The Conversation

By Naomi Braithwaite Modern fashion trends including suffocating shapewear, flimsy ballet flats and oversized tote bags have caused misery for many wearers. But these trends are tame in comparison to ...

By Naomi Braithwaite Constantly namedropped in Absolutely Fabulous – one of the sharpest and funniest sitcoms of the 1990s – London’s most iconic fashion department store is up for sale following ...

By Anna M Kotarba-Morley and Michael Westaway In the opening scene of the 2001 blockbuster film The Mummy Returns, two women of Egypt’s royal court engage in spectacular hand-to-hand combat. ...

By Elly Anastasiades Think about the last time you looked in the mirror and sighed at the sight of your hair. Maybe it was frizzing, flattening, greying, thinning or simply ...

By Maria Izquierdo-Pulido, Isabella Parilli Moser and Maria Fernanda Zeron Rugerio Magnesium has become one of the most popular supplements on the market. People take it for a whole host ...

The Commonwealth Games has always been a competition shaped by its history as well as its sport. Previously known as the ‘British Empire Games’, the competition is perhaps viewed by ...

By Anna-Sophie Jürgens For centuries, clowns occupied an ambiguous cultural position. They were comic figures, but also disruptive ones: tricksters who mocked authority and social conventions, picaresque mischief-makers who ...

By Emanuela Prandelli In a luxury market often blamed for flattening creativity, Maison Schiaparelli has long stood out for its defiant unconventionality. Where Coco Chanel’s creations exalted the functional ...

By Beatriz Carpallo Porcar, Andrés Ráfales Perucha, Daniel Sanjuán Sánchez, José Lesmes Poveda López and Paula Cordova Alegre It is tempting to understand muscle’s ...

By Angela Rodrigues For many of us, the instinctive response to good weather is to get to the beach. But the start of the season is also a reminder that ...

By Rebekah Pickering Wood Textiles shape British life in ways we often overlook – the clothes worn, the items inherited, and the patterns that quietly signal where people come from. Yet ...

By Kate Cantrell “Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick,” writes Susan Sontag in the opening of ...

By Paul Hough While some people can spring out of bed at six in the morning and go straight into their day, others prefer to wake up later as they’...

By Catrin Cousins and Jo Wiltshire Indie sleaze is back, but not as you remember it. The 00s scene’s revival taps into a growing backlash against hyper-polished influencer culture, ...

By Rebecca Scott Fashion has always done more than keep us warm. It’s also a social language, quietly organising ideas of status, taste and belonging. What made the first ...

By Jye Marshall and Rachel Lamarche-Beauchesne The 2026 Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala has delivered, as per usual, the who’s who of Hollywood, decked out to the ...

By Hannah Rumball-Croft As Britain’s longest‑reigning monarch, and one rarely out of the public eye since childhood, Queen Elizabeth II left behind a wardrobe so extensive and meticulously ...

By Adam Collins The only thing harder than losing weight is keeping it off. Many people who lose weight find themselves stuck in the cycle of ‘yo-yo dieting’ – losing weight ...

By Bernard Capp Around 8pm on a cold February evening in 1733, a gentleman named Francis Peters was returning to his home near Knightsbridge, London, in a hackney cab, when someone ...

By Rose Marroncelli Denim is present in practically every country in the world and is widely adopted as one of the most common forms of everyday attire. Its appeal spans ...

By Charlotte Gupta But if you’ve been finding it harder to sleep recently, late-night Easter eggs could be part of the problem. That’s because some chocolate ingredients, including ...

By Jillian Sunderland and Jordan Foster Young men and teenage boys are learning to see their faces and bodies as projects to measure, rank and optimise. On social media platforms ...

By Lauren C. Hall, Christine Padgett, James Sauer, and María Yanotti As countries around the world look to follow Australia’s lead and implement a social media ban for ...

By Dipa Kamdar If you spend any time on social media, you may have noticed a curious trend: wellness influencers singing the praises of nicotine. Not smoking or vaping but ...