Fashion
Football focus
Part canvas, part sandwich board, club kits don’t always work – but their designs can be addictive
iAddicts
For many years The Spectator employed a television reviewer who did not own a colour television. Now they have decided…
Permanent ink
Brooklyn Shall I have my sister’s skin peeled off for display after she dies? Specifically, the tattooed bits — the…
Diary
Not only are today’s young girls having to work hard on their abs, butts and glutes, now the likes of…
Beware the Lycra louts
Cycling in funny clothes is bad for the soul
Bangkok
Last time I went to Thailand, there’d been something of a misunderstanding about accommodation, and my friend and I ended…
A box of delights
Juliet Nicolson examines women’s lives and changing fashions through a rich hoard of buttons for all occasions
Fashion faux pas
‘I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good-looking,’ said a pouty Derek Zoolander…
The medium is the message
Molly Crabapple is an American artist and Drawing Blood is the story of her life. That life has only been…
Brass tacks
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
Center Parcs Longleat is a holiday village in a forest in Wiltshire, on Lord Bath’s estate, so you can never…
High life
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
The first episode of Let Us Entertain You (BBC2, Wednesday) definitely couldn’t be accused of lacking a central thesis. Presenter…
DVF worship
Girl is back for half-term so I’ve been able to watch nothing but crap on TV this week. Some of…
Independents’ day
I really hadn’t meant to write a postscript to last week’s column on my dark Supertramp past. But then along…
Something fishy
Selfridges is skilled at making things that are not hideous (women) look hideous (women dressed as Bungle from Rainbow or…
Dedicated follower of fashion
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
St James Theatre hosts a new play about Alexander McQueen (real name Lee), whose star flashed briefly across the fashion…
Your problems solved
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
British people buy £43 million worth of human hair a year. So who’s selling?
Designer fatigue
Different concepts of luxury may be inferred from a comparison of the wedding feast of Charles Bovary and Emma Rouault…
Sonia alone
In 1978, shortly before she died, the artist Sonia Delaunay was asked in an interview whether she considered herself a…
Artificial life
Mad Men looked great but, as the final season draws to a close, was there really anything to it, wonders James Delingpole
Majesty of the malls
In this autobiography, Mary Portas doesn’t dip into the fabled store of her talents by giving an account of her…
Shock and awe
Alexander McQueen may have been a prat but at least he was an interesting one, says Shura Slater
