Fashion

Export queen: Sirikit wears Thai silk in Paris, 1960

Bangkok

27 February 2016 9:00 am

Last time I went to Thailand, there’d been something of a misunderstanding about accommodation, and my friend and I ended…

17th- and 18th-century buttons from John Taylor’s Birmingham workshop

A box of delights

13 February 2016 9:00 am

Juliet Nicolson examines women’s lives and changing fashions through a rich hoard of buttons for all occasions

Owen Wilson as Hansel, Ben Stiller as Derek Zoolander and Penélope Cruz as Valentina Valencia

Fashion faux pas

13 February 2016 9:00 am

‘I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good-looking,’ said a pouty Derek Zoolander…

‘Burlesque in New York mutated into vaudeville’s disreputable sister, filled with dirty comics and strippers in body stockings or less’

The medium is the message

23 January 2016 9:00 am

Molly Crabapple is an American artist and Drawing Blood is the story of her life. That life has only been…

Brass tacks

23 January 2016 9:00 am

The last time I reviewed a restaurant in Selfridges, a PR man rang up to ask what he could do…

Center Parcs Longleat – a stealth socialist utopia on Lord Bath’s estate

12 December 2015 9:00 am

Center Parcs Longleat is a holiday village in a forest in Wiltshire, on Lord Bath’s estate, so you can never…

High life

5 December 2015 9:00 am

 New York Things turn very frivolous around this time of year. Barf-inducing parties given by pop-culture schlock merchants selling their…

Why most four-year-olds deserve to be sectioned

7 November 2015 9:00 am

The first episode of Let Us Entertain You (BBC2, Wednesday) definitely couldn’t be accused of lacking a central thesis. Presenter…

DVF worship

29 October 2015 9:00 am

Girl is back for half-term so I’ve been able to watch nothing but crap on TV this week. Some of…

Independents’ day

3 October 2015 8:00 am

I really hadn’t meant to write a postscript to last week’s column on my dark Supertramp past. But then along…

I Shop Therefore I Am (Dan Kitwood/Getty)

Something fishy

8 August 2015 9:00 am

Selfridges is skilled at making things that are not hideous (women) look hideous (women dressed as Bungle from Rainbow or…

You can’t keep your eyes off Iris

Dedicated follower of fashion

1 August 2015 9:00 am

Iris is a documentary portrait of Iris Apfel, the nonagenarian New York fashion icon. Nope, me neither, but that’s irrelevant,…

One foot on the catwalk

30 May 2015 9:00 am

St James Theatre hosts a new play about Alexander McQueen (real name Lee), whose star flashed briefly across the fashion…

Your problems solved

9 May 2015 9:00 am

Q. As a writer I find working at home too distracting. I am a longstanding member of the London Library…

The roots of the matter

25 April 2015 9:00 am

British people buy £43 million worth of human hair a year. So who’s selling?

‘Combs, Hair Highway’, 2014, by Studio Swine

Designer fatigue

25 April 2015 9:00 am

Different concepts of luxury may be inferred from a comparison of the wedding feast of Charles Bovary and Emma Rouault…

‘Propeller (Air Pavilion)’, 1937

Sonia alone

18 April 2015 9:00 am

In 1978, shortly before she died, the artist Sonia Delaunay was asked in an interview whether she considered herself a…

Style council: left to right, Kiernan Shipka (Sally Draper), January Jones (Betty Draper), Jessica Paré (Megan Draper), Jon Hamm (Donald Draper)

Artificial life

21 March 2015 9:00 am

Mad Men looked great but, as the final season draws to a close, was there really anything to it, wonders James Delingpole

Mary Portas: anything but ordinary

Majesty of the malls

14 March 2015 9:00 am

In this autobiography, Mary Portas doesn’t dip into the fabled store of her talents by giving an account of her…

The dramatic centrepiece to McQueen’s 2001 spring/summer collection set in an asylum

Shock and awe

14 March 2015 9:00 am

Alexander McQueen may have been a prat but at least he was an interesting one, says Shura Slater

Fashion statement

3 January 2015 9:00 am

Clothes with slogans on them are a sure sign of a bore

Notes from the Catwalk

13 December 2014 9:00 am

It seems as though I have just been on some grand tour of the absurd. It helps that I work…

Smock and awe

13 December 2014 9:00 am

Somerset House, a handsome Georgian palace on the Thames, was once the office of the Inland Revenue, and the courtyard was…

Death to hipsters

25 October 2014 9:00 am

Take heart: the age of the stupid beard is coming to an end

Dear Mary

11 October 2014 9:00 am

Q. I have been trying to get an apprenticeship in fashion for over a year without success. I just had…