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Legends of silver screen stalk the catwalk

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Jean Paul Gaultier lived up to his showman's reputation again at Paris Couture Week yesterday. For his latest collection he staged a cinematic spectacle. Each area of the auditorium was named after a film studio, girls handed out ice creams and the show began with the Twentieth Century Fox fanfare.

Season's must have: a buyer for Lacroix

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:15:53 GMT

With its Cinderella ball gowns dripping with embroidery, and hand-calligraphed name plates tied to tiny gilt chairs, Paris Couture Week often feels like an exquisite bubble protected from the harsher realities of the outside world.

Extravagant, escapist and extremely expensive

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Paris Couture Week kicked off yesterday with a seductive Christian Dior collection that revisited the house's past while looking to the future.

Summer's fashion crimes

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

It was bad enough when the old maxim that hemlines rise with the mercury applied to just half the population. Now that men have got in on the act – thank you Cristiano Ronaldo – global warming is indeed a phenomenon to be feared. The sight last week of a holidaying Rio Ferdinand in crotch-hugging, faux denim shorts teamed with what can only be described as a man bra was enough to make anyone wish for the perpetual winter of Narnia.

Mitzy: the handbag that's recession-proof

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Financial analysts and fashion experts alike have been predicting the death of the It-bag for months, but it seems that designer handbags have risen from the grave, despite the economic sickness threatening many high-end fashion brands.

Mitzi: the handbag that's recession-proof

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Jimmy Choo budget range set for high street

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:43:35 GMT

Fashion-lovers will be able to buy designer Jimmy Choo shoes for a fraction of their usual price tag when a new range goes on sale at H&M.

Size-zero hero: Fashion's high priestess calls time on 'size zero'

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

It is the ultimate "size zero" backlash. The editor of Vogue has lambasted the world's top designers for making their clothes too tight for even the skinniest models.

Ronaldo: We'll miss him when he's gone

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Love him or loathe him, Cristiano Ronaldo was by far the most glamorous player in the Premiership, embodying the souped up Saint Tropez playboy look to a point that rivals George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley circa Club Tropicana. This, then, is a man who has no qualms about his disconcerting resemblance to a chipolata sausage. Then there's the James Dean lip and quiff to consider. Despite – or even because of – the overload of Hawaiian Tropic, the stonewash denim worn long before it came back into fashion and without a trace of irony, and the crucifix that would dwarf the average medallion, he still succeeds in setting hearts – male and female – aflutter like no other. Macho doesn't cover it.

Women occupy just a third of the top jobs in fashion

Sat, 30 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The British fashion industry has long been accused of exploiting women's insecurities to goad them into buying things they neither want nor need. Now it seems that some of the biggest names in fashion have also been ripping off the nation's women behind the scenes. Hundreds of thousands of women working in fashion in the UK are being paid less than their male colleagues, passed over for top jobs and prevented from taking what are considered "male" roles.

How clothes brought down Christian Lacroix

Thu, 28 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

When Christian Lacroix launched his haute couture fashion label in 1987, the stock market was just months from crashing. Now, 22 years later, the creative flamboyance of the man who invented "le pouf" is once again being thwarted by the constraints of commercial viability. Yesterday, the fashion house filed for voluntary bankruptcy.

Recession topples Lacroix fashion house

Thu, 28 May 2009 13:43:45 GMT

The French fashion house Christian Lacroix today began insolvency proceedings after falling victim to the global recession.

Peaches shows off curves in Miss Ultimo

Wed, 27 May 2009 15:58:23 GMT

Peaches Geldof showed off her curves by modelling a lingerie range today.

Burberry checks out of Milan showcase

Tue, 26 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Burberry, Britain's biggest luxury fashion label, has rediscovered a patriotic streak and is to turn its back on Milan Fashion Week in favour of showing its new collection in London.

Goodbye to straighteners: hello boho hair

Sat, 09 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Hippie, feminine, quirky or classic – whatever their look, women with long hair will be plaiting, twisting or curling before leaving the house this summer, if the style gurus and fashion writers are to be believed.

Beckham's barnet loses out to 'the Pesto'

Sat, 09 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Put away the wax, lay down the heated straighteners and leave the peroxide alone, men. The era of overindulgent male grooming is over and understated sophistication is back. For this, you can thank the BBC's business editor, Robert Peston.

Moss's £60 high street frock is named Dress of the Year

Sat, 02 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

She is, by her own admission, "not a proper designer", but Kate Moss yesterday trumped such fashion greats as Calvin Klein, Alexander McQueen, Versace and Mary Quant when one of her Topshop designs was crowned Dress of the Year.

France vs Spain in style showdown

Sat, 02 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Princess Letizia of Spain

Is a scientist's face proof that a £20 skin cream really gets rid of wrinkles?

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:00:01 GMT

It doesn't cost £400 a jar and arrive in a gold-embossed box decorated with pseudo-scientific jargon.

Do their derrières look big? Battle of the bulge is all in the French mind

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The typical French woman is slim and thinks that she is fat. The typical British woman is plump but is convinced that she is thin.

Catwalk king brings madness to the shop floor

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:00:01 GMT

He is known for clothing the likes of Sienna Miller in his fluttery, feminine dresses and for having Prince play an impromptu set at one of his catwalk shows.

Fashion flirts with 'real' women

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:00:01 GMT

For generations their faces have gazed haughtily from the covers of glossy magazines, artfully made-up, liberally airbrushed, and almost invariably white. But no more.

Choose shoes as good as Choo's, says China's 'Choo'

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Nearly all the shoes in the world are made in China. But one man is making it his mission to convince Chinese factories to make their footwear more stylish and original rather than simply knocking off ideas from Western designers.

Choose shoes as good as Choo's, says China's 'Choo' Jimmy Choo stands up for good shoes

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Topshop cashes in on women's cycling boom

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:00:01 GMT

It stocks everything from cheap denim hotpants to high-fashion diffusion collections, has customers in 31 countries around the world, and has just launched a flagship store in New York. So what does Topshop have left to prove? With ladieswear, menswear, underwear, swimwear and nightwear covered, who is left to conquer? Female cyclists.