Tag: photograph

How to keep those blonde highlights. Photograph: Alamy

Fellow blondies, I'm going to educate you. Let's go back to school. Remember the colour wheel? The complimentary colour for yellow is purple. What does this mean for you? When your icy-bright blonde highlights turn crabby, you need violet shampoo. Three words: Davines Alchemic Shampoo (13.75, 020 3301 5449). What it can do for you! Not only is the stuff eye-piercingly purple and served in a Calpol bottle, there is a real science to it (pigments). The conditioner (17.90) is also beautiful. But if brightening just won't do, take a more drastic measure. Come on, John Freida, come forward. The brand-new Go Blonder Controlled Lightening Spray (6.99, johnfrieda.co.uk) gives a magical boost. Just spray into the roots and the lengths, blow dry and sparkle.

Alternatively

Fudge Clean Blonde Violet Toning Shampoo 11.95, 01282 683 100
Pureology Perfect 4 Platinum Miracle Filler 15.45, 0800 783 3026
Philip Kingsley Pure Silver Conditioner 17.90, philipkingsley.co.uk
Lee Stafford Hot Shots 4 Blondes 7.19 for 3, 0845 070 8090
KMS California Color Vitality Blonde Treatment 14.30, kmscalifornia.com

Jil Sander collections. Photograph: Getty Images

Position filled, and not before time

So finally we have our answer. Raf Simons is officially the new man in at Dior. Cathy Horyn of the New York Times broke the news on bank holiday Monday and we temporarily put our Easter egg eating duties on hold to digest the news. Simons is a popular choice for the role judging by the rapturous response from the entire fashion industry. You probably already know much more about the Belgian designer than you think you do – here's Imogen Fox on what to expect at the house of Dior in the coming months. And in case you were wondering: although he's unlikely to completely ditch his minimalist roots, the man himself claims that femininity will be the watchword in Simons-era Dior. We're already counting down to the Paris Couture shows in July to see what he will do.

Shopping pointers for stylish gentlemen

High-street spring style. Photograph: COS/H&M/Wolsey

Fashionable men: we feel like we may have neglected you on the shopping front of late. So Simon Chilvers decided to redress the balance with some hot spring shopping suggestions from the high street. Whether it's a simple sweatshirt, a shiny bomber or a restrained pair of trainers you're after, here are a few pointers. Any resemblance of this gallery to the Raf Simons aesthetic is entirely coincidental (OK, it was that kind of a week).

How green is the high street giant H&M?

H&M's Exclusive Conscious collection has been made from sustainable materials

The Observer was given early access to the brand's latest sustainability report, which was published this week. Here's Lucy Siegle's take on the retail giant's quest for sustainability. Meanwhile, the brand launched its new red carpet collection – an offshoot of its existing eco-friendly Conscious line. Those with a keen fashion eye will remember that Michelle Williams gave us a preview of the line at this year's Baftas.

Ask and ye shall receive (brutally honest) fashion wisdom

Chloe Green. Photograph: Richard Young/Rex Features

Want to read Hadley Freeman's appraisal of Chloe (daughter of Philip) Green's latest venture into shoe design? "Raised on the mean streets of Monaco and with nothing to keep her entertained other than Daddy's 7m plane and 20m yacht … Chloe is now branching out into shoe design, presumably having opted against DJing and lingerie manufacturing, the usual pastimes of the young, moneyed and untrained." Of course you do. Click here.

Debating matter

Last week's Brick-gate saga got the Invisible Woman thinking about her three different makeup faces. For her it's Work Face, Going Out Face and Weekend Face. Want to join in the makeup/no makeup debate? Step this way.

And finally ...

Who needs the sun when you've got St Tropez?

Anna Chesters has the final word on fake tan in her Brief History of St Tropez. Meanwhile, we take a look at Amir Khan potentially punching above his fashion weight.

Agi & Sam Agi & Sam's autumn/winter 2012 collection Photograph: Agi & Sam

Ex-girlfriends, tequila drinking and prints of men waving their arms in the manner of a chicken. These are among the hot topics at the Dalston headquaterters of menswear's latest ascending stars Agi Mdumulla, 26, and Sam Cotton, 25 of Agi & Sam. The young pair are the buzz of the men's fashion scene following their hit autumn/winter 2012 collection which showed at the Royal Opera House this February. Aside from featuring their signature witty prints, colourful plaid and snappy tailoring, the show culminated in an explosion of eye-catching rooster suit jackets and mallard trousers. Not bad considering the whole lot was made from recycled bottles.

The Agi & Sam studio is a lot like a teenager's bedroom, with giant blue Ikea bags full of clothes that litter the floor. In the corner of the room there are two sewing machines while a young dude in a baseball cap is at work at a cutting table. On a desk in another corner are DVD box sets of Miami Vice and Magnum PI. Apparently, these are inspiration for the duo's next collection, being shown in June, which will be based on "rubbish detectives."

The pair met while interning at Alexander McQueen during the Lee years. "I've never seen anyone's brain work so quickly," says Sam, as he makes a scissor cutting sound effect and mimes the ripping of fabric off a model. Their own label was set up in 2012 and was born out of frustration, says Agi – neither could find work that creatively fulfilled them. Despite being the new kids on the block, they've quickly established strong and influential industry mentors, such as Fashion East's Lulu Kennedy, GQ Style's Ben Reardon and menswear champion Charlie Porter.

Before their recent show, they had too many ideas and the collection was swerving in all directions. Porter told them that they should focus on the wit and humour in their work, which he said had something of the Paul Smith about it. Since then, Sir Paul himself has taken a keen interest, recently inviting the boys over to his offices for a chat and to dish out advice. Sam rather brilliantly proceeds to do a series of gestures to explain Sir Paul's formula of purity versus commercialism – fashion's holy grail.

Agi & Sam: the design duo as kids (as they appear on Twitter) Photograph: Agi & Sam

Sam grew up on a farm near Stratford Upon Avon (might this explain those chickens?) and trained in illustration, but it was following an internship at Topman that he realised he wanted to branch into fashion. Agi meanwhile hails from Yorkshire and, until he was 16, wanted to be an airline pilot. But an art foundation in Leeds, followed by a BA in fashion design at Manchester Metropolitan university changed that. The partnership works with Sam developing the prints and Agi doing the patterns. "We sit together at the start and draw the collection together," says Sam. "So we know what the shapes and our overall ideas are."

The research for autumn/winter included podcasts about Quantum physics, the aforementioned tequila, 2001 A Space Odyssey, M. C. Escher, and ideas around evolution and the future. Eventually, the collection would be called Darwin's Theory of Why the Chicken Crossed the Road. Beyond the jumble of references was a strongly focussed menswear mix, including suits, printed shirting, tailored coats and sporty parkas, anchored by a strong use of colour. Up close my favourite pieces were the repeat pattern duck shirts (jolly, commercial), a belted coat with rounded shoulders and a print that reminded me of a wet water colour canvas (arty, fashiony), and a simple orange and black blown up plaid print T-shirt (the kind of thing oki-ni should stock).

"The prints are so loud that you can't push the clothes too much. They need to be wearable but not boring," explains Agi talking about the shapes and styles in the collection. Their PR pipes up "you've got to entertain with a catwalk show, don't you?"

And then there's the recycled bottles. "We began printing on polyester, firstly due to cost as we couldn't afford digital printing," they say. This was then followed by a lot of research, which led them to a signage company, various canvas cotton alternatives and then eventually to GreenPac, who sell emulation polyesters that performed exactly how they wanted for suiting and outerwear. The polyesters were then woven to replicate natural fabrics, such as cotton drill and jersey. "We are definitely interested in finding new, revolutionary, cost efficient and eco-friendly ways of producing clothes, so we will be working on more stuff with Green Pac."

Currently the duo's prints slot perfectly into the celebratory London aesthetic for print and colour, which is happening in women's fashion too. "London is more accepting of new things, new designers. You can't really do what we do anywhere else," says Sam. Agi says the daring of London designers is partly to do with the multiculturalism and the variety of tribes that live in the capital. "In London, you walk down the street and you've got seven different cultures all on that one street, and I think it's that mix that's inspiring. You don't get that level of multiculturalism anywhere else in the world."

With London hosting its first full menswear event this June instead of showing at the end of the women's shows, menswear is clearly having a moment. The pair have their theories. "Metrosexuality," says Sam grinning, and the fact that being interested in fashion no longer seems like a pursuit for the posh, which he thinks hindered menswear during the Thatcher years. Agi, meanwhile, rather wisely says that: "The internet and globalisation means people are able to access anything anywhere. You can see what people are doing and wearing, and when men see other men wearing stuff, it just becomes more acceptable to them."

So on a scale of 1-10 how brave does a man have to be to wear a pair of trousers with a duck on them then? "Probably a three," says Agi smiling. "I'd say more like a six," says Sam looking at the trousers in question as they sit on the rail. "I mean, they are white!" he laughs.

• More from Agi & Sam

Black magic: tap into your inner goth with black-cherry lips. Photograph: Observer

If you're going to wear make-up, then you might as well really, really wear it. Catwalk make-up at the mo' is either "natural" (bit of Vaseline, a pinch of the cheek and the winsome eyes of someone far more virginal than you've ever been) or full-on looks, for which the statement lip is key. I say statement lip, but in the late 90s we just called it Rimmel black cherry and slopped it on on the bus. Now, we fill in the whole lip with pencil, topped off with Tom Ford's Black Orchid (36, harveynichols.com), which, despite costing more than a Michelin meal, is so rich with pigment you only need a single slick. It's like the black-cherry lipstick of our youth, but grown up and married to a millionaire.

Alternatively

Benefit Oh Currant 14, benefitcosmetics.co.uk
Chanel La Fascinante 23.50, 020 7493 3836
Illamasqua Kontrol Kontrol 15.50,illamasqua.com
Lord & Berry Black Red Vogue 11, asos.com
Diego Dalla Palma Dark Mauve Pencil 13, tesco.com