26 h. ago Virgil Abloh: The Codes review – archive show sews up status as his generation’s leading designer

Grand Palais, Paris Teeming display from Abloh’s vast collection shows him spinning Evian bottles, Air Jordans and mixtapes into landmark looksBefore his death in 2021 aged 41, Virgil Abloh was often called the most important fashion designer of his generation. Not the best – not even close. Even at Louis Vuitton, where he became the first Black man to oversee the label’s menswear in 2018, he preferred to print on T-shirts rather than tailor them. But as a pop-culture-obsessed polymath who approached fashion with a teenager’s enthusiasm, his high-low take on streetwear sought to open up the rarefied world of fashion to kids like him who had historically been shut out of it, whether he was putting his stamp on Evian bottles, Ikea rugs, or £8,000 bags.The scale of his impact on design can’t be measured in stuff, but Virgil Abloh: The Codes, the first exhibition devoted purely to the late fashion designer’s whopping 20,000-item archive, demonstrates that he was as much a voracious coll...

Culture

33 h. ago Kesha ditches underwear and bra in daring display at Paris Fashion Week

Pop star Kesha risked a serious wardrobe malfunction at Paris Fashion Week when she wore nothing but a blue dress that left little to the imagination with a gaping hole

Politics

3 d. ago Former Vogue Fashion Director Lucinda Chambers on Curating Her Eclectic London Home

Former Vogue Fashion Director Lucinda Chambers on Curating Her Eclectic London Home  Artsy

Politics

7 d. ago ‘There's no one like Gaga’: Stylist Rhea Francois on curating London fashion pop

EXCLUSIVE Stylist Rhea Francois tells the Standard how she channelled Gaga’s most iconic eras for a new curated rental collection launching in London ahead of the singer’s Mayhem Ball shows at The O2

Politics

8 d. ago How Lord Nelson reacted to losing his arm: Letter reveals Battle of Trafalgar hero's stoic words after limb savaged by a musket ball was amputated... without anaesthetic

Nelson had his right limb blown off during the Battle of Santa Cruz in Tenerife in 1797. Five months after the remains of his limb was amputated, he wrote to a London curate.

Events

1 week ago Basslines over goalposts, cricket club bhangra nights: the gatherings where British diaspora music really grows

Away from the algorithm, the sound of multicultural Britain blossoms in sports halls and group chats, supporting community and inspiring the next generation of musiciansI don’t learn about music from record shops or curated playlists. I discover it on muddy football pitches in east London, with the smell of chips drifting from the van at half-time; in rented cricket halls in Bradford where there is always a giant urn of tea bubbling in the corner. The sounds that have shaped me as a Black British person aren’t designed by algorithms or commissioned by labels. They come from battered speakers balanced on trestle tables, bhangra basslines rattling the walls of community centres in Southall and WhatsApp threads buzzing long after everyone has gone home.I remember attending a Somali football league in east London where the match ended but no one left. The players, still in muddy boots, piled into the clubhouse to eat rice from foil trays while a DJ wired up his decks at the side of the ...

Politics

1 week ago Strange days: how the Blitz club changed the 1980s – and fashion

A new exhibition looks at how the legendary London club spawned acts such as Spandau Ballet and Boy George – but also provided a petri dish for fashion and style to growFor a nightclub that existed for less than 18 months, the Blitz – which opened at 4 Great Queen Street in Covent Garden, London, in February 1979 and closed in October 1980 – had an outside influence on UK culture.Set up by scenester Rusty Egan and aspiring pop star Steve Strange, who went on to have a Top 10 hit, Fade to Grey, with his band Visage, the Tuesday night party in a 200-person capacity space swiftly became the place to be seen if you were young, cool or creative. Famously, it spawned era-defining pop stars including Spandau Ballet, Sade and Boy George. Equally, though, fashion was central to its success. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago ‘Silence is complicity’: Benedict Cumberbatch, Florence Pugh and Riz Ahmed lead rousing Together for Palestine concert

Over the course of four hours, musicians, artists, speakers and activists come together at London’s Wembley Arena for fundraiser curated by Brian Eno

Politics

3 w. ago ‘It’s silent but does the heavy lifting’: the soft power of the white shirt

The white shirt speaks of formality without trying too hard and is making a comeback on the catwalk and on screenVictoria Beckham has positioned herself as a pop star, mother, perfumier, TikToker and fashion designer. But whatever job next month’s Netflix documentary focuses on – details are scant, but it’s thought the early October series will end at her Paris catwalk show – she will always be scrutinised over how she looks. How to temper that? Wear a plain white shirt.The documentary poster released this week shows Beckham wearing a diamond tennis bracelet, open-collar white shirt – and nothing else. Last week, the Princess of Wales appeared in public at the Natural History Museum, also in a plain white shirt. Earlier this month, the Duchess of Sussex launched her Netflix series in a white shirt (one of seven in fact), and when Taylor Swift recently announced her new album she did so wearing a white shirt. Laura Dern wore hers twice at the Venice film festival, and the woman with ...

Events