Paris Fashion Week: Études Studio and the Urbane Fashion Architecture of Now

On another roiling day in Paris' summer heat, Aurélien Arbet and Jérémie Egry presented their new SS27 collection at the Palais de Tokyo.

Études Studio opened Paris Fashion Week with a collection that refined its ongoing dialogue between contemporary art, urban codes and menswear construction, led by Aurélien Arbet and Jérémie Egry. The season sharpened the brand’s visual language of fragmentation, utility and architectural thinking, presenting an engaging evolution of its design vocabulary. Story by Jeanne-Marie Cilento

Strong contrasts and sleek design

were a feature of the collection.

AT the Palais de Tokyo, Études Studio, on the first day of Paris Fashion Week during a searingly hot afternoon, launched a collection that felt precisely calibrated to its architectural surroundings. Presented in the colossal building’s Galerie Basse, the show unfolded in a cavernous, raw concrete space that might not have been cooler than outside but heightened attention to material, proportion and construction, allowing the clothes to operate within a stripped-back, almost forensic clarity.

For Spring/Summer 2027, Aurélien Arbet and Jérémie Egry, extended their ongoing dialogue between contemporary art, urban space and menswear, drawing conceptual grounding from the work of Gordon Matta-Clark. 

Rather than treating his practice as visual reference, the designers translated its structural logic into clothing, thinking through interruption, absence and altered form as principles of construction rather than decoration.

That sense of disruption ran throughout the collection, called Short Term Eternity. Garments were built around controlled breaks in silhouette: circular cut-outs, shifted planes and void-like interventions that appeared carved into the fabric rather than applied onto it. Elsewhere, references to urban fragmentation surfaced through photographic treatments embedded into textiles, dissolving distinctions between image, surface and structure.

Knits emerged as one of the collection’s strongest components, exploring tension between opacity and openness 

Creamy, sandy neutrals and knits were

standouts for Spring/Summer 2027.

Despite its conceptual clarity, the collection remained anchored in pragmatic wearability. Tailoring was softened and slightly elongated, moving between precision and ease. Lightweight coats, layered shirting and relaxed separates were rendered in sand-hued neutrals and muted industrial tones, creating a restrained palette that reinforced the architectural mood without overwhelming it.

Menswear remained central, while womenswear appeared as a deliberate extension of the same design language. A satin bomber with removable sleeves introduced modular construction, while fluid leather trousers and softened outerwear added movement and contrast. 

Bermudas with sharper front detailing brought a more defined summer register, though the overall attitude remained urban rather than seasonal.

Knits emerged as one of the collection’s strongest components, exploring tension between opacity and openness through varied structures and densities. Across the collection, Études Studio’s continued evolution of accessories, particularly leather goods, reinforced a coherent system of dressing, where utility and refinement coexist without contradiction.

References to urban fragmentation surfaced through photographic treatments embedded into textiles, dissolving distinctions between image, surface and structure.

Circular motifs were a 

strong theme of the designs.

Rather than relying on overt narrative, Arbet and Egry built the collection through repetition and refinement of established codes: utility references, adapted workwear structures and treated denim, all pushed forward with greater control and restraint. The result was not a departure, but a consolidation of language, one that felt increasingly precise in its articulation.

Set against David Douard’s shifting installation of vertical screens, the presentation extended these ideas into space. Movement through the show became fragmented and partial, as models passed through alternating layers of visibility and obstruction, echoing the collection’s central concern with interruption and reconfiguration.

Études Studio offered a more measured proposition for this new season's collection: a disciplined study by Aurélien Arbet and Jérémie Egry of how clothing can register quotidian transformation yet still have an interesting, intellectual heft behind the seams.  

See the Études Studio collection for Spring/Summer 2027 at Paris Fashion Week 

Milan Fashion Week: Garcias Takes the Scenic Route to the Spring/Summer 2027 Runway

Nicolas Martin Garcia's debut runway show in Milan. The Colombian designer worked at Dolce& Gabbana and Roberto Cavalli before starting his own label. Cover picture and all photographs by Andrea Heinsohn for DAM

In an industry constantly searching for new perspectives, one of the most engaging debuts of Milan Fashion Week came from a designer whose story spans continents, cultures and generations. With Latin Dreamers, Nicolas Martin Garcia transformed his Spring/Summer 2027 runway into a vivid exploration of migration, identity and aspiration, blending Colombian spirit with Italian craftsmanship in a collection that was both personal and resonant.  Story Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photography by Andrea Heinsohn

Vivid colour and relaxed ease were signatures

of the new Garcias SS27 collection in Milan.

MILAN Fashion Week gained a new voice as Colombian-born designer Nicolas Martin Garcia unveiled the first runway presentation for his three-year-old brand. The occasion carried historical significance, with Garcia becoming the first Colombian designer to present a runway show on the official Milan Fashion Week schedule. 

Rich in emotion, cultural pride and visual impact, the collection signals the arrival of a distinctive new voice on the international menswear stage. Yet despite the milestone, the evening never felt focused on personal achievement alone. Instead, it became a broader celebration of the communities, families and cultural traditions that have shaped his life and continue to inspire his work.

For Garcia, the Milan Fashion Week debut for Spring/Summer 2027 was the culmination of a journey that began thousands of kilometres away in Bogotá. Born in Colombia and raised in Italy from the age of four, the designer has spent much of his life navigating two cultures, two identities and two creative traditions. 

After graduating from Rome's Accademia Costume & Moda and honing his craft within the design studios of Dolce & Gabbana and Roberto Cavalli, Garcia stepped onto Milan's official runway calendar with Garcias, a label that draws directly from his personal story. The result was Latin Dreamers, a collection that was inspired by themes of migration, heritage and ambition, making it one of the more fervent shows of the season.

For Garcia, his Milan Fashion Week debut was the culmination of a journey that began thousands of kilometres away in Bogotá

Nicolas Martin Garcia wanted to created a sense 

of Latin neighborhood as part of the runway show. 

The venue was transformed into a vivid recreation of a Latin neighbourhood, immersing guests in an environment that reflected the everyday realities and cultural richness of migrant communities. References to local businesses, gathering places and family life created an atmosphere that felt authentic rather than theatrical. It was a setting designed not simply to frame the clothes but to communicate the experiences behind them.

Those experiences have long informed Garcia's creative vision. Having built his career within some of Italy's most influential luxury houses, including the extended periods working in design at Dolce & Gabbana and Roberto Cavalli, he has developed a sophisticated understanding of craftsmanship, tailoring and luxury construction. Yet Garcias represents something more personal: an exploration of the cultural dialogue between his Colombian heritage and Italian upbringing.

That narrative was woven throughout the collection. Structured tailoring sat alongside fluid silhouettes, while richly embellished surfaces contrasted with moments of restraint. Colour played an important role, balancing vibrant Latin influences against the refinement associated with Italian luxury. The result was a collection that felt contemporary and confident, expressing what Garcia has previously described as a fusion of Latin exuberance and European sophistication.

The collection celebrated the determination of those who leave home in pursuit of opportunity while carrying their traditions, memories and sense of identity with them

The designer wanted to celebrate the dreams and 

identity people searching for new opportunities. 

Rather than looking backwards with nostalgia, Latin Dreamers presented heritage as a living force that continues to evolve across generations and borders. The collection celebrated the determination of those who leave home in pursuit of opportunity while carrying their traditions, memories and sense of identity with them.

In his show notes, Garcia described the presentation as "a celebration of identity, migration, resilience, and the dreams carried by millions of people who leave their homes in search of new opportunities while remaining deeply connected to their roots." It was a sentiment that ran throughout the evening and gave emotional weight to the collection beyond its visual impact.

That sense of gratitude extended beyond the runway itself. Garcia dedicated the achievement to the many individuals who have supported the growth of the brand, paying particular tribute to his mother, whose sacrifices and encouragement he credited as the foundation of his success. He also acknowledged the role played by the Afro Fashion Association and its founder Michelle Francine Ngonmo in helping create opportunities for emerging voices within the industry.

As Milan continues to seek fresh perspectives capable of enriching its menswear landscape, Garcias arrives with a distinctive point of view and a compelling personal narrative. The debut demonstrated not only a clear aesthetic vision but also an understanding that fashion can serve as a platform for representation, storytelling and cultural dialogue.

For Garcia, the show represented the fulfilment of a dream years in the making. For Milan, it introduced a designer whose experience spans Bogotá, Rome and the world's luxury fashion capitals, yet whose message remains rooted in community, identity and possibility. As his closing declaration stated: "Si lo crees lo creas" — if you believe it, you create it.

See more highlights from the Garcias Spring/Summer 2027 show in Milan below: 

Hermès Finds a New Rhythm Beneath the California Sky in Los Angeles

Karen Olsen strikes a pose on the specially built Hermes pavilion for the Autumn/Winter 2026 second chapter by artistic director Nadège Vanhée. Photograph (above) and cover picture by Max Farago.

As the sun slipped behind the hills of Bel Air, Hermès transformed a secluded Los Angeles hillside into a stage for a captivating fashion moment. For the latest chapter of its Autumn/Winter 2026 womenswear collection, artistic director Nadège Vanhée looked beyond the house's equestrian roots, embracing the grace of dance, the glow of California light and a new vision of luxury, reports Antonio Visconti

The architectural installation created 

for the Hermes show at dusk in LA.

HIGH above Los Angeles, where the city dissolves into winding hills, Hermès unveiled a collection that felt less like a fashion presentation and more like a meditation on movement, light and freedom. 

For the French house's latest travelling chapter of its Autumn/Winter 2026 womenswear collection, artistic director Nadège Vanhée turned her gaze westward, drawing inspiration from the unique atmosphere of Southern California and the poetry of a body in motion.

Guests arrived at a purpose-built pavilion perched looking across Bel Air, a striking architectural installation glowing in shades of soft gold as dusk settled across the landscape. The setting captured the essence of the collection itself: expansive, optimistic and suspended somewhere between reality and dream.

While Hermès is often celebrated for its mastery of leather craftsmanship and equestrian heritage, this season Vanhée explored a different narrative. Dance became the collection's guiding spirit, influencing silhouettes that moved with remarkable fluidity. The designer imagined a woman stepping beyond the studio, carrying the elegance and discipline of performance into everyday life.

Artistic director Nadège Vanhée turned her gaze westward, drawing inspiration from the unique atmosphere of Southern California and the poetry of a body in motion

The designer embraced the luminous hues of 

California with rich reds and warm yellows. 

The result was a collection that balanced structure with ease. Sculptural dresses referenced the tension and artistry found in ballet costumes, while flowing skirts and draped garments seemed to float around the body. Fabrics shifted and responded to movement, creating an almost cinematic effect as models navigated the curving runway.

Colour played an equally important role. Rather than the muted palettes often associated with European winters, Vanhée embraced the luminous tones of California. Vivid reds, sunny yellows and sea-hued blues appeared throughout the collection, reflecting the distinctive quality of Los Angeles light. This daylight vibrancy was paired with deep blacks and midnight shades that evoked the city's transformation after sunset.

Leather, naturally, remained central to the Hermès identity. Supple jackets, refined outerwear and impeccably crafted separates anchored the collection, offering a sense of strength beneath the softness. Yet even these pieces felt lighter than previous seasons, revealing a designer increasingly interested in fluidity rather than rigidity.

Sculptural dresses referenced the tension and artistry found in ballet costumes, while flowing skirts and draped garments seemed to float around the body.

Miley Cyrus wore a sleek, black

leather mini-dress to the show. 

The front row reflected the global reach of the house, bringing together clients, artists and a select group of celebrities, including Miley Cyrus, Kerry Washington and Keke Palmer. Their presence underscored Hermès' growing connection to Hollywood while maintaining its singular identity that has mostly eschewed celebrity ambassadors, unlike many other storied French fashion houses. 

What made the evening particularly compelling, however, was not the star spectacle but the confidence of the clothes themselves. Vanhée appears to be entering a new creative phase, one that broadens the visual language of Hermès while remaining faithful to its traditions of craftsmanship and refinement.

The collection also hinted at what lies ahead. As anticipation builds around Hermès' upcoming couture collection, this show suggested a designer increasingly comfortable exploring volume, drape and emotion on a grander scale.

Against the backdrop of a fading Californian sunset, Hermès offered a vision of contemporary luxury that felt remarkably fresh: sophisticated yet effortless, disciplined yet free, grounded in heritage while looking toward new horizons.

See highlights from the Hermes Autumn/Winter 2026 collection in Los Angeles

From Fossicking for Fossils to a Champion for Life on Earth: Sir David Attenborough at 100

Sir David Attenborough on location filming the BBC documentary series 'The Private Life of Plants' at Cape Point in South Africa. He is pictured in the fynbos, a unique shrubland biome alongside a Protea plant. Photograph: Neil Nightingale.

By Euan Ritchie

Sir David Attenborough has turned 100. Very few people have the good fortune to live for a century. Fewer still achieve so much and touch so many lives. Across his seven decade career with the BBC, Attenborough ushered in the transition from black and white to colour television. He gave the now legendary comedy troupe Monty Python their lucky break, greenlighting their Flying Circus. His keen eye and care for viewers is in part why tennis balls are yellow, not white – they’re much easier to see on screen.

But Attenborough is, of course, most famous for his nature documentaries. For decades, he has fronted the camera to educate, entertain and inspire billions of people about the complexity, wonder and majesty of the natural world, and the many threats it faces. It wasn’t a given – Attenborough was told early in his career his teeth were too big for television!

For ecologists like myself, Attenborough’s work has been a source of deep inspiration. It was instrumental in my decision to pursue a life and a career dedicated to understanding, caring and fighting for the protection of nature. For this gift, I am eternally grateful.

A career driven by curiosity

Attenborough’s connection with nature came early, forged in no small part through an insatiable fascination with fossils – including his childhood joy at discovering an ammonite in the Leicestershire countryside.

He went on to study geology and zoology at Cambridge University, graduating in 1947. He served in the navy and worked in an educational publishing house. Notably, the BBC rejected his first job application as a radio producer in 1950. But he tried again, and joined the BBC as a trainee producer in 1952.

His career in nature documentaries began to bud almost immediately, with his Zoo Quest series beginning in 1954. But it burst into full bloom with the landmark Life on Earth series in 1979, which brought distant locations, extraordinary wildlife and evolution and ecology to TV. It instilled a sense of wonder and awe in audiences, while maintaining and respecting scientific accuracy.

Early in his career, Attenborough (right) interviewed Edmund Hillary. Wikimedia, CC BY-NC-ND

The master storyteller

One reason Attenborough has had such success as a communicator is his understated, calm but authoritative demeanour. When you sit down to watch an Attenborough documentary, you feel in safe hands.

His approach isn’t the norm. In other nature documentaries, wildlife can often seem secondary, as props for the presenter.

Some of Sir David’s documentaries didn’t always go to script.

In series such as The Living Planet, The Trials of Life, The Blue Planet, The Planet Earth, and scores of others, Attenborough took us across the globe, revealing nature’s beauty, oddities and extraordinary complexity, as well as its macabre and brutal aspects. The habitats home to the world’s species are brought to life in extraordinary detail. We watch with laughter, trepidation, sadness, anger, excitement and awe, ebbing and flowing as nature’s stories unfold.

Who can forget the first time they saw and heard the extraordinary vocal repertoire and mimicry of a lyrebird, or a curious mountain gorilla’s desire to connect with a fellow great ape? The epic battle for survival between a hatchling iguana and hungry hordes of racer snakes? Or the breathtaking explosion of colour and complexity of a coral reef? Each of these was captured by master cinematographers and the story told to us by Attenborough.

The broadcaster pictured with a rainbow-billed toucan.

Over his long career, Attenborough has become an icon. He was voted the UK’s best TV presenter of all time. But his prodigious output has come at a personal cost too. One of his regrets is how much time he has spent away from his family.

He is also not off limits to criticism. For a long time, Attenborough focused on the glory of nature, largely omitting the damage humans do through overfishing, deforestation, pollution, spreading exotic species, and other threats. He has also shied away from assigning blame to those most responsible for the harms inflicted on nature.

In 2018, he said too much focus on why so much wildlife is threatened was a “turn-off” for some viewers. Ecologists and conservation scientists can sympathise. We know bombarding people with doom and gloom invites apathy and despair, not a desire to act. It’s a hard line to walk between harsh realities and hope.

To his credit, Attenborough has belatedly focused on these issues in recent years. Footage of plastic pollution in Blue Planet II and the ravages of industrial fishing in Ocean have brought a sharp focus on these issues.

In 2020, he released A Life On Our Planet, which he describes as a “witness statement” to the startling losses of biodiversity he has seen over his lifetime. Rather than just spell out the problems, Attenborough laid out how to solve them – and the role we can all play in fixing the two biggest and deeply interwoven problems nature faces: climate change and biodiversity declines and extinctions.

While Attenborough’s earlier work largely avoided these difficult conversations, they succeeded in bringing nature’s wonder to millions of people. This shouldn’t be overlooked. At a time when more and more of us are cut off from nature, Attenborough’s documentaries forged a new connection. For people to care about losing nature, they first have to know and love it.

Conservation relies on stories

Scientific research rarely leads to the behavioural changes we might hope for. Accumulating facts and evidence is vital. But it’s not enough. What humans respond to is stories.

Alongside other globally renowned voices such as the late, great Jane Goodall, Attenborough’s work telling the stories of nature has shaped public opinion. In turn, it has galvanised conservation efforts such as the push to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.

As he celebrates his centenary, it’s encouraging to see a new generation and diversity of voices in the media and science communication, advocacy, and scientific community. They speak and share their messages with great clarity, confidence, and passion.

Attenborough is just one person. He can’t replace the vital role of scientists, community leaders, conservationists and policymakers in conserving nature. But no one will ever replace David’s distinctive voice. As he has said:

it seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living

Euan Ritchie, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University

Agatha Christie: What Made the World’s Bestselling Author so Successful? Here’s a Clue

What made Agatha Christie transcend her times and her competitors? Photograph: S.J Bright/ Shutterstock

By Gill Plain

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Agatha Christie (1890-1976). The event itself, on January 12, was marked by a flurry of media coverage across the world, and academic experts were sought for comment. The chief question being: why is Christie the bestselling author of all time?

Agatha Christie as a young woman. 

Photograph:Christie Archive Trust. 

Christie’s success is a conundrum, not a self-evident manifestation of incontrovertible genius – and this is what makes it so fascinating. Christie was a talented writer, but the same could easily be said of many 20th-century authors.

Known as the “queen of crime”, she was a prolific bestselling author – but so were her fellow mass-producing crime writers, Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) and John Creasey (1908-1973). They didn’t go on to have phenomenal literary afterlives.

Christie, by contrast, became a synonym for a whole genre of writing, and her characters became some of the most beloved figures in global popular culture. How did this happen? What made Christie transcend her times and her competitors?

Terror, tension, suspense

One of the solutions commonly proposed for the secret of Christie’s success is her plotting. She is the doyenne of the “clue-puzzle” mystery, with an unparalleled ability to generate clever plots that surprise, delight and even shock her readers.

This reputation is in large part the legacy of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), itself celebrating its centenary this year. The book was a career breakthrough, prompting just acknowledgement of a trick well played. I won’t reveal the killer plot twist, but careful readers returning to the book for a second encounter can take pleasure in seeing inside the machine, spotting the omissions and misdirections through which they were so skilfully deceived.

Ackroyd isn’t Christie’s only plotting masterclass, but it – and all it stands for – also isn’t an adequate answer to the mystery of Christie’s global success. For all her ability to mislead readers, she wrote some prosaic, daft and far-from-convincing puzzles over the course of her 55-year publishing career.

So, if it’s not just Christie’s plotting that accounts for her success, what else might it be? An obvious and compelling answer is that she also created two brilliant examples of the underestimated outsider detective: Hercule Poirot, the comical cosmopolitan foreigner, and Miss Jane Marple, the village spinster.

Characters and suspects dismiss them because of prejudice – against age, gender and nationality – and there is huge pleasure in watching these underestimated figures turn the tables on murderers, bullies and abusers.

Yet once again, Christie’s success cannot solely be attributed to the familiar comforts of Poirot and Marple. Some of her finest – and most successful – novels are standalone fictions that mobilise terror, psychological tension, anxiety, suspense and the brutal manipulation of the reader.

And Then There Were None (1939) – the tale of ten strangers invited to an island to be murdered – is the bestseller among her bestsellers, while the late thriller Endless Night (1967) astonished reviewers with its capacity to capture psychopathy.

A French adaptation of Christie’s And Then There Were None, part of Channel 4’s Walter Presents series.

Also, those books which do feature the familiar detectives do not necessarily rely upon them. The Poirot novels increasingly come to be fronted by other characters – detective surrogates like Mrs Ariadne Oliver, or figures who are themselves implicated in the crime.

Taken at the Flood (1948) is typical here. It is technically a Poirot novel, in that he appears at the beginning and the end. But the reader follows the concerns of the village community under investigation through a series of effectively realised post-wartime characters.

The reader might come for Poirot but they stay for something else: a nuanced examination of the resentments, anxieties and tensions that distorted British society in the aftermath of war.

It seems then, that solving the Christie conundrum requires the embracing of more unexpected possibilities: her style, wit and psychological insight. Her books are easy and pleasurable to read (which contributes to their success in translation), and they are also often funny.

Sharp, witty, observant

Alongside the serious business of murder, Christie writes sharply observed social comedy, much of the impact of which comes from her characters. Early commentators on the genre dismissed Christie’s characterisation as two-dimensional, but there is consummate skill in her ability to deftly sketch recognisable figures.

It doesn’t matter whether her books are set in the 1920s or the 1950s, we all know what a pompous self-made man is like, or a religious hypocrite, or a put-upon housewife. It reminds us that people are most commonly killed by those closest to them, and the reasons for those murders have changed little in the past half-century.

Be it jealousy, greed, ambition, hatred, resentment or desire, Christie was good at judging just how much it would take to push a character over the edge of reason.

The puzzle of “why Christie?”, then, demands recognition of a range of less familiar Christies. There was noir Christie, a writer of disturbing, manipulative psychological fiction; comic Christie, a sharp and witty deconstructor of social mores; and uncanny Christie – a crime writer whose familiar voice has a curious knack of making the reader feel at home, while pulling the rug from under them.

This final Christie has in part been recognised, most notably by crime writer Robert Barnard – one of the first critics to attempt to solve the Christie conundrum. He writes of her capacity to generate a mood of “trustful mistrust”. Readers have confidence in Christie to deceive them in an appropriate and respectful fashion.

This can be supplemented, I would argue, with something more disturbing. In Christie’s fiction, time and again, nice Dr Jekyll turns into murderous Mr Hyde, and no one – as Christie’s characters are fond of saying – is safe.

Perhaps, then, Christie’s longevity and success might perversely be attributable to her capacity, repeatedly, to rewrite Robert Louis Stevenson as light comedy. In an astonishing high-wire act of authorship, she exposes the profound darkness of human nature through the prism of the prosaic and the comforts of the mundane.

Gill Plain, Professor of English Literature and Popular Culture, University of St Andrews

Why Warmer UK Summers Could Make Beach Staycations a Smart Choice for the British

Likened to the Caribbean, Porthminster Beach in St Ives, Cornwall is known for its azure waters, golden sand and microclimate that creates a tropical atmosphere with palm trees, yet you are in England.

By Narmin Nahidi

For decades, the British summer holiday has carried one basic assumption: if you want reliable sun, you leave the UK. Spain, Greece, Turkey, Portugal and Italy have offered what Britain could not always guarantee: warmth, blue skies and the feeling of a proper summer break.

But climate change is beginning to alter the financial logic of that decision. This does not mean the UK should celebrate warmer summers. Heat brings serious risks: drought, wildfire, water stress, pressure on health services and damage to infrastructure.

Yet for households facing higher living costs, expensive travel and growing awareness of carbon emissions, the summer holiday is becoming more than a lifestyle choice. It is becoming a household finance decision, a regional economic decision and a climate-risk decision.

The warning signs are now difficult to ignore. The Met Office confirmed that summer 2025 was the UK’s warmest on record, with a mean temperature of 16.10°C between June and August. It is also estimated that a summer as hot or hotter than 2025 is now around 70 times more likely because of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. This does not mean every British summer will be hot or dry. But it does mean that warm-weather tourism at home is becoming more plausible than it was for previous generations.

The spectacular natural limestone arch at Durdle Door on the Jurassic coast near West Lulworth in Dorset, England.

The financial scale of outbound tourism is substantial. According to the Office for National Statistics, UK residents made an estimated 94.6 million visits abroad in 2024 and spent about £78.6 billion overseas. Spain alone received an estimated 17.8 million visits from residents of Great Britain in 2024, followed by France and Italy. These figures show how deeply foreign summer travel is embedded in our lifestyles and the wider leisure economy.

International travel clearly has personal and cultural value. People travel to see family, experience different cultures, rest, celebrate and escape routine. But from a household finance perspective, foreign holidays also involve costs that are often underestimated: flights, luggage charges, airport parking, transfers, travel insurance, exchange-rate costs, mobile roaming, higher peak-season accommodation prices and the financial risk of disruption.

Climate change adds another layer of uncertainty. Heatwaves, wildfires, floods and airport disruption can quickly turn a holiday into a financial loss. A family may budget for flights and hotels, but not for cancelled excursions, delayed returns, medical expenses in extreme heat, or additional accommodation if travel plans are disrupted. Climate risk is therefore no longer only a concern for governments, insurers or infrastructure investors. It is entering ordinary household decisions, including where families spend their summer break.

Sustainable staycations

The crystal-clear turquoise waters and fine white sand of the Pedn Vounder Beach on the south coast of Penwith Peninsula, in West Cornwall, England. 

This is where the UK staycation becomes more important. Staying in Britain is not automatically cheap and it is not automatically sustainable. In popular destinations such as Cornwall, Devon or the Lake District, a peak-season cottage can cost well over £1,000 for a week, depending on location, property size and school-holiday timing. A long car journey is not necessarily low carbon. Popular coastal towns can become overcrowded, placing pressure on housing, water, waste, roads and local services. But a well-planned domestic holiday can reduce several financial and environmental costs at once.

First, it can reduce exposure to volatile travel costs. Families may avoid airfare inflation, exchange-rate uncertainty and some of the expenses linked to overseas travel. They may also have more flexibility to travel outside the most expensive weeks, take shorter breaks, or adjust plans if weather conditions change.

Second, domestic tourism keeps more spending inside the UK economy. Money spent in local guesthouses, restaurants, cafes, farm shops, museums and small attractions circulates through regional economies. This matters especially for coastal and rural areas where seasonal tourism supports employment and small businesses.

VisitBritain’s 2024 domestic overnight tourism data shows that British residents took 106 million overnight trips in Britain, although trip volume fell compared with 2023. Spending, adjusted for inflation, increased by 3% in Britain, partly reflecting higher costs per trip. This is important: domestic tourism has economic value, but affordability is already a constraint.

Third, staying closer to home can reduce the carbon cost of leisure. Aviation’s climate impact is not limited to carbon dioxide. Aviation accounts for about 2.5% of human-made global CO₂ emissions, but its climate impact also includes non-CO₂ effects such as contrails and nitrogen oxides. Replacing a short-haul flight with rail, coach, or a shorter domestic journey will not solve climate change, but it can reduce the footprint of a decision made by millions of households every year.

Britain cannot simply wait for warmer summers and call it an opportunity. If domestic tourism grows without planning, it could create new costs: overcrowded beaches, higher local rents, water shortages, waste pressures and congestion. A sustainable staycation economy needs investment in public transport, affordable accommodation, shaded public spaces, water refill points, wildfire awareness, coastal protection and better visitor management.

There is also a fairness issue. If domestic holidays become fashionable but unaffordable, the benefits will be uneven. The goal should not be luxury staycations for wealthier households. It should be a broader model of climate-conscious leisure that allows more families to rest and travel without excessive financial strain or environmental cost.

The message to households should be practical rather than judgemental. A foreign holiday is not wrong. People travel abroad for many good reasons, including family, culture, rest and escape. But the old idea that a summer holiday requires a flight is becoming less convincing. As UK summers become warmer and overseas travel becomes more exposed to climate and cost shocks, staying in Britain may increasingly make financial and environmental sense.

A warmer UK summer is not good news in itself. It is a warning. But it also forces a practical question: if sunshine is becoming more available at home, can Britain build a tourism model that keeps more money in local economies, reduces emissions, and protects households from the rising financial risks of climate change?

Narmin Nahidi, Assistant Professor in Finance, University of Exeter