18 SEPTEMBER 2022

THE
ACCESSORIES
SPECIAL

What a
carry on!
How the micro
bag became
a jumbo trend
Plus
SEX, MONEY, POWER!
INDUSTRY’S HARRY LAWTEY REVEALS ALL
 The Barometer Edited by Priya Elan

Fashion! Beauty! People! Things! Welcome to your weekly guide

to the stuff everyone will be talking about. Do keep up

Fashion’s gone bird crazy!

Ornithology is chic. Not a sentence we thought we’d be
writing, but the evidence is stacking up. First there
was stylish bird-watching collective Flock
Together’s fashion shoot wearing Gucci x The
North Face (below). Then JW Anderson brought

DANIEL W FLETCHER
out his now cult pigeon clutch (bottom) — yes,
you read that correctly. Next up? A dove
hoodie by Yeezy Gap Engineered by

CASABLANCA
Balenciaga, as well as various bird-centric
designs from Stella McCartney, Daniel W
Fletcher and Casablanca. Meanwhile,
American Horror Story co-creator Ryan
Murphy is making a show about writer
Truman Capote’s glamorous female
high-society New York friends, whom he
referred to as his “swans”: Chloë Sevigny,
Naomi Watts and Calista “Ally McBeal”
Flockhart are set to star. Time to get your
Upgrade your ducks in a row.
lunchtime sarnie
to a banh mi
Avert your eyes if you’re reading this
while hungry, because we’re about to
tell you about the lunchtime sandwich
that has foodies queueing round the
block. Banh mi is the Vietnamese
baguette with such a crispy crust you
can hear it crack as you tuck in. Inside, the dough is fluffy
and laden with all manner of delicious ingredients from
fried tofu to crunchy pickles. Last month, when the chef
Luke Farrell launched Viet Populaire (top), a banh mi bar at
Arcade Food Hall on New Oxford Street, hundreds of
courtesy of Gucci, Viet populaire, Getty images

devotees lined up in central London hoping to get their

GUCCI X THE NORTH FACE

hands on one. There’s more — this autumn will bring the

opening of the hotly anticipated Mam Dalston, an east
London shop specialising in Vietnamese coffee and
banh mi. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a packed lunch,
MCCARTNEY

grab a copy of the Vietnamese chef Uyen Luu’s new book,

STELLA

Vietnamese: Simple Vietnamese Food to Cook at Home, for

easy, affordable recipes including banh mi ideas. Her
favourite filling? Omelette, avocado and pickled carrot.
Never has your meal deal looked so sad.

On the cOver Tianna ST LouiS PhOtOgraPh GiampaoLo SGura Styling VeriTy parker. JackeT, £1,590, BurBerry. neckLace BaGS, £2,710 each, chaneL. airpodS, £169, appLe

editOr Laura aTkinSon dePuty editOr charLoTTe WiLLiamSon art directOr andreW BarLoW FaShiOn directOr karen dacre beauty directOr Sarah JoSSeL FeatureS editOr priya eLan
entertainment editOr ScarLeTT ruSSeLL Jewellery directOr JeSSica diamond aSSOciate FaShiOn directOr VeriTy parker FaShiOn and merchandiSe editOr fLoSSie SaunderS bOOkingS directOr and
creative PrOducer LeiLa harTLey acting bOOkingS directOr and creative PrOducer JeSSica harriSon Picture editOr caTherine pykeTT-comBeS acting Picture editOr Lori LefTeroVa SeniOr deSigner andy TayLor
JuniOr FaShiOn editOr heLen aTkin StaFF writer and editOrial aSSiStant roiSin keLLy cOntributing editOr aLice kemp-haBiB chieF Sub-editOr Sophie faVeLL SeniOr Sub-editOr Jane mCdonaLd

© Times Newspapers Ltd, 2022. Published and licensed by Times Newspapers Ltd, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF (020 7782 5000). Printed by Prinovis UK Ltd, Liverpool. Not to be sold separately

The Sunday Times Style • 11

 The Barometer

Heating up From top A light

shade made from
▲ The Mexican ▲ QVc chic recycled coffee
juMping bean Molly Shannon in cups; Moooi’s
cockTail Paramount+’s hilarious petal chairs; a hair
The boozy I Love That for You mirror; and Seletti’s
caffeine treat is giving us Ruth Sardina light
with tequila, Langsford vibes
coffee and
agave syrup.
Espresso
martini, who?

▲ clogS
go hauTe
Homewares take
Goodbye a surreal turn
Crocs, hello Ever since Méret Oppenheim’s 1936 furry cup, saucer and teaspoon,
the new everyday objects in improbable materials have created a stir. The
“ugly, not Swiss surrealist sculptor would be in her element at this year’s London
ugly” shoe Design Festival (which ends next Sunday), where designs for the
▲ Scary MoTherS-in-law (as seen on home have taken a turn for the bizarre. Think juicers made from
Ainslie Hogarth’s new Rihanna) orange pulp, lighting 3D-printed from London’s coffee cup waste
book, Motherthing, has a (complete with spaces for fungi to grow), and mirrors with frames
couple escaping the made from human hair collected from local barber shops . Tempted to
clutches of one (think buy into surrealism now? Seletti has eye-catching sardine tin lights
JLo’s Monster-in-Law but (£95), while Moooi does a flower-petal armchair (from £2,762) and
with fewer lolz) screaming-face wall lights (£487). Which is all a little less hair-raising
than, well, human hair. londondesignfestival.com
Cooling down
▼ funko pop! dollS
Cute or creepy?
Definitely creepy

▼ grey brideSMaidS
The top look for bridesmaids
according to recent
research. Bring back the
terrible taffeta, we say!
▼ beige flagS Baby’s got blue
The warning signs
which hint that eye(shadow)
Electric blue eyeshadow,
Additional words: Hannah Evans and Katrina Burroughs.

someone might
previously naff as heck, has made
Pictures: emojipedia, Showtime Networks, @lilnasx

be … quite dull
a surprising comeback — from Lil
Nas X’s striking photos for YSL
Beauty (above, wearing YSL Crush
Liner Waterproof Eyeliner) to Kendall
Jenner on Instagram and Taylor Swift
on the cover of her forthcoming album
Midnights (above right). While there’s a
slight air of the dramatic dark academia
▼ pSychedelic waTer about it all, the eyes say: “This is very
Is nothing now safe from the Debbie Harry, circa 1978.” The only
description “mood-altering”? time it’s good to get blue in the face.

The Sunday Times Style • 13

‘I hated being
… but the actress Jaime Winstone
does admit to enjoying a good
time, which is why she’s hosting
a new podcast speaking to
her famous friends about their
best nights out. The biggest
party boy of them all? Her dad,
Ray, she tells Polly Vernon
Photographs Sammy King

Jaime Winstone’s podcast, Greatest Night Ever, is a

glorious, sweary, unexpectedly touching romp through
her guests’ (Cara Delevingne, Melanie Blatt, Nick Grim-
shaw, Danny Dyer …) giddiest party moments. Feuding
families get reunited at film premieres, women redis-
cover their mojo after having a baby, Asim Chaudhry
(Chabuddy G of People Just Do Nothing) ends up with his
nose very close to David Beckham’s bum when entering
the Rabbit Hole at Glastonbury, and Bez of the Happy
Mondays recalls taking his first ever microdot (LSD) at
the Haçienda, after which, Winstone tells me, “he picked
up a maraca … Shaun Ryder was so scared of going on
stage on his own, he dragged Bez on with him”, and that
is pretty much how the Happy Mondays were formed.
We are sitting in a quiet bit of the bar in the Standard
hotel, King’s Cross. Winstone is pretty, pulled together,
glossily blow-dried (she has come straight from the set
of Lorraine, where she has been publicising a forth-
coming stint playing a young Peggy Mitchell in an East-
Enders flashback episode), focused. She’s keen for me to
understand that these are not merely tales of empty,
unbridled hedonism she’s punting. “They’re all quite
emotional and spiritual. All these party scenarios you
think you’re going to get, but then they’re actually
really momentous moments, moments in their lives
that make them who they are.”
After listening to a rough cut of Chaudhry’s episode,
and inevitably winding up thinking about my greatest
nights, I understand. Truly great nights are never about
the booze downed, the drugs taken, the scrapes gotten
into — they’re only ever about the relationships that
began, or were patched up, or transcended to new levels.
In Winstone’s case there are two greatest nights.
The first was at this summer’s Glastonbury, “when I
was proposed to. It was solstice, and I turn up and
everyone’s being very strange, very coy, and I followed a
trail of flowers and saw my fiancé [the DJ James Suck-
ling] — well, now he’s my fiancé — and I heard Beyoncé
singing from a speaker and my legs went.” And the
second was when she gave birth to Raymond, her and

14 • The Sunday Times Style

called a
party girl!’
Suckling’s six-year-old son. “When you have a child the
universe sort of says to you, ‘OK, let me give you some-
thing really lovely — good luck now!’ The first time you
look into your child’s eyes and they look at you, and you
think, ‘Oh my God, this is it. This is what it’s all about.’”
If this seems unexpectedly considered, low-key and
gentle for Jaime Winstone — daughter of the actor Ray
Winstone and star of Kidulthood, Donkey Punch, Made
in Dagenham and Babs — an individual who, for some
years in the mid-Noughties, back when she was going
out with Alfie Allen, son of Keith, brother of Lily, was
considered one of the most voracious party animals of
our times, we may have misjudged her. “I hated being
called a party girl — I was never hardcore. I’ve always
been super-serious with my work. But, you know, I don’t
know any 19-year-old that isn’t stumbling a little bit out
of clubs. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to be doing?”
Jaime, now 37, first came to the broader public attention
in 2004 when cast alongside Ashley Walters in her first
film, Bullet Boy. She was young, loud, unapologetic and
subject, she says, to some “proper snobbery. My dad is
known as Ray and I spoke like this [with a strong London
accent],” which meant high-end fashion brands refused to
dress her for shoots and premieres. “So I went and bought
my Burberry dress with my money.” Meanwhile the
media of the day felt entitled to brand her a gobby, boozy
hell-raiser: “A right little raver who can’t resist a party”
reads a headline from a 2008 newspaper interview on
the release of Donkey Punch. “But you can’t go to work
after a party. People are waiting for you to slip up. You’ve
got to know your lines. You’ve got to be on time.” Which
she always was. “I’m a grafter.”
At the same time, she says, she thinks we’re all born
with a strong urge to party: it’s primal — or at the very
least cultural. Hers was certainly a party family. “When
I grew up, Dad would be away [filming]. When he’d
come home, we’d have lots of parties. I remember one
where I was sitting at the top of the stairs. It was a
Halloween party and the Clash were downstairs
singing. I must have been three or four. We [Jaime and
her older sister, Lois] were always very much involved.
It wasn’t like, ‘Go to bed now!’ If Mum and Dad went
out for a big dinner, we were there. I was usually asleep
in a fur coat by about half 12, under the table.
I remember listening to people talk and thinking, ‘This
is great. One day maybe I’ll be at the top of the table
with my son sleeping under it.’ ”
When she was in her early teens her dad moved the From top left Winstone with Kate Moss, Nick Grimshaw, Clara
family to a house in Essex where “there was a pub in the Paget and Daisy Lowe, James Suckling, and Courtney Love

The Sunday Times Style • 15

 ‘There’s an expression for my dad, after he’d take people out
– I’ve heard so many people say, “I’ve been Winstoned!” ’
garden, the Raymondo. It has always been very natural
for us to have a drink, have a dance. There’s an expres-
sion for my dad, after he’d take people out — I’ve heard
so many people say, ‘I’ve been Winstoned!’ ”
I believe they say something similar of Kate Moss: “I’ve
been Mossed,” I tell her. In fact I have been Mossed …
“We can all relate to that.”
Moss is Winstone’s dream podcast guest, though she
hasn’t managed to nail her down (yet). Given the model
is in the throes of launching Cosmoss, her own Goop-
like wellness brand, it would be interesting to see how
she views her own past excesses.
Winstone herself grows a little weary of wellness, she
says. It was the surplus of wellness podcasts, telling us
all “how to live, what we can and can’t do, to be pure, to
cleanse ourselves, when that’s not actually how we live as
humans”, that inspired her to make Greatest Night Ever
in the first place, at least partly as a rebuttal, a response.
When I ask her what the goal of the podcast is, she says:
Jaime Winstone with her dad, Ray, and mum, Elaine
16 • The Sunday Times Style
“I want to eradicate that guilt.” By which she means the
guilt about cutting loose, getting drunk, dancing till you
fall over and flirting till your eyelashes fall off on account
of all the fluttering, then waking up too hungover to
count your macros, let alone “be mindful”.
I ask who among her friends is the most reliable for
a good time. “I’ve had some really amazing parties
with Cara Delevingne. I remember when I first had
Raymond I was very out of the loop. You’re a bit bigger
than you usually are, a bit scared to go back into the
party scene with the monsters of London. She arranged a
Hair: Hiro Kikato. Make-up: Molly Whitely. Pink suit (previous spread), Vivienne Westwood; anniesibiza.com.
birthday party, all her besties, nearest and dearests, in
Mexico. I was like, ‘I’m still sort of stitched up, still not
Feathered bralette, Romani. White trousers, Daniel W Fletcher. Additional photographs: Getty Images
physically great, not at my best.’ But she whisked me
away and single-handedly got me back in the saddle.
Which was a really generous and important thing to do.
And she had us jumping out of planes, driving into the
jungle in SUVs. Getting tattooed pretty much getting off
the plane. We’ve all been tagged by Cara Delevingne.”
I ask her what her essential party tool kit involves and
she says: “A good solid lipstick, a nice little witchy-woo
perfume and a comfy shoe. If you’ve got comfy shoes
[stashed] somewhere, it can take your night in a very
different direction. But if your feet start hurting, your
mind goes.” And then she starts interrogating me about
interview techniques, information she plans to take
back and use on the podcast. “I’ve been studying you,
I’ve been picking tips up,” she says. I turn off the tape
and spend a good half an hour passing on some
precious tricks of the trade; Jaime Winstone drinks
them all in (apologies to her next guest, Rita Ora). ■
Jaime Winstone’s Greatest Night Ever is part of the
Acast Creator Network and is available now, wherever
you get your podcasts
 SPORTMAX

Tie
me up
Autumn’s hottest accessory? The tie (for women, that is). But it takes
confidence – and some clever styling – to carry it off, says Karen Dacre
Do you know your full Windsor from your half knot? from testosterone-filled boardrooms and secondary
What about your Nicky from your Pratt? Now is the time school assembly halls and dropped squarely into the
to learn, because the tie that binds a woman’s wardrobe world of catwalk-approved accessories.
this season is, quite literally, a tie. However you knot Nicolas Ghesquière is among the designers igniting the
yours (James Bond is a fan of the four-in-hand, Diane revival. He opened his autumn showcase for Louis
Keaton is more of a Nicky sort of a girl), the tie is this Vuitton with a love letter to the accessory, with Squid
season’s stand-out accessory. Certainly it sits comfort- Games star HoYeon Jung sporting a leather jacket and
ably among this autumn’s leading aesthetics, with nods floral-print tie. The look — somewhere between plucky
to retro school uniforms and power dressers of the teenager skiving school to smoke her dad’s B&Hs behind
Eighties among the trends. As pleated kilts and shoulder the bike sheds and fledgling member of the KPMG grad-
pads emerge as must-haves, ties have been cherry-picked uate scheme — appeared in a round of shows loaded with

The Sunday Times Style • 19

 ties, with everyone from Gucci to Sportmax to Miu Miu
among the roll call.
As a result ties are due to infiltrate the wardrobes
of us mere mortals any day now. Indeed, a scan of
present street style suggests they already have, with
those who prefer to peacock for a living wearing board-
room-ready neckwear along with vertiginous platforms
and new-season It bags.
There’s no question that it’s a tricky look to pull off.
Fashion history suggests that female tie wearers demand
extreme levels of confidence — think Keaton, Patti
Smith, Grace Jones and Marlene Dietrich. “On a
woman, a tie makes you stop and look in the same
way a man in a skirt does,” says the stylist and tie
appreciator Catherine Hayward. “The semiotics
are fascinating.”
Thanks to its deep-rooted associations with
male-dominated corporate culture, the tie has
long been the weapon of women looking to infil-
trate what they see as a man’s world. For the
A list’s most famous feminists, for instance, the tie
is a go-to for big-moment appearances: witness a
22-year-old Julia Roberts picking up her Golden
Globe for Steel Magnolias in an oversized Giorgio
Armani men’s suit and complementary shirt and
tie; or Madonna, who made her return to music in
2019 after a four-year hiatus wearing a shirt and tie
in her video for Medellin.
Hayward, who picked up the most recent addi-
tion to her collection in a vintage shop, believes it’s
the tie’s marker of masculinity that makes it so exciting.
“The tie has historically been a symbol of male wealth,
power and influence, so to see a woman wearing one in a ‘The tie has historically been
Below Diane Keaton in 1976, and Julia Roberts at the 1990 a symbol of male influence, so
Golden Globes. Above, clockwise from top Bella Hadid,
the actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Zendaya and Greta Gerwig
to see a woman wearing one
in a playful way is empowering’
playful, experimental way is empowering,” she says.“Most
people in the UK grew up wearing a tie as part of a school
uniform — something they had to wear — so to see it
worn out of choice by young street-style influencers
harnesses its power for the better.”
But how to wear one without looking like a novelty
act? “Wearing a tie tends to scream, ‘I’m doing a
look!’ ” says the stylist Steph Stevens. “But it can
work beautifully.” Stevens suggests wearing one
with an A-line skirt and a man’s shirt. “It’s quite
Boy Scout, in a good way,” she says. For a more
casual (and less out-there) result Stevens
recommends wearing your tie with baggy
trousers, trainers and a cardigan.
On the matter of which tie to buy, Louis
Vuitton’s floral option is of course the fashion
purist’s choice, but less-confident adopters
may wish to start with something more
subtle. A skinny black tie is a nice thing to
have in your repertoire — I’ve had one in
mine (worn rarely) since 1999 — or, as demon-
strated by Sportmax, a metallic version works
Getty Images

well with punchy tailoring.

Of course the real issue is trying to remember
how to tie the thing. ■ @karendacre

The Sunday Times Style • 21

22 • The Sunday Times Style
Christian Soria, Getty Images
New romantic
Frilly, frothy… and a little bit The Carolina
rebellious – that’s what Wes Herrera autumn/
winter 2022 gown
Gordon, the man in the hot seat at worn by Tessa
Thompson at this
Carolina Herrera, believes fashion year’s Met Gala
should be. No wonder everyone
from first ladies to Adele loves his
designs, says Harriet Quick
“Carolina Herrera is not overintellectual — it is about
making beautiful clothes, and that’s more important than
ever before. How we dress is one of the areas that we can
control. If an outfit makes you smile, that’s not frivolous or
silly … Excuse me, I’m in a full ramble!” Wes Gordon says
from his 17th-floor Midtown studio, where the creative
director has a bird’s eye view of 7th Avenue on a hot and
sultry New York afternoon.
Dressed in a khaki utility jacket and T-shirt, Gordon
speaks with the sincerity and vitality that befits the brand
that was founded by the flamboyant Venezuelan-born
designer Carolina Herrera more than 40 years ago. In 2018
Gordon, who initially worked as a consultant for Herrera,
was invited by the designer herself to take the helm of
the business that she established in the heady, bold-faced
1980s. That was an era of fax machines, MTV, Madonna and
a new flush of American patriotism championed by the with Herrera, now 83, exchanging stories but rarely talking
Reagans at the White House. Herrera, who was encouraged about fashion. One delicious anecdote surrounds the Warhol
to start her own line by Diana Vreeland, seized the moment portrait of her. The pop artist swapped it for a woven gold
and created a bold take on elegance that was adored by first minaudière that Herrera’s husband had given her. (She hid
ladies, society swans and business leaders alike. the exchange from her husband, saying the little evening bag
“America has very few legacy fashion houses and Herrera was in for repair.) The other great lesson she imparted was
is one of them,” he says. “It is one of the great names of not to be consumed by the often boring restrictions of “good
elegance and grandeur intrinsic with Mrs Herrera herself. taste” — her thinking was that real elegance needs a touch of
There is a mystique, an aura, a glamour and a strength that madness, a hint of spice, visible in her penchant for
I was mesmerised by, growing up as a young boy in Atlanta.” jewel-toned ballgown skirts and her iconic white
Indeed, alongside Bill Blass, Halston, Isaac Mizrahi, Oscar shirts with dramatic poet sleeves.
de la Renta and Geoffrey Beene, Herrera helped build the But Herrera’s creative world was starkly different
firmament of the American designer business and gave it a from today’s post-pandemic fashion business, which is
shape, cosmopolitan personality and sense of pragmatic chic driven by environmental concerns and fuelled
that was distinct from the Parisian powerhouses. Red-lipped by social media, influencers and celebrities.
and blonde-haired, she was constantly on the best dressed Society ladies and the doyennes of magazines
lists alongside her husband, the Venezuelan no longer rule the roost,
TV host Reinaldo Herrera Guevara, skilfully delivering diktats from
crisscrossing society cliques with her
flamboyant gowns, cultural knowledge and
‘How we dress ivory towers: today the
customer is king.
exuberant style. is one of the Gordon wanted to marry the
“She was downtown with Basquiat and at new and old worlds and evolve
Studio 54 with Steve Rubell and uptown at
areas we can the brand to appeal to loyalists
galas and hosting parties in her townhouse,” control. If an and newcomers alike. And
HERRERA AW22

Gordon says. “She was encapsulated by there’s a real diversity to the

Andy Warhol in a silk-screen portrait and outfit makes women it attracts, from the
CAROLINA

photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe.

And she’s still alive and well today and a
you smile, that’s actress and producer Tessa
Thompson (who wore a pink
great-grandmother!” Gordon still socialises not frivolous’ gown with 200 metres of
 This picture Gordon
with Karlie Kloss in
Carolina Herrera
at the 2021 Met
Gala. Below With
Carolina Herrera
at New York fashion
week in February
tulle gathered into a train for the Met Gala in May) and Adele
(a balloon-sleeve sequined cocktail dress for her birthday) to
Rita Moreno, the 90-year-old star of the original West Side
Story, who wore a sculptural black one-shouldered number
to this year’s Oscars. “I never want to give a mandate about
colours or hemlines but let clients find something that really
expresses their individuality,” says Gordon, who has a
masterful way with intoxicating colour, exuberant ruffles,
sculptural silhouettes and sweeping hemlines.
The softly spoken thirtysomething has rich experience to
pour into the brand. Raised in Atlanta and besotted by the
work of John Galliano at Dior, he made a beeline for Central
Saint Martins in London as soon as he was able. “During high
school I used to train with a local dressmaker who taught me
how to pattern-cut and sew. I moved to London in 2005, and
coming from a traditional southern school to student
housing in Aldgate East was a huge contrast. Throughout
I had this attraction to the idea of elegance and Saint Martins
does a great job pushing you to be who you truly are — it
was a beautiful discovery process,” he adds. Via his
network Gordon secured a summer internship at
Oscar de la Renta in New York, and he later took the
plunge to launch his own line of flamboyant evening-
wear. Little did he know, though, that in 2008
the economy was about to crash after the
Lehman Brothers collapse.
Adversity is sometimes the best
teacher. Buyers, unwilling to risk budgets
on a new name, invited Gordon to
present his collection in intimate trunk
shows around the world. And it was that
invaluable experience that gave him an
insight into the lifestyles of potential
clients. Rather than being reliant on a fictitious woman on a
mood board, he got to see what truly makes eyes sparkle in
the fitting room. Yet running his own brand versus taking on
a legacy was a choice that had to be made. On meeting
Herrera, he found an immediate connection. He now over-
sees all aspects of the brand, from bespoke commissions to
seasonal collections, accessories and beauty. The label is one
of the few in New York that still runs an atelier with a team of
long-standing seamstresses and tailors.
Having been given the chance to sink or swim (Mrs
Herrera never sees the collections prior to their catwalk
debut), Gordon is defiantly swimming. He has achieved a
happy work/life equilibrium with his husband, the real estate
developer and celebrated glass-blower Paul Arnhold, and
their 15-month-old son. The couple spend weekends at their
farm in Connecticut, which offers a striking alternative to
draping metres of silk faille.
“I come into the office on a Monday with fresh eggs from
the farm and oversharing pictures of our baby,” Gordon
says. “I didn’t grow up with animals and now they have
become a passion — we have horses, ponies, cows,
sheep and lots of chickens. The farm is a sanctuary and a
huge part of my life.
“The world does not need more ‘stuff ’ and
making for the sake of making is the wrong
approach,” he continues. “Fashion and luxury are
about making something when you feel you
have something to say, and I remind myself
of that every day. Clients want to feel
amazing, have a good time and treat all
special moments like a celebration.” ■
carolinaherrera.com
The Sunday Times Style • 25
 From
Afghanistan
with love
Rahiba Rahimi
in Istanbul
last month

Rahiba Rahimi was one of Afghanistan’s most successful designers, selling her
dresses around the world. Then the Taliban took over. So how does a fashion label
continue to thrive? It’s down to the bravery of her staff, she tells Louise Callaghan
Photograph Ilker Gurer

As Kabul fell to the Taliban last August, the
fashion designer Rahiba Rahimi was sitting in
Istanbul, watching the news on TV, horrified
as fighters armed with rifles streamed through
the streets of her home city in pick-up trucks.
They overran foreign embassies and strolled
through the halls of the abandoned presi-
dential palace, their very presence making
women fear to leave their homes.
The Taliban also went into Rahimi’s
studio-cum-boutique and impounded her
prized collection of hand-embroidered, coin-
studded dresses and open chapan coats. The
tailors and seamstresses who worked for her
luxury label, Laman, stayed at home, afraid of
the instability, and of what might happen if
they left the house without a male guardian.
“I felt a lot of grief,” Rahimi says today,
sitting in a café in Istanbul wearing a beige
jumper and bright red lipstick, her hair in a
thick black bob. “It was a very chaotic time.
Everything you’ve ever known or stood for or
wished or hoped for was coming to an end.”
Rahimi, 29, had left Kabul in spring 2021,
planning to spend a few months in Turkey
before returning to produce the next collec-
tion. The label had brought her an interna-
tional reputation as the future of Afghan
design, and she wanted to turn “made in
Afghanistan” into a global mark of excellence.
“My dream for Laman was to expand, to make
a powerful statement of Afghan culture,” she
says. Now her country was collapsing and
Rahimi was devastated. As she struggled to
make sure her relatives were safe and help
others who were fleeing, everything else fell
into the background. While the Taliban
installed themselves as rulers, there were days
when Rahimi couldn’t get out of bed.
Two months after Kabul fell, however, a
thought came to her. Perhaps there was a way
the label could be kept going. She called one
of the tailors who had worked with her before
— a young woman from a conservative back-
ground. “She said yes, give me any orders. Let
me know what you need.” Despite the restric-
tions, the tailor was ready to work. Rahimi
sent her some designs by WhatsApp and they
started talking. The collection began to take
shape. After discussing the matter with her
business partners, a decision was made:

The Sunday Times Style • 29


Above Rahimi in her shop before the Taliban
returned to Kabul. Below A Laman design
Laman would start again under the Taliban.
But it wouldn’t be easy.
“There was a time when I thought this was
done completely, but I started to realise the
Afghan women are so strong,” Rahimi says.
“Seeing this spirit still there gave me hope.”
Rahimi was one of the few Afghan fashion
designers who flourished in the decades
after the US-led invasion brought down the
Taliban in 2001. Young, creative and confi-
dent, they symbolised hope after years of
extremist rule. Laman’s richly embroidered
dresses and coats were a corrective to anyone
who believed Afghan fashion went no further
than the all-encompassing blue burqa. Under
the previous era of Taliban rule, from 1996
to 2001, women had been forced to wear the
burqa in public. Yet centuries of tradition and
craftsmanship in their clothing had survived.
Born in Pakistan, where her Afghan
parents had fled to escape life under the
Taliban, Rahimi grew up seeing her
mother and grandmother in the dresses and
kaftans that were part of their heritage,
“portraying themselves through their
clothing”, she says. When she moved back to
Afghanistan with her family, aged 11, the
local fashion scene was starting to thrive. By
the time she was studying political science at
the American University of Afghanistan in
Kabul, her friends were wearing jeans,
cutting their hair short and leaving their
headscarves around their shoulders. The
boundaries were always being moved, the
limits of what constituted “acceptable”
pushed. It was an exciting time for those
involved in Kabul’s fashion scene — perhaps
a little like the end of the 1960s, when
Afghanistan was a fixture on the hippy trail
and Vogue ran a photo spread shot in the
country titled Adventure in Afghanistan.
In 2015, inspired by the country’s tradi-
tional clothing, Rahimi co-founded Laman.
Soon it was being lauded as a force on the
Kabul fashion scene. It held one show, then
another, this time at the US embassy.
Rahimi rented a house, which was turned
into a boutique and studio; a show in Milan
followed. She built a network of people
30 • The Sunday Times Style
across the country who knew how to source
and produce the best in their regional style
of embroidery and design. She would
research and oversee the creation of the
collections, collaborating with dozens of
embroiderers, tailors and designers.
At the start of 2021, things were looking
good. The business was growing; Rahimi and
her brother, a co-founder of Laman, had been
joined by Wazhma Ayoubi, a businesswoman
who bought a controlling stake in the
company. They planned to expand sales to
Dubai and Turkey — with the aim of selling
upmarket Afghan clothing to the world.
In March, Rahimi felt confident enough
about the future of the business that she
could take some time out to help her
family settle into a house in Istanbul that
they had bought for her father’s retirement.
Then, on August 15, Kabul
fell to the Taliban. The
government collapsed. The ‘Seeing the
army disbanded. Like many
other Afghans, Rahimi was
women’s spirit
devastated. She felt the gives me hope.
country had been betrayed
by its leaders — handed to
We have to stay
the Taliban on a plate. produced in
“Everything you’ve been
fighting for as a nation — Afghanistan,
freedom, democracy, rights
— it all just doesn’t matter
that is essential’
any more?”
It wasn’t until she started speaking to her
tailors again that hope began to creep back.
The Taliban might have returned, but all
those years of relative freedom had changed
things. Many Afghan women, she believed,
would not be easily cowed: “It’s so ingrained
now — you can’t go back to certain things.”
Slowly, she and her partners have started
to rebuild their network, putting embroi-
derers and tailors to work, sharing designs
and sketches via WhatsApp and working on
new collections. All the time they are
dodging around the new reality of life under
the Taliban. Simple things like going to the
market to look for fabrics and vintage
embroidery have become fraught now that
armed fighters can be seen on the
streets, and there is a feeling that things
can change at any moment. The
Taliban have said that women must
cover their faces in public and prefer-
ably not leave the house without a
male relative. Though such rules
are arbitrarily imposed in Kabul,
they create insecurity and fear
among women. In the label’s
new, underground existence,
Rahimi is in the bizarre posi-
tion of dealing not only with
hemlines and production
snarls, but also figuring out a
way for her staff to work while
staying safe. While before they
sat together in Laman’s studio, now they all
work separately, some in their basements,
some in their living rooms.
Rahimi and Ayoubi also became entan-
gled in the bureaucratic hellscape that came
after their studio was impounded by the
Taliban. A few weeks after Kabul fell, Ayou-
bi’s mother, a businesswoman in her fifties,
was arranging for its contents to be taken for
safekeeping when Taliban fighters came and
insisted she leave. Ayoubi’s mother was not
impressed. “She actually had a fight with
them,” Rahimi says. “She was, like, ‘What are
you talking about? This is a tailoring busi-
ness.’” Last month the coats, dresses and
fabrics were finally released, only to get
stuck in Turkish customs when Rahimi tried
to have them sent to Istanbul.
Yet despite all the hurdles, business is
good. The last collection,
launched in March, sold out
— bought by Afghans
across the world (prices
start at £100 for a dress). “As
soon as it launched we had
orders and sent them right
away,” Rahimi says. She is
currently working on a new
collection of 50 pieces, and
to get the items out of
Afghanistan the company
uses cargo services that go
through Dubai or Pakistan
— though the process rarely runs smoothly.
Now Rahimi and her partners are looking
for a new studio to officially restart opera-
tions in Afghanistan, but the task ahead is
enormous. Yet while they could have moved
production to Turkey or Dubai, they decided
to stay put. “Laman has to stay produced in
Afghanistan, that is essential,” she says.
As they struggle to keep Laman alive,
Rahimi has been drawing inspiration from
the women who are still in Afghanistan —
working, going outside, taking space in the
world. Small groups have even protested for
their rights, facing down Taliban fighters in
acts of almost incalculable bravery.
Fashion might not, at first glance, seem
like an important part of the fight for
women’s rights in Afghanistan. But for
Rahimi and her partners, and the
women who work for them, it is vital.
It keeps them productive and able
to support their families in a
society whose leaders would
rather they be quiet. It is a
way of expressing them-
selves as individuals,
when they’re being told
they’re less than men.
As Rahimi says: “That, for
Ivan Armando Flores
me, is power.” ■
@louiseelisabet
lamanclothing.com
 The new
frontier of
wellness?
Yes, it’s
ketamine
Ketamine clinics are big
business in New York, both
with tech bros in need of a
‘brain break’ and clients dealing
with more serious mental
health issues. Hannah Marriott
tries one out – and is
surprised by the results
Photographs Christopher Lane

I’m reclining in a white zero-gravity chair
in a room that looks just like a spa as a
nurse gently inserts an IV drip into my arm
while asking if I’d like any refreshments
post-treatment. But I’m not here for the
comprehensive juice menu. Nushama is at
the vanguard of the strange new world of
psychedelic wellness.
Following a number of studies about the
use of ketamine, psilocybin and MDMA for
disorders including depression, alcoholism
and PTSD, investors are pouring money
into research on these alternative treat-
ments. Ketamine is a dissociative hallucin-
ogen with a reputation as a party drug (in
the UK possession for recreational use is
illegal), but as it is approved both in the UK
and the US as an anaesthetic, it can be pre-
scribed off-label (for uses other than those
described in its licence) in private clinics.
Which is why centres such as these have
started popping up in main American cities
(as well as a handful in the UK). In my drip,
you see, is ketamine.
Ketamine clinics raise eyebrows because
the approved status of the drug means they
can set their own rules. In the US, for
instance, for every clinic doing rigorous medi-
cal examinations and post-therapy treatment,
there are others offering ketamine for $200 a
pop, alongside vitamin drips and Botox. I’ve
heard anecdotes about tech bros casually
visiting clinics for a “brain break” and seen a
flurry of Instagram adverts for DIY home kits.
This is causing concern among experts,
such as Professor Allan Young, vice dean for
academic psychiatry at King’s College Lon-
don. He believes ketamine should be used
“quite late in the treatment pathway” and
embedded “within a comprehensive package
of care”. He also has concerns about
escalating use, given that ketamine can be
psychologically addictive. “What’s to stop
you from going to one clinic today and
another tomorrow?” he asks.
Indeed, over here in New York, ketamine
is already big business. Nushama, for
instance, opened its first location in 2021
and is now doubling its revenue every two
months. It already has two branches in
Manhattan and another in Brooklyn. It
plans to open in London within a year and
is scoping out locations in Knightsbridge,
Mayfair and east London.
Nushama clients must “have a diagnosis”
to be treated, though the company’s medi-
cal director, Dr Steven Radowitz, says the
term is difficult to define and doesn’t neces-
sarily mean a referral from another provider.
“I’d say about 99 per cent of the people who

32 • The Sunday Times Style

come in here have some significant trauma,”
he says. He turns away anyone who says,
“I want a psychedelic experience,” but the
spectrum is broad. He describes it as “very
sacred work. I think it’s a big responsibility
when you open people up.” He points out
that ketamine journeys are not exactly fun.
“The medicine is really yourself.” He claims
that ketamine can “turn off all the over-
thinking” and allow “greater access to the
inner voice which has all the answers”.
There can be “difficult journeys. Sometimes
your inner self might take you to dark
places.” But these, he claims, can be the
most therapeutic.
Nushama’s co-founder Jay Godfrey is a
former fashion designer who has dressed
Kim Kardashian and Viola Davis. Deeply
unhappy at the height of his 15-year career,
Godfrey did a psilocybin “plant journey” in
Mexico after talking therapy stalled. “It felt
like five years of therapy in five hours,” he
tells me now. “I was really struck by how
I believed in my heart this was going to
change psychiatry.” During the pandemic
he closed his fashion line and pivoted
to psychedelics.
My own interest came during a couple of
years caring for my father, who had had a
stroke and tongue cancer. It was a fraught
experience that excavated old childhood
traumas. I tried cognitive behavioural ther-
apy (CBT) and found it of limited use. He
died in November and I was left feeling
both guilty — that I had not handled it
with more grace — and weirdly numb,
concerned that there was a grief-bomb
awaiting me. The idea that I might be able
to process the experience in a different way
appealed to me.
The Nushama experience doesn’t feel very
medical, which is intentional, Godfrey says.
Below and opposite Hannah Marriott at the ‘psychedelic wellness
centre’ Nushama, in New York, where she had ketamine treatment
A voice whispered:
‘What if there are angels
everywhere but we just
couldn’t see them?’
Then it all got a bit Enya
He wants to combine the “experimental”
elements he learnt in the shamanic world
with “a very high-touch hospitality-like envi-
ronment that doesn’t exist in medicine”.
The spa-adjacent vibe also contributes to a
luxury feel, which is apt: it costs $4,500 for
the recommended six private sessions over
three weeks, followed by a top-up booster and
“integration” sessions — talking sessions
with a coach after the journey.
In a consultation two weeks before my
treatment, Radowitz asked about my medi-
cal history and blood pressure, but also about
whether I believe in a higher power. I told
him I had felt increasingly woo-curious of
late; he told me that he had studied kabbalah
and thinks of spirituality as “a science that
we don’t understand yet”.
On the day, just before my drip was turned
on, I spoke to James, a life coach who has
been on many “journeys” himself, who
advised me to set an intention for the ses-
sion. About 10 minutes after the drip was
turned on, I started to feel floaty. James led
me through some breathwork, which helped
me stay calm as my body felt as though it was
upside down. He then asked me to visualise
my younger self — toddler, child, teen and
twentysomething — inviting some of these
selves on the journey with me. He placed a
Nushama-branded mask over my eyes and
a pair of Beats headphones over my ears. The
soundtrack began. A soothing recorded voice
whispered: “What if there are angels every-
where but we just couldn’t see them?” Then
it all got a bit Enya.
The session lasted an hour. I didn’t see
colours or have visions. Sometimes my sub-
conscious — which seems to be a bit basic
— thought, “The world’s amazing, isn’t it?
We’re all connected.” Sometimes I felt
bored by my own boring thoughts or briefly
trapped or anxious. Early on I recalled
an unpleasant childhood memory, then
thought about myself stepping away from
that and towards my own children, and
lightly congratulated myself for not recreat-
ing the same environment. I then decided,
actively, to think about the guilt I had been
feeling about my dad. Rather than the
expected grief-bomb hitting me, I felt a
pragmatic inner voice say: “The thing is,
you did your best, didn’t you?”
The use of perception-altering drugs in
this kind of setting still feels like the wild
west, a world with far more unresolved
questions than answers. Crucially, while
most experts agree that there is evidence of
ketamine’s efficacy for many mental health
disorders in the short term, there is a lack
of data about long-term effects. Also, says
Young, “One of the problems with the psy-
chedelic field is that people make very
inflated claims, which leads to disappoint-
ment and expectation problems.” Ketamine
also carries risks — heavy use has been
linked to serious bladder problems — and it
is not appropriate for people with a raft of
conditions (including hypertension). Those
risks may be mitigated in a clinic, but there
is concern that the buzz might inspire more
people to get hold of ketamine to self-
administer therapy more cheaply — and
more dangerously.
The impact of incorporating spirituality
into the administration of perception-altering
drugs, Young says, is another key “unresolved
question. There are two models [of ketamine
clinic]. One model is a bit like going to the
dentist. The other is almost like an evangelical
church revival. It’s not clear to me which is
the best — it may well be that they’re better
for different people.” He also argues that
ketamine should not be described as a psy-
chedelic at all, but rather a “rapid and inter-
mittent antidepressant treatment” because it
is chemically dissimilar to the likes of LSD
and psilocybin.
But for me, after one exploratory session,
I did feel as though I had made some pro-
gress. In my integration session afterwards
James told me that it was a big deal to have
witnessed myself breaking a cycle. That was
a reassuring thought. Was it some kind of
placebo effect? Perhaps. But three weeks
later, I still believe it. ■
The Sunday Times Style • 33
About time
Forget blingy necklaces and blockbuster earrings – from the
red carpet to the boardroom, a statement watch is what the world’s
best-dressed women are lusting after now, says Kate Finnigan

Are you an Oyster Perpetual kinda gal? Or more of

a Royal Oak? Maybe you’re feeling, like Victoria
Beckham, a little Nautilus right now? Or do you prefer a
touch of vintage Panthère? Not sure what the heck we’re
on about? Then it’s about time you upped your horolog-
ical knowledge, my friend, because luxury watches for
women are back — and the above are some of the most
in-demand models from some of the most desirable
brands of the moment. Forget watches that count your
steps and hector you about your screen time, we’re
talking good old-fashioned silent timepieces here. The
type we all used to wear on our wrists before smart-
phones came along — albeit of an exceedingly superior
and expensive variety.
Take the red carpet, where dazzling high jewellery
styles by Chopard and Jaeger-LeCoultre are now
being worn by the biggest stars. While bank-busting
diamonds and pearls are de rigueur, watches are a rela-
tively new addition, with famous timepiece enthusiasts
including Rihanna, Charlize Theron and Elle Fanning (all
fans of Chopard) .
And now they’re appearing on the arms of fashionable
women on a more day-to-day basis too, with names such
as Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Richard Mille
being the heritage Swiss watchmakers you need to learn
how to pronounce (and possibly take out a loan to buy).
An entry-level Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, for example
— designed 50 years ago but still the very top of the pops
today — will set you back at minimum about £15,000
(Serena Williams is its brand ambassador). While an
entry-price Patek Philippe Nautilus (Beckham has been
seen wearing several different models) will leave your
Vuitton wallet at the very least £23,000 lighter. A Rolex
Oyster Perpetual might be a far less frightening £4,400,
but we’re still not in Swatch territory here.
Let’s be honest, though, no one actually needs a watch
for telling the time these days, so why are these expen-
sive fripperies suddenly in such favour? “Over recent
years we have seen a significant increase in our female
customers buying watches for themselves, rather than
receiving them as gifts,” says Beth Hannaway, head of
A vintage fine watches and jewellery at Harrods. She believes this
Audemars Piguet is partly due to the exciting designs now evident in the
Royal Oak women’s market. “This has helped ensure that female
showcased on watch fans feel engaged in the discussion, rather than
dimepiece.co being offered a diluted version of the men’s collections.”
Brynn Wallner, an American writer, podcaster
Photograph Cobey Arner and the founder of the watch Instagram account and
website Dimepiece, is one such fan. Her passion began

The Sunday Times Style • 35

 as recently as 2019, when she was working at Sotheby’s
— and she thinks the new watch obsession is not simply
about showing off a status symbol but also that the
luxury watch has become an alternative asset. “People
are rediscovering watches, not only as gorgeous accesso-
ries to fit in with a modern lifestyle but also as potential
investments,” she says. “In uncertain financial times, a
luxury watch made by a prestigious name can feel like
stored wealth, an object that’s going to retain its value, if
not increase it.” Hannaway agrees: “In an increasingly
uncertain global landscape, investing in watches feels
like a pretty safe bet.”
That can certainly be true of the rarer models, some
of which are almost impossible to buy brand-new. The
likes of AP and Patek (as those in the know refer to
them) are the Hermès of the watch world. Their pieces
are highly technical, intricately and carefully crafted
rather than mass produced, and as a result are available
in limited quantities. The demand for them outstrips
the production capability. On top of that, although they
would never in a million years admit it, the brands are
rumoured to have a hierarchy of client — only a few
exceptionally important customers will be on the list to
be able to buy certain models, such as
AP’s recent collaboration with the
Italian jeweller Carolina Bucci, a black ‘In an
Royal Oak with a shimmering multi-
coloured dial. As one jewellery industry
uncertain global
insider tells me: “You need to prove landscape,
your worth with these top brands. You
have to be committed to buying other,
investing in
‘lesser’ models before you’re moved up watches feels
the ladder to the prestige ones.” At
Rolex, too, certain models are not like a safe bet’
widely available. “If you go into a Rolex
store and ask to buy one of its popular Oyster Perpet-
uals [refreshed in 2020 with an assortment of vibrant
dial colours, they became instant sell-outs], you’ll be
put on a long waiting list.”
As a result many potential customers are turning to
the pre-owned market to find their dream piece, with
websites such as Threads and Sellier citing watches as
Getty Images
key drivers of their businesses. “Rolex watches are
probably as popular for us as Birkin bags right now,” says
Hanushka Toni, co-founder of Sellier, an online luxury
Left Brynn
Wallner with
her Cartier
Tank Française.
Below, from
left Kaia
Gerber wears
an Omega,
and Elle
Fanning and
Rihanna with
Chopard
watches
fashion and accessories resale retailer based in London
and Monaco. “Only certain models of Rolex hold their
value, but if you take the Oyster Perpetual, the primary
price in the [Rolex] shop costs about £4,000. If you
bought one of those you could walk out and resell it for
£12,000 to £13,000 on the same day.”
Yulia Blower, client development
manager at the personal shopping site
Threads, agrees. “The retail value of
these in-demand watches can triple
now. Sometimes you’ve sourced a
certain piece for a client and they’re
still shopping around, seeing if they
can find it anywhere else for a better
price, and the watch, particularly the
Pateks, rockets up in price even on the
same day. A Richard Mille watch can go
well into six figures.”
Investment or not, the difference in these purchases
is that, for the most part, luxury watches are being
bought to be worn and enjoyed, not hidden away in
safes as might have happened in the past. And status
symbol or not, the watch is being rediscovered as part
of the everyday look, to be found glinting amid a stack
of jangling gold bracelets and multiple rings. “Women
are buying pieces they can wear day-to-day,” Blower
says. “They love styling them with their other jewellery,
stacking watches with Ananya chakra bracelets,
wearing an AP with a classic tennis bracelet or a signet
ring from Kamyen.”
For Wallner, it’s not all about the flash. Over the
past few years she has started a small collection of
watches that now includes a Cartier Tank
Française and a vintage Rolex Lady-Datejust,
alongside a Swatch and two vintage ladies’ diver
watches by Tag Heuer and Seiko. “It’s certainly
exciting to follow the dramatic headlines in
business publications tracking the financial
ebbs and flows of the industry, but what
really grabs me about watches is not at all
tied to their monetary value,” she says.
“It’s about the meaning they hold.
Someone can be wearing a $50 Casio
or a $50,000 Audemars Piguet, but
that figure is irrelevant against their
own narrative. And also because
they’re beautiful.” ■
The Sunday Times Style • 37
Come
fly Teeny-tiny bags, statement
wellies and throw-it-all-in
totes – autumn’s accessories
are going places

with
me
38 • The Sunday Times Style
Photographs Giampaolo Sgura
Styling Verity Parker
Model Tianna St Louis
Top, £285, bomber
jacket, £1,530, and
skirt, £1,530, Max
Mara. Nubuck boots,
£1,500, Loewe.
Gloves, £840, Tod’s.
Leather holdall,
£1,780, and suitcase,
£2,140, Louis
Vuitton. Bucket bag,
price on application,
Bottega Veneta
Bouclé dress, £670,
nylon jacket, £1,795,
balaclava (round
neck), £470, and
leather and nylon
bag (on floor), £630,
Moncler. Boots,
£974, Chloé. Large
leather bag, £3,020,
Tod’s. Silk-knit socks,
£1,360, Hermès. Eye
mask, stylist’s own
 Sweater, £1,160,
leather jumpsuit,
£2,575, and bomber
jacket, £800, Isabel
Marant. Large bag,
£910, Max Mara.
Nylon canvas bag,
£630, Lemaire

The Sunday Times Style • 41

 Shearling bomber
jacket, £1,740, Tod’s.
Leather jacket and
trousers, POA, Marc
Jacobs. Trainers,
£810, Louis Vuitton.
Handbag, £1,680, Miu
Miu. Silk-knit socks,
£1,360, Hermès

42 • The Sunday Times Style

 Cotton and silk
shirt, £1,460, Louis
Vuitton. Recycled-
polyester boilersuit,
£2,280, Salvatore
Ferragamo. Rubber
boots, £850, Chanel.
Padded bag, £260,
and beige padded
bag (just seen),
£310, Kassl Editions.
Water bottle, £55,
Georg Jensen.
Aluminium suitcase,
£1,480, Rimowa
Bomber jacket,
£5,500, Loewe.
Packable trousers,
£595, Craig Green;
brownsfashion.com.
Suede shoes, £770,
Moncler. Black tote,
£2,032, Chloé.
Packable orange
bag, £250, Craig
Green; ln-cc.com.
Cashmere socks,
£96, Pantherella
 Top, £820, leather
coat, from £7,200,
and brushed
leather handbag,
£2,600, Prada.
Boots, £1,750, Tod’s

Hair Franco Gobbi at

Streeters using
Fragile Cosmetics.
Make-up Luca
Cianciolo at Blend.
Nails Annarel
Innocente at Blend.
Model Tianna St
Louis at Special
Management.
Casting Simone Bart
Rocchietti at
Simobart Casting

The Sunday Times Style • 45

‘Money is a good
synonym for sex’
Harry Lawtey was an unknown actor before his role as sex-obsessed
Robert in the banking drama Industry propelled him to instant
fame. Now back with the second series, he talks to Megan Agnew
about body image and male bonding
Photographs Tung Walsh Styling Ben Schofield

If I were having lunch with Robert Spearing, the plucky
young investment banker from the BBC drama Industry
— where people work for cash and shag for power — he
would be sitting across from me red-eyed and half-cut
from the night before, pretending that he knew how the
sirloin was different from the rump, downing whiskies
and disappearing to the bathroom to sniff drugs and sext
his colleague. Robert is charming but lost, confident but
terrified, an outsider in the rarefied world of finance who
overcompensates with bravado and booze.
I am not here with Robert, though. I am here with Harry
Lawtey, the 25-year-old actor who plays him. And Lawtey
isn’t getting the steak. The octopus sounds good, he says,
as does the tomato salad. A beer, I suggest, a glass of wine?
“Coke, please, if that’s OK” — the fizzy drink not the
white powder — “and perhaps some runner beans?” Law-
tey has none of the jumped-up ego of Robert. In fact, he is
so earnest and polite that I have no choice but instantly to
forgive him for being 24 hours late to our interview (“I’m
just so sorry for wasting your time”).
Lawtey was an unknown before he landed the role,
hired not long out of drama school after minor parts in
Casualty and Marcella. Now he is on the ascent. In the
coming years he will star in the Russell T Davies drama
You & Me; The Pale Blue Eye, a Netflix movie, alongside
Gillian Anderson and Christian Bale; and Longbourn, a
Pride and Prejudice spin-off from the Bridget Jones’s Diary
and Bridget Jones’s Baby director Sharon Maguire, in
which Lawtey has top billing. In other words, Industry
has made him big business. Outside work he is well into
fashion and ballet. He loves his mates and takes emo-
tions seriously. This is Generation Z’s remodelled mas-
culinity: sensitive, bashful and figuring it out.
“Industry is a coming-of-age story,” Lawtey says.
“It’s about them working out who they are but in a
completely toxic environment that doesn’t give a shit
about them. They have to decide, am I able to be who
I am and do the thing I want to do?”
Series one aired in 2020 — a viral hit that found critical
acclaim — and series two is out this month. Written by
the former investment bankers Mickey Down and Konrad
Kay, it follows a group of graduates trying to survive in the
City. They spend their days calling clients about margin
calls and “flow and colour slash currency ideas from the
CPS end” (and I have no idea what they are talking about),
but it is pacey and compulsive and very, very good.
“We spoke to people from Bloomberg and financial
consultants to prepare,” Lawtey says. “One of the cast
was actually reading Investment Banking for Dummies.
But as an actor, if you get a line of intense jargon, rather
than knowing exactly what that means you need to
know the stakes. I can’t play a trade but I can play what a
trade means to the people involved.”
The second series rejoins the bank after Covid lock-
downs, as people anxiously return to the office. Yasmin
has spent the past year “seshing” in enormous kitchens
and trying to find the perfect pair of white pyjamas. Harp-
er has been living in a hotel alone, eating burgers in her
dressing gown surrounded by screens. And Robert, off the
booze, wants so very badly to be good. “Rob has spent a lot
of time on his own. He’s had none of the external valida-
tion that used to fuel him,” Lawtey says, “so he’s experi-
encing a massive confidence crisis.”
But the show, mostly, is about being in your twenties,
working hard without having the perspective to know
where you’re going. “I’m also in that phase of life when
you’re hungry [for success] and anxious and you make
mistakes,” Lawtey says. “I was on set a couple of weeks
ago and I called my mum to have a catch-up. I’d had a
bit of a rubbish day, I just hadn’t done as well as I’d
wanted. I suppose I felt like I let myself down. I’m still
learning how to manage that feeling.”
Then there’s the sex. Of which there is a lot. In the first
season Robert was embroiled in a sub/dom relationship
with fellow grad Yasmin. He took a selfie with her
knickers over his face. “The sex in the show is transac-
tional,” Lawtey says. “Almost every intimate scene is an
exchange of power — weakening, sacrificing, taking. In
fact money is a good synonym for sex.”

Opposite Shirt, £575, mohair jumper, price on

application, and mohair tie, £210, Dunhill. Jacket,
£985, Ami. Jeans, £495, Loewe. Shoes, £780,
Bottega Veneta. Socks, £4; uniqlo.com. Rings,
Harry’s own. Right Lawtey and Myha’la Herrold as
Robert and Harper in the first series of Industry

The Sunday Times Style • 47

 Lawtey in the new
series of Industry
He has had a lot of sex scenes, he reckons, for his
relatively short career. “I’ve worked with six intimacy
co-ordinators,” he says. It has been a talking point since
Sean Bean told The Times that he thinks they would
“spoil the spontaneity” of the moment. Lawtey believes
they are “crucial”.
“They have this great way of taking the work seriously,
really understanding the magnitude of what they’re deal-
ing with and how sensitive it can be, while acknowledging
that it’s all ridiculous and funny.”
Lawtey was born in Oxford, the youngest of two boys.
When he was four the family moved to a British military
base in Cyprus, where his father was an RAF aircraft engi-
neer and his mother the school pianist. “My dad’s work
started an hour before school, so I’d go along and help him
prep the helicopter for the day,” he says.
After he got the acting bug playing the Artful Dodger in
his school’s Oliver Twist, his parents wrote to the Sylvia
Young Theatre School in London. He auditioned, won a
place and four weeks later was on a flight to London to
live with guardians — at 13 years old. He got homesick.
“I wasn’t ready to leave Cyprus,” he says. “I didn’t want to
go and my parents didn’t really want me to go either. But
I just knew this was it. I couldn’t say no.”
As a teenager he was shy. “I went
through a puppy fat stage, like a lot of ‘I went through
people, but I had to do that wearing a
leotard and learning ballet.” To this day
a puppy fat
Lawtey has “so many” male friends stage, like a lot
who have body-image issues, “some
kind of body dysmorphia in relation to
of people, but
the gym. I’ve definitely had a mini I had to do
phase of that as well. Because it’s diffi-
that wearing a
cult to be someone who goes to the
gym all the time without becoming
really body-centric. It takes a lot of
leotard and
mental effort to lean away from that.” learning ballet’
48 • The Sunday Times Style
What is it like to be a young guy at the moment, trying
to figure out how to talk about feminism and gender poli-
tics? “I talk about it a lot with my friends. You feel a
responsibility to be a part of collectively getting better, but
it’s …” he pauses, cautious. “Who am I to sit here and
mansplain feminism to you? That’s absurd.” When he
talks to his female friends he realises how “remarkably low
the bar is for a good man”.
What he does know is that he has “the best friends in
the world. I care about them so much,” he says. There is a
gap, he reckons, for a series about male friendship that
isn’t clownish like The Inbetweeners or laddish like Top
Gear. “We don’t have a show about a group of young guys
who are fractured and sensitive and ultimately kind.”
Lawtey is straight, single, never been on a dating app.
He has always been interested in what he wears — he
arrives in Dr Martens, black trousers from Percival, a
white T-shirt from Arket and a navy knitted tank top
from Cos — has modelled for Burberry and now gets
invited to fashion shows. “I’m happy to admit I don’t
know anything about the fashion world but I’m learn-
ing and I really enjoy it.”
Anyway, he has to leave — he’s meeting a friend nearby
this afternoon. More apologies are made
for his lateness, more thank yous for the
lunch. He gets recognised now, he says.
Some people expect him to be a party
boy like his character — “I like a drink as
much as the next guy, but I can’t keep up
with Robert” — and others approach him
to say that Pierpoint & Co, the fictional
investment bank, reminds them of their
own work. “And I’m like, ‘What? Are you
Nick Strasburg/HBO
OK? You need to leave!’” ■
Industry series 2 starts on BBC 1 and iPlayer
on September 27
 Shirt, £290, and tailored
leather jacket, £850,
Daniel W Fletcher. Tweed
trousers, £630, Dries
Van Noten. Silk tie (worn
as scarf, just seen), £140,
Celine by Hedi Slimane

Grooming Paul Donovan

using Patricks
 Jumper, £1,240, leather
skirt, £3,570, fringe skirt,
£22,950, Punta pumps,
£820, and Sardine bag,
£2,930, Bottega Veneta

DETAILS, PLEASE
It’s all about the extras this autumn, from the must-have banana
bag to the return of ballet flats (socks optional)
Photographs Theresa Marx Styling Flossie Saunders
Jersey dress, £759,
and wool jacket,
£2,250, Dolce &
Gabbana. Sunglasses,
£950, Dior. Satin
Wander bag, £1,450,
Miu Miu. Flamenco
clutch, £2,100, Loewe

The Sunday Times Style • 51

 Left Jumper (just seen),
£1,490, embroidered satin
skirt, £2,400, and gold
boots, price on application,
Prada. O’Lock bag, £1,750,
Fendi. Velvet hat, £250,
Stella McCartney. Lucent
ring, £250, Swarovski

Right Bra, £550, coat, £1,550,

slip skirt, £650, and bag,
£1,395, Stella McCartney.
Balloon sandals, £895, Loewe

Opposite, from left Shirt with

embroidered collar, £1,450,
leather tie, £400, jacquard coat,
£2,450, and silver trousers, £1,540,
Gucci. Silver boots, £1,060, Isabel
Marant. Embellished phone pouch,
£875, Jimmy Choo. Perspex egg
bag, £595, Simone Rocha. Antique
silver ring, £250, Alexander
McQueen. Zip-neck top, £475, Tory
Burch. Jacket, £4,350, and trousers,
£1,840, Louis Vuitton. Gold boots,
£1,050, Jimmy Choo. Clutch,
£890, Victoria Beckham

52 • The Sunday Times Style

The Sunday Times Style • 53
Jacket, £3,500,
skirt, £1,650, and
belt with removable
pouch, £830, Dior.
Jacquard bag, £2,100,
Prada. Cuff, £360,
Dinosaur Designs

The Sunday Times Style • 55

 Right Check coat, £4,400,
asymmetric skirt, £2,200,
shoes, £1,050, and socks,
£310, Dior. Sunglasses with
chain, £300, Stella McCartney.
Bag, from £2,600, Prada. Lace
dress, £2,100, upcycled leather
jacket with embroidery (in hand),
£13,500, ballerina pumps, £690,
and socks, £320, Miu Miu.
Silver shoulder bag, £420,
Alexander McQueen. Nano
Fendigraphy bag, £895, Fendi

Left Jacket, £6,100, and gold Pico

Baguette bag charm, £410, Fendi.
Saddle bag, £2,950, Dior. Phone
case, £110, Mulberry. iPhone 13 Pro,
£949, Apple

Hair Linnea Nordberg. Make-up

Anna Payne at Of Substance using
Noir Allure, No 1 de Chanel Essence
Lotion and Body Serum-in-Mist by
Chanel. Nails Edyta Betka at Of
Substance using OPI. Models
Hakima at M+P Models and Piper
at Titanium Management

The Sunday Times Style • 57

 Extra, extra!
Hang on to your handbags, the new season’s accessories have landed in stores.
From cuddly clutch bags to the best boots, here are your autumn updates

1
2

Loafing around
Main picture Khaki loafers, £329;
maje.com. 1 Burgundy loafers, £100;
geox.com. 2 Black loafers, £65, Kin;
johnlewis.com. 3 Flatform loafers, £35;
marksandspencer.com. 4 Chunky loafers,
£315; grenson.com. 5 Tassel loafers, £75; 5
dunelondon.com. 6 Khaki loafers, £20;
tuclothing.sainsburys.co.uk. 7 White
loafers, £110, Vagabond; office.co.uk

Edit Helen Atkin

7

4
2

1
5
3

Big reboot
Main picture Block-heel boots, £60; hm.com. 1 Western boots, £239; karenmillen.com.
2 Suede boots, £219; zara.com. 3 Brown boots, £515; byfar.com. 4 Red boots, £420, Staud;
brownsfashion.com. 5 White boots, £60; bershka.com. 6 Cream boots, £499; lkbennett.com

The Sunday Times Style • 59

 Cuddly carryalls
Main picture Shearling bag, £610 (from October),
1
ATP Atelier. 1 Faux-fur bag, £110; jakke.co.uk. 2 White
tote, £49; whitestuff.com. 3 Shearling bag, £465; 2
demellierlondon.com. 4 Faux-fur bag, £189; kurtgeiger.
com. 5 Shearling bag, £390; elleme.com. 6 Green
bag, £15; hm.com. 7 Shearling bag, £350; byfar.com

4
3

7
6
5
 1
2

Totes amaze
Main picture XL shopper, £30; hm.com. 6
1 Green tote, £425; strathberry.com.
2 Leather bag, £50; mango.com. 3 Black
tote, £100; stories.com. 4 Orange tote,
£295; russellandbromley.co.uk. 5 Beige
shopper, £30; hm.com. 6 Tan shopper,
£295; aspinaloflondon.com
 HOUSE
OF STYLE

Photographs Felix Forest

The reading/playroom, with a

bouclé chair by the French
designers Pierre Augustin Rose

64 • The Sunday Times Style

The Australian fashion designer Edwina Forest
has made her Sydney apartment the epitome
of serene – despite two small children and a
husband obsessed with buying more furniture
Words Olivia Lidbury
Felix and Edwina with their
daughter, Freïa Moon. The
painting is by Jenny Topfer
With its lofty ceilings and ornate cornicing — not to
mention the mid-century European design classics
peppering every room — first impressions hint that the
fashion designer Edwina Forest’s apartment could be of
the Haussmann style and located in a chic arrondisse-
ment in Paris. It is, in fact, more than 10,000 miles away, in
a harbourside suburb of Sydney, Australia. But any
French connections are genuine: Edwina, the 40-year-old
co-founder of the womenswear label Aje, is married to the
Lyons native Felix Forest, a photographer who captured
their carefully curated home in the images shown here.
“You can’t really place it, but you definitely don’t feel
like you’re in Australia,” Edwina says of the serene art
deco-era apartment. Unique for its generous proportions
and arched wall openings, the property, in buzzy and
affluent Elizabeth Bay, was bought by the couple in 2015.
Then, three years ago, while Edwina was pregnant with
their first child, they acquired the apartment across the
hall, thus doubling the size of their home without having
to up sticks (apart from for six weeks when the bulk of the
building work to merge the two properties was done).
“Together we wanted to create a palette that felt quite
calming,” Edwina explains of the decor’s purposeful
restraint. “With Felix being a photographer and me in
fashion, we work with a lot of colour, so it became more
powerful for us to have something very tranquil and
neutral.” Any professional “help” in pulling together their
vision was off the table: “As Felix works with a lot of
interior designers and many have become close friends,
it would have been political if we had taken the assis-
tance of anybody.”
They agreed that the enlarged space would act as a
canvas for the pieces they have collected over time, such
as the Akari horn floor lamp by Isamu Noguchi for Vitra,
the Mexique table by Charlotte Perriand for Cassina and a
sinuous vintage Soriana sofa by Afra and Tobia Scarpa for
Left The Cuoio dining chairs are by Eoos for
Walter Knoll. Above “After the children have
gone to bed and we’ve cooked a meal, we’ll sit
in the nook beside the kitchen,” Edwina says
The Sunday Times Style • 65
 This picture The marble-topped
kitchen was overhauled during
the merger of the two
apartments. Above Edwina and
her daughter on a reupholstered
1950s Italian kidney sofa

The sitting room is illuminated by a

Serge Mouille light. To the left is
Edwina’s beloved vintage Soriana sofa

Cassina. Edwina shuns the term “cult”, but the apartment is

a showcase of some of the most revered pieces in modern
design. “When we met, Felix would say my taste in furni-
ture was more French provincial, which being French he
isn’t into,” Forest laughs. “His was quite masculine and very
design-led. I think together we’ve merged our tastes.”
Edwina’s own sense of style was formed growing up on a
farm in Queensland, her aesthetic palette shaped by her
grandparents’ antique-filled home and the time she spent
working in high-end boutiques in Brisbane while at univer-
sity (she studied journalism and had ambitions of becoming
a news reporter). Instead she fell into fashion magazines,
with styling becoming her calling card, and went on to
launch Aje with her friend Adrian Norris (Aje is an acronym
for Adrian joins Edwina) in 2008. The brand’s decon-
structed silhouettes with raw edges and untamed volume in
fuchsia and yellow have become the directional choice for
wedding guests in the southern hemisphere. By contrast,
the boldest colour statement in her home is a peachy
tadelakt (a waterproof plaster) in her bathroom.
The wall finishes were something the couple agonised
over — achieving the desired effect in the clay-rendered
study off the bedroom took three attempts. They were
partly inspired by a stay in the Sextantio Albergo Diffuso in
Abruzzo, a boutique concept where hotel rooms are spread
around a micro-village in the Italian Apennines, and where

66 • The Sunday Times Style

 Below Looking from the study into
the primary bedroom — Felix
designed the floating bedside
drawers. Bottom It was third time
lucky for the study’s walls, which
are finished in a clay render

the rustic, charred walls only add to its charm. It was

the hotel’s insistence on candle lighting that inspired the
Forests to forgo downlights and opt for a cast of free-
standing lamps and wall lights. “Everything is on a dimmer,
so by night it feels very moody and beautiful,” Edwina says.
Actually there are, in fact, a couple of ceiling lights — a sleek
pendant above the desk in the study and an elegant, spider-
like three-armed style by the late French industrial designer
Serge Mouille.
There is no dedicated playroom for their two-year-old
daughter, Freïa Moon, and her little brother, Orson Wylde,
six months, but the book-filled fourth bedroom is where the
children like to spread out, and a pair of prototype bouclé
chairs by Pierre Augustin Rose, picked up at a flea market in
Paris, provide a tactile touch.
Felix is the shopper of the couple, or as Edwina describes
him, “A consummate collector, he’s always finding things,”
recalling how at one point they had seven sofas on rotation
between the apartment and Felix’s studio. “I’d come home
after work to a completely different set-up. In a way it’s quite
fun that nothing feels too permanent,” she says. “But the
Soriana sofa is one of my favourite pieces, so I’ve made him
promise that he won’t be moving that around too much. It
has been stationary for a while — I hope it stays that way.” ■

uk.ajeworld.com
Retreats have become big business. These
days it seems there is something for
everyone. Mindfulness retreats! Weight-loss
retreats! Menopause retreats! Did you know
that there is even a break-up retreat now?
But more recently we have seen the rise of a
new offering: the skincare retreat, a concept
that has been making its way around Europe
for a while but has started to pop up over
here too. “There has been a huge increase in
inquiries from people seeking to make real
change to their skin now that their fast-paced
lives are back with a vengeance post-
pandemic,” says Elizabeth King, Weleda’s
skincare expert. But is this just a quick facial
here, a speed peel there? Think again. These
breaks from reality can be anything from four
days of hardcore gadgets and cutting-edge
skincare science to one week of gut-skin
co-ordination. Whether you’re keen to
rediscover your skin type at a quaint barn in
the Peak District or to escape to Italy for an
anti-stress programme, here’s what to book
now for a complete complexion overhaul.

If you want to embrace

a holistic approach
HEAD TO Weleda, Longnor, Staffordshire.
WHAT FOR? The Weleda wellness retreat.

KEEP YOUR
THE LOWDOWN This is dedicated to
understanding your skin’s behavioural
rhythm. Sound a bit wafty? Bear with us
— the 100-year-old skincare brand’s new
retreats take holistic wellbeing very seriously.

SKIN UP
Weleda’s approach is that your skin has
different cycles from 28-day cell renewal to
seven-year life phases. Adapting your skincare
to your life phase will help to keep your skin
healthy. For example, in our twenties we tend
to live according to extremes, which can lead
to dry or inflamed skin, so the brand
recommends iris extract to regulate it. In your
forties? You’re probably in your “pivotal A minibreak that also overhauls your complexion?
phase”: Weleda suggests introducing
pomegranate-focused skincare as the fruit
The big new spa trend is for skincare retreats – and
supports regeneration. you can pick from gloriously pampering to seriously
Each day of this Peak District retreat starts
with yoga, and over the weekend you’ll take hardcore. Stem cell extraction, anyone? Words Nateisha Scott
part in a wellness workshop designed to calm
the mind and body, as well as a skincare
workshop during which you’ll learn about If your skin has examination to determine your energy
your skin’s life cycle and the Weleda products levels, treatments include phytotherapy
that complement its current phase. Mini reached burnout (which uses healing medicines
treatments and activities are available and you HEAD TO Lefay Resort & Spa Lago di derived from plants), a gua sha facial
can book to have the Weleda signature Garda, Gargnano, Italy. massage to get rid of toxins and promote
treatment (for an additional charge). There WHAT FOR? The Beauty of Body and lymphatic drainage, and cryotherapy,
Marie Baersch/Blaublut-Edition

will also be opportunities to speak directly to
the experts for further advice. All the
information you receive means you’ll leave
with a robust routine to follow once home.
BOOK IT From £645pp for three nights,
full-board, including accommodation.
weleda.co.uk
Mind programme.
THE LOWDOWN This is about
reducing skin damage caused by stress, so
expect a programme that aims to improve
skin tone and smooth out wrinkles,
targeting concerns such as eczema or acne
if necessary. After you’ve had a medical
which uses sub-zero temperatures to
reduce inflammation. There’s also
reflexology, qi gong to rebalance physical
energy and an aromatic mud wrap.
BOOK IT £2,770pp for five nights,
full board, including accommodation.
lagodigarda.lefayresorts.com

68 • The Sunday Times Style

if you need a skin, mind
and body spring-clean
HEAD TO L’Albereta Relais & Châteaux,
Franciacorta, Italy.
WHAT FOR? The Rebalance Body and Face
programme.
THE LOWDOWN For this retreat you’ll split
your time between facial-focused treatments
and body detoxes. The skin journey includes
ultrasonic facial cleansing, which is essentially
a facial on steroids: think high-frequency
vibrations used to deep clean and exfoliate.
You’ll also have a mesotherapy session (where
vitamins, minerals, enzymes and antioxidants
are injected into the mid-layers of the skin)
that can be carried out on the face, neck,
décolleté and hands, depending on your
needs, which comes at the end of the
programme as it requires roughly five hours’
downtime. For the rest of your stay you’ll be
kept busy spa-ing with body massages and a
scrub. Prepare to work on your breathing too:
the Chenot regenerating treatment is a
massage focused on optimising breathing
to help relax the body and relieve tension.
BOOK IT From £2,695pp for three nights,
full board (with the Chenot bio-light menu),
including accommodation. albereta.it
if your diet is
affecting your skin
HEAD TO Sha Wellness Clinic,
Alicante, Spain.
WHAT FOR? The Rebalance programme
and Gut Health pack.
THE LOWDOWN This is a full-on schedule
aimed at improving the state of your gut
microbiota and immune, neuroendocrine
and emotional systems. The belief is that if
your gut microbiome is out of kilter, your skin
reacts by becoming irritated and sensitive.
After a consultation with a digestive-health
expert, you will undergo tests to detect food
and pollutant sensitivities. Then it’s on to
ozone therapy sessions, which are supposed
to increase the amount of oxygen in your
A suite at the Lefay
Resort & Spa, Italy
The Clinique La Prairie
spa-clinic, Switzerland
body (and therefore improve immune
function), colon hydrotherapy and an
intravenous liver detox session. On top of the
gut focus, you’ll be able to chill out in the
clinic’s Roman baths, Turkish baths, cold
plunge pools and ice fountain. There is also an
emotional eating session, which will identify
the psychological reasons behind your food
choices and how they impact on your gut and
skin. The aim of this programme is to make
lifelong changes, so all the advice you receive
from the resident experts is designed to be
continued at home: you’ll also have a cooking
class, receive a personalised health plan and
leave with a happier gut and healthier skin —
plus a recipe book.
BOOK IT From £4,740pp for seven nights,
full board, excluding accommodation.
shawellnessclinic.com
if you want a
red carpet glow
HEAD TO Glass House Detox & Wellness
Retreat, Bulphan, Essex.
WHAT FOR? The Skincare Retreat
(launching this autumn).
THE LOWDOWN Beginning with a
consultation using high-tech skin scanners
to understand what’s going on beneath the
surface, the programme moves on to a series
of intense face workouts over the course of
your stay. Options include Dermalux light
therapy (a non-invasive treatment designed to
accelerate skin-cell renewal) and an O2 Lift
peel, dubbed the red carpet facial thanks to
its noticeable results. Once you’re done with
your daily skin clinic, you can fill your time
with fitness classes or a wellness workshop,
book in for extra treatments and indulge in
a plant-based menu that aims to detox the
body, strengthen the immune system and
help reduce inflammation and swelling.
BOOK IT From £1,410pp for four nights,
full board, including accommodation.
glasshouseretreat.co.uk
if anti-ageing is your goal
(and money is no object)
HEAD TO Clinique La Prairie, Clarens,
Switzerland.
WHAT FOR? The Skin Cell Boost and Beauty
Stem Cells programmes.
THE LOWDOWN For those who have the
means, and the mettle, these are medically
advanced programmes claiming to visibly
slow down the ageing process. Society’s
elite (at this price names are kept very
hush-hush) head to the lakeside retreat for
its renowned stem cell extraction, which
sounds like some sort of organ-harvesting
movie, and it kind of is … The pioneering
technology involves having fat cells
clinically extracted, usually from your
stomach area, and then filtrated to target
the stem cells, which are injected into your
face, the idea being that your body uses its
own natural resources to regenerate. In the
Beauty Stem Cells programme, some of
your stem cells are also stored for 30 years so
you can benefit from the anti-ageing
technology in the future.
What else do you get for the hefty price
tag? Along with beautiful views of the
Alps and Lake Geneva, top-quality food
in the on-site restaurant and access to
the hammam and wellness area, everything
about the programmes — from the
experts picked for you based on your
needs (there are more than 50 medical
professionals for the 38 rooms) to the
diet plan formulated by the clinic’s
nutritionists and the skin routine to
take home — is tailor-made for you.
Treatments including ayurvedic therapies
and massages are available too (for an
additional charge).
BOOK IT The Skin Cell Boost programme
costs from £14,025pp for one night. The
Beauty Stem Cells programme costs from
£31,700pp for three nights, full board,
including accommodation.
cliniquelaprairie.com ■
The Sunday Times Style • 69
 Join the waitlist for our first
BEAUTY ADVENT CALENDAR
WORTH
OVER
£800

COMING SOON

25 products hand-picked by STYLE for £199

Including coveted brands such as Fenty Beauty, Olaplex, Murad and Ouai.
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latestinbeauty.com/styleadvent22
 Sarah Jossel
Bonding used to be a salon-only treatment to strengthen your hair,
but these new products mean you can DIY (and more cheaply)

Shampoo? Check. Conditioner? Check for some. Hair

1
mask? Check for a few. But what about a bond repairer?
Silence …
This month an unusual number of hair products with the
term “bond” or “bonding” on the label have been launched.
Their claims caught my attention and left me confused all at
once. What do they do? How do they work? And who needs them?
One deep dive later and I’m ready to bring you the answers.
Let’s start with the what: bonding hair products are at-home hair strengtheners that
repair damage, return some much-needed shine, help with manageability and protect from
further woes. Essentially they’re a DIY dream for hair that feels more like hay thanks to
anything from excessive heat styling and bleach to chlorine and colour.
2
The how: without getting too sciencey on you, each brand usually has its own patented
technology, but what the majority have in common is they contain some form of amino acid
that can repair broken bonds at a very deep level. For context, most conditioners will help
the surface appear more shiny, but these new launches have the power to go way deeper.
The who: anyone who needs a general mane MoT, whether that involves a post-summer
glow-up, help with perpetual breaking or a cure for wispy, frizzy flyaways.
I need to mention Olaplex at the top as it was the first to bring us these products and has 3
been releasing all sorts of bonding and rebonding wonders over the past few years. The
No 3 Hair Perfector (1 £28) is its hero that anyone and everyone with damaged, brittle
hair will benefit from using on a weekly basis. But, more generally, I know the hardcore
Olaplex fanbase (which includes my fellow columnist India Knight) swears by the brand for
bringing deathly dull and broken hair back to life. So it’s brilliant news that at-home
bonding is going more mainstream.
Now there’s Living Proof Triple Bond Complex (2 £42). Quite the claim incoming:
eight times stronger hair, anyone? Of course I have no way to prove this myself, but I can
confirm that after two uses my frizz-prone hair feels like it has some muscle and has a
lovely softness and shine to it. This one is a weekly leave-in treatment that you apply to
damp hair; it’s activated by heat so you will really feel the difference when you’re blow-
drying — or rough drying — your hair.
Then there is Redken Acidic Bonding Concentrate Intensive Treatment (3 £21.50).
I agree, I agree, “acidic” and “intensive” sound quite dramatic, but what you need to know
is that it is a godsend for weak, coloured or bleached hair that is prone to breaking. Think of
it as a primer that you leave on for five to ten minutes, rinse, then follow with shampoo and 4
conditioner. Yes, it’s an extra step but it’s so worthwhile if you’re trying to grow hair or
longing for a healthier-looking finish.
Finally, the Philip Kingsley team has added to its Bond Builder range this month with
Restorative Oil Lipid Shield (4 £28), which works as a lightweight treatment oil to give
instant gloss. It’s the glorious styling step that temporarily masks split ends and camou-
Cat Garcia, Alamy

flages that dusty dry-end feel — perfect for those due a haircut.
For as long as I can remember this sort of hair repair was reserved solely for break-the-
bank in-salon treatments, so I’m excited that DIY versions are now popping up all over our
haircare shelves. I feel a strong bond forming (sorry). ■ @sarahjossel

The Sunday Times Style • 71

 India Knight
Finally – an eyeshadow for midlife lids that doesn’t slide off

The problem with eyeshadow is usually not colour or

longevity but texture, I find. If you’re older and the texture
isn’t right, then the product either slides off too quickly or,
worse, settles down into any creases or lines and makes
itself right at home for hours and hours, days probably, if
you let it. I’m all for embracing one’s age, but there’s no
need actually to walk about with something that actively
emphasises creases — the make-up equivalent of drawing
arrows on the side of your face going “Check these out”.
On top of that, eyeshadows that have a thing made of their longevity often feel too
uncomfortably dry, if that makes sense — like you can feel them on your eyelids. No one
wants that. And the ones that feel comfortable can have a problem staying put.
Obviously one solution is to keep reapplying, or to use an eye base, but it shouldn’t be
beyond the wit of man to find an affordable eyeshadow that doesn’t require extra effort.
They do exist. Case in point: No7 Stay Perfect Smoothing Eye Shadow (£9). I don’t
know if this is specifically targeted at the older eyelid, but it is very much the older eyelid’s
friend. Really unfairly, I think of No7 as an (even) older person’s brand, the make-up equiv-
alent of a nice court shoe, and so I don’t always pay as much attention to it as I should,
which is a mistake because it’s very good in its own unshouty way. This eyeshadow posi-
tively glides on, feels somehow elastic — ie completely comfortable — and, thanks to its
texture, stays put but doesn’t settle anywhere you don’t want it to. Rather, it glides over
any obvious crevasses, like a sort of eye Polyfilla, meaning that the area looks, as promised,
smoother than it did when the lid was bare. It stays in place until you take it off.
The two caveats are that a) it’s shiny — not glittery, but far from matte, which will put
some people off — and there’s a belief that shiny eyelids only belong to young people,
which I think is complete nonsense, and anyway this isn’t active shine, more a sort of mild
luminescence. And b) the range of shades is frustratingly limited — there are only six. The
good news is that aside from the Iridescent Purple they’re all eminently wearable. There’s
a Nude, which is only nude if you have white skin, but which looks pretty on. I like the
Bronze, which is bronze (quite refreshing to have these Ronseal-like names), and the
Pewter (pictured). It comes in a tube with a little spongy applicator, which is quite
old-school and none the worse for it. ■ @indiaknight It positively
glides on, feels
INDIA LOVES somehow
READ Not only is Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many by Jeremy Lee (Fourth elastic and
Estate £30) the most beautiful cookery book in living memory (with illustrations by the
doesn’t settle
Victoria Adamson

great John Broadley), but it is also that very rare thing: a book, both magisterial and
friendly, that immediately feels like it has always been a part of your life, even though it’s
brand-new. Glorious recipes, glorious writing — you will want to cook from it from the
anywhere you
day you buy it and you will pass it on to your children. Really special. don’t want it to

The Sunday Times Style • 73

 Dear Dolly
Your love, life and friendship dilemmas answered
by Dolly Alderton
My husband and I are in the first phase of separating and have started telling friends. It was my
decision and one I am making because I know we would both be far happier either alone or in
other relationships. Six years ago we moved from New York to London, where my husband is
from. My UK friends are either ones who knew my husband or have been made through our
children’s nursery/school. I am very careful when talking to them about the divorce not to say
anything too disparaging about him. But when I did tell them, I heard, “What is he going to do?
How will he take care of himself?” or “This can’t be the best for the children.” Since then I have
been shunned by my London friends. I went to New York to see my closest friends there and
sadly it was more of the same. One couple sobbed at the table in a restaurant and told me how
scared they were for me. I am tired of defending my actions or feeling like I need to.

Oy. I’ve tried to empathise with these
friends of yours. I’ve sat with my Marmite
peanut butter on toast (highly recom-
mend) and your longer letter, reading and
rereading, trying to work out why you’ve
had this reaction from people who are
meant to support you. And I can’t figure it
out. I wonder if you move in circles that are
especially traditional. Perhaps they think
that being in a married couple is more
important than being happy. Or that two
salaries above all else make for a stable home life. Or that
your job as a woman is to serve your husband and children.
In which case their reaction to your divorce is nothing
about your divorce and more an actualisation of their
biggest fears. Which they should not be making your
concern at this already challenging time.
I also wonder whether your husband wanted a divorce.
You said it was instigated by you because you know it is
the best decision for you both. I’m sure you’re right — the
very fact you feel this means it’s the right decision. A
marriage can’t be sustained by the will of one person. But
perhaps your husband is in denial about this. Or maybe
he is feeling bitter or rejected. Something has aggravated
your mutual friends and this shunning that you feel is,
I imagine, their idea of a demonstration of loyalty to him.
It’s a very weird thing to go through. You make friends
with a partner’s friends — you go on holiday with them,
you dance at their weddings, you play with their children.
They become like family. If, when you break up, you’re
suddenly shut out and made to feel like a traitor, it makes
you question whether all that love was conditional. People
are allowed to leave relationships that no longer make
them happy, and you certainly can’t stay in one to appease
Which was a courageous and romantic
thing to do — but always comes with a risk.
Initially I thought about advising you to
have an honest conversation with these
mutual friends and help them to under-
stand how isolated you feel. But, honestly,
I’m not sure these are friends you want to
fight to keep. My worry is that you would
always feel the need to justify your divorce
to them. And you also don’t want to feel
self-conscious in your close friendships.
You don’t want to feel like you can’t relax and share what’s
going on in your single life without fear of being judged.
In your longer letter you mention a minority of friends
who are supportive of your decision. Throw as much time
and love into these friendships as you can. The cliché
about knowing who your friends are in moments of crisis
exists for a reason. They have upheld the unspoken vow of
friendship and been with you through the worst, so now
look to the better. Book time together, make fun plans.
Invest in them. You don’t need as many friends as you
think you do. A handful of people who you really love and
trust are much more important than a giant social group.
Then be open to meeting new people and starting
afresh. You were brave before and started your life in a
new country, you can be brave again. And take comfort in
knowing that some friendships are only meant to last for
a short period. When I speak to someone in their sixties or
older, I’m always struck by how often they talk about a
person or a couple or a family they were incredibly close to
for a number of years who they fell out of touch with for
one reason or another. It reminds me that some relation-
ships are meant to see you through your lifetime and some
aren’t, and that’s fine.
Alexandra Cameron

a group of friends so that their perception of your (And finally, a petty moment of schadenfreude: half of
marriage can remain intact. those friends of yours are probably going to get divorced.
In this instance it’s made especially weird because you Not an actionable piece of advice but something to think
moved your life across the Atlantic for your relationship. about when you’re feeling low.) ■

To get your life dilemma answered by Dolly, email or send a voice note
to deardolly@sundaytimes.co.uk or DM @theststyle

74 • The Sunday Times Style