France politics
fromwww.thelocal.fr
12 hours agoInside France: French elegance, flying bells and Swedish snuff fury
French church bells are said to fly to Rome on Good Friday, returning with chocolate eggs for children on Easter Sunday.
"We're constantly striving to strike a balance between work that respects academic rules of composition, established visual codes and good readability, with something more spontaneous, adventurous, playful, even naive."
The splendid art nouveau Les Brigittines is a Belgian culinary institution, where chef Dirk Myny has overseen the kitchen for 35 years. He daringly reinterprets classic Flemish recipes with dishes such as smoked eel mousse and succulent pork belly with a tart cherry ale vinaigrette.
Rafael Leao posted a photo with Francesco Camarda, the two sharing the sponsorship of Adidas. Today, the Portuguese took centre stage in a different way: he walked the runway for Adidas' mega show. He was joined by other top-flight footballers, including Davide Frattesi, Federico Dimarco, and Giacomo Raspadori.
As an interdisciplinary artist, Madita defies simple categorisation, moving fluidly between the worlds of fine art, fashion, and performative expression. In this photo editorial, Madita proves that the artist and the artwork are often the same.
The dress, conversely, is 80 years old, and it isn't his. It's by Pierre Balmain - Tron shows me a René Gruau illustration of the look where, with a platter hat, white fox stole and opera-length gloves, the look is borne back ceaselessly into the past. It's an illustration in a book titled The New French Style, of Balmain outfits with an essay by Alice B Toklas, the partner of Gertrude Stein.
Everybody thought I would make oversized bomber jackets with monograms, said the mononymous king-of-the-hoodie designer after the show. That's what ChatGPT said, apparently. But that's not why I came to Gucci. Instead, he said, his Gucci will be energy, passion, fun and sex.
What if I took my design lens and built out my essentials capsule for the Everlane customer? I felt like that would be a really amazing opportunity for me to introduce myself as a designer to an audience outside of EB Denim.
London has always been a city of discovery. London doesn't just host fashion, it incubates it. Co-Director Biljana Poposka Roberts calls this season "fashion without borders," and that's exactly what it felt like: a cultural collision in the chicest possible way.
In the show, "dirty" extends to anything that breaks fashion's pact with propriety. Here are clothes caked in grime, blotted with makeup, stiffened by salt, pieced from trash, frayed, and faded. The garments span decades, from the 1980s through the mid-2000s, when the likes of Vivienne Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier built their fame on defying convention, to today, when corporatization has made such daring increasingly rare. But forgoing practicality frees certain designers from the demands that the body be polite-and thereby policed.
Travelling for art can be incredibly virtuous and culturally rewarding, like collecting souvenirs for your eyes (and from the post card rail in the gift shop). Remembering to research what is on before I book flights is a lesson I learnt all too well after I missed the Metropolitan Museum's fashion exhibition in 2016 by one day. As a fashion obsessed 20 something, I did not take this well and have since improved my itinerary planning and exhibition calendar checking.
It captures seven different femininities during an all-day pool party, enjoying themselves while revealing their distinctive styles. Creative Direction, Production & Styling by Maria Gkin. Photography by Eliza Poultidou. The models are Vanessa Otilia, Cyka, Alvina Chamberland and Angelica Komninak. The concept examines the thin line between what is seen as acceptable and what has been labelled ugly or immoral, explored through each woman's personal story. Textures, colours, makeup and styling come together, breaking down stereotypes and highlighting fashion as a means of freedom
Speaking backstage before the show, Anderson, dressed in his signature faded Levi's jeans and a navy cashmere sweater, described the collection as another character study, explaining that this time he set out to explore the idea of a new aristocracy, questioning what it means today and what can it be? The-41-year old designer said when it came to the social hierarchy he wanted to ignore the aspect of money and instead home in on their eccentricity.
Embroidery is a historic mainstay of traditional clothing in Asia or the Middle East, as well as Western Haute Couture, but it is increasingly present in Paris, Milan or New York on modern men's shirts, bomber jackets or blazers. Designers at Dior, Dolce Gabbana, Kenzo or Gucci have adopted it in recent runway shows, while Louis Vuitton's celebrity rapper-designer Pharell Williams dedicated his entire June collection to India after visiting the country.
For someone who once redefined the Dior man by putting him in a skinny black suit and sneakers, and then did it all over again at Berluti with more colour and leather, Kris Van Assche has always had a curious relationship with the idea of uniform. Unwilling to take it at face value, uniforms in Van Assche's hands are signals of who we think we are and who we want to be, depending on how we button the collar or where we pin the flower.
The end of the show did not mark the end of the trip. Back at the Le Grand Bellevue the group divided between fireside hot chocolates and the hotel's spa. The hotel's Le Grand Spa is over 3,000 square metres and has eight different types of saunas, several ice showers, foot baths and an outdoor bubble pool (named thus as it's bigger than your standard jacuzzi).
Subtlety has never really been Dean and Dan Caten's thing. Hence the fact that, for Autumn/Winter 2025 - their 30th design anniversary - the pair behind Dsquared2 offered this leather belt , executed in collaboration with young Italian designer Luca Magliano. It's embossed with a word that could either be coyly taken as an affectionate term of familiarity for a gentleman named Richard, or terminology for a wider panorama of character (non-gender specific, non-complimentary), or indeed just a shorthand for male genitalia.
Play Hard captures the essence of growing up surrounded by the echoes of empty arcades, the chill of coastal winds, and fleeting moments of joy found in skateboarding culture. It reflects on personal memories shaped by resilience, freedom, and creativity in an environment where opportunities were scarce. The collection embraces an aesthetic that values imperfection, emphasising the beauty found in fragility and the strength derived from community.
Fashion fans, mark this one on your calendar: May 2026 won't just bring the return of the December 6 at the arts institution, " Met Gala, one of style's biggest nights, but also the debut of a high-profile new fashion exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. Opening its doors (or, rather, spreading its kinetic, three-dimensional wings) on Saturday, May 16 and running through Sunday, Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses" will celebrate one of the most forward-thinking designers in the industry, with 140 extraordinary haute-couture creations from the iconic Dutch designer on view alongside contemporary artworks, objets d'art and scientific artifacts.
What exactly Giorgio Armani looks like without its eponymous founder at the helm has been the burning question in the fashion industry since the designer's death in September. In Milan on Monday afternoon, it got its answer as the designer's collaborator and right-hand man of four decades, Leo Dell'Orco, made his debut at the Italian fashion house where he will oversee menswear for the foreseeable future. It was the first Armani collection in which the late designer had no involvement.
The earliest jewellery ever discovered wasn't gold or gemstone at all, but fish bones. In prehistoric times, hunters wore bones, teeth and claws from their kills as talismans of luck and prowess. For Italian shoe maestro Giuseppe Zanotti - famous for his sculptural, jewel-encrusted heels - this idea of turning humble scraps into ornamentation has long been second nature; during a seaside dinner in 2004, Zanotti sketched a fish skeleton on a tablecloth.
As we continue our exploration into the dynamic world of NEXT GEN, we are thrilled to present Interview Number 3 in our series, featuring the visionary Amike Studio. Renowned for its unique blend of craftsmanship and narrative, Amike Studio's debut collection, AGASONGERO, offers a profound reflection on the designer's roots and the journey of life itself. Inspired by the hills of Rwanda, where the designer grew up, this collection tells a story of climactic struggles, momentous pauses, and the enduring beauty found in persistence.