This season the parka is the only worthy winter warmer. The androgynous outerwear looks striking paired with jeans or leggings. Team with heeled boots for a streamlined silhouette and a look favoured by fashion heavyweights the world over.
Burberry, Luella Bartley and Bottega Veneta all showcased the trend in their utumn/Winter collections. And the parka's popularity looks unlikely to subside in the Ne Year as high street brands capitalise on the look.
Topshop, Marks & Spencer and Debenhams have all produced stylish but affordable parkas guaranteed to see you warm and well-dressed for the remainder of the winter months.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Pass Us A Ciggie
A feature in the style of Jonathan Swift
(Please note that nothing contained in this article represents my personal opinion on the subject discussed.)
Smoking is soon to be banned in public places across the UK. Such a bizarre move is clearly another example of the government succumbing to the pressure of a few eccentric activists in the name of political correctness.
We are to be stripped of one of our only solaces in a world with more daily stressors than ever before. Shopping in an over-crowded supermarket of blithering fools blocking aisles with their trolleys; festering in a traffic jam at five p.m. on a Monday night; attempting to put the kids to bed just as they develop a sudden case of acute hyperactivity; these are the times when the cigarette is our saviour.
Many a public brawl in the cornflake aisle has undoubtedly been prevented by the prospective perpetrators popping outside before throwing a punch to smoke away their stress.
Without these merciful sticks of sanity, we will be reduced to a mob of edgy lunatics in desperate need of some anger management therapy (much pricier than a couple of packets of Marlboro Lights a week). The number of car accidents would also be bound to increase due to irate motorists taking to ramming cars off the road like dodgems.
Indeed, some scientists have even gone so far as to suggest that smoking may prevent the onset of dementia. But smoking is not just beneficial to national Mental Health statistics. An obesity epidemic is sweeping the Western world. The UK is one of the biggest culprits, with 46% of men and 32% of women overweight and 17% of men and 21% of women obese. The solution to the problem is blindingly obvious, yet widely ignored: smoking.
Yes, there are a few negative implications associated with the habit. Similarly harmful associations also apply to driving cars, but we have yet to see the mass pedestrianisation of the UK in a bid to minimise crashes - which will be necessary if the ban goes ahead (and this will pose problems in itself, as many smokers suffer from asthma already. Surely it is an abuse of human rights to force people with delicate chests to hike everywhere on foot?)
Obesity causes all kinds of health worries in itself, such as heart disease or even heart attack. Surely the discerning British public would prefer to look trim and have lower stress levels than to be fat, angry and prone to heart attack at any minute?
Smoking is soon to be banned in public places across the UK. Such a bizarre move is clearly another example of the government succumbing to the pressure of a few eccentric activists in the name of political correctness.
We are to be stripped of one of our only solaces in a world with more daily stressors than ever before. Shopping in an over-crowded supermarket of blithering fools blocking aisles with their trolleys; festering in a traffic jam at five p.m. on a Monday night; attempting to put the kids to bed just as they develop a sudden case of acute hyperactivity; these are the times when the cigarette is our saviour.
Many a public brawl in the cornflake aisle has undoubtedly been prevented by the prospective perpetrators popping outside before throwing a punch to smoke away their stress.
Without these merciful sticks of sanity, we will be reduced to a mob of edgy lunatics in desperate need of some anger management therapy (much pricier than a couple of packets of Marlboro Lights a week). The number of car accidents would also be bound to increase due to irate motorists taking to ramming cars off the road like dodgems.
Indeed, some scientists have even gone so far as to suggest that smoking may prevent the onset of dementia. But smoking is not just beneficial to national Mental Health statistics. An obesity epidemic is sweeping the Western world. The UK is one of the biggest culprits, with 46% of men and 32% of women overweight and 17% of men and 21% of women obese. The solution to the problem is blindingly obvious, yet widely ignored: smoking.
Yes, there are a few negative implications associated with the habit. Similarly harmful associations also apply to driving cars, but we have yet to see the mass pedestrianisation of the UK in a bid to minimise crashes - which will be necessary if the ban goes ahead (and this will pose problems in itself, as many smokers suffer from asthma already. Surely it is an abuse of human rights to force people with delicate chests to hike everywhere on foot?)
Obesity causes all kinds of health worries in itself, such as heart disease or even heart attack. Surely the discerning British public would prefer to look trim and have lower stress levels than to be fat, angry and prone to heart attack at any minute?
The Fast Train to Uxbridge
An observational feature
Raindrops mar the view from the train window, the blurry outlines of molting trees barely visible under a heavy grey sky. The trees rush together as the train gathers speed, rocking its passengers up and down, up and down.
The man in the brown and white checked plimsols picks up his coffee from the red and navy flecked floor of the train. Sporadically stuffing muffin into his mouth from a crumpled paper bag, he loudly sucks the moist crumbs from his podgy white fingers before raking them through his clipped brown hair.
A giggle pierces the controlled rhythm of the train. Two young women sporting an array of colourful woolly garments are gossipping in thick Mancunian accents, their heads close together. Their voices become animated and snatches of their conversation float down the carriage.
'Ooooh, d'yeh remember when...'
'Noooo!'
'...she took it out o't freezer and it were defrostin and the cat took it -'
'- Yeh joh-kin'!'
'Honest teh God, it took the whole tur-keh to't top o't stairs an' sat there chewin on one end o'it!'
The doors of the train whoosh open like a conveyer belt at high speed. An impenetrable gust of wind rushes into the carriage. The train is suddenly silent, its engine still. Only the muffled raggae of a nearby ipod disrupts the quiet. Then the doors quickly groan shut and the engine groans back to life, resuming its monotonous drum beat of motion.
Plimsol Man takes a navy and white handkerchief from his green duffel pocket and vigorously blows his nose. Replacing the now-soiled hanky, he sniffs, his nostrils red and slightly flared.
A lady in a tight beige mac coughs hoarsely from her seat across the aisle. She fiddles with a strand of unruly ginger hair resting just above her barely-there eyebrow as she scans a copy of Bella through small black-rimmed spectacles.
A shrivelled elderly man taps on his coffee cup, in synchrony with the motion of the train. Tap-tap. Tap-tap.
The train doors whoosh to a close once again and it departs from the windy platform, shrouded in a sheet of rain.
The man in the brown and white checked plimsols picks up his coffee from the red and navy flecked floor of the train. Sporadically stuffing muffin into his mouth from a crumpled paper bag, he loudly sucks the moist crumbs from his podgy white fingers before raking them through his clipped brown hair.
A giggle pierces the controlled rhythm of the train. Two young women sporting an array of colourful woolly garments are gossipping in thick Mancunian accents, their heads close together. Their voices become animated and snatches of their conversation float down the carriage.
'Ooooh, d'yeh remember when...'
'Noooo!'
'...she took it out o't freezer and it were defrostin and the cat took it -'
'- Yeh joh-kin'!'
'Honest teh God, it took the whole tur-keh to't top o't stairs an' sat there chewin on one end o'it!'
The doors of the train whoosh open like a conveyer belt at high speed. An impenetrable gust of wind rushes into the carriage. The train is suddenly silent, its engine still. Only the muffled raggae of a nearby ipod disrupts the quiet. Then the doors quickly groan shut and the engine groans back to life, resuming its monotonous drum beat of motion.
Plimsol Man takes a navy and white handkerchief from his green duffel pocket and vigorously blows his nose. Replacing the now-soiled hanky, he sniffs, his nostrils red and slightly flared.
A lady in a tight beige mac coughs hoarsely from her seat across the aisle. She fiddles with a strand of unruly ginger hair resting just above her barely-there eyebrow as she scans a copy of Bella through small black-rimmed spectacles.
A shrivelled elderly man taps on his coffee cup, in synchrony with the motion of the train. Tap-tap. Tap-tap.
The train doors whoosh to a close once again and it departs from the windy platform, shrouded in a sheet of rain.
Christmas Is Coming
(The Smoke issue 6)
Christmas is coming, so step out in sparkly style this December in some of the season’s flashiest footwear.
High street brands from Primark to Office have gone all glittery, producing a plethora of gloriously gaudy pumps, strappies, platforms, and courts in a range of high-impact colours guaranteed to make heads turn.
From festive gold, silver, and red, to candy pink and royal blue, there is a take on this trend for every taste.
So sample the spangle for your very own set of twinkle-toes this Christmas! Team them with a matching glittery belt or bag for a head-to-toe shimmer, or dress them down with an all-black outfit for a sophisticated look with added sparkle.
High street brands from Primark to Office have gone all glittery, producing a plethora of gloriously gaudy pumps, strappies, platforms, and courts in a range of high-impact colours guaranteed to make heads turn.
From festive gold, silver, and red, to candy pink and royal blue, there is a take on this trend for every taste.
So sample the spangle for your very own set of twinkle-toes this Christmas! Team them with a matching glittery belt or bag for a head-to-toe shimmer, or dress them down with an all-black outfit for a sophisticated look with added sparkle.
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