business of beauty

Trend report: What to wear for SS23



WWD backstage at Jil Sander SS23

Let’s say it now, there’s not a lot of newness around at the mo. The world’s in flux, designers are scared for their jobs, no one’s taking risks and the big brands especially just wanna sell. Who can blame them? BOF’s Angelo Flaccavento was maybe a bit harsh with his ‘clothes to die from not for’ (lol) summing up of MFW SS23, but he had a point. It’s a commercial season, so let’s just get that out of the way. Honestly, I’m not sad about the black-everything revival, I can’t complain about the loafer love-fest and as a New Luddite, it’s great to see women’s watches in the spotlight. Read on for my round-up of what I’ll be wearing and doing this season… (more…)



Into this: Air Mail’s new beauty beat



Air Mail look - Barbara Sturm profile

“They bled in velvet-tufted hotel suites and town-house living rooms. They bled in conference rooms at Condé Nast and Net-a-Porter. They bled at the bar of the now- defunct Cafe Clover in New York’s West Village neighborhood while the scents of lavender waffles and quinoa pancakes collided in the air for one of the brand’s earliest recorded press events, in 2016. I didn’t get to go, but my boss at the time did. She returned to the office a few fluid ounces lighter, painted with a newfound glow. Not the glow that could, in theory, be delivered by the blood’s own healing proteins when applied topically to the skin—her blood cream would arrive a week later—but the incandescence of somebody recently exposed to an intense source of light. She had met Barbara, and she had fallen in love. The doctor’s charisma had seared her to the bone.” (more…)



Business of beauty: Ami Colé for melanin-rich skinimalists



Ami Cole Skin-enhancing Tint

New on my radar: Ami Colé. This beauty brand caught my eye a few weeks ago on Violet Grey*, first for its clean branding and packaging, followed by the subtly enhancing products – tinted moisturisers*, barely-there highlighter* and non-ashy loose powders in a spectrum of inclusive shades.

Founded by New Yorker Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye, it’s a far cry from the matte full coverage and ‘baked’ concealer aesthetic of recent years and sits somewhere between Glossier’s barely-there look and the gentle 90s glamour of Naomi Campbell (or what TikTok calls ‘UK Black Girl Make-up‘. (more…)



Hermès Hermesistible lip oil gloss



Hermes Beauty Hermesistible lip oil gloss

Sales at Hermès are up 27% this quarter and 95% of that is attributed to its £58 lipsticks.

I jest of course! And yet, quite when it became normal to sell lipstick and lip gloss for over £40 I’m not sure. I feel like it wasn’t that long ago that Tom Ford’s £36 lipsticks were a Big Deal. Maybe the lipstick index is real after all. John Lewis is selling the new Hermès Hermèsistible Infused Care lip oil* for £44 and I do agree it looks sublime, but still. (more…)