DESIGN and ART MAGAZINE

Saturday, 14 February 2026

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala

Michelle Yeoh on the red carpet on the opening night of the Berlin Film Festival, with husband Jean Todt, where she was awarded the prestigious Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement. Photograph (above) by Jay Zoo for DAM

On a cold, rain-soaked Berlin evening, the 76th Berlin International Film Festival opens with umbrellas aloft and flashbulbs cutting through the mist outside the Berlinale Palast. Despite the winter chill, the red carpet hummed with energy for the Opening Gala, the premiere of No Good Men, and the presentation of the Honorary Golden Bear to Michelle Yeoh. The weather did little to dampen the sense of occasion. Our photographers Andrea Heinsohn and Jay Zoo braved the elements to capture it all.

Wim Wenders, the president of the international

jury of the film festival, with wife Donata.

Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

THE Berlinale opened with the kind of ceremony that reminds the industry why it remains one of cinema’s most politically attuned and publicly engaged stages.

At the Berlinale Palast, flashbulbs fractured the winter dark as filmmakers, actors and producers gathered to mark the start of ten days that will celebrate and interrogate the state of world cinema.

Festival Director Tricia Tuttle and International Jury President Wim Wenders lead the proceedings, formally declaring the festival open before introducing a jury that reflects the Berlinale’s global reach.

The presentation of the Honorary Golden Bear to Michelle Yeoh provided the evening’s emotional apex. One of the most versatile actors of her generation, Yeoh is honoured not only for a body of work that bridges continents and genres, but for reshaping what international stardom looks like in the 21st century. Academy Award–winner Sean Baker delivered the tribute, underscoring the festival’s commitment to bold, independent voices.

The gala culminated in the world premiere of No Good Men, the opening film by award-winning Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat. Its debut set an immediate tone: politically resonant, assured and unafraid of complexity. As the cast joined Sadat on stage, the Berlinale signals its priorities, cinema as witness, as provocation, as dialogue.

On the red carpet, Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner, Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer and an international guest list spanning auteurs, actors and emerging talents underline the festival’s dual identity: civic and artistic event and global marketplace. With 22 films now in competition and the awards set for February 21, the 2026 Berlinale began with an exciting opening crescendo. ~ Jeanne-Marie Cilento

Scroll down to see the highlights from the red carpet on the opening night of the Berlin Film Festival

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala. Photograph: Jay Zoo

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala. Photograph: Jay Zoo

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala. Photograph: Jay Zoo

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala. Photograph: Jay Zoo

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala. Photograph: Jay Zoo

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala. Photograph: Jay Zoo

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala. Photograph: Jay Zoo

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala. Photograph: Jay Zoo

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Thursday, 12 February 2026

Winter Sports Exude Glamour, But Women’s Ski-Wear Falls Short When Skiing

Photograph above: Kiselev Andrey Valerevich/Shutterstock.

By Tamsin Johnson

Marks and Spencer is one of the latest UK high-street brands to launch a ski-wear collection. Even supermarket Lidl are in on the action, with their ski range starting from £3.99. This follows earlier moves by fast-fashion retailers such as Topshop who launched SNO in the mid 2010’s and Zara’s imaginatively titled Zara Ski collection, which launched in 2023.

Fast fashion brand PrettyLittleThing’s Apres Ski edit (a collection of clothes chosen for a specific theme) tells potential shoppers that going skiing is “not necessarily essential” which is good, because many of the products in the collection are listed as athleisure, not sportswear.

It’s not just the high-street. Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand Skims has recently collaborated with The North Face and has dressed the USA team for the 2026 Winter Olympics – though these are strictly designed to serve the athletes during down-time, not for the piste.

Alongside dedicated ski-wear lines, the apres-ski aesthetic has become a recurring seasonal trend over recent years, expanding well beyond the slopes. You may have noticed the slew of ski-themed sweatshirts across the market. One of these, an Abercrombie & Fitch sweatshirt, went viral in January after a buyer noticed that the depicted resort was actually Val Thorens, France – not Aspen, Colorado, as the text printed on the garment claimed.

It is not only the quality of ski-themed fashion products that are a cause for concern, but also those designed for the slope. Many of these high-street collections have received criticism from consumers, with some claiming that the garments are “not fit for purpose”. Meanwhile, many influencers have taken to social media to warn their followers to avoid skiing in garments from fast fashion brands. Such were the complaints that Zara Ski reportedly renamed its products “water resistant” instead of “waterproof”.

These collections respond, in part, to a genuine need for women’s sportswear that is practical, fashionable and most critically, affordable. Ski and performance wear in general is costly and such collections, being both fashionable and relatively low-cost make for an attractive prospect. And yet, if these garments are so poorly suited to skiing, then what are they for?

The visual allure of skiing

Despite sports playing a key role in challenging gender ideology and perceptions of female physicality, the perceived importance of femininity and how women look while doing sports has lingered. Images of sportswomen frequently fixate on gender difference and femininity is foregrounded over athleticism. Here, the glamorous image of skiing has much to account for.

Glamour relies on distance and difference to conjure a feeling of longing. For many, the novelty of eating fondue at 3,000ft is out of reach, as is the ever-increasing price of a lift pass.

1983 Ski Time by Warren Miller.

Throughout the 20th century, the glamour of skiing has been defined by women’s fashion. In the 1920s, Vogue magazine featured illustrations of elongated skiing women on their covers. Designer Pucci’s aerodynamic one-piece ski suit premiered in Harper’s Bazaar magazine in 1947 whilst Moncler’s ski anoraks – photographed on Jackie Kennedy in 1966 – gave birth to a vision of American ski “cool”. Changing ski fashions were recorded in photographer Slim Aarons’ resort photography, capturing the leisure class on and off piste between the 1950s and 1980s.

Women’s fashionable ski-wear has taken many forms since the activity first became popular in the 1920s. It was during this decade that skiing became a marker of affluence. Leather, gaberdine, fur and wool were popular materials in early women’s ski-wear and were selected for their natural properties; water-repellence, insulation, breathability.

By the mid-century, women’s ski-wear became more focused on silhouette and excess fabric was considered unfeminine. Equally, ski-wear gradually became more colourful and in the fashion press, women were even encouraged to match their lipstick to their ski ensemble. By the 1980s, ski-wear aligned with the fashionable “wedge” silhouette; causing the shoulders of ski jackets to widen and salopettes (ski trousers with shoulder braces) to draw even tighter.

These historic developments parallel today’s aesthetic ski trend where fashion and image arguably comes before function. For example, PrettyLittleThing’s models are photographed on fake slopes, holding vintage skis. The glamorous image of the skiing woman lies not only in the clothing but in her stasis. The suggestion is that ski culture does not necessarily require skiing at all: it may simply involve occupying the most visible terrace, Aperol in hand.

No wonder then, that so many fast-fashion ski lines for women are deeply unpractical – they appear designed less for physical exertion than for visual consumption. They sell women on the alluring glamour of skiing, while leaving them out in the cold.

There is an additional irony here: climate change means that skiing is becoming increasingly exclusive. Lower-level resorts are closing as the snow line moves up, meaning fewer options and increased demand. In this sense, the image of skiing looks to become even more glamorous via increasing inaccessibility and therefore distance. Fast-fashion has a negative impact on the environment, and the ski aesthetic risks damaging the very thing it claims to celebrate.

Tamsin Johnson, PhD candidate in visual cultures, Nottingham Trent University

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Sunday, 8 February 2026

Often Overlooked, Tudor Art Richly Reflected a Turbulent Century of Growth and Change

Elizabeth I as the Queen of Love and Beauty c.1600 possibly by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger. also known as the Rainbow Portrait. Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, England.

By Christina Faraday, University of Cambridge

It can sometimes seem like the Tudors are everywhere, at least in Britain: on television, in bookshops and in historic houses and galleries across the country. Yet within the discipline of art history, appreciation for pictures and objects produced in England between 1485 and 1603 has been slow to take hold.

The Embarkation of Henry VIII at Dover by artist

unknown, c. 1520-40 was meant to show the

military might of the Tudors. Hampton Court

Palace, London.

For a long time, narratives about the popular impetus behind the Reformation led some historians to believe art was unwelcome in Protestant England, for fear it would inspire people to commit idolatry.

Meanwhile, long-held scholarly prejudices towards easel paintings and sculptures (which, excepting portraits, are few and far between in Tudor England) and against “decorative” arts and household objects, reinforced the notion that the country was practically barren of visual art in the 16th century.

Happily, times are now changing. In the last few years, the period’s beautiful and intriguing artworks have been receiving more attention in mainstream art history, not least in the New York Metropolitan Museum’s 2022 exhibition The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England.

Still, to date there has never been a comprehensive introduction to Tudor art aimed at the general public. My new book, The Story of Tudor Art will be the first to unite artworks and contexts across the whole of the “long Tudor century”, looking at the works of famous names like Hans Holbein the Younger and Nicholas Hilliard, but also beyond them, to interior furnishings, fashion and objects by unknown makers.

The book considers art made for the royal court, but also for increasing numbers of “middling” professionals, who embraced art and material objects to mark their new-found status in society.

Rather than appreciating art on purely aesthetic terms, Tudor viewers had practical expectations for the objects they owned and commissioned. Art was primarily a mode of communication, akin to speeches or the written word. Images had an advantage, however, as vision was considered the highest of the senses, exerting the greatest power over the mind.

Henry VIII AT 49 years old, by Hans Holbein

the Younger, 1540. Palazzo Barberini, Rome.

Images could shape the viewer morally – for example, through exposure to long galleries full of portraits of the great and the good, where viewers could learn about them and emulate their virtues. But this shaping was also physical, as with stories of pregnant women who, viewing certain images, were thought to unconsciously shape the foetus in their womb, a phenomenon known as “maternal impression”.

Most casual observers probably recognise Holbein’s magnificent portraits of Henry VIII, and some of Elizabeth I’s many painted personae. But even for aficionados, artworks produced under Henry VII, Edward VI and Mary I remain relatively obscure.

One of the book’s aims is to draw attention to these overlooked periods, showing that even during the so-called mid-Tudor crisis (when England had four different rulers in just 11 years), art and architecture remained a priority for shaping narratives about individuals and institutions such as the Church.

Henry VII emerges as a canny patron of visual arts, using various means to promote himself in his new role as king of England. Artists looked to legendary characters, ancient and recent, to bolster his tentative claim to the throne.

Popular legends originating in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s (largely fabricated) “British history”, resurface in a genealogical manuscript in the British Library showing Henry VII’s descent from Brutus, the legendary Trojan founder of Britain. This positions Henry as the Welsh messiah destined to rescue Britain from its Saxon invaders.

Architectural patronage at Westminster Abbey in London and King’s College Chapel in Cambridge aligned him with his half-uncle and Lancastrian predecessor, Henry VI. Rumours of miracles had been swirling about him since his probable murder in 1471. Meanwhile, reforms to the coinage included the first accurate royal likeness on English coins, changing the generic face used by his predecessors into a recognisable portrait of Henry VII himself.

The Protestant monarch Edward VI and his regime passed the first official laws against religious images, resulting in the tearing down of religious images and icons in cathedrals and parish churches. But Edward VI’s reign was not only a time of destruction. Under the influence of the two successive leaders of his council, elite patrons began to embrace classical architecture, a development that may relate to Protestant ideas about restoring the church to the time of Christ’s apostles.

Edward’s successor, Mary I, a staunch Catholic, made many attempts to undo the work of her Protestant-minded predecessor, including legislation to restore some church images. Perhaps more significantly, her marriage to Philip II of Spain brought England into closer artistic alignment with continental Europe. This saw a flood of artworks and artists associated with the Habsburg empire enter the country, including the first Titian portrait ever seen in England.

Due to the long neglect of Tudor art in mainstream art history, a vast amount of research remains to be done. Even within the better-studied reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, discoveries are waiting, and whole avenues of cultural and intellectual interpretation are yet to be explored.

Christina Faraday, Research Fellow in History of Art, University of Cambridge

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Saturday, 14 February 2026

76th Berlin International Film Festival Red Carpet Opening Gala

Thursday, 12 February 2026

Winter Sports Exude Glamour, But Women’s Ski-Wear Falls Short When Skiing

The visual allure of skiing

Sunday, 8 February 2026

Often Overlooked, Tudor Art Richly Reflected a Turbulent Century of Growth and Change