Phrases from an essay on art and design by Clive Bell, one of the Bloomsbury Group, featured on new pieces in Anderson's SS25 collection in London
In a world saturated with over-the-top extravagance, JW Anderson’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection at London Fashion Week brought a refreshing, disciplined approach. By embracing limitations in materials and design elements, the Irish designer unlocked an unexpected sense of freedom, writes Antonio Visconti
Trompe l'oeil and striking weaving
added a note of complexity to
seemingly simple designs
JONATHAN Anderson's new collection was held amid the industrial grandeur of the Victorian former market, Old Billingsgate on the River Thames, transformed by architect Lord Richard Rogers in the 1980s.
This season the designer focused on a palette of silk satin, cashmere, calf leather, and sequins, with lace serving as the only decorative flourish.What could have been restrictive transformed into an exploration of modern femininity and playful aesthetics, where minimalist silhouettes and grand gestures coexisted in harmony.
The collection had a simple if not stark aesthetic, with streamlined silhouettes and pared-back materials. But a closer exploration, revealed intriguing contrasts: oversized knit stitches, inflated bows, and skirts drawn into perfect circles.
These bold, sculptural shapes juxtaposed with slim, figure-hugging pieces created an intricate dialogue between volume and structure. Anderson's careful manipulation of scale and material transformed everyday items like sweatshirts, sweaters, and bomber jackets into conceptual works of art. While his use of familiar shapes and fabrics may have seemed subdued, Anderson’s deeper message was anything but. This collection wasn’t just a design exercise, it was a statement on the state of fashion today.
Bold, sculptural shapes juxtaposed with slim, figure-hugging pieces created an intricate dialogue between volume and structure
A study in contrasts: a heavy, cable knit
with a strong pattern and a light, silken
dress embellished with fine lace
In an era of excess, Anderson called for simplification, urging the industry to refocus and reconsider its trajectory.
Yet, within these restrictions, he proved that creativity can still thrive, drawing on his signature techniques and weaving in references to his past work, all while looking ahead to the future of fashion.
Tough, independent femininity was a recurring theme, with Anderson drawing inspiration from the spirited camaraderie of young women, particularly his own sister and her friends.
The collection, from its sculptural dresses to playful argyle motifs, spoke to this sense of independence, a nod to the resilience and strength of women.
In a time when fashion is at a crossroads, JW Anderson's Spring/Summer 2025 collection feels like a rallying cry. It is a reminder that less can be more and that within limitations, true innovation can flourish.
See more highlights from Jonathan Anderson's SS25 collection below
Nicole Kidman in The Perfect Couple. Seacia Pavao/Netflix
By Andrew Dix, Loughborough University
“Nantucket!” exclaims Ishmael, the narrator of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851). “Look at it – a mere hillock, and elbow of sand; all beach, without a background.”
In Ishmael’s description, this island off the coast of Massachusetts in the north east of the US is a depleted, weathered place, scarcely distinguishable from the sea. It’s a location for hard and dangerous work, too, as the inhabitants venture into the “watery world” offshore to catch everything from mackerel to whales.
The version of Nantucket we see in The Perfect Couple, Netflix’s new six-part drama, is very different. Here it’s super-rich socialites, not salt-encrusted mariners, who occupy narrative space. They engage in conspicuous leisure, lounging poolside or circulating from party to party. Even Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman), a highly successful writer of popular romances, is most often seen using her fingers to hold a wine glass rather than to hammer at a computer.
Adapted by Jenna Lamia from Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling 2018 novel of the same name, and directed by Susanne Bier (perhaps best known for directing the BBC’s Le Carré adaptation The Night Manager in 2016), The Perfect Couple intertwines romance and mystery. The Winbury family gathers at its Nantucket beach house to celebrate the wedding of middle son Benji and his fiancée Amelia. A suspicious death occurs in episode one, leaving a tangle of erotic complication and forensic evidence that is unravelled across episodes two to six.
A cocktail of ingredients
A good deal of mixing, both authorised and transgressive, goes on in The Perfect Couple. Contrasting with the licensed partnering of Benji and Amelia, scandalous liaisons take place (many of them involving the groom’s father Tag: a person who has never done a day’s work, according to the local police chief, but someone with unbounded energy for sex, drink and drugs). Narcotics are dangerously combined in games of “prescription roulette” and blackberry mojito cocktails play a minor role in the plot.
All of this mixing and combining at the level of story is suggestive, for in its very composition The Perfect Couple is a synthesis of multiple pre-existing materials. It is put together itself rather in the manner of a cocktail.
Take one part Succession (for fraught family drama), one part The White Lotus (for glamorous setting) and one part Big Little Lies (for Nicole Kidman’s star presence). Mix liberally with Rian Johnson’s duo of detective films Knives Out and Glass Onion (for murderous intrigue among the super-wealthy). Finish with a generous glug of Agatha Christie: there’s a knowing nod towards this influence in episode three when Greer discloses that she had “an Agatha Christie obsession”.
The Perfect Couple’s weakness, however, is that it resembles these precursors only cosmetically, failing to carry across what makes them compelling or memorable. No equivalent is offered for the startlingly inventive language of Succession, say, or the graphic sexuality of The White Lotus.
And while The Perfect Couple could easily be retitled Christie-style – Murder on Nantucket Sound, perhaps? – the series underwhelms also as murder mystery. The police station’s doors revolve rapidly in episodes five and six, as multiple suspects are questioned; yet the interrogations lack jeopardy or tension (even, at times, plausibility). The plot is complicated, certainly, but in the final analysis un-nourishing – rather like the oyster canapes served at a Winbury party.
The view from inside
Traces of another forerunner can be detected in The Perfect Couple. Confronted by its drama of the super-rich in maritime New England, and the unravelling of financial, romantic and criminal strands, viewers may find themselves thinking of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925).
In comparing The Great Gatsby and The Perfect Couple, however, it is instructive to consider the question of perspective. Nick Carraway, Fitzgerald’s narrator, brings an outsider’s critical eye to bear on the wealthy world he encounters. If he sometimes swoons – taken in momentarily by “floating rounds of cocktails”, by “the champagne and the stars” – he is usually attentive to the exploitation, even the violence, that underpins such luxury.
By contrast, The Perfect Couple does not emerge from sardonic or abrasive assessment of the super-rich realm it documents. There are candidates for the outsider role occupied by Nick in The Great Gatsby: the detectives investigating the murder, perhaps, or Amelia herself, someone not born into wealth but previously a worker at a zoo (helpfully specialising in snakes). Yet any jaundiced observations they offer are fleeting, not sustained.
Instead, the wealthy in The Perfect Couple are usually viewed from the inside. The housekeeper herself has internalised the master’s perspective. And when, in episode five, the camera makes a rare foray into the catering kitchen, it is not to access the views of unprivileged folk but to find a spot for makeup sex between Amelia and Benji.
Before each episode of The Perfect Couple are ads for Chanel perfume. Ultimately, ad and series share a worldview, putting expensive things on display for our gratified gaze. When the murder is finally shown, the victim is immaculately turned out as they breathe their last. Not even violent death can be seen to ruffle this moneyed part of Nantucket.
Andrew Dix, Senior Lecturer in American Literature and Film, Loughborough University
By Emma Shortis, RMIT University and Matthew Ricketson, Deakin University
Emma Shortis, Adjunct Senior Fellow, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University and Matthew Ricketson, Professor of Communication, Deakin University
Amelia Gray wears the new AW24 Pucci body-hugging activewear in the fashion house's print.
Pucci’s Autumn/Winter 2024 collection, under the creative
direction of Camille Miceli, delivers an exhilarating burst of color and style,
aptly titled Parade. With Amelia Gray as the face of the campaign,
the collection marches to a rhythm of its own, blending Pucci codes
with fresh energy. Miceli has crafted a visual kaleidoscope where prints collide
with sleek silhouettes, and urban polish meets romantic pop-rock. This season
is all about freedom, boldness, and playful sophistication, writes Antonio Visconti. Photographsby Johnny Dufort
Vibrant colour and Pucci prints
pop when contrasted against black
CAMILLE Micelihas infused Pucci’s signature exuberance with
a dynamic twist in the Parade collection, drawing from two
seemingly contrasting inspirations: the opulent stage costumes of Prince and
the ethereal grace of figure skating attire.
This interplay between flamboyance
and fluidity defines the collection, which deftly balances masculine and
feminine elements.
From taffeta balloon sleeves and A-line skirts to sleek
jersey dresses trimmed with iconic Pucci prints, the collection embraces a wide
array of silhouettes.
Ultra-slim suits shimmer with glittery stripes, while
body-hugging statement pieces echo the activewear aesthetic. It’s a playful
dance of structure and fluidity that captures the essence of contemporary
glamour.
A Trio of Moods: City, Sea and Sunset
Miceli’s new collection traverses three
distinct stylistic moods. Late Summer in the City kicks off the collection with
a bold reintroduction of the Orchidee print, alongside Pucci classics like
Marmo and Iride. These rhythmic, colorful patterns are set against dark
backdrops, highlighting their energy in a cityscape setting. Fluid jersey tops,
tailored trousers, and dresses with halter and high-neck styles bring a sense
of movement and urban sophistication.
Fluid skirts in pinks and black
are striking yet relate back to
Pucci's storied design past
High Summer by the Sea offers a playful, sun-drenched vibe
with a palette of juicy oranges, pinks, and limes. These beachy pieces exude
effortless cool, featuring breezy caftans, sleeveless draped tops, and
asymmetrical swimsuits.
Signature Pucci motifs such as Orchidee and Festa take
centre stage on light, flowing garments made for resort life and tropical
getaways.
Finally, Urban Sunset ushers in an arty, feminine
sensibility with blush pinks and blacks. Embellished knits and frilled tops are
paired with fluid skirts, while the collection’s Marmo-inspired denim gets a
refresh. This theme nods to the world of dance, with a sense of poised movement
and elegance.
Accessories to Elevate the Everyday
Pucci’s collection is not just about clothing ~ it’s a
complete lifestyle. The accessory lineup delivers standout pieces, including
the Jewel sandal with feathers and pearls, and black utility boots adorned with
foulard details. The Yummy shoulder and bucket bags come in colorful hues suited for daily use, while a sleek weekend carryall and sophisticated evening
clutch round out the collection’s handbags.
Jewellery plays an imaginative role, too. A shell sautoir
doubles as a pill case, and a brass lighter pendant is engraved with Pucci’s
signature Marmo curves. A striking brass multi-finger ring with a feather
motif, along with a sparkling ear cuff, are the final touches that add a whimsical note.
The Pucci Lifestyle: Beyond Fashion
Camille Miceli ensures the Pucci world extends beyond
the runway. The Parade collection introduces unique lifestyle
products, from custom playing cards to luxurious dog accessories like plush
beds and outerwear.
Playful yet practical, these items, including Marmo-covered
alarm clocks and paddle rackets, reflect Pucci’s commitment to fusing past and
present with a wink towards the future.
With the latest collection, Miceli has cleverly revived Pucci’s iconic heritage while propelling it into a new era
of expressive, joyful design. Each piece, from the flamboyant prints to the
innovative accessories, tell a story of exuberant creativity and individuality.
See highlights from the Autumn/Winter 2024 Pucci collection below
The Mediterranean diet has been included on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list
By Marco Romagnoli, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
The promise of a long, healthy, happy existence living an active, community-based lifestyle under warm, sunny skies may be within reach. In fact, it could be on your table.
The Mediterranean diet has been included on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list since 2010. Not only does the diet have guaranteed cultural value, it is also a powerful strategic tool for promoting food products such as olive oil.
Often cited for its health benefits, the Mediterranean diet was first described in a 1953 book about Crete. At the time, people were amazed at the low incidence of cardiovascular disease among the inhabitants of this Greek island, compared with northern Europeans.
Among other things, this olive oil-based diet encourages the consumption of fresh foods, seasonal fruit and vegetables and whole grains. It embodies the essence of the Mediterranean lifestyle, according to the UNESCO definition:
The Mediterranean diet involves a set of skills, knowledge, rituals, symbols and traditions concerning crops, harvesting, fishing, animal husbandry, conservation, processing, cooking, and particularly the sharing and consumption of food. Eating together is the foundation of the cultural identity and continuity of communities throughout the Mediterranean Basin. It is a moment of social exchange and communication, an affirmation and renewal of family, group or community identity.
Olive oil is at the heart of the Mediterranean diet.(Shutterstock)
But beyond its impact on our health, what does the Mediterranean diet say about us as a society? Could it be the symptom of something?
As a postdoctoral researcher at UQAM’s École des sciences de la gestion, my research lies at the intersection of heritage and tourism studies, food and mental health.
In 2021, I carried out field research in Cilento (Italy), Soria (Spain) and Marseille (France), where I looked at the inhabitants’ attachment to the Mediterranean diet. I listened to their stories and tried to understand the local and social dynamics at play in the Mediterranean diet concept.
Mirroring a deep societal crisis
The concept of the Mediterranean diet refers to a lifestyle that strengthens social relationships and is good for your health. It sounds simple and coherent.
However, the society in which we live turns the work of meeting these basic needs into something more complex. The health and social dimensions of the Mediterranean diet are seen as extremely desirable because they represent a balance that is lacking in globalized societies.
Claude Fischler, a sociologist of human nutrition, describes the multidimensional crisis of the food system in modern societies.
In his view, there is a psychopathology of daily eating underway. This is characterized by “appetite disturbances, bulimic attacks, anxious or compulsive snacking, etc.” Just think of the consumption of ultra-processed foods or ready-made and frozen meals, eaten on their own in front of the TV in the evening or in front of the computer during lunch break.
A meal at the O Vicolo ‘E L'Alleria, in Battipaglia, Italy. Eating together is the foundation of the cultural identity and continuity of communities in the Mediterranean basin.(Author provided)
In this psychopathological perspective on food, which also mirrors a societal crisis, mechanisms for cultural (and in this case, food) reactivation are appearing. The rush to the Mediterranean diet is a reflection of this societal crisis, because it is the opposite of our way of life.
With its inclusion on the UNESCO list, the Mediterranean diet has thus become a prestigious “monument” of Mediterranean culinary art.
This food culture has been mythologized and made a part of our heritage after undergoing an irreversible process of erosion of food production and consumption systems in the Mediterranean area.
‘Gastronativism’: Politics on the plate
The food arena is one of the best places to express the anxieties and fears of contemporary life.
Fabio Parasecoli, a researcher in food studies, describes the anxieties caused by globalization as gastronativism, “the ideological use of food in politics to advance ideas about who belongs to a community (however defined) and who doesn’t.”
So gastronativism represents a political tool that provides “a sense of rootedness, comfort and security” in the face of perceived collapse (climate change, wars, pandemics, globalization).
The Mediterranean diet is part of this gastronativist approach, standing for a lifestyle that can be adopted.
Different meanings of the Mediterranean diet
We often hear about the Mediterranean diet from institutions and academics. What we don’t hear much about are the views of the communities that practise this way of life.
My field research in 2021 aimed to understand the different ways in which the Mediterranean diet is defined, described, understood and lived, depending on the community.
The Mediterranean diet involves a set of skills, knowledge and rituals that relate in particular to cultivation, harvesting and picking.(Shutterstock)
In Cilento, the Mediterranean diet is synonymous with “lifestyle.” It’s part of local identity and a reference to the wider socio-cultural sphere (“our lifestyle,” the locals say).
In Soria, it embodies a “nutritional model” and in the domain of health: the adjectives most commonly used to describe it are “healthy,” “beneficial,” and “health-conscious.”
In Marseille, the term “diet” conjures up images of fasting, deprivation and abstinence, while the term “Mediterranean” refers to organic, seasonal and healthy food. The reference here is more to the food industry.
A sociocultural seismograph
Whether understood as a nutritional model, a way of life or an example of intangible heritage, the Mediterranean diet represents a way out of a system (societal, food, economic, environmental) in crisis and in constant search of reference points.
Seismographs are instruments that record and measure earthquakes. Like a “sociocultural seismograph,” the Mediterranean diet enables us to capture the vibrations, i.e. the changes taking place in contemporary society with which cultural (and dietary) practices must contend.
Marco Romagnoli, Postdoctoral research fellow, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
Elizabeth Bennet (Jennifer Ehle) reading in the BBC series of Pride and Prejudice
By Gillian Dooley, Flinders University
What does it mean to be a reader in Jane Austen’s novels? And what does it mean to read them? Susan Allen Ford, longtime editor of the Jane Austen Society of North America’s journals, confesses to perhaps 25 years of fascination with her subject.
She makes no claim to completeness for her book, What Jane Austen’s Characters Read (And Why), nor does she promise “an understanding of Jane Austen that will overturn all previous readings”. Instead, she sees her book as a “continued exploration”.
And what a book it is!
In her introduction, Ford explores various characters’ use and misuse of reading. For example, the scene in Pride and Prejudice where Caroline Bingley, trying to attract the attention of the rich Fitzwilliam Darcy, accuses heroine Elizabeth Bennet of being interested in nothing but reading. When he responds that extensive reading is a necessary attribute of an accomplished woman, the intended barb backfires.
Review: What Jane Austen’s Characters Read (and Why) – Susan Allen Ford (Bloomsbury)
Ford introduces the concept of the “model reader” – the ideal reader Jane Austen might have imagined for her writings. She adopts the idea from the great Italian novelist and academic Umberto Eco, who regarded this reader as one who was willing to observe the rules, and eager to play the game, of the novelist.
This concept allows Ford the freedom to speculate about the allusions to books of all kinds she finds throughout Austen’s novels: from the poetry of William Cowper and the gothic fiction of Ann Radcliffe, to the many “conduct books” that set out the supposed duties of the female sex, and fashionable anthologies (such as Elegant Extracts, which Austen owned and gifted to her then eight-year-old niece).
Austen’s model reader will get all her jokes, and will understand all the quotes and passing references 21st-century readers will puzzle over (and possibly google), or pass over without a second thought, depending on their disposition.
Ford explains in the last pages of her book that “the construction of the model reader that I’ve traced through Austen’s use of reading characters is itself a kind of fiction”. This model reader might never have existed. (If she did, she was probably Jane Austen’s sister Cassandra, her best friend and life-long companion.)
Ford’s is an informed personal view, like any good scholarly reading of literature. Others carrying out the same exercise would make different discoveries.
Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice.
Jane Austen’s reading
What did Austen read? In her first chapter, Ford shares what information we have, as far as it can be established from sources outside the novels: the books she owned herself, the books available in her father’s library and the libraries of houses she visited, and the books she may have borrowed from circulating libraries.
Among the 20 or so books of her own were volumes as varied and exotic as Arnaud Berquin’s realistic children’s stories L’ami des enfants (in French), and John Bell’s Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia to Diverse Parts of Asia.
Jane Austen.Ben Sutherland/Flickr, CC BY
Her marginalia in books like Oliver Goldsmith’s The History of England, which she read in her teenage years and lampooned in her own History of England, are extensive. They include the immortal phrase: “Oh! Dr Goldsmith, Thou art as partial an Historian as myself!”
Six chapters chart the novels in order, though the allocation is not as neat as you might expect. Chapter two covers both Northanger Abbey and Sense and Sensibility, noting their extensive engagement with existing genres. The gothic romance and the novel of sensibility are just the two of most obvious examples.
However, Ford is not just cataloguing intertextual relationships – she always moves beyond the obvious to draw out new and intriguing possibilities. Each chapter begins with a particular genre which will be considered in the context of the novel in question. For Pride and Prejudice, it is the “conduct literature” of the time – the many books aimed at correcting and improving young people, usually young women.
Chapters four and five both concern Mansfield Park, perhaps Austen’s most complex novel, centred on the silent, watchful endurance of Fanny Price, who is brought as a child to live at Mansfield Park with her rich relatives.
The first is centred on Lover’s Vows, a play that is central to the novel’s plot – and, it could be argued, its theme. The play concerns extramarital sex, illegitimate offspring, and independent-minded women. Naturally, Ford does not simply map the play onto the novel – that has been done many times before. She draws subtle illumination from the interaction of the two texts.
Chapter five considers the novel’s characters as readers, in particular the way Fanny’s reading informs her perspective on the world beyond Mansfield. Although she is habitually stuck at home with her aunts, she is familiar with astronomy and foreign travel from her reading: she can look beyond the petty intrigues and pastimes of her cousins and other characters.
These two chapters on Mansfield Park (in my view Austen’s richest and most rewarding novel, and one that is often, in Ford’s words, regarded as the “most vexing”) left me awed at their insight, their subtlety, and their brilliance.
Gothic shadows, romance and realism
Chapter six shows us “the encroachment of gothic shadows” on the world of Emma. Here, Austen is playing an even more interesting game than in Northanger Abbey, her acknowledged gothic novel. As Ford writes, she “questions the power of narrative to explain, to cohere”. She “celebrates authorial design, the design of the imaginist, acknowledging the central mysteries of the self, the other, of human relationships, of love”.
In Emma, Austen famously perfects the authorial sleight of hand called “free indirect discourse”: she slips from the narrator’s voice into the character’s mind without most readers being aware, subtly suggesting Emma’s ironies and fallibilities without having to explain.
In Emma, Austen subtly suggests Emma’s ironies and fallibilities without having to explain to the reader.
Chapter seven takes us, of course, to Austen’s last completed novel, Persuasion, in which Anne Elliot lives with the memory of her lost love while coping with the insistent daily demands of her family, to whom she is “only Anne”. As Ford writes, the novel holds “romance and realism in tension”. This is not a bad single summary of the whole of Austen’s works – at least, the adult writings.
Ford’s concluding chapter takes us to the tantalising first 15 chapters that are all that exists of Austen’s last novel Sanditon, which features a glorious cast of hypochondriacs and speculators in a newly established seaside resort. It was left unfinished when she died.
An archly playful invitation, declined
I don’t think I’m alone in finding few of Austen’s immediate predecessors and contemporaries especially readable. I am ashamed how little I know of the books she would have read.
I have read and enjoyed Henry Fielding, author of Tom Jones and regarded by some as one of the founders of the English novel; Samuel Richardson, who pioneered the epistolary novel (or novel in letters); and Frances Burney, whose Evelina is considered a landmark in the novel of manners. Others I have tried and left off – like Northanger Abbey’s Catherine Morland and her piano lessons – with relief.
My excuse would be that these works are not essential to any of my own research projects; my reason is that they are just not enjoyable and absorbing like Austen’s novels. She single-handedly raised the bar for long-form prose fiction in her time.
I can see that reading some of these works would inform my study of Austen’s musical background, but I can also rejoice that Ford has read them on my behalf. Of Fordyce’s Sermons, one of the most celebrated of the “conduct books” of the time, beloved of Mary Bennet and Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice, Ford tells us its author, Scottish Presbyterian clergyman James Fordyce:
may not tickle our ears as he did those of his contemporaries, but the curious will find their experience of Austen’s novels […] heightened by a trudge through his orotund complacencies.
This archly playful invitation is worthy of Austen herself. It might almost be a quotation from one of her letters – and I have no trouble declining it. I thus fail to attain the standard of Austen’s “model reader”. I also fall far short of Ford’s own version of a model reader – one of the curious who would be eager to trudge in her footsteps.
Reading this book does, however, vastly increase my already considerable respect for the redoubtable Ford, a dedicated Austen scholar of extraordinary penetration and erudition. This is one of those rare publications that combines the rigours of scholarly work with the seductions of witty and extremely readable prose.
Gillian Dooley, Adjunct Associate in English, Flinders University
