~theguardian-world | Bookmarks (12)

Celebrity fashion designer, who recruited couriers to transport bags from her native Colombia to US on commercial flights, receives 18-month sentence A leading fashion designer whose accessories were used by celebrities from Britney Spears to the cast of the Sex and the City TV series has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty in Miami federal court on charges of smuggling...

Woman Begging With Two Children, by an unknown artist, shows what appears to be a denim skirt in 17th-century ItalyThe origin of the world’s most enduringly popular fabric is in ­dispute, as a new exhibition spotlights a claim that firmly links denim with 17th-­century Italy and takes its history back 200 years.Blue denim, that all-American ­symbol of informality and a life lived on the open...

Wife of former PM says her time in No 10 helped shape her Cefinn clothing brand, which is opening a London storeWhile the Tories are in freefall, one former first couple are bucking the trend. Samantha Cameron, the designer and founder of the fashion brand Cefinn and wife of the former prime minister David Cameron, is about to open her first bricks-and-mortar store. The...

Footage of green-fingered BBC presenter obscured from waist down to hide ‘symbol of US imperialism’His calm demeanour and wholesome vocation have apparently endeared him to one of the most authoritarian regimes in the world. But there is something about Alan Titchmarsh that North Korea’s censors can’t quite forgive – his jeans.The green-fingered broadcaster and author of raunchy novels has been a fixture on state...

Many cite difficulties of juggling a family with job demands and a lack of industry supportA robot baby was an unlikely guest star on the catwalk at the Schiaparelli couture show in Paris earlier this year. Maggie Maurer, who had walked a few seasons previously while pregnant, and last year shared a snap of herself breastfeeding backstage, cradled the tot while wearing a defiantly...

High street retailer unveils padded shorts designed to give wearer a ‘curvy, contoured’ derriere“Does my bum look big in this?” When it comes to M&S’s bottom-shaping shorts, the desired answer is a definite yes.At a preview of its summer collection on Thursday, the high street retailer unveiled a pair of £15 shorts featuring padding designed to enhance the wearer’s buttocks. Continue reading...

Fashion personality who found fame in her 80s went from copywriter at Women’s Wear Daily to design authority whose projects included the White HouseIris Apfel – a life in picturesIris Apfel, the interior designer and fashion tastemaker who found fame as an octogenarian, has died aged 102.Apfel’s agent, Lori Sale, confirmed her death on Friday, and said “working alongside her was the honour of...

Australian Chinese former fashion blogger, whose appointment in 2021 was met with controversy, announces she is leaving the magazineThree years after becoming the youngest person to hold an editor title at Vogue, Margaret Zhang is leaving her position as editorial director of Vogue China.The Australian Chinese creative director announced her exit on Instagram on Monday, writing: “As we kick off a transformative Year of...

Giles David to replace Shaun Wills, with losses widening at troubled fashion brandSuperdry has parted ways with its fourth finance boss in five years as losses widened at the troubled UK fashion brand.The company said Shaun Wills, who has been the finance director for three years, is leaving the business and being replaced next week by the interim finance boss Giles David. Continue reading...

Historians analysed dyes in the 16th-century Glen Affric tartan, found in a peat bog, to recreate the true coloursThe oldest known piece of tartan ever found, which was discovered in a peat bog, has been recreated by experts.Uncovered about 40 years ago in a bog in Glen Affric in the Highlands, the tartan underwent rigorous testing last year to confirm it was the oldest...

Petition demands online retailer stop immediate sale of bags and compensation for damages incurredBusiness live – latest updatesUniqlo is suing the Chinese online retailer Shein over the sale of items it claims copy its popular banana-shaped ‘it’ bag, the “round mini”.The petition demands that Shein immediately stops the sale of “the imitation products” and pays compensation for damages incurred as a result of their...

British singer says ‘I am proud of my physicality’ after advert is banned by Advertising Standards AuthorityFKA twigs has defended a Calvin Klein advertisement she featured in that was banned earlier this week by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).The singer appeared in the poster ad dressed in a shirt held across her semi-nude body. Following two complaints from the public, the ASA said...