24 May, 2019

Airports want your beauty dollars

Susana Chaves

A few years ago I was obsessed with the concept of ‘airport fashion’. A craze originating in Korea, it was about dressing up for the airport, shopping up a storm in duty free and documenting it all on social media. Back then we were witnessing the rise of K Fashion, street style and the experiential economy, all merging in a retail sweet spot for airports to reposition themselves as luxury shopping malls. In fact, so great was this opportunity that travel retail came to be known as ‘the sixth continent’, with a billion consumers passing through it.

Fast-forward five years and it’s beauty’s turn to grab the spotlight and the um, travellers cheques. (more…)

Disneyrollergirl 0 Comments Beauty, Brands, Business of fashion, News, Retail concepts, Shopping, Technology, Trends airport beauty, airport fashion, Chanel, Drunk Elephant, Gelcream, La Bouche Rouge, long read, Niche Beauty, Patchology, Shiseido, shopping, Summer Fridays, travel beauty

14 May, 2019

Denim update: Chimala – Japanese do it better

Chimala Monroe Jeans

Further to my jeans post, I tried the 701s. Oh dear oh dear, what was I thinking? Great if you’re 7 feet tall, fugeddaboudit otherwise! The denim was nice though.

On the white 501s front, I bought a pair of the 501 cropped from Next of all places (first thing I’ve ever bought from Next I think!), because they had my size and they do click and collect. I have to say, the shopping experience was smooth and painless. The jeans are OK, not particularly cropped but I’ll just turn them up like I do my other ones. (more…)

Disneyrollergirl 6 Comments Brands, Design, News, Shopping, Trends Chimala, denim, gentlewoman style, positive fashion, shopping, Tiina The Store, trends

5 May, 2019

The Drg Style Index: Wales Bonner, Muji, Chanel, Shiseido, WeChat, Nike and more…

Here’s the latest weekly DRG STYLE INDEX ranking, a round-up of the brands and industry stories currently buzzing on my radar…

WALES BONNER WINS
Wales Bonner SS19 by Harley Weir

It’s been a big old week for Grace Wales Bonner. On Wednesday she was named as the winner of the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund £200k prize, while also collaborating with Dior on its 2020 Resort collection and hosting a ‘devotional meditative sound experience’ in New York with Solange Knowles, as part of Frieze. The prize win is a pretty good accolade, not that it’s the magic bullet people assume it is. Thomas Tait, who won the LVMH Prize in 2014, opened up recently about the reality behind the facade of young designer ‘success’. It’s still tough out there… (more…)

Disneyrollergirl 0 Comments Beauty, Brands, Business of fashion, Design, Fashion shows, News, Photography, Retail concepts, Technology, Trends A.P.C, beauty, Chanel, Dior, DRG style, DRG Style Index, Fashion Foie Gras, Frieze, Glossy, Gucci, influencers, Nike, Resort 2020, Shiseido, The Beauty Conversation, Virginie Viard, Wales Bonner, WeChat

30 April, 2019

Come to my panel talk – A Just Cause at The Pilgrm Hotel

Jacques Henri Lartigue

“We’ve been living in a world where packaging equals luxury. Now packaging equals waste. People don’t want it any more.” REN CEO, Arnaud Meysselle.

A radical shift is happening in beauty, fashion and, well, lifestyle generally. As REN CEO Arnaud Meysselle points out in The Guardian, consumers are waking up and smelling the (artisanal, transparently produced) coffee in a bid to live more considerately…

Which brings me to a panel event I’ll be moderating in a couple of weeks at The Pilgrm Hotel in Paddington. ‘A Just Cause’ brings together REN’s Arnaud Meysselle (of the above quote), Workshop Coffee CMO Richard Frazier, and Grenson owner and creative director, Tim Little to discuss their takes on cause and purpose and what they’re doing to champion the movement of responsibility. (more…)