The Glossary Spring 2024

Twiggy!

Barbara Hulanicki!

The Swinging Sixties!

Editor’s Letter

It’s hard to imagine London in the Swinging Sixties without Barbara Hulanicki. Through her clothing and lifestyle brand

Biba and its avant-garde stores in Kensington, she introduced the post-war generation to an affordable new world of colour, fun and innovation, forever democratising glamour and cementing her place in fashion history.

A new exhibition at the Fashion & Textile Museum, The Biba Story, 1964-1975, celebrates Barbara and the Biba years in all their devoréd, sequinned, gold laméd glory. To coincide with the show, Barbara speaks exclusively to The Glossary about ripping up the style rule book, freedom of self-expression and her long-lasting friendship with our cover star, the model and cultural icon Twiggy, who so perfectly encapsulated the youthful energy and optimism of the era.

And while Barbara was a pioneer in the 1960s (as well as leaving an indelible mark on the retail landscape, she was the first to bring out a cosmetic range for Black skin, as well as being an advocate for the nascent queer community), fast forward six decades and the designers of today continue to challenge the status quo. Not least the visionary London-based American-British designer Harris Reed, whose bold, boundary-shifting clothes call into question gender norms. He takes time out of his packed schedule to talk to The Glossary about fluidity, individuality and his own identity renaissance.

Elsewhere in the issue we look at the magnificent gemstones and exquisite artistry of this season’s high jewellery collections, and shine a spotlight on the new wave of jewellery designers who are currently dazzling the capital. Plus, our Beauty Director Alessandra Steinherr highlights the key beauty trends of 2024, from ‘glass skin’ to espresso makeup; Hilary Armstrong samples the latest dining spots in the city; and Pearl Lowe shares her guide to vintage interiors.

Enjoy the issue.

Charlotte Adsett, Editorial Director

Liquid Assets

Gucci Allegoria Collection

Noughties icon Daria Webowy makes a splash in Sabato De Sarno’s latest high jewellery collection that takes its inspiration from the maritime world. gucci.com

Edit

Feel uplifted with this season’s most joyful nds

It’s a Wrap

Lustre for Life

Completedworks Pearly Pearl Vase, from £525 With its sculptural shape and faux pearl bows, this vase will outshine your owers. completedworks.com

Dior Scarves. Fashion Stories, £75

This new fashion co ee table book is a visual atlas of 425 silk scarves and their signi cance at the house of Dior. thamesandhudson.com

© Brigitte Niedermair

Take Two

Jacquemus Les Double Sandale, £805

Make it a double with these avant-garde kitten heel sandals of the summer. jacquemus.com

Carry Forward

Aspinal London Tote, £695

The luxury bag brand’s Eternal Summer collection launches this April, with chic new colourways across its best-selling styles. aspinalo ondon.com

Hit Rewind

Salute slow fashion with this zero waste, handmade label based in Marrakech.

FiiO CP13 Cassette Player, £99.99 Go analogue with these retro Walkman-like devices that come in 80s colourways. otic-audio.co.uk

Glow For It

Dr Sebagh

Rose de Vie Serum, £132

This silky serum made with organic rosehip oil, provides intense nourishment for dry skin. drsebagh.com

Herb Ritts, Versace Dress (back view), El Mirage , 1990.

© Herb Ritts Foundation, courtesy of Fahey Klein Gallery, Los Angeles

WHAT ’ S ON & WHERE

By HARRIET COOPE R

Don’t Miss

FRANK AUERBACH

THE CHARCOAL HEADS

THE COURTAULD

Until 27 May

Throughout his career, the German-British artist Frank Auerbach produced some remarkable bodies of work. One is a series of large-scale portrait heads made in charcoal, brought together here for the first time, which he did during his early years as an artist in post-Second World War London. Auerbach literally spent months on each drawing, painstakingly reworking them during numerous sessions with the sitters. The results are as richly textured as they are full of vitality. courtauld.ac.uk

ANGELICA KAUFFMAN

ROYAL ACADEMY

Until 30 June

The 18th-century artist Angelica Kauffman - once described by a contemporary as “the most cultivated woman in Europe” - led a remarkable life. She painted some of the most influential figures of the day - from queens to countesses, actors to socialites - as well as depicting female protagonists from mythology and classical history. This exhibition in the Sackler Wing traces the arc of her extraordinary life and work, from her rise to fame in London and her role as a founding member of the RA to her later career in Rome. royalacademy.org.uk

JEAN-MARIE TOULGOUAT: Gardening Giverny

GARDEN MUSEUM

Until 24 April

Growing up amongst the beautiful gardens of Giverny in Normandy, France, Jean-Marie Toulgouat was exposed at an early age to the works of the Impressionist masters Monet, Pissarro, Manet, Cézanne and Renoir. Indeed, he was the great-grandson of Claude Monet by marriage. Toulgouat returned to Giverny in his thirties where he was involved in the restorations of Monet’s famous gardens, as well as spending time capturing them on canvas. This exhibition - presented in collaboration with David Messum Fine Artbrings together Toulgouat’s vibrant oils of the gardens, which so beautifully depict his personal relationship with the land. gardenmuseum.org.uk

Jean-Marie Toulgouat, Le Chape des Soleils , 1992, courtesy David Messum Fine Art

Frank Auerbach, Self-Portrait 1958, © the artist, courtesy of Frankie Rossi Art Projects, London

Angelica Kauffman RA, Portrait of Emma, Lady Hamilton, as Muse of Comedy 1791

SARGENT AND FASHION TATE BRITAIN

Until 7 July

Staged in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, this blockbuster show explores portrait painter John Singer Sargent’s dynamic with his often-affluent clients and their wardrobes. Sixty paintings are displayed alongside more than a dozen period dresses and accessories, some of which were worn by his sitters and are being reunited with their portraits for the first time. A fascinating new perspective on the artist and the role of dress in his work. tate.org.uk

FRAGILE BEAUTY: PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE SIR ELTON JOHN AND DAVID FURNISH COLLECTION

V&A MUSEUM

18 May – 5 January 2025

This rare glimpse into the private photography collection of Sir Elton John and David Furnish brings together 300 prints by 140 of the world’s leading modern and contemporary photographers - Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, Diane Arbus, Zanele Muholi, Ai Weiwei and Carrie Mae Weems among them. This is a mustsee celebration of both John and Furnish’s passion for the medium and their expert eye as collectors over the past three decades. vam.ac.uk

UNRAVEL: THE POWER & POLITICS OF TEXTILES IN ART

BARBICAN ART GALLERY

Until 26 May

Textiles and fabrics have long been used as a form of expression over the years, whether through furnishing or fashion. This group exhibition at the Barbican sees 50 inter-generational artists from across the globe use textiles, fibre and thread to challenge power structures and reimagine the world. From intricate handcrafted pieces to huge sculptural installations, the artists weave in ideas about power, resistance and survival, offering narratives of violence and imperialism alongside stories of love and hope. barbican.org.uk

Tyler Mitchell, Simply Fragile, 2022. © Tyler Mitchell. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

Ryan McGinley, Dakota Hair 2004. © Ryan McGinley Studios

John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Miss Elsie Palmer (A Lady in White), 1889-90

Billie Zangewa, Midnight Aura 2012 John Singer Sargent, Mrs Carl Meyer and her Children, 1896 John Singer Sargent, Mrs Hugh Hammersley, 1892

ENTANGLED PASTS, 1768 - NOW Art, Colonialism and Change

ROYAL ACADEMY

Until 28 April

The Royal Academy addresses the role of art in shaping narratives of empire, enslavement, resistance, abolition and colonialism from 1768 to now - and how it may help set a course for the future. You’ll see works by leading contemporary artists, from large-scale installations such as the life-size painted cut-out figures of Lubaina Himid’s Naming the Money to powerful paintings, photographs, sculptures, drawings and prints by everyone from Sonia Boyce and Isaac Julien to Yinka Shonibare. These are displayed alongside works by artists from the past 250 years, including Joshua Reynolds, J.M.W. Turner and John Singleton Copley, to explore questions and start conversations around themes of migration, exchange, artistic traditions, identity and belonging. royalacademy.org.uk

ART WITHOUT HEROES: MINGEI

WILLIAM MORRIS GALLERY

Until 22 September

The largest UK exhibition to shine a light on Mingei, a folk-craft movement that developed in Japan in the 1920s and 30s. First coined by philosopher Yanagi Sōetsu, ‘Mingei’ means ‘the art of the people’ and focuses on the overlooked beauty of art and crafts that are practical and used in daily life. Ceramics, woodwork, paper, toys and textiles have all been brought together - some from private collections - to give a context and greater understanding of a movement whose principles remain relevant to craft, manufacturing and material consumerism to this day.

wmgallery.org.uk

BERT HARDY: PHOTOJOURNALISM IN WAR AND PEACE

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS’ GALLERY

Until 2 June

Born in London’s Blackfriars, Bert Hardy taught himself photography, going on to become one of the most influential press and documentary photographers of his time. His unparalleled career saw him serve as a combat cameraman in the Army Film and Photographic Unit, become a photojournalist at the renowned Picture Post, before turning his attention to advertising. This retrospective brings together all these different layers, including imagery from the Blitz and liberation of Bergen-Belsen to his social documentary work in midcentury Britain. Objects from Hardy’s archive, such as camera equipment, press passes, correspondence, diaries and original publications add to the display.

thephotographersgallery.org.uk

Teapot with a tenmoku glaze and bamboo handle, unknown maker, Japan, 1934

Bert Hardy/ Picture Post /Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Kokeshi artisan Okazaki

Ikuo at his studio in Zao, Onsen, Yamagata Prefecture

Bowl, Raku type earthenware with clear glaze over decoration painted in enamel colours, Japan, by Tomimoto Kenkichi, 1912. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

TROPICAL MODERNISM

Architecture and Independence

V&A MUSEUM

Until 22 September

This richly historical exhibition spotlights the architectural style that developed in the hot, humid conditions of West Africa and India in the 1940s. Led by architects Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, the look was minimalist, but it incorporated cutting-edge approaches to climate control, becoming popular in India and Ghana after independence, where it was considered a symbol of the modernity and progressiveness of these new countries. vam.ac.uk

During his prolific 60-year career, Mari became as famous for his belief in the social responsibility of design as he did for his work. This retrospective celebrates both, with hundreds of his projects - from furniture to conceptual installations - on display; in addition, several newly commissioned pieces pay tribute to Mari’s life and legacy. designmuseum.org

Enzo Mari

DESIGN MUSEUM

Until 8 September

ZINEB SEDIRA DREAMS HAVE NO TITLES WHITECHAPEL GALLERY

Until 12 May

Zineb Sedira brings Dreams Have No Titles to east London’s Whitechapel. The multimedia installation transforms the galleries into a series of film sets, each one referencing specific titles alongside the French-Algerian artist’s personal history. As the visitor goes from room to room, they’ll be immersed in an unfolding narrative that blurs truth from fiction, reality from artifice, whether encountering the reconstructed ballroom from Ettore Scola’s groundbreaking film Le Bal (1983) or an exact facsimile of Sedira’s flat in Brixton where people can settle into her sofa to read or watch the TV. whitechapelgallery.org

TOP: Portrait of Zineb Sedira. BOTTOM:

Hans Ulrich Obrist and Francesca Giacomelli have curated a one-ofa-kind exhibition about the greatest Italian designer of the 20th century, Enzo Mari, who could also add artist, teacher and theorist to his cap.

THE TIME IS ALWAYS NOW: Artists Reframe the Black Figure

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

Until 19 May

Writer and curator Ekow Eshun looks at the Black figure and its representation in contemporary art, bringing together the work of artists from the African diaspora including Michael Armitage, Lubaina Himid, Kerry James Marshall, Toyin Ojih Odutola and Amy Sherald. As well as shining a light on the Black figure in Western art history, the exhibition serves to question its absence too, looking at the story of representation through the works on display. npg.org.uk

Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron Portraits to Dream In

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

Until 16 June

Though they lived a century apart, Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron were two of the most influential women in the history of photography. Cameron worked in the UK and Sri Lanka from the 1860s, while Woodman was prolific in America and Italy in the 1970s. Both, however, were adept at creating multiple layers to their portraits, incorporating symbolism and storytelling. More than 160 vintage prints - many incredibly rare - will be on display, not only giving insight into the incredible oeuvre of these two women, but also the different ways photographic portraiture was created in the 19th and 20th centuries. npg.org.uk

DANIELLE BRATHWAITESHIRLEY

THE REBIRTHING ROOM STUDIO VOLTAIRE

Until 28 April

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley brings something entirely different to Studio Voltaire with their first institutional solo exhibition. The Berlin/London-based artist - whose work is themed around digital space, archiving and the possible futures of Black and Brown trans bodiesdebuts a new immersive gaming experience, creating a space where the audience can choose to be “reborn in authenticity” in an environment that has been made “to give you a new life”. studiovoltaire.org

Claudette Johnson, Standing Figure with African Masks, 2018

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley,

Kerry James Marshall, Untitled (Painter) 2009

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, THEY FIGHT FOR LOVE , 2022

Francesca Woodman, Polka Dots

MICHELANGELO: THE LAST DECADES

THE BRITISH MUSEUM

2 May - 28 July

This landmark show explores the final 30 years of the life and work of Michelangelo. A highlight is the two-metre-high Epifania (about 1550-53) which will be reunited for the first time in over four centuries with the painting made from it by Michelangelo’s biographer Ascanio Condivi. A fascinating exhibition that looks beyond the Renaissance artist to reveal his personality and beliefs. britishmuseum.org

Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920

TATE BRITAIN

16 May - 13 October

This impressive group exhibition charts womens’ 400-year journey to become recognised as professional artists - many defying societal norms to do so - from the Tudor court right through to the early 20th century. Expect works - over 200, in fact - by all the big names including Artemisia Gentileschi, Angelica Kauffman, Julia Margaret Cameron and Gwen John, as well as those by female artists who are only now being rediscovered. tate.org.uk

SOULSCAPES’ DULWICH

PICTURE GALLERY

Until 2 June

Featuring more than 30 contemporary works by leading artists including Hurvin Anderson, Phoebe Boswell, Isaac Julien and Mónica de Miranda, Soulscapes looks at landscape art and the world around us through the eyes of artists from the African diaspora. Painting, photography, tapestry, collage and film have all been curated to examine themes of belonging, how we experience the land and how it relates to our sense of identity and connection. It will also focus on the correlation between landscapes and memory and how they can evoke joy and pleasure, as well as the healing and wellbeing power of nature. dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

YOKO ONO : Music of the Mind

TATE MODERN

Until 1 September

Yoko Ono once said, “You change the world by being yourself.”

Over the past seven decades, the avant-garde artist and activist has been true to her word, not only as a trailblazer in her multidisciplinary artistic practice, but as a musician and a powerful campaigner for world peace too.

In this, her 91st year, Tate Modern presents the UK’s largest exhibition celebrating Ono, featuring over 200 of her works from the mid1950s onwards, including scores, installations, films, music and photography. “The main inspiration for Music of the Mind was to explore Ono’s conceptual practice, which foregrounds ideas over objects, alongside her ongoing campaign for world peace,” co-curator Juliet Bingham tells The Glossary.

The result is a retrospective which captures Ono’s visionary spirit, not only giving insight into the key moments of her 70-year career, during which she pioneered early participatory art, film and performance, but also showcasing her impact on contemporary culture.

The show particularly focuses on Ono’s five years spent in London, from 1966, when she hung out with a countercultural crowd. It was here she met

The Beatles’ John Lennon, later to become her husband and longtime collaborator. Works from this period include key installations from her exhibitions at Indica, the capital’s first conceptual art gallery, and Lisson Gallery (Ono and Lennon first laid eyes on one another at the former when she was installing her solo show).

Other pieces took on a more political angle as the Vietnam War raged on, such as banned Film No. 4 (Bottoms) 1966-7. Further artworks include the billboard campaign ‘WAR IS OVER!’ (if you want it) 1969, its aim to inspire a generation to conceive a world without war - and the film BED PEACE 1969 which showed the second of Ono and Lennon’s infamous ‘bed-in’ events staged in Amsterdam and Montreal. Ono’s commitment to feminism is also represented, including Freedom 1970, in which she attempts and fails to break free from her bra.

More recent works include Mommy Is Beautiful, first created in 2004, a wall of canvases where visitors can attach photographs of their mother and share personal messages. Another, 1996’s Wish Tree, invites anyone to contribute their personal wishes for world peace. “Ono’s work is a collective call to action and a provocation to change the world, one wish at a time,” says Bingham. “We want to invite people to participate and to dream together. In Ono’s words: ‘A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.’” tate.org.uk

STYLE

LOOK SHARP

The eagerly awaited debut by Sabato De Sarno for Gucci has finally landed. The SS24 collection (called Ancora, Italian for ‘also now, also then’) is a far cry from his predecessor Alessandro Michele’s predilection for maximalism. Instead, the Milan fashion house’s new creative director has gone down a more pragmatic, pared back route, with a focus on sharp tailoring and a fresh spin on wardrobe staples. gucci.com

Fashion Notes

This season’s It-bag, the waxed jacket rede ned and Stella’s most sustainable edit to date

Compiled by CHARLOTTE ADSETT

RODEO READY

The cowboycore trend shows no sign of slowing from a gallop to a trot, so giddy up and embrace it with that most iconic of Westernwear - the cowboy hat. With Beyonce to Bella Hadid all tipping their hat to the Stetson of late, this is one accessory that looks set to stay. Other Cowboy Hat, £258; wolfandbadger.com

BEST IN SHOW

The Alaia Le Teckel is the mini bag of the season, its slimline, elongated silhouette inspired by the dachshund (indeed, its name translates as the breed in French). It gives a whole new meaning to the doggy bag… £1,990; maison-alaia.com

DOUBLE DUCHESS

Erdem Moralioglu’s SS24 collection has been described as a love letter to the wardrobe of Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. But it wasn’t her ballgowns that drew his eye, but her Barbour outerwear which inspired this collaborative design that’s part waxed jacket, part antique- oral dress coat. erdem.com

Add a pop of colour to your wardrobe this season with a red statement shoe. From cherry to scarlet to crimson, traffic-stopping footwear is now a firm fashion editor favourite. Moschino Mules, £655; moschino.com

Style Collab

NEW IDENTITY

Sustainable fashion brand E.L.V. Denim has collaborated with The Outnet on a new upcycled capsule collection, created from the online fashion outlet’s leftover deadstock. Crafted and hand-cut by a local community of tailors, machinists and artisans in London, hero pieces include a leather fringed gladiator skirt reimagined from leather leggings; a cashmere twinset transformed from a roll-neck sweater; and a white denim dress formed from six pairs of jeans. theoutnet.com

WASTE NOT

Stella McCartney has always been a pioneer of eco-conscious, circular fashion. The Summer 2024 collection underscores this with a campaign fronted by Cara Delevingne, who is photographed at a South London recycling plant, showcasing the designer’s most sustainable edit to date. Made with 95% conscious materials, the new collection blends sharp tailoring with organic cotton denim, sparkling lead-free crystals and vegan alternatives to leather, including a new iteration of the iconic Falabella tote, seen here covering the supermodel’s modesty. stellamccartney.com

REPAIR SHOP

London-based clothing repair and tailoring platform Sojo has opened its first permanent concession in Selfridges, with appointments and walk-ins available for everything from taking up hems to waist cinching and upsizing. The B-Corp-certified business is also on hand to breathe new life into old, much-loved pieces, including denim patching and repairing holes in knitwear. The launch is part of Reselfridges, which aims to make ‘repair, resale and rental’ a core element of the department store by 2030, when they hope to have 45 percent of transactions coming from circular products or services. selfridges.com

Floral print shift dress and matching tote bag and hat by Biba, 1966, Photo: Peter Atherton © Fashion Museum Bath/Bridgeman Images

BIBA forever

As a new exhibition celebrates the iconic brand, the founder Barbara Hulanicki and the show’s curator Martin Pel talk to The Glossary about the label’s extraordinary journey and its enduring legacy

Words HARRIET COOPER

For a woman who shaped the face of fashion in the 1960s, democratising style and forever transforming the retail landscape with her brand Biba, Barbara Hulanicki is refreshingly down-to-earth. When we speak, the 87-year-old illustrator and designer is as generous with her time as she is with anecdotes, and prone to breaking off into peals of laughter as she recounts her remarkable past.

This infectious enthusiasm has most recently been channelled into her latest project, The Biba Story, 1964-1975 at the Fashion & Textile Museum in Bermondsey. It’s the first ever London exhibition to chart the meteoric rise of what began as a small mail-order firm but swiftly became the world’s first lifestyle label. “I’m terribly excited about the show,” she tells me over the phone from Miami, where she now lives and works as an interior designer. “When I walk in and see all those pieces, I am going to feel so nostalgic.”

The exhibition, which coincides with the 60th anniversary of the opening of the first Biba store in the capital, was the brainchild of Barbara and Martin Pel, a curator of fashion and textiles at the Royal Pavilion

& Museums in Brighton. Though they were separated by the Atlantic during the year it took to pull the show together, they spoke frequently on the phone in “a very collaborative process,” says Martin. “Barbara is always so positive, she’s a great person to work with as you get swept up in her energy, which is obviously what happened at Biba.”

The story of Biba and its founder is, indeed, remarkable. Barbara Hulanicki was born in Poland in 1936. The family moved to Palestine where her father Witold, the Polish Consul General to the Middle East, was stationed; after her father was assassinated in 1948 the family relocated to England, settling in Hove. Barbara attended Brighton Art College (now University of Brighton) where she studied fashion and art, before becoming a freelance fashion illustrator for the likes of Vogue, Tatler and Women’s Wear Daily.

“My fashion offered a new freedom for young women. The clothes were beautifully made and had fabulous prices”

Barbara Hulanicki

It was at this time that Barbara and her husband Stephen Fitz-Simon (‘Fitz’), who was always by her side, set up a mail-order company called ‘Biba’s Postal Boutique’ selling her fashion designs. When Barbara’s pink-and-white Brigitte Bardot-inspired gingham dress, with its cut-out back and matching kerchief, made the pages of the Daily Mirror, the 25-shilling ensemble flew, with over 17,000 women buying into the fledgling brand’s playful aesthetic. “Can you imagine,” Barbara chortles.

Twiggy reclines on a faux leopard skin bed wearing Biba in the Big Biba fashion store on High Street Kensington, 1973. © Justin de Villeneuve/Iconic Images

It was a pivotal moment and, in 1964, Barbara opened her first boutique on Abingdon Road, W8, turning conventional shopping on its head. The shop windows were blacked out (so people couldn’t look in), the lighting dim; clothes were on hangers and there was a communal changing room; loud music blared out of speakers, and second-hand furniture and palms in pots added to the vibe. It couldn’t have been more different from the rather dreary post-war retail landscape of the 1950s - “you went in and were immediately transported from the dull world outside into a place you’d never been,” says Martin - and it was an immediate hit. Barbara opened three subsequent Biba premises, each one bigger than the last, on Church Street (1966-69), Kensington High Street (1969-73) and Big Biba, the sevenstorey department store, in 1973.

“Barbara completely changed the way we all shop through sheer drive and willpower and determinationhaving amazing clothes on the high street didn’t exist before”

Martin Pel

All were filled with Barbara’s designs, which weren’t just innovative and fun, they were affordable, too. Whilst Mary Quant was selling to the Chelsea set for £30, Biba dresses were just £3, making them accessible to the new generation of young girls (and boys) who were earning their own money in London and asserting their tastes in music, lifestyle and, above all, their wardrobes. “My fashion offered a new freedom for young women,” says Barbara. “The clothes were beautifully made and had fabulous prices. The fabrics were lovely, and I spent a lot of time pattern cutting - no one was doing really good shapes back then. There were only a few

things from Paris that were beautifully cut, like Sonia Rykiel, but the rest was hideous, awful.”

Martin agrees. “If you were a teenager and saw all these amazing colours and clothes and accessories and you could afford them, you’d just think you’d died and gone to heaven. When I saw the Biba clothes from the early years, especially from the Church Street shop, it was the first time I really got how exciting the 60s must have been.”

The word quickly got around and customers would often queue around the block at the Abingdon Road store, which also became a magnet for the icons of the Swinging Sixties, too. Bardot, Sonny and Cher, Barbra Streisand, Mick Jagger, The Beatles, Anita Pallenberg, Pattie Boyd, all wanted to be a part of the experience. So, too, a young woman by the name of Lesley Lawson. “This beautiful girl comes into the shop, and she literally watches what is going on for hours and hours. It turns

Shop manager Eleanor Powell outside the Biba store on Kensington Church Street c.1967 © Barbara Hulanicki Design. Image taken from The Biba Years 1963-1975 by Barbara Hulanicki and Martin Pel (V&A Publishing)

out it was Twiggy, before she was a model. She was so beautiful - and still is. All her proportions were my dream proportions - her head, the length of the arm, her neck. We’ve been great friends ever since.”

The feeling is entirely mutual, with Twiggy once saying, “There should be a plaque on 87 Abingdon Road. It transformed the way the ordinary girl in the street dressed… it was a tiny corner shop, an old chemist in a quiet residential street. But before long, Biba was Mecca to everyone from shop girls to debs… Not only did the clothes look amazing, you could afford to buy something every week.”

It was Big Biba on Kensington High Street, however, which became the place to be. To coincide with the opening in September 1973, Barbara and her team went all-out marketing the new emporium. There were

advertisements in the national press and photoshoots with Biba devotees including Twiggy, Barbara Miller and Jean Shrimpton. There was even a 16page Biba newspaper, art directed by Steven Thomas (the man responsible for the look of the new store, as half of the Whitmore-Thomas Partnership) and illustrated by Kasia Charko, that was handed out in-store on opening day to highlight the ranges available. The publicity drive worked. The shop, formerly Derry & Toms department store, attracted a million customers weekly. Little wonder, for behind the Art Deco facade was a sprawling dreamland of fashion - mens, womens and childrens - as well as home furnishings, makeup and accessories; there was a Pop Art-inspired food hall (with shelves dedicated to Andy Warhol’s soup cans and Biba branded baked beans),

Twiggy in Big Biba’s multi-hued Rainbow Room. The 500-seat Art Deco restaurant was restored by Whitmore-Thomas and fast became a magnet for London’s celebrities, 1973. © Justin de Villeneuve/Iconic Images

Twiggy wears a leopard print robe against an ancient Egyptian-style backdrop in the women’s changing rooms at Big Biba, 1973. © Justin de Villeneuve/Iconic Images

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:

boudoir, beauty salon, rooftop garden complete with reallife pink flamingos, and the 500-seater Rainbow Room restaurant, which fast became a celebrity hotspot. This was way more than a store - this was a lifestyle. “You could live, sleep, eat and breathe Biba, literally,” says Martin. And people couldn’t get enough. The behemoth reportedly had the highest turnover per sq ft in the world and nightly deliveries of stock were selling out the next day.

“To understand Biba you have to understand Barbara’s history,” continues Martin. “I don’t think you can underestimate how much of a psychological impact losing her father at the age of 12 must have had on her. I think you probably would want to live in the past when your dad was still alive, and you can see this in her designs and in her philosophy around Biba. She would breathe new life into old buildings and resurrect old styles of dress; she loved the 30s, for example, and the movie stars.

“It was always glamour glamour glamour for Barbara. She was very influenced by her Aunt [Sophie] who wore couture and Barbara was keen that Biba followed the tenets of couture - a coordinated outfit, accessories and cosmetics - but do it for less money and make it affordable. Biba was different from everything else; the shops, the clothes, they were very much Barbara’s vision - and people completely bought into that.” And yet, despite Biba’s enormous popularity, Big Biba closed its doors in 1975 following creative differences between Barbara and major shareholders. She and Fitz moved to Brazil, ending one of the most exciting chapters in fashion history.

The 16-page Biba newspaper was designed to highlight the ranges available in the store; An advertisement for national newspapers announcing the opening of Big Biba in September 1973, with photography by Barbara Hulanicki, illustrations by Kasia Charko, and graphic and typographic design by Whitmore-Thomas.

Jean Shrimpton and Barbara Miller are photographed by Brian Duffy wearing Biba for a feature in the Telegraph’s weekly magazine to mark Big Biba’s arrival in 1973. Photo: Duffy © Duffy Archive Biba crepe coat and trousers, 1972. Photo: Duffy © Duffy Archive

The new Fashion & Textile Museum exhibition aims to do this extraordinary Biba journey justice. Curated chronologically, it opens with the gingham dress that was so instrumental in Barbara’s career. It is, says Martin, one of his favourite pieces. “It was Barbara’s statement of intent and marks a line in the sand for her,” he says.

The visitor will then see 40 complete Biba outfits displayed on the ground floor, reflecting the progression from the early mini-skirted Biba girl to the more sensual

vampish look of the Biba woman. On display are sequinned bodices, devoré wraps, trouser suits, bias-cut evening dresses, floppy hats and feather boas, inspired by everything from the 1930s to the pre-Raphaelite movement. Colours morph from kaleidoscopic psychedelia to deep, rich tones of plum, mulberry, rust and mustard, while velvets, chiffons, satins and crepes are seen alongside fabrics like Rayon and Flanesta. Highlight pieces include a leopard skin jacket designed for Twiggy (1973), a purple jumbo cord coat with faux fur cuffs and collar (1968) and a black chiffon floor-length dress (1970).

Surprisingly, perhaps, very few of the garments on show belong to Barbara herself, though there’s one leopard print suit of hers. “I wish I’d kept a lot of it,” Barbara tells me. “Fitz and I went to Brazil after Biba - we had this fabulous old house in São Paulo - and I took everything with me, every single pattern, every sample. And Fitz said one day, you’ve got to get rid of these things, they’re holding you back. So we got a truck and we drove to a favela and gave it all away - there must have been about a thousand garments.”

Instead, much of what is on display has been sourced from the women who used to work for Biba in the 60s and 70s; known as the Biba girls, they were celebrities in their own right. “The main lenders are Sarah Plunkett, who was Barbara’s shop manager, and Lilli Anderson [who worked for Biba from 1972],” Martin explains. “Though it’s Barbara’s story, she also really wanted the exhibition to be about the women who worked at Biba. She loved the idea of the Biba girls as heroes.”

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Barbara and Fitz; The men’s shoe display on The Biba Floor at Big Biba, designed by Whitmore-Thomas. Photo: Tim White. © Duffy Archive; Barbara Hulanicki, 1964. © Barbara Hulanicki; Twiggy wears a Biba gold satin button-front ensemble in the Big Biba store in 1973. © Justin de Villeneuve/Iconic Images

“Biba was so different from everything else; the shops, the clothes, they were very much Barbara’s vision - and people completely bought into that”

Martin Pel

And yet this exhibition is Barbara’s time to shine, not just as a talent for capturing the zeitgeist and designing clothes, but also as a pioneer. Her ethos of inclusivity knew no bounds - she launched the first cosmetics range for Black skin (“this wonderful man from the Portobello Road came and brought me flowers when it launched - it was so nice”), which was sold worldwide in stores like Au Printemps Paris, Fiorucci Milan and Bloomingdales in the US. She also actively supported the queer community, advertising in the gay press. “We’re talking serious four-page adverts - Barbara wanted everyone to be a part of Biba, it was a glamorous democracy,” says Martin.

She also launched the Biba catalogue in 1968, taking the label nationwide for the first time. But these were no ordinary catalogues; in true Hulanicki style, she commissioned her own highly-stylised editorial, which was art directed by graphic designer John McConnell and comprised beautiful photography taken by the big fashion photographers of the era including Helmut Newton and Sarah Moon. The catalogues were phenomenally successful, helping to sell tens of thousands of items.

“It was a way of showing the customers how to wear the clothes - and showing how to wear their hair and makeup. We were selling a lifestyle,” explains Barbara. All six of these catalogues are displayed on the upper floor of the exhibition alongside one outfit from each; also on view are a selection of the accessories, homeware, cosmetics and ephemera that were for sale at Big Biba.

“I hope Barbara feels really proud seeing this show,” says Martin. “When Biba closed, it was very difficult and for a long time she didn’t acknowledge it, she just moved on. I’d love her to recognise that what she created was an incredible brand. For Barbara, Biba may have lasted just over ten years but for us, looking back 60 years later, it has become a part of fashion history.”

Martin hopes that for the visitor, it will give a greater understanding of how the vision of one woman transformed retail. “I’d like people to see that Barbara is an absolute icon. She completely changed the way we all shop through her sheer drive and willpower and determination - having amazing clothes on the high street didn’t exist before,” he says. “I’d also like people to come away and think high street fashion doesn’t have to be disposable. These clothes have lasted for 60 years - some of the lenders are still wearing their Biba clothes from way back.”

And as for the Biba founder herself, what would she like the viewer to come away with? “I’d hope that they would say, why doesn’t she do it again - and I would. I would love to do it again.” So typically Barbara.

The Biba Story, 1964-1975 is at the Fashion and Textile Museum until 8 September 2024; fashiontextilemuseum.org

LEFT TO RIGHT: Jean Shrimpton and Barbara Miller wearing Biba for a spread in the Telegraph’s weekly magazine to mark the opening of Big Biba in 1973. Photo: Duffy © Duffy Archive; Jean Shrimpton and Barbara Miller wearing Biba, 1973. Photo: Duffy © Duffy Archive

Totes

AMAZE

From the supersized to the sleek and slouchy, this is the season of the investment tote

Words GRACE CAIN

It’s been more than 40 years - as legend has it - since Hermès’ then-executive chairman Jean-Louis Dumas sat on a plane next to Jane Birkin and accepted the French actress and singer’s challenge to make a bag that was as practical as it was stylish. He named the bag after Birkin and since then it has become the fashion lover’s holy grail, the ultimate emblem of taste and exclusivity. But therein lies the dilemma - not everyone can gain access to their own Birkin. Instead, sartorialists are embarking on the quest to find a contemporary alternative, finding it in The Row’s Margaux tote bag.

GIVENCHY VOYOU CHAIN

If you liked the generous proportions and slouchy coolgirl nonchalance of the original Givenchy Voyou which landed last year, get ready to love its new, edgier younger sister. Available in a variety of finishes (think tumbled calfskin leather and washed denim - perfect for all you cowboycore acolytes), the freshly added gradienteffect metal chain can either be slung over your shoulder or worn across the body.

From £2,150, givenchy.com

Since its launch in 2018, this unbranded design has quietly garnered a cult following with its minimalist iykyk appeal. Then, towards the end of last year, it exploded. Industry barometer the Lyst Index reported a 93 per cent increase in demand for The Row and named the Margaux as the hottest product of Q4 2023. Insiders are lauding it as (whisper it) ‘The New Birkin’ and it’s currently as difficult to acquire, with styles selling out almost as soon as they come back into stock. Waiting lists have been implemented, and pieces are already popping up on resale sites at almost double the original price.

It wasn’t so long ago that diminutive bags were considered a mark of wealth and prestige - either you didn’t need to carry stuff, or you had people to do it for you. Now, just like the Birkin, the scarcity of the Margaux has elevated the capacious bag’s status. After all, in the age of hot-desking and spontaneous weekend trips, size matters. With their minimal shapes and neutral colours, here’s our edit of the new-season tote bags to invest in, all of them future classics that will forever stand the test of time.

BOTTEGA VENETA ANDIAMO

With a name that means ‘let’s go’ in Italian, Matthieu Blazy’s intrecciato leather Andiamo is quite literally destined to be on the move; just look at the roster of jetsetting celebrities who have made it their bag of choice for errand runs and airport appearances. Go for the large, slouchy size, like this version in canvas and leather, for a modern, classic accessory that will keep up with even the busiest lifestyle. £5,640, bottegaveneta.com

PHOEBE PHILO XL CABAS

Philophiles, assemble. One of the highlights of Phoebe Philo’s hugely anticipated debut collection, the XL Cabas gives Mary Poppins a run for her money. Boasting a length of 57.5cm and a height of 41cm, this semi-structured tote has ample space for laptops, gym clothes and even the bulkiest of makeup kits. But don’t worry about having to root around for your AirPods: six internal pockets (two with zips) help keep things organised. From £5,200, phoebephilo.com

PRADA BUCKLE

£4,400,

As far as investments go, Prada is always a good idea. The Buckle has been topping fashion-savvy wish lists since it first appeared on the SS24 runway, balancing between form and function in the way that only this Milanese powerhouse can do. What really distinguishes this particular design, however, is the belt that can be switched out and updated whenever you choose. Cinch it tight or leave it unbuckled for a more casual look. prada.com

BALENCIAGA RODEO

Named after Los Angeles’ best-known designer shopping street, Balenciaga’s Rodeo bag is easily recognised thanks to a tilted silhouette and intentionally open front compartment that practically screams I don’t care. If you prefer your leather goods to remain on the quieter side, you can opt for the version without the trinkets. However, if a certain Y2K insouciance is more your style, you’ll love the addition of a worn effect and playfully chaotic charms.

£8,500, balenciaga.com

MIU MIU AVENTURE

Anyone who identifies with the ‘Frazzled English Woman’ aesthetic would surely have found comfort in the overstuffed bags carried by Miu Miu’s models for the SS24 show. Based on a style taken from the brand’s archives and updated with a lighter structure that makes it ideal for casually tucking under your arm, the top-handled Aventure has already proven its credentials as a classic. miumiu.com

£2,650,

“My superpower is the clothes that I make. That is my activism”

At only 27 years old, designer Harris Reed has taken the fashion world by storm. Here, he shares his thoughts on fluidity, individuality and his own identity renaissance

Words FLORA M AC DONALD JOHNSTON Portrait MARC HIBBERT

Attending a Harris Reed show has become something of a sacred pilgrimage for fashion editors. Each season we wait in suspense, ready to be led down into the depths of the dream-like ‘Reed’ universe. “This is like the Oscars,” an editor once whispered to me during a runway, and it very much is. The only thing you can expect from Harris Reed is the unexpected.

You may find yourself surrounded by incredible sculptures at the Tate Modern, being quoted Shakespeare by actress Florence Pugh dressed in a harlequin gown of black and gold. Or perhaps you’ll be within the hallowed walls of Westminster’s St John’s Smith Square and discover you are placed beside singer Sam Smith, as they serenade you and the room dressed in one of Reed’s Elizabethan-style ruffled shirts. And just when you think Reed’s shows cannot possibly be more dramatic, you begin to look at the clothing itself.

Harris Reed ‘demi-couture’ bends all rules of gender and conformity. For his critically acclaimed AW22 collection, 60 Years a Queen, dresses were made molten, melting off shoulders, torso and arms, bodices were cut to controversially uncover the bust revealing rib cages, and high-waisted trousers became skirt hybrids, framed by gigantic ringed feathered hoops. His silhouettes are bold. “Clothing has power,” Reed tells me in an exclusive interview with The Glossary. “When it’s done right, it allows us to be our most expressive selves, to venture into slightly uncomfortable spaces and places within ourselves that we’re sometimes scared of.”

His most recent AW24 collection, staged at Tate Britain, was a playful ten-piece salon-style show laced with Victoriana - with a surprising sustainable twist. Reed’s heavenly sculptural eveningwear looked to be made of heavy brocade but on closer inspection the fabric was, in fact, wallpaper - archive scraps from British hand-painted wall-covering specialist Fromental, chiming with Reed’s inspiration: paper dolls. “It’s moving art,” he said backstage. Reed and the worlds he expertly weaves are distinctly hard to place and to define, and that’s exactly how Reed likes it. “I just don’t think you should put anyone in a box,” he tells me. And you would be hard pressed to do so, as Reed wears many hats.

At the age of 27 he is the founder and creative director of his own successful eponymous label and the creative director of luxury French maison Nina Ricci (its youngest in history). This incredible success, which takes other designers decades to achieve, took Reed a few years. His journey has been well documented. While studying fashion at Central Saint Martins, he received an Instagram DM from stylist Harry Lambert in 2017. Lambert asked Reed for a custom

Designer Harris Reed by Marc Hibbert; a look from the AW22 collection, 60 Years a Queen, the “in good hands” bralette shows the idea of two hands coming together to support its wearer and fully encapsulates the idea of togetherness

look to dress Harry Styles. The look went viral and the next day Reed woke up to hundreds upon thousands of social media followers; not long afterwards, Reed was spotted by Alessandro Michele at Gucci and invited to do the highly coveted apprenticeship programme at the Italian house. All while still a student. After graduating in 2020, he debuted his first collection in February 2021, which opened the first gender neutral London Fashion Week.

Today, Reed’s clothing is beloved by the likes of Styles, Adele, Beyonce, Selena Gomez, Emma Corrin and Lil Nas X. He has dressed celebrities for the Met Gala (his tiered-gilded-feathered look for Iman in 2021 stole the show) and even has his work displayed as

part of the Victoria & Albert Museum’s permanent collection.

He’s collaborated with jewellery brand Missoma and cosmetics brand MAC, as well as Lexus and, last year, was announced as brand ambassador for Dyson (Reed debuted its latest product during his AW24 show). It’s collaborations like these which enable him to host the extravagant runway shows that have captured the hearts and minds of editors, buyers and creatives across the world.

Despite this meteoric rise Reed, with his otherworldly Botticelli-style waist-length hair and ethereal features, is down-to-earth and warm when he shares his thoughts with me. He lives in his London flat alongside husband Eitan and often posts on his Instagram snapshots of his life and travels, not all glamorous. Reed speaks out about the difficulties of the fashion industry and does not shy away from a hard truth. After his Nina Ricci debut last year he wrote a post with the caption “it’s not easy being the new kid who wants to have fun with fashion, show different

A look from 60 Years a Queen, a fluid demi-couture collection made entirely by hand - the makeup was created by Terry Barber for MAC

Iman in Harris Reed at the 2021 Met Gala - the dress consisted of five feather hoops, the bottom hoop spanning 18ft, and the hat was made with milliner Vivienne Lake. Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images

A model wearing head-to-toe Harris Reed from the SS23 Mise en Scène collection

bodies and genders and make this little queer dream into a reality.”

Just when you imagine he could achieve no more, he has published his first book, Fluid: A Fashion Revolution , which was created whilst on the move (looking at Reed’s schedule, this is of little surprise). “I’d just got the job at Nina [Ricci], and had so much time on all the Eurostar trains I took between London and Paris [where Ricci is based] that I started voice-noting for a year. This is my life, my experiences, my contextualisation of fluidity right now…” he explains.

The book is part autobiography, part fashion archive, part activist manifesto. When I tell this to Reed he laughs and says “that’s so sweet!” though he has always been clear to stipulate that he didn’t invent the term fluid. “…once I said that word out loud, everything I was doing, everything I stood for, and everything I wanted to put out in the world merged into one ideal,” he writes in the book. “I woke up at 5am one morning and changed my Instagram bio to ‘fighting for the beauty of fluidity’. This was my calling!”

And his book does just that - it fights all constraints, in the most Reed-like, aesthetically-pleasing way. Within each chapter he bares his soul open to the world, revealing traumas of childhood but also his trajectory to the top of the industry. Add in beautiful imagery of his vast body of work, and photographs of his celebrity cult-following and clientele dressed in his fantastical creations, and it makes for compelling reading.

Reed first encountered society’s need to pigeon-hole gender when he was very young, growing up in America. “Being in the playground and just seeing how split and gendered everything was in this ridiculously classic sense of boys in the sandbox and girls playing double dutch or jump rope, I just remember really not feeling like I fitted into any space,” he tells me. “I had this feeling of not belonging. I did not identify with being a boy or a girl.”

Unfortunately for Reed, he did not get to choose how he defined himself at that age, someone else decided to do that for him. Reed was outed, with a teacher telling his parents “gays go to hell”. His American model-turnedcandlemaker mother Lynette and Oscarwinning, British documentary film

“Confusion over who I was and my fears of being accepted remained through my teen years as I embarked on this identity renaissance… The breakthrough came when I moved to London”

Harris Reed

Harris Reed photographed by Jenny Brough in Sir John Soane’s Museum in London for a profile in ES Magazine, wearing a pink moiré puffed-sleeve blouse that is now part of the permanent collection in the V&A Museum

producer father Nicholas, however, were instrumental in giving him the freedom and the space to reclaim himself and explore his identity, their liberal mindedness having a great bearing on his childhood and his future.

In the book he shares an anecdote of how, aged just nine, clothes shopping was already a challenge, until his mother stepped in. “My mom took me to the preteen department for girls, which is where my eyes sparkled at what I saw, and I felt for the first time that I was starting to find my fashion salvation,” he writes. “The jeans were accented with rhinestones, and the trousers were boot cut and flared. Nothing about this felt boyish. Many shirts were made from flowy chiffon, which both felt and looked freeing and limitless - there was an appeal to this freedom. Discovering that world opened the door to an evolution and exploration into myself that ultimately illuminated who I am. It might sound crazy, but a blouse can sometimes do that.”

“To be unapologetically ourselves, sometimes we need to rewrite a few of the rules or just burn them to the ground, tough as that may be”

Harris Reed

In 2015 Reed relocated to London to study fashion at CSM; it was a pivotal decision. “Confusion over who I was and my fears of being accepted remained through my teen years as I embarked on this identity renaissance… The breakthrough came when I moved to London,” he says in Fluid. Within his first few days of living in the capital he recalls seeing a man at Liverpool Street station in a wedding dress, platform boots and with full-face makeup and a beard. The man passed another dressed in full suit-and-tie business attire, and yet neither batted an eye. It was for Reed a sliding doors scenario. “All in that one moment, I felt like I was living in the future. For the first time, I felt

a world of new possibilities, where being different was possible, achievable, and even acceptable.”

In his early days at CSM, Reed began mixing with the capital’s diverse, queer community, going to Charles Jeffrey’s Loverboy club nights in Dalston and the Queen Adelaide pub in Bethnal Green. It was a turning point within his design journey, as he recognised the transformational powers of dress, realising that he wanted to create clothing he himself wanted to wear. “Fashion is a perfect medium for fluidity. The clothes we wear signal who we are to the world - whether we want to dazzle or just blend in,” he says in Fluid. Outfits in his first student collection included

Harris Reed with Sam Smith after their performance of Des'ree’s I’m Kissing You that brought the audience to tears at Reed’s 60 Years a Queen show

“If I’m feeling vulnerable, I’ll go on a night out in taller shoes, a bigger hat, a more dramatic skirt. It’s about pushing your limits”

Harris Reed

black matador pants with a black lace ruffle shirt; and bright pink metallic pants and a matching top with detachable sleeves. “These were inspired by a story I imagined about an 18th-century aristocratic boy who had been thrown out of his home because he was gay and now lived backstage in the Royal Opera House, where he played dress-up with costumes - something of a metaphor for my own story, if you will.”

Reed’s designs are about challenging the status quo. “To be unapologetically

ourselves, sometimes we need to rewrite a few of the rules or just burn them to the ground, tough as that may be,” he writes in the book. “I want my designs to create a sense of identity, and to offer confidence, to showcase the wearer’s true self … I want people to see my designs and think, ‘Wow, holy shit, this is really interesting!’ or ‘That is insane! Who would wear this?!’ This friction, these conversations, this exposure - all of it furthers the fluidity movement.” Even now, he tells me, if

This look from 60 Years a Queen mirrors one created for Iman for the Met Gala with Reed repurposing each feather by hand-painting them in black

Harris with his muse Trey Gaskin, who wears his graduate collection, shot by Elliott Morgan at the Standard hotel in London for Grazia magazine

A look from For Now, Unexplained, a collection about enhancing the auras that individuals have by playing with blue to pink, to represent their different sides

“Fashion is a perfect medium for fluidity. The clothes we wear signal who we are to the world - whether we want to dazzle or just blend in”

Harris Reed

he’s feeling vulnerable, he’ll “go on a night out in taller shoes, a bigger hat, a more dramatic skirt. It’s about pushing your limits.”

Reed is not afraid to push a few buttons, too. In 2020 he made headline news when Styles wore a dress on the cover of US Vogue’s December issue. Inside the magazine, the shoot featured Styles in one of Reed’s designs - a tailored suit with peak shoulders attached to a hoop-skirt draped in tulle. Within hours of the magazine’s publication, it had become a symbol that far transcended the sum of its parts. For some, it symbolised a referendum on outdated gender-norms. For those attached to the binary, it was a sign of how far things had gone. Candace Owens, a US Republican party member, tweeted to “bring back manly men”. Reed’s clothing and stylistic decisions had the world talking across every social media platform imaginable, but for the designer it was simply about great clothes and having fun. “Why is everyone so obsessed with a man in a dress?” was his response.

I am intrigued to know Reed’s thoughts on the current state of fluidity, which still feels incredibly misunderstood, even in 2024. Reed’s reply to my question is simple and swift - it feels that way because it is. “It’s such a personal and beautiful experience that I think that it completely gets misunderstood. I think a lot of people find that if you’re fluid, you're just dead in the middle. You’re somehow half boy, half girl, they have this very kind of Neanderthal approach. The whole beauty about fluidity is that it breaks down all boundaries. It breaks down and shatters any walls. It is something that is completely about what it is to the individual, not about what society thinks that their fluidity is.”

Reed is an activist in more ways than one and he feels a deep sense of responsibility towards the environment. Fluidity is, he opines in Fluid, “about caring, caring about the true you, caring about others, and caring about the world we live in. That’s a big statement, but one I try to embody.” Reed’s newer collections

Florence Pugh modelling Harris Reed’s AW23 collection, All the World’s a Stage. At the show, she came out and read a monologue setting forward a declaration for fluid fashion

contain deadstock fabrics and upcycled and locally sourced materials where possible, though he has admitted it can be challenging as many of these materials are cotton or hemp, which don’t fit into the grandeur of his designs.

He also supports initiatives such as Second Hand September. For his AW22 collection, Found, shown at the Serpentine Pavilion, we saw ten looks come down the salon-style catwalk, all of which were created with clothes that had been donated to Oxfam, making an important point about fashion waste. Reed played with a consortium of extravagant fabrics, undid seams and meticulously reconstructed garments, giving them all new life with his signature flair; he even repurposed lace bridal veils and morning jackets.

Is this to be the future of fashion I ask. “Vintage and upcycling is going to become huge because fashion is also expensive; it’s not the most accessible to people and that’s not okay,” he says. “Just look at Vestiaire and Depop having some of the best years they’ve ever had financially, it’s clear this resale culture is only becoming stronger. And other ‘demi-couture’ brands like myself will hopefully continue to grow alongside this because we’re offering special pieces for individuals using sustainable fabrics. And for me that really feels like the future.”

For Reed it is clearly imperative brands think about their actions and “be responsible and ethical in the way they make their clothes, source their fabrics. Clothing should be something that’s art and is passed down and stays around for a long time, it shouldn’t be a high street blouse that just gets thrown in landfill.”

Before he goes, I ask about his advice for young designers trying to break into the industry today. “There has to be a strong, genuine narrative to everything that you’re doing. You can no longer put out a flashy sparkly dress without it having a story. Do everything with meaning, relate it to yourself personally, pull from your insecurities, pull from your trigger points and create beauty from that.”

As for Reed, what would he like to be remembered for? “My superpower is the clothes that I make. That is my activism,” he tells me. And with that, is it time for him to depart. All I can do is wait with bated breath to see what Harris Reed does next.

Fluid: A Fashion Revolution by Harris Reed (Quadrille, £35) harrisreed.com

Looks from Harris Reed’s SS24 collection Duet, an homage to glamorous and exaggerated femininity

WATCHES & JEWELLERY

SHINING ARMOUR

This season’s high jewellery collections were gleaming with brilliance as ever, with the haute joaillerie maisons looking to their storied pasts to fashion pieces that are timeless yet contemporary. Boucheron was a particular highlight, with creative director Claire Choisne finding inspiration from military regalia to create dazzling rock crystal and diamond ribbons, frogging, epaulettes and braiding. boucheron.com

The latest launches & most covetable new pieces to have on your radar

Compiled by KIM PARKER

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HIT THE HIGH NOTES Watch & Jewellery Notes

TRUE ROMANCE

New York-based designer Jesse Marlo Lazowski has unveiled a collection of statement jewels which pay homage to the globe-trotting poets of the Romantic period. Starburst silhouettes, cameos and one-off collars evoke the era’s bygone glamour, with the unusual hues of champagne diamonds, prasiolites and smoky topaz adding a contemporary twist.

White diamond and Smoky Topaz Necklace, £174,453 marlolaz.com

FAIRGROUND ATTRACTION

Ferris wheels and gilded merry-go-rounds conjure beloved childhood memories for Chelsea-based jeweller Kiki McDonough. Launching in May, her new limited-edition collection ‘Carousel’ evokes their swirling movement through joyous swoops of sherbet-coloured gemstones such as sapphires, fire opals and garnets. Carousel Rainbow Earrings, £3,500 kiki.co.uk

The Italian house of Buccellati has introduced fresh new interpretations of its best-selling Opera motif across a series of pendant pieces. While Opera Maxi magni es the intricate, architecturally inspired logo for a bolder statement, central gold elements spin on an axis in the Opera Galileo iteration as a playful ode to the astronomer Galileo Galilei. From £8,400 buccellati.com

A TIMELY FASHION

Debuted at Paris Couture Week, Audemars Piguet’s new Royal Oak timepiece was created in collaboration with designer Tamara Ralph, who imbued it with haute couture detailing such as a graduated golden bronze dial, diamond-set tourbillon and ‘frosted’ 18k pink gold case. Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon ‘Tamara Ralph’ Limited-Edition, POA; audemarspiguet.com

DOLCE VITA

While Jennifer Lopez may be spotted in a series of striking looks in her new music video for Can’t Get Enough, it’s the jewellery she wears that really makes a statement. Italian fine jewellery brand Fope is behind the dazzling pieces, which include pavé diamond earrings, rings and bracelets taken from their Panorama and Solo collections, and a pavé diamond necklace from the Super Eka collection, which is available exclusively at the Fope boutique on Bond Street. Available from Fope, 1A Bond Street, Mayfair, W1

SURREAL DEAL

Transforming Surrealist works into wearable art, Venyx’s Man Ray collection reinterprets three of the artist’s seminal works from the 1930s into nine limited-edition jewels. Cast in white diamonds and gold, or red enamel and colourful gemstones, the pouty lips from ‘The Lovers’ (1936), the eyes from ‘Glass Tears’ (1932) and the sculptural torso from ‘The Venus Restored’ (1936) acquire a fabulous new lease of life.

Glass Tears White Gold Torque Necklace and Ring, POA venyxworld.com

ON REFLECTION

2024 marks 10 years since Rosh Mahtani founded Alighieri jewellery. Rooted in French and Italian literature, her pieces are inspired by the poet and philosopher’s 14th century epic, the Divine Comedy. To celebrate the anniversary, Mahtani has created ten bold talismans in textured recycled silver and 24k gold-plated bronze, to represent some of her brand’s signature motifs from the past decade in what she describes as a “capsule of memories”.

Left: The Over Thinker Hair Tie, £350

Right: The Armour Unlocked Bangle, £650 alighieri.com

The storied haute joaillerie maisons revisit their rich archives this season, reimagining historic designs for a contemporary audience

Words KIM PARKER

Amid the schedule of glittering catwalk presentations of astonishing, one-off gowns at Paris Haute Couture Week 2024, the storied maisons of the city’s Place Vendôme opened their doors to private clients to view their latest high jewellery.

This season, as is customary for collections shown at the beginning of each year, the focus was on heritage, with makers mining their rich archives for codes and motifs to make new. Instead of the dizzying rainbows of myriad gemstones usually reserved for late summer’s jewels, these were pieces that showcased exquisite diamonds and extraordinary metal craftsmanship, with a particular emphasis on transformability and wearability.

At Chaumet, which thrilled guests by presenting its Un Air de Chaumet collection beneath the ornately painted ceilings of its historic home at 12 Place Vendôme, gleaming pieces were modelled by both men and women dressed in sleek polo necks to emphasise their modernity. Here, a feathery-looking tiara and sparkling diamond hair slides quickly transformed into brooches that could adorn a jacket lapel, whilst glamourous golden ear cuffs looked chic on everyone.

Boucheron, too, emphasised the versatile magic of its monochromatic new collection, The Power of Couture, which was entirely crafted from white gold, diamonds and carved rock crystal, one of its signature materials. Inspired by the embellishments on designer gowns and the beribboned regalia of military uniforms, collar necklaces bore medal motifs that could be detached and worn separately as pins, whilst fern-like hair ornaments could instead be fastened to coats or dresses. Meanwhile, a pair of shimmering epaulettes converted into fabulous bracelets, and rows of multi-purpose crystal-and-diamond buttons could be used to anoint hair, cuffs, neckties and more. Also looking to their heritage for creative cues, a host of other houses used eye-catching collar necklacessurely this year’s most popular jewel - to showcase their hallmark motifs. At Louis Vuitton, watches and jewellery artistic director Francesca Amfitheatrof set dramatic yellow or brown diamonds within white or yellow gold collars, interspersed with the brand’s distinctive LV logo. Meanwhile, David Morris’ Skye collection saw its signature pink diamonds used to bring a rosy glow to dramatic chokers that are certain to grace future red carpet events.

At Dior, where Monsieur Christian Dior’s love of couture fabrics is an eternal source of inspiration, Dior Joaillerie creative director Victoire de Castellane conjured brilliants of varying sizes and shapes into white and pink gold ribbons of diaphanous lace, to be worn coquettishly high on the neck, or delicate posies of gleaming floral ‘embroidery’ for collarbone-grazing rivières. If this season’s collections are but a precursor of what is to follow in a few months’ time, 2024 is destined to be a dazzling year indeed.

Chaumet Takes Flight

Birds were a beloved motif of Chaumet’s most famous client, the Empress Joséphine, and today, the house pays tribute with graceful jewels inspired by the movement of a flock of swallows. One clever headpiece features a group of nine little birds, three of which can fly free as a detachable pin. Another sparkles with a delicate fan of their carved rose gold and diamond-set ‘feathers’, arranged around a central pear-cut diamond. These, too, can be removed and worn as lapel brooches. Meanwhile, the birds’ aerial trails have been captured in gold and diamonds, with asymmetric earrings and ear cuffs featuring diving swallows and swooping arcs of white gold and diamonds that gently curve around the ear and into your hair. chaumet.com

Louis Vuitton’s Homage to Prehistory

To Louis Vuitton’s Francesca Amfitheatrof, the past is endlessly fascinating. In particular, the earth’s primordial past, when monumental tectonic shifts split continents and created precious gemstones. With the 50 one-of-a-kind pieces in the new Deep Time Chapter II collection, she pays homage to these forces of nature. The Drift collar, for instance, was inspired by the supercontinents Laurasia and Gondwana and bears a magnificent 30.47 carat, octagonal yellow sapphire. Meanwhile, the Symbiosis necklace – which took 1,381 hours to produce – glows with multiple clusters of pink, purple and blue spinels, as a tribute to the fleshy colours of early life forms. Running throughout the collection are familiar motifs, such as LV initials, florals and rope ties, which link to the house’s historic design codes.

louisvuitton.com

Military Splendour at Boucheron

Prince Phillip as a jewellery pin-up? In the mind of Boucheron’s creative director Claire Choisne, the answer is a resounding yes. Inspired by the formal military regalia of the late Duke of Edinburgh’s naval career, as well as couture embellishments worn at other royal courts, Choisne has conjured an elegant high jewellery collection of rock crystal and diamonds that resembles ribbons, frogging, epaulettes and braiding. Rather than uniforms, these glamorous pieces are destined to adorn elegant gowns, with transformable jewels that can be slipped onto shoulders, cuffs and buttonholes, and necklaces that can become tiaras or brooches. boucheron.com

Elegant Lacework at Dior

Heritage and horticulture come together in divine form with Victoire de Castellane’s latest high jewellery collection at Dior. Entitled Délicat, it is entirely devoted to the couture decorations of Monsieur Dior’s atelier, with sparkling diamond collars resembling lines of intricate stitching, earrings that look like tiny floral applique patches and rings of carved rose gold that mimic lacy lattices of daisy chains. dior.com

David Morris’ Celebration of the Skies

During Paris Haute Couture Week 2024, a glut of extraordinary, pastel-tinted gemstones was cast into show-stopping statement jewels at David Morris. Each one was created in homage to the ethereal colours of the Northern Lights. A giant Starburst bangle gleams with oval-cut Paraiba tourmalines, while the Arctic Dance choker suspends pink and blue spinel drops from a band of shimmering white diamonds. “When the sky comes alive with the sublime dance of the Aurora Borealis, it is as if you are looking through a window into another world. This transient beauty is endlessly inspiring to me,” says creative director Jeremy Morris. davidmorris.com

True

London’s new independent jewellery boutiques are as dazzling in design as the sparkling treasures they sell

Words KIM PARKER

LILY GABRIELLA

73 Burlington Arcade, Mayfair, W1

lilygabriella.com

Growing up surrounded by her grandmother Lily Safra’s jewellery collection, Lily Gabriella honed her eye for beautiful craftsmanship from an early age. With a background in the world of fine arts, she has built a successful career designing sculptural pieces that combine kaleidoscopic and unusual gemstones with a fresh, modernist style. Similarly, when it came to opening her first boutique in London’s Burlington Arcade, Gabriella had an exact vision. “I wanted clients to feel like they were sitting in their own living room,” she explains. Together with designer Mark Alexander Woolnough, she has created a decadent yet intimate space that seems more Parisian penthouse than London boutique. The pink plastered walls glow with light from the slanted roof windows thanks to delicate flecks of gold leaf, whilst voluptuous Eichholtz furniture, custom jewellery vitrines with gilded frames, curated objets d’art and floor-to-ceiling mirrors deliver a touch of opulent luxury. By appointment only.

objets d’art

LILY GABRIELLA Flora Earrings in Rose Gold, Morganite and Diamonds POA

ROXANNE FIRST

97 Walton Street, Chelsea, SW3

roxannefirst.com

“I

up surrounded by her Italian family who collected

t’s a very special street, where some brilliant British brands started, like Anya Hindmarch and Jo Malone,” says Roxanne First of opening her stand-alone store on Walton Street. Roxanne’s fascination with jewellery began as a child, growing up surrounded by her Italian family who collected unique pieces. In 2018, after a decade in luxury retail, she launched her eponymous line with customisable, rainbow-coloured jewels, gemstone hoops and playful smiley and palm tree motifs becoming her signature. She has created an equally cheery home for her brand in SW3, complete with a multi-coloured Sputnik chandelier, a leopard-spotted desk, Crayolahued bespoke pictures by Californian artist David Matthew King and a dedicated pop-up area for fun collaborations with clothing and homeware labels. And just like her stackable, layerable creations, First’s boutique is constantly evolving - after only a few months in situ, the herringbone tiled floor has already been repainted pink.

Born in Brazil and now living and working in London, Fernando Jorge was determined to honour his own multicultural lifestyle when he relocated from a workshop in the East End to a showroom in the heart of Mayfair last year. The result is an elegant atelier, where artworks by Brazilian creatives such as the painter Lucas Arruda and sculptor Vanessa da Silva share space with an assortment of mid-century, Art Deco and Bauhaus finds sourced by the New York-based designer Andre Mellone, plus a green onyx table devised by Jorge himself. Central to the whole concept are the custom-made jewellery cabinets composed of Brazilian wood, which were designed in the United States and handmade in London. They’re the perfect backdrop for Jorge’s timeless, red carpetworthy creations, such as his sophisticated diamond ‘Disco’ earrings - as seen on Beyoncé and Emily Blunt - and statement ‘Surround’ cuffs with brilliants set within polished nuggets of aquamarine, labradorite or moonstone.

FERNANDO JORGE Nebula Bracelet in 18k White Gold, Diamonds and Moonstones POA

69A Lisson Street, Marylebone, NW1

completedworks.com

ACOMPLETEDWORKS

lthough Completedworks’ urban-inspired, architectural jewels are carried in fashionable stockists like Dover Street Market and Liberty, a surge in growth made it necessary for the brand to look for its own showroom. “We wanted people to be able to enter our world and get to know us… Clients seem to really appreciate the intimate experience that comes with a salon concept,” says artistic director Anna Jewsbury, who founded the editor-favourite label in 2013. Together with London-based interior designer Hollie Bowden, she reimagined a former two-storey pub as a utilitarian-inspired studio, full of simple materials like aluminium and textural finishes like exposed brickwork softened with limewash, which take their cue from the fluid forms of the brand’s signature jewellery and homeware. Here, practicality is all: modular displays allow for multifunctional uses of the space, while a communal jewellery bench in the workshop - accessed via a steel staircase - allows for future team expansion. By appointment only.

CHIEFER JEWELLERY

10B Berkeley Street, Mayfair, W1

chieferjewellery.com

HAppiah’s

and rapper Nines - are now welcomed into a serene, taupemini

oping to provide a more relaxing experience than he felt was traditionally offered by London’s historic jewellery houses, Chiefer Appiah - aka the ‘Bussdown King’ - moved his bespoke jewellery business from Hatton Garden to Mayfair, opening his own boutique on Berkeley Street last summer. Fans of Appiah’s glamorous creations and tricked-out vintage timepieces, which are heavily influenced by street and hip-hop culture - including the boxer Anthony Joshua and rapper Nines - are now welcomed into a serene, taupecoloured interior, with plenty of tactile textures and soft lighting. Quirky touches include a mirrored, bubble-like ceiling that has given rise to a new fine jewellery line and a cosy appointment room modelled on a recording studio (Appiah began his career in the music industry). There’s even a mini stage curtain which, when pulled aside, reveals a rotating display of glittering, customised watches that can be made to dance and spin to the Superman theme tune. Mission accomplished.

the

COMPLETEDWORKS The Bay of Thoughts Earrings in Gold Vermeil, Pearl and Zirconia, £285

CHIEFER JEWELLERY Customised Diamond-Set Patek Philippe Nautilus Watch, POA

73 Elizabeth Street, Belgravia, SW1

loquetlondon.com

LOQUET LONDON

Up until last year, Loquet’s store on Elizabeth Street was only a ‘pop-up’. But to celebrate the bejewelled charm specialist’s 10th anniversary, founder Sheherazade Goldsmith made the space into a permanent flagship and instigated a total design overhaul. “Previously, the boutique was inspired by my home, so it had lots of classical detailing. For our next stage I wanted an entirely new vibe, something that took its cues from our jewellery, which is about joy and individuality,” she says. Taking further inspiration from memories of a favourite sweet shop, Goldsmith installed a paint scheme of sherbet hues, pastel pink and green marble displays by Molteni & C, a ‘bon bon’ chandelier by Danish maker Helle Mardahl, plus a Damien Hirst ‘Spot’ painting that reminded her of chocolate buttons. “I feel like we’ve nailed that fun, pick-and-mix feeling that our clients get when they walk through the door,” says Goldsmith.

RACHEL BOSTON

59 Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, E2 rachelboston.co.uk

aving outgrown her previous shop on Cheshire Street, Rachel Boston - known for her bold, breath-of-fresh-air spin on bridal jewellery - spent a year searching for just the right location for a new boutique-cum-workspace, with several options falling through before an entire building on Redchurch Street became available. “It was a blessing in disguise, because nothing came close to the instant love I felt for this spot once I’d seen it,” she reveals. Ever-popular interior designer Hollie Bowden was called in to work her magic on the former beauty brand HQ, transforming it into a contemporary stage for Boston’s Art Decoinflected jewels and modern engagement rings set with diamonds in unique cuts and colours. The minimalist sycamore and steel scheme that permeates the shopping area is softened for a more informal mood in the client showroom, with plush carpeting and an assortment of vintage furnishings such as a Mario Bellini chair. By appointment only.

shopping in the client showroom, with plush carpeting and an assortment of

LOQUET LONDON From left: Agate and Sapphire Sunrise Locket in 14k Gold, £7,500, and 14k Gold and Diamond Chain, £1,600. Pink and Yellow Sapphire Locket in 14k Gold, £5,800, and 14k Gold Cable Link Chain, £2,600. Charms from £30 each

RACHEL BOSTON Priapus Ring in 18k Yellow Gold and Cognac Diamond £18,000

lunetteriegenerale.com

From deepest midnight to palest aqua, horology looks to the skies with spring’s most covetable timepieces

HERMES Slim d’Hermès Le Sacre des Saisons

Contains non pore-clogging, triple filtered, organic rose hip oil.

100% agree skin is NOURISHED and redness is SOOTHED*

100% agree skin is ILLUMINATED*

Enriched with a potent blend of antioxidants and vitamins K, C and E, to promote a radiant complexion whilst shielding skin from environmental damage.

*Clinical study conducted by SGS, 10.2023

BEAUTY

RIVIERA CHIC

Dior looks to the lavender-scented, sun-drenched South of France f0r its Summer Collection 2024, with creative director for makeup Peter Philips drawing on the bohemian spirit of the Côte d’Azur as inspiration. Ice cream shades and shimmering metallics bring a je ne sais quoi to two new eye palettes, while the Dior Vernis nail polishes are now available in Lemon Glow and Pastel Mint. dior.com

Beauty Notes

A fresh spin on the cat-eye, the hybrid complexion stick and a new afro hair salon at Selfridges

Compiled by CHARLOTTE ADSETT

PLANT POWER

Le Rouge Français, the natural and fully vegan makeup brand that is pioneering plant-based pigmentation using flower dyes, plants and seaweed, has launched an organic Lip Oil. The dry oil comes in fi ve sheer shades and is deeply nourishing and hydrating on the lips (it can also be used on eyelids and cheekbones) without any sticky residue. £24; lerougefrancais.com

STAR BRIGHT

Votary adds to its plant-powered skincare range with the Night Star Serum. The multi-potent, triple-action formula is infused with the brand’s proprietary Meta Complex, a combination of brightening, age-defying and hydrating actives to replenish and rejuvenate skin while you sleep. £140; votary.co.uk

All eyes are on Lisa Eldridge this season as she debuts the Kitten Eye, a playful, pared-back take on the classic cat-eye. The makeup artist has launched two new products to e ortlessly achieve the feline look: a precision-nibbed Kitten Flick Liquid Eyeliner (£25) and the Kitten Lash Mascara (£29) for u y, feathery lashes. lisaeldridge.com

PURE GENIUS

Louis Vuitton nose Jacques Cavallier Belletrud has created a new trio of pure perfumes showcasing amber, sandalwood and oud in all their unadulterated beauty. ey’re so rarified, they are fast becoming collector’s pieces. From £895 for 100ml louisvuitton.com

Modern Glamour

STICK WITH IT

The long-anticipated Skin Rewind Complexion Stick from clean beauty brand Ilia has finally arrived. Billing itself as ‘the fountain of youth’, the hybrid stick is foundation-concealerskincare rolled into one. The tinted stick delivers medium coverage and a weightless natural-matte finish in 42 shades, whether you use it for all-over coverage or to conceal under-eye circles and blemishes. The multitasking formula is also packed with ceramides, peptides, kelp and butterfly lavender extract, simultaneously leaving skin visibly smoother and fine lines and wrinkles softened. Little wonder it has a wait list. £48 , iliabeauty.com

FFRENCH KISS

Experimental makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench has never been afraid to break the rules and her progressive, highconcept beauty collection Isamaya continues to excite. Not least the latest drop, which comprises her glossy Sheer Lipstick Balm now available in six new juicy shades including the deep purple shimmer of Retrograde. £29; isamaya.co.uk

STEAM CLEAN

The Steam Bar is a new luxury haircare brand founded by Judy Koloko for people of colour. The science-backed, six-product range, available exclusively at Selfridges, has been specifically developed by Koloko to protect and nourish natural, curly, afro and textured hair, merging the traditional art of steaming with the benefits of ‘skinification’. Now the former model and talent agent has opened The Steam Bar treatment space at the department store, an afro salon where a team of stylists (aka The Steam Queens) offer a range of services from scalp and hair health treatments to wig dry-cleaning. thesteambar.com

HYBRID FOUNDATION

Beauty THE NEW

UPDATES

From electric-hued nails to ‘jelly’ cheeks and unstructured brows, Beauty Director Alessandra Steinherr reveals SS24’s key hair and makeup looks

ESPRESSO MAKEUP

Espresso makeup is a move on from the latte makeup trend of last year. Essentially, it’s a deeper shade of brown and more of a matte version of the look, especially around the eyes. There are different ways to achieve this. Using an eyeshadow stick is one - the Laura Mercier Caviar Stick Eye Shadow in Cocoa (£28) is a lovely rich walnut brown, and Lisa Eldridge does a beautiful Seamless Glide Eye Pencil in a shade called Ground Coffee (£24). A few coats of a thickening mascara is key, too; I like Vieve Modern Mascara (£23).

Portrait MATEUSZ SITEK

@emrata

Patrick Ta Beauty

BALLETCORE

The balletcore beauty aesthetic continues to stay relevant. For me, it’s a combination of a perfectly velvety complexion with a baby pink powdery blush, elongated, lengthened lashes and a very light tint of lip balm. Start by using Sisley Phyto-Teint Perfection (£80), a high-coverage foundation that comes in 29 shades and gives a long-lasting semi-matte finish. A powder blusher, like Mac Glow Play Blush in the shade Cheeky Devil (£28), adds luminescence. Don’t worry about eyeshadow, just add lengthening mascara and a soft pink tinted lip balm, like Clé de Peau Beauté Lip Glorifier (£42), for a fresh look.

THE ITALIAN BOB

I’ve seen a lot of choppy, glossy bobs recently. To get the fullbodied, bouncy, just-above-the shoulder Italian style, use a thickening spray for instant root lift, and rollers or a big barrel tong if you want voluminous sculpted waves. Finish off with Sam McKnight’s Love Me Do Nourishing Shine Oil (£32). What I love about this hair oil is that it is super lightweight, adding gloss and shine without affecting the movement of the hair.

GLASS SKIN

The ‘glass skin’ that Pat McGrath created for the porcelain doll look at the Maison Margiela SS24 couture show in Paris went viral earlier this year. To create the super-shiny, otherworldly effect, the visionary makeup artist used a secret formula sprayed onto the model’s skin, followed by a combination of peel-off masks and a clear face gloss for the theatricality. Rumour has it that Pat is planning to launch her own product soon to achieve smooth, reflective glass skin. Until then, to create a more wearable version at home try a hydrating serum like Fjor Hydrolytic Serum (£97). It is formulated with peptides, hyaluronic acid and collagen but, importantly, it’s also a little bit tacky to give skin that ultrashine before you apply your makeup on top.

Pat McGrath for Maison Margiela SS24

@zendaya

@haileybieber

UNSTRUCTURED BROWS

Thick, dark eyebrows look so dated now. This season it is all about subtly enhancing the natural shape that you’ve got, so it appears effortless. The best way to do this is either with a soft powder or a fine liner, whichever you prefer - Anastasia Beverly Hills do great brow products (try the Dipbrow Pomade, £19), as do Blink and also Refy, who do a buildable, dual-ended pomade and brush (£14). The trick I learnt from Anastasia Soare when choosing a brow powder or pencil is to always go a bit lighter than you think - we tend to veer towards darker but you should opt for a shade that is a couple of tones paler than your eyebrows for a much more natural look.

THE 90S SUPERMODEL LIP

The traditional 90s supermodel lipa brown lip liner topped with glossis back, as seen on the new generation of models including Kendall Jenner and Elsa Hosk. I’m replacing the gloss with a tinted lip oil - lip oils are having a huge moment. My favourites are Summer Fridays Dream Lip Oil in Rosewood Nights (£26) or Rhode Peptide Lip Tint in Toast (£16). A good lip liner is essential, too. I like the Makeup Forever Artist Color Pencil in Anywhere Caffeine (£18.50), it’s a really good mid-brown that suits a lot of skin tones.

BOWS IN THE HAIR

The coquettish bow continues to be the musthave hair accessory in 2024, whether adorning a barrette or in the form of a long ribbon. It’s easy to see why, it’s such a versatile trend. Go more classic by tying a very simple velvet bow at the nape of your neck, which is deeply elegant. If you’re going out for the evening, it’s such a simple and quick way to dress up an outfit. I recommend going to a haberdashery like VV Rouleaux in Marylebone to buy a selection of velvet and grosgrain ribbons in different colours, so you can create a bow for any occasion.

@hoskelsa

@nikki_makeup

Dior Couture SS24

Dior Couture SS24

Jennifer Behr, Francine Bow Barrette, £220

BRIGHT NAILS

This season, nails are going graphic. Think full-on expression, almost electric flashes of colour. Hermès’ new SS24 nail collection offers three incredibly vibrant shades of nail polish (£48) - there’s an ultravivid blue, a deep purple and a bright orange. I would keep the nails quite square and short and just let the pop of colour do the talking.

JELLY CHEEKS

MIDNIGHT BLUE EYES

This is a really fresh take on the classic black smokey eye and is such a beautiful evening look for Spring - the blue shimmer makes the eyes shine like jewels. Victoria Beckham Lid Lustre Shimmering Eyeshadow Pot in Midnight (£33) paired with Victoria Beckham Beauty Satin Kajal Eyeliner in Navy Noir (£30) is an ideal combination. Personally I would wear black mascara with this look, as blue might be excessive.

Ultra-glossed cheekbones have become a focal point of makeup this season. To create an all-over sheen, try Jones Road Miracle Balm (£36) for a naturally glowy finish and then build up the colour on the cheekbones by mixing a cream blush with a liquid highlighter (or you can use a liquid blush-highlighter hybrid). I suggest blending Saie Dew Blush (£20) and Rodial Glass Highlighter (£38) together to achieve that ultrashiny jelly blush look. Choose a shade that suits your skin tone, but wear it really high up on the cheeksthe placement is definitely important.

Hermès Charlotte Tilbury

Scents of the SEASON

The freshest new fragrances to spritz this Spring

Compiled by CHARLOTTE ADSETT

ACNE STUDIOS PAR FREDERIC MALLE

Eau de Parfum, 50ml, £200

It’s long been anticipated by fashion lovers but finally Acne Studios has launched its first ever fragrance. Created by the Swedish luxury label in collaboration with esteemed French perfume house Frederic Malle, the floral-fruity scent blends delicate top notes of pink aldehydes, violet and orange flowers with undertones of vanilla, peach and sandalwood for a scent that’s reminiscent of fresh laundry. acnestudios.com

MEMO PARIS

Cappadocia

Eau de Parfum, 75ml, £235 Perfumer Gaël Montero grew up in Spain where sa ron - the keystone of this fragrance - is widely used. Inspired by later travels in the Middle East, where he also encountered the mysterious, sensual spice, he has combined its richness with the heady essences of frankincense and myrrh, wrapping them all with layers of delicate rose, iris butter and jasmine, and the woody sweetness of sandalwood. memoparis.com

ORMONDE JAYNE

Vanilla des Afriques Intensivo

MAISON FRANCIS KURKDJIAN

Re ets d’ambre

Eau de Parfum, 70ml, £230

Eau de Parfum, 88ml, £295

Vanilla - both Madagascan and Bourbon - forms the basis of the latest perfume from British perfume house Ormonde

Jayne. New to the Four Corners of the Earth collection, the amberesque fragrance has been created by Linda Pilkington to capture the essence of a balmy, sunset- lled African evening, with coriander seed, bergamot and pink pepper at its heart, and top notes of soothing orris butter, magnolia bud and jasmine absolute. ormondejayne.com

TOM FORD

Vanilla Sex

Eau de Parfum, 50ml, £290

Leave behind preconceived notions of sweet and cloying as vanilla takes on a totally di erent personality here.

Vanilla Tincture India, an ingredient specially created for this fragrance, creates a soft seductiveness that’s interplayed with the more creamy vanilla absolute, alongside a bitter almond essence, mysterious orals and a base note of ambery sandalwood for a sultry, deep sensuality. selfridges.com

In this meeting of two luxury heritage brands, Parisian perfumer Francis Kurkdjian has created a limited-edition scent to mark the 175th anniversary of Harrods. The unique fragrance centres around amber, its sensuality and warmth tempered by the spiciness of pink pepper and lightness of jasmine, alongside the more mellow, creamier notes of vanilla, with richly decadent results be tting the most famous department store in the world. harrods.com

D.S. & DURGA

Black Magenta

Eau de Parfum, 100ml, £229

Brooklyn-based fragrance house D.S. & Durga pays homage to the dark beauty of New York nightclubs in the Seventies with its bold composition. Self-taught perfumer David takes inspiration from di erent aspects of his home city to create a scent he describes as ‘a little bit classy, a little bit trashy’. Layering notes of pineapple, tobacco, magenta dianthus, orrise, black amber and sandalwood, the results are fruity but with a heady twist. liberty.co.uk

LOEWE Doré

Eau de Parfum, 100ml, £243

Through its Un Paseo Por Madrid collection, Loewe seeks to evoke a real sense of the beating heart of the Spanish capital. The latest addition looks to the Modernist Doré cinema and its archive screenings. Rose, amber, patchouli and vanilla work together to create a blend of oral, aromatic and woody notes designed to be as mesmerising as any lm you’d see at this much-loved city landmark. harrods.com

FRENCH EXCHANGE

Clare Lattin and Tom Hill of Ducksoup in Soho and Emilia in Ashburton, Devon, have a knack for creating places that make you want to linger for hours over good food and good wine with good company. Camille in Borough Market is no different. Chef Elliot Hashtroudi brings his St John training to bear on traditional French bistro cooking, yielding comforting,contemporary dishes such as chicken, boudin and truffle terrine; langoustine cassoulet; and burnt milk tart. 2-3 Stoney Street, Southwark, SE1 camillerestaurant.co.uk

Tasting Notes

The new openings & places to know across the capital this season

Compiled by HILARY ARMSTRONG

Bon appétit

GALLIC CHARM

The germ of French-Alsatian newcomer July was a lockdown supper club in Berlin. Now Solynka Dumas and Julian Oschmann are bringing July to Charlotte Street. From 25 April, it will serve soups, tarts and sandwiches by day, small plates and natural wines by night, with former 40 Maltby Street head chef Holly Hayes heading up the kitchen. 20 Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia, W1 july.london

ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

Knightsbridge institution

Sale e Pepe celebrates 50 years this year. To mark the occasion, it has a glamorous new look, with marble, paintings and mirrors straight out of a Milanese townhouse. The restaurant’s legendary owner Toni Corricelli retired in 2022; he has handed the reins over to restaurateur Markus Thesle of Los Mochis, who first dined there as a child. He knows what the locals like to eat: tagliatelle caviar, saltbaked sea bass and lobster linguine will do nicely. 9-15 Pavilion Road, Chelsea, SW1 saleepepe.co.uk

COD SQUAD

Ben Marks of Perilla in Newington Green cooks with such verve and originality. If Newington Green’s too far out of the way, you can now experience his brilliance at Morchella, his Mediterranean restaurant and wine cellar, now open at the top end of Exmouth Market. Everybody’s talking about the salt cod churros. 84-86 Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell, EC1 morchelladining.co.uk

PAST TIMES

If you’ve been to Lyon, you will have been to a bouchon, one of the traditional restaurants that define the city’s famous hospitality.

Claude Bosi, holder of two Michelin stars at Brooklands and Bibendum, grew up in his family’s bouchon. His new London version Joséphine comes from the heart, serving nostalgic dishes such as oeuf en gelée; rabbit in mustard sauce; salade Lyonnaise; and nougat glacé. Menu du jour, £29.50. 315 Fulham Road, Fulham, SW10 josephinebouchon.com

BEST IN STORE

Don’t tell a soul about the gorgeous wine bar hidden away beneath Farm Shop, the Mayfair counterpart to Artfarm’s Durslade Farm Shop in Bruton, Somerset. It’s a peaceful place to enjoy a glass of wine, with some cheese or charcuterie, and to be inspired by the art on the walls and the considered ‘rus in urbe’ interiors. All 200 wines in the cellar are available to take away, perhaps with a steak or two from the in-house butcher.

64 South Audley Street, Mayfair, W1 dursladefarmshop.co.uk

MY FAVOURITE LONDON RESTAU NTS

Ravneet Gill

From ery Thai food to British ne dining, these are the pastry chef and TV presenter’s must-visit foodie spots in the capital

As told to LUCIANA BELLINI

MAISON FRANÇOIS

This is one place I keep returning to again and again - I’d happily go for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and I have all my meetings there. It’s also where my husband and I went for drinks after we got married. They make all their pastries inhouse and the service is great.

If I go for breakfast, I have one of their pain Suisse or a yogurt bowl, because I’m more of a sweet person for breakfast. For lunch or dinner, they do amazing flatbreads, but you can always have a really delicious plate of pasta, or roast chicken, or a great steak. The menu is full of crowd pleasers. It looks fancy in there, but everyone is so down to earth – the people who go just like good food.

THE GRILL AT THE DORCHESTER

Tom is just so good at taking things that

For special occasions, I usually go to The Grill at The Dorchester because Tom Booton is such an incredible chef. It’s where my husband and I went when we got engaged, and then we went again with all my family the day we got married. Tom is just so good at taking things that are really classic and making them the best version possible. Even something simple like roast chicken is stuffed with a delicious mousse. And the chips are the best chips you’ve ever had, they come with the most moreish mayonnaise on the side. Plus, his desserts are incredible. I always order two or three so I can try them all: last time I had bread and butter pudding, soft serve and then rice pudding with caramelised apples. He really understands dessert, and I think any chef that gets dessert right is going to have great starters and mains.

53 Park Lane, Mayfair, W1 dorchestercollection.com

34 Duke Street, St. James's, SW1 maisonfrancois.london

WILD BY TART

When I’m in Victoria, I always try to pop into this neighbourhood restaurant. I helped open it and the owners, Lucy Carr-Ellison and Jemima Jones, are two of the nicest people I’ve ever met and worked with. I’m constantly impressed by how lovely they are, even in the face of huge stress. When I go, it’s always got a great vibe: I’ve hosted supper clubs and had parties there, but I’ve also come and had brunch, lunch and dinner and loved it every time. It took a really long time to get the building converted, years and years, but they’ve done a brilliant job. The food is all seasonal British produce and so delicious. I love all their little starter plates, which change all the time, and their dessert chef is really good as well. I’ve never been and had a bad meal.

3-4 Eccleston Yards, Belgravia, SW1 wildbytart.com

SOM SAA

This is top of my list for incredible Thai food. I go about once a week. Everything is made from scratch – my husband worked there as a chef for a little bit, so I know it’s all authentic and that they use the best ingredients that come directly from Thailand. The prep is ridiculous, they hand chop all the lemongrass and the Thai basil; it’s a lot of work and you can definitely taste it in the food. They do these lovely tamarind chicken skewers and a really good Flourish Farm Thai green curry with delicious vegetables. That’s my usual order. You can go for a casual lunch or something more formal; I’ve taken my parents, but I’ve also been after the gym with no makeup on.

43A Commercial Street, Spitalfields, E1 somsaa.com

RAMBUTAN

This Sri Lankan spot in Borough Market is one of the most exciting new openings I’ve been to recently - I absolutely loved it. The menu is so good, packed full of flavour and just what you want. It’s very casual, with a small chef team, but the food is knock-your-socks-off delicious, especially the spicy curries. I particularly love it because they serve dessert. A lot of Sri Lankan restaurants don’t have dessert on the menu – I always harass the guys at Hoppers and Paradise, which is run by my friend, about it. But at Rambutan, Cynthia [Shanmugalingam] does this amazing soft serve, which is just what you need to cut through all the spice.

10 Stoney Street, Southwark, SE1 rambutanlondon.com

The Devonshire TableTalk

Restaurant editor Hilary Armstrong savours the capital’s most exciting culinary openings, from a grand all-day brasserie in The City to the reincarnation of a Holland Park favourite

17 Denman Street, Soho, W1 devonshiresoho.co.uk

Sipping a cold glass of MenetouSalon from nice stemware in the dining room above the recently reopened Devonshire pub in Soho, my mother – a common-sense northerner in her eighties – is telling me about a squillion-course immersive dining concept she’d read about in the paper recently. “It’s supposed to be ‘experiential’,” she explains with a roll of the eyes. I have to ask: does she think, for one minute, that the immersive experience she’d have there would have anything on the immersive experience we’d just had, fighting our way through a scrum of bodies and a sea of Guinness and testosterone in the pub downstairs to get to our table? “Definitely not,” she laughs, pleased as punch to be right where she is.

“I suppose that’s the owner,” whispers mother, discreetly pointing out a chap in a suit, who most assuredly is not wild-haired Irish publican Oisín Rogers, working the room. Rogers isn’t in on our visit, but every

other restaurateur in London is. The dining room is a ‘Who’s Who’ of hospitality; the chap in the suit’s an industry mover and shaker; the one whose hand he’s shaking is the top dog at an influential new hospitality company; the one he’s hugging is a society restaurateur; and the one he’s posing for a selfie with, well, that’s the pub’s chef Ashley Palmer-Watts, latterly of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. I don’t mean to make The Devonshire sound like an industry insiders’ club – anyone can get in, in theory – but it’s true that hospitality folk have embraced it. Game recognises game.

The tightly packed tables, paper tablecloths, and bentwood chairs have the easy insouciance of a Parisian bistro. It has me thinking of The French House, Andrew Edmunds, Bouchon Racine. The menu here, however, is anglophile. Pea and ham soup is back in vogue, apparently, as are potted shrimps with Melba toast, and scallops with bacon and malt vinegar. The crab salad is a lovely light one, with some sliced apple and bitter leaves for a bit of crunch. Brawn, meanwhile, is surprisingly dainty, served on fingers of toast, with dabs of mustard and pickle for a ‘Big Mac’ kick. I love it. Mother is thrilled with her lamb chops, three of the things, French-trimmed, with seams of golden fat, served plain and unadorned on a round white plate, with not a sprig of parsley surplus to requirements. I said she was no-nonsense. I have a beef cheek and Guinness suet pudding because I don’t eat suet pudding often enough for my liking. The Devonshire’s achieves ‘best

ever’ status. Maybe I’ve never had a truly great suet pudding before because I’m astounded by how light this one is and just how easily I polish it o . We split two sides: creamed leeks, and mashed potato, not to be confused with pomme purée, in tasting of actual potato not a whole pack of butter. To finish, we have chocolate mousse with cherries and a splash of pouring cream. Delightful.

Prices are comparable with all those beloved restaurants I mentioned above; first courses are £8 to £16; steaks and chops from £24 to £39; sides are a fiver. And there’s a fixed lunch menu too, at a practically northern £29 for three courses, which currently includes prawn cocktail, skirt steak and chips, and sticky to ee pudding (restaurant critic Marina O’Loughlin has a phrase for such food: ‘dadcore’ and it is dadcore through and through). While one could dine here cheaply, I see the Devonshire as the kind of place where what you don’t overspend on food, you do overspend on wine. It serves good food that’s worth opening a bottle of vintage Bordeaux or aged Rioja for (of which the list has a few). It’s obvious I’m smitten, isn’t it? So’s my mum. The Devonshire is the kind of experience we crave.

MEAL FOR TWO (with wine): £160

SIGNATURE DISHES: Scallops with bacon and malt vinegar; langoustines; ribeye of beef

WHAT TO DRINK: Guinness

120-122 Morning Lane, Hackney, E9 dallarestaurant.com

On a Saturday night at Dalla, a new Italian restaurant in Hackney, diners hold their mobile phones under their tables, sneaking a look at Google Translate like school kids cheating on a test. They’re trying to make head or tail of the menu, a short but unfathomable list of Italian regional specialities.

I thought my Italian menuese was competent after a couple of decades in this job, but apparently not. When it comes to the kind of obscure, nearforgotten dishes from tiny villages known only to a few, I still have a lot to learn. “Winter vegetables with bagna cauda”, “puntarelle alla Romana”, and “frutta di stagione” I can manage; “seabass crudo with Kissabel apple and bergamotto”

and “flan di zucca” I can decipher. But “angiulottos di arrescottu”? “Panissa vercellese”? “Lambrichelli”? Not a clue. And that’s what makes Dalla such an exciting new arrival.

The chef Mitchell Damota is Canadian, not Italian. He was head chef before at Burro e Salvia in Shoreditch and at P. Franco in Clapton, and has become a specialist in Italian food, having been cooking and researching it for so long. His partner in the business is first-time restaurateur Gennaro Leone, a former music promoter, who those with a passion for 20th-century Italian furniture and art may know from his design showroom Spazio Leone. Leone’s chef brother Gianmarco joins from Claridge’s. If the food is very much Damota’s, the look of

the restaurant is Gennaro Leone’s. It is tiny. The tables cannot be more than a couple of inches apart. Leone’s filled the corner site (it was previously Peg and, before that, Legs) with pieces that he’s been collecting for years, including white bistro chairs from France, a wooden rotary dial telephone from Germany, a Gio Ponti mirror and a Stilnovo chandelier. It’s retro, romantic (if you don’t mind knocking knees with the people at the table next to you) and nothing like the flash new breed of Italian super restaurant you’ll find in Mayfair.

In spite of barely understanding the menu, I find it thrilling. There’s no specific regional focus at Dalla. Damota cooks from all over. Seasonality is the narrative thread that ties the dishes together. We begin with primi: the aforementioned “angiulottos di arrescottu”, a type of ravioli from Sardinia, filled with ricotta; and the “panissa vercellese”, a warming, wintry risotto with beans from Piedmont cooked with pork fat. The latter in particular is sublime. Stewed cuttlefish in a parsleyflecked broth is robust and warming. We order a radicchio salad on the side with slices of crisp pear for health.

I won’t say the food tastes like a real Italian nonna has made it. It doesn’t; it’s all a notch or two more precise than home cooking, sharper around the edges, more assertively flavoured. But it is comforting, flavoursome and sometimes, but not always, nostalgic. Dalla posts the menu semi-regularly on Instagram, so you can pore over it there as I am wont to do. A more recent menu lists pallotte cacio e uova (cheese and egg balls from Abruzzo); chestnut flour trofie pasta with marjoram pesto; and bonet, a chocolate and amaretti dessert from Piedmont. I could eat here every week and not get bored.

What a great time it is to be an italophile in east London. Damota’s not the only chef to be looking backwards to move forwards. Sophia Massarella at Polentina in Bow and Dara Klein at Tiella in Islington cook in a similar idiom too. All are worth a visit. But you might want to bone up on your Italian before you go.

MEAL FOR TWO (with wine): £150

SIGNATURE DISH: Fresh pasta; tiramisu; rum baba

WHAT TO DRINK: Nebbiolo

Belvedere

Holland Park, Abbotsbury Road, W8 belvedererestaurant.co.uk

There’s a fire blazing in the hearth beside our table at Belvedere, the Italian restaurant that now occupies the grand old ballroom of what was once Holland House in Holland Park. We’re the first table in at lunch, and all the parties that come in afterwards gravitate towards the hearth too. It is a captivating spot. Lello Favuzzi, Belvedere’s Sardinian head chef, tells me that all the restaurants in the group – which includes Wild Tavern and Wild Notting Hill – have fires of some form. There’s another fire flickering away on the first floor at Belvedere too, in the smaller, perhaps even more charming dining room from which you access the exterior viewing gallery (the ‘belvedere’) of the name. Sometimes, says Favuzzi, peacocks from the Kyoto Garden will fly up and perch on the balustrade. If there’s a more beautiful place to dine in London, I’d like to hear about it. My lunch date, Alexia, is American, and she’s soon reminiscing about her mother taking her, when she was a good little girl, for a treat to the Tavern on the Green in Central Park.

It would be nice to think Belvedere could become the London equivalent. It so nearly was, when Marco Pierre

been forgotten about somewhat over the intervening years, but could now be its time? It certainly looks the part, with its good Italianate bones, all lofty ceilings and grand arched windows. It’s had a stunning makeover too, that’s modish without being trendy. I love the ornate carpets on the parquet floors, the giant palms against the terracotta walls, and the curvy rattan furniture and pleated fabrics.

Favuzzi, who worked at L’Anima under Francesco Mazzei back in the day, has written a menu that will appeal to everybody. The Italian family on the table next to us just order a pizza or two, and some cold cuts to share, whereas Alexia and I are here to try as much as we possibly can. Were I here with a di erent kind of eater, I’d very happily just split the whole lobster linguine for two, maybe have a steak and a winter tomato salad, Cornish crab spaghetti, or a tru le pizza, but as it is, we experience the menu at its most audacious, starting with a Gillardeau oyster apiece with a chaser of raspberry sorbet. Alexia shudders at the very thought - she lives in France now - but I’m game. I can’t say

I’m convinced by the combination, but the flavours don’t half pop.

Favuzzi’s take on the now ubiquitous

Favuzzi is very good at this, we quickly realise. The oysters and raspberry aren’t our thing but the sublime ingredients, vibrant colours, and sharp contrasts are. Langoustine carpaccio with grapefruit, passion fruit, pink pepper, samphire and ponzu is simply delightful, and Favuzzi’s take on the now ubiquitous vitello tonnato, reimagined as a salad with quail’s eggs and pink onions, is ingenious. He must have a thing about Schiaparelli pink: there it is in the signature beetroot ravioli, finished tableside with a few drops of twelve-year-old balsamic vinegar, and again in the pickled cauliflower that garnishes a beautiful piece of sea bass with lovage sauce, cooked to perfection. I must not forget to mention the side order we had alongside all this pretty food: Jerusalem artichokes, the least photogenic of vegetables, steamed then deep-fried until they’re better than chips.

Desserts are in a traditional Italian vein. Think cannoli, heavenly clementine sorbet, and Favuzzi’s take on tiramisu which is partially deconstructed but tastes exactly as you’d want it to. Belvedere is also a good place in which to enjoy Italian wine. There’s a page of the list devoted to ‘Italian legends’ including Sassicaia, Tignanello and Barolo. Beautiful drops in a beautiful place.

MEAL FOR TWO (with wine): £200

SIGNATURE DISHES: Beetroot ravioli with smoked burrata

WHAT TO DRINK: Italian wine

THE WOLSELEY CITY

68 King William Street, City of London, EC4 thewolseleycity.com

The Wolseley opened on Piccadilly in the November of 2003.

I started going to the Wolseley in the November of 2003, and went pretty much weekly for breakfast for the next few years that I was working at a magazine in town. My colleagues and I must have eaten our way through the entire menu a hundred times over. My favourite dishes were, and still are, the kedgeree and the prunes (yes, really), though I still pine for the crêpe complète which they dropped from the menu many moons ago (happily, I have the recipe in my dog-eared copy of the late AA Gill’s Breakfast at The Wolseley). But somewhere along the line, things

probably that for me and The Wolseley.

Until, that is, the opening of the new Wolseley City in November 2023, exactly 20 years after Jeremy King and Chris Corbin launched the original. Reading all about the second site, its three bars, its two private dining rooms, and the ornate interiors, fitted out to the tune of £10m, I’m reminded of how much joy that weekly dose of affordable luxury brought to my life. The concept feels as timeless now as it did then: an all-day café, bar and restaurant modelled after the grand cafés of Vienna and Paris, places where people of all walks of life can go in at any time, dressed however they please, to read the paper with a slice of Sachertorte, or guzzle Champagne and a plateau de fruits de mers.

So it was that when my old university friend Jane called needing cheering up, I suggested we check

recognisable as if not the Wolseley than a Wolseley, magically teleported from Piccadilly to Monument, complete with bowler-hatted doorman. Inside, things are even more uncanny. The Wolseley City sounds like The Wolseley (the buzz, the clatter) and actually smells like The Wolseley. Don’t ask me how. We’re shown to our table in the ‘horseshoe’ in the centre of the dining room –the ‘inner circle’ as we always knew it. Even better, our table is an oblong, not a square, so Jane and I can sit next to each other on the banquette, looking out. I always think this is quite the nicest way to eat with friends.

The menu has been only gently updated over the years. You can now get a green juice with your breakfast, for example. New dishes created for the City include a short rib suet pudding and a treacle-cured bacon chop with doublefried egg and sauce diable.

changed. I started working from home; it got too hard to get a table; I switched allegiance to The Delaunay; and then there was that unpleasant takeover business in 2022, when I concluded that that was

out the new Wolseley City together. Even before walking through the door, I experience a great wave of nostalgia. The 1920s bank building at 68 King William Street, for a time a House of Fraser, is now immediately

The joy of The Wolseley is that there’s no pressure to try anything new; you can just have what you fancy. Some days that might be a chicken salad, another day a vast plate of choucroute, another day maybe a banana split. On our visit, to go with our bottle of Chablis, Jane has a classic: an endive, Fourme d’Ambert and muscatel grape salad; I have another, prawn and avocado cocktail. Both are simple, well made and blessedly free of ‘twists’ and frills. To follow, huge schnitzels, chicken for Jane, Wiener Holstein (with fried egg and anchovies) for me. We sit cutting into our schnitzels, laughing, drinking and chatting, more engaged in our conversation and each other’s company than we would be in a fine-dining setting. The Wolseley City has won me over.

MEAL FOR TWO (with wine): £200

SIGNATURE DISH: Soufflé Suisse; Wiener Schnitzel; steamed short rib pudding

WHAT TO DRINK: Champagne

Memories create a journey you can always return to.

MALDIVES MAGIC

The Indian Ocean island nation is so much more than a honeymoon destination. Yes, it has the powdery beaches and blazing sunsets, but it’s not all lying beneath palm fronds sipping cocktails. These days, you can embark on a transformative wellbeing journey, stargaze in a private observatory or participate in a coral regeneration programme - all on your tropical isle. We’ve reviewed the five-star resorts redefining barefoot luxury on page 80, from the design-forward The RitzCarlton Maldives, Fari Islands to immersive wellness retreat Joali Being (pictured). joali.com

Travel Notes

Be enamoured by Italy, go retro in Palm Beach and experience the wilds of South Africa

Compiled by HARRIET COOPER

Paradise Found

SPICE OF LIFE

With its exquisite beaches and exotic spice plantations, the island of Zanzibar has long seduced the traveller. Now this Indian Ocean jewel has a new resort, LUX* Marijani, hugging the palm-fringed northeast shoreline. Authenticity and luxury lie at its core, whether you’re toes-in-the sand dining on fresh fish and green papaya salad, practising sunrise yoga or sailing on a traditional dhow to the shallows of nearby Mnemba Island. luxresorts.com

LA DOLCE VITA

At the end of a cypress tree-lined drive, just north of Florence’s cobblestoned centre, is the Collegio alla Querce, Auberge Resorts Collection. The 82-room hotel, due to open later this year, is set across a cluster of 16th-century buildings, with a skylit lemonscented indoor garden at its heart, sizable rooms, a restaurant and wood-panelled bar. The views are superb, with the Duomo on one side and rolling Chianti vineyards on the other. Buona vacanza! aubergeresorts.com

OUT OF AFRICA

Lepogo Lodges, a 100% notfor-profit safari lodge nestled deep within South Africa’s Lapalala Wilderness Reserve, is now welcoming guests to its second property, Melote House. Drawing inspiration from the mountain it sits on, the exclusive-use, off-the-grid property is built in tiers, affording wide vistas across a wild, untouched landscape below that’s home to the ‘awesome eight’ (the big five, plus cheetah, wild dog and pangolin). The lodge sleeps 16 across the main house and two adjacent cottages, complete with huge suites, a sprawling living area, gym, spa, a rock pool and bar. With a dedicated guide and personalised service, this is a safari that promises a new level of tailored luxury. lepogolodges.com

ISLAND BREEZE

The family-run Spanish hotel group Vestige has set its sights on the mellow island of Menorca for its next opening, in early 2025. Combining two historic farm estates, they’ve created Son Ermitá & Binideufá, a boutique hotel comprising 22 guest rooms and suites. Expect earthy-luxe decor, a Menorcan menu sourced from the surrounding farmland and everything from jeep tours to Pilates classes, sunset picnics to stargazing. vestigecollection.com

THE AMERICAN DREAM

Oetker Collection (Le Bristol Paris, Eden Rock, Hotel La Palma) is heading Stateside for the first time this autumn with the opening of The Vineta Hotel in Palm Beach. The quintessential Mediterranean Revival building is being given a top-to-toe reno by designer Tino Zervudachi, paying homage to the hotel’s original splendour but with a contemporary freshness. oetkercollection.com

MASTER PIECE

For a lesson in art history as well as exquisite luxury, book into the notlong-ago-opened Palazzo Durazzo in Genoa. The Renaissance palace has been painstakingly restored by the same Genovese family who commissioned the building four centuries ago and is now home to a dozen uniquely beautiful suites, a double-height lounge and a frescoed breakfast room overlooking the city’s storied harbour. palazzodurazzo.com

Wanderlust

Islands in The Sun

Jewelled waters, pristine beaches, sleek design… These paradisiacal Maldivian resorts offer natural beauty and relaxed luxury beneath the Indian Ocean sun

FOR DESIGN & DINING

The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands

Words ALESSANDRA STEINHERR

Everything about The RitzCarlton Maldives, Fari Islands is luxurious, and this begins with my transfer to the resort. Rather than a seaplane, I whizz to the archipelago from Malé on a swish speedboat, an exhilarating start to my stay. We reach the hotel in under an hour, where I am warmly welcomed by my personal

‘aris meeha’ who is assigned to look after me for the duration of my time here (the service is impeccable).

The resort offers a combination of 100 overwater and beachfront villas, which stretch along multiple sandbanks (you get your own bike or there are buggies, though personally I love walking everywhere). I am in a Beach Pool Villa, which is nestled

beneath the palm trees, right by the water. The room is incredible - in keeping with the circular theme that runs throughout the resort’s design, courtesy of the renowned Kerry Hill Architects, all the one-bedroom villas are round, with gentle undulations woven through their structure, bringing a natural, organic feel. The private infinity pool is slightly curved,

for example, so too the sundeck. The decor in my room is sleek and modern - I have a huge, comfortable bed with uninterrupted views across my private patch of white shoreline to the ocean beyond, with a floor-toceiling glass sliding door that enhances the outdoor-indoor vibe. The bathroom is marble and there’s a travertine bathtub in the bedroom, too, and an outdoor shower. There’s a real buzz around the resort (it’s very popular with families) and days can be spent doing as much or as little as you want. A real standout is the choice of restaurants and bars - there are seven in total, and you will never tire of what you eat. I loved La Locanda, which specialises in southern Italian - the buffet and à la carte breakfast offerings are amazing. I also liked the Summer Pavilion which floats on the water and serves exquisite Cantonese cuisine beneath twinkling lanterns. One evening I dine under the stars at Iwau, where they prepare sushi and teppanyaki in front of you, which is wonderfully theatrical. There’s also the Beach Shack, which was a favourite of mine for its leisurely toes-in-sand lunches of big salads and grilled seafood.

The Spa is another highlight, a gorgeous timberclad circular structure that’s set above a lagoon and surrounded by the resort’s striking water villas. You access the curved, open-air building via a short wooden bridge. Inside the ‘ring’ there are nine treatment rooms, plus private showering facilities, centred around a sphere of turquoise ocean where I spot baby sharks. The rooms are really spacious and a complete contrast to the bright, tropical vibe of the resort. Instead, they’re all deep, dark wood which, when lit by candles, immediately creates a really cocooning, calming atmosphere. It feels very grounding and fully supports that sense of ‘letting go’.

Treatments are by Bamford, one of my favourite British organic brands - a choice that feels entirely fitting in this space. I have the Bamford Signature Journey, a 150-minute treatment that combines Japanese Shiatsu and Swedish massage, and I drift off into a really deep sleep. When I wake and emerge from the spa, the sky is filled with an orange and pink sunset - I have never felt so peaceful in my entire life. Guests can also have the Bamford Wellness Facial, as well as a wealth of other treatments, plus there’s a hair and beauty salon, and a small boutique. New for this year is the ‘Blue Prescription’ package, created to tap into all the health benefits of the ocean and encourage optimum engagement with nature, which includes a Bamford B Balanced treatment, sea snorkelling, dolphin cruise, aqua stretching and a private dinner aboard the resort’s yacht.

If you’d like a sauna and steam, this is at the other end of the island, in the fitness centre, which has a yoga studio and runs classes from HIIT to Fit Boxing; there is a tennis court, too. The water sports on offer are many, from kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding to snorkelling and diving, and there’s also a swimming pool, circular of course, with the adjoining Eau Bar being a popular spot for sundowners. Though the design-led Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands is beautiful to look at, this is definitely a resort to have fun in, too.

Ocean Pool Villas start from $1,800 per night ritzcarlton.com/maldives

FOR STAR-GAZING & SNORKELLING

Anantara Kihavah Villas

Words HARRIET COOPER

I’m sitting under a canopy of stars with a chilled glass of Champagne. So far, so normal in the Maldives. Well, actually, no. I’m at Anantara Kihavah Villas and as I lie back and gaze above me, the inhouse sky guru is regaling me with stories about the night sky.

He tells me that with so little light pollution here it’s possible to see some 15,000 stars with the naked eye, before inviting me into the resort’s own custom-built observatory which houses the most powerful telescope in the Maldives. He points out the moon, the paleyellow rings of Saturn and Jupiter. I can’t quite believe I’m in a private observatory in the middle of the Indian Ocean learning all about the constellations - but then again, this is Anantara Kihavah and stargazing is just one of many stop-in-your-track guest experiences.

Anantara

and

resort, either perched above the lagoon or tucked away amongst coconut palms on the shore. I’m in a Beach Pool Villa. I have my own freshwater pool, a verandah with a swinging daybed and a dining table under the shade of a cabana. Floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors lead into the bedroom, all dark woods and breezy linen, with a ginormous bed (I sleep with the doors open, roused every

morning by nature’s alarm clock of the sound of waves and chirruping jungle birds) and an indoor-outdoor bathroom. The Over Water Pool Villas have undergone a multi-million-dollar refurbishment - they’re roomier, airier and more contemporary than before, with extended decks incorporating refreshed infinity pools and circular seating that’s sundowner territory. If you want to go all-out, the supersized private residences are celebrity-spec, with their own gym, treatment room,

Kihavah Villas is located within the Baa Atoll, with 80 villas

residences spread across the

chef and wine guru. Bicycles are provided for each guest and there’s a complimentary buggy service, too - though it only takes 30 minutes to circumnavigate the island by foot.

Although the staff are a hive of discreet activity, life here moves at a deliciously slow pace. I spend one morning beachcombing, finding the prettiest shells I’ve ever seen. Another afternoon, I spot a sign to the Orchid Garden and follow a fragrant walkway to where 1,450 orchid plants are in full bloom. Snorkelling is also on my list. Anantara Kihavah is something of a rarity as it has its own house reef; you can borrow equipment from the dive centre and within a few breaststrokes reach the ‘Golden Wall’, a vertical stretch of corals in brilliant gold hues. Rainbowcoloured fish dart around me, and I spend a happy hour spotting stripy sweetlips, clownfish and the brightly hued nudibranch. But marine life isn’t only reserved for swimmers. On my evening stroll, I spy manta rays gliding beneath the overwater villas and, as I lie supine on the spa’s sun-bleached relaxation deck, Hawksbill turtles splash about in the waves below.

The overwater spa is dreamy. There are six treatment rooms elevated on stilts, plus a mani/pedi station, hair salon and a medical spa offering aesthetics and vitamin IV infusions. Holistic treatments are based around ayurveda and I have the two-hour Subtle Energies Sleep Support Therapy. Guided meditation and yogic pranayama is followed by the full body Blissful Marma and facial massage, and completed with Nasya (nasal oil application). Needless to say, I can’t keep my eyes open and I feel incredible afterwards.

The spa is also where I do a Cell Wellbeing Epigenetic Test - a hair follicle test which determines skin and digestive health. A nurse takes a couple of strands from the back of my head, which are sent off for analysis. Less than 24 hours later, I’m emailed a 30-page personalised report with some pretty comprehensive results - lime, celery, shrimp and goat’s milk are just a few of my suggested new food restrictions - and a plan of recommended treatments, personalised juices, menus and more. If they wish, guests can start implementing this at the resort or at home.

Considering the culinary options at Anantara Kihavah, I opt for the latter. The resort’s restaurants and bars are too tempting to be abstemious quite yet. I breakfast at Sea, an underwater dining room that bathes me in an aquamarine glow as I tuck into French toast with berries; drink Nham Jais at Sky; and feast on authentic tandoori at Spice. Or you could have fresh sashimi and flame-kissed wagyu at the Japanese restaurant Fire; not to mention the daily morning spread at Plates and casual dining poolside at Manzaru. The infinity pool, incidentally, is one of the longest in the Maldives.

During my stay, I’ve practised sunrise sound healing and sunset cocktail drinking. I’ve learnt all about orchids and epigenetics. I’ve marvelled at a technicolour underwater kingdom and seen close-up a planet that’s some 883 million miles away. Anantara Kihavah Villas is - quite literally - out of this world.

Prices for two adults per night, halfboard in low season, start from $1,300 in an over water pool villa and $1,200 in a beach pool villa, excluding taxes anantara.com

FOR RELAXING & RESETTING

Joali Being

Words ALESSANDRA STEINHERR

Arriving at Joali Being in its smart seaplane from Malé is like being transported into a dreamworld. As we descend, breaking through the clouds, I spot these tiny palm-fringed atolls surrounded by the clearest blue-green water. It is such a world away from my life in London it almost feels unreal. As we land at the Bodufushi island resort in Raa Atoll, the first thing I notice is the majestic pavilion structure by sculptor Seçkin Pirim on the jetty; it is like an art installation, its soft, rounded wooden curves setting the tone for the biophilic design throughout.

Joali Being (not to be confused with sister resort Joali Maldives, which is in the same atoll) is the first natureimmersive wellbeing island in the Maldives. After a busy time with work, I am definitely in need of a real rest and this place is all about relaxing and recharging. There are 68 villas dotted around the resort and I’m in an Ocean Pool Villa, perched above the water. Though the room is spacious, it doesn’t

feel impersonal; instead, the warm woods and taupe tones bring a comfortable elegance and the turquoise bathroom, with its woven panelling and mosaic tiling, is stunning. Glass doors slide open onto a big deck with an infinity pool.

Everything at the resort centres around four pillars - mind, skin, microbiome and energy. Most guests spend their days at the wellbeing centre Areka, which plays a central role in island life. It is huge and carefully considered. Therapists are hand-picked from across the world, and there are no less than 39 treatment rooms and a series of ‘transformational spaces’, including a sound therapy hall, a Discovery Sound Path, a herbology centre and a hydrotherapy hall featuring pools, a banya, an Aufguss sauna, Turkish hammam, salt inhalation room and more.

Following a wellbeing consultation and assessment, a programme of therapies is drawn up for you for the duration of your stay; alternatively, many guests sign up to specific five-, seven- or ten-night programmes, which address everything from Gut Reset and Tranquil Sleep to Women’s Wellbeing and De-Stress. Or you can just pick and choose from the extensive spa menu,

which covers facials and body treatments and experiences - whatever you need, they will guide you, from reiki to reflexology, Shirodhara to cupping.

I have a series of amazing treatments but my absolute favourite is the Watsu, a form of aquatic bodywork to induce deep relaxation. The Watsu room is stunning. As the therapist performs a series of gentle stretches on me,

while I float in the warm water gazing at the twinkling lights above, it’s like a 90-minute dream. I also have one-toone sound healing, which I’ve never done before. You lie on a treatment bed while the practitioner uses 14 different therapeutic instruments to create music and vibration, which imbues an incredible sense of calm and wellbeing in me. The massages are equally excellent. I opt for the Thai and hot stone; the former is performed fully clothed and without oil, with the therapist combining acupressure to really dig into my tight spots with a series of yogic stretches - that night I definitely sleep more soundly. Another day I choose the hot stone massage and I can literally feel the heat from the stones melting away the tension and muscle knots.

I must also tell you about the gym, Core, which is not what you might expect in the Maldives - it’s like being in the most hi-tech situation, with state-of-the-art equipment including a cryotherapy chamber, a 3D scanner that measures fitness and a D-Wall for precise movement analysis so you can

go totally bespoke with your training. And there is a rolling programme of activities, including anti-gravity yoga and meditation, as well as padel, tennis and scuba diving for the more active. This holistic approach to wellness and wellbeing is incorporated in the restaurants, too, where the menus are curated by nutritionists. But don’t for a minute imagine this is a place where you have to do a restrictive detox diet. Whether you’re in Flow, a dining space that has three kitchens (one pescatarian, one vegetarian/vegan and one featuring meat and poultry options), or Mojo, the laidback beach spot, or the beautifully-lit Ocean Sala, the food is always healthy, yes, but it is also absolutely delicious. And you’ll find pastries, desserts and wine here for sure. I am a big breakfast person and the buffet deserves a special mention with every kind of fruit, bread and breakfast dish imaginable. I spend one afternoon at Sai, a tea lounge where the resident tea sommelier talks me through the many different teas - it’s fascinating.

After a few days at Joali Being, I feel a world away from when I arrived. It’s hard not to wind down - the whole vibe is geared towards optimum relaxation. This is wellbeing but not in a punitive, medical sense, rather in a holistic, supportive and - most importantly - enjoyable way. Essentially, you can make it what you want to make it. You can equally lie on the white sand beach, swim with sea turtles and snorkel as you can have amazing treatments and eat healthily. Whatever you choose, this place is 100% about being good to yourself and you’ll come home feeling fantastic (and not at all bloated, despite all the amazing food). There is no other place like this in the Maldives - it’s a truly unique proposition - and I will definitely be back.

Villas start from $3,300 per night based on two sharing a Beach Villa with Pool on a b&b basis joali.com

FOR NATURE & NURTURE

Niyama Private Islands

Words HARRIET COOPER

‘D

ear Harriet, welcome to nature’s playground’ is written across the floor-toceiling mirror in my overwater villa at Niyama Private Islands. And what a playground it turns out to be. The Maldivian resort is on the Dhaalu atoll, a 45-minute hop by seaplane from Malé, and centres around two small islands, ‘Play’ and ‘Chill’, linked via a bridge. It’s a totally natural resort - no concrete slabs beneath the sand here - with beach villas lining the shore and a sweep of overwater villas perched above the most aquamarine seawater I have ever seen, it’s almost neon.

On arrival, every guest is given a bicycle for the duration of their visit and I spend my first morning on two wheels finding my bearings. The resort is 1.5km long and the sandy paths that criss-cross it are easy to navigate. Despite the balmy heat, the islands are shaded by a canopy of coconut palms, banyan and banana leaf trees. I spot fruit bats and herons above and whizz past white-breasted water hens, their distinctive call the soundtrack to my stay.

Across the adjoining Play and Chill islands there are more than 130 villas and pavilions, no less than nine restaurants and the Drift Spa. The general idea is that

Play caters to the adventurous and active (it’s home to the more family-friendly beach villas and buzzy places to eat), while the latter is all about kicking back and ‘soothing the soul’ (here you’ll find the overwater villas and the spa, for example). The vibe throughout is casual and carefree, and the service is charming.

If you are in a playful mood, there’s plenty to do. One of Niyama’s USPs is that, unlike other resorts in the Maldives where you only surf seasonally, you can catch waves 365 days a year here thanks to its own unique break. A lesson with the resident instructor confirms what I already know: I can’t surf. But when you’ve got a cocktail waiting for you at the Surf Shack beach bar, it really doesn’t matter.

Another day I head out on the boat to snorkel. We spy angelfish, parrotfish, clownfish, trumpetfish, needlefish, starfish… It’s so uplifting - in this era of environmental crisis - to see such underwater activity. On this occasion the rays, dolphins, turtles and reef sharks prove elusive, but I’m told they thrive in these waters. Indeed, the previous week, Niyama’s marine biologist came face to face with a six-metre-long whale shark (they’re harmless by the way).

If you want to relax, hammocks dot the pristine shoreline, while the Drift Spa is a leafy, six-treatment-room sanctuary offering bespoke treatments and therapies. After filling out a form to work out my dosha, I opt for the Abhyanga treatment, an ancient herbal oil massage designed to unblock toxins and restore my energy flow. My therapist applies the perfect amount of pressure; I know everyone says this post-massage, but that night I really do sleep well.

During my stay, I hardly see a soul; many guests, it seems, spend a lot of time in their villas and it’s easy to see why. Mine, perched above the lagoon, has a double bed perfectly positioned for views of the waterscape, and a breezy ensuite bathroom. Sliding doors open onto a private sundeck with its own infinity pool and Jacuzzi. Beach villas are equally impressive; so too, the family-friendly pavilions. With your own personal thakaru (Niyama host) on hand at the touch of a WhatsApp (they’ll organise anything from a tennis lesson to a trip on a traditional wooden dhoni), it’s tempting to stay put, but everyone has to eat.

I feast on exquisite teppanyaki in the treetops at Nest, high above the jungle canopy; savour bold Afro Latin flavours at Tribal; and whizz across the water in a speedboat to Edge for fresh, local seafood and Champagne. For a feet-inthe-sand experience you must try Took Took, where Asian street food dishes are grilled in the resort’s bespoke tuk tuk on the beach at dusk. For the night owls, Fahrenheit bar does an excellent line in rums and Subsix, the subterranean restaurant, becomes a club later in the evening.

But it’s not all chill hard, play hard. There’s important work going on at Niyama, too. One afternoon, I sit in the warm shallows on the beach as the marine biologist tells me about the resort’s coral regeneration programme. I learn how sensitive coral is (you only have to look at the devastation caused by El Nino, which destroyed 90% of coral in the Maldives in 1998 to see appreciate quite how much). It’s for this reason that the resort is propagating a coral nursery, to strengthen the reef ecosystem, eventually creating its own house reef.

With a resort refresh taking place this year, which will see new-look overwater and beach villas, public spaces and restaurant areas, Niyama is so much more than nature’s playground. It’s paradise, whether you want to play or chill - or both.

Prices for two adults per night, full-board in low season, start from $1,060 in an over water pool villa and in a beach pool villa, including taxes niyama.com

Everything Here.

Live in a place that has everything you need to live life to the full.

Set within the Central London neighbourhood that’s home to the one and only Sky Pool, destination retailers and a residents’ only club like no other.

Apartments at Embassy Gardens from £650,000

020 4579 8822 embassygardens.com

HOME INTERIORS &

BRANCH OUT

Surround yourself in a private woody grove with the delicate, tree-lined design of Osborne & Little’s Foresta, which is available on coordinating wallpaper and fabric. Decorated with a variety of stylised Indian-inspired trees, each plant has its own charming personality, forming a characterful yet nature-infused backdrop. From £139/ wallpaper roll osborneandlittle.com

Design Notes

Sunset table lamps, the organic vase and a contemporary take on tiles

Compiled by AMY MOOREA WONG

Glass Act

ON THE TILES

Tipping its hat to Hockney’s A Bigger Splash, plus the graphic, Modernist bathrooms of the 80s and 90s, Balineum’s debut glass tiles are a riot of colour and architectural form. The contemporary collection comes in 25 crisp, cool shades which play with glass’s ethereal luminous qualities. From £2.85/tile or £388.08/sq m balineum.co.uk

RAW BEAUTY

Handcrafted from environmentally-friendly pulped newspaper and natural pigments, Barcelona-based Crea-Re Studio’s decorative vases hover between elegant sculpture and functional design. Each raw, organic piece is inspired by the human form and comes in a variety of shades which can also be customised. From €160 crea-re.com

DO THE TWIST

I have collaborated with British lighting brand Heathfield & Co to create a playful collection of limited-edition table lights inspired by the hazy, ethereal hues that appear during dusk. With mix and match bases, the two-toned lampshades can be twisted to showcase more or less of your favourite colour. £594 heathfield.co.uk

GO WITH THE GRAIN

Crafted in Notting Hill from characterful Mappa Burr, a timber that has particularly prominent natural markings, each of Trove by Studio Duggan’s Holden mini bedside tables has its own unique look and style. Designed for compact spaces, the drawer is surprisingly spacious and elevated with subtle wave detailing. £1,500 thetrove.co.uk

FLOOR PLAN

This is the season of rug collaborations, with some of the design world’s most interesting names working alongside renowned rug makers to create pieces of underfoot art. Swedish creative Teklan has teamed up with Layered to translate her signature colour combinations into pure wool 3D forms, while Shame Studios and interior designer Cindy Levenson merge antique and painterly aesthetics. British Artist Luke Edward Hall’s range with CC-Tapis features an eclectic collection of expressive, hand drawn owers, stripes and geometrics, and London-based designer Amechi Mandi’s overlaid tonal waves for Floor Story draw in uence from his west African heritage.

TEKLAN X LAYERED

NATURE STUDY

Step into history with 1838 Wallcoverings’ partnership with the V&A, which breathes new life into archive designs from the late 1700s to the early 1900s. The nature-inspired murals and patterns have been expertly updated with fresh colours, beautifully bridging the gap between past and present From £84/10m roll. Date Palm - Sand Wall Mural (pictured), £224/12m roll 1838wallcoverings.com

Prism Palette collection

From £1,070 layeredinterior.com

CINDY LEVESON X SHAME STUDIOS

Watercolours collection

From £700/sq m shamestudios.com

LUKE

Chateau Orlando collection

From £2,988 cc-tapis.com

Waves collection

From £1,225 floorstory.co.uk

EDWARD HALL X CC-TAPIS AMECHI MANDI X FLOOR STORY

Amechi Mandi x Floor Story

Pearl Lowe is a vintage devotee through and through. She may have started out as a Britpop singer in the 90s and been a key member of the Primrose Hill set, alongside Kate Moss and Sadie Frost, but it’s her love of boho that has shaped her subsequent path, turning her hand to fashion design (her handmade dresses were worn by Courtney Love and Alexa Chung) and, her true passion, interiors.

Her signature decorating style is rock‘n’roll romantic meets vintage charm, which is captured in her two most recent books. The first, Faded Glamour, showcases Pearl’s free-spirited aesthetic at her 11-bedroom Georgian pile in Frome, Somerset, which she shares with her husband, Supergrass drummer Danny Goffey, and their three children Alfie, Frankie and Betty (she also has another daughter, the model Daisy Lowe).

PEA R L’S WOR LD

Designer Pearl Lowe shares her guide to vintage decor with The Glossary, from her favourite antique finds to how to incorporate nostalgia into your home

Words LUCIANA BELLINI

Pearl’s latest publication, Faded Glamour by the Sea , details the laidback look of her seaside bolthole in East Sussex, which is available for holiday rentals. The two properties couldn’t be more different. The first is a rambling honey-stoned retreat overlooking bucolic countryside; the second is a 1940s cottage near Hastings that’s covered in a mosaic of seashells and beach pebbles. But both are unmistakably Pearl, filled with quirky touches and treasures.

“People often ask me why I am drawn to all things vintage. I have great respect for the craftsmanship and fine handiwork of those bygone years, and I love anything that tells a story,” she says. Here, she reveals the inspiration behind her eclectic style and shares her pearls of wisdom on vintage, from shopping for one-of-akind finds to integrating them into your home.

Don’t be afraid to mix eras

There shouldn’t be any rules when it comes to vintage - it’s about the mix, the alchemy you create when you play around with styles. Precious antiques that have become slightly battered over the decades are all the more charming when playfully juxtaposed with a more contemporary, colourful piece from a flea market. It’s the point where 18th-century mahogany meets 1950s plastic retro; where chintz sits alongside animal print and sultry velvets; Rococo goes a little rock‘n’roll; and a freestanding 1970s Anglepoise lamp sets it all alight. As much as I love vintage, I mix it up with contemporary pieces as I don’t like to scrimp when it comes to comfort. My bed in Somerset comes from Soho Home, its shellshaped velvet headboard a nod to a bygone era. One of my favourite items of furniture is a red velvet sofa

I bought from Rachel Ashwell, the designer and writer who introduced us all to ‘shabby chic’ - and I am partial to Graham and Green sofas. I always buy new tablecloths. Summerill & Bishop is my go-to, but Coco and Wolf also make brilliant table linens, quilts and cushions, as well as very cute dog beds. In terms of ceramics, I usually buy vintage, but if not, I’ll head to Anthropologie.

Only shop the pieces you love

When buying vintage, listen to your gut as no-one knows better than you. If you haven’t the space for the piece you’ve fallen in love with, then swap out something at home you’re not as keen on. I have often seen something I thought I didn’t have room for and then really regretted not buying it. The best bargain I ever picked up was a fringe lamp from the Clignancourt flea market in Paris. It was a huge, heavy iron one and my husband said we’d never get it back home but we found a way. It was so worth it - it’s still in our front room, ten years later.

For the most part, my home is filled with pieces that have simply caught my eye and appealed to my evolving aesthetic. A pink flamingo that serves no purpose other than to make me smile; my assortment of mismatched china bought lucky-dip style from car boot sales; my animal-print cushions, gypsy piano shawls and swathes of vintage lace. These have no intrinsic value to anyone but myself; they are for me what faded glamour is all about.

Create a vintage shops hitlist

Whenever I’m in London, I always head straight to Notting Hill. That’s my number one spot for picking up antiques and vintage pieces. Golborne Road has

loads of great places, such as Les Couilles du Chien, and I adore B&T Antiques on Talbot Road. I’m also often found at Alfies Antique Market in Marylebone, it’s an Aladdin’s Cave. There’s a spot called Marchlands just opposite where I picked up an incredible antique chest of drawers. It was £1,000 when I bought it 20 years ago, so I dread to think how much it would be now.

I buy a lot of my smaller pieces online. I’m always trawling eBay and Etsy for old Sanderson fabrics and vintage lace, which I’ve been selling on my website for over 20 years. I’ll find a great piece and dye it a different colour, maybe a pink or turquoise. DeVOL Kitchens also has a brilliant vintage section on their website.

“There shouldn’t be any rules when it comes to vintage - it’s about the mix, the alchemy you create when you play around with styles”

Be bold with colours and prints

When it comes to creating a vintage feel, I am not afraid of painting a room a near-black, the bloodiest of reds or a sumptuous purple. But green and pink are my go-tos - they work with everything. Farrow & Ball Mizzle is my absolute favourite colour, because it seems like the sort of soft green you’d find in an old Hollywood starlet’s boudoir. I’ve also fallen for Francesca’s Paints. My favourite is Smoky Quartz, which is a kind of dusty pink. My one real extravagance is wallpaper. I tend to go to Morris & Co for wallpapers, not just because of their iconic William Morris prints but because they have a wonderfully vintage feel to them. I also adore House of Hackney’s maximalist, flamboyant prints. I stayed at their Cornish retreat, Castle of Trematon, a couple of years ago, which was magical. It is full of theatre, with its botanical-inspired decor and fantastical wallpapers and fabrics. I’ve covered my dining room in their loud flora print, Midnight Garden.

Keep things simple

The style of interiors at our coastal home is a lot simpler than I’m used to. When I first decorated it, I tried French and flouncy and it didn’t work. I love colour and pattern and print but sometimes you need to keep things a little more neutral. I wanted the palette of the living areas to be as pale as possible so I had the floors stripped back. From this starting point, I could then inject colour using soft furnishings, bedding, rugs, lamps, paintings and tableware.

“For the most part, my home is filled with pieces that have simply caught my eye and appealed to my evolving aesthetic”

But minimal doesn’t mean you can’t incorporate vintage touches. I didn’t want it to have the soulless feeling of a holiday rental. I still wanted it to be full of character, our things and our combined aesthetic, so the windows are covered with the finest of lace panels, for example. I still feel that I have achieved my take on faded glamour, now by the sea.

It’s all in the details

When decorating a house, my first priority is lighting. A twinkling chandelier hanging from the ceiling adds magic to the plainest of spaces, while a 1920s standing lamp and a silk shade adorned with a cascade of fringe will take you back to another era. I often buy vintage lamps just because I adore them and then get them rewired, which actually doesn’t cost that much.

Grouping art eclectically around the house adds colour and personality. I collect vintage nudes, which I pick up from antique and flea markets. I mix them in with antique French oil portraits and flowers, but I have invested in a few special pieces, like Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Escape Artist. For rock ‘n roll pieces I’ll go to Eddie Lock in Folkestone, who sells great Jamie Reid prints. There’s also a brilliant gallery in St Leonards-on-Sea called Lucy Bell Gallery where I bought some signed David Bowie photos. I’ll often take more modern works out of their frames and replace them with gold vintage frames, which work well on a gallery wall.

Invest in vintage textiles

I am forever collecting old fabrics and textiles, so much so that my cupboards and armoires groan with the weight of them. It has saved me so much money over the years by not buying fabric to order. Instead, I just rummage through my collection - it gives me such a sense of satisfaction when I’m able to transform an old curtain into a new window covering or a set of cushions. When it comes to fabrics, I always say to choose ones that you will want to live with for the rest of your life, because no matter how many times you move or your tastes change, they can always, with a nip and a tuck, be successfully reincarnated into something else. If I had one desert island textile it would have to be vintage lace, which brings a cosy ‘cottagey’ look to a room. Such is my passion for lace that my first venture into the world of interiors began when I started making lace curtains for my friends on my kitchen table in London 20 years ago.

Experiment with vintage everywhere

I don’t believe that any room in a house has to be drab, whether that’s a downstairs loo or an office. And that applies to a utility room as well. There’s no reason why my laundry room shouldn’t be pretty - especially given the fact that, as a mother of four, I spend a great deal of time there. By hanging shelves, I have created muchneeded storage space for my decorative collection of china, my vases and piles of surplus bedding.

I’m a firm believer that the greatest investment you can make when you buy a house is a good kitchen. It should not only be functional but also aesthetically pleasing. Mine has a long island, made up of Shaker cupboards with a marble top, and antique pendant lights hang from the ceiling.

For bathrooms, I prefer freestanding bathtubs. If you are canny, you can find old ones on the internet or in reclamation yards. I get them re-enamelled and then paint the base myself in fun colours.

Cast your creative net wide

My inspiration comes from so many quarters - art, film, photography, music, work, travel and, above all, my friends. I also follow people who are in the antique and interiors world on Instagram. My favourites include Rose Uniacke and Rachel Ashwell, and I love Lorraine Kirke’s style. All the different Soho Houses around the world inspire me too. I appreciate the way they’ve turned antiques into something modern, and how they mix their stuff with old pieces from markets.

Vintage-inspired nds to bring faded glamour into the home

I have turned my passion for interiors into a business. There’s a section on my website where I sell vintage furniture and homewares that I source. I’m a constant redecorator. My husband and I used to flip houses so we were always moving, but now that we’re staying put I feel the need to change things up all the time, so pieces that no longer work now go up on the website. It’s been brilliant, because now I can indulge in guilt-free shopping - even if I only own it for a little while, I know it will then go on to someone else.

‘Faded Glamour by the Sea’ and ‘Faded Glamour’ by Pearl Lowe (CICO Books, £25) are out now pearllowe.co.uk