There was a definite glint in the famous green eyes when Rihanna said, “Every collection will change – you’ll see that to come,” at the launch of the first release of her fashion collection with LVMH in Paris last week. We’ve come to expect surprises from Ms Robyn Rihanna Fenty – CEO and creative director of the Fenty enterprise – but what few knew last week was that she had another move up the super-long sleeves of her white jacket-dress: the reveal of her collection imagery, alongside photographs by Kwame Brathwaite, hero of the Black Is Beautiful movement instigated by African-American creative forces in New York in the 1950s and 1960s.

“When I was coming up with the concept for this release, we were just digging and digging and we came up with these images – they made me feel they were relevant to what we are doing now,” Rihanna tells . Among the now 81-year-old New York photographer’s archive, she came across a documentary about black female fashion activism in America – a group of young women, known as the Grandassa Models, who got together in the early 1960s in New York. “It was a really strange and powerful parallel,” says Rihanna. “And he gave me permission [to use the imagery], obviously that is a big deal.”

Intent on exercising fashion and beauty as a medium of empowerment and change against the dominance of white-centric popular culture, the Grandassa Models organised sell-out shows that reinvented super-elegant, high-style black beauty, African clothing references and natural hair. Critically influential, years before mainstream designers reappropriated and recast these references, the models were backed up by Brathwaite and his older brother, graphic designer Elombe Brath. All of them were integral players in the coming together of musicians, writers and politicians of the Black Power movement.

The backstory interweaves Rihanna’s personal Bajan history with wildly re-affirming connections between the past and her present. For starters, there is a close-to-home coincidence, she says: “Kwame Brathwaite is from Barbados! And, his last name is my grandfather’s name, which was my mother’s name before she was a Fenty.”

Rihanna points to a 1964 studio portrait of Nomsa Brathwaite in a high headwrap and spectacular below-the-shoulder earrings: “She’s his sister-in-law!” (Nomsa was married to Brath). Another photo of Nomsa shows her smiling in front of a map of Africa in 1968 – the time when the political and social movement was reaching out beyond America to support the struggle for liberation in Africa and the Carribean.

Another photograph, dated 1968, shows Grandassa Models at the Renaissance Casino Ballroom in Harlem on Garvey Day. In the background, a poster reads “Buy Black”. As soon as she began looking into in, Rihanna wanted to know more – cue more “digging” to turn up the fact, via writer and historian Tanisha C. Ford, that the Grandassa Models designed and made their own clothes. Aside from looking incredible, their radical reclaiming of African inspiration, elegant robes, headwraps and jewellery led to a wave of female entrepreneurship, creating self-owned boutiques and a whole community of black designers, stylists, hairdressers and makeup artists.

The through-lines to how Rihanna organises her world as a multi-hyphenate musician/performer/ fashion designer/beauty change-maker are hard to miss. How does she manage her music career alongside her massively successful Fenty Beauty business, the Savage X Fenty lingerie collaboration and now Fenty fashion? She laughs, leaning in: “Well, I work the time. I visualise Fenty as a hub, bringing in creative people. We travel together, we eat together, we’re always working. That’s how I want to keep it.”

In other words, she’s the digital-age, hyper-connected, 21st-century manifestation of exactly the kind of discipline-crossing way of working that Kwame Brathwaite documented. In bringing up his photographs for her legion of followers to discover, she’s re-establishing that connection; giving them the opportunity to be inspired by this progressive, elevated black cultural revolution that happened not so long ago, when music, fashion, beauty, art and politics overlapped, and everyone worked in unison.

“And here are the men who started the Black Is Beautiful movement,” Rihanna concludes, pointing to her last choice, a 1961 photograph of six slim-suited collaborators of the African Jazz-Art Society and Studios, set up “to reclaim jazz as the music of contemporary African traditions that should be controlled by black artists,” she explains. Kwame Brathwaite holds his camera at the back; Elombe is seated at a layout desk.

So, seeing Brathwaite’s work intermixed with pictures of model Debra Shaw and images of London, does Rihanna want people to discover a political message as they shop her latest Fenty collection? “Well, I don’t know if it’s so much as embracing the fact that people should be more aware,” she shrugs, smiling. “But definitely, we want people to see the parallels between what was then and what this is now, in a modern way.”

by Kwame Brathwaite, Tanisha C. Ford and Deborah Willis, is published by Aperture.

Click Here:

Image credits: Getty Images/Courtesy of Fenty Beauty

For too long, makeup counters were inhospitable places for women (and men) of colour, such as myself. Conversations with salespeople were at times alienating, at worst insulting. “We don’t stock your shade,” I recall one person saying unapologetically. “That foundation should probably work if you give it time,” another informed me, rounded off with the parting words of advice, “Send an email to head office, maybe they’ll consider making your tone”.

When Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty line was announced in September 2017, I knew it marked the beginning of a dramatic sea change. With its sexy, traffic-stopping promo video starring Rihanna herself alongside a diverse cast of women – Slick Woods, Duckie Thot, Paloma Elsesser and Halima Aden – it was clear what Fenty stood for: a more inclusive cosmetics industry and representation of beauty.

Social-media users applauded Fenty Beauty and what it was offering so loudly that the beauty industry didn’t know what to do with itself. Almost all of the other brands rushed out new shades (read, darker) following the unveiling of the range of 40 that Fenty Beauty included. Makeup artist Ammy Drammeh, whose aesthetic is “real – more than natural”, uses the products on herself and her clients. She tells me that she feels inspired. “They are versatile and I use them in different ways, like highlighter and lipstick as eyeshadow.” When I ask Drammeh about the cultural shift that Fenty Beauty caused, she notes that “after Fenty launched its wide range of foundation everyone went crazy, I remember seeing the queues at Harvey Nichols. Shortly after that other brands did the same.”

Scarred by my previous encounters, my first foray into Fenty Beauty was ordering a lipstick (Stunna Lip Paint in Uncensored) and a highlighter (Killawatt) online, bypassing the hundreds of people queuing for their personal sessions outside Harvey Nichols, London’s department store that stocks the brand exclusively. When I eventually visit the Fenty counter, struck by how many black and brown women are having comfortable and open conversations with salespeople who know what they need and the audience they are catering for, I am convinced to buy a foundation. When I get home, I try it on and feel… normal. For a makeup brand to do that to someone at the age of 28 is a very big deal.

Click Here:

A few months later, I go to the launch of a friend’s zine. Arriving alone, and very shy, I plan to read the zine in a corner and keep myself to myself. I arrive, marvel at the beautiful black and brown people in the room, feel suitably intimidated and take to my corner. I look up and a girl is staring at me from across the room. “Is that Fenty on your face?” she shouts excitedly – and after telling her yes, getting my highlighter and brush out and doing my best makeup artist impression on her, I now have a friend for life. One makeup brand has taken me, and many women like me, from feeling unseen by the beauty industry to feeling important and catered to, through 40 shades of foundation and 50 of concealer.

Fenty Beauty is a brand constantly evolving. At the beginning of May, a new range of products was revealed, then a week later, it was announced that Fenty Beauty will be stocked in Boots. What was once an exclusive range of products, only available in one of the most upmarket department stores in London, will soon be on the high street – furthering the Fenty Beauty mission statement that “women everywhere would be included”. Inevitably, social-media users were once again thrown into an excited frenzy, such is the “Fenty effect”, amazed at how a popstar can change the makeup game.

Fenty Beauty isn’t just about makeup, nor is it about Rihanna simply expanding her empire beyond music, underwear, or her recently announced fashion label, under luxury conglomerate LVMH. It’s a social movement, and has made other – and much more established – brands do better. In 2018, magazine named Fenty Beauty one of the most genius companies, noting that, “in only a year, Fenty Beauty has pulled off a makeover of the makeup industry”. When we think about the impact that beauty has on our society, there isn’t a word big enough to encompass that impact. It’s taken one young black woman, who cut her teeth in music, to bring inclusivity to the beauty industry, and to make a whole set of people feel seen in doing so.

Queenie

Image credits: Courtesy of Nike

What does fashion’s take on the football jersey look like? Ambush’s Yoon Ahn, Koché’s Christelle Kocher, MadeMe’s Erin Magee and Marine Serre have all put their designer spin on the functional garment, in collaboration with Nike.

Rather than dressing it up, these street style stalwarts – enlisted by Nike to design lifestyle collections to coincide with the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 (June 7 to July 7) – have gone back to the drawing board and paid tribute to the unifying power of sport.

“We take pride in standing up for our values and empowering women to have an equal opportunity in sport,” says Rosemary St. Clair, VP and GM of Nike Women. “[Nike has] over 40 years of championing the world’s largest community of female athletes – like Joan Benoit Samuelson, Serena Williams and Caster Semenya – on and off the field of play. Today, we are more committed than ever to use our brand as a catalyst – celebrating athletes, supporting sports and building the best product for her.”

Here, speaks to each of the four fashion designers about their concepts behind the collection, their favourite pieces and the power of sport.  

Ambush’s Yoon Ahn

“I wanted to create a universal piece for everyone to celebrate in,” says the Korean-American designer of her take on the jersey-turned-coat, teamed with a bra top, sported by Japanese footballer Risa Shimizu.

“I was inspired by the coat – a traditional Japanese, straight-sleeved coat, usually worn to festivals,” says Ahn. “Although we are celebrating the World Cup and the incredible female players, I believe it is just as important for the fans, for everyone – old, young, women and men.”

As well as highlighting the importance of diversity and culture, there’s a secret message in the jersey, too. “My Nike x AMBUSH® jersey has an inner pride message that reads: ‘Make each game your masterpiece.’  That’s exactly how I feel.”

Marine Serre

The LVMH Prize-winner’s signature half-moon print comes together with the Nike swoosh, forming the base of her capsule favourite: a jersey-turned-dress, teamed with a printed bodysuit. “I loved the idea of a garment that is adapted to the body that it dresses,” says the French designer. “So I concentrated on the natural shape of a woman’s body, allowing enough space for movement.”

Modelled by Adwoa Aboah, the bodysuit is screen printed using reflective ink, marrying form and function. “It is aesthetically a feat; and answers the functional demands of running in the dark or among traffic,” Serre explains. “I really like to do things like that – reusing archetypical references, in this case of sports garments, like reflective print, the tracksuit running archive and the construction in this piece – and then really transform and reorient the way they are approached.”

Koché’s Christelle Kocher  

Kocher’s dress and matching bra, crafted using the sportswear brand’s technical fabrics, are firm favourites thanks to their ease and energy. “I created this dress by reconstructing the soccer jersey around the female body, adding some very feminine elements, like lace, to sporty codes,” says the Paris-based designer.

“The idea was to give the feeling of movement and positive energy,” she adds of the design, worn by French footballer Marie-Antoinette Katoto. “It is a dress that can be worn by a girl who plays, dances or moves in the city.”

MadeMe’s Erin Magee

Click Here:

Working with the United States women’s national soccer team (USWNT) crest was central to New York-based Magee’s design. “My first thought was I wanted this jersey to be sport first, fashion second. It’s meant to celebrate the incredible, victorious history of the USWNT, by drawing attention to the woman namesake of the iconic sportswear company itself: Nike, goddess of victory.”

As seen on American footballer Mallory Pugh, the jersey is based on the pitch-ready silhouette we all know and recognise, while Nike’s Classic Swoosh bra provided further inspiration, with both pieces crafted from Nike’s signature Dri-FIT technology. “This is a jersey that can be worn on and off the field; it’s true to sport and function. And it is the first time MadeMe has ever designed piece that can be worn at the highest level of play.”

Image credits: Getty Images

Close your eyes and think of any megawatt musical legend from the past century and you’ll likely be able to imagine exactly what they’re wearing. Mick Jagger in printed silks, Billie Holiday with gardenias in her hair, David Bowie in a glam-rock sequins, Blondie in sunglasses, Lil’ Kim in a rainbow-hued wig, a beehived Amy Winehouse in a mini dress. You get the picture, literally. Music has a look; sound has a style. So it’s little wonder that over the years the two worlds have become increasingly enmeshed, first with musical brand ambassadors becoming part of the fashion firmament and now with a generation of artists who have become designers in their own right.

Click Here:

Take Rihanna: the first woman – and black person – to establish her own with LVMH, joining the ranks of Dior, Fendi and Louis Vuitton. There’s a symphony of others too: from Zendaya staging a Paris Fashion Week show for Tommy Hilfiger; to cult club icon Honey Dijon launching a brand with Comme des Garçons; and South Korean DJ Peggy Gou joining the ranks of Off-White (Virgil Abloh is a fellow DJ) with the launch of Kirin. Not to mention Kanye West’s Yeezy, now estimated to be worth US$1.5 billion.

Why is this happening now? Well, somewhere along the way of fashion becoming a multi-billion-dollar business, designers became rock stars themselves – think John Galliano, Gianni Versace, Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs – while their collections, advertising campaigns and beauty products, became their hit singles and albums. Back then, musicians were simply fashion ambassadors, available for a front-row seat or to star in said ad campaign, happy to endorse a product for the paparazzi. Now, they’re taking ownership of their fan base and creating the product, rather than just advertising it.

In other words, you can now follow Rihanna on Instagram, stream her music via Spotify, dress in her Fenty tailored denim, buy her cosmetics at Harvey Nichols and sleep in her Savage x Fenty pyjamas. All bases are covered (along with all skin tones – her Fenty Beauty foundation comes in 40 shades). With fashion becoming increasingly centred around direct-to-consumer ‘drops’, the music industry’s streaming model lends itself naturally to the disruptive spirit adopted by forward-thinking brands.

“There is no six-month wait, you get it when you see it,” Rihanna told at the launch of Fenty fashion in Paris, noting that her collections will be available to buy immediately at Fenty.com. “There’s no tease. You see it, love it and want it. And that’s because I’m like that, I want things right away.” Such a strategy is a first for fashion’s biggest, and perhaps most traditional, conglomerate. “I really appreciate that LVMH is flexible enough to allow me to have a different perspective on how I want to release things,” she added. “Mr Arnault [Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO, LVMH] is a very smart man and he’s open.”

Rihanna is bankable, no doubt, but her ascent in fashion resonates with a wider shift in consumer demand for diversity and inclusivity. It’s no coincidence that Rihanna, Kanye, Virgil et al, are all people of colour, reframing what it means to be a fashion designer — and tapping into the subcultural connections between music and style. They follow in the footsteps of artists, including P Diddy, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, who ventured into the clothing world to create for the same market, widely people of colour, which was all too often ignored.

There are also parallels in the creative process of putting together an album and a fashion collection. For Abloh, artistic director of menswear at Louis Vuitton, a background in DJ-ing informed his approach to fashion, namely sampling classics and moving across genres to create something original and fresh. “DJing is like going to the gym, and doing the collections is the Olympics,” he told earlier this year. “DJing uses the same part of the brain as fashion design, you want to make a whole room of people come to the same consensus and feel enjoyment from it.”

Does it matter that the new wave of musicians-turned-designers can’t sew and didn’t study at Central Saint Martins? Not at all. “As consumers, we like to box people in, but the person who designed the iPhone could make a great architect and vice versa,” says Benji B, the Radio 1 DJ who has worked with Virgil for almost 15 years and is now Louis Vuitton’s official music director. He previously worked with Phoebe Philo at Céline, and notes how important music is when staging a show. “There is a history of artists not wanting to be restricted to one medium, and when I look at most of my interns they know how to use the music programmes but also how to use Photoshop or InDesign. You no longer have to exist in these linear streams of definition.”

For the millions of plugged-in fans of artists and DJs, it’s music to their ears.  

Image: Open pavilions make up the dining and bar space at the Wild Coast Tented Lodge.

Tucked away like a precious secret between the dense green fringes of Yala National Park and a boulder-strewn beach overlooking the Indian Ocean, Wild Coast Tented Lodge in Sri Lanka is an extraordinary confluence of glamour and grit. Imbued with a frontier-like sense of luxury, a thrilling sense of surrender to nature hums beneath every surface. A sign reads: “Elephants, leopard, crocodiles, wild boar, sloth bears & other denizens of Yala could enter the area around the Lodge, as there is no physical impediment to stop them…” Yes, this place is alive. Being here feels like dancing at the very edge of the world.

Image: The poolside dining room.

Click Here:

This striking lodge is the newest star in a small but bright constellation of luxury hotels being nurtured into an upscale travel circuit by Malik J Fernando, managing director of Resplendent Ceylon, the hospitality offshoot of his family’s Dilmah Tea business. The passionate hotelier has kept each of his Relais & Châteaux-accredited properties — Cape Weligama, Ceylon Tea Trails and a new project underway in Sigiriya — deliberately intimate. “I believe small is beautiful,” says Fernando.

Image: Each Cocoon Pool Suite has a four-poster bed, bathtub and private pool.

It feels like the right approach on this teardrop of an island, which is blessed with the sort of abundant, nostalgic natural beauty that elicits whispered insider tips from the well- travelled set, but which is still finding its feet after the long and brutal civil war ended in 2009.

Image: In the bar, the bamboo shell ceiling structure is 
a focal point; the bamboo chandelier is inspired by stalactite formations in caves. Campaign-style furniture, including leather and mahogany chairs, sit atop a sandy quartz pebble floor.

Fernando’s latest project was conjured into being by interdisciplinary company Nomadic Resorts, with interiors by Amsterdam-based Bo Reudler Studio. Twenty-eight Cocoon Suites (eight of which have ‘Urchin tents’ for children) are clustered around watering holes and scattered across the bush in the shape of leopards’ paws. Four private- pool, beachfront suites are often visited by monkeys and, occasionally, thirsty elephants.

Image: A family of monkeys visit the private pool of a beachfront suite.

Spa treatments such as a sandalwood and turmeric-accented Island Spice Scrub await those able to tear themselves away from the central bar, dining and pool area. The dining is relaxed, with highlights including coconut-driven Sri Lankan curries, fresh local seafood and bright salads. Sundowners are seabreeze-addled, pastel-skied affairs, with the arches of the glowing pavilion creating a hypnotic sequence of vistas — salt-washed foliage, a mirror-like pool, the white-plumed exhalations of the Indian Ocean beyond.

Image: Local fishermen completed the bodice-like threading of the Cocoon Suite ceiling membranes.

Yala is known for the density of its leopard population, and safaris here can feel overwhelmed by other jeeps in search of the area’s most famous resident. Besides the option of heading into quieter blocks of the park, Wild Coast plans to open a leopard conservation station for valuable research in the first half of 2019. Fernando has also gained approval for an 810-hectare conservancy with strict ecological guidelines on access and activity.

Image: The bathtub in the Cocoon Suite has been handcrafted from copper.

The creative concept for the domed buildings unfurled organically, says Louis Thompson, Nomadic’s CEO, from the fantastic boulders dropped like a careless giant’s marbles along the shore. Local fishermen took over construction after an overseas contractor dropped out, and worked tirelessly under the tutelage of experts in steel and bamboo construction, as well as tensile membrane tensioning.

The lodge uses solar power, recycles water for landscaping, and features local materials such as teak and mudbrick bound with elephant dung. “If you use noble materials, you don’t need to finish them that much, really,” says Thompson. A tree that had to be felled has been cast in copper and suspended in the dining pavilion like an offering to the gods. “It’s a piece of solid local poetry,” says designer Bo Reudler.

While communal spaces clad in reclaimed teak shingles look almost to have emerged from the earth, the Cocoon Suites — all stretched membrane and porthole windows — appear to have floated down from some other exotic frontier. The interiors are a romantic marriage of safari style with what Reudler calls a “steampunk touch”, featuring four-poster beds, soaking tubs and bespoke military-campaign-style furniture that “references an era in which there were still worlds left to discover”.

The humble, bodice-like beauty of the stitching joining the tents’ interior membrane pieces fittingly echoes the fishermen’s artistry in threading their lines. “It’s not perfect,” says Thompson, with quiet pride. “If you look carefully, it’s full of imperfections all over the place.” Just like nature, really.

Visit: resplendentceylon.com/wildcoastlodge-yala

As winter nears and the air grows cool, it’s hard not to become nostalgic for the sun. Fortunately for us, our favourite streaming platforms have come to the rescue with a slew of new movies, TV shows, and various other titles that are bound to warm you up from the inside out. After all, nothing quite beats cuddling up in a thick blanket in front of the TV with a bowl of popcorn. This month, the new range of flicks on offer are more exciting than ever. From the second season of Big Little Lies, and the revolutionary romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians, to the debut of Euphoria, Zendaya’s latest TV venture, you’re bound to have enough binging material to last you a while – or at least until next month.

Euphoria: Season 1 (2019), Foxtel
Breaking out of her Disney mould and embracing an exciting future as an actress with range, Zendaya has taken on the role of drug-addict Rue in HBO’s Euphoria. The show will cover a wide variety of complex issues, from trauma to social media and sexuality. On top of that, it’s being produced by Drake himself. Yes, pick your jaw up off the floor and strap in for the ride.

Big Little Lies: Season 2 (2019), Foxtel
The highly-anticipated second season of Big Little Lies sees not only the return of cast members including Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern and Shailene Woodley, but our first introduction to the character played by none other than Meryl Streep. The announcement of Streep’s role sent fans into a frenzy, and now it isn’t long until you can finally watch her onscreen as Perry’s mother. The cast has been dropping hints about the new season on social media, and if they’re to be believed, you should brace yourselves, as it would seem trouble is brewing in Monterey.

Crazy Rich Asians (2018), Foxtel
When Crazy Rich Asians was released in cinemas last year, it became somewhat of a sensation – and rightly so. Starring Constance Wu as NYU economics professor Rachel Chu and Henry Golding as her boyfriend Nick Young, the film follows Rachel as she discovers that Nick’s family is one of the wealthiest in Singapore.

Black Mirror: Season 5 (2019), Netflix
This season, there are three new episodes of Black Mirror that will undoubtedly make it that much harder for you to sleep at night. Miley Cyrus is set to make an appearance as a tortured pop star, while Anthony Mackie and Pom Klementieff, who both starred in Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame, will reunite onscreen in the season’s third episode. 

Wish I Was Here (2014), Stan
Zach Braff’s comedy-drama Wish I Was Here will bring some light and laughter to your dreary day. In this film, Braff plays struggling actor Aidan Bloom as he tries to find his place in a world muddied by the complexities of marriage, children, and his father’s cancer diagnosis. It’s funny, it’s touching, and there are guaranteed smiles – what more could you ask for? 

Suffragette (2015), Stan
Historical period drama Suffragette sees Carey Mulligan star as Maud Watts, a laundry worker who finds herself caught up in a movement for change. The formidable Helena Bonham Carter takes on the role of pharmacist and bomb maker Edith Ellyn, while the always-transcendent Meryl Streep portrays the real-life character of Emmeline Pankhurst, a British political activist who was seminal in ensuring the female right to vote. If you want to spend an evening in with your mum, this film is a good one to turn to.

The Girl on the Train (2016), Netflix
Emily Blunt delivers a noteworthy performance as a commuter who becomes obsessed with a couple she watches from her train window in this American mystery thriller. As Blunt’s character, Rachel Watson, throws herself into a missing person investigation involving that very couple, her troubled past and unreliable memory is revealed, leaving viewers both terrified and confused.

The DUFF (2015), Netflix
The DUFF isn’t your ordinary American teen comedy; in fact, its whole premise is calling out the stereotypes of its predecessors. Mae Whitman is Bianca, the titular DUFF of the film. What does DUFF stand for, you ask? Bianca finds out that it means the Designated Ugly Fat Friend, the person in the group that’s a little less sociable and popular than their peers. It’s a humiliating title that we see her take in her stride as the film continues, and you can’t help but cheer Bianca on as she revels in her newfound confidence.

The Princess Bride (1987), Netflix
Click Here: The Princess Bride, a swashbuckling cult classic that stole our childhood hearts, is returning to your screens this June. Heartwarming and eminently quotable, the movie follows farmhand Westley, played by Cary Elwes, as he tries to rescue love interest Princess Buttercup, played by Robin Wright. Mandy Patinkin’s Spanish fencing master Inigo Montoya is another particular delight, and is sure to send you on a trip down memory lane. If you’re one of the few souls who haven’t been exposed to the wonders of The Princess Bride, Netflix is finally giving you the chance – so don’t miss it. 

Share

29th May 2019

If you don’t own at least one item from famed Australian activewear brand Lorna Jane, you’d be one of the few. This hugely successful, game-changing brand is the functional and stylish choice for active women everywhere. And indeed, the brand’s founder, Lorna Jane Clarkson, reportedly even coined the term “activewear” back in 1989.

Founded by Clarkson in the 1980s when the former fitness instructor couldn’t find any inspiring gym clothes to teach and work out in, the brand has become one of the leading Australian labels in the category, pioneering an approach to activewear that marries fashion and function. Of course, in 2019 there’s no shortage of stylish activewear brands thanks to the explosion of labels keen to get a slice of the booming activewear market, so how exactly does this 30-year-old label stay relevant in such a competitive market? 

Lorna Jane’s founder, Lorna Jane Clarkson, who also happens to be a six-time author, iconic businesswoman and wellness authority answers this question and more, including when she first realised her brand would be a success and how to build your own activewear wardrobe.

With the explosion of activewear companies, how have you stayed ahead of the competition?
“I think the key to staying ahead of the competition is to not think too much about them and what they are doing and focus more on your brand and what you want to achieve.”

“At Lorna Jane our focus is “active living” and we continue to be a leader in what we do because we focus on giving our customers the best products, the best customer experience and the best solutions for living an active life. We are always striving to be better and my belief is that you can’t do that if you’re constantly looking over your shoulder at what other people are doing.”

Please share the story of when you knew your brand was going to be a success.
“There have been so many moments but I think the one that stands out the most would have to be the day someone came into our store and bought everything!! We had been in business for about two years, we had one retail store in Brisbane and I was working from a small design studio underneath our house. Bill [Clarkson, Lorna’s husband] had just come on board to help run the business and roll out our retail stores. This particular day I was working from home and Bill was working in the store when he came home early with a pocket full of money and the news that someone had come into the store and not only bought every single piece but wanted more!”

“Of course, we celebrated for a good few hours until we realised that we had to get back to work if we wanted to get stock organised to re-open the store. I remember that weekend as we madly worked to make enough pieces to re-open the store thinking ‘WOW if one woman can like what we are doing enough to buy every single piece then we really must be on to something!’”

“It’s amazing how this one action boosted our confidence and made it a little less scary to make some of the big decisions that were coming our way.”

As an activewear expert, what is your advice on the key activewear items every woman should have in their workout wardrobe? 
“I think it’s important to ‘build’ your active wardrobe and if we’re talking key items that has to start with a good-fitting sports bra that is both supportive and comfortable. You also have to think ‘sport-specific’ when it comes to bras, so my advice is to invest in one for your more high-impact activities like running and HIIT [high intensity interval training] and another one for yoga, Pilates and every day wear.”

“The perfect black tight would have to be next on my list, and I recommend you look for styles that not only shape and support, but are guaranteed never to go see-through. I also like to have a minimum of one pocket in my tights for my keys and a little cash but am loving our ‘Phone Pocket’ styles right now for their hands-free convenience. A good pair of trainers would have to be next and as the weather starts to cool, some great layering pieces to take you from warm-up to cool down with ease.”

Click Here:

Share

30th May 2019

Gucci held their resort 2020 collection on Tuesday evening at the Capitoline Museums in Rome and there was so much to unpack about the show. Creative director Alessandro Michele revealed to WWD  that the collection was a “hymn to freedom” and this ideal was weaved throughout, making a strong political statement. Gucci’s favourite muse, musician Harry Styles, also made a statement, but in a total rock star classic Styles way. Read on for four things to know about the Gucci resort 2020 show.

“I am a free spirit. Nobody should have the right to decide about freedom of choice of any human being. No law should say to any person what to do or what not to do when it comes to very personal choices.” Michele told WWD ahead of the collection.

That freedom of choice translated to a collection full of ‘70s references, which the designer expressed to WWD were specifically for reproductive rights of women. “It [the 1970s] was a historical moment with women — finally — rejected all the constraints that were imposed in the previous centuries and they became free. That’s why I am paying homage to the Italian law regarding abortion, the law number 194. It’s unbelievable that around the world there are still people who believe that they can control a woman’s body, a woman’s choice. I will always stand behind the freedom of being, always.”

One of the pieces in the collection even featured an embroidered ovaries motif, which actress Salma Hayek, Zoe Saldana and Harry Styles made a point of highlighting backstage and Hayek then shared on Instagram.

The show was deliberately gender fluid with male and female models alike carrying handbags and wearing make-up and nail polish. A number of pieces heralded the Chime for Change gender equality campaign of which Michele is an invested supporter.

“The only world that I can imagine is a world where every single person can be who they would like to be, without any sort of restriction or judgement. At the beginning of this year I commissioned MP5, a Roman artist to redesign our Chime for Change identity. I really wanted Gucci even more embedded in this campaign. My aim was and is to pass a clear and loud message about the fact that the entire Gucci community is gathered together standing for gender equality.” WWD reports the designer said during their interview ahead of the show.

While Styles left his usual flamboyant florals at home, opting for a relatively pared-back cream Gucci look for the show, his accessories reminded us why the Sign of the Times singer is the house’s favourite muse.

Harry paired his cream and gold-buttoned suit with a white tank top, Gucci GG Marmont raffia clutch, oversized pink wire-rimmed sunglasses and a pink and blue manicure (see below).

reports Alessandro Michele had a matching manicure, which the designer posted a snap to his Instagram Stories of alongside Styles’s twinning nails.

The clutch is also an important element, showcasing just how confident Styles is to pull off a raffia handbag.

Vogue’s fashion features director, Alice Birrell, attended the show and reports pre-show the streets outside the Capitoline Museums were flooded with fans chanting Styles’s name. When the star finally arrived, the crowd were apparently so overwhelmed, they turned hysterical, sobbing and shrieking over the excitement of seeing their idol.

The crowd were also screaming K-pop star Kai’s name and post-show, the crowd continued their star sighting vigil, camping out at the after party, where Styles performed a duet with Stevie Nicks. This is the second duet they have performed together this year, the musicians paired up back in March when Stevie Nicks was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Click Here: watford fc shirt

Share

30th May 2019

“The uterus is a wonderful part of the body and its femininity,” said Gucci’s creative director, Alessandro Michele, after he had taken off his huge black hat and sat down to explain his 2020 resort collection.

He had a lot to discuss, including his choice of Rome’s trio of Capitoline Museums as a set, where the sculptures provided a dominating backdrop.

Past the heroic masculine statuary, with men’s rippling muscles shaped in marble, walked the male and female models. They moved in dim light, spot-lit by flashing torches handed out to the audience as well as their own iPhones.

The designer spoke openly of his struggle with his own sexuality and his urge to offer, in his own words, “a message of freedom”. 

It seemed a baffling choice to bring magazine editors, journalists and clients from across the world into mysterious semi-darkness. But Michele had a reason. 

“My work is like being an archaeologist; I discover things I cannot see by using a torch in the dark,” he said.

The overall effect of the show was both maddening and fascinating. There was the background of one of the world’s most beautiful historical settings; and intriguing clothes that the designer had done his very best to conceal.

They literally flashed by, the torch beams picking up vivid colour, tailored suits and the occasional draped garment inspired by the days of the Holy Roman Empire.

Then there was a slithery green dress with its flower embroidery over the uterus area, although would anyone have seen the connection if the designer had not discussed it? He added a story about his childhood in the Seventies, and his mother wearing trousers “as part of a process of being completely free”.  

Click Here: watford fc shirt

A designer who can romanticise not only a woman’s private parts but also her pale green, tailored trouser suit or her bare legs decorated with love drawings, has a powerful vision of fashion.

Michele also has a passion for the past. Even the Gucci invitations had to be collected from a very special place – the Antica Libreria Cascianelli – a historic bookshop hidden away near Rome’s Piazza Navona. 

The designer was thinking even further back. “Only pagan antiquity could arouse my desire, because it was a world of the past that no longer exists,” Michele said.

And the collection? For Michele, decoration is in the detail. All his shows are much the same: the nerdy student with funky eyeglasses; Seventies looks in bright but “off” colours; the music-instrument case to suggest a quirky romantic.

This time, the 47-year-old designer’s life and home in Rome, with its overwhelming Catholicism, pushed the boundaries for clerical vestments, with a velvet hat and a velvet chasuble?

A lot has happened since this time last year. Gucci has been accused of disrespect to African people – even racism – for its red-lipped balaclava-sweater. CEO Marco Bizzarri has been at pains to make the brand inclusive and his Creative Director insisted at the show that, “Women have to be respected – they must be free to choose what they want.”

Does decorating their clothes with images of Mickey Mouse equal reproductive rights? Ultimately the Gucci resort show, whatever its ardent and powerful messages, is about selling desirable stuff. And there was heaps a’plenty of that.

Image credit: Patrick Kovarik / AFP / Getty Images

As Maya Angelou once said: “Eating is so intimate. It’s very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you want to cook for them, you’re inviting a person into your life.” Every moment – whether celebrating, pacifying, commiserating or comforting – involves food, it’s a cultural cornerstone. So, is it any wonder, that our relationship to what is, in its simplest form, sustenance or fuel, now plays such a central role in defining who we are?

I am no stranger to this complicated relationship. Whenever I find myself in an anxious or stressed state, it tends to be followed by ordering food via a delivery app, and what we refer to off-hand as ‘eating our feelings’. As a child of the 1970s, I hit my twenties during a time when the South Beach diet, the Atkins, the cabbage soup diet etc were household names. And as a beauty and wellness editor, I’ve embarked on every fad diet going – both professionally and personally chasing the promised transformation. I’ve yo-yo-ed between my ideal – and not ideal – weight for years; and while I wouldn’t consider myself someone who has an issue with eating, perhaps our relationship with food is an underlying narrative for us all?

Why are food and emotion so interlinked?

“Food and emotions are inextricably linked. [Food is a key part of] how we’re socialised, how we’re raised. Consider babies, the first thing we do is offer them milk. It starts, right from the first day of life,” explains Laura Thomas PhD, nutritionist and author of anti-diet bestseller, .

“We often vilify that phenomenon of using emotional eating to comfort ourselves. When I’m working with people, it’s more as a clue that something is off kilter,” says Thomas. She explains that the things prompting us to reach for food in moments of stress and anxiety are often rooted back to the habits and moments that shaped us as children.

What is emotional eating?

The term “emotional eater” is commonplace, and usually falls into one of two categories: those who eat more when stressed, and those who eat less. The crux of the matter lies in the action of eating to emotions. “Usually that is something that we would come to way further down the line [when I’m working with a client],” says Thomas. “There are layers to unpack that may include the result of restriction for years, not eating adequately, failing to nourish ourselves. The psychological restriction of food, includes a constant focus on getting enough calories, and ring-fencing some foods as bad,” she explains.

“This, in turn, can trigger a backlash that we then identify as ‘emotional eating’, which is often more about restriction than eating,” Thomas explains.

On meeting a client for the first time, Thomas will decipher what purpose food is playing in their day-to-day life, and then identify what need is not being met, and how food may be being used to replace that. “There’s nothing wrong with food meeting that need. Food can be a really helpful tool in our toolkit. There’s no shame or judgment in that. Its a coping mechanism, a benign coping mechanism. Some might use gambling, alcohol, drugs or sex – behaviours that might not be as adaptive,” she explains.  

It’s only when emotional eating is the only thing in our toolkit that it may become a problem. Thomas’s approach thereafter is to “fill up your toolkit. Yes you can cry into your toolkit. Or you go to your therapy or mindfulness practice or other things in your toolkit.”

What role does stress play in our relationship with food?

According to a report by Harvard Health: “Stress can shut down appetite. The nervous system sends messages to the adrenal glands atop the kidneys to pump out the hormone epinephrine (also known as adrenaline). Epinephrine helps trigger the body’s fight-or-flight response, a revved-up physiological state that temporarily puts eating on hold.”

However, after this temporary flux the adrenal glands kick in again, releasing another stress hormone, cortisol, which can increase appetite and potentially, the motivation to eat. While a stressful episode may pass, cortisol levels may remain high, which is what leads to the cycle of stress, eat, repeat.

How has diet culture impacted our relationship with food?

Dieting has long been associated with the health and wellness sector, but things are slowly changing. Whereas once, food and fitness trends – from classes to bootcamps, retreats, detoxes and products – were purely designed to shift inches from your waist (and fast), the MO is now far more about improving health (both mental and physical) for the long term.

Thomas has noted a clear distinction between the diet focuses of her younger and older clients: “Especially those in their fifties and sixties. They’ve been living in diet culture for a longer time. Diet culture was normalised. My younger people are starting to push back against that a bit more. Younger people have been through ‘clean eating’ and more of an orthorexic [obsession with healthy eating] relationship with food. Whereas with many of my older clients, I’ve noticed more diet pills, laxative use – the manifestation of the eating is different.”

Celebrity trainer to Gwendoline Christie, Jennifer Lawrence and Olivia Colman and founder of London-based Twenty Two Training, Dalton Wong has noticed the shift too. “Lots of clients who are a bit older had parents who grew up in the war and were used to having to finish everything on their plate. Now we see cultural things that make you attached to food, whether it’s the way you were brought up or where you live. And when it comes to exercise, I have to think about what my clients’ triggers are and what their emotional reaction to food is.”

There’s now a conscious move away from categorising food as ‘good’ and ‘bad’. “People assume they developed these ‘bad’ habits because they had no will power or they’re out of control. Are you habitually using food to soothe emotions? Or is it because you have been restricting, you’re not eating enough. Is there a problem with your energy balance?” asks Thomas of her clients.

What’s the relationship between eating and exercise?

Food, exercise and health go hand in hand, says Wong. “When you’re eating, and thinking about eating for exercise, think about what kind of exercise you’re doing. Are you exercising for vanity? Or for performance because you want to run the marathon? Injury prevention or rehabilitation? You will need to eat differently to support these choices.”

Wong’s approach is geared towards optimum performance enjoyment, whatever your goal. “If you’re running, or training for an event like the marathon, 80 per cent [of your training, including nutrition] should be about working towards that, and 20 per cent should be about freedom and enjoyment. If you want to get the best possible result.”

How can we eat more intuitively?

Thomas says we need to recalibrate. Everything from our perception of food (what is good and bad), to our perception of our body signals of satiety. “Think of it as the petrol gage in the car. On one side, you’re running on fumes, you would eat anything, you’re that hungry. On the other end of the spectrum, Christmas day after turkey, mince pies, you’re uncomfortably full, you feel sick.” Recognising hunger cues – which can include mood swings, energy dips, headaches, stomach pain and even salivating – is the start in moving away from these extremes.

Thomas’s approach encourages less self judgement, and more self compassion. Her principles are based on reconnecting the sensations that are going on in the body with the mind, and to find some balance between the two. A move away from emotional reactivity and towards , she says. “It’s about letting the two things connect and talk to each other.”

Padma Lakshmi, author of , food critic, television chef and India’s May 2019 cover star perfectly sums up our complicated, human, flawed and wonderful relationship with food: “I am what feeds me. And how I feed myself at any given moment says a lot about what I’m going through or what I need. I don’t believe I am alone. Yes, we eat for our stomachs, but we hunger with our hearts.”

Click Here: watford fc shirt