Style

Style

Today

15 Sep 2022
Alicia Healey
The Queen’s handbag was her secret weapon

In this period of national mourning, it may seem frivolous to comment on the late Queen’s handbag. After seven decades of selfless service to the nation, fashion is but a footnote to Her Majesty’s glorious reign. And yet her style is something that helped to create the powerful majestic image of Queen Elizabeth II, and which made her instantly recognisable worldwide. A key part of that image, and a constant presence in her working life, was her black Launer handbag. Launer London was Her Majesty’s handbag maker for more than 50 years and has held the Royal Warrant since 1968. Launer bags are formal and structured, and proved to be the ideal regal accessory for public engagements. Its first royal patronage came from HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in the 1950s.

The Queen’s handbag was her secret weapon

Friday

26 Aug 2022
Lukas Degutis
Neckerchiefs are a sartorial risk worth taking

Neckerchiefs are an oddity. Once the cowboys' sweat-wiping tool, they are now a key accessory in the glamour – or camp and borderline tack – of a flight attendant’s uniform. My approach to them tends to sit somewhere in the middle. Neckerchiefs are useful, stylish, rebellious, but comforting – a rare choice for men’s fashionwear. A neckerchief can spice up a dull-coloured shirt without imprisoning your neck in a collar choked by its distant relative, the tie. But before becoming the fabric embodiment of smart-casual, the neckerchief was wholly utilitarian. Sailors began wearing them in the 16th century to combat the discomfort caused by dripping sweat rubbing against their stiff-collared shirts. Scouts found the accessory doubled up well as a bandage or a sling in first-aid emergencies.

Neckerchiefs are a sartorial risk worth taking

Thursday

4 Aug 2022
Ben Lazarus
Ben Lazarus
How to blend your own beard oil

Every few months I take out a box of essential oils and carefully lay them out on my kitchen table, organising them in order from sweet-smelling to musty. On the left will be scents like juniper berry, lime, frankincense and bergamot; in the middle, woodish fragrances such as sandalwood and cedarwood; on the right, the darker stuff of patchouli and pine needle – and occasionally, when I’m feeling brave in my endeavour to make the perfect beard oil, lavender. Next I fill several large vials with a mixture of carrier oils, usually almond, jojoba and argan (and normally with almond making up the bulk as it’s the cheapest). I then begin mixing in various essential oils: a dash here, a dash there. There’s no science to my method, just free-pouring and nose work, as I bob around like some sort of Willy Wonka-style perfumier.

How to blend your own beard oil

Monday

1 Aug 2022
Jonathan Miller
Jonathan Miller
Is the world’s first supersonic business jet a flight of fancy?

It was Barbara Amiel, whose copy I used to edit at the Sunday Times, who first alerted me to the important point that one private jet isn’t enough. One jet is always in the wrong place. Or having heavy maintenance. Two was the minimum, she said. Plenty of others appear to live by the same maxim. Roman Abramovich has five jets, including a Boeing 787 Dreamliner worth $350 million. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos et al. are not short of a jet or two either. But soon all these symbols of tycoonery may be made obsolete by the world’s first supersonic business jet, announced by a start-up unfortunately named Boom Supersonic (presumably after the noise its aircraft will make when it passes overhead). Boom insists it has solved the sonic boom problem (which raises the question of why the company is in fact named Boom).

Is the world’s first supersonic business jet a flight of fancy?

Friday

29 Jul 2022
Simon de Burton
The James Bond gadgets going under the hammer

In a 1965 issue of Playboy magazine, the late Sean Connery said: 'Bond is the invincible figure every man would like to be.' If you’re such a man (or woman) you’ve probably left it too late to step into the Crockett & Jones chukka boots worn by outgoing Bond Daniel Craig in No Time to Die – but you could buy his Barton Perreira sunglasses from the film, or even that grey Tom Ford suit he made such a mess of during the motorbike and train chase sequences. Both are up for grabs in a forthcoming charity auction organised by Christie’s and EON Productions that could prove to be the highest-grossing sale of Bond memorabilia ever staged. Each of the six stars who have played Bond in the ‘official’ films will be represented by the last six lots being offered in the live auction with the rest of the sale set to include watches, clothes and other significant props that have appeared on screen as well as artwork, behind-the-scenes photographs - and even a five-night stay at GoldenEye, Bond author Ian Fleming’s Jamaican villa.

The James Bond gadgets going under the hammer

Wednesday

27 Jul 2022
Martin Gurdon
The trick to driving an electric car in the countryside

As every electric car owner knows, driving an EV over long distances in Britain is not without its obstacles. Everyone has their own tale of getting stranded somewhere unintended after running out of juice. A lack of available chargers can turn even short trips into a logistical nightmare. So how easy is it to run an EV in rural Britain? And should drivers even try? There are at least five electric cars in Kentish village where I live. Three of them belong to neighbours on my street, so I decided to ask them about the pros and pitfalls. Gardener Mark Hughes and his partner Jo bought their ex-demonstrator MG5 estate five months ago. Jo, a human resources consultant, works from home and Mark uses an ancient Peugeot diesel van for his gardening, so the MG isn’t needed for regular commuting.

The trick to driving an electric car in the countryside

Monday

25 Jul 2022
Alicia Healey
The art of the brooch

The recent unveiling of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s first joint portrait drew attention to a special piece of jewellery pinned to Catherine's emerald green dress – the Duchess of Cambridge brooch. The pearl and diamond pendant brooch, on loan to the Duchess for the portrait sitting, has been a royal family heirloom since the mid-19th century. It was originally crafted by London jeweller Garrard for a previous Duchess of Cambridge, the German born Princess Augusta (daughter-in-law of King George III and grandmother of Queen Mary). Since then, the brooch has been passed down to the next generation in the royal line of succession, HM The Queen being its current custodian. The Duchess of Cambridge wears the brooch in an official portrait by Jamie Coreth, 2022 (Getty) The Duchess of Cambridge’s choice of dress and accessories for her first official joint portrait reveals a lot about the image she wants to portray in the painting – something that has a more lasting place in history than press photography.

The art of the brooch

Thursday

21 Jul 2022
Charlotte Eagar
Ivana Trump’s guide to life

At Ivana Trump’s funeral yesterday, her children paid tribute to their ‘trailblazing’ mother. She was the ‘embodiment of the American dream’ they said. They were right, she was focused and driven, but she was also surprisingly generous with her advice. I sat next to Ivana Trump at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, and was struck by her good manners. We were at a dala dinner, in a Belle Époque hall, packed with stars and starlets, money men and courtiers – the delusional and desperate who mainline on the heroin of Cannes. I don’t think I was the placement Ivana was expecting: ‘Has it come to this? Stuck on the media table, with Charlotte Eagar and Nick Foulkes?’ she must have thought. For back then, Donald Trump hadn’t become president of the US, and Ivana was – in Cannes-world – just the ageing ex-wife of a (possibly) dodgy property developer/reality TV star.

Ivana Trump’s guide to life

Wednesday

13 Jul 2022
Simon de Burton
How the America’s Cup gave rise to world’s most elegant yachts

With the 37th America’s Cup a mere two years away, a small number of the world’s billionaires are busily pouring vast quantities of cash into building the AC75 monohull racing yachts that will skim across the sea off Barcelona at speeds of up to 60 mph, all in pursuit of a trophy colloquially called ‘the Auld Mug’ that the winner will be allowed to take home, but not keep.The America’s Cup is possibly the most bizarre and arcane contest in the history of international sport, having started at the time of the Great Exhibition in 1851 when the Earl of Winton, Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron, gracefully invited members of the fledglingNew York Yacht Club to pop across the pond and make the most of the facilities.

How the America’s Cup gave rise to world’s most elegant yachts

Tuesday

12 Jul 2022
Ameer Kotecha
The bliss of second-hand shopping

I know of few greater pleasures than a Saturday morning spent moseying around one of my local second-hand shops in Pimlico. These charity and vintage stores attract a varied crowd. Old-timers, but youngsters too, for whom vintage shopping is hip: not just for its ethical and sustainable credentials but thanks to the current clothing fashion trend for oversized and baggy. Preloved clothing is most definitely having a moment; this year's Love Islanders are even dressing in second hand outfits.Indeed, second-hand shops are perhaps one of the few places that attract both geriatrics and Gen Z. What’s more, vintage shopping is not just for the hard-pressed and hipsters, but for traditionalists too. They are often a refuge of quality British-made products and heritage brands.

The bliss of second-hand shopping

Tuesday

5 Jul 2022
Alicia Healey
The art of choosing sunglasses

Only Princess Diana could carry off Wimbledon white-rimmed aviators with such style. Pictured in the Royal Box at The Championships in 1986, The Princess of Wales brought an edge to her natural elegance in these striking shades. White sunglasses scream summer so are a great addition to a holiday wardrobe, pairing well with colourful fabrics. If you find white too stark then opt for ivory as a softer alternative.Quay sunglasses, £39Coloured shadesYou can’t go wrong with a classic Audrey Hepburn style black shade paired with monochrome outfits, but they can sometimes look too harsh with the softer colour palette and floaty frocks of summer. A tinted lens and tortoiseshell frame can be a softer option for paler skin complexions and lighter hair colours.

The art of choosing sunglasses

Monday

4 Jul 2022
Alec Marsh
The Brompton bike has overcome its biggest drawback

Brompton is one of those brands that has Britishness baked into it; it's the reason why the bike has become a status symbol amongst China's metropolitan elites and why 75 per cent of Bromptons are exported. But it was always hard to tell whether riders loved the idea of the bike more than its reality. On paper, a folding bike is a no-brainer for city commuters short on space, but packing in so many mechanisms while keeping the bike light has proved more than a little challenging.If you’ve ridden a standard Brompton then – say it quietly – you’ll know that despite their massive success they do have a tiny bit of a weight problem: not that it’s polite to talk about these things any more. At 10 to 13 kilos (depending on the model and fittings) the steel version can be a bit of drag when it comes to lugging it about certain stations or when you’ve got lots of stairs to negotiate.

The Brompton bike has overcome its biggest drawback

Monday

27 Jun 2022
Simon de Burton
Should Wimbledon ditch its all-white dress code?

As this year’s Wimbledon Championships will demonstrate, tennis has moved on a bit in the past half-century: rackets are no longer wooden, ‘Hawkeye’ settles the ‘You cannot be serious’ moments and the winner of the ‘gentlemen’s singles’ competition will trouser £1.7m (compared with the measly £5,000 Stan Smith took home in 1972). But what happened to those great outfits from the days of Smith, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors? The striped shirts, the short shorts, the groovy track tops. Where did all the style go? The answer dates back to the late 1990s when the organising committee tightened-up the dress code, side-lining the previous protocol requiring clothing worn on court to be ‘predominantly white’ in favour of a ’90 per cent’ rule.

Should Wimbledon ditch its all-white dress code?

Wednesday

22 Jun 2022
Martin Gurdon
Why you no longer need a driveway to go electric

Entrepreneur Jonathan Carrier reckons more people would drive electric cars if they had portable chargers in their boots. The electrical equivalent of a can of petrol.So he's launching one. Called the ZipCharge Go, he claims it’s a design world first. There are portable battery packs that work with electric cars. Generally, these are designed for giant American recreational vehicles, some of which have their own solar panels, and if you search YouTube you’ll come across allegedly comic videos of people recharging moribund Teslas with petrol generators, but the Go has been designed from the off to charge vehicles, and has the necessary software to pair up with them.‘The inspiration was my business partner's brother, who lives in an end of terrace house in Twickenham and bought an EV for personal use.

Why you no longer need a driveway to go electric

Wednesday

15 Jun 2022
Julie Burchill
Julie Burchill
What Emma Thompson needs to understand about celebrity nudity

Another day, another diva disrobes. If it’s not Madonna (63) being ‘outraged’ after being banned from Instagram Live (after continually breaking the app’s rules with her nude posts) for ‘digital depictions of her vagina’ it’s Emma Thompson (also 63) getting her kit off for her new film, in which she plays a widow who hires a sex worker. And like a bleak backbeat, we have the sad spectre of Britney Spears, a young woman used as an ATM machine by her immediate family and as fantasy fodder by strangers since she was old enough to wear a school uniform ironically. Her social media since her recent emancipation shows her to be understandably confused about what she is valued for and she has shared a string of naked pics with her 41 million Instagram followers.

What Emma Thompson needs to understand about celebrity nudity

Sunday

12 Jun 2022
Julie Burchill
Julie Burchill
Kim Kardashian is a better role model than Marilyn Monroe

When Kim Kardashian wore Marilyn Monroe’s dress to the Met Gala recently – the shimmering, crystal-studded, second-skin gown in which MM sang her infamous rendition of ‘Happy Birthday, Mr President’ to JFK in 1962 – many people had a collective fit of the vapours. You’d have thought someone had wiped their nose – or worse – on the Stars and Stripes in front of the White House, that some act of sacrilege had been committed. Kardashian (with the good manners characteristic of her – there’s a scene in an early season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians where her monstrous sister Khloe mocks her for being courteous to a nobody who is late with her new car) anticipated this: ‘I’m extremely respectful to the dress and what it means to American history.

Kim Kardashian is a better role model than Marilyn Monroe

Wednesday

8 Jun 2022
Simon de Burton
Car washing is making a comeback

'Moisture is a car’s worst enemy, Gerald. So why are you washing it?' So says Julie Walters in the 1985 comedy Car Trouble in which she plays frustrated housewife Jacqueline, whose pernickety husband has transferred his affection to an obsessively pampered Jaguar E-Type. The Sunday morning scene in which Gerald lovingly polishes the car’s famously phallic bonnet (Jacqueline refers to his ‘penis substitute’ more than once) is one that once took place in streets and suburban driveways the length and breadth of Britain. But now the sight of someone cleaning their own car with foaming water, sponge and chamois leather is a rare one. Such manual labour is deemed too trivial, grubby and time-wasting for today’s modern professional, especially since every conurbation now offers its own version of the team from the best film dedicated to the subject – Car Wash, 1976 – who will usually give your wheels a once-over for a fiver.

Car washing is making a comeback

Monday

6 Jun 2022
Siam Goorwich
How not to kill your house plants

The year was 2015, and I was head over heels, completely obsessed with House of Hackney’s Palmeral wallpaper. The bold print features fans of colonial green palm leaves splayed across a soothing off-white background, and I fantasised about plastering it over all four walls of my London living room, thinking it was the closest I was going to get to living in a tropical paradise any time soon. But as it turns out, I was thinking small. Very small. Sproutl – a schmancy new gardening and outdoor living platform – have just launched a tropical plant collection in collaboration with none other than The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; so now we can all have our very own slice of their iconic Palm House in our living rooms.

How not to kill your house plants

Monday

23 May 2022
Tom Chamberlin
The English shoemaker behind Prince William’s Top Gun slippers

Plenty about the Top Gun sequel has garnered anticipation, not least because Covid has consistently pushed the release date, which coincidentally finally landed around the time of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. At the Diamond Jubilee, we had Paloma Faith discuss both royal matters and her new album during the BBC's questionable coverage. At the Royal Windsor Horse Show this year, we had Tom Cruise introduce, for reasons only the cynical can decipher, the Royal Horse Artillery next to other celluloid luminaries like Omid Djalili and Martin Clunes. The elision of the world of celebrity with that of the royals is not always smooth, or indeed wise. And yet a successful meeting of these two spheres did occur this week on the Top Gun: Maverick premiere’s red carpet when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge showed up, and show up is exactly what Prince William did.

The English shoemaker behind Prince William’s Top Gun slippers

Tuesday

10 May 2022
Marianna Hunt
The English summer gardens worth a visit

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is mere weeks away – the floral spectacular that inspires us all to head out into gardens once again. In May and June a host of British flora comes to life, with dabbles of bubblegum peonies, shocking fuchsia azaleas and the syrupy smell of lilacs in the air. So why not draw inspiration for your own backyard by visiting some of the UK’s best and most beautiful gardens. RHS Chelsea Flower Show, LondonImage: Getty Rather than confining yourself to visiting one garden, head to this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, which brings together more than 30 – curated by some of the world’s leading landscape architects and designers. Running from 24 to 28 May this year, the show is the event in the horticultural calendar, with gardens as delicate and intricate as works of art.

The English summer gardens worth a visit

Wednesday

4 May 2022
Jayne Dowle
How to master the art of Jubilee memorabilia

The Duchess of Cornwall revealed a surprising hobby during a visit to a charity shop on Tuesday. After splashing out on a £1.50 mug celebrating the Queen's Jubilee, Camilla confessed that she has a 'whole collection' of royal memorabilia at home. With the Platinum Jubilee just weeks away, there will be plenty more opportunities for the Duchess, and the rest of us, for that matter, to stock up on regally themed wares. If the idea of celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in strident red, white and blue makes you feel distinctly queasy, there are ways to mark this momentous national occasion without turning your house and garden into Nigel Farage’s dream home. It might be a step too far to invest in a personalised Union Jack mug proclaiming – [your name] was here for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – emblazoned also with a metaphor-mixing picture of the Houses of Parliament, from Next, £12, but these nicely vintage half-pint Emma Bridgewater Platinum Jubilee commemorative mugs, £22, would make good keepsakes.

How to master the art of Jubilee memorabilia

Thursday

28 Apr 2022
Martha Gill
Getting a fringe is always a cry for help

Fringes have in recent years been considered attractive – Bettie Page, Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Birkin, Kate Moss – so it is easy to forget the period we have been living through is something of an aberration. For most of history, cutting a fringe has tended to mark a woman out as odd, mad or suspicious. In the 1600s, conservative churches thought a fringe indicated you were on your way to committing a mortal sin. This was true even as late as the 1920s, which is why the fringe was key to the rebellious flapper bob. There are stories of parents suing hairdressers for giving their daughter this haircut in case it damaged her chances of marriage. Those old fringe politics are back. Having a fringe nowadays says one of three things: break-up, breakdown or mutiny.

Getting a fringe is always a cry for help

Tuesday

26 Apr 2022
Melanie McDonagh
Melanie McDonagh
The surprising middle-class gadget that cuts energy bills

If there’s one company that’s a kind of stock market indicator of the condition of the British middle classes, it’s Lakeland. It specialises in very good household stuff – cleaning and cookware and any number of ingenious gadgets (the catalogues are, I have to say, addictive) – and it has an uncanny knack of registering where popular tastes are going. Its annual Trends report is seized on as an indicator of what normal families are up to, and so it’s proved, on everything from passing trends like the spiraliser (courgette pasta, anyone?) to the inexorable move to recyclables. So, what’s the Lakeland index suggesting now about the British consumer? She and he are trying to do something about the bills, chiefly the energy bills.

The surprising middle-class gadget that cuts energy bills

Wednesday

20 Apr 2022
Alicia Healey
What the Queen can teach us about timeless dressing

The Queen has spent more time than most deciding what to wear to work each day, having spent the last 70 years as monarch. As one of the most photographed women in the world, her dress sense has played a large role in defining her image as a timeless figure who rises above cultural trends and changeable politics. Over seven decades she has fine-tuned her royal working wardrobe to perfection by adopting certain style formulas from which we can all learn. Here are five style lessons exemplified by our platinum Queen.Embrace colour Queen Elizabeth II attends a reception for 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, who were honoured with the Freedom of The City of Edinburgh, at the Palace of Holyroodhouse on 3 July, 2018 in Edinburgh (Getty) While it is true that some colours complement certain complexions and hair colours, the Queen has never shied away from all colours of the rainbow and is well known for her love of brightly coloured outfits for public engagements.

What the Queen can teach us about timeless dressing

Tuesday

19 Apr 2022
Simon de Burton
The electric Mercedes with a range to die for

As a pubescent teenager back in the late 1970s, I was delighted to once find a discarded copy of The Sun newspaper on a tube train, handily folded back to reveal page three. Having admired Miranda from Epping my eyes shifted to the report of a court case in which a retired brigadier had been stopped on the M1 motorway for driving his sporty Rover 3500S at a reckless 102 mph. His defence? That he had been listening to Rossini’s rousing William Tell Overture on the car’s eight-track sound system and become so carried away that he simply kept accelerating – a scenario that was supported by the arresting police officer who confirmed that the defendant, in addition to travelling at almost 50 per cent above the speed limit, also appeared to have been conducting an imaginary orchestra from behind the wheel.

The electric Mercedes with a range to die for

Thursday

14 Apr 2022
Edward Behrens
Why violets come into their own at Easter

The English Rock Garden, the magnum opus of the great gardening writer, horticulturist and plant collector Reginald Farrer, is an indispensable A to Z guide to alpine flowers. When he finally reaches V, Farrer writes: ‘Viola brings this alphabet to the last great dragon in its path.’ But rather than offering fire-breathing terror, he presents a family of flowers containing both beauties and ‘dull and dowdy species’. There are between 400 and 500 species in the viola family. The sweet violet, while lacking the dark mystery and beauty of its cousin Bowles black, was associated with Aphrodite and became a symbol of both Athens and fertility, which evolved into a Scots tradition of violets being presented to brides on their wedding day in the Athens of the North.

Why violets come into their own at Easter

Monday

11 Apr 2022
Martin Gurdon
How to save money at the pump

If fuel prices are making you splenetic, the driving techniques designed to make that fuel go further might restore a degree of calm.Driving with economy in mind is all about smoothness, anticipation, being aware of your surroundings and not rushing things. Serial congestion means that, more often than not, an easy going journey is only fractionally slower than one where you’ve gone hell for leather.So, here are some driving techniques that will help keep down the petrol bills:Leave time to brakeHarsh acceleration and braking will dent your car’s efficiency. Looking ahead and around you, so that you’re anticipating things that might bring you to a sudden stop will result in it working less hard, which will improve your MPG.

How to save money at the pump