Bruce Weber

The culture of fashion: kilty pleasures



Le Kilt

It’s 30 years since Marc Jacobs’ fateful Perry Ellis grunge collection, so a good time for one revival in particular. This autumn I’m excited for the return of the kilt, the old money staple that straddles childhood nostalgia and tradition (think school uniforms and the Queen off-duty) and pop culture subversion (70s punk, 90s grunge, Cher from Clueless).

This season, Burberry has cleverly revived it as a youthful house code in an effort to ramp up Daniel Lee’s modern Brit vision. (more…)



Taking a moment



Bruce Weber
When did self-care become a dirty word? The concept originated in the late 60s by radical feminists wanting to empower women by teaching them to get to know their anatomies. But in recent years, ‘self-care’ has come to encompass the Goopification of beauty, aka a capitalist catch-all that couches healthy habits and ancestral rituals in spa language and posh packaging. My take on self-care is somewhere in the middle. Nice-to-have products (that don’t have to be expensive) and free DIY practices to maintain health and wellbeing rather than ‘optimising’. (more…)



Luis Venegas on the underrated craft of designer catalogues and printed matter



Luis Venegas by Fede Delibes

“Every six months, when the season was changing, I took the train from my little hometown to Barcelona and spent a whole afternoon going from Armani to Versace to Donna Karan, all the fashion luxury stores, collecting that season’s paper footprint. I was 13 or 14 years old and carried around a backpack full of catalogues. As for the brands we didn’t have in Barcelona, such as Yohji Yamamoto, I would flick through magazines and go to the gutter, the brand credits: usually on the very last pages, I would discover the telephone number of this or that store. I would ring from the house telephone to Paris or Milan – God knows in what language, some kind of English I hope – and I would request these catalogues. Even though I was a child, they would send them to me.” (more…)



What’s The deal with ‘Old Money Style’?



Stella Tennant Italian Vogue

“It’s sort of a hilariously on-the-nose name; “old money” gets right to the point of what all fashion trends ultimately are, which are displays of conspicuous consumption. Yet it seems to be arriving right on time, as a counterweight and companion to the loud, whimsical design associated with Gen Z and the name brand-heavy “California rich” look the Kardashians made inescapable.”

Boom – Rebecca Jennings from Vox just nailed my current penchant for what TikTokkers have dubbed Old Money Aesthetic. (#OldMoneyAesthetic.) That is, olde worlde Wasp cashmeres, hand-me-down Hermès (like, a custom shooting bag, not a ‘notice me’ new money Birkin), somebody’s grandfather’s Rolex Explorer (found on 1stdibs) – you get the idea. (more…)