It’s safe to say my video was not well received by the multimedia platform and publication, SheerLuxe last week when I shared my thoughts on their creation of three additional AI avatars to use on their publication.

Within 24 hours I had the founder and CEO in my dm requests, and another one of the bosses in the comments on my TikTok. Beefing.

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I often come back to the simple tee-shirt. For all of us, it is a universal item that we have and wear throughout our whole lives. So I will be making my case here, and recommending a few for both men and women.

When I first began getting into fashion and understanding my consumption, the place I began was where I bought the most items and what these were. It was easily a t-shirt, a unisex staple for any persons wardrobe - at the time just black ones and white ones, but I was buying a £7 T-shirt from H&M every other week more or less. It was the uniform, easy to pull off with any trousers and easy for pretty much every occasion while I was at university. Not a fashionable piece but one which would help me evade any unwanted attention, until I became a little braver.

So I began a hunt for my less-but-better. If I could spend a bit more and get loads more wear out of them, then I would end up saving money. My white t-shirts got stained quickly and even if it wasn’t from dropping things down them it was the yellowing and greyness in the armpits. Regardless of colour, they were very misshapen after a few washes and never sat the same. I noticed this the most when I came to iron them and I find the side seams and lay it flat, but the shoulders wouldn’t sit right, and vice versa, I’d pinch it by the shoulders drape it down flat and the bottom hem would be all twisted?? I couldn’t work out why for ages and even noticed it looked like my shoulders were completely uneven when I was wearing them.

Then I began to understand clothing and textiles much more and it made sense. So the journey began. Since then I have been lucky to be around many great brands who make amazing t-shirts, which I will recommend below. The reality is it’s great to have them for different purposes - particularly around weight and material so I’ll explain under each selection. Most of all you will not find any of the recommendations you’ll find in the articles from Vogue or SheerLuxe who seem to all suggest the best t-shirts come from fast fashion and high street brands like Uniqlo, H&M and M&S - you’ll see none of that here, perhaps because I’m not taking their money for ads, and that I’m not insanely basic…

Of course these all come under the lens of I would actually buy these brands so I don’t mind supporting them, and as always keep your existing items as long as you can before buying new!

(There is no affiliate links in here, so your subscriptions really mean a lot to me) If you see one you like outside of your price-point - check eBay or Vinted, as these brands really do stand up for years.

PS. Some of the designers and brands mentioned here will happily make something for you if you contact them - this is something I am encouraging more and more people to do! Independent designers want to make things for you - and we should be supporting them this way!

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It’s time to buckle up.

Over the past few weeks, I have seen article, after post, after panel, essentially bashing secondhand and preloved fashion. Is it brands fighting back when the news broke that secondhand is booming, or is it the by-product of a surge in popularity? I’ll get into it, but either way we need to strap in and get ready to defend again.

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Is it me or is everyone still talking about Chanel? If it’s not the tweeds, its the RTW from Blazy which has apparently sold out / low on stock / or it’s the new bag that everyone wants but noone can get. Crazy that a brand of this grandeur and price point can still ignite people inside. Anyway, I added a few pieces of Chanel or Chanel-Adjacent style-wise into this weeks selects.

On the other hand, Tom Ford (the brand not the human), made a few social media news cycles this week for the pricing of the latest collection as well as this obscene transparent trench coat, which is reminiscent of the festival waterproofs, and similarly composed of plastic.

Edinburgh Tweed Jacket

Black Tweed Jacket

2003 White Tweed Jacket

Yes the price of Chanel Flap bags have skyrocketed, why buy a new one at all, seriously? I’d also be more interested in some other styles now too… hence why I think the new one has become so popular!

Moschino Black Handbag (less than 1/5th of the price of the new Chanel Maxi Flapbag)

Chanel Bag with actual 24k Gold hardware

A nice one but remember these are £13,500 new and no longer have gold hardware…

Partnering the Chanel with some Self-Portrait options below, taking the lead from BryanBoy’s stories this week… And some often overlooked designers too

Self Portrait Cream Bouclé and Chiffon Dress

Very Chanel-Coded Self Portrait Number

Self Portrait Denim Number

Incredible 2 piece Skirt Suit from Roland Mouret

Cinq a Sept Roxy Jacket - Still 500-800 online! This is new with tags!

Okay time to round this off with some Tom Ford, or alike, and some menswear too! One of my best preloved finds is definitely a Tom Ford white dress shirt for an insane price, less than a new SuitSupply or TM Lewin Shirt!!

Get the look for literally a hundred quid!!

(It may not have the croc lining but who really cares, it’s still a glasto-fit.)

Some Jason Wu options here - truly beautiful pieces!

Sheer Organza Trench

Military Single-Button Trench

Stunning Cinq a Sept Black Embroidered Organza Number

Tom Ford coded Leather Bomber from Roland Mouret

Tom Ford Check Shirt - Could easily rival Pep Guardiola’s Our Legacy one, but also about £1k off RRP!

This article has really made me realise just how much good stuff you can get for a fraction of the retail price - Brands like Chanel, Mouret, Tom Ford… It is crazy and shows you it’s well-worth a little look.

Some bonus bits here - I recently moved flats and my two essentials are a vacuum and air purifier. Luckily, and not a lot of people know this but there is a Dyson Refurbished Store on eBay!

Dyson v15 Vacuum

Dyson Air Purifier

I’ve lost the plot.

It’s not my fault. This year has been an absolute shitstorm of bad news after bad news. And sadly, the good news of EU waste etc last all of 5 minutes in a world that is full of fast fashion collabs, AI slop seeping out the corner of every campaign, endless new lines, and ridiculous overconsumption.

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AI slop, I thought, would be the focus of this year, given that it entered Vogue’s print magazine come the end of last year. Boss have used it for some absolute rubbish communal surf board shoot, and recently Prada used it to create some extremely weird campaign images with their famous ambassadors. It is the way it’s employed as a fun tool with complete disregard for it damaging footprint that pisses me off - “it’s just a bit of fun”, what? At the expense of thousands of gallons of water, cooling data centres currently overheating due to insane energy use in the desert? Great, that was really needed, I would not have been able to sleep without seeing a Gruffalo-like bird-dinosaur next to the kid from About a Boy. Ffs.

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Willy Chavarria dropped a collab with Zara and the prices were basically regular Zara prices and for me, poor value for money - £80 hoody that’s a cotton-polyester blend?? Anyway I’m going to make a point so here’s some other Willy Chavarria pieces more worthy! They’re also in proximity price-wise with the Zara collab…

Willy Chavarria

Adidas x Willy Collab Hoody in Hero Colours

Willy Chavarria Half Zip

Willy Chavarria Hoody that is actually cotton

Willy Chavarria White Hoody (Another one)

Willy Chavarria Grey Dress Shirt

Willy Chavarria black track pants

Willy Chavarria Black Utility Shirt

Willy Chavarria Charcaol wide leg pants

Galliano for Margiela and Dior also available - why shop Zara??

When I say there is so much good Margiela and Dior from the cool and querky era’s, it is an understatement. And as I said before, the prices are in proximity to Zara, infinitely more cool, and I don’t think the Zara x Galliano stuff is gonna be cheap anyway!

Maison Margiela Grey Single Breasted Jacket

Maison Margiela Linen Shawl lapel jacket

Maison Margiela Trompe l'oeil Pinstripe Pants

Maison Margiela Tabi Ballet Flats

Pre-Galliano Margiela but awesome coat

Maison Margiela MM6 Cut & Sew Jacket - Insanely cool

Dior by Galliano 2000's Bomber Jacket

Dior by Galliano stunning Anglais broderie jacket

Dior by Galliano Dot Chenille Shawl

Dior by Galliano Denim Midi Skirt

Dior by Galliano Logo Skirt - so chic

Dior by Galliano Logo Sandal Heel

Preloved Stella

Stella McCartney Fold-over Falabella Bag - Practically half price

Stella McCartney Tote Bag

Stella McCartney Silk Shirt Dress as Worn by Paul McCartney's Wife

Stella McCartney Asymmetric Runway Dress

A major development of all of these platforms is the implementation of shopping within social media, catapulting the LTK merchants and instant shopping ability. Yay, consumerism X capitalism, collab of the century. QVC has well and truly returned in a monstrous fashion, and live-streamers are currently enjoying the spoils of being chronically online.

But this year, things have taken an even more interesting, worrying and potentially damaging turn. Khaby Lame, the most followed person on Tiktok just sold his influencing business for almost a billion dollars, to a publicly traded holding company in Hong Kong. Why does this matter so much, you may ask. Well it’s what this company can do with his business that is really interesting.

Khaby Lame is a 25 year old, Senegalese-born Italian who first went viral for his simple takes and reaction videos. Most people will probably have seen him stitch a video of someone doing something in an inefficient and even stupid way, and reenact it with his “fix” followed by his signature hand-gesture, which implies, “see, like this, it’s simple” sentiment, as the influencer has basically never been filmed talking or making a noise at all. Some highlight that his muteness is actually key to his success, given that no dialogue means the content won’t get specifically pushed in the direction of regions that speak a certain language and instead makes his content appeal universally. It’s the Mr Bean effect.

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I’ll try and mix the womenswear, menswear and accessories together but feel free to let me know which sort of things you’re also looking for and I will try and help!

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• First up a wardrobe classic, perfect for the spring and summer months coming, white straight leg jeans from The Row. An insane saving from new, and something to wear year after year.

  

Link - The Row White Jeans

• Giving me the inspiration here was the shirt worn by Pep Guardiola in this weeks Champions League tie with Real Madrid. I might have to get this for myself.

  

Link - Our Legacy Check Shirt

Option 2 - Our Legacy Check Shirt

Option 3 - Our Legacy Check Shirt

• Some excellent value brand new Lemaire shoes for women - this style is perfect for an elegant shoe and has the rubber patch on the sole so should be great for durability too. Out of stock practically everywhere and a really good saving on the new price of their shoes. I love these.

  

  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/257407174768?mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&siteid=3&campid=5339145797&toolid=80006&mkevt=1

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• I absolutely love a good dress watch and wear one most days. But more and more people are going after the same watches from the same brands. This one would really make you stand out and earn the respect from people who know their watches. I wear a Vacheron daily and when people notice the clasp I get the nod. This is a beautiful example and well worth sending an offer.

Link - Vacheron Constantin Dress Watch

• I’ve recently been enjoying layering a light technical jacket over the top of my layers and tailoring and this one from Studio Nicholson works really well over tonal browns and cream. Good for this time of year too as it doesn’t add much weight to the outfit but also keeps you dry if some drizzle is on the way.

  

Link - Lightweight Techincal Jacket

• You can literally never go wrong with some vintage Armani tailoring, and the price of some of these is insane. So much good stuff and it makes me think why anyone would buy new sometimes. Imagine rocking up to work in some of these pieces - both menswear and womenswear.

  

  Link - 90’s Armani Women’s light green skirt suit

  

  Link - Vintage Armani Men's Slouchy Suit

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• Wool and Silk Suit - A great addition to any mens wardrobe

  

  Link - Armani Wool & Silk Suit

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• Preloved Celine by Phoebe Philo is a great place to start when it comes to trying to get something remotely affordable from Phoebe Philo - this oversized blazer from Celine Resort 2018 collection, is a really versatile piece for any woman’s rotation.

  

Link - Celine Oversized Blazer by Phoebe Philo

• Back in September Barbour launched their collab with Margaret Howell. I was completely obsessed with this jacket from the women’s collection, and back then it was around £500. Now some are on eBay for a big reduction and I quite like that they have some character.

  

  Link - Barbour for Margaret Howell Waxed Parka in Kelp

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The next Zara collaborator will be John Galliano. The designer has signed a two year contract which will see him “re-author” the brands archives. Before we get into whatever that means, I don’t know where they’re kept but I imagine a lot of it can be found in landfill or the ocean, we need to talk about the repercussions this has for other designers and the rest of fashion.

Galliano represents one of the biggest fashion names yet to partner with Zara. The semi-recently departed Margiela designer, is a firm favourite amongst the fashion crowd. After graduating from UAL: Central Saint Martins, he began his eponymous brand with help from stylist Amanda Harlech and my dear friend and World’s Best milliner, Stephen Jones. After some tough years, it closed and he was declared bankrupt before turning to the help of Anna Wintour and then Vanity Fair correspondent, André Leon Talley. They introduced him to some real, and well-needed money. After working with clients, on celebrity projects and showing collections again, he was appointed head designer at Givenchy by Bernard Arnault, showing his first couture collection in January 1996. Less than two years later, he was appointed to the prestigious house of Dior, replacing Gianfranco Ferre, where he spent 14 years, winning British Designer of the Year Award four times within a 10-year period.

Despite all of this, his cult following and his well-received Margiela shows from the past decade, it doesn’t make him exempt from criticism. And what makes me weary of the next steps is that his decision to work with Zara, gives agency to every other designer in the world to not care about morality too.

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I have been going to fashion week shows for many years now, but for the first time, I was lucky enough to make it to Copenhagen Fashion Week on the guest programme for their Fall Winter 2026 shows.

The Designers and Collections

Each city has its’ own unique flavour on the fashion week circuit, and Copenhagen was no different. The Scandi-design aesthetics have become worldwide trends recently, adopting a minimal, tonal style, alongside a knitwear heavy and over-accessorised look with plenty of pops of colour. These two themes co-exist and are very apparent throughout CPHFW.

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I feel like I am talking about the dark ages of the internet when I discuss this but stick with me on a time-jump to back when influencing had just become a thing, and the glossy mags were still bibles to any working folk. These two demographics; Influencers and journalists, had a fucking field day with Hi-Lo shit for years through affiliate links and click-thrus. But now, times up. It’s shit and always has been.

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Last week in Milan, notorious tax evaders and problematic designers Dolce & Gabbana staged their FW26 men’s fashion show.

As always the clothes were beautiful, elegantly styled and expertly made by the workers in their ateliers. D&G do usually produce a similar spectacle each fashion week in Milan, shutting down the streets for half the day and perusing eurocentrically pretty men through the tram-track riddled roads. They also often have a theme, for years they have dedicated looks throughout their collections for the typical working jobs of Italian men, be-it carpenters or mechanics with a high-fashion twist. However, this season was rather different.

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Seeing as last years post was so well-read, and I’m glad to say that my friends were pretty much bang on the money, I thought we could run it back and go again.

Predictions for the year are often said with both some hope and some disappointment. The reality is, as is the premise of my work in general, is that we wrestle and fight with the things we love - fashion being a prime example. Throughout 2025, lots of things really frustrated, annoyed and disappointed me in fashion, but I still enjoy what I do for work, and will do my best to change it for the better. Sometimes this absolutely leaves you with a feeling of helplessness, yet here we are season after season, year after year, hoping one day things will change for the better.

2025 saw a breakthrough on many fronts - AI in fashion became a thing, Made In Italy had a rude awakening, and fast fashion got beaten and yet somehow got bigger with Shein opening their first physical retail space, despite more scandals and exposés.

So what do we have to look forward to, or beware of, on 2026? I went through my contacts and asked some friends in the industry, and tried to cover most grounds with social media commentators, journalists, designers, stylists and everyone in between. So if you enjoy what you read please share it, and it would be great if you keep an eye on this post and the rest of my work throughout the year to see how things develop.

Right, I’ll go first.

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2025 was undoubtedly the breakthrough year of AI in Fashion. It was everywhere, whether we noticed or not. Many people were fooled and outraged, but by the wrong thing. And many, many people, not just models, lost their job.

This was also the year I received a casting request for a client who wanted to use my image and likeness with Artificial Intelligence. This wasn’t just a simple casting request though, and the AI modelling probably isn’t working how you expect it to.

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On January 2nd 2025, I posted this article, detailing mine and my fashion industry friends’ predictions for the year ahead. Now as we approach the end of the year, I wanted to reflect and stock-take what this year brought and how the predictions stand up.

I also want to just say thanks to everyone who read the original piece - it was one of the most well-read articles I posted this year, and must also thank everyone who I pestered to help contribute to it. I really appreciate the support of people who comment, re-stack and like the articles as it helps my writing reach new readers!

So here we go, and remember, this was just a bit of fun from some serious and unserious people in the industry, who I am lucky enough to call friends.

Me First

So my own predictions were that high fashion and low fashion would collab more - this was seen extremely recently in the form of Stella McCartney and H&M, as well as Glenn Martens of Maison Margiela earlier on in the year. But we also saw Zara work with some of the best creatives in the industry, as well as do collaborations with LVMH Prize winner Soshi Otsuki, Ludovic De Saint Sernin and Harry Lambert, and of course the famous Kate Moss collections, shot by Steven Meisel. Social media collaborations with high fashion creators like Style Not Com and Lyas, who were also in attendance at the Asos runway in the street on a random day of the year in London. Zara have also begun their move into a new phase of business, closing down the large stores and aiming to look like a niche, boutique brand that is design-led, practically unrecognisable from the trend-driven fast fashion giant they’re known for being over the last 15+ years. Obviously, Zara and H&M ravished the LFW schedule this September, while Amazon Fashion stuck their nose in to the CFDA awards and the Business of Fashion 500 event.

A couple fast fashion brands did go under, though perhaps not the ones I was hoping for - Quiz clothing and River Island (again) sought restructuring plans and agreements with lenders. People did start to like Chanel but mostly because Mathieu Blazy moved there. Brain Rot content got worse, but I think we are now reaching a tipping point and we may have become bored of it. Miu Miu were replaced by Loewe and Saint laurent as the hottest brand in Q1 and Q3 this year, still waiting on that Q4…

One thing I definitely think I got wrong was how many people were talking about sustainability - Of all the marketing campaigns over the last few years, I think this was the year most brands stopped talking about it. Perhaps through fear of being called out for greenwashing but also because consumers have become tired of hearing it, and its’ meaning has lost all credibility.

Finally, something no-one even spoke about in our predictions was the rise of AI Slop. Never could we have predicted just how many brands would be using it, Miley Cyruus got scammed by fake AI images branded as her Gucci campaign, Vogue published an AI campaign from Guess in print, and H&M cloned some models to whore out their AI counterparts. Fuck. This is something I’ll be speaking about in next years’ predictions.

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To celebrate the Brioni’s 80th Anniversary, we went to Rome for an extremely special evening and dinner with the brand.

It’s well known by now, just how much I respect and admire Brioni. The self-proclaimed tailoring legends, have been about the right things for a long time, prioritising elegance and timelessness over the ‘capital F’ fashion, that most other brands have chased, despite them being steeped in history too.

Brioni did revolutionise men’s fashion, bringing ready-to-wear to the mainstream by exhibiting the first ever men’s fashion show to Palazzo Pitti in Florence in 1952. Lucky for us, artefacts and anecdotes from this time joined us for the event, and were on display at the Chiostra del Bramante - immersed in a stunning Roman pillared courtyard - turned exhibition space and dinner setting. Everything from the first invitation, and a running display of that show, to tuxedos worn by notable figures throughout the last eight decades.

Me wearing a full Brioni black tie: black silk shirt, bow tie and cummerbund, and a silk shawl lapel on a velvet dinner jacket, with black patent leather evening oxford shoes.

Mannequin plinths were in chronological formation around the perimeter on the ground-floor; Bruce Pask, Senior director of Men’s Fashion at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus asked me to snap him this picture (below) in front of the white jacket worn by Marcello Mastroianni in La Dolce Vita. Further round were pieces adorned by a couple James Bonds (casually), as well as more recent innovations including this gold ensemble (also below). Not just gold in colour, but actual 24k gold made by melting gold ingots down so finely, spun into a thread and weaved into this incredible herringbone double breasted jacket. Further along were recent red carpet moments worn by Jean-Rege Page (of Bridgerton fame) at the Academy Museum’s 5th Annual Gala.

Further treats detailing the brands history were upstairs, velvet tuxedo jackets, gold hand embroidered dinner suits and pieces from the 1950’s to the 1970’s. A more modern piece worth mentioning was a baby blue Doge tuxedo jacket in a textured velvet, which was handwoven on a jacquard loom from the 19th century, using pure silk yarns and an 18th century pattern. And finally, photographs, press and newspaper clippings from old collections and videos of the show itself. This was really interesting and it was cool to see how shows used to be. Models smiling and interacting with each other and the audience, buyers, press and clients sat in admiration and actual joy. If you can find the footage online I really recommend having a look - the tailoring could also be from one of the recent collections and nobody would batter an eyelid. This is the true testament of Brioni’s timelessness and dedication to craft.

Further round the pillars were some artisans from the atelier quietly working at a table with cloth, needles and scissors, under the lights and attention of all the guests, pre-dinner. I’ve said this before but there are plenty of Italian fashion brands who are currently skirting around letting you know who their workforce is, whereas the true craft brands are quite literally bringing them to you. And as ever, the design director Norbert Stumpfl is on hand to talk through the pieces, the inspiration, the manufacturing process and the countless hours it takes to make these special pieces.

The night progressed to a beautiful dinner and a talk from the CEO, Federico Arrigone, who was appointed earlier this year, followed by a short film projected onto the huge curtain we were sat afoot, showcasing the beginnings and historical moments, like a “This is your life” video. Finally, we were treated to a performance by Italian singer, Mario Biondi, as the night closed. Even the celebrations of huge milestones are done in a way that is understated and refined rather than an audacious, aggrandising over the top display, everything the brand does is true to who it is and who they dress.

Next Steps

Over the past few seasons Brioni has gained momentum, not only being one of the very few luxury brands currently in a growth phase, but it has also drawn more widespread attention and respect from a younger generation. My friends are excited to go and see the presentation, and the atmosphere is perhaps more refined than the other menswear presentations during Milan Fashion Week.

It came as a surprise then, that earlier this week it was announced the design director, Norbert Stumpfl and Brioni were parting ways. Brioni aren’t a house who’ve gone through the mill with directors in the years where every other brand has - Stumpfl has been there seven years, but prior to that they went through three in five years, including a 6-month stint for Justin O’Shea, followed by a less-than-1-year tenure of Nina-Maria Hitsche. Stumpfl has transformed the brand again into the reliable, consistent and yet never boring, staple that is dependable. Innovating constantly with what is possible with materials, whilst looking at Brioni’s rich history for inspiration moving forward, has been their signature, and while many luxury brands have still chased the noise and viral moments of trends, Brioni have remained in their own lane, quietly going about business.

Whichever direction Brioni go in next remains unknown to us, but it is without a doubt that Stumpfls’ chapter at the Roman house will be reflected upon as one of the best in recent decades.

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Over the many years of Stella’s brand, she has collaborated with other’s time and again to deliver innovative products that we/she hopes will have a positive impact on the rest of the industry. Her last collection was no different and caused a bit of a stir with an extremely realistic iteration of plant-based ostrich feathers.

Along with my twin brother Scott, we headed over to the Stella McCartney press day to check out the latest collection and speak with the new crop of innovators she has collaborated with.

Better Everything

First of all, the store. A neo-brutalist adaptation of an Edwardian London townhouse on the newly crowned, World’s most expensive retail street, Bond Street. Downstairs is a concrete-lined, but contemporary, well-lit bunker with stone from Stella’s pied-a-terre, repurposed timber, an illuminated rubber counter, leading to an atrium with the street’s most elegant, sculptural staircase made from raw steel. Upstairs on the first floor of women’s RTW, you’ll find vintage Mario Bellini furniture, wall panels made from recycled paper waste, mannequins made from sugarcane and the cleanest air in London courtesy of Airlabs*. There are sustainability touch-points absolutely everywhere and it seems her and the team have thought of almost everything. Something I enjoy the most is that it is pretty bloody nice from a design and aesthetic perspective first, mixing brutalism, mid-century and modern elements, whilst also happening to be, more sustainable.

Innovators Past and Present

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Not many Black Friday campaigns stand out anymore.

When I think of some from the past there were a handful of ones who would actively shut down for the day, disable their website, and close their stores, to help raise awareness and offer time for reflection on our consumption habits. Christopher Raeburn comes to mind, and has been very vocal about the issues around overconsumption, given that it’s kinda the platform from which he designs. Likewise with Rubbish London who will enter their seventh year of shutting down on Black Friday and pushing back against all the other trends. There was also the famous Asket wall in Sweden which read, “Fuck Fast Fashion’ from October 2019 (Not specifically Black Friday), aggressive and without nuance, it actually worked for me.

In recent years, brands have been less bold, forever at the mercy of fast fashion money, whether it be in the form of collaborations or award sponsorships. People are more afraid of speaking out than ever before, in case of shooting themselves in the financial foot. Of course, even with some of the good campaigns, these have to compete alongside all of the other Black Friday garbage every other brand was churning out simultaneously. It ranges from “20% off today only”, to a week-long offer, “99% off EVERYTHING” and “Just pay shipping”. Black Friday is the ultimate dark pattern marketing - a perceived one-day-only offer, ‘get it now or lose it forever at this price’. Capitalism on steroids.

But as we know, this is basically all bullshit. Most offers have been seen at the same price or actually cheaper at some other point throughout the year, and rather than it actually be a “one-day-only” offer, this bleeds into something called Cyber Monday, Cyber Weekend, and before we know it, Christmas Sales, then Boxing Day Sales, and then January Sales. It’s kinda like DFS at this point.

Gone are the days when this used to be even more chaotic because it had some level of authenticity, both in regards to the discounts, and that it was for literally one day only. This often ended in stampedes at shop doorways, and many injuries, as customers rushed through broken doors, windows and other people to grab an actual bargain. None of that exists anymore, for worse or, for worse. Annoyingly there still seems to be some “better” brands subscribing to the Black Friday sales to compete with fast fashion, under the guise of, people are gonna shop so they might as well shop from a better brand. But this still draws us into dangerous patterns and reinforces our consumption habits throughout this ridiculous period. It is also a lose-lose situation for decent brands - trying to compete in a game you can never win, is counterproductive. Devaluing a product and teaching your community that sales will come back one day, will prevent customers from buying full-price. And most of all, you’re playing a game none of the other brands play, because as I mentioned earlier, the big fast fashion brands are so loud and chaotic that they have multiple sales seasons throughout the year so it’s practically impossible to place a real value on any of their products. People will always notice when a small brand moves their benchmark.

In contrast to all that though, my friend Anna Woods of Positive Retail is using this period to shout, be angry, and educate, potentially at her own expense. For years she has championed slow fashion and better fashion. Through her stores and online, she provides a second-opportunity for unsold inventory, deadstock, returns and preloved. But it goes much deeper than that. It’s inherently about community. Her stores are stocked with real people with real voices, activists’ books like Aja Barber’s Consumed, and alongside the clothing, are other lifestyle elements and touch points for people to find more responsible, independent brands. This Black Friday they’ve gone one step further though.

Yes, she has scribbled out her own smiley face logo and replaced it in a graffiti-like fashion, with a sad face. Oh and she’s written “DON’T BUY SHIT FOR THE SAKE OF IT” in massive green writing on the shop windows at their Dalston store. This store is on a busy main road with popular bus routes and high footfall for all the neighbouring shops and businesses. It now sticks out like a sore thumb, and as we were filming outside, we had so many great examples of people stopping, analysing both the windows, looking bemused and going inside. Their aim is to get people’s attention and welcome them inside to learn more, without shame or pressure, about the damage our consumerism is having on the planet and communities.

The truth about Black Friday is 80% of purchases end their life rather quickly and are sent to landfill, incineration or are very rarely downcycled into something of lesser quality. And even further than that, according to a survey… 62% of people admit that their Black Friday purchases weren’t planned; meaning they were the impulsive result of clever marketing, dark patterns, and fake discounts. Being this aggressive is a great way to stand out, but it could also harm the business, maybe even deter customers. But they’re doing what feels right for them.

An interesting part for me is Anna telling me that it’s the system which is equally as broken as we are. They use Shopify as their online sales platform which manages the payments system, reporting and analytics for the business. But she says even within the back-end of Shopify, there’s specific sections revolving around Black Friday reporting, how to get the best out of it by discounting stock, and they even run workshops to help businesses drive sales. So even their own back-end system is against them.

Black Friday is a multi-faceted beast, which has grown each year, developing into something uncontrollable. So I urge everyone to pay attention to the brands who stand against it, amplify what they do with your friends, family and networks, and take the time to think about how intentional all of our purchases should be.

Note: I was paid by Positive retail for 1 Instagram reel, but this post is not paid-for content. The founder, Anna and I have been friends for many years, and she is an example of a small brand I enjoy working with, for a fee that works for the both of us. She refuses to let me work for free, and Positive retail is an example of a smaller business that I happily take a reduced fee because I believe in what they do.

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Fashion Week is over, until the New Year.

Finally, after working relentlessly hard for over 2 months(?), covering hundreds of shows, dissecting every little fingernail, travelling through the fashion capitals, staying up all night, to do it all over again the next day and barely eating a single vegetable, we can go back to work-work and catch up on all the other jobs we’ve neglected throughout fashion month.

It is literally the name of the game and September is a brutal month for the less-glamorous industry insiders. But who does it work for these days?

Traditionally, fashion shows were a trade event - a way to showcase the next seasons’ collection to buyers and press, who would ultimately decide what would make it into production and available to buy in a few months time. But the world has changed a lot in the last ten years, and there is far more going on at fashion week than this.

The main thing that has changed is access. Every man and his dog, can now be seen at fashion week and that’s because the show itself is a spectacle with massive visibility in the digital landscape. The runway is so much more than the showing of a collection, it is essentially a content farm. The arrivals, the location, the front row, the model casting, the designer walk-out, the designers’ comments & press release and eventually the collection. It feeds many more areas of the brand, but is this all a distraction from the actual main event? Does it bring the value it promises, or is it all just an unnecessary circus act, noise into the void that serves a purpose no-one ever really counts, that could be dialled back or removed altogether?

Each season, metrics are delivered and statistics plastered on diagrams on the apparent “Earned Media Value” (EMV) of the activations throughout fashion month. It is kind of the bitcoin of fashion week, where the regular Joes among us will never really understand what that means in real money. But nevertheless it has become a leaderboard many are wanting to top, and when the number 1 spots drops to number 6 the following season, the commentators are quick to speculate what is going drastically wrong at said brand. Less eyes on screens is less bums on seats in the digital world, but is it less cash in the till?

Plainly, fashion shows are expensive as shit. And even for the established names in fashion, every penny counts. Thinking how much a show costs is like reading a never-ending restaurant bill. Models (if you pay them fairly) can rack you up over £10k straight away for a lineup of minimum-rate-paid models in London, add in a location, a PR team, production costs, music, casting directors, photography and videography, hair and makeup teams, dressers, stylists, art directors, choreographer, the list literally goes on and on. Then you can get into paying A-List celebrities to come to the show too, and influencers to do posts as part of an activation around the show…

So before brands and businesses think of doing a show, every pound has to be a considered spend, and translate to how much clothing they can sell off the back of a show. The thing that most brands have worked out, is that while a show looks good from the outside, “the buy” and often the press, happens in Paris, at the end of the season once they’ve seen all the shows and hit the showrooms to see the collections up close and personal.

I wanted to get the insight from some others in the industry and get their perspective on the Fashion Week beast, it now is. I asked each of them three questions:

What is your purpose within fashion week and what do you aim to get from it? Is fashion week worth it for the brands who show? And, do you think fashion week still serves its’ intended purpose effectively, or has it become something entirely different?

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