1/ This month, VANITY FAIR has a profile on FASHION PEOPLE’S LAUREN SHERMAN. Fashion People is a Puck newsletter and a podcast and while it’s known for its ‘scoops’ revealing which new creative director is taking over at which luxury house, a lot of it is really just gossipy fluff. I don’t subscribe to Puck, but I enjoy the podcast for the industry guests (when they can get a word in edgeways; frenemies Derek Blasberg and Jacob Gallagher are best for dramedy value) but the idea of Sherman being some sort of fashion ‘seer’ does crack me up. I find she’s mostly an expert on the brands she likes (Phoebe Philo, Charvet and The Row) and then will laugh off her vague knowledge of others (I mean, imagine calling Studio Nicholson a ‘mood board brand’!). Read the profile here.

2/ Fashion buys that caught my eye. Arket’s off-white utility trousers* (they look like denim but may be a lighter weight). If the Phoebe Philo Utility Jeans are a no-go for you, then these may be a good alternative. Sadly, the Homme Girls tuxedo shirt (top) sold out almost instantly but I’ve discovered a tuxedo shirt and long tailored shorts* is a great look for late summer evenings. I would wear them with black formal socks and patent-leather dress shoes*.

3/ ’ Substack has a fun read on hotel room etiquette. Is it OK to take a hotel cocktail swizzle stick / bath towel / umbrella home with you? Click here for his answers. Me? I do confess to sneaking a ‘newspaper bag’ off the doorknob of a hotel room in the corridor of Bombay’s Sun & Sand Hotel a couple of years ago (below). It makes the perfect avocado-and-half-pint-of-milk short errand bag.

4/ Two beauty recommendations worth knowing about. I recently picked up a Bob Beauté clear brow gel from Harvey Nichols (R.I.P) and I have to report it’s better than both the MAC Pro Locked Brow Gel and Blink Brow Bar Clear Brow Gloss. It’s tiny but has a firm, small brush, doesn’t flake, and delivers a naturally groomed, non-crispy brow. Alas, the Harvey Nichols ecommerce is no more but you can buy in person from Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge or online here. My other recommendation is much more readily available. The Ole Henriksen Peptide Lip Treatment* in Grenada Guava is a heavily moisturising, hint-of-tint, sheer coral lip treatment with just enough shine. (I got mine from Boots and use it like a balm.)

5/ EDWIN HEATHCOTE has a fab piece in the FT on the lack of colour in today’s architecture. I recently stumbled upon the inside of the dry-sounding Judge Business School in Cambridge (below). Designed in 1991 by architect John Outram, it’s like a delightfully polychromatic post-modern toy town! Lucky students…

6/ Sniff my scrunchie. Perfumed hair scrunchies, bag charms (below) and wearable beauty objects are the new visible scent dispensers, says Jing Daily.

7/ In case you missed it. Shop my pre-fall Soeur picks.

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head there to shop the post and for the full credits and disclaimers. (Read Random Recs #18 here.)

And just like that … Gap beauty is back.

Launching in the U.S this week with four ‘reimagined fragrances’ from its 90s heyday – Dream, Grass, Heaven, Om (IYKYK) – plus a new one, Harmony, it’s the smart way for Gap to tiptoe into the beauty market as we all know scent equals memory equals feels. As an insider told Puck, it was important to “make the transition from the past and the love of the past but embrace the market and the world as it is today.”

As such, the lightweight Gap fragrances of yore have been switched up to concentrated eau de parfum strength, with all formulas changed accordingly (although Dream* – below, my fave – is apparently the closest to the original, with notes of Italian bergamot – bergamot! – jasmine and cedarwood).

Fun fact – and bonus points for authenticity – the new fragrances were developed with the help of perfumers Honorine Blanc and Nicole Mancini, who worked on the original Gap scents. Let’s just say it, Gap is not messing about.

And it seems to be working. The buzz is buzzing.

For starters “industrial nostalgia” is a thing right now. This is an excellent podcast on the business of nostalgia, unpacking the science of how memory, emotion and security collude to make us feel good in an uncertain world. And Gap has been riding the nostalgia wave for a while. Not only does it have an authentic community of long-time ‘old Gap’ enthusiasts (think Neverworn’s , Old Gap on Instagram and Gap Playlists’ Michael Bise), but it understands the old-meets-new tightrope walk of bringing the past to the present.

Because nostalgia needs to be remixed with nowness to give it contemporary cultural relevance, especially to an increasingly marketing savvy consumer. Hence last year’s KATSEYE-meets-Kelis TikTok-viral jeans ad and this year’s Hailey Bieber 90s jeans collab (below). The baggy Gap jeans seem to have been well timed for consumer preferences (even if Prada is proposing a return to skinny jeans).

Puck reports that the Hailey Jean ranks among the three most successful collabs in Gap’s 56-year history, while overall Gap sales are up 10% in the most recent quarter.

While this is all good news for the #oldGap nostalgists and Gap’s shareholders, relying on Big Nostalgia alone may not be a viable long-term strategy. Unbelievable as it may seem, at some point we will crave genuine newness again.

And what will happen then?

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head for the full credits and disclaimers.

News just in: there’s a new bergamot beauty line just dropped and it’s perfectly timed for this latest heatwave.

At the risk of becoming a bergamot bore, I can’t not discuss Perfumer H’s four-piece hand and body collection*. In short, it’s a shower wash, hand wash, soap bar and body lotion. Perfumer H does citrus fragrances impeccably; not too sharp and always with a softer, sweeter note to offset the freshness.

The shower gel is particularly refreshing for an end-of-day cool shower. The bergamot opener has a delicious, almost tomato leaf green note, balanced with petitgrain, Sicilian lemon, juniper wood, tonka and lavender. In keeping with Perfumer H’s luxury positioning, the bottles are huge – 500ml each for the handwash (£55), shower wash (£55) and body lotion (£80) – in signature weighty smoked glass.

I think a smaller, travel size could definitely be added to the mix, but the gentle glycerine soap bar (£25, below) is a possible travel substitute. In keeping with the Perfumer H ‘ritualistic’ philosophy, there’s also a rather lovely hand or body ‘bathing bundle’* (top) that would make the ideal host or hostess gift.

See more here.

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head there to shop the post and for the full credits and disclaimers.

1/ Is SHREEJI NEWS the boujiest corner shop in London? Back in pre-Covid times, I remember Shreeji News was your average newsagent. A decent selection of mags but hardly a ‘destination’. Now, since a major glow-up from Gabriel Chipperfield and associations with Chiltern Firehouse, Air Mail and all manner of fashion and luxury brands wanting to use its store as a pop up ‘space’ to launch products and brand zines, it’s become a small phenomenon in its own right (below). As entry level luxury items have become so expensive, it seems magazines themselves have become luxury products. So it makes sense that some people would rather invest in a collectible magazine – enjoying the smell, feel and time taken to enjoy it – as their indulgence of choice. The Nod has the low down (with a little input from me.)

2/ Congratulations STUDIO NICHOLSON on ‘going global’ with the first runway show in Paris. “You’ve got to know when to put the pencil down!” says Nick Wakeman on her design philosophy. Read the interview and watch the show here.

3/ CHANEL opened a heritage art house cinema. We can ridicule performative reading but what’s the harm if it puts the spotlight on books? Likewise, I’m all for getting more bums on cinema seats and Chanel is helping the cause by sponsoring the renovation of Paris’s Cinéma Saint Germain des Prés. Decorated with original art deco furniture and Picasso and Cocteau artworks, it’s a subtle nod to Coco Chanel’s days of schmoozing with artists and cinema luvvies. Plot twist: France actually registered 77 million cinema ticket sales in the first five months of 2026, up 20% on last year. It’s no surprise fashion brands want to align themselves with cinema and culture – witness the (lushly-costumed) YSL-funded Father Mother Sister Brother, which I loved! – it’s a way to embed themselves in the wider pop cultural discourse outside exclusive boutiques and the runway while showing support for creative talent.

4/ We’re all better without Meta eyewear. People are freaking out about tastemakers selling out to Meta. And the dystopia of surveillance eyewear. Obviously, I don’t blame them. I get that young people don’t have the luxury of being selective about paid work, they just want to pay their bills. But in Meta’s case it’s not like they chose rando influencers; they’ve partnered with very successful businesswomen who are presumably not desperate for money. And yet it just goes to show, everyone has their price.

5/ Re-upping my summer beauty survival kit. The Summer Friday lip butter minis are a success! This Peep Club dry eye spray is a summer saviour. And I’ve rediscovered the Omorovicza Queen of Hungary Mist, with its soothing orange blossom and rose scent. Here’s the travel size*.

6/ What I watched. From the grim opening scenes of every episode to the brutal, anxiety-inducing penultimate scene of the final episode, Russell T Davies’ Tip Toe is Channel 4 at its hard-hitting-with-a-side-of-humour best. The story of male relationships and modern-day issues (Brexit! Pronouns! Only Fans!) is worth the watching-through-your-fingers moments. Meanwhile, affecting in a different way, Jon Snow: A Last Big Story starts as a documentary about TV broadcaster Jon Snow’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, but ends in unexpected journalistic triumph.

7/ Oh, L’ETIQUETTE women’s magazine is launching its English language edition in September! (Thanks Fashion People for the intel, and this interview with L’étiquette’s Marc Beaugé is worth a listen.)

8/ This article on what facelift recovery is really like is classic ALLURE (top). Fascinating and gruesome in equal parts – read it here.

9/ CHRISTO: AIR is being shown for the first time. No, the title doesn’t relate to the arctic air conditioning in the Gagosian’s Grosvenor Hill gallery, but to the wonderfully engineered ‘Air Package on a Ceiling’ (until August 21, below) that hovers between ceiling and just above visitors’ heads. Exploring ‘wrapped air’, the transparent, rope-knotted 16 x 10 metre polyethylene sculpture continues Christo’s (with wife Jeanne-Claude) exploration of ‘making the invisible tangible’. In the next room is a wrapped Volvo (unseen for 30 years), plus fabulous vitrines of drawings, studies, letters and prep photos.

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head there to shop the post and for the full credits and disclaimers. (Read Random Recs #17 here.)

A few seasons ago, we romanticised the existential poetry of the overstuffed handbag. In 2024, it was kooky, chaotic, main character-coded but also… highly impractical. While I’m a chronic overstuffer (umbrella, multiple lip products, all of the pens – classic Virgo!) I’m also so over being encumbered (physically and psychologically) with all this stuff! Even men are at it with their ‘mine-is-bigger-than-yours’ ginormous commuter backpacks bursting with God knows what. (No really, what are they carrying in them?)

These days, I aspire to be like the street style ladies of Fashion Week, with their courtesy cars quarter-filled suede bucket bags, supple leather totes and soft baskets, telegraphing unburdened freedom and subsequent unbothered joy. And, no doubt, also free from coccyx twinges and ‘laptop shoulder’.

Click HERE to read (and shop) the rest of the post for free and for the full credits and disclaimers on Disneyrollergirl.net.

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

London’s been hot lately and all I can think about is copious slices of lemon in my iced Pellegrino and endless top-ups of chilled Limonata.

It’s also the season for cooling citrus fragrances that transport you to the breezy coasts of Southern Italy. Acqua di Parma is forever the go-to for such escapist olfaction. It has just released its new Bergamotto la Spugnatura Eau de Parfum* in a blue sculptural-capped porcelain bottle designed by architectural designer, Laura Gonzalez (below).

The fragrance is my kind of citrus. Using an ancient artisanal technique that releases the essence of the bergamot peel using natural sea sponges, it opens with an initial cooling blast of bergamot and grapefruit that’s softened by a dry down of vetiver and cedarwood. After the initial spritz, the longevity isn’t that strong, which suits me – London is already an oppressive fug of oud and intense rose at this time of year, so I prefer this gentle woody yet refreshing skin scent. (Also, am I the only person who sprays a single – but firm – cloud of perfume and not several pumps?)

Accompanying the EDP is the Acqua di Parma Bergamotto la Spugnatura Hair and Body Oil*, a more sensorial alternative to a perfume. I love the ritual of a body oil in summer, either in the morning post-shower or after sundown to use instead of perfume. And alongside Bergamotto, there’s the citrus-adjacent Blu Mediterraneo Fico di Amalfi Eau de Toilette* also in a new limited-edition Gonzalez-designed bottle, combining fig, citrus and cedarwood notes.

Or for the more gourmand-inclined, consider Acqua di Parma’s trio of delicious candles (below) leaning cool and milky rather than super-sweet; Sorbetto Al Limone*, Latte di Mandorla* (almond and iced milk – oh my!) and Granita al Gelso* (“mulberry and brioche with vanilla bourbon” – yes I’m drunk on the description).

Other citruses of note, some new, some older. Tom Ford’s new Taormina Orange Eau de Parfum* is as juicy and sexy as you’d expect, tempered with a sophisticated twist of spicy cardamom oil. FYI: this one has staying power. Loewe has upgraded its Aire Sutileza Elixir Eau de Parfum* under new creative directors Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez with a high concentration of essential oils for stronger potency (below). The new version has the freshness of bergamot and lemon, the sharpness of pear plus a warm, grounding musk note.

For me, Hermès colognes are frankly unsurpassable. Eau D’Orange Vert* and Eau de Citron Noir* are longstanding heatwave coolers, while their accompanying shower gels and soaps are essential duty-free reach-fors. Also for the shower, Arket’s Pomelo shower oil* is clean and refreshing with a side of cedarwood sweetness. And while not strictly citrus – but in the same outdoorsy summery wheelhouse – Dries van Noten’s new Basil and Hinoki Hand Cream* (below) is instantly uplifting, energising and comforting.

What about you? Drop your citrus faves in the comments …

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head there to shop the post and for the full credits and disclaimers.

Ding dong! It’s time for the semi-annual spring knitwear update. What’s new this time around? Ummm, not much; I’m still after the usual – short sleeve knits, merinos, and cashmere-mixes (100% cashmere is a bit too soft and pill-y for me, I’ve decided).

I guess new-ish to the rotation is colour. Tomato red, grass green and Celine blue to be precise, especially layered with white, cream, and ecru.

Red cardigans are… everywhere! Thick like a jacket at B.B Wallace*, or lightweight enough for a shoulder-knot at Calvin Klein*. Alexandra Golovanoff’s tomato twinset (below) is a genius solution to looking smart on top if the rest of you is a bit scruffy (ahem) – although stocks are on the low side. In Paris, Rubirosa is the emporium to go to for kaleidoscopic knitwear and don’t miss the cult croc loafers. Also in Paris, Linda V Wright is your muse for colourful classic knits, and especially red, as demonstrated with her timely post here (hint: the clue is in the shop’s name: Crimson.)

Celine has the perfect cropped green sweater*, below (it’s giving ‘Girl in an Alex Katz painting’), while Sunspel’s cobalt men’s lambswool* is the colour of a cloudless Greek sky. And, not quite a sweater, not quite a tee, I love this Jigsaw sporty raglan merino top* (below).

I’m still hankering for the perfect vintage cricket white trousers but in the meantime, I’m eyeballing all the tailored white and white-adjacent long shorts. Yes, long shorts and knitwear are an incongruous mismatch but the kind of sartorial code-switching our weather demands of us, so you just learn to roll with it.

Massimo Dutti has the ultimate white linens* while COS has these in viscose with a razor-sharp crease* and further along the neutral spectrum, Polo Ralph Lauren has these linen shorts in camel*. These all go very nicely with a smart black shoe and sock combo. Everyone loved the Bode shoes in my April wish list post, while Church’s Shannons* are a mainstay (but expensive) or consider Macian’s English-made ‘Sophie’ derby for a slightly more affordable alternative.

I love the J.Crew styling that keeps cropping up on my Instagram (top and below – apologies for the screengrab quality but we keep it real here lol). Cream layers with a dollop of red that will look so good in the sunshine. I’m also thinking about a white linen dirndl as an alternative to shorts. It reminds me of mid-80s Honey magazine where they’d shoot two or three gamine girls on a windswept English beach in black and white, wearing like, a white knee length pinafore with nothing underneath, plus a big Joseph cardigan, black Church’s brogues and socks. Sigh… the things that stick in your head! A thick, semi-fitted or slightly loose cream cardigan or sweater (like this from Rohe*) would also suit this nostalgic vignette.

Major accessories aren’t needed here, but a tobacco suede bag* sporty eyewear and a simple watch or rustic pendant are always a good idea.

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head there to shop the post and for the full credits and disclaimers.

1/ Merch as clothing systems. This is a great read on the evolution of merch. (Anyone for a Palantir hoodie?)

“Which brings us back to peak merch. If the last wave was about identity as consumption – proof of taste, proof of experience, proof-you-were-there – this next phase feels more like identity as positioning. The shift isn’t that merch signals allegiance (it always has), but what that allegiance points to. Not scenes, subcultures or shared memories – but systems, ideologies and power structures that are much harder to decode.”

2/ HARVEY NICHOLS had a glow up a couple of years ago, but you’d never know it. The store and the buy look fab. All the grown up contemporary brands I like – Lemaire, Another Tomorrow, Wardrobe NYC, plus Calvin Klein, Lisa Yang, B.B. Wallace and Dario Vitale’s Versace – are here for physical try-on, as well as new beauty brands like Bob Beauté* and a Violet Grey year-long pop-up in the window. I’m here for this 90s beauty editor deskscape (top and below) and I love the Madame Grey Virgo astrology candle* – a subtle breeze of pink pepper, violet and musk. And there’s a vast selection of other lifestyle desirables on the ground floor – this Redduo jug and mug have been living rent free in my head for weeks (below).

But. The place is deserted! Maybe it’s not chronically-online-Gen-Z-friendly enough. Does it need a – can’t believe I’m saying this – Blank Street Coffee concession? An Erewhon pop-up? Knightsbridge is usually a magnet for Dubai transplants, but Harrods has cornered that market and Harvey Nichols clearly wants to court a fresh customer. Anyway. If you like having a well-merchandised store all to yourself, get there while it’s still quiet.

3/ I’ve been sleeping on the Waitrose Dish podcast with Angela Hartnett and Nick Grimshaw. But I’m fully invested now. Come for Louis Theroux (with Angela’s short ribs and rhubarb and pear crumble recipe) and stay for Gemma Arterton and the crab linguine. Unsurprisingly, Louis can’t help slipping into interviewer mode and he’s a massive foodie, so if Grimmy ever left, he could easily take over.

4/ ARTHUR ELGORT’S MODELS MANUAL – the movie. The Devil Wears Prada 2, who?! I’m (im)patiently waiting for the Arthur Elgort doc, Arthur Elgort: Models & Muses from filmmaker Warren Elgort.

5/ Corpcore comparisons. And in loosely related news, Arthur’s daughter Sophie Elgort has a great piece in the Financial Times revisiting her corpcore street style photos from 15 years ago and comparing them to now. I couldn’t help but wonder… if companies will start incentivising employees back to the office with carrot dangles of higher salaries or other perks (maybe they are already? LMK in the comments…). And if that’s the case, would dressing up for the office again feel like a desirable status grab, a symbol of being at the top of your game (or simply having a job at all), signalling being ‘worth’ the office real estate versus being a ‘wfh loser’? Read more here.

6/ Micro make-up. I still love my Chanel Les Beiges Water Fresh Tint foundation*, but I don’t love it coming off on my white tees. So, this micro make-up look piqued my interest and I like the look of the Kraum Micro Brushes (below). (H/T Emily Morello.)

7/ Fashion and the art school connection. This Shelley Fox interview is so detailed and fascinating. And relatable too. “The fashion students really dressed down and were probably scruffier than some of the art students. I think there is that connection – where Westminster used to be Harrow School of Art, Middlesex University used to be Hornsey School of Arts, Saint Martin’s School of Art, Kingston School of Art. I mean, they’re all art schools. I think that training, going back to the 1960s, the music, fashion photography, image making, the way of fashion coming out of the youth movement has kind of never left it. As I said before, not everything in the sixties was swinging but there was this movement where music and clothes were so interconnected.”

8/ Free the Alphonso mango! Lizzie Paton in the FT newsletter has unearthed the root of a mysterious mango shortage in London. No wonder I’ve not spotted a single box during what’s meant to be peak season!

9/ Siri Hustvedt, Ghost Stories. Finally, a last-minute addition. I was listening to Sam Baker’s podcast, The Shift and her guest was writer, Siri Hustvedt. I was aware of her new memoir and was interested to hear her talk about it. (Side note: I interviewed her wonderful daughter Sophie Auster for The New Garconne* in 2015. I wasn’t familiar with Siri and her famous writer husband Paul Auster at the time. But Sophie’s stories about them were warm and endearing.) While listening to the podcast, I was killing time in Waterstones and discovered a pile of Ghost Stories* – signed. It did indeed feel like a ‘sign’! I bought my copy and have been loving reading Siri’s musings on life, death (trigger warning: there’s cancer talk), companionship and much more to come, I’m sure. I guess you could compare it a little to Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, but it’s really its own precious thing. A beautiful, contemplative nighttime read.

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head there to shop the post and for the full credits and disclaimers. (Read Random Recs #16 here.)

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There’s a particular appeal to the general store. You don’t need anything urgently, yet the wares are such items that you could always do with stocking up on and you feel a sense of secure well-being at having that perfectly utilitarian stapler, milk pan, or toothpaste squeezer in your possession. A general store also satisfies your shopaholic impulses while tempering the dopamine spike with practical use as the end game.

Some examples I love: Jasper Morrison’s almost invisible shop at 24b Kingsland Road E2, where I bought my yellow steel stapler 17 years ago (below, a great example of an essential everyday object that brings joy). Morrison also designs saucepans, cutlery and even furniture for Muji, that temple of practicality, where I repeat-buy my cereal bowls, ‘right angle socks’ and 0.7 gel pens.

Then there’s the Manufactum stores in Germany and Austria. I can only imagine the frissons of satisfaction you’d get perusing the oak pen trays and Norwegian wool blankets in the vast department stores (where wearing parts and mechanisms can also be replaced). Think a posh, rustic version of Ikea.

And who doesn’t love a whizz round Labour & Wait (top) for a bottle brush or a tin of almond-scented glue? (Do not spread on toast!) I think that’s the crux of the appeal; it’s the magic formula of expected functional items x an element of surprise. And when you witness this in person, in a store that’s been lovingly stocked and merchandised with a personal touch, you experience the anti-Amazon, anti-convenience effect. Pleasurable, tactile and deliberately slow, it’s ‘frictionmaxxing’ in the best way!

Even in India, where you might say the local market is the ultimate general store, they’re opting for a more upscale approach. General Items in Bangalore sells decidedly un-basic kitchenalia and homewares like Tosha Jagad’s butter dish (below) alongside its own handmade salt and pepper mills to the type of customer used to browsing Dover Street Market or The Conran Shop.

My personal weakness is stationery and desk paraphernalia. Present & Correct is my go-to for extremely useful jumbo paperclips and smooth-papered desk planners. There’s simply no fun in buying this stuff online; the pleasure comes from touching the products IRL and imagining how they’re going to transform your life.

And that brings me to the latest offering from Parisian retail polymath, Ramdane Touhami. Brand new to Paris’s Palais Royal arcade is his delightful-sounding new venture, Papier Royal. With its mosaic floor and old-meets-new vibe, it’s a printed correspondence Mecca like no other. Celebrating the dying – but not if he can help it – art of paper correspondence, Touhami offers original fonts for monogrammed correspondence cards printed on a 19th century ‘pendulum stamping device’.

Proclaiming “sending letters is the next level of luxury” to HTSI, he also stocks pens at every price point, fancy envelopes, and all grades of pencil. And the store boasts its own postage stamps created in collaboration with the French mail service – how incredibly chic!

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head there for the full credits and disclaimers.

I said a few weeks ago that I didn’t think Michael Rider’s Celine would radically change the way we dress. I still don’t, other than I think he’s succeeding in shifting the tyranny of ‘quiet luxury’ into a more colourful direction.

And one key way he’s doing that is with the silk square scarf.

Formerly Hermès territory, the Celine scarf feels more sporty, vital and graphic. Hermès scarves can also be graphic but there’s often a lot going on in them. (Some have as many as 47 colours, requiring 47 engraving films, as I once discovered on an Hermès workshop tour.)

My favourite Hermès scarves were always the geometric ones – I loved the Sugimoto (below), Josef Albers (below) and Natalie Rich-Fernadez’s Delaunay-esque ones of a few years ago.

While the traditional Hermès scarf could famously be styled in myriad ways (the brand produces its own illustrated scarf-tying cards and there are endless YouTube tutorials to be found), I think we still associate them with a somewhat conservative bourgeois image.

The way the Celines were shown on the runway felt modern, effortless and not too thought out. And they work so well with the contemporary Celine ‘garconne‘ wardrobe of blazers, denim, trench, not to mention Miu Miu’s XL Harringtons and Prada’s reworked barn jackets.

These are pieces we all have now (in multiples!) and a colour-saturated graphic scarf — or three — is an ideal ‘tool’ to lift them out of the everyday and utilitarian.

demonstrates this sentiment well on her Substack, The Flair Index. I just had a look back at a double page spread from my book, The New Garconne* (published 10 years ago this autumn!) and I love how this lady — below — wore her scarf over her hair. (Photo by the amazing Vanessa Jackman — where is she now???) I had to fight so hard for that double page, but the ‘movement’ demonstrates what I mean about the graphic scarf energising or ‘lifting’ an outfit.

High street retailers have been quick to leap on the Celine scarf ‘trend’. It’s an easy and affordable entry point to an otherwise luxury look and so versatile. Mango* and COS* (below) are both ahead of the curve with the right colours and scale.

But don’t feel sad for Hermès, I’ve no doubt the Celine scarf mania will have a lucrative knock-on effect on their silks too.

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head there to shop the post and for the full credits and disclaimers.

The clocks just went forward, so even though it’s still freezing, it’s officially spring in my world. To mark the occasion, here are a handful of new-on-my-radar fashion and lifestyle bits …

White jeans. I’ve outgrown all my Arket Rose Cropped jeans and they don’t seem to make them any more. I’m wearing Arket Snow* as a placeholder; they’re a nice straight cut in 100% cotton but could be a heavier weight denim and a tad wider in the ankle. (I got mine shorted at Blackhorse Lane in Berwick Street. Highly recommended as they did the job in half an hour while I waited and the service is always super-friendly. ) The alternative is B Sides Plein relaxed straight jeans in Claire, which is more of an ecru. I discovered the blue colourway via Alison Loehnis’s Instagram and while I like the 501-like fit, I’m not mad about the contrast stitching on the ecru colourway. The search continues…

Bode shoes. I can’t wait for Bermuda shorts season – as well as white jeans, I’m after a smart pair of white Bermudas* which I plan to wear with semi-formal footwear. Bode fits the bill in four ways. A T-bar ‘School Shoe’*, a ‘Verbena Shoe’, plus an opera pump (I’ve discussed these before) and the delightfully named “Theatre Shoe’ (below). I’d be happy with any or all, accessorised with black merino wool socks.

The Balenciaga Le City bag has been given a Pierpaolo Piccioli refresh. I wasn’t interested in the Le City the first time round; it was far too ubiquitous which put me off. The new moka (this season’s bitter chocolate) calf suede* version, below, has a timeless appeal though, which looks like it will weather beautifully. And bitter chocolate paired with white jeans feels fresher than an obvious black bag. All that said, I’m reminded I have a 2000-era apple red suede Balenciaga bag from the early Ghesquière years. I thought I’d sold it since I never have occasion to use it for fear of rain spots (#Londonproblems). But drier days are in sight and it would add a Celine-esque dollop of colour to my spring neutrals.

A ridiculously long belt. I’ve been after an unfeasibly long belt for ages. MHL has finally come up with the goods (below).

A simple but substantial tee. Recommended by , I like that this Still Here tee is cropped (so about right for my height), a bit boxy and comes in a range of colours (top and below).

A no-budge brow gel. I’m almost out of brow gel so I’m considering this offering from new-to-Harvey-Nichols, Bob Beauté* (below). As well as hold (without flakes or stiffness), it promises to boost growth and density. We’ll see!

Oddments ceramics. A stone’s throw from Harvey Nichols, I also discovered the whimsical Oddments ceramic homewares by Supergroup (aka Ian McIntyre and John Booth) for The Conran Shop in Sloane Square. This pen (or snack!) tray – would add an appropriate level of spring optimism to a dull desk or coffee table.

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head there to shop the post and for the full credits and disclaimers.

I loved reading Lucy Maguire’s recent Vogue Business story on the changing face of fashion PR. 13 years ago I wrote a similar feature for BON Magazine on the changing face of PR and fashion weeks in the (then) new social media landscape. What’s funny is how things have changed and how things have stayed the same.

At the time, ‘Oscar PR Girl’ (aka Oscar de la Renta publicist Erika Bearman) and ‘DKNY PR Girl’ (aka publicist Aliza Licht) were major influencers alongside Kelly Cutrone, a notoriously ball-breaking New York PR who had her own U.S reality TV show. I remember cold-emailing Kelly to ask if I could send over a few questions for my piece. I heard nothing until my phone suddenly rang one lunchtime and a voice at the other end bellowed, “Hi, this is Kelly Cutrone. You wanted to talk to me?” As I was in the middle of something else and didn’t have my notes in front of me, I innocently asked if I might call her back the next day. “NO, THAT’S THANKSGIVING!”

Eek. I had no choice but to grab my laptop, find my questions and press Record. She was an absolute dream, unfiltered interviewee and my favourite quote from her was the insight, “All of a sudden you would come back from your fashion show and your client would be like, ‘who the fuck is ‘Melanie Sunshine’ and how did she write this review of my show?’ At one point, a meeting was called by [New York Fashion Week organisers] IMG to decide ‘what do we do about these people called bloggers?’” (I think I might post the transcript on here in another post.)

Here’s the article, originally published in BON Magazine in 2013.

Here’s some not so breaking news: the fashion industry is in flux. A succession of never ending global fashion weeks, the seasons are shrinking, designers are bounced from atelier to atelier and there’s a new type of fashion editor in town. Nowhere are these changes more evident than in the fashion publicist’s office. In fact, it could be said that fashion PR itself is undergoing a major re-brand of its own.

Not so long ago, it was all so clear-cut. There were PRs, they had clients and their remit was simple; to get stories out to a select and manageable group of trusted press. To the uninitiated it looked like one delicious long canapé-fest of launches and white-gloved soirees; a members-only club that only the chosen few were privy to. But in a more open and information-hungry world, the job description, the messaging and the messengers have changed. The once-closed circle of media has widened to include infinite numbers of bloggers, social media stars and other influencers, and – guess what? – they all want a front row ticket to the show.

“PR was always slightly tarnished with this superficial inauthenticity and lots of long lunches, says Daniel Marks, director and partner of London-based agency, The Communications Store. “But there are very tangible things that we’re working with now that are about driving traffic into store and driving traffic online.” PR agencies like The Communications Store and its global contemporaries KCD, Karla Otto, PR Consulting and Starworks Group are exploding the flaky Ab Fab myth of their industry and reestablishing its serious business credentials. As luxury fashion has become democratised and brand awareness more diverse and global, the old school editor-courting PR model is looking rather quaint. While relationship building is still important, power PRs are beefing up their roles, resulting in a merging of storyteller meets gatekeeper meets brand strategist. “The term PR and public relations is somewhat outdated now,” confirms Marks, who includes Versace, Net-a-Porter and Christopher Kane among his clients. “When you’re creating campaigns that really work, you’re integrated from a communications perspective right the way through the business. We are brand building and communication.”

“PR today is about creating a story so good that others want to tell it,” agrees Daniel Saynt, whose company Socialyte manages a new generation of digital media messengers whose influence on consumers equals that of traditional glossy magazines. Saynt and his ilk have played no small part in this evolution of fashion brand awareness. Those two major game-changers of fashion – globalisation and the World Wide Web – have transformed it into the hyper-connected industry of today. The new wave of media influencers includes bloggers, street style stars, It girls and a whole swathe of global celebrities from China, Russia and Brazil. Then there are those tastemakers with a foot in both old and new media camps, the Anna Dello Russos and Derek Blasbergs for example, who represent their print publications as well as their own digital ‘brands’. How are PRs controlling the message across such a diverse group of media? With varying degrees of success it would seem.

“PRs have a larger scale of media, including social media, to use to spread a message now,” says Rachna Shah, senior vice president of KCD. “It shouldn’t mean a loss of control of the message, but more opportunity to reach different types of audiences in more ways.” While the American brands and PRs embrace the collaborative model of communication with their shiny social media platforms and blogger outreach programmes, in Europe, some luxury houses are still wary of opinionated media, preferring the old school gatekeeper approach. “Often these are family run companies who can be resistant to change,” says Alex Shah, director of press and marketing at Premier Model Management, who has also managed PR campaigns for global fashion brands. “Their thinking is, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Witness the power struggle at Hedi Slimane’s debut Saint Laurent womenswear show last September, when bemused editors and critics were shunted to standing position while friends of the brand snagged the front row seats. This us-against-them scenario became more inflamed when journalists were sent detailed instructions on what could and couldn’t be published while others were asked to edit their tweets. To the undermined press it felt like a lack of appreciation for their roles, while at the same time showing a heavy-handed PR attitude that was out of touch with the times. “If it is about a power struggle, then both sides lose,” says Rachna Shah. “The role of PR is to develop a relationship with the media where they are servicing the brand and at the same time the press.”

Alas, this industry fracas have become all too public. In the past, such insider spats would have formed the basis of canapé chitchat, something to raise eyebrows over the mini burgers at a product launch, and then swiftly relegate to fashion folklore. Not so these days, when every fashion faux pas is magnified under the glare of social media and dissected on news sites like Fashionista.com. The result is the arrival of a new type of PR, in which the PR machine itself is the focus. Famous Twitter personalities like Kelly Cutrone, Erika ‘Oscar PR Girl’ Bearman and Aliza ‘DKNY PR Girl’ Licht operate more as ‘door openers’ and ‘eye openers’ than gatekeepers, talking directly to consumers while watching the reactions to their brands and steering the conversation. How did we arrive at a place where the facilitators – whose primary role is to promote others – are being celebrated themselves? Is it weird for the PR to be the star?

“People can’t help but be attracted to the mystery,” says London-based PR and brand consultant, Mandi Lennard, an early adopter of social media whose own email signature lists no less than five personal blogs. “PRs are usually in the background making things happen behind the scenes. That’s what people always want to know. Everyone always wants what they can’t get access to.”

For anti-elitist PR Kelly Cutrone, opening up that access was her lightbulb moment. By joining the dots of radio, TV, books and social media, the now-standard always-everywhere approach has given her and her clients a broader, mass market reach that they can control. “I started thinking less like a fashion publicist and more like a communicator,” says Cutrone, whose PR company People’s Revolution found fame on reality TV. “I could see what was going on with my own brand and it really changed the way that I thought about working with my clients.”

The strategy also works for Erika Bearman, whose multi-channel thinking has repositioned Oscar De La Renta for the next generation of New York society girls. Ditto Donna Karan’s senior vice president of global communications Aliza Licht, who via her genius Twitter persona (420,000+ followers and counting) has flipped the role of PR on its head. “I don’t think it’s weird that DKNY PR Girl is a star,” says Leah Chernikoff, Executive editor of Fashionista.com. “She was at the forefront of giving brands a personal voice on social media. It worked! Certain social media platforms have a younger following which means brands can create a younger, aspirational audience of future consumers.”

The allure of high fashion has always been built on dreams and fantasy. For so long a private, insular industry, it was forever about that show you weren’t invited to, the couture gown you couldn’t afford and the velvet rope you could only dream of crossing. PRs of course were wholly responsible for the grand illusion but in 2013 the industry is a different beast.

Thanks to the celebritisation of fashion and reality TV shows like The Hills and Project Runway, the veil of secrecy has slowly been lifted and fashion has become a spectator sport that reaches well beyond the immediate industry. Its superbrands now regularly spread awareness through links with the art, sport and entertainment worlds, whereby associating with Lady Gaga or David Beckham means exposure to a vast new audience. Meanwhile, Gucci and Louis Vuitton sponsor luxury sporting events, while Prada’s patronage of the arts boosts its image as an intelligent, innovative company.

Yet it’s the million dollar biannual shows that whip up the most excitement and attention. Forget the old idea of fashion shows being a mere trade vehicle; today they’re considered mass entertainment and they give PRs the means to construct elaborate worlds around their brands, spreading a pin sharp, controlled message to all. And nothing beats seeing a spectacular show in person.

“There’s no substitute. To truly appreciate a show you really have to be at it,” says Godfrey Deeny, editor at large and fashion critic of Le Figaro. “There’s no greater show in the world than Chanel or maybe Prada. And there’s a reason for that. These companies are cleverly run – they’re highly respectful of the designer’s vision.” For Deeny, the extreme attention to detail of these million dollar extravaganzas, which then translates across a brand’s stores and advertising imagery, more than justifies the monumental show production costs. A fashion show is about more than simply displaying the clothes; it’s a brand’s statement of intent. “With a brand like Chanel, possibly the most successful fashion brand of them all, if you look at their shows, the very pieces off the runway are literally taken and put in flagship stores all over the world,” he says. “For example, with the Chanel sci-fi show, the stalagmites, the very crystals from the catwalk were put in store windows and ad campaigns. It’s totally on-message.”

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WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head there for the full credits and disclaimers.

SS26 was the now infamous ‘reset’ season of mega designers taking up residence at new houses. The result is a broom-sweep of schloopy silhouettes in lieu of sharper cuts, bold injections of colour and a menu of fashion archetypes to choose from, rather than one or two overarching directions.

1/ PALETTE CLEANSER. One thing designers did agree on: this is a season for pure primaries in abundance. It’s a look that works really well on simple, architectural silhouettes which was especially clear at Jil Sander (below), Loewe and Celine as well as The Row (top). Just one piece can energise your everyday since primaries play so well against grey, beige and denim. The Loewe ‘Sports Walkman’ yellows (below) are pure summer holiday vibes and I love a red cardigan to offset khaki, white or grey. Vogue Italia market editor Marta Oldrini shows the way with her cardigan slotted through her belt (below). And if you haven’t tried Celine’s luscious Rouge Triomphe lipstick yet, this might be the season to do it.

2/ QUEER CODING IN MENSWEAR RECLAIMED. Super 8 film clips by Larry Stanton titled ‘Fire Island August 1975’ featuring sunbathing male bodies teased the Saint Laurent SS26 menswear show. Pyjama tops* messily tucked into boxer shorts and paper bag trousers (below) were an apparent nod to the subtle gestures of exposure of Fire Island’s 1970s queer codes while less subtly, Versace’s crotchy jeans and exposed flies by one-season-only designer Dario Vitale had TikTok critics clutching their Medusa pendants in horror. (The subsequent ad – below – put the undone flies front and centre.)

Elsewhere, Jonathan Anderson was a tad more overt. As the costumer for Luca Guadagnino’s 2024 film, Queer, he created (and wore himself) an exclusive Queer sweatshirt seeded to VIPs and movie insiders while for his JWAnderson customers he collaborated with artist Dean Sameshima on explicit ‘Anonymous Faggot’ and Anonymous Trade sweatshirts. Not to be outdone on the overt exploration-slash-celebration of queer masculinity, collage artist Pacifico Silano teamed up with Acne Studios on its SS26 show set design and a T-shirt collab* (below) featuring his signature slivers of softcore collage imagery writ large. On a sidenote, two new book on my radar: Arthur Tress’s photo book The Ramble, NYC 1969 (below) takes us into the discreet world of Central Park cruising at a time when being gay in America was against the law. And Andrew Durbin’s The Wonderful World that Almost Was (great title, taken from an exhibition) follows the friendship-to-romance relationship of artist Paul Thek and photographer Peter Hujar from the 1950s to the 1970s (below). Pre-order here. Something all these examples have in common? A push back against the culture against inclusivity. I think it’s important to acknowledge it.

3/ VERSACE IS INTERESTING AGAIN. If a collection is polarising you can (usually) expect it to do well. While Versace SS26 (below) has only just dropped in stores, that’s almost a feat in itself. Online discourse following the announcement of Vitale’s departure from Versace seemed convinced it wouldn’t see the light of day, so far did it veer from Donatella-era Versace. My take is since Dario Vitale was ousted from the brand just a few months after showing his collection, this in itself could deem its place in history and thus its collectibility. Having seen it in store, the skimpy jersey singlets*, coloured denim*, striped polos*, slim baroque-print blouses and tanned leather bags* are the pieces likely to appeal to a younger, cooler customer. Not to mention the deco-style pendant necklace that opens to reveal a mirrored cigarette case-come-money-clip – swoon! The store staff are encouraging customers to shop across the men’s and women’s floors, to mix and match as they see fit.

4/ CHARVET-CHIC. One of the highlights of Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel debut: those Charvet shirts of course (below). Some were long and boxy, others cropped with sweet, discreet monograms and weighted down with signature Chanel chains. (They’ve been causing a frenzy in the Chanel Paris stores already, even at €3,900 a pop.)

The hysteria meant a fashion fillip for storied shirtmaker Charvet too. With the outrage online about Chanel prices, you can go straight to Charvet for a bespoke shirt starting at around £380 (plus the air fare to Paris). Or in the UK, Turnbull & Asser makes bespoke shirts starting at £395 but you need to buy a minimum of four (according to A.I). Here’s a look at the process from the vaults. The high street has capitalised on the Charvet-for-Chanel buzz with similarly styled cropped shirting* (below) and Charvet-alike silk spot scarves* (below). Hello & Other Stories and COS!

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1/ LUCIAN FREUD’s ink brush drawings, scrawly illustrated love letters, etchings and early paintings are a major highlight of Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting (above and below) just opened at the National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition is huge and the best bit is no wire barriers to trip over, letting you get super close to examine Freud’s meticulous hatching technique. P.S. the merch is fab (below); I’m going back for the mini daffodil tray. Bella Freud’s tees and totes are fun too.

2/ PETER YORK guesting on Radio Free Pimlico is a delightful wander down memory lane to the years of the Official Sloane Ranger Handbook, ‘Thems’, and the emergence of new money sloshing into London. Educational and entertaining. Listen here. I also recommend fashion paparazzo Richard Young’s entertaining storytelling on Desert Island Discs in which he talks about being Marc Bolan’s childhood friend and his time working for Ritz newspaper.

3/ STUDIO NICHOLSON x PERFUMER H. A collaboration that makes sense, Soap, the new Studio Nicholson eau de parfum (below) created by Lyn Harris aka Perfumer H combines clean yet sensual notes of white pepper, orange flower and white musk – surely the perfect olfactory accompaniment to your Studio Nicholson Ria coat and Ruthe jeans. Buy it here. If you prefer your fragrances on the smokier, sexier side, Maya Njie’s latest Aeithi Opum* edp (below) mingles coffee, vetiver and leather notes with incense for intoxicating Tom-Ford-at-Gucci vibes.

4/ INDUSTRY, but make it true crime. If you enjoy watching Industry, you should definitely watch Skandal! Bringing Down Wirecard on Netflix. A true crime documentary unravelling the mystery of a German payment start-up that’s not all it seems, it makes the WTF plotlines of industry season four almost believable.

5/ How AI is transforming freelance journalism. Do we need to start logging our work in progress on Google Docs as proof on non-A.I. use?

6/ Double tees. Adding to my recent tally on ways to double up, Pieter Mulier’s pristine long-sleeve tees (below) are a lesson in casual yet refined layering. (via Line Sheet and Twitter)

7/ BLANK STREET and STARBUCKS court fashion weeks. In case you missed it, here’s my 2022 rant about Blank Street Coffee’s London infiltration. It seems I was very wrong in my thesis that the cost-of-living crisis would price Gen Z out of £££ aesthetic drinks. Instead, this week we’ve seen Blank Street ramp things up with a LFW pop-up coffee stop for visitors and an ‘art installation’ for the public, along with a ‘puffer sleeve’ for your hot drink (below) as part of its merch line. “A quick scroll through our tagged photos will show you that people are including their Blank Street cups in their OOTD videos,” Mohammad Rabaa, global creative director of Blank Street told Vogue Business. Meanwhile, at NYFW Starbucks sponsored five designer shows including Collina Strada and Eckhaus Latta with a view to co-create merch. It’s a sure sign of the times; if you can’t afford a designer’s RTW line, you can likely stretch to a branded coffee cup or sleeve. As Vogue Business put it, “Small luxuries like matcha, coffee, or $25 smoothies have become status symbols to the Gen Zs and millennials priced out of traditional luxury goods, who enjoy romanticizing their daily lives while posting about it online. In turn, brands like Blank Street, or … Erewhon, have become lifestyle labels, while food and drink pose as a key marketing vehicle for luxury brands looking to stay connected with young people.”

8/ Can somebody please save the paperbacks!

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head there for the full credits and disclaimers. (Read Random Recs #15 here.)

I recently interviewed Caroline Baker (former super-stylist and fashion editor) for my next book and we talked about her favourite styling ‘tool’, the safety pin. Returning from a Nova magazine shoot in Japan via Thailand in the 1970s, she spent 24 hours in Bangkok where she noticed a recurring styling detail on the locals; their blue jackets fastened with safety pins.

“So I did a spread with Harry Peccinotti. Nova loved double page spreads, so we did a safety pin over a double page spread, holding together this sweet little jacket. I love safety pins, so when John Lydon came out, that was his symbol and suddenly safety pins became it. It came to be an outside thing and it was OK. Because [previously] if you safety pinned your clothes, you would hide them if you were a well bought up girl. And as a stylist, you become aware of safety pins, because you have to safety pin the clothing to fit the model, so that you never shot anybody from the back.”

We then laughed at the equally secret weapon of the humble bulldog clip and photographer’s clamp (hardcore metal clamp with sharp teeth for cinching heavyweight fabrics like denim – use with tissue paper!); the assistant’s eagle eye would have to ensure it was never visible in the shot.

All this came back to me on discovering the book, Assistants by French stylist Virginie Benarroch and photographer Lola Raban. The book looks at fashion assistants’ style and the idiosyncrasies of their individual kits, tricks and style codes. Niche, but relatable! (Think, ‘what’s in my bag’ for fashion BTS insiders.)

“I think the assistant stylists are fascinating,” says stylist Virginie Benarroch, “Their work kit reveals a lot of their personality.” As photographer Lola Raban observed, “I wanted to photograph on several scales. A face. One hand. A clip in a kit. The same assistant who adjusts a millimetre of fabric will, ten minutes later, force twelve suitcases in an elevator.”

My own styling kit (now retired) was an old Hysteric Glamour mini backpack with integrated bumbag, stuffed with lint rollers, fringes of different sized safety pins, a never-ending supply of sheer nude thongs, and a metre of leather cord (always great for an impromptu necklace with some random charm or other strung on it). And of course, the essential industrial strength bulldog clamps.

Assistants is out now (with three different covers). See more here and buy it here.

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head there for the full credits and disclaimers.

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There was a bit of an online brouhaha about the skinny silhouettes at Prada menswear AW26 yesterday, but since we’ve had years of oversized slouch, I think we should give Miuccia and Raf a pass this time. As a naturally petite woman, I loved it and I’m ready for a slimmer silhouette.

On to the details. It felt romantic and Dickensian with its slimline tailored coats and their high pocket placement. (I do love a hands-in-pocket gesture – let’s put the damn phones away!). The (stained) starched French cuffs peeking out – some with cufflinks – was a genius touch that anyone can steal.

The cagoule capelets were fun, as were the creased raincoats and matching hats – there’s always something poetic about how those hats frame and protect the face with a little bit of an Audrey Hepburn fragility. (Sidenote: I’d love to see this collection photographed by Paolo Roversi.)

Note the thin belts on the coats too. Belts are a current obsession and I also like the extra-long trouser belt details. Apart from Auralee, I haven’t come across many extra-long thin belts – maybe their time has come. Someone made the point that a lot of the interest of this collection was in the back views. Apart from the cute hats on the backs of the coats, I liked the glimpse of leathergoods in back pockets. Strictly speaking, bulky leathergoods do not belong in tailored pockets, but as a gesture and a commentary (on the tactility of a human transaction!), I’m happy to give them a pass too.

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head for the full credits and disclaimers.

Dior’s latest campaign just dropped, featuring the new book totes (modelled by writers and… ‘lit-fluencers’?) photographed at Paris’s famous bouquinistes stalls along the Seine – a smart way to tap into the zeitgeist for book clubs and performative reading.

The Dior book totes do retail for £2650* (or a small one for £2400*) despite the furore about how they’re actually made. But there are other options for mere mortals.

Daunt’s sturdy canvas bags (£15, below)) are made from organic cotton by Re-wrap, a social enterprise founded to improve the lives of rural women and farmers in India. They look good, are a good size and are well made. They’re possibly already more fashionable than the Dior ones.

The London Review of Books bag is a little less twee (I like these new graphic stripes). It’s equally well designed and if you get it from the store in Bloomsbury, you can display it next to you in the (excellent) adjoining St John Cafe while performatively reading the latest Fitzcarraldo Edition. (Side note: tragically, this Fitzcarraldo tote is out of stock.) And if you don’t want to put your book tote on the floor, don’t forget to hunt out one of these handy bag hooks – very likely coming to a Dior store soon for ££££!

Me, I’m still attached to my – now 30+ years old – Strand Book Store tote. Alas, the strap is almost non-existent rather threadbare, so I’m planning to get it replaced with something strong, sturdy and indestructible. P.S. You can find my latest book recs here.

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head there to shop the post and for the full credits and disclaimers.

I stole this title from a comment on Where Is the Cool about the restorative mediation of washing up (and Helene Appel’s paintings in particular).

My new year’s resolution is to go to bed early and use that last hour to read a physical book, not scroll ‘one last time’ on the phone. So far, it’s working OK (I’m hitting the pillow at 1am, rather than 2am – baby steps!). The trick for me is to choose what I’m calling ‘boring fiction’, although I’m sure there must be a more BookTok-friendly ‘core’ name for it. It’s in the vein of Sally Rooney’s Normal People and John Williams’ Stoner and I’ve found it most recently in Brian by Jeremy Cooper, Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico and the short story, So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan (above).

The beauty of these books is their ‘slow ordinary’ pace and lack of capital-D Drama. (Also, they have to be paperbacks.) They describe flawed relationships, emotional ennui and everyday existences. Some are the story of one day, others are of one person’s day-to-day life over many years. Essentially, books about the human condition, these contemplative character studies lend themselves easily to bedtime reading.

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head there for the full credits and disclaimers.

1/ The NEW YORKER AT 100 documentary is like The September Issue for smart people. My highlight was the lady drawing cartoons with a Rotring pen. So good you’ll want to watch it twice.

2/ KEEP IT CHIC found the perfect portable handbag hook.

3/ THE DEAD WEIGHT OF BEAUTY. Stuart McKenzie’s 80s and 90s youth memories are bound in this newly released collection of poignant, poppy and deadpan-funny poetry (below).

4/ The reality of A.I job hunting. It’s definitely not you, it’s them.

5/ A privileged bonkers but charming wee story on opening an indie bookshop in the FT.

6/ MARTIN MARGIELA’S AIDS T-shirt maquette just resurfaced on Insta. And Lutz Huelle’s storytelling is quite adorable. (Note: “pleat” = “fold”.)

7/ The angels of ALEKOS FASSIANOS (top) are not presented as otherworldly beings, but rather resemble figures who carry a sweet kindness, a promise of light. In this way, Fassianos reminds us that the wondrous may hide within the ordinary, and that sometimes a simple pair of wings is enough for us to see the world a little more tenderly, reminding us that true light does not come from outside but glows discreetly within our soul. Source: @Alekosfassianos.

Which leaves me to wish a very happy holiday season to all my friends, readers and subscribers!

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head there for the full credits and disclaimers. (Read Random Recs #14 here.)

Max Pearmain and Alasdair McLellan’s Armani tribute portfolio in Arena Homme Plus is a fab reminder of the casual greatness of Emporio Armani and Armani Jeans (aside from Giorgio’s soft tailoring legacy).

Pearmain’s mix and mismatch layered styling is complemented by McLellan’s contemporary lens and Piotr Chamier’s casting and all are underscored by Ashley Heath’s editor’s letter (below) celebrating the decades-spanning appeal of the recently departed sprezzatura master.

Another takeaway from this shoot is that most of the clothes are vintage – predominantly mid-90s. Sourced mainly from Dossier, it does away with the modern-day stylists’ tyranny of ‘full looks’, allowing Pearmain a degree of styling spontaneity. (Amen!) Not to mention the unique worn-in patina that old clothes have, that make them instantly look like ‘yours’, something runway-fresh pieces inherently lack.

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla

This post was originally published on disneyrollergirl.net. Please head there for the full credits and disclaimers.