Suzy Menkes salutes the life and work of the ground-breaking French fashion designer The carrot-red hair, the narrow nose, the tiny frame… From the beginning of her career, Sonia Rykiel herself was the essence of her fashion world.   Her sweaters were shrunken, the better to pull over bare flesh in the bra-burning Sixties. Her […]

Inside the stone fortress, Sophia Loren, the new ‘queen’ of Naples, was receiving the southern Italian city’s highest award. ‘Sophia Napoletana’ was written in a flourish under a portrait of the sultry 1950’s film star, whose cleavage still sweeps as low as her luxurious head of hair is held high. Her voice cracking with emotion, […]

THE TUMBLING WATER, the Baroque marble statues, the night sky dying into an intense blue, and figures seemingly walking on water in front of Rome’s Trevi fountain – it was an unforgettable and emotional fashion spectacle. Not since La Dolce Vita, Federico Fellini’s 1960s film that featured Anita Ekberg frolicking in the waters, had the […]

THE WHITE WOODEN DOOR had the name “Atelier Josette”, with a camellia attached. It introduced the Chanel studio – a re-incarnation of the attic space at the Rue Cambon headquarters in Paris, where the petites mains, or “little hands” as they are known, work away on the craft of couture. For the first time, the […]

FULL DISCLOSURE: I play a significant role in Absolutely Fabulous, the movie, although my declaration, “Fashion is dead!” may not make such a splash as Kate Moss leaving a gruesome party by “accidentally” falling over a balcony into the oily green Thames. (Fortunately she wears green that night, so no dry-cleaner worries.) Things don’t go […]

CAN DESIGNERS ACT as bellwethers of the future, producing clothes that challenge the status quo and foretell dramatic changes in the wider world? You might have thought so at the recent shows, where Vetements and its way of emphasising – rather than enhancing – reality has changed attitudes about what “fashion” means in the 21st century.   At […]

Gucci is unveiling the new Tom Ford rooms at the Gucci Museo in Florence, in recognition of the impact he had on the brand.     Tom Ford is back at the brand he re-invented in the 1990s and walked out of 12 years ago. After leaving a gaping hole in its history, the Gucci […]

On the age-old stone benches beside Westminster Abbey’s cloister lay a snake and a cat – their slithering or fluffy skins worked into tapestry cushions. The same symbols appeared on densely decorated clothes, bags and shoes, in which models for the Gucci Cruise show stepped over paving stones marking ancient tombs. “I was thinking of […]

  “THERE IS NO SUCH THING as society,” said Margaret Thatcher 35 years ago. The famous statement from Britain’s “Iron Lady” Prime Minister about a changing world, built on an old system of class and deference, was mirrored this week by fashion. The French house of Dior brought its international attitude and worldwide clients to […]

“I SAID ‘CUBA’ as a joke when we discussed where Chanel could go next!” Karl Lagerfeld claimed, looking around the all-music, all-dancing party in a historic Havana square. The Paris fashion house staged the first high-fashion show in Cuba since the 1953 revolution The cathedral’s rainbow windows were as colourful as the 1950s open-topped Chevrolets […]