Beauty

Old and new beauty 2023



Kees van Dongen - L’Ecuyere Rosa

2023 hasn’t been a massive beauty product year for me. Since trialling Renude’s skincare advisory a while ago, I’ve stuck to a few regular trusted skincare products. Plus, I don’t get sent nearly as much PR stuff to try these days, which is something of a relief. But here’s an end-of-year rundown of new-ish products I’ve been enjoying and old ones that still deliver. (more…)



Secret London: Clifford Street



Perfumer H Clifford Street

Clifford Street, a London gem so discreet I can never quite locate it, just got more inviting.

If you ever need some respite from the madness of New Bond Street and Regent Street, just look for the wee street opposite the Dior flagship on Bond. Here you’ll find Morris’s café for a cuppa (and occasional sighting of Bill Nighy), Connolly’s leathergoods and fabulous oversize knits, Adret’s relaxed-yet-always-refined contemporary menswear, and all manner of gentlemanly ready-to-wear finds at Anderson & Sheppard Haberdashery (in a past life this was the rather more flamboyant Mr Fish). (more…)



Prada SS24 – opposites attract



Prada SS24 womenswear

Prada SS24 was a fabulous hybrid of utility toughness and romantic flou. And I’m very much here for it. The same iridescent gloop we saw for the menswear show oozed from the ceiling giving us a kind of syrupy veil to look through.

I always love Prada’s show styling. Here, I liked the oversized Barbour-eque jackets and see-through skirts, and the tucked-in trouser suits with supersized sleeves and unbuttoned flappy cuffs. This look was especially sharp in the shorts suit paired with chiselled Derbys and ankle socks, although I fear it will be annoyingly omnipresent on the nepo-model set – Hayley, Kendall – sigh. (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…)