Fashion & style
fromElite Traveler
9 hours agoIs Alaia's First Denim Collection Actually a Recession Indicator?
Alaïa's first dedicated denim collection redefines jeans as a sophisticated, body-conscious staple rather than just casual wear.
An engagement ring is more than a piece of jewellery, it is a symbol of commitment. Couples are moving away from mass‑produced designs, preferring rings that capture their unique journey.
Craft is often defined as skill in making things by hand, but this interpretation is being challenged by AI. Craft transcends physical interaction; historical figures like Mozart and Beethoven exemplify mastery without traditional methods.
"It's a really special spot. When you start at the top and move down the gently sloped ramp, you almost feel like a marble tumbling down, looking at art as you roll by. The slight slant plays with your sense of perspective and grounding."
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.
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
I designed this bag in the same way I designed everything else, so largely based on right angles, but perhaps a little more emotionally, more personally. Designing a handbag is undoubtedly different to designing a Braun stereo system, but I applied the same principles. It had to be functional, visually durable, and very aesthetic. Less, but better.
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.
Everybody thought I would make oversized bomber jackets with monograms, said the mononymous king-of-the-hoodie designer after the show. That's what ChatGPT said, apparently. But that's not why I came to Gucci. Instead, he said, his Gucci will be energy, passion, fun and sex.
In the show, "dirty" extends to anything that breaks fashion's pact with propriety. Here are clothes caked in grime, blotted with makeup, stiffened by salt, pieced from trash, frayed, and faded. The garments span decades, from the 1980s through the mid-2000s, when the likes of Vivienne Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier built their fame on defying convention, to today, when corporatization has made such daring increasingly rare. But forgoing practicality frees certain designers from the demands that the body be polite-and thereby policed.
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).
Travelling for art can be incredibly virtuous and culturally rewarding, like collecting souvenirs for your eyes (and from the post card rail in the gift shop). Remembering to research what is on before I book flights is a lesson I learnt all too well after I missed the Metropolitan Museum's fashion exhibition in 2016 by one day. As a fashion obsessed 20 something, I did not take this well and have since improved my itinerary planning and exhibition calendar checking.
Embroidery is a historic mainstay of traditional clothing in Asia or the Middle East, as well as Western Haute Couture, but it is increasingly present in Paris, Milan or New York on modern men's shirts, bomber jackets or blazers. Designers at Dior, Dolce Gabbana, Kenzo or Gucci have adopted it in recent runway shows, while Louis Vuitton's celebrity rapper-designer Pharell Williams dedicated his entire June collection to India after visiting the country.
It's not a multi-thousand pound handbag from Hermes that best captures the new era of It bags, but a 149 tote from John Lewis. Launched this season, it's deeper (45cm) and taller (33cm) than your average handbag, and comes loaded with good intentions. It's able to hold your packed lunch, flask and book, as well at a push as your gym kit.
What exactly Giorgio Armani looks like without its eponymous founder at the helm has been the burning question in the fashion industry since the designer's death in September. In Milan on Monday afternoon, it got its answer as the designer's collaborator and right-hand man of four decades, Leo Dell'Orco, made his debut at the Italian fashion house where he will oversee menswear for the foreseeable future. It was the first Armani collection in which the late designer had no involvement.
On the first day of Berlin Fashion Week, Maqu unveiled its Fall/Winter 2026 collection, La Dama del Cacao, a masterful exploration of contemporary Peruvian minimalism. This capsule collection is a testament to material innovation, embodying a thoughtful design philosophy that marries textile memory and regenerative principles. Crafted from luxurious alpaca yarns, organic cotton, and pioneering biomaterials, each piece is a result of meticulous hand-knitting techniques and artisanal machinery.
What is haute couture? It's an existential, philosophical question that always arises around this fashion as art form, an anachronism in our modern world. Why does couture persist? Why should it exist? It's something designers are grappling with this week, not least Matthieu Blazy in his Chanel haute couture debut. For him, couture is about intimacy, privacy, and an impossible, almost unbearable lightness. Couture is about doing what has never been done before. He made this Chanel collection directly on the body.