Back in late 2018 when I took a plane to Italy’s fashion capital, Milan, little did I realise that an event I attended among a host of top listed on the Borsa Italiana and some unquoted companies would prove key to a story I penned on an advertising debacle that one major Italian fashion house had unwittingly caused in China.
Veterans from the British Army's 1st Battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment, ‘The VIKINGS’, are set to hit the catwalk this coming September during London Fashion Week (LFW). They will include and feature two amputees - walking wounded - as part of efforts to challenge the stigma associated with war wounded in society at large.
International Excellence Magazine photographed its latest fashion shoot at Worplesdon Golf Club, a gorgeous 18 hole golf club just outside Woking, known for its classic Surrey Heathland layout and superb short holes.
The greens are excellent and amongst the best in Surrey. Built on predominantly Bagshot sand, the course drains well in the winter and becomes very much the inland links course the heathland courses are famed for in the summer.
International Excellence Luxury Magazine photographed the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider at The Devonshire Club in London. This little beauty in yellow drew many admiring glances during the shoot, and was a delight to drive through London even during rush hour.
Our own Yves de Contades photographed the lovely Zavi (Zavinta Karsokaite) from Profile Models, who was a pleasure to work with and strikingly beautiful from every angle.
These days London living comes with the convenience of a plethora of on-demand businesses that offer a dizzying array of services. Aside from the usual Amazon delivery or regular weekly shop, anything from dog sitters to dry cleaning services to kick boxing lessons can be on your doorstep with the click of a mouse, press of a button or tap on a screen.
Our consumption of fashion is evolving. The throwaway days of ‘new season, new wardrobe’ seem to be numbered as we seek a more sustainable approach to all aspects of our lives, not just the fashionable ones. This evolution is fuelled for some by pragmatism, for others by altruism, but for the majority by a desire for our purchases to exist beyond a few seasons, or even just a few outings. Maximalist founder of the website, Man Repeller, Leandra Medine, recently told British Vogue that she wished she only owned 15 things.
A group of people are huddled over a pair of Louboutin pumps with a broken steel stiletto. An animated discussion ensues about the best course of action for returning the shoes to their former glory.
In another corner, a team of cleaners are using sharp objects and toothbrushes to clean each trend on a pair of Youth Boots.
And in another part of the room tissue is being pushed into toe cavities, cotton dust bags are being ironed and black grosgrain ribbon is being cut to tie the beautifully branded bags together for return to their hopeful owners.
Helena Bonham Carter in a Glass Elevator, Karen Elson with a crocodile on her bed and Boris Johnson sat on a girder at the Olympic Park are amongst the eye-catching juxtapositions on show at Manchester Art Gallery in the free exhibition Vogue 100: A Century of Style.
A former banker at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, who worked in London and Madrid for nearly a decade, has embarked on a mission to raise standards in luxury swim shorts right from the heart of Punta del Este in south-eastern Uruguay on the Atlantic coast. The goal is to tap a share of a booming swimwear market.
Dandyism transgressed: the necktie in the feminine .
For her new Autumn/Winter 2014/15 Collection, Fatima Guerrout has subverted the supreme accessory of male dandyism: the necktie, which we find knotted around the waist of a lace dress as a belt to slim down the silhouette, or feminising a masculine suit. Balzac said that the necktie "helps us to judge the person wearing it." This season, it will reveal the women who choose it as an emblem of elegance.
