The Music Hall's Writers on a New England Stage series will present Grace Helbig, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of "Grace's Guide" and the host of both the "Grace Helbig Show" on E! and "it's Grace" on YouTube, on Thursday, February 4. Helbig will take the stage with her new book, "Grace & Style," a tongue-in-cheek style guide that offers up hard-earned practical wisdom with a healthy dose of humor and sweatpants.

The 7 p.m. event includes an author presentation followed by an onstage interview with Virginia Prescott, host of New Hampshire Public Radio's "Word of Mouth." It will be held at The Music Hall's Historic Theater at 28 Chestnut Street, in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

"Grace & Style," parodies the fashion world, confronts the often unachievable standards it upholds, and promotes positive body image. Helbig uses the "therapy of comedy" to redefine her own self-image and give young women the confidence to make their own fashion statements.

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"Fantastic fun fashion advice that we all need," said Patricia Lynch, Executive Producer of Writers on a New England Stage. "Expect a cheeky evening that you won't want to miss."

In "Grace & Style," Helbig stays true to her role as "YouTube's awkward older sister." With a list of things no one ever tells you not to wear to the office (including, but not limited to, chain mail, live snakes, or your heart on your sleeve), tips on how to rescue a bad hair day by imitating a Debonair Detective or Animal from the Muppets, and a flowchart to help you decide "Should I actually buy this?" Helbig makes style playful and accessible. She also gives readers an inside look at her own style evolution, from longing to buy something at the Limited Too as a pre-teen to prepping for the red carpet, and offers a sneak peek inside her closet.

With humorous color photos throughout, "Grace & Style" reminds readers that "You can't spell icon without 'con.'"

The ticket package for "Writers on a New England Stage: Grace Helbig" on Thursday, February 4, at 7 p.m. is $30 and includes a copy of the book.

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Two human reactions to turbulent times emerged as fashion concepts during Milan Fashion Week, which wrapped up its five-day run on Tuesday: cocooning and militarisation.

On one end of the spectrum, designers offered men myriad forms of comfort for next autumn and winter, including soft-cut jackets; enveloping cashmere, vicuna and alpaca knitwear; silken pyjamas meant as street wear; and the ubiquitous long scarf that in many collections substituted for a traditional tie.

Falling under the cocooning/emotional comfort trend, there was also a tendency toward returning to the past with embroidered details literally flourishing on jackets and trousers, especially denim; homely plaids for jackets and lumberjack shirts; and the sort of brimmed hats that project paternal security.

Rigid military looks led a counter-current, with battle-worn jackets, revamped uniforms and a plethora of double-breasted suits, albeit often softened with decorations and paired with gently fitting trousers. In keeping, bags tended to be utilitarian and large, shoes sturdy soled or boots.

At the more extroverted end of the fashion spectrum, designers made liberal use of tinfoil silver fabric, creating a futuristic feel to overcoats, trousers and sportswear, as a sort of projection to possibility, escape from the now. But overall, the colour palette was sombre: dark, blue, black, deep green and greys.


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Some highlights from the final day of shows Tuesday, with previews from Giorgio Armani and DSquared2.

Armani

Giorgio Armani’s man for next season is a thinker and a traveller, in the image of William Burroughs.

A brimmed hat like Burroughs wore was a unifying device in the collection, giving definition to an otherwise soft silhouette.

Textures created an ethnic mood, suggesting journey. A pair of models strode the runway draped in blanket-like coats. They wore clingy knit tops with decorative North African geometric patterns along the collar and sleeves, which were tucked into loosefitting trousers that taper to an athletic knit ankle.

While the designer preferred a looser silhouette, vests that gently curved down the front gave some looks easy discipline, worn under a cardigan or on top of a pullover. The same curve was repeated on elegant evening jackets with a Nehru collar, worn with velvet trousers that tapered to the ankle.

Colours were cool tones of blue and grey alongside Armani’s personal favourites black and navy blue.

Russell Crowe had a front-row seat for the show, recalling the first time he met Armani at the Cannes Film Festival. The actor, having lost his luggage, said the designer offered his card suggesting he renew his wardrobe at his store.

Crowe must have paid heed, telling reporters he was wearing Armani head to toe.

“Armani socks, Armani shoes, Armani shirt, Armani suit,” Crowe said, laughing. “Apart from that nothing else.”

DSquared2

The kilt has gotten a martial arts makeover at DSquared2.

The Canadian designing twins Dean and Dan Caten creatively merged the traditional Scotsman’s uniform with the deep-pleated Japanese hakama, traditionally worn over a kimono, for a cultural mash-up with a strong punk vibe.

The kilt was invariably worn over trousers, either knee- or ankle-length, and often was more of a flourish, with just half or one-quarter panel adding drama to a look.

Long and black, the hybrid skirt was elegant with a black blazer and turtleneck, just the thing for a Ninja on a night out. A sportier denim model was worn under a parka, while the short black mainstay proved versatile, equally matched with a kimono top, denim shirt or bomber jacket.

To underline the cultural crossover, the designers also gave it a run in a Manga print as well as traditional tartan, which was worn over matching trousers.

Take away the kilt, and the looks were pure punk. Leather jackets had fluorescent studs, worn with patched baggy jeans. An oversized parka had a spaceman’s silver lining. Hiking boots were the favourite footwear.

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His ‘World of HSY’ is an enchanting one; resplendent with the shimmer of crystals and sequins, glistening with bright lights and colour, replete with drama, celebrities and sheer joie de vivre. It is this love for glamour, in heavy, unadulterated doses, that he brings to his new quarters in Karachi: a glorious, reconstructed mansion near Karachi’s Mohatta Palace.

A gilded lion roars at the door — for he is fashion’s sher — leading to chandeliered rooms, spiraling staircases, vintage-tiled floors, sun-dappled rooms lined with windows and walls bordered with images of Shero’s career milestones.

“This is my way of making visitors feel special,” he smiles. “I’m not just welcoming them to my workplace, I am inviting them into my home. We’re planning to set up tables in the courtyard where, once every week, we’re going to host afternoon tea. People can drift in and sit with their friends, roam about the studio and try clothes on. The photographs on the walls are by Alee Hassan but later on, I want to make this space available for exhibits of photography, jewellery, art or even furniture.”

From Lahore to Karachi

Shero’s full of ideas, plans and characteristic exuberance. “I’m living my dream,” he says.

“There was a time in my life when I was blinded in a car accident. My face had to be reconstructed through multiple surgeries and I lost all my hair because I had to take strong medication. From that difficult time in my teens to now, I consider myself incredibly fortunate. I am on a perpetual drive to set new boundaries and I never let criticism get me down. This year is going to be an exciting one and I’m looking forward to it.”


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His work is just about to be seen at a Hollywood red carpet affair and in Pakistan, his retail dreams are already underway.

“We launch our first retail store at Dolmen City Mall in Karachi around April, timed with our fashion showcase at the PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week. The collection will simultaneously become available at our store in Lahore, at the new store in Karachi as well as at this mansion.”

Why bother with setting up an entire mansion when he could have just made waves with a store in the city’s most popular — and most expensive — mall?

“It is expensive,” he agrees, “and setting up this mansion has been a labor of love. It’s more than a hundred years old and it was in shambles when I came to it more than a year ago. It’s been difficult resurrecting it back to its former glory but this is the kind of space that defines my brand. It is luxurious and classically beautiful and it creates an aura that ultimately leads to higher retail sales.

“The store in Dolmen City will stock the HSY Limited line which begins at Rs2,500 and primarily features cotton and silk tunics for working women, our ready-to-wear light formals priced between Rs10,000 and Rs25,000 and luxury-wear priced above Rs25,000. Anybody who wants our heavily-embellished pieces will be able to take an appointment via the store for the mansion.”

For a designer who is constantly ricocheting between Lahore and Karachi, this market expansion makes long-overdue logistic sense. Shero spends days on end recording his TV talk show in Karachi, which is now in its third season. At other times, he is flying in to choreograph shows or even take part in the occasional fashion week.

As fashion’s self-professed ‘couture king’ — and a popular designer — it was about time that he extended his market beyond his home-base in Lahore by dabbling into other, equally lucrative markets.

“I have always had a strong clientele in Karachi,” points out Shero. “Many of them fly in to place orders at my Lahore studio and they follow my fashion week showcases. Also, the TV show has made me a household name and improved upon my brand’s popularity. But yes, it was certainly time for me to set up store in Karachi. I intend to follow it up with more expansion in the future and a greater focus on building my brand. This probably means that I will choreograph fewer shows although I do plan to continue on with my TV show.”

His TV show has been building a considerable audience but is simultaneously criticised for being a Koffee with Karan spin-off. Does he agree? “Any talk show that is mostly in English will seem similar to Koffee with Karan,” he argues. “But I think that Tonite with HSY has an edge of its very own and its popularity is testament to it.”

Moving on to his choreographic talents, it would be a pity if he retired from the field altogether. Shero, at the helm of a fashion week, brings an unmistakable energy to the catwalk as he spins and rolls it to his tune. He has hitherto always professed that he is easily able to waltz the balancing act between choreography, design and his TV show. Why the sudden change of heart?

“Whenever I do something, I plunge into it wholeheartedly and have to do a fantastic job. I just need to invest more time into my brand but having worked as a choreographer for the past 22 years, I don’t think I’ll ever leave it altogether.”

With fashion slipping into a repetitive rut, does he feel the ennui slipping in while he choreographs umpteen shows?

“I don’t usually even look at the clothes because I am so occupied with organising the shows,” says Shero. “I do feel that shows are being over-styled now. The elaborate accessories and hairstyles actually take away the limelight from the designs.”

Hollywood calling

In contrast, accessories were kept to a minimum at Shero’s ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ showcase at October’s PFDC L’Oreal Paris Bridal Week. Was the line-up well-received by his clientele considering that it had him leaning towards anglicised silhouettes whereas traditional wedding wear has always been his USP?

“People appreciated it but they really took notice of it when I tweaked it into traditional wear for my show at the recent Telenor Bridal Couture Week. Girls want to look traditionally beautiful at weddings, it’s as simple as that,” he observes.

Does he feel that by pandering to traditional market-friendly silhouettes, he allows his brand to meander towards the boring?

“I do think that fashion, in general, is getting repetitive with far too much emphasis on economics. Having said that, with my own brand, I stick to my DNA and manage to evolve within it. I do feel that backless gowns and slinky cholis don’t hold much significance beyond the catwalk. But it is possible to create design that is fashion-forward while simultaneously marketable.”

It was a gown, though — a deep blue floor-length ensemble with a matching sequined jacket worn by Cybil at the Lux Style Awards in 2014 — that caught actress Brooke Shields’ attention and had her agents placing an order at the HSY design studio.

“She’s going to be wearing it during the awards season,” says Shero. “I will be flying out to her for the final fittings. I think that Brooke Shields emulates my brand well because I usually design for the adult woman. Also, I think this is going to be a great red carpet statement, equating Pakistan with fashion and craftsmanship, overlooking cultural and religious prejudices.”

It will, of course, showcase the oft-ignored glamorous side to Pakistan and who better to put it forward than HSY? It’s what he does best … at star-studded red carpets, backstage at fashion weeks, on TV, at the LSAs or now, holding court in his glorious new mansion. Karachi today, Hollywood tomorrow — where next, HSY?
backless prom dresses

Traditionally, buying a kandura meant visiting the tailor, showing a sample of your design, and waiting for it to be made within a few days. For many decades, the practice has been the same. But with the rising popularity of online shopping in the region, buying traditional men’s clothing is steadily being modernised.

It was this gap in the market that drove Khaled Al Huraimel and Saif Al Midfa to open their Dubai shop Bait Al Kandora and establish an online shopping platform. Unlike many aspects of life in the UAE, they saw that the routine of shopping for Khaleeji men had remained relatively unchanged.

“This country has excelled in every aspect, from tourism to providing the best quality of life,” says Al Huraimel. “What we are proud of – the national dress – never developed. No one took care of the dress.

“You go to a tailor and you choose whatever fabric offered to you and leave, but we decided that we were not going to be another tailor.”

In launching their business, the duo plan to improve the shopping experience for men. Usually during special occasions, such as Eid, many men shop for a new kandura, gutra and sandals, but there are few shops that offer everything in one convenient place, he says.

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“Usually, men have to go to different shops to complete their accessories,” says Al Huraimel, but often they have little patience for this. It was this realisation that led the team to offer home and online services to appeal to men who aren’t fond of shopping.

Bait Al Kandora launched last year, although Al Huraimel and Al Midfa came up with the idea 13 years ago. They wanted their brand to include kanduras, plus a full collection of wardrobe essentials, such as gutras, wallets, sandals, cuff links and undershirts. One point of difference is the fabrics, which come from Japan and Switzerland. All products carry the brand’s logo, which depicts a falcon with the Arabic numeral “V” (seven) on its neck, representing the seven Emirates.

The website, which gets about 2,000 hits a day, allows shoppers to choose colours, fabrics and different detailing options, and see it all come together. First, the customer chooses from ­Arabi, Kuwaiti or Qatari designs, then the fabric and colour, then details such as stitching and the style of the tarboush. The customer then enters his measurements, which are saved for future use, and places the order.

Ahmed Al Qasser from Sharjah finds online shopping easy and efficient. He started making his kandura purchases online when Bait Al Kandora launched. So far, his experience has been positive. “I am a very busy man, and don’t have much time to go the tailor. Online shopping has made life easier. All I have to do is log in, order my kandura, and wait for it be delivered. It’s like shopping on Amazon.”

Bait Al Kandora isn’t the only company tapping into the market for online men’s shopping. Ahmed Janahi, an Emirati from Dubai, launched Al Nashama Boutique three years ago. The boutique offers kanduras, perfumes, sunglasses, sandals and gutras, and is a one-stop shop for men who prefer not to spend too much time in a mall.

Al Nashama has also branched out to offer online shopping – the website allows customers to virtually create their kandura as they go – and has also ­developed an app for men who like the convenience of shopping via a smartphone. The uptake has been somewhat slow, however, and some buyers prefer to do their research in-store before making an online purchase.

“When it comes to buying kanduras online, most UAE residents prefer to visit the store and try different fabrics or styles,” says Al Nashama’s shop manager, ­Nibal Massry.

Since working at the boutique, Massry has noticed that many Emirati men tend to go to the same tailor. Each month, only a dozen people place an order online for kanduras. “Similar to the abaya, many men are meticulous about their kandura purchases. Placing an online order sometimes might not be satisfying for some customers.” And although a home service is available, in which a tailor is sent to the customer’s house to take the measurements, many still prefer to visit the shop and test the fabric themselves.

Both Bait Al Kandora and Al Nashama have found their online presence has helped attract international buyers, however, particularly from the United Kingdom, United States, Netherlands, Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Canada. “There is a large amount of Muslims and Arabs residing in those markets,” says Al Huraimel. Many of these customers wear a kandura for Friday prayers or occasions such as Eid, Al Massry adds.

In another twist on shopping for traditional men’s clothing, Bait Al Kandora, which recently opened a branch in Sharjah and will soon be opening in Abu Dhabi, has employed female shop assistants to advise women who are buying for the men in their lives.

So while there has been a mixed response to online shopping, men are steadily changing the way they purchase their national dress, and both companies hope that by improving the shopping experience for men, they can become a benchmark for the industry.

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Silver-plated shoes in pairs on the floor. Spectral figures, dressed in white, lying on gurneys in an operating theater. Row after row of identically clad schoolboys, standing at attention behind identical desks. For years, the fashion designer Thom Browne has treated industry insiders to presentations that look more like art installations than like a typical runway show. This March, when the exhibition “Thom Browne Selects” opens at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum on Fifth Avenue, ordinary civilians will finally get to experience Mr. Browne’s theatrical sensibility firsthand.

Like other prominent designers, artists and architects who have been invited to participate in Cooper Hewitt’s continuing Selects series, Mr. Browne was given the run of the museum’s collection to mine for his own purposes. As a fashion designer, he might have been expected to geek out on the 27,000 textiles in the museum’s collection, some dating back 2,400 years. Instead, poring over its holdings last summer, he chose mirrors and frames. So, when “Thom Browne Selects” opens on March 4, visitors will end up looking at themselves — all the more so, since the walls and floor will be covered in holographic wallpaper in a reflective silver diamond pattern. This will be quite a departure for the museum, “almost an hallucinogenic experience,” said Matilda McQuaid, the deputy curatorial director at the Cooper Hewitt, who has worked closely with Mr. Browne on the exhibition.

“The thing for me was to do something that brought my world into Cooper Hewitt,” Mr. Browne, 50, said in a telephone interview. “For the past couple of seasons, I’ve been interested in mirrors and reflections and the idea of uniformity, so it worked out almost perfectly.”

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The idea of uniforms comes up repeatedly in Mr. Browne’s work, which resonates with the tension between individuality and conformity. Known for his gray flannel suits, traditional tailoring, constricted designs and strangely high-hemmed trousers, he is at once conservative and flamboyant.

“His whole approach — in a funny way, it’s Tim Burton meets Pierre Balmain,” said David Revere McFadden, the chief curator emeritus of the Museum of Arts and Design, referring to the film director and the Paris couturier who created flight attendants’ uniforms for TWA in the mid-1960s. There are “interesting echoes” of those uniforms in Mr. Browne’s work, added Mr. McFadden, who was the curator of decorative arts from 1978 to 1995 at the Cooper Hewitt, but at least Mr. Browne’s designs do not require girdles.

Among the objects Mr. Browne selected for the exhibition are gilded frames from 18th-century France, silvered frames by the Art Nouveau architect Hector Guimard, and a hand mirror from the Wiener Werkstätte, the early-20th-century Austrian art and design movement. There are a number of mirrors from Georgian and Edwardian England. Perhaps the most curious is a large gilded mirror fashioned in the mid-1970s by Jim Dine, the celebrated Pop artist.

Commissioned as part of a series by Phyllis Lambert, the architect and Seagram heiress, for her art-infused renovation of the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, the Dine mirror is decorated with plaster casts of construction tools, among them a pair of shears and a hatchet. Guests were taken aback: “Try sleeping with that over your head,” a visiting pharmaceuticals executive told The Los Angeles Times after the hotel was sold in 1984. The mirror found its way to the Cooper Hewitt not long after — hatchet and all.

In any case, individual objects are not the point. “It’s an immersive environment,” Mr. Browne said. “Each object is important, but for me, I like it to be a total experience. I do the same thing with my shows. Of course, I want people to appreciate each piece, but the overall image is initially what I want people to be hit with.”

The Cooper Hewitt experience will include not only the reflective wallpaper, donated for the occasion by the London fabric firm Osborne & Little, but also several items from Mr. Browne’s studio, among them 60 pairs of silver-plated Thom Browne brogues and a vintage silver-plated Steelcase desk that weighs in at 400 pounds. The whole of it will be presented in a room-within-a-room to be constructed in the museum’s Marks Gallery, as the rather froufrou music room of this 1902 Andrew Carnegie mansion is now known.

Like a period room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art down the street, the gallery will have a barrier to prevent visitors from venturing more than a few feet inside — not that anyone is likely to mistake this for something out of an old house. “I want it to be a very timeless world,” Mr. Browne said. “The mirrors are from so many different periods, the desk is from midcentury, the wallpaper is very now.” And then there are the shoes, which will be lined up on the floor with military precision.

The choice of Mr. Browne as a guest curator should not be a great surprise. He won a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for 2012; Michelle Obama wore an outfit he’d designed for her to the 2013 Presidential Inauguration. It probably didn’t hurt that Thom Browne International will augment the customary endowment from the Marks Family Foundation by underwriting the elaborate installation, which will require wall and floor reinforcements. Though frowned upon by some, the idea of partly self-financed shows is not new and has sometimes yielded critically acclaimed exhibitions, like the Met’s 2011 “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty,” which was organized by Mr. Browne’s companion, Andrew Bolton, now the curator in charge of the Met’s Costume Institute.

To anyone who has witnessed Mr. Browne’s fashion displays, “Thom Browne Selects” will seem somewhat familiar. A midcentury Steelcase desk and silver-plated brogues were featured in a Browne installation last fall at Le Bon Marché, the chic Paris department store. Called “Officeman 2,” it was set in a completely mirrored room. “The Officeman,” Mr. Browne’s men’s wear show for last summer’s New York Fashion Week, used a dizzying infinity of mirrors to deliver a similarly kaleidoscopic effect.

As with the fashion shows, there will be a strong narrative aspect to the Cooper Hewitt installation. The question is whose narrative it will be. “Because there are mirrors, it can be a personal story for each person who sees it,” Mr. Browne maintained. Still, Mr. Browne’s own narrative will probably be dominant.

The key to that story is Mr. Browne’s upbringing in Allentown, Pa. The son of lawyers who invariably reported to their offices in suits, he grew up with all the trappings of conservative Middle America. His mother even silver-plated his baby shoes — an act Mr. Browne, in his own personal “Citizen Kane,” has imbued with near-Rosebud import.

Fashion, in this narrative, is relegated to second place. “I think fashion becomes not very interesting, because everybody thinks it has to change, as opposed to evolve,” he said. Uniforms, on the other hand, are very interesting to him. “There’s something so confident in almost adopting a uniform for yourself,” Mr. Browne said. “It frees yourself to think about things that are possibly more important than fashion.” And so, in Mr. Browne’s world, uniformity encourages individuality — an idea visitors might want to think about as they catch their reflections in his mirror-filled room.

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His interest in rap and hip-hop music was piqued at the age of 13, when he first saw the now-defunct local rap trio Triple Noize, who were popular in the early noughties, on television.

Inspired, rising local rapper Mean tried his hand at writing his own rhymes, but he felt that his beginner's effort did not make the cut and he gave up soon after.

For five years, he shelved those attempts and focused on being a screamer in a post-hardcore band.

At 18, he gave rap another shot during an emotional point in his life, after a break-up with his partner of three years.

Mean, whose real name is Nur Ahmad Muhaimin Jumato, is now one home-grown act to take note of in 2016.

The 26-year-old released a mixtape in 2010 and has, over the years, released several collaborative works with local hip-hop collective The.XS Collective, which he joined in 2010.

He had an EP out in 2013 and last month, he released NSFW: Not Safe For Work, his debut full-length album.

Mean is also part of a community of local producers and musicians who call themselves H Y B R D T H R Y.

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HARDSHIP

The opening lines to his track Dive - "On the road to the riches/Back from a drought, now I make it rain figures" - was inspired by a trying time in his life.

Mean, who is also a visual merchandiser with a furniture company, told M: "I juggle work and music and it hasn't been easy.

"I was retrenched twice, in 2013 (while) working as a graphic designer and in 2014 as a visual merchandiser. I haven't been lucky on that end.

"I had no money then so that is what Dive is about."

He has no problems getting personal in his music.

"I feel lyrical content is important and I really want people to know it is normal to go through hardship. I want to show a side of me that is human," said Mean, who counts US rapper Young Thug, Canadian R&B singer The Weeknd and Canadian electronic duo Purity Ring as his influences.

The "dapper rapper", as he describes himself on his Instagram profile, has also grabbed eyeballs for his unique, edgy style.

He performs exclusively in outfits by his favourite fashion designer, Belgian designer Raf Simons.

"I like fashion and it has gained me a following even from the fashion community. Hopefully, one day, Raf Simons notices me," he said with a laugh.

As the year draws to an end, Mean is already busy making plans for 2016.

He hopes to release a deluxe edition of NSFW, which will include "a few surprises and collaborations".

He will perform at the Esplanade with local pop band Lost Weekend in February and in Kuala Lumpur for the Raising The Bar hip-hop music festival.

"It is a good first step and I hope I get the chance to do a regional tour as well," he said.

All things new for Cashew Chemists

Fans of local rock outfit Cashew Chemists will have quite a bit to look forward to this year - and that's after already enjoying the group's second EP, Previously On... Cashew Chemists, which was released this month.

Their debut self-titled EP came out in 2013 and the years in between saw the quintet playing several shows, including the Java Sounds Fair festival in Jakarta and Urbanscapes at Resorts World Genting last year.

Cashew Chemists plan to drop their debut full-length album next year and they are slated to perform at Laneway Festival at The Meadow, Gardens By The Bay next month.

They will join other local acts such as electronic act Intriguant and electronic pop group Riot !n Magenta at the music festival on Jan 30.

SHOCK AND AWE

Bassist Elliot Sng, 25, told M: "When we were invited, I was shocked because local acts such as .gif and Hanging Up The Moon, who have performed at (Laneway), are really good.

"It is such a big festival and we feel honoured to have been considered."

Another treat for fans: The band, fronted by vocalist-guitarist Yuji Kumagai, 26, will see full strength for the first time in three years. Brothers Brian Chia, 27, and Zachary, 20, who are the guitarist and drummer respectively, have returned from the United Kingdom, where both were reading law.

Their brother Ulrich, 25, who plays the guitar, joined the line-up in June.

This will mark the start of a new journey for Cashew Chemists, who are eager to explore a different sound for the album. Sng said: "It will be heavier, perhaps more psychedelic, drawing influences from (Australian rock band) Tame Impala and (legendary US singer) Jimi Hendrix. We can't wait to work on more music next year.

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Victoria Bekcham has followed her husband David's lead by building a second career even more lucrative than her first, figures have disclosed.

The former Spice Girl has built up her fashion brand from a modest start to a company turning over £34million (NZ$75 million) in the last financial year, meaning that brand Victoria now rivals brand David as a moneymaking machine.

Accounts submitted to Companies House show that Victoria Beckham Ltd increased its turnover by £9million on the £25million revenue of the previous year, while the companies that handle David's marketing and sponsorship deals pulled in £17million.

However, the couple are still very much reliant on David for their personal income, as Victoria's company made a net loss while the former England football captain's companies, which have few overheads as they mainly deal with selling his image rights, made £12.7million profit.

Both now earn more than they did during the careers in which they made their names.

The success of Victoria's fashion house means it is expected to go into profit in the medium term, indicating she could one day be the main breadwinner in the family.

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Accounts also show that the couple restructured their businesses, pooling their resources into one umbrella company which paid each of them a £3million dividend. A similar amount was paid to Simon Fuller, their long-term manager, who is the third shareholder in the parent company Beckham Brand Holdings.

Having paid themselves £3million each last year, they have already paid themselves £7million each this year, a figure which is likely to rise further before the year's end.

Victoria Beckham's unqualified success has silenced the critics who initially dismissed her eponymous fashion label as a vanity project.

Since founding her company in 2008, she has grown it into a business employing 100 people, with a store in London, an online business and proposed new stores in Hong Kong, the Middle East and the United States.

Sales have grown 2,900 per cent over the past five years.

Named designer brand of the year at the British Fashion Awards in 2011, Victoria was also named Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 by Management Today magazine for creating "a company that is both real and wildly successful". The magazine, which estimated her wealth at £210million, said she was "an adept exploiter of her own celebrity value".

David Beckham retired from football in 2013 and is now the highest-paid retired sportsman in the world through marketing and advertising deals with companies such as Adidas, Diageo, H&M, Breitling, Jaguar, China Auto Rental and Sky Sports.

He also earns millions more from other business ventures, which are understood to have taken his total earnings to £50.8million last year, according to Forbes magazine.

As part of the restructuring of their companies, David resigned from Victoria Beckham Ltd at the end of last year, having set up a new company, David Beckham Ventures, in August 2014, of which Victoria is not a director.

A spokesman for the couple said the move was "to allow both businesses to grow in their own different ways".

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Considering that the scope of products that have fallen under Alexander Wang’s design purview at one point or another include lighter cases, “do not disturb” door signs, bottle openers, travel neck pillows and canteens — all as part of his Objects collection — it’s almost unbelievable that the designer is only launching a proper jewelry collection now.

“I always wanted to do jewelry, but I never felt like I had the opportunity. I’ve had my hands quite full,” Wang told WWD. “But I really got exposed to it when I went to Balenciaga and I really enjoyed the process.”

He introduced a small, three-piece collection of chunky, bike chain earrings and a necklace with a lock, as well as a lock cuff, on his spring runway and has expanded the range for pre-fall to include a pill-inspired assortment. Wang previously had dabbled in jewelry for his brand via collaborations with Gaia Repossi and Betony Vernon. “That was more of me submitting an idea and they would handle the whole process, working with artisans,” said Wang, whereas at Balenciaga, he was involved from sketch to production and pricing. “I really got a hand on it in Paris,” he said. “We were really successful with the jewelry that I did [at Balenciaga].”

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Indeed, Wang made a major jewelry statement with the outsize pearl earrings, ear cuffs and delicate, daggerlike brooches in his fall 2015 Balenciaga collection. The Alexander Wang jewelry is a natural extension of the tough/chic hardware treatments used consistently as details in his own collection for years, whether on the Rocky bag group or the ready-to-wear. Produced in Italy, the chain pieces are brass-plated in palladium and the locks are brass-plated in 24-karat gold. Prices start at $295 for earrings and go up to $525 for the double lock necklace.

Wang didn’t disclose sales projections, but said, “From what [jewelry] represented in terms of business at my previous employer, I feel it can definitely play a significant part in my offering.”

Alexander Wang jewelry launches on alexanderwang and in Alexander Wang stores mid December and will expand to Net-a-Porter, Joyce HK, Mytheresa in March.

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Everything in life cannot be perfect. But, your hair, for sure, can be! Static hair is generally caused by over-styling or by using harsh chemicals on hair. A research revealed that static charge builds up in lifeless, dull and dry hair. To avoid static hair, you need to keep your hair healthy and nourish it well. Weather plays a vital role in giving the hair this property, especially during winter. This condition is common during the chilly seasons, as the air is less moist. If your hair is static, it may get difficult to style such a hair type. The extra effort that you would be taking will also make the condition worse. Using a better hydrating shampoo and a good conditioner can give you some relief from this situation. Apart from this, there are ways to get rid of static hair. In this article, we are here to share some simple tips as to how you can say goodbye to that static hair.

Comb Wet Hair This is one of the easiest ways to get rid of static hair. Comb your hair while it is still wet and make sure you use a wide tooth comb, as the hair tends to be the weakest when it is wet.

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Use Hair Serum Use a good conditioner to add moisture to your hair and try hair serum to keep moisture under control. Do not overdo it, as it makes your hair look oily. Just 3-4 drops are sufficient to get the result. This is another way to say goodbye to hair statics.

Ditch Plastic Combs Plastic combs produce friction that causes static hair. Instead, use metal and wooden combs. While combing, make sure you use the wider teeth of the comb to remove all the knots first and then style your hair.

Use A Moisturiser Do not go by the flashy hair products that promise to have a double role like shampooing +conditioning. It does not work that way. The first rule of static hair is that the less moisture the more amount of static hair prevails. To avoid this condition, you can use a good moisturiser. Try it to believe it!

Use The Hair Dryer Sparingly Avoid using a hair dryer to the max! The best option to dry your hair is by using a thin cotton towel and gently dry your hair. This does not rob the moisture of the hair and makes the hair dry. If you have to use the dryer then dry only some part of it. This is another effective way to get rid of static hair.

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MarkMonitor, which specializes in enterprise brand protection, has released the results of a survey of global shopping habits and their impact on the sale of counterfeit goods.

The company works with brands including Belstaff, Karen Millen and the Cambridge Satchel Company to address the growing threat of online fraud and the proliferation of unauthorized channels.

The research is based on more than 3,500 interviews, conducted across nine countries in Europe and the U.S. Key conclusions reveal a correlation between the increase in online shopping and the increasing sales of counterfeit goods, with 24 percent of consumers polled having purchased fake merchandise unintentionally.

Sales of counterfeit goods increase significantly during the festive season, as consumers ramp up their online shopping. Some 34 percent of those polled shopped online during 10 months of the year, but that shopper figure was 15 percent higher in the months of December and January.


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The use of social media to sell fashion has also exacerbated the issue. Alison Conway, vice president of client and omnichannel at Belstaff, said Facebook and Instagram are two of the most popular platforms for selling Belstaff counterfeit goods. Bogus goods are also sold on unauthorized Web sites.

The majority of those polled had a strong stance against buying fake goods, for both quality and moral reasons. In addition, 64 percent said they were aware of the lack of online security but had difficulty determining whether a Web site was legitimate.

“With the level of sophistication that counterfeiters are using in their Web sites, it is becoming increasingly harder for customers to determine if products are genuine,” said Mark Frost, chief executive officer of MarkMonitor.

In response, Belstaff has worked on a series of initiatives to educate its customers about the brand’s heritage and production process, through content published on its site, as well as video content on YouTube. The content will be adapted accordingly as the brand expands into the Chinese and Japanese markets in 2016.

“We can’t afford to lose trust. Once you lose trust, it’s almost impossible to rebuild it,” said Conway.

Judges ordered counterfeiters to pay more than $42 million in damages in the case, which resulted in 676 rogue Web sites being taken down at the same time.

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If you’re looking for a star-studded evening of great fashion, good food, and an amazing cause then you need to look at the upcoming Legacies of War fundraiser in New York on December 5th, “Laos in NYC: Fashion for Philanthropy.”

An impressive lineup of movers and shakers are stepping up to give back to the community, addressing the ongoing hazard of unexploded bombs in Laos. Since its beginnings in 2003, Legacies of War has sought to address this terrible crisis and today their mission is to raise awareness about the history of the Vietnam War-era bombing in Laos and advocate for the clearance of unexploded bombs, to provide space for healing the wounds of war, and to create greater hope for a future of peace. The organization uses “art, culture, education, community organizing and dialogue to bring people together and create healing and transformation out of the wreckage of war.”

Almost one-third of Laos is still contaminated with over 80 million unexploded cluster bombs. 2015 marks the fortieth anniversary since the end of the war in Laos. Over 230,000 Lao live in the US today, many arriving as refugees. This year is also the fifth anniversary of the United Nations Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the manufacture, sale, use and stockpiling of cluster bombs.

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One of the highlights of the night is the work of Monica Phromsavanh, CEO and co-founder of Modabox. ModaBox, a fashion company that specializes in “delivering a personalized, convenient shopping experience for busy women.” The company provides one-on-one personal stylist and deliver beautiful boxes packed with fully customized outfits to their clients.

Phromsavanh, a refugee from Laos, worked her way through retail, eventually quitting a 5th Avenue job to start her own business that now serves the NYC elite and women everywhere. The other major partner in the evening is ARTICLE 22, one of the pioneers in transforming war scrap into handmade luxury jewelry with the help of Laotian artisans. Founders Elizabeth Suda and Camille Hautefort have cultivated Lao talents to promote entrepreneurship and community development. Proceeds from the sales go to assist de-mining efforts of land contaminated by unexploded bombs.

In New York, Executive Chef Soulayphet Schwader’s Khe-Yo restaurant receives incredible raves in Tribeca for his take on Lao cuisine. He’ll be providing a delicious selection of his appetizers for guests, with support from Insurgo, “a community collective committed to nurturing the farm to table movement in low-income neighborhoods throughout the country.”

Live entertainers for the evening will include the rising Lao American vocalist Lina Luangrath, and the emcee will be the famous Catzie Vilayphonh, who was one of the first Asian American women on Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam as part of the spoken word duo Yellow Rage.

Earlier this Spring she organized the groundbreaking Laos in the House exhibit at the Asian Arts Alliance in Philadelphia. Among the special guests already confirmed is Fashion Designer Ari South, aka Andy South, a finalist for Project Runway Season 8 and contestant for All Star Season 3. Channapha Khamvongsa, the executive director of Legacies of War, will also be in attendance. She was featured in the New York Times for her advocacy.

“Laos in NYC: Fashion for Philanthropy” will be held in the famous Flatiron district, The organizers have billed it as an event featuring models who will “walk the runway with signature MODABOX styling, blending contemporary designers and traditional Laotian pieces, finished with ARTICLE22 Peacebomb Jewelry made by Laotian artisans from bomb scrap metal.” The evening will also feature a sponsored open bar and a Southeast Asian-themed holiday market and auction.

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Every country is gifted with a signature costume that embodies the nation’s identity.

When one thinks of Indonesia, one imagines an Indonesian woman wrapped in the country’s iconic kebaya blouse and a piece of intricate batik or tenun (woven cloth) as her kain (long skirt).

But in most parts of Indonesia, kebaya are suffering from waning appeal and are mostly worn during official functions and special events.

Some women have taken it upon themselves to bring the classic and elegant attire back to its glory days.

Without much fanfare, these women wear their kebaya blouses with matching batik or tenun every day.

Just recently, a dozen of them strolled around the Cilandak Town Square shopping complex in South Jakarta, fully aware that people were noticeably staring at them.

“When wearing kebaya, we’re frequently asked: ‘Did you just attend a special event?’” said one of the women, Taty Apriliyana.

“And most of the time, I answer: ‘No, I just came from home’,” she said.


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Taty, a businesswoman and mother of six, is one of 41 active members of Perempuan Berkebaya (Women in Kebaya) — a movement to wear the traditional blouse and skirt sets during their work and leisure time.

They come from various occupations, from homemakers, lecturers and journalists to government officials. Their commitment to wearing kebaya extends to overseas travel, trekking mountains, cycling and even paragliding.

Perempuan Berkebaya was started by Kristin Samah, an author and former journalist, who started wearing kebaya as her daily attire two years ago.

“At first, I just wanted to look different,” she laughed.

“But then, I had many experiences that prompted me to wear kebaya every day. One of them was when I wore kebaya in my hometown of Yogyakarta but people there thought that I was Balinese.”

Kebaya remain part of daily life in Bali, where women wear the attire regularly including for religious and traditional ceremonies. But in most parts of the country, kebaya are usually reserved for official functions and special events.

Kristin and her friends founded Perempuan Berkebaya in December last year to express their love for the heritage clothing.

“We want to say that kebaya are daily attire,” Taty said.

“Kebaya were worn by my grandmother every day and are still worn by my sister’s mother-in-law in Bantul [Yogyakarta], including when she climbs a melinjo tree.”

Wearing kebaya regularly is not as hard as it looks, Perempuan Berkebaya members said.

One of them, freelance journalist Lia Nathalia, said she wore such outfits when covering news around the city, when she needs to take at least five ojek (motorcycle taxi) rides a day.

When trekking and exploring, Lia and her friends simply put on pants underneath their wraparound kain and outdoor footwear.

“Basically, it is a usual thing to do. Back then, women used kebaya to go in and out of the forest,” Lia said.

Lia’s favorite is a floral print kebaya in the conventional kutubaru style, which had a surge in popularity after First Lady Iriana Widodo attended the presidential inauguration last year wearing a soft orange kutubaru kebaya with a matching dark batik kain.

“I stay in line with pakem [established models] by wearing those with three-quarter or seven-eighth long sleeves,” she said, adding that she found it more comfortable to use the three-quarter sleeves for work.

Despite needing to buy fabrics when custom-making a kebaya, the cost of personalized kebaya is surprisingly lower than buying ready-to-wear clothes at shopping malls.

Before adapting to the kebaya lifestyle, Kristin said she spent around Rp 500,000 (US$36.5) for a blouse purchased from a popular clothing chain. Now, Kristin pays her tailor Rp 125,000 to sew a Rp 50,000 piece of chiffon fabric into a kebaya.

Most of the group’s members also prefer lightweight fabric for their kebaya blouses and embellish them with simple embroidery and sequins. The batik or tenun is wrapped or tied around their hips in a practical fashion.

“The process of making batik is a great art,” Lia said, “So, don’t ruin it by cutting and sewing it. We are willing to teach those who still don’t know how to wrap [a kain skirt],” Lia said.

Kristin and her friends usually use simple and less expensive batik for their daily routines and keep their precious and expensive handmade batik for special occasions.

They also learn the characteristics of real batik to avoid buying imported textiles with batik prints.

“We can contribute to people’s employment by hiring local tailors and buying from batik artisans. We also see and explore various kinds of fabrics and motifs,” Kristin said.

Another member, Tri Utami, has even started learning how to draw batik designs. She proudly showed off a batik scarf that took her three months to make.

Lia said some members of Perempuan Berkebaya were mocked when they first started wearing kebaya to work. But with time, their kebaya and coworkers stated to appreciate it and were even inspired to hold kebaya days at their offices.

The community members are currently aged between 30 and 70, but may soon welcome younger members into the group.

Taty, for one, said her two young daughters had started wearing kebaya to school once a week.

“Every Friday, the school obliges them to wear batik shirts. One time, they didn’t want to wear batik shirts and ask me to make kebaya. Now, they use kebaya with batik patterns every Friday.”

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I’ve always loved the idea of at-home face masks, which seem like a leisurely and vaguely glamorous way to spend time. When I buy them, I imagine myself sipping champagne while reclining in bed and chatting on a Crosley Princess rotary phone. I should clarify that I never actually do face masks, just like I’d never really chat on the phone with a friend. (Text me or lose my number.) Masks just languish in my bathroom because the process takes forever and I feel like they’re asphyxiating my skin. Don’t get me started on the indignity of combing bits of goo out of your hair even though you remembered to use a headband.

Then I heard about Splash Masks, a new skincare category from Korea. “They’re a game changer,” says Sarah Lee of the beauty import site Glow Recipe, who admits that the multi-step Korean skincare rigmarole can be a little much, even for a cosmetics junkie. Inspired by old-timey rice water masks of the past, they’ve got a potent twist. In just 15 seconds, Patting Splash Masks by Blithe give skin the same fresh glow as a 20-minute mask ritual with barely any effort.



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Here’s how: Though they’re thin and watery like essences or toners, they contain a concentrate of potent antioxidant botanicals, exfoliating lactic acid, and moisturizing glycerin. They’re available in three targeted formulas—Rejuvenating Purple Berry (fruity-smelling), Energizing Citrus & Honey (zesty), and Soothing & Healing Green Tea (herby and slightly medicinal). To be honest, calling them “masks” might be wishful thinking, like when people call Montreal bagels “bagels” as though they have anything in common with the NYC original. “With a high level of exfoliating lactic acid, it seems to me more like an AHA cleanser that you rinse away in 30 seconds,” says dermatologist Heidi Waldorf.

The recommended application calls for a capful of the fluid diluted in a clean bowl of water (appx. 24 oz.). Stir, and gently patting the mixture onto the skin.

Since there's no way i'm doing extra dishes, I also got Glow Recipe founders Sarah Lee and Christine Chang to share their time-saving in shower hack. Bring the bottle with you and pour half a capful of fluid into your palms. Take 15-30 seconds to splash and keep patting it into the skin, then follow with clean shower water. That’s it!

So, whether I had technically just done a mask or not, I immediately got to go on with my life with plumper, fresher, glowier skin—and no annoying residue to scrub out of my roots.
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With Drake rocking a Moncler parka in his new music video for “Hotline Bling,” that can only mean one thing — you’re about to see the Maya coat everywhere.

There will, of course, continue to be a sea of commuters in line at coffee shops decked out in parkas with matte fabric, adorned with big buttons, utilitarian pockets and fur-trimmed hoods in the cold mornings ahead. But, there will also likely be more quilted parkas, ranging from inkwell black to ones as shiny and bright as Smarties sprinkled into those long lines for java.

Thanks to its music video cameo, the “Hotline Bling” parka is currently selling like hotcakes. Earlier this week, the only Moncler boutique in Canada, at Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto, was running low on inventory and the $1,235 Maya parka was either sold out or had dwindling stock on several high-end retailers’ websites. The brand, previously seen as mainly for Yorkville socialites and skiers who winter in Whistler, also offers a number of similar styles for women.

“Anytime a brand gets endorsed by a celebrity, they’re likely going to see a spike in sales,” said Toronto-based fashion stylist Amber Watkins.

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But we are a practical people, so function will always trump fashion, notes Lisa Tant, vice-president of exclusive services at Holt Renfrew. When it comes to function, Canadians focus on quality, warmth, comfort, fabrics and construction first, she said. And since many of us will likely wear the same parka for multiple winters in a row to get our money’s worth, we tend to play it safe on the fashion front.

“Colours are generally neutral, but we’re seeing more khaki greens and colours like red and pink,” Tant said.

While bomber-length parkas remain popular, many of us will opt for finger length, she said, as from a practical standpoint, a longer parka keeps you warmer when it gets really cold outside.

For those of us who can’t, or don’t want to, shell out north of $1,000 for a winter coat, Joe Fresh offers padded parkas for both men and women for well under $100. And many brands, from Montreal’s SOIA & KYO to California’s Patagonia, offer mid-range options. But, this is the Great White North, so there’s no shame in shelling out for a parka that firmly lands in the “investment piece” category, said Watkins. Like our new prime minister, she is partial to her Canada Goose parka she invested in a few years ago, which she plans on wearing again this winter.

“Just think about the price-per-wear,” advised Watkins. If you buy a $700 parka, but have it for seven winters, then that’s a mere $100 per season.

The upfront cost of a Moncler parka, if you don’t happen to be, say, Drake or a socialite, is still eye popping. But, the Moncler Maya is arguably a smart and stylish investment piece that’s perfect for our unforgiving climate and that most men can confidently rock. That ribbed turtleneck the rapper also wore in the “Hotline Bling” video, however, is a look only the Six God can pull off.

Drake’s Moncler Maya coat

1. The lacquered nylon exterior of the jacket is made with the “classic Moncler fabric” — 100-per-cent polyamide, which is known for its strength.

2. The jacket is filled with 90-per-cent goose down and 10-per-cent goose feathers and is meant to withstand extremely cold temperatures.

3. The Maya parka first debuted in 1954 and is Moncler’s most famous jacket. It’s now mainly made and designed in Europe by Moncler S.p.A., which has its headquarters in Milan, Italy.

4. The hood detaches for when you want a sleeker look for strutting around town. You know while people stop you and ask: “Is that the Drake parka?!” Yes, yes, it is.

5. There are lots of knockoffs, but the Moncler logo, which features a stylized M and a rooster, on the arm lets everyone know you’re wearing the real thing.

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Forget smug sunrise yoga shots and cloying inspirational quotes. Occasionally, models are truth-tellers on social media – or Jourdan Dunn is, at least.

Having previously tweeted about Dior in less-than-glowing terms – the fashion equivalent of a cardinal openly dissing the pope – last night the model dared to break the omerta surrounding the Victoria’s Secret fashion show, describing the upcoming celebration of taut abs and frilly knickers as ‘BS.’

“Feeling so much better about not doing BS ... sorry I mean VS now that Rihanna isn’t doing it also,” she tweeted, at once revealing that she would not be appearing in next week’s pants display and reacting to news that Rihanna’s planned performance had been cancelled. The tweet was quickly deleted; clearly it was too beautiful for this world.

Dunn’s declaration stood out like a bra in a wet T-shirt competition because the rest of the fashion industry – and the media – is currently gripped in Victoria’s Secret fever. Every year, the show is greeted with a flurry of headlines, but the unfettered exhilaration in the preamble to this year’s show has been particularly excessive.

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Last week, the internet went into meltdown when reality TV star, social media powerhouse and model Gigi Hadid’s successful Victoria’s Secret audition was posted online by the brand, a video that combined the “journey” of X Factor with the image of a woman in her underpants. Hadid’s delighted response was described by one fashion site as “the most heartwarming thing you’ll see all day.” Yesterday, the similarly social media friendly Kendall Jenner announced she was on board for the show: “The best birthday present EVER! always been one of my biggest dreams.”

The fashion media has embraced hype, with near-constant reports ranging from analysis of the models who have made the cut to detailed reports on how the wings are made. Fashion’s acceptance of the show is odd; there are few clothes to be seen on stage and its Las Vegas aesthetic – all rhinestones and angel wings – does not seem to aspire to good taste.

What gives the show its industry kudos is its use of the world’s most famous models – Gisele, Miranda Kerr, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley – who in their part love Victoria’s Secret because acceptance attests that they have the most fabulous bodies in the business, and they get a shedload of global exposure for their time.

It seems unlikely that Dunn, who first appeared in a Victoria’s Secret show in 2012, spoke out for either aesthetic or feminist reasons. As with everything involving Victoria’s Secret – whose fashion shows are the most expensive ever staged – it’s likely to be about the bottom line: rumours have been swirling that many models have been jumping ship this year because they’re not pleased with the pay.

But with the similarly flesh-centric Pirelli Calendar embracing a zeitgeisty feminist theme this year, featuring women from Yoko Ono to Amy Schumer, mainly wearing clothes, these are testing times for companies who trade on pictures of women in their pants.

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It is a happy accident that Jeremy Corbyn’s tracksuit has become an inspiration for this season’s alternative menswear. Corbyn cycles to work from his house in north London to Westminster, and does so in a grey Wilson tracksuit which looks worryingly like a shellsuit. Which figures. Shellsuits are easy to wear, puddle-resistant and machine-washable. Ideal for cycling; less ideal (as the Guardian fashion jury concurred) for style.

The difference between a tracksuit and a shellsuit is much debated among vintage seekers who care deeply about this kind of thing, but the official line is shiny on the outside and cotton underneath, so we can probably assume this is one. Still, it doesn’t explain why this much-maligned 1980s offshoot of the tracksuit is moving, piecemeal, back into fashion.

Let’s blame popular culture. It is almost 5o years since Adidas created the shiny Franz Beckenbauer tracksuit, as worn by the German footballer, and this Friday is National Tracksuit Day, a celebration of the appeal of sportswear off-pitch. And while tracksuits are a fashion mainstay, the shellsuit has been glamorised as “gangster-fashion”: see Brendan and Christopher in the Sopranos, Henry Hill in Goodfellas and now Sky Atlantic’s The Last Panthers.


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Practicality aside – zip-up pockets are ideal for carrying, say, weapons or rolled-up bank notes – if you discard the clashing prints and introduce the right fabrics in the right tones, they are the next logical step in the sportswear revival. Cottweiler, a high-end London streetwear label, has appropriated shellsuits for its AW15 collection, with Teflon-coated cotton versions. The label’s inspiration is “posthuman”: marrying a natural cotton interior coated with something waterproof and manmade. Cottweiler’s customer base is young and specialised – men, between 25 and 35, who “work outside the suit-and-tie environment”.

It is a similar story at Paris-based label Pigalle, a favourite of A$AP Rocky, where owner Stéphane Ashpool’s current collection includes a silk version (a shellsuit in spirit). Last season’s nylon cotton mix had definite shades of shell.

Shellsuits seemed to be the final straw for tracksuits. They made a brief appearance in the 80s on Rod Stewart and Elton John. David Icke carried them into the early 90s helping them become the stuff of parody – see Ali G and Goldie Lookin Chain.

An unholy mix of cellulose triacetate and polyester, they were designed for outdoor sports because they had a protective outer lining. The colours clashed and the prints were often computer-generated. Like most trends, they became progressively cheaper, went mass, and died. Now, it seems, they have come full circle.

Kevin Soar, a buyer at Beyond Retro who specialises in menswear, has seen a spike in sales of vintage shellsuits by Nike and Adidas. However, “people seem to have a stigma around [shellsuits], which I think revolves around the demonisation of the working class and the disgusting label of ‘chav’ that came with it in the past decade,” he explains. Soar says: “I remember getting a knockoff England shell tracksuit from Chelmsford Market. Having worn it to a fireworks night at my school, I was asked to not go near the bonfire in case I set on fire.”

He cites Palace Skateboards’ collaboration with Adidas using shell material, and magazines such as LAW, which celebrate the look. “Look at the 1980s football casuals in their Sergio tracksuits, bought on their European travels. It was akin to the first mods bringing back Italian suits in the late 1950s.”

“It’s that fetishism of the everyday man,” concludes Soar. “The tracksuit is the workwear of the 21st century.” As yet, buyers aren’t going full Corbyn and getting the set – but the jackets are a roaring success.

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Last week, while buying lip liner in a Bonjour Cosmetics store in Hong Kong (yes, I’m one of two women below 35 who actually wears lip liner – so ’80s, I know) imagine my surprise when both girls at the checkout were sporting green plastic sprouts on their heads. When I laughed and asked them where they got the clips from, they threw a couple into my bag for free by way of an answer.

Like tiny green beanstalks, these sprouts have been adorning heads for months on the mainland. Clipped into the hair, usually at the top, they stick out bizarrely. On social media we’ve even seen the grey-haired generation and business types experimenting with the look, but this trend continues to be dominated by groups of young friends going out together.

This mainland fashion phenomenon has been picked up by international media – and is mostly met with puzzlement by readers, writers and even those who wear them.

Until recently, the fad had not hit Hong Kong. Since my encounter at Bonjour, I’ve seen a few young people around Causeway Bay wearing the little green clips, although it’s still far from being a common slight as it is in touristy shopping areas of Beijing or Shanghai.


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On my last visit to the Tianzifang markets in Shanghai, a friend and I spotted several groups of young people wearing these clips in their hair. It was not only green sprouts but other cutesy variations, including bees, ladybirds, mushrooms and flowers. Most said they were wearing them because it was a fun or they thought they were cute and adorable.

Vendors and small boutiques were selling them by the bucketload. Store managers are buying batches from Taobao for as little as 10 yuan (HK$12) for 100. That day in Tianzifang we were sold four for 10 yuan.

My Irish friend browsing Tianzifang with me that day has decided to export the little sprouts to Hong Kong and France for her friend’s children.

No one knows the exact origin of the trend. Some have speculated that it comes from cute Japanese animations in which figures have sprouts growing from their heads. Chinese illustrators have been known to use buds emerging from their characters’ heads to signify a fresh idea or an original thought, which seems to make a little more sense. But it doesn’t entirely explain why the sprouts have become such a hit on the mainland.

And a trip down crowded Nanluoguxiang Hutong and its surrounds in Beijing show that the phenomenon is still growing.

It might just be that the silliness and fun factor are the the main drivers behind this curious trend.

So how long before we see sprouts adorning heads outside Mong Kok malls as the fad takes root on the streets of Hong Kong?

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Indo-French brand Lecoanet Hemant recently launched their winter collection "Here and Now' for their pret label 'GENES - Lecoanet Hemant' in Gurgaon. The launch featured a fashion show that had all the looks highlighted.

The collection purported to be a trendy everyday wear has the ease and practicality that many of us expect from clothing but what makes it distinct to talk about is the inspiration behind the creation which the designers Didier Lecoanet and Hemant Sagar notes is inspired by "the country's contemporary accomplishments, technological revolution and development of society."

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"We are focusing on individuals who are at ease with both tradition and international modernity, that co-exists everywhere in today's India - people who are open to cultural diversity, and at the same time, wish to preserve their own unique identity. GENES - Lecoanet Hemant is a means to help connect people, nurture their individuality whilst blending into a global tribe," said Hemant Sagar, Designer, Lecoanet Hemant.

The new collection will feature urban designs for daily wear in winter season's staple colour palette of dark and neutral shades and with a pop of colour - orange. While black is the prominent hue in the men's wear, indigo, black, light blue, white, and orange dominate the women's line.

Coming from the exclusive Parisian Haute Couture world, this is the first time that a Lecoanet Hemant's creations will be broadly accessible to the fashion-loving people of 'New India' through the brand's own website genestribe and Amazon in the range of Rs 2,500 to Rs 25,000.

Keeping with the brand's legacy of dressing princesses, international film stars and French aristocrats ,the collection was unveiled over an intimate high-tea at the avant-garde Lecoanet Hemant atelier in Gurgaon.

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Back in 2010, on his the Medium and the Message blog, and at a time when many people were talking about Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning, the US soldier who smuggled classified material to WikiLeaks, film-maker Adam Curtis pondered aloud about an earlier American espionage artist. Tyler Kent was his name: privately educated, an alumnus of both Princeton and the Sorbonne, he was posted to the Soviet Union in the 1930s where he soon came under suspicion. Transferred to London, he had access to highly sensitive telegrams, including those between Winston Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt, many of which he stashed in his flat, before being arrested and imprisoned in 1940. Kent is little known these days, but was he a righteous whistle-blower, an antiwar prophet abandoned to the historical wilderness?

For Paul Willetts, author of the heady Rendezvous at the Russian Tea Rooms, the answer is emphatically no. His Tyler Kent is a sybarite and philanderer, an antisemite, a psychologically astute opportunist, an Ivy League one-percenter who exuded “an air of conceit, of brusque prerogative, nourished by an august Virginian pedigree, a doting mother and a fancy education”. He’s part of a blue-blooded underground – Jew-hating Conservative MPs, “white” Russians forced to flee their homeland after the 1917 Revolution – who, to a greater or lesser degree, aligned themselves with the values of the Third Reich. Pitched against them were the likes of Maxwell Knight – novelist, ornithologist, pet-lover and M15 agent runner.

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One can imagine satirist Chris Morris making a film about these would-be warriors of righteousness. They squirrel through and busy about London, setting up organisations such as the Brothers of the Russian Truth and a pirate radio station the New British Broadcasting Service; they sign-off letters “PJ” (Perish Judah) and, like teen delinquents, scratch anti-Jewish graffiti on street windows; they attend meetings organised by the Nordic League, an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan-inspired White Knights of Britain (also known as the Hooded Men), whose centre of operations is the Druid’s Memorial Hall on Lamb’s Conduit Street where a papier-mache model of Stonehenge occupies the stage.

Especially vivid is the portrayal of Anna Wolkoff, keen occultist, correspondent of the rightwing modernist novelist Louis-Ferdinand Céline, and a fashion designer whose outfits were worn by the Duchess of Windsor. Another character – Kent’s lover (one of many), Irene Danischewsky – turns out to have been an aunt of the actor Helen Mirren.

Willetts, whose previous books include a biography of mid-century Fitzrovian dandy writer Julian MacLaren-Ross, has a rare talent for isolating details that capture the feel and tempo of London’s past. Early in the war, he observes, many children had left the capital: “sporadic chalk-marks on walls and pavements affording a heart-rending reminder of them”. He notices the long queues of men and women who, fearing the onset of German bombing, stood outside veterinary surgeons waiting to have their pets put down. Written in the present tense, with some chapters just half a page, it’s easy to imagine this story being turned into a superior historical thriller.

What did it all amount to? Were Kent and his crowd a bunch of fantasists? A rump faction of the kind that politically turbulent times often throw up? Willetts points out that one of the cables Kent stole discussed Roosevelt’s plan to circumvent the Neutrality Act that committed the US to an isolationist stance. Had that made been made public, the war could have gone very differently. Kent, however, even after being deported in 1945, mostly stayed the same: he married an older heiress, purchased a Florida newspaper that he used to promote segregation, maintained his innocence, and ended his days living in a trailer park in the Texas town of Mission.
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As global fashion capitals are waking up to rich Indian handloom weaves, Indian consumers too are showing keen interest in traditional handwoven drapes. This has prompted designers to go back to craftsmen aware of age-old weaving techniques. Recently, organisers of the Lakme Fashion Week, along with designer-politician Shaina N C launched an initiative called ‘Reinvent Banaras’, to revive Banarasi handlooms.

Banarasi weaves get a designer touch

Leading designers including Shaina NC, Ritu Kumar, Manish Malhotra, Sandeep Khosla, Shruti Sancheti, Anita Dongre and Rina Dhaka have joined hands to be part of a campaign to design, manufacture and produce the best textiles in Banaras.

The initiative, to be promoted under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ theme will assist and boost talented craftsmen and weavers by promoting their art on a global scale. After working with Banarsi sari weavers, designers will work with traditional weaves like the Paithini saris from Maharashtra adopting clusters to work with the weavers.


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Padma Shri Ritu Kumar, India’s most prolific and internationally well-known textile revivalist dazzled the audience with her sensational ‘Varanasi Weaves’ collection at the recent Lakme Fashion Week. Her initiative to honour Banarsi weavers supported by the Ministry of Textiles, is aimed at reviving handloom weaving in Varanasi.

Today, Varanasi, the ancient holy city situated on the banks of the River Ganges boasts of over 1,00,000 handloom weavers along with 45,000 active looms in small towns of Bijnor, Barabanki, Mubarakpur, Ramnagar, Lohta and Kotwa. Designers are working with these craftsmen to spin rich Banarasi saris as well as dresses, furnishings and fashion accessories to woo the young audiences. Motifs such as badaam (almonds), kairi (mango), the shikargah (hunting scenes) and various stylised floral butis (flower clusters) that somewhere got lost along the way after British rule to rosettes and geometric patterns, are now reappearing in pure gold and silver zari work on rich and soft Indian silk fabrics.

Initiatives to revive rich Indian weaves

Of late, a lot of effort is going into reviving the traditional crafts. The government is joining hands with designers as well as ecommerce platforms to revive, promote and help artisans create traditionally rich product ranges matching the modern day demand.

Even designers, who are already working with artisans from different clusters, would get a chance to implement government’s schemes, which in turn would help them streamline their own fashion label. Textiles such as Paithani from Maharashtra or Pochampally from Andhra Pradesh or Kanjivaram from Tamil Nadu, are getting a lot of recognition after the designers have begun working with weavers to create remarkable collections with the handcrafted fabrics.

Designers are putting in concerted efforts to identify weaver communities that are familiar with the 400-year-old original weaving method and they are also sourcing handmade yarns from the long-established silk centres like Bhagalpur in Bihar and Jharkhand.

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Julianne Moore reveals certain seasons wreak havoc on her beauty routine.

Julianne Moore tries not to go out during the summer because of her "frizzy" hair.

The 54-year-old actress rarely looks anything but sleek and stylish when she makes public appearances.

But during an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which aired on Wednesday (07Oct15), Julianne revealed she is not always picture perfect.

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Sharing a makeup free selfie which showed her with out of control hair, Julianne said of her usual smooth blowdry: "Somebody did this to my hair - I can't do this to my hair. I can't blow dry my hair. I can't straighten it out.

"My hair is wavy as I like to say, but really, it's frizzy. So in the summertime, I just let it go. I just let it be and I try not to go anywhere because I can't control my hair."

Julianne's stunning auburn locks set her apart from other Hollywood actresses.

And the actress revealed in a previous interview her hair often helps her get into character.

"I do a lot based on my hair. You have to find a physical way [into a character] because there is so much that people are communicating about themselves, physically. Everything they wear, the way they do their makeup and their hair; all of these are signifiers," she told Glow magazine last November (14).

"When David [Cronenberg] and I were working on [Maps to the Stars], I was like, 'She is not going to have red hair! A girl like this has got to be a blonde.' So I dyed my hair blonde. [For movie Still Alice] I cut my hair because I didn't feel like this type of person would have really long hair, which I had at the time, because she's a college professor."

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When the new Miss Italia was asked on her way to winning the glitzy televised contest what historical period she would like to have lived in, her answer caught most Italians by surprise.

Eighteen-year-old Alice Sabatini prompted incredulity online after telling the pageant judges that her epoch of choice was 1942, one of the darkest years of the Second World War and the Mussolini dictatorship.

"Well... to see really what the Second World War was like, since the books talk about it for page after page. I want to live it. In any case I am a woman so I wouldn't have had to do military service, so I would have been at home with the fear of..." she said, trailing off with a light laugh.

Her chosen year was the one during which Anne Frank began writing her diary, and the Nazis began gassing tens of thousands of Jews at Auschwitz and other camps.

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Germany, Italy's ally at the time, invaded Vichy France. Hundreds of Italians died in the North African campaign, including the long retreat from the Battle of El Alamein.

More than 20,000 Italians also died in the Battle of Stalingrad that year, many during the bloody defeat of the Italian 8th Army near the Don River.

Sabatini's desire to relive one of Europe's bloodiest years triggered a barrage of satire online. Twitter montages featured her smiling as she sashayed in her bikini through battlefields. An Italian satirist known as "the Jackal" produced a spoof video that quickly went viral.

But Sabatini's response did not seem to damage her standing in the pageant, which she won based on both judge's scores and viewer call-in votes.

The jokes prompted one pageant judge, Vladimir Luxuria, a transgender actress and politician, to call for understanding. "Try to imagine the emotions of a young woman who had all the spotlight on her: she panicked," Luxuria said.

Sabatini defended her comments yesterday, saying she was caught off guard as the first contestant to be asked the question, but had meant to express admiration for her great grandmother, who is still alive and always recalls the Second World War.

"I would have liked to live through what she had gone through in those years," Sabatini was reported as saying in an interview published in Urban Post. "For better and for worse."

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Wondering what to don on the first day of Ganpati? How about a nauvari? Before you dismiss the idea as a time-confusing affair, think again.

Pre-stitched nauvaris in Brahmani and Peshwai style will ensure that you are snugly-draped in it in a record's time of a minute. Yes, you heard it right...

How it's done

Pre-stitched nauvari designer Vidya Pawar is an expert as she packs in a decent Brahmin-style nauvari in an hour. Simply select your fabric and you get the finished product in an hour. She has made as many as 200 nauvaris since May this year, and says that the demand has exceeded manifold this year as non-Maharashtrians are following the trend in a big way. The nauvaris made by Vaishali Sahasrabudhe, an entrepreneur are special, since they are made of 11-yard long sarees. "Most nauvaris are made with nine-yard sarees, however the pleats near the thigh fall flat with a nine-yard. The thigh pleats on a 11-yard saree look neat and gives definition to the nauvari style," says Vaishali. These nauvaris are made of Belgaum soft silk with heavy borders and are available in vibrant colours. All you have to do is wear the nauvaris like you would wear pants and pin the pallu, and you're done.

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Types of nauvaris

The nine-yard sarees can be worn in three ways

- Brahmani or Peshwai style

A respectable and prominent style of draping the nauvari, its distinct feature is the Ocha, which is a pocket like pleat on the sides of the hip.

- Do-tangi Nauvari

Worn by rural women, this form of nauvari is worn till the knees to help them move freely while working on their farms or grazing cattles.

- Lavani style

Drapping of this nauvari is rather sensuous since the Lavani dancer has to look attractive. It has a floor-length pallu and loose ends which enables free movement while dancing.

Tradition Talk

According to Maharashtrian tradition, nauvari is known as the `akhanda vastra', which means it doesn't need any other attire to support it. In fact, this outfit is of great significance as women across different walks of life have worn it. It is not just worn at religious and cultural events, but also while working on farmlands. History is also full of instances when women have fought wars wearing the nauvari in the past.

Accessories that complement it

What completes the nauvari look is `tan mani' (a complete set of pearl ornaments that includes tode aka pearl bangles), mangalsutra, chandrahar (a big necklace with the locket shaped as a moon, kanthi, tushi (choker styled Kolhapuri mala), the nath (the traditional pearl nose pin) and anklets in both the feet. Top the look with a khopa, a French roll or a high bun accessorised by gold and silver venis (hair accessory) like they did in the past.

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Bored of using the same old pair of canvas shoes that you bought years ago? Craving for a new pair?

Instead of buying a new pair, spruce up your good ol' sneakers periodically to make them look new and stunning, and that too without much expenditure! Here are 10 cost-effective ideas that will help you customize your shoes. If you want to start off on a blank canvas, just bleach your shoes before trying any of these methods to change the way your shoes look.

Emboss them

If you want to give your shoes a little edge, the best thing to do is use studs and crystals. First, paint your shoe in the colour of your choice and then apply glue in the areas that you wish to highlight. Once you apply the glue, paste golden studs, spikes or beads of your choice. You could make your shoes look cool or dainty, depending on the image that you wish to portray.

Paint them

The simplest, yet nicest, way to change the way your shoes look is by painting them in a different colour with fabric paints. If you're feeling artistic, you could also draw patterns such as stripes, checks and anything else that you like on them. If you're feeling musical, paint notes or names of the bands you like on your shoe. It will not only look cool, but will also be in sync with your mood.

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Delace them

Turn your shoes into slip-ons if you are tired of spending time knotting your laces. All you need to do to achieve this look is to remove laces from your shoe. And if you are worried that it looks incomplete, just paint the centre flap a different pattern for contrast and design. But, if you feel your shoes are too loose, then add an elastic piece of cloth in the centre and join it to the sides for a tighter fit.

Fur them

There's still a nip in the air, so plain socks with canvas shoes aren't enough to keep you warm. Remove the laces and add a layer of fur around the ankles. This way, not only will you look fashionable, but will also feel cosy and warm when you step out for a walk in the evenings. You could also pair this with woolen socks for a better look.

Lace them

If you don't want to make drastic changes to your shoes, just buy different coloured laces. You could even go bold by opting for two neon shades of your choice and use one of each colour if you want to make a statement with your shoes. When the two different neon shades alternate, it will give your shoe a sprightly look. You could even use satin ribbons of different colours for a softer look.

Button them

Want to look young and playful? Rummage through your wardrobe and collect all the old or extra buttons that have come off your clothes. Paste or stitch each of these buttons on your shoes. If you have too many buttons to spare, you can stitch them close, but if you have only a few and that too of different sizes, just space them out and they'll still look good.

Glitter them

If you're feeling a little bling, pour a generous amount of glue over your shoes, use handfuls of silver or gold glitter and spread it on each shoe thoroughly. Ensure that you don't make the layer of glitter too thick. If you want a little pattern on your glittery shoes, draw out the designs and staple a piece of cloth or paper so that the glue doesn't fall on these areas. Once the glitter sticks to the shoe, you can take off the piece of cloth or paper.

Tie-dye them

It's pretty easy to give your shoes a tie-and-dye effect. Wash and towel-dry your shoes. While damp, apply the colour of your choice in a pattern. The colour spreads and sticks, giving the tie-and-dye effect. You could use two or more colours. Then, seal your shoes in a plastic bag for a day so the the colours don't dry out. Wash them after that to get rid of the excess dye and sun-dry before use.

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Last night at Ladurée in SoHo, Blake Lively, Elettra Wiedemann, Angie Niles, and friends gathered to sip rose-infused champagne underneath the moonlight. The occasion? The release of Niles’s new book, Bright Lights Paris: Shop, Dine & Live . . . Parisian Style, from where to find the best vintage shopping to hand-illustrated recipes for local classics.

“This version—her version—of Paris is fabulous,” said Lively in the garden, rose raspberry macaroon smoothie in hand. “The first time I went to Paris I was a little bit overwhelmed, so I was slightly disappointed because I had dreamt of it so much—and I’m going to sound like a jerk for saying that, but I just didn’t know what to do. I completely shut down and let the city eat me alive. But then I got her list, and it was intimate and inviting and not the things that I had read about in every guidebook. Angie’s version of Paris is the best version I ever had.”


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After a round of Moët rose, guests moved into the 18th century–styled pale-blue salon for an intimate meal of foie gras with blackcurrant violet macaron, chicken vol-au-vent with wild mushrooms, and smoked salmon with lemon cream in the candlelight. “I’d been in Paris and was falling in love with all the different girls and all the different neighborhoods,” Niles said as guests took their seats. “They’re all so eclectic and they’re all full of spirit in their own way. And I just wanted to kind of share that with the world. If you’re not in Paris, you have to learn about these different girls—where they go and what they do. When you go home, you can kind of infuse a little part of a Parisian girl in your life, as well.”

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It’s been a wonderful summer. You swam in lakes and seas, ran through fields, finished books, and felt the sun on your face in far-flung destinations. The sillage of sunscreen, salt, and spilt rosé is still heavy on your straw bags and eyelet sundresses. But no matter how low-key or carefree your vacation behavior, your sudden intimacy with the sun has most likely resulted in a state of epidermal disarray. Which explains why September is one of the busiest months for dermatologists. “It’s on everyone’s mind,” says Manhattan-based Gervaise Gerstner, M.D., enjoying one last quiet afternoon before tomorrow’s influx of appointments. But according to Gerstner, all it takes to remedy your summer sins—when it comes to your skin at least—are a few easy steps and standby products.

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Returning to complexion perfection could be as simple as returning to a purposeful skin care regimen. “People have been traveling—they’ve been away from their products,” says Gerstner, who believes that reintroducing retinol and your standby cleansers, toners, and creams will set you on the path to porelessness. For additional cleanup, a glowing, smooth surface can be found at the hands of an at-home peel, performed three times per week. “I like anything that has 20 percent glycolic [acid], because there’s no risk involved. You can’t burn yourself,” says Gerstner, who trusts the antiaging benefits of Dr. Dennis Gross’s Alpha Beta Peel and her own Glycolic 20% Treatment Pads to not only remove dead skin and excess dirt, but to also fight sun damage.

It’s no secret that prolonged UV exposure from lazy days on the sand can lead to fine lines, wrinkles, and dark spots. For this, too, Gerstner suggests first tackling the problem at home before bed with brightening formulas. Clarins’ new Mission Perfection Serum targets melanin production at its source (while simultaneously tackling dullness, redness, and hyperpigmentation from breakouts); for stubborn dark spots, Gerstner suggests SkinMedica’s hydroquinone-driven creams. “If you’re in your twenties, you’ll be back to normal by Halloween,” she says, but adds that more mature skin may require an in-office boost to jump-start their line-smoothing and complexion-evening results. Crepe-y texture can be corrected through a series of microdermabrasion treatments or a series of Clear and Brilliant Laser treatment. “A lot of dermatologists’ offices have them. You’re in and out,” swears Gerstner of the procedure, which requires little to no downtime. A swift session beneath a fractionated laser will combat hyperpigmentation by creating invisible micro-wounds beneath the skin’s surface, stimulating collagen production that results in fresh cells—add that to your shopping list, along with these six products that will erase your seasonal indiscretions better than any number of Hail Marys. Fall is looking brighter still.

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It’s hard not to see the mom jean—the jolie laide jean, if you will—as a backlash to the long and mighty reign of the low-rise super skinny. But when will the painted-on, rock ’n’ roll pant make its return? If Thomas Monet has his druthers, it’s already on the way back in. Monet cut his teeth as a key player behind the scenes at Balmain during the Christophe Decarnin era (and a brief stint under Olivier Rousteing), where he worked on the washes that made items like the painted-on moto jean one of the It pieces of the era. Fans of the house at that time will no doubt recall those pale denim military getups and buttery leather trousers, slung dangerously low on the hip bones of Decarnin’s glam-rock Valkyries.


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For more than a year now, Monet has been ensconced at Faith Connexion, where he and much of Decarnin’s Balmain team make up a creative tribe working in the same maximalist vocabulary that the designer honed at the famous house. Still focusing on washes and still, as word of mouth tells it, working closely with Christophe himself, Monet serves as a steward of the moto pant’s past. Even as the pendulum has swung in a more understated direction (call it the Fashion Nun effect), his love of maximalist, thrashed, rock ’n’ roll denim has never waned. Monet is an avowed fan of the fabric’s workwear origins—“not too clean!”—and seems disappointed by the current popularity of unsullied indigo. Still, he points to Hedi Slimane’s revival of more hedonistic styles as evidence that a sea change may soon come. At Faith Connexion, Monet and co. are hard at work, focusing their efforts on lived-in-feeling pieces.

Monet tells: “We love the denim that we’ve worn for ten years. This is the denim spirit.” Over the course of our conversation, Monet name-checks Slash but seems more interested in ideas of the counterculture than specific figures—the Summer of Love, the birth of punk. The resulting styles are time-consuming, customized denim with a certain couture spirit. (“Italian fabrics are good, but Japanese are better,” he says.) Pieces are stonewashed and painstakingly hand-distressed by artisans using sandpaper and the like. Other one-of-a-kind pairs are customized by graffiti stars of the extended FC coterie. The results are the kind of creations that fairly beg for space in the wardrobes of eclectic stars like Rihanna. Despite the label’s Parisian soul, you’d be hard-pressed to imagine them on quintessentially gamine types—say, Audrey Tautou. Monet is frank when it comes to his feelings on the way French girls, so typically infallible, do denim: “I can’t defend the French look for denim. For me, we don’t have the denim spirit.” The designer is less candid when it comes to the city’s best spots for sourcing deliciously thrashed vintage pairs: “C’est un secret!”

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