David Bowie

The culture of fashion: Agnès B



Agnès b in the first Rue du Jour store in 1976

French Girl Style – it’s the aesthetic that just won’t stop giving. And with the Paris Olympics mere hours away, you’d better buckle up, as it’s about to become even more omnipresent. The reason French Girl Style aka garconne style resonates is its timelessness, its realness, and its rooted-in-utility-ness. Oh, and something else really important – culture.

And who better to illustrate this point than Agnès B? (more…)



Everything Japan: J-Wellness, Terahaku, Yasuko Takahashi and more



David Bowie and stylist Yasuko Takahashi

With the Tokyo Olympics happening this summer, the spotlight is firmly on Japan.

For starters, I’m looking forward to the V&A’s Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk exhibition, which opens on 29th February. With its vast archives, this is the kind of exhibition the V&A does really well, time travelling from rare 17th and 18th century kimono to contemporary streetwear via Kawakubo and Galliano – that’s got be good!

Meanwhile, Sunspel is also feeling the Japan love this spring, collaborating with three contemporary Japanese brands – 45R, N.Hoolywood and Beams – on a capsule collection of men’s and womenswear. I like this 45R interpretation of the Sunspel Sun and Cloud logo, using an indigo dye cloud placement on a white cotton tee (below). All products will be available in Sunspel* shops and online from 7th March. (more…)



What’s on your reading list?



The World of Apartamento book
Continuing on last week’s #namastayinbed theme, we’ve reached peak hygge time of year, aka annual book-buying season. December and January are the only months of the year I get time to properly absorb myself in books, so I’m looking forward to getting stuck into Sally Rooney’s Normal People and Michelle Obama’s Becoming. No spoilers please!

The rest of the year, I just accept I don’t have the attention span for deep absorption books. Instead I go for dip-in-able non-fiction stuff, which is probably why I like oral histories and diaries. I’m late to Tina Brown’s The Vanity Fair Diaries but it’s on my Christmas list, as is Uncovered: Revolutionary Magazine Covers – The Inside Stories Told by the People Who Made Them  (more…)