The fast rise of slow fashion – and why the dress is the surprise success story of lockdown style
A new generation of small-scale, low-waste, made-to-order brands have boomed as a result of the pandemic
2 May 2021 • 5:00am
How slow fashion became cool: Alice Early, Rene MacDonald and Johanna Sands
Credit: Phill Taylor
and Simon Bray
Johanna Sands designs the sort of breezy linen dresses in ice-cream colours that you want to wear to a party in the Tuscan hills… or a picnic on one of those balmy June evenings that make you briefly forget you’re in Britain. So not much good during a long, cold lockdown winter, then. Except that over the past six months, her brand has grown exponentially.
DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS / AFP via Getty Images
She’s a devil, she’s an angel: she’s a pushy and whimsical ‘Princess Nut Nut’ or a steadfast friend who has long campaigned for animal welfare and feminist causes, reviving the faltering modernisation of British Conservatism. She’s modest and keeps out of the limelight – standing alongside staffers rather than in front of the glossy black door of No 10 when Boris Johnson returned to Downing Street after his December 2019 election victory – or she’s a siren in a high-stakes Game of Thrones, dubbed Cersei after the glamorous villainess, whip-cracking her way through Westminster and driving out loyalists.
As Lulu Lytle and her furniture company Soane Britain are linked with Carrie Symonds' reported plans for renovating the prime minister's Downing Street flat, we investigate what the possible finished product could look like.
I m a size 10 and this is where I love to shop
In our new series, Style for all Sizes, one fashion editor shares her favourite places to shop for her figure
8 April 2021 • 4:31pm
Bethan Holt
Credit: John Nguyen
Having suffered with an eating disorder in my teens, I have been a size 10 for nearly 15 years now. I’ve had a few fluctuations in that time, but for now this is my ‘happy size’.
There can be huge inconsistencies in sizing across stores, even within the ‘normal’ range that I fall into. On the British high street, I generally find that a size 10 works most of the time, but as soon as you shop with more niche or designer labels things can vary - I have been a ‘small’ in some places and a large in others, a typical scenario that many other women in the UK will relate to.
It’s the shopping comeback we’ve all been waiting for
4 April 2021 • 6:00am
Bag a bargain and have a fabulous day out, all for an incredible cause
In-person shopping is back soon! But is your wardrobe ready for the spring/summer season? Get yourself to The Big Stella x Smart Works Fashion Sale, which will take over a Covid-secure flagship boutique at the award-winning Bicester Village outlet from Thursday 15 April to Sunday 9 May.
Our exclusive designer pop-up shop will host racks full of sale bargains from Victoria Beckham, Rixo, Whistles, Me+Em, Ghost and more. It’s the very definition of guilt-free retail therapy, as you can shop safe in the knowledge that 100 per cent of the proceeds will go to Smart Works, the charity that supports unemployed British women.