We love: fashion fixes for the week ahead – in pictures
Matthew Williamson designs a charity shopping bag for John Lewis, Mother denim launches an upcycled collection and Basic Rights debuts sleepwear
Day: February 13, 2021
Simone Rocha at high street prices: in pictures
Always coveted Simone Rocha’s designs but never been able to afford them? Good news: she is doing a collection for H&M. Here’s our pick of the collection.
Perfume with a conscience | Sali Hughes
By Sali Hughes
The lavish, throwaway packaging that comes with luxury scent is on its way out
There are interesting developments around sustainability in perfumery and it’s high time. For years, I’ve felt a free pass is given to perfume, as though lavish single-use bottles and excessive outer packaging are an implicit right of the luxury perfumer. But with privilege should come greater responsibility and an obligation to innovate. Some notable houses, from Tom Ford and Chanel, to Penhaligon’s and Guerlain, are stepping up with refillable and recyclable bottles, and, in Guerlain’s case, meticulous practices in ingredient provenance.
The eco-conscious bottle for Acqua di Parma’s newest launch, Colonia Futura, was two years in planning. Made from partly recycled glass and topped with a recycled and recyclable plastic cap, the entire bottle is divisible for straightforward sorting into recycling. It’s also labelled with scrap dust from marble quarries before being packed in FSC-certified cardboard. But the smell, of course, is paramount. Made from more than 99% natural ingredients, the perfume has the brand’s signature freshness – grassy, vibrant, but smart and expensive-smelling with a price tag to match (£73.80 for 50ml). It’s gender-neutral, but I suspect the fanbase will skew towards masculine (it’s a little Chanel Pour Monsieur, to my nose, which is never bad).
Via:: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2021/feb/13/perfume-with-a-conscience
Could lockdown relight our love for Valentine's Day? | Jess Cartner-Morley
With shops and restaurants closed in the UK, we can free 14 February from commercialisation and take it back to basics
Valentine’s Day can feel like the most heartless of festive days. Your favourite restaurant is regimented into tables for two like an examination hall for romance, with whispered conversations sternly invigilated by overattentive waiters. Performative social media posts passive-aggressively alert you to a world of breakfast trays laid with rose petals and emerald earrings.
The valentine industry has become a commercial juggernaut in which love is weighed and measured in pounds and pence. In 2020, the average Brit spent £35 on Valentine’s gifts. It is no surprise that we have fallen out of love with a day when we are supposed be celebrating love.