Remember DofE? Those practical, waterproof, sturdy boots teamed with rustling, generic, boring, hiking clothes? A fashion sin! For years, outdoor apparel happily paralleled the world of high fashion. Different audiences, different aesthetics and different intentions ensured that the two worlds underwent little collision. The North Face x Gucci’s latest collaboration changes all that, for it…
Fashion
Performative authenticity: Influencer sponsorships and consumerist culture
Once celebrated for being authentic reviewers of products, influencers have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years with regard to their reliance on paid promotions. More often than not it seems that influencers are promoting items they have little interest in, and it’s easy to understand why when the influencer marketing industry is set to…
Fashion
Instagram’s commercial priorities: what has the app become?
Picture this: it’s 2011. You’ve just downloaded a new app called Instagram. You post a vignette-filtered picture of a sunset and get 7 likes: you are happy. Instagram still is, by and large, a photo and video sharing social network, but a recent update has shown users what Instagram has been slowly integrating for the…
Fashion
The Ultimate Independent Gift Guide
It’s the most wonderful time of the year – when retailers throw discounts, sales and exclusives in our faces, enabling us to do our holiday shopping with minimal human interaction. Whilst online shopping is definitely more convenient, especially with the current additional risks of shopping in person, small businesses everywhere are taking steps to try…
Fashion
Clothes that tell a story: The Queen’s Gambit’s style moves
Netflix’s recent original series The Queen’s Gambit, has taken the world by storm, and not just because of the clever storytelling and phenomenal acting. The sense of style and ever-evolving wardrobe of our protagonist, Beth, is one of the most intriguing aspects of the show. We meet Beth as a small, confused girl: unsure of…
Fashion, Venue
Sex sells? The return of Playgirl, the rise of Fenty, and fashion’s new gaze
‘Sex appeal’ has long been disgracefully two dimensional and exclusive: cis-gendered, slim and pre-dominantly white. The fashion industry’s concept of beauty (and consequentially their selling of sex), as derived from this appeal, is incredibly problematic. Today, however, we are travelling towards a more inclusive vision, a concept of beauty and sex appeal free from binaries…
Fashion, Venue
From page to screen: fashion on film
Costumes are fundamental to any film, but they are particularly important in adaptations of literature, an aspect that is often forgotten amid changes to plot and character. Costumes help bring characters to life on screen, and they are fantastic visual tools for telling us just who these characters are. The recent Netflix adaptation of Daphne…
Fashion, Venue
What self care means to me
I’ll begin by saying that the generally accepted associations of the term ‘self-care’ as I have known them are very different from the way I now understand the practice. Conventionally promoted methods of self-care, from bubble baths to retail therapy, are not only incredibly general but are primarily guided by consumerism: a capitalisation of the…
Fashion, Venue
The subtle rebellion of Kamala Harris’ Converse
With the end of the US Election and the Biden-Harris campaign, Kamala Harris has received her fair share of media attention. This spotlight is not merely a result of the exciting focus on her as the first female Vice-President, for she is also in the spotlight because of her unconventional choice of footwear. Harris’ preference…
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