Fashion & style
fromElite Traveler
8 hours agoThe Brooch Is Back in Style - Here's How to Make It Modern
Brooches are being reimagined as modern art objects, moving away from traditional uses to become integral parts of contemporary fashion.
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.
Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway kicked off their global press tour for 'The Devil Wears Prada 2' in Mexico City at Museu Frida Kahlo, debuting new looks for the evening.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
The earliest jewellery ever discovered wasn't gold or gemstone at all, but fish bones. In prehistoric times, hunters wore bones, teeth and claws from their kills as talismans of luck and prowess. For Italian shoe maestro Giuseppe Zanotti - famous for his sculptural, jewel-encrusted heels - this idea of turning humble scraps into ornamentation has long been second nature; during a seaside dinner in 2004, Zanotti sketched a fish skeleton on a tablecloth.
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.
Studying abroad in Florence was one of the best decisions of my life for a multitude of reasons-I lived like a true local, ate some of the best meals I've ever had, deepened my appreciation for art and history, learned Italian, and was able to travel to five countries and two continents in just three and a half months. But most importantly, it immersed me in a culture where personal style is second nature, quickly teaching me how to dress in a sophisticated, timeless,