Flares are back as Topman Design mixes 70s retro with 90s Britpop

The default rock'n'roll silhouette of the Topman look – which has its roots in rocker culture of the 60s – has been replaced at London's menswear fashion showcase by a hybrid of the 70s and the 90s. Doing away with the skinny jean, models wore Jarvis Cocker-esque tight flares in denim, cord and pinstriped wool. Some wore wigs designed to look like 70s shaggy cuts with chunky glasses and others had trainers that looked like the classic Adidas Gazelles favoured by Brit Pop heroes such as Verve's Richard Ashcroft. Pastel colours, tight T-shirts and even woollen tank tops featured.

Sunday was the first day of London Collections: Men– with Topman Design's midday show the highlight. Woodstock, parkas and Brit Pop all formed part of this collection. Designed for spring/summer 2015, this survey of festival fashion could be worn right now. With Glastonbury mere weeks away, it looked timely.

If towelling short suits in bright daisy prints were perhaps a retro step too far for the average 2014 twentysomething, the overall feel was zesty and fun, a palate cleanser from the more sober mood of some menswear in recent seasons.

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An Instagram-worthy film of nature playing in the background, and soundtrack that included Blur's Girls and Boys, Tame Impala's Elephant and Derrick May's Strings of Life all suited the fashion in a field mood.

After the show, Topman's creative director, Gordon Richardson, said there "was Brit Pop at one end and Woodstock at another" on the moodboard while designing the collection. Twin muses of Liam Gallagher and Jimi Hendrix added up to louche tailoring, flower prints and urban staples like a swagger-tastic Gallagher parka. Richardson's own adolescence was also in the frame. "I had these purple embossed paisley cords," he said. "I wore a lot of this kind of stuff when I was younger."

The demand for a flared lurex suit in pistachio green might be small but a high street brand sending this look out speaks volumes about where London menswear is going. With the menswear shows in the capital now on their sixth season, such trifles have their place even in the mainstream world of an Arcadia-owned brand. With menswear worth £26m to the UK economy and expected to grow by a third in the next five years, a bit of experimentation is perhaps warranted.

There was more of it later in the afternoon – as the current generation of young designers presented their collections. MAN, the new talent showcase run by Lulu Kennedy and Topman, featured newcomers Liam Hodges and Nicomede Talavera along with Bobby Abley, who has previously shown with the initiative. Hodges' Boy Scout-influenced collection was particularly intriguing, with versions of the badges collected by scouts dotted over simple sweatshirt shapes that grown-ups would want to wear.

Christopher Shannon, who was announced as winner of the first BFC/GQ Designer Menswear Fund last week – and the recipient of £150,000, plus business mentoring – was another highlight. The collections continue on Monday with JW Anderson, Alexander McQueen and Moschino on the schedule.

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Observer Ethical Awards 2014 winners: Beyond Skin

Beyond Skin has been trading for more than 10 years. In that time, Natalie Dean, 40, and Heather Whittle, 32, have weathered a few storms. "We've had our factory shut up shop, boutiques that supply us close down, and a lack of our own funds to buy eco-friendly materials, which have always been – and still are – expensive," says Dean.

Perhaps most remarkably, the vegan shoe line has survived the recession – something Dean believes wouldn't have happened if the brand didn't produce shoes that look good, regardless of their ethical values. "I think that's where a lot of eco fashion brands have gone wrong," she frowns. "You can have as much integrity as you like, but people have got to want to buy you because they're going to wear you."

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While other eco fashion lines floundered post-2008 ("Ironically, the recession came just after fashion magazines began to really support ethical"), the Brighton-based brand flourished, thanks in part to strong celebrity support. The first champion of the original line was Chrissie Hynde, who bought pairs for herself and Beth Orton. Shortly afterwards, Natalie Portman wore Beyond Skin to the Oscars and the Golden Globes. Meanwhile, Anne Hathaway has frequently requested the brand for fashion shoots.

But Dean also believes information about the use of suede and leather in fashion is powerful. "Most people are surprised to discover that agriculture uses 70% of the world's fresh water or that livestock creates more greenhouse gas than transport." In using faux leathers made from PU (polyurethane), and Dinamica (a faux suede using polyester taken from recycled bottles) the brand's alternatives are both cruelty-free and sustainable. Production is now based in Alicante, Spain, where fabrics are locally sourced.

The launch of a diffusion line six months ago has also made Beyond Skin more affordable. "We had to start with a higher-end line because we needed to be able to wholesale," says Dean, "but our intention was always to deliver high-street price points that would make the brand more accessible. One day, we'd love to have our own boutique."

For now, the focus is on trading online, where prices for the new diffusion line currently range from £60 for a pair of heels to £130 for a pair of boots. The higher-end Beyond Skin line retails at £115-£250.

The diffusion line marks a huge move forward for the company, but with plans to launch menswear, accessories and bridal all on the horizon, 2014 is set to be a big year for Dean and Whittle. Helpfully, it's also the year of the vegan. "It's funny," smiles Dean, a former make-up artist, "because when we first started we would try to avoid the term 'vegan shoes'. It didn't sound very sexy. But now everyone seems to be turning vegan. There are vegan restaurants opening every month in New York and tons of celebrity vegans, from Beyoncé to Bill Clinton. The great thing is that it's no longer being seen as a cause but a lifestyle choice."

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Summer Friday: From the Farmers' Market to the Beach With A.L.C.'s Alex Basch

Like the George Gershwin song goes, “Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.” Especially if your workweek is cut short thanks to “Summer Fridays.” The extra hours go a long way in making every weekend seem like a holiday. If you’re short on inspiration for your own Summer Fridays, just look to our new season-long series where we ask industry people with cool jobs to share how they’ll be spending their free afternoons.

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If you’re a fan of A.L.C., the sleek, modern line from celebrity stylist Andrea Lieberman, whose prior claim to fame was dressing J.Lo for the Grammys in that Versace dress, you should get to know the brains behind its marketing: Alex Basch. The 26-year-old, who started out as an intern in 2008 while majoring in art history at George Washington University, is responsible for producing the label’s lookbooks and videos, coordinating its shoe collaboration with Robert Clergerie, and occasionally assisting Lieberman in her stylist duties—like helping Gwen Stefani get ready for the Met Gala. When she’s not working out of A.L.C.’s downtown L.A. studio, Basch takes advantage of the city’s proximity to the beach. Here’s how she’ll be spending her Summer Fridays:

“I’m a California-born-and-raised girl, so Summer Friday is synonymous with beach weekend. There is a crew of us who go down to Newport Beach a few weekends each summer and stay at a friend’s place by the beach—it’s become a tradition. Saturday starts with a bike ride to the farmers’ market, which is generally followed by homemade breakfast and mimosas. The rest of the day is spent relaxing at the beach. The day ends with a bonfire and great dinner. It is the perfect escape—close enough where it’s easy for everyone to get to, but far enough away where it feels like a vacation.”

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Too tulle for school: how the prom crossed the Atlantic

For anyone who turned 16 in the days before social media, leavers' ball was probably a sartorial nadir. At mine, boys wore ill-fitting suits and disgusting amounts of hair gel; girls were resplendent in lilac chiffon and diamante shoes. Thankfully – pre-Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram – the only photographic evidence is a few blurry snaps, curling at the edges, hidden away in a box under the bed.

Leavers' ball 2014 is a very different proposition. Now more commonly known as prom, the event has become an industry worth at least £80m a year, with students and parents shelling out for dresses, suits, accessories, limousines and corsages. There are dedicated prom fashion shows, pre-and post-prom parties, and prom has muscled in on the wedding fayre market, too.

From Carrie's blood-soaked prom massacre to Molly Ringwald's satin halterneck in Pretty in Pink, Hollywood prom scenes have long inspired British-based designers – as seen, most recently, at Ashish. But it has only been in the past decade that this aspect of US culture has seeped into the real lives of teenagers in the UK. "Ninety-five per cent of schools have a major summer party or prom now," says Monique Wyatt, co-founder of prom "one stop shop" Myschool Proms. "Students get summer jobs and start saving for their dresses anything up to two years ahead. Some spend £1,000 on their dress alone. We meet teachers who say students – and their parents – are pushing for five-star hotel venues, and boys who pay to hire fire trucks or milk floats so they look unusual when they arrive."

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"Prom as a concept has 'crept over' from the US, just as Halloween did before it," agrees Melanie Berry of Claire's Accessories – a major player in the market. "The first proms started in UK senior schools six or seven years ago as a celebration of leaving school, but they are now becoming popular in primary schools, too. It's like a rite of passage, a chance to celebrate a key 'first' in their lives." From the schools' perspective, Wyatt believes that teachers use prom as a carrot – and sometimes as a stick, too: "They can say, if you don't work hard, you won't be allowed to go to prom."

Company magazine launched its first dedicated prom app this year, and editor-in-chief Vic White says the trend came from teenagers. "These are people who grew up with Hannah Montana and other Disney Channel imports." While there are plenty of specialist prom boutiques and bridal shops with prom ranges around the country, in the past few years, mainstream retailers have targeted the sparkly set in earnest. Last year, Topshop launched a "Topshop Prom Queen" competition, giving students the chance to win a bespoke dress – plus hair and makeup – by submitting a dress moodboard packed with fashion references.

Claire's Accessories launched its first dedicated prom catalogue this year, as well as opening a prom pop-up shop in London's South Molton Street in May. At Debenhams, sales of evening gowns costing more than £180 have risen by 250% from January to March compared with the same period last year, and the retailer launched its first dedicated proms section on its website in April. The importance of prom has spread to more alternative retailers, too, with east-London vintage mecca Beyond Retro holding its first dedicated prom night this year.

It is hardly surprising that prom is becoming an increasingly huge deal in the Instagram age, when every moment is captured and shared. Maaria Abbasi, 15, has already started thinking about her dress, though the big day is more than a year away. She says that outfit planning is not competitive: "It's the one day of the year that everyone goes to, there are no ranks – it's not bitchy, but you do want to look good because the photographs will be all over social media."

So what will girls and boys wear to the 2014 prom? "More is more," says White. "It's an opportunity to wear a big dress with sequins and tulle and flowers and pink. They might have pastel-dyed hair or wear pointy flats, so they don't necessarily look frou-frou, but this is still an opportunity to look quite girlie." For boys, it's all about "a fitted Arctic Monkeys suit with a thin tie and Nick Grimshaw hair". Style icons include Lily Collins, Elle Fanning, Chloë Moretz and, for the boys, Brooklyn Beckham.

As with a wedding outfit, prom dressing is a difficult task – many girls seem to want to look creative and alternative, but end up going full princess in peach tulle. Emily Sheffield, Vogue's deputy editor, who also edits Miss Vogue, the twice-yearly spin-off aimed at under 21s, suggests teenagers should look to designers including Simone Rocha, Marc by Marc Jacobs (whose new head designer, Luella Bartley, has "always had a rebel prom girl in her collections,") aand Meadham Kirchhoff for quirky inspiration, as well as to those who create more traditional gowns, including Dior and Oscar de la Renta. She hopes that Brits put their own spin on prom dressing: "Maybe chuck a leather jacket or an army fatigue over the top to masculinise it. The teens I know, that read Miss Vogue, are really into the androgynous look." Beyond Retro's Jenna Aarons says that key looks include "70s floaty chiffon with full skirts, classic 1950s prom styles with fitted bodices and circular skirts, 80s full-beaded dropped waists and 90s slip styles," for an undone prom look inspired by Kate Moss in the 1990s.

Whatever the students' personal style, individuality is a key concern; the fear of wearing the same frock as someone else is so entrenched that exclusivity is a huge part of prom dressing. Many boutiques promise not to sell the dresses to more than one member of the same school, while larger retailers like Topshop produce limited-edition runs of only around 500 pieces worldwide, with the prom market in mind. If it sounds like a fuss about nothing, says Wyatt, try to look at it from the students' perspective: "They say: 'You only have one prom – but you can have many weddings.' That's how they see it."

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Roland Mouret brings pre-collections trend to London with resort show

London got its very first taste of the resort phenomenon on Thursday morning as Roland Mouret presented an intimate catwalk show of mid-season clothes in his townhouse-cum-HQ-cum-shop in Mayfair. While other designers have chosen to present their pre-collections at strategic international points on the retail map – Chanel in Dubai, Céline in Beijing and Louis Vuitton in Monaco – Mouret became the first designer to show his commercial collection in London to a small group of editors and buyers, and he hopes others will follow suit in the coming seasons. He said he hoped to "open the doors for great British designer collections to be showcased here".

Resort, cruise or pre-collection (all are essentially the same thing, a collection between the main autumn/winter and spring/summer shows) are becoming increasingly important in the fashion calendarand are now beginning to compete with the main shows for attention and industry standing.

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Naturally the clothes shown by Mouret emitted the body-conscious, restrained glamour that we expect from the Mouret house. This time there was, in the words of the designer, a "south of France-slash-London" flavour to the collection, with folded scarfdetails at waistbands, cropped tops and capri pants reprised in fluoro peach and aqua; zips and structure realism meets Riviera optimism. The standout piece was a monochrome jumpsuit with Mouret's trademark bandage structure providing the back view. They were clothes which you can imagine hanging in the plush carpeted changing rooms of the Mayfair store, which is, of course, exactly the point; these clothes will account for 70 per cent of Mouret's retail sales and represent the commercial point of view of the brand.

It isn't really the trends that matter here (although they will become actual street style if your street is Bond Street, you favour a sleek silhouette, and your credit card is platinum) it's more the fact that showing a resort or cruise collection on a catwalk has become a trend in itself, a trend that London is now part of.

It isn't a move that all designers are enamoured with. Tom Ford told earlier this week that cruise catwalk shows missed the point. "The fact that cruise is now shown with these giant productions means it's no longer what it was supposed to be, which was clothes that were maybe not strong enough to show but were your real bread and butter; the clothes that women wanted to wear. But now that they're being shown, they'll have to be amped up, and women won't want to wear them any more," he said.

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However Mouret's resort show, with its downplayed salon-like atmosphere, was without pretension. He admitted that pre-collections are "what makes my company exist because they are relevant in my customers' wardrobes". The designer also pointed out that for him this trend within the industry of spotlighting resort is reminiscent of the moment when Yves Saint Laurent moved from showing only couture to showing ready to wear as well in the 1960s. "It's that same transition. The ready to wear shows are more the image of the designer in terms of craft and mentality and the pre-collections are what we are living with."

What shall I give my friends as they turn 30?

Buying presents for people is easy: you just give them what you'd like yourself. Admittedly, this can lead to some unlikely combinations, but I'm sure my father will hugely appreciate the Twin Peaks boxset he's getting for his 75th birthday this summer.

This is why getting presents for girlfriends' birthdays should be especially easy. Not only is giving them something you want pretty much a guaranteed winner – they're your friends so chances are you have vaguely similar tastes – but it also, more importantly, lets them know what you would like for your birthday so they can then reciprocate in kind. They say that to give is better than to receive; I say to give is great, but if it ensures you'll also receive, everybody wins.

Beauty products are some of the easiest presents to give, and the most fun to receive, because they feel like a treat. I agree that makeup is a bit tricky, and can feel weirdly intimate, but the most successful presents I've given this year have all come from Charlotte Tilbury's brilliant new makeup line. I know I bang on about these products all the flipping time, but that's honestly because they're brilliant, and that is why God put me on this planet, folks: to impart to you good people my honest opinions about beauty products. I'm like the beagle going down the mineshaft of Space NK.

These cosmetics make especially great presents because Tilbury has cleverly categorised all of her products into seven different looks: if you know your friend would like to look like Sophia Loren, you buy her products from the Dolce Vita look; if she would like to look like Jennifer Lopez, you buy her ones from Golden Goddess. I'm not really into dividing women up by types – partly because I've never met someone who is entirely one type, partly because I'm not the human embodiment of a woman's magazine – but I have to admit these categories are quite handy when it comes to present-buying. The best products to buy as gifts are my favourite thing in the whole range: the Colour Chameleons. These clever little eye-colour sticks are not only excellent, they're also labelled by which eye colour they suit and whether they're for day or night, making them especially easy gift-wise. These have become my standby birthday present for my favourite female friends.

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Moving to beauty products in general, avoid hair products, moisturisers or perfumes. Hair products insinuate that the giftee has a bird's nest nightmare that needs taking in hand; moisturisers suggest that the person looks ancient (especially if it has tedious, nonsensical phrases like 'anti-ageing' all over the packaging), which no one needs to learn on their birthday; and perfumes are just too subjective and personal to give to someone else.

But bath products are always good birthday presents, mainly because they will probably come in handy the next day when the birthday lady is recovering from her party hangover. Ren's body scrubs are my favourite products from the brand: the Moroccan Rose Otto Sugar Body Polish is perfect for the friend who sees self-indulgence as a human right, while the Guérande Salt Exfoliating Body Balm is for your more ascetic friend, whose idea of a luxury holiday is a refreshing hike through the Austrian Alps.

Bath oils are great, too, because they're lovely, but people rarely think of buying them for themselves, unless they've got almost painfully dry skin like me. Jo Malone's look and smell the most luxurious, but they're slightly more than £30. For cheaper but still really nice ones, go to Origins and Burt's Bees. Laura Mercier's bath products smell so delicious it's hard to resist eating them, and I'd recommend getting the bubble bath or body scrub over the scented body creams, as the latter verge on being perfumes.

Finally, I know scented candles have become a bit of a cliché, but when they're good, they're great, and Diptyque ones are great. The mini ones are only £20 and they last for yonks and I've never met anyone who wasn't pleased to get a Baies Diptyque candle. If you want Diptyque but want to be more original than a candle, the brand's solid perfumes look charmingly vintage, although their appeal lies more in how they look than their actual efficacy. (Diptyque's Smoothing Body Polish, incidentally, is not only out of your price range but completely rubbish. Walk straight past that, ideally towards the Laura Mercier counter.)

Ultimately, Fiona, I would say just don't worry about it too much. In my recent birthday experience, what the birthday woman remembers is that you turned up to her party and were awesome, not what present you gave her. In fact, I've heard it told that some birthday women get so, shall we say, carried away with the birthday spirit that they mix up all their cards and thank everyone for the wrong present the next day. So, really, you could give her a bottle of Radox and claim the Chanel handbag came from you and she'll be none the wiser. Then she'll think about what a great friend you are as she spends the next day soaking in her Radox bubbles.

Activist and CFDA Honoree Bethann Hardison on Her Quest for Diversity in Fashion

It’s been over two months since the CFDA announced that it will honor Bethann Hardison with the Founders Award on June 2, but she’s still in a contemplative mood. “I always knew that I could make a difference,” she says of her more than five decades promoting diversity in fashion. Her work as an activist has ranged from the accidental (modeling alongside Pat Cleveland and Alva Chinn in the now historic Battle of Versailles) to the strategic (campaigning for the representation of black beauty in 1980s fashion advertising.) And her influence has notably permeated the runways, advertising campaigns, and magazine editorials of the past two years, from Malaika Firth reclining in a moment of glamorous repose for Prada’s game-changing fall 2013 campaign to the wave of fresh new model faces of color—Cindy Bruna, Binx Walton, and Riley Montana to name just a few.

The move towards change reached critical mass last September, when her Diversity Coalition published an open letter that called for the fashion councils in London, Milan and Paris to do more to promote diversity on the runways. “I knew this was possible because I was talking to fashion people, who aren’t a closed-minded group. I believed that I could make a change because I believed in them,” Hardison says, noting that the real work is just beginning. “If model agencies can seek to find more girls of color and have more girls to submit, the better the chances of more models of color getting booked . . . Activism has to remain active.” We caught up with her to talk about fashion’s exciting new moment—and its future.

What is your earliest memory of fashion?

The word fashion didn’t exist for me until the last ten or fifteen years. I grew up when it was called the apparel business, in the Garment District. My first job in the industry was with a button company called Cabot. The man who hired me thought I was dressed too well. This was a factory. He worried about my clothes getting splattered with paint. They supplied custom buttons to various houses that made suits and skirts, and so he would send me out to meet with designers to show them the samples. That was the beginning of me going into the inner sanctum. And then I went to work for Marty Gutmacher, a dress company at 1359 Broadway, and later Ruth Manchester, a junior dress company. I remember the addresses. That’s how important the Garment District was. You remember where people were located because that’s how it was divided up: the lower end, the juniors, and the upper crust.

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How did you enter the world of modeling?

It was with a senior executive at Federated, the company that oversaw all the shows for Macy’s. I was taking the dresses from Ruth Manchester to them to consider for a show. And I said, “If you want to have a good show you’ll put me in it.” He was like, “What’s your name?” He later called and said, “I want that girl in my show.” And that was the beginning. I went to Sweden to model for a while, and then I went to Ibiza. Life began to take hold in a different way, but I always kept a full-time job because I never thought I could make enough money. Eventually, Willi Smith thought I would be great for Stephen Burrows who hired me to be his showroom girl.

And then there was Le Grand Divertissement à Versailles.

Yes, and I almost didn’t make it, because each girl had to have three designers who wanted her to be in the show. Halston said, “If no one takes you in the end, I’ll put your name down.” But I wasn’t a Halston girl. So it was Anne Klein, Oscar de la Renta, and Stephen who chose me.

What did Versailles mean to you and the eleven other models of color who were cast in the show? Did the night feel historic?

We never thought it was historic. We were so busy just trying to get through the show! [laughs] It was a lot of pressure. And it was also hard because I knew they were counting on me since I was known to be a good walker. But I was also a good model. There were six or seven of us who got written up in the papers all the time—they called us the Black Stallions.

During your days modeling alongside Pat Cleveland and Alva Chinn for Stephen, was race and diversity a conscious thought?

We were always conscious of being of color. I’m coming off the Civil Rights Movement. You’re hearing “black is beautiful.” And we always had a lot of people of color in advertising in Ebony, models like Richard Roundtree and Helen Williams. But that was more commercial. We were more in the fashion apparel business. And through the black is beautiful slogan,we began to sense that advertisers were seeking something different. And along comes Naomi Sims. Halston was coming up and so was Giorgio di Sant’Angelo [both used many non-white models]. Arthur McGee. Jon Haggins. It was such a stylish, interesting time—artists finding buildings downtown that were being abandoned, in a part of town we all called South of Houston, which became known, of course, as SoHo. It was a different time. Did we think black and white? Yes, we were conscious of race and the way we looked. But if you had style, you were it.

When and how did you transition into the agency world?

It was 1980 and I had done a lot. I didn’t want to walk down a runway ever again. So I went to work for Click Models and helped them develop the company for two years. We helped change the industry. Click was extraordinary. We had a different vision about what we wanted to see. We weren’t getting the girl or boy next door. We were finding kids who were interesting. And we were helping to build the brands of Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein because we had Bruce Weber. By 1984 I had started Bethann Management. I needed to pull away to pursue my own destiny.

When did you begin speaking out about diversity?

Well I did it when I was at Click. But it was much easier to do it on my own. I would hear people say things on the phone: “I just want you to find me one great black girl.” And then I would begin educating them. To me, that wasn’t activism. It was just educating. When I started the Black Girls Coalition in 1988, people thought it was activism, but I really just wanted to celebrate the girls.

There has been noticeable progress since you formed the Diversity Coalition. What was the tipping point?

I think it was the letter itself. And Miuccia Prada started to move it along. She’s the leader in all of this. She was already beginning to show girls of color seasons before—and then that ad, with [Malaika Firth] sitting on that chair with that tweed coat on. That was a major visual moment. It changed things. Other people started to feel better about casting these girls. And from there you began to see other girls in advertising. That’s when I thought, Okay, okay.

Were there any runway moments that stood out?

I like that Céline has embraced black girls on the runway. And there was Burberry, a house that used Jourdan Dunn before it was even popular. And then what Gucci did with Joan Smalls.

Of the younger generation of models of color working right now, who do you find to be the most inspiring and promising?

They’re all promising to me. I love Riley, Binx, and Cindy. They all have such promise. We have so few, but we need many more strong models of color to be competitive.

We’re all familiar with Yves Saint Laurent’s dedication to promoting a wide range of beauty. Of the designers working today, who has picked up that baton?

Zac Posen. He’s like the old-school designers in that he believes in the model. He will take a girl who hasn’t been hot in over two years and he’ll bring her back. You can tell that this is his idea and not the casting director’s.

Where were you when you first found out about the CFDA award and what was your initial reaction?

I was with Naomi Campbell waiting for her to do an interview with Diane von Furstenberg at Sirius Satellite Radio. When Diane told me I was quite stunned. I hugged Diane first and then just went to Naomi and really wept. I was moved because this revolution is about a philosophy, a point of view, a stance. It’s changing how people think. It’s not an easy thing to do. I felt like the revolution was being acknowledged.