Fashion / 15/12/2020 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 / 15/12/2020 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 / 15/12/2020 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 / 15/12/2020 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 / 24/11/2020 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 / 24/11/2020 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

Renegade fashion designer Kenzo Takada dies aged 81
Photo: Wikimedia commons, N509FZ / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
Fashion, Venue

Renegade fashion designer Kenzo Takada dies aged 81

Kenzo Takada, the visionary behind namesake fashion house Kenzo, has died aged 81, after a battle with coronavirus.  Having launched Kenzo in 1970, Takada soon began making waves in the Paris fashion scene. A graduate of Tokyo’s Bunka Fashion College, where notably, he was one of the institution’s first male students, Takada moved to France…

Thin privilege: the blurred lines of style and skinniness
Fashion

Thin privilege: the blurred lines of style and skinniness

If you’ve been active on social media recently, you’ve probably seen that strawberry dress popping up again and again. The $490 midi dress by fashion designer Lirika Matoshi has become an internet sensation, particularly on TikTok, and people are desperate to get their hands on it. Before the garment gained such notoriety, it was being…

The gentrification of Depop
Photo: Pexels
Fashion

The gentrification of Depop

We are entering Oxfam’s “Second Hand September”, and with it, an increased focus on sustainability and the ethics of clothing retailers. As the resale app ‘Depop’ has grown in popularity, a conversation has erupted surrounding the gentrification of thrift stores. A problem many sustainable fashion advocates have with Depop is the increased number of accounts…

The racism behind fast fashion
Photo: Unsplash
Fashion, Venue

The racism behind fast fashion

Following the tragic murder of George Floyd and the outrage it sparked, the world has erupted in Black Lives Matter protests. This has gone beyond issues of police brutality and has sparked a re-evaluation of multiple industries and their relationships with race. Students and employees have bravely opened up about their experiences as Black individuals…

Molly-Mae and the scrutiny of women’s bodies
Photo: Pickpik
Fashion, Venue

Molly-Mae and the scrutiny of women’s bodies

Paparazzi shots have recently surfaced of former Love-Islander Molly-Mae in a bikini whilst on holiday in Ibiza. A Twitter user shared a tweet expressing outrage at replies left on the Daily Mail article that showcased the images. Despite Molly-Mae having what many would consider a conventionally attractive, desirable, size 8 body, the comments were filled…

The problem with Shein
Photo: Unsplash
Fashion, Venue

The problem with Shein

Fashion retailer Shein has shot up in popularity over the last few years; I myself have shopped with them many times before and have always loved the affordability, cute prints and good quality items. But I and many others will not shop with them again until they take a hard look at their approach to…


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    Favourite song covers
    Ma’am, this is a Wendy’s
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    Favourite song covers
    Is this author 14 years old with absolutely zero knowledge on music? Has to be. Two out of three songs are irrelevant. Both by shitty bands. Who paid for this?…
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The University of East Anglia’s official student newspaper. Concrete is in print and online.

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