WHO IS TED BAKER?

Writer: Simon Morgan

Just who is Ted Baker? I know the name, I know the gorgeously turned-out stores, and I know the stylish clothes-somewhere between Gap and Gucci–he sells. But I’ve never seen a picture of Ted or read an interview with him. Nor have I heard of rival design houses out to poach Ted, or of Ted cavorting down the catwalks-a model on each arm-at his fashion shows. It’s because, actually, Ted doesn’t exist. Ted is, in fact, a figment of his own label’s imagination.
 

WEEKEND GETAWAY ORANGE LIFE MAGAZINE VOL15: DESTINATION

Writer: Orange Life Staff

CHECKED SHIRT BY D&G; JEANS BY ACNE

Photography: FERGUS PADEL
Fashion: DAVID ST. JOHN JAMES

“All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveller learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.” - Paul Fussell

MEET THE WESTWOODS

Writer: Simon Morgan

Paying exploitative wages to those making its clothes and encouraging eating disorders through its use of super-thin models are just two of the charges levelled against the fashion industry. So I’m pleased to see one design dynasty railing against the excesses of modern life and the establishment. Across four decades, punk’s original couturier, Vivienne Westwood, has ruffled feathers with her contrary creations and shameless stance. For the first time in nearly a decade, she showed at London Fashion Week in February. It was classic Westwood, as the models for her diffusion label, Red, stepped out in kilts, bodices, draped corsetry, and immaculate tailoring. Not that Dame Vivienne would allow any show of hers to descend into bland commercialism. Sensationally, one Red model paraded in “Guantanamo orange” knickers with a placard protesting about the rights of prisoners in the US gulag. And Westwood was just as inflammatory in TV interviews, damning parents for letting kids play with computers, comparing music to brain damage, and concluding, “We need a new ethic; It’s the only thing that will save us from disaster.”

MEN WHO WEAR MOISTURIZER

Writer: Itziar Urrutia

Men who wear moisturizer make me weak at the knees. I confess to feeling strangely stimulated when I discover that my partner has been in my cosmetics cabinet again. I recognize the deep tracks of his fingertips in the snowy, fragrant surfaces of body butters and creams. I know he steals my perfume too, and he doesn’t care if he smells girly, because it is, after all, my scent. I find this very romantic.