Dress For Wedding

Marks & Spencer is poised to lose its crown in the British fashion industry to its younger online rival Asos, in what is being described as a seminal moment for UK retail.

In the latest sign of traditional corporate powerhouses being overtaken by newer technology-focused firms, the market value of 17-year-old Asos is just shy of £100m below that of the 113-year-old mainstay of the UK high street. M&S has a market value of £5.08bn, compared with Asos’s £4.98bn.

City analysts said it was only a matter of time before Asos leapfrogged M&S. Mark Photiades, a retail analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, said: “The valuation gap between the two businesses is the smallest it has ever been and we believe that it will not be long before Asos has a greater market value than M&S. It will be a seminal moment.”

The shift in retail power was compared with the automotive industry, where the electric car maker Tesla sped ahead of the 114-year-old Ford Motor Company in April to become the US’s biggest car manufacturer.

Similarly, the online retailer Amazon is now worth twice as much as Walmart, after overtaking the American grocery chain in 2015.

Photiades said that 20 years ago, when online shopping was in its infancy and before Asos was established in 2000, M&S had a market value of £16.9bn. When Asos floated on the stock market in October 2001, it was valued at just £14m, compared with £7.8bn for M&S.

Asos still has a way to go to catch M&S in terms of total sales and profit, however. Asos sales were £1.4bn last year, compared with £10.6bn at M&S. Profits were £42.8m and £176m respectively.

Mike Lewis, the head of the property litigation team at SA Law, said the consumer shift towards online shopping was taking its toll on UK high streets. “The demise of BHS and the empty stores in places such as St Albans one year on, reflect that finding tenants for such sizeable units that the likes of M&S occupy is not an easy exercise,” he added.

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Marilyn Monroe said ‘give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world’. But it’s just another line to draw a sucker in.

Fashion is fun but much of it is claptrap designer drivel.

If you comfortably dress as you like, without any peer pressure, you need read no further this is not for you.

But fashion followers who worship at the altar of Bond Street boutiques, pay attention.

When I look at pals over the years who have had depressive breakdowns over not possessing the latest designer shoe, handbag, designer face cream or designer dog, I scoff and judge them.

What’s wrong with you? What in your own life is so bad, and has made you so insecure, that you lob your monthly salary at Dolce, Tom, Marc and co?

One of my best mates has so much couture it’s like Harvey Nics in her crib.

Except it’s not her crib; she’ll never own a home as her mortgage money was spunked on fashion. A real life Carrie Bradshaw, who once famously said ‘I like my money right where I can see it, in my wardrobe’.

Another bestie turned up to our weekly girlie cocktails years ago wearing a one-sleeved leather jacket that was the latest thing and cost hundreds. An investment piece she said. Oh how we laughed.

When do you wear a one-armed leather jacket? In the winter? Or summer? I’ve never seen her wear it since.

I’ve been brainwashed by the BS too.

As designers used to send me sample frocks to wear at awards and events, a friend suggested I ‘invest’ in two pairs of Christian Louboutin shoes. That way, she explained as if speaking to a 5-year-old I could pair them with anything forever.

She explained patiently to me that designer shoes were so costly because of the expert balancing in their mechanical structure. That they’d never hurt. It sounded good when she said it. I was sold.

I forked out on a black and nude pair of stilettos. Worst purchase ever. So uncomfortable I thought my foot was broken an hour after showing them off at the MOBO Awards.

‘They’re not for actual walking’, the same mate then added. ‘Only for cabs and fancy places’.

Not walking? I should have had a lobotomy.

Prescribed fashion is for the insecure and desperate to be accepted.

Yes, I said it.

Most of what I see in top fashion mags look no different from looks I could chuck together from the High Street. Why throw my travel, mortgage, life money at an outfit that I 98% guarantee I will not keep and wear forever?

People delirious for the latest must have fashion have always seemed to me to be desperate to prove they are worthy.

It’s similar to using drugs and substances to escape the reality of their real lives.

No wonder you think you want it they brainwash you before you even get to any editorial features.

But any fashion that is in the editorial pages is there because those clothing houses pay huge sums to the magazine for advertising. It’s one massive con.

It’s their job to make you feel that you can’t live without the latest faff. I know this first hand as a few of my besties are fashion stylists, editors and celebrity fashion PRs.

Oh, it’s a laugh a minute hearing their stories from hell, begging celebs to wear the latest designer tat.

Fashion prescribes contradictory messages too, so is it any wonder little girls grow up confused?

While music videos mostly show curvaceous, bootylicious babes, twerking their often fake butts like pneumatic drills. Then you flick through painfully-posh ‘fashion bible’ glossies with stick thin, shapeless girls, who seem to starve themselves.

As a roving MTV News Reporter five centuries ago, I was sent reluctantly to Fashion Weeks in Milan, New York and Paris.

God it was awful. Hundreds of po-faced, skinny, tall sticks, all wearing black. Every fashion show was like walking into a bloody funeral. They’d actually cry if they weren’t in the front row. Or worse, weren’t on the list at all. Screaming and hysterics were the norm.

Furthermore, the attendees would look at me witheringly cos I always rocked something bright.

‘I’m the bloody fashionable one,’ I’d think just as sneeringly. ‘You all look the same!’

What does it mean in the long run?

Are you going to be the person who saved for months to acquire the must-have piece of clothing, and then wakes up one day, aged 40, realising you have the best wardrobe but no home to put it in? And that you had the LV suitcases but never travelled?

If you’re stinking rich, go ahead and buy everything your heart desires.

But fashion is about being comfortable in yourself and having fun with the looks that you’re most comfortable in.

I’ve always done me.

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‘It’s my job to look good, so I use a facial moisturiser daily,’ says Guardian Weekend magazine’s All Ages model Kelvin Bueno

By Weekend magazine’s All Ages model , 19

I have dry skin, but it gets oily when I’m stressed and can flare up with spots. My work involves a lot of travel, which can be exhausting, and I often look tired. It’s my job to look good, so I try to make sure my skin doesn’t suffer. I use a facial moisturiser daily, most recently a cream by Vaseline.

The cheapest product I tested was my least favourite. The Ordinary’s Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA (£4.90) felt thick and greasy, with a gloopy texture. There is no real fragrance, just a light fresh scent. It’s nothing special, but does the job.

No 7 Men Energising Moisturiser (£9) had a noticeable heat perhaps too much, because my eyes started to sting. That was a surprise, but it actually felt quite good. The odour was fresh but a bit like men’s deodorant, which I don’t really like and put me off using it again. Still, it really brightened up some of the darker, drier areas of my face.

Cowshed’s Bullocks Soothing Moisturiser (£16) felt silky-smooth and not at all greasy, and my skin absorbed it well. I loved the fragrance, which is a discreet hemp seed oil. It’s a bit runny, but if you don’t use much, it rubs in well. It helped soothe and settle my skin, especially after shaving at shoots, and my face felt protected and clean all day.

It’s a bargain and would have been my winner had I not tried Aesop’s Sage & Zinc Facial Hydrating Cream (£27), which I loved. It felt smooth but firm, and hydrated my face, without leaving it oily. My girlfriend even noticed a difference, and we both loved the classic cologne scent. I also like the packaging. At £27, it’s an investment, but I can’t see myself using another product again.

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Now you can wear Rihanna's red carpet hits every single day.

Rihanna's new Fenty x Stance sock collection hit online stores today and Rihanna's latest collaboration has brought novelty socks to a whole new level with images of her best looks printed on the front of each set.

The capsule collection features four pairs of socks available in two box sets: the Awards Show Box and the Music Video Box, both retailing for $65. Each pair pays homage to Rihanna's high-fashion outfits from the red carpet and her music videos.

The awards show box features the Adam Selman naked swarovski crystal dress she wore to the CFDA awards in 2014 as well as Guo Pei's 55 pound Chinese couture dress the artist wore to the 2015 Met Gala. As for the Music Video Box socks, outfits from RiRi's Work (2016) and Pour It Up (2013) videos are printed on the socks, including a Tommy Hilfiger netted dress, diamonte bra and those underwear-shorts from Pour It Up.

You can buy Rihanna's Fenty x Stance socks online now.

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Alice McCall are hosting an archive sale this weekend where you will be able to pick up some of their signature pieces for just a fraction of the price. Wish listing already? We are. Think their C’est Chic Top down from $190 to $75 and their Le Freak Shorts (because it would be rude not to have the set, right?) down from $220 to $75.

The up to 75% off sale will kick off this Friday August 18th and will run until Saturday August 20th open 9-5pm each day.

So Sydney-siders, pop along to 44 Foveaux Steet, Surry Hills for an Alice McCall fix your card won’t hate you for.

Happy shopping.

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