power over younger consumers.
In 1994, when the grunge aesthetic gripped the nation (chokers, combat boots), the make-up artist Heidi Morawetz created Le Vernis Rouge Noir. There and then, backstage at Chanel's Autumn/Winter ready to wear show, she mixed black and reds until the shade emerged - a perfect blend of rebellion and conformity; not too black, not too red, not too bold, and not too boring.
That space wasn't some lavish backdrop to Saint Laurent's entertaining but, rather, a living, breathing collaborator in his creative enterprises. Yves Saint Laurent gets a Matisse, then makes a Matisse dress; Bergé buys Goya's 1791 Portrait de Luis María de Cistué y Martínez, and Saint Laurent translates that baby Spanish aristocrat's pink sash to a bowed 1983 evening gown.
I'm obsessed with clichés. Because for me they are the equivalent of universal recognisable codes. It was important to call it that as a way of assuming the word. It's about tapping into cliché.
People have a lot of ideas of what Chanel is, or rather what it should be. One word that doesn't come up much, though, is rebellious - yet that's exactly what Chanel the woman was and what Chanel the house remains. Rather than rebellion, 'paradox' was the word used by Matthieu Blazy, Chanel's artistic director of fashion collections, backstage after his debut show for the maison in October.
The end of the show did not mark the end of the trip. Back at the Le Grand Bellevue the group divided between fireside hot chocolates and the hotel's spa. The hotel's Le Grand Spa is over 3,000 square metres and has eight different types of saunas, several ice showers, foot baths and an outdoor bubble pool (named thus as it's bigger than your standard jacuzzi).
Speaking backstage before the show, Anderson, dressed in his signature faded Levi's jeans and a navy cashmere sweater, described the collection as another character study, explaining that this time he set out to explore the idea of a new aristocracy, questioning what it means today and what can it be? The-41-year old designer said when it came to the social hierarchy he wanted to ignore the aspect of money and instead home in on their eccentricity.
Play Hard captures the essence of growing up surrounded by the echoes of empty arcades, the chill of coastal winds, and fleeting moments of joy found in skateboarding culture. It reflects on personal memories shaped by resilience, freedom, and creativity in an environment where opportunities were scarce. The collection embraces an aesthetic that values imperfection, emphasising the beauty found in fragility and the strength derived from community.
Pharrell Williams has grand designs for Louis Vuitton - and not just for your back. His Autumn/Winter 2026 show took place around an ergonomic wood and moulded glass edifice he named the Drophaus , presumably so-called because you can bung it anywhere and it's ready to go, like a pop-up Glastonbury tent but far more glamorous (and, indeed, expensive). Louis Vuitton is about travel,
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