Another new London exhibition worth your attention. A Hard Man is Good to Find! at The Photographers’ Gallery is a brilliant little history lesson of queer photography of the male physique, surveying the years when making or distributing imagery of male nudity was illegal in the UK. Centred on key areas of London – Highgate, Chelsea, Brixton, Pimlico, Portobello, Euston, Soho – it explores some of the ways that photographers would go about scouting modelling subjects. For example, a concentration of fit young males around the army barracks of Pimlico would result in images of partially unifor ..read more

What’s the deal with all the Keith Haring collabs? The FT has the answer to all my questions here (pay wall), looking at the legacy of Keith Haring as an activist and accessible artist who coined the phrase “art is for everybody”. The company responsible for the never-ending list of collabs (Uniqlo, Primark, Junya Watanabe and Coach among them) is Artestar. The licensing agency also represents photographers, designers and creatives, and its success highlights the merchification of culture in the modern age. But this latest Haring collab isn’t just a print slapped onto a tee. The AKILA x Keith ..read more

“I would approach my potential subjects, explain in as detailed a manner as possible what I had seen, and ask for permission to take a photograph. Of course, small talk — where was I from, who would see the photograph, why I selected them — would sometimes ensue. Often permission was granted with no discussion at all. Looking is a two-way street. Not only is the photographer looking, but the potential subject is looking too. What the subject sees carries great weight. For some reason, people would see me positively. I am not sure if it was my race, gender, physicality, dress, demeanor, or any ..read more

I’m very much enjoying all the variations on classics at the AW23 shows. Sacai, Saint Laurent, Bottega and Prada are doing it for me – and Dior, of course. Almost entirely in black, the Dior AW23 show was a ‘reincarnation’ of 50s French Girl Style, with Édith Piaf, Juliette Gréco and Catherine Dior (Mr Dior’s sister) the season’s muses. More ‘The New Garconne’ than The New Look, if you will. My top five takeaways… STEEL SKIRTS. It feels like there’s a major shift away from sweatpants and massive trousers to skirts of all descriptions. At Dior, full pleat and calf length hobblesome skirts (mad ..read more

More blanket hype. Not sure how I missed the memo first time round, but Tekla has done a second blanket collection inspired by Le Corbusier. You can’t get any more classic than these mid-century colourways from Le Corbusier’s palette, the Architectural Polychromy, a collaboration with Les Couleurs Suisse AG. The blankets come in checks or stripes and are woven in Scotland from lambswool and cashmere. My hot water bottle just exploded in bed for the second time, so maybe it’s time to invest in a Tekla instead… WORDS: Disneyrollergirl / Navaz Batliwalla IMAGES: Tekla Le Corbusier NOTE: Most i ..read more

“They bled in velvet-tufted hotel suites and town-house living rooms. They bled in conference rooms at Condé Nast and Net-a-Porter. They bled at the bar of the now- defunct Cafe Clover in New York’s West Village neighborhood while the scents of lavender waffles and quinoa pancakes collided in the air for one of the brand’s earliest recorded press events, in 2016. I didn’t get to go, but my boss at the time did. She returned to the office a few fluid ounces lighter, painted with a newfound glow. Not the glow that could, in theory, be delivered by the blood’s own healing proteins when applied ..read more

At the risk of sounding trite, the humble blanket has stepped up as a metaphor of our times and a recurring motif at the AW23 shows. A symbol of post-Covid comfort and tactility as well as warmth (the UK energy crisis continues) and survival (another day, another earthquake), we just can’t be separated from our security blankets. Styling wise, they appeared as travel accessories in the menswear shows (specifically, Armani’s rolled travel blanket), on blanket influencer Pharrell Williams for his Louis Vuitton announcement photo and Moncler Genius appearance, fashioned into entire coats at Burb ..read more

“There’s definitely a formula for getting views. It’s something extreme, something eye-catching. I used to play into that a lot more, and that started to feel inorganic. The formula for growing at an exponential rate — it’s kind of always remained the same. It’s click-baity.” YouTube sensation Emma Chamberlain, New York Times (no paywall) A good insight into how TikTokkers, Instagrammers and YouTubers are doomed to burnout. The algorithm insists they post more and different content, which leads to inauthetnicity and content for the sake of content. As we all suspected, nobody’s life is that i ..read more

Wow, London Fashion Week came back big time this season. Simone Rocha, S.S. Daley, JW Anderson and Moncler were the buzziest shows, but Burberry AW23* was the one with the highest expectations. Did it deliver? Hmmm, still not sure. There were high hopes for a repeat of Daniel Lee’s work turning around Bottega Veneta. In particular, new CEO Jonathan Akeroyd is aiming to double Burberry’s leather business, so all eyes were on the bags. For some reason, I had assumed a highly polished luxury vision, perhaps laced with some youthful street elements as teased by the pre-show campaign featuring a r ..read more

Wishlisted: I Regret Almost Everything*, Keith McNally’s memoir. Not an Instagram post goes by without someone telling McNally, “you should write your memoir”. Well, little did we know, he already has. McNally’s story as a restauranteur is fascinating. He regularly dishes up anecdotes of personal and professional misdemeanours as the founder of such illustrious eateries as Balthazar, Pastis and Lucky Strike, to name just three. Although he’s well known in the industry, it’s his Instagram that has really made him famous. From his Maître Ds’ nightly reports detailing NYC restaurant life (the ce ..read more