
Naomi Campbell faces backlash for Pretty Little Thing collaboration
Naomi Campbell has been hit with backlash from fans over her newly announced collaboration with fast fashion retailer Pretty Little Thing (PLT). The supermodel, 53, who has modelled for Prada, Yves Saint Laurent and Burberry, is expected to release a clothing line with PLT in the coming months after the brand shared a promotional video to tease the collaboration. In it, a director’s chair is left empty on a photoshoot set, with the words: “Pretty Little Thing designed by Naomi Campbell coming soon.” The retailer has previously been criticised for contributing to the fast fashion cycle – an industry which is based on mass-producing low-cost, low-quality clothes and accessories. The negative environmental impacts of fast fashion are well-known, with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) previously naming the fashion industry the second-biggest consumer of water and “responsible for eight to 10 per cent of global carbon emissions, more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined”. The forthcoming collaboration has been labelled by fans as “disappointing” and “shocking” due to the brand’s fast fashion business model. “Naomi Campbell x PLT is the most disappointing collab to come out in recent times….I have no words,” wrote on Twitter user. “This Naomi Campbell x PLT news has hit me hard,” another added. “Is this just proof that the whole sustainable fashion system is so unattainable that we’ve pretty much given up / decided it’s not our problem to fix?” One fan wrote: “Never thought I’d see the day where PLT and a whole Naomi Campbell collab,” as another added: “A high fashion model for a fast fashion IG influencer online boutique??!! How do you go from Valentino to PLT? I HAVE QUESTIONS THAT NEED ANSWERS.” The Independent has contacted representatives of Campbell and PLT for comment. The company has seen some major changes in its directorial roles recently. Last month, former Love Island winner Molly-Mae-Hague stepped back from her creative director role to focus on her baby daughter Bambi. The brand typically works with influencers and reality TV stars who front their campaigns. After leaving the Love Island villa in 2019, Hague signed with the online fast fashion outlet as creative director as she became the face of the brand. “I am still working with them and doing collections and edits, but I have actually decided to step down as my creative director role,” Hague said in a YouTube video last month. “Over the last few weeks, I have realised that I’m only going to get this time once with my first-born child and I’m only going to get Bambi being four months old once and I feel like I’ve had to rearrange my life a little bit and lose some commitments that I did have.” Hague added that she did not give herself maternity leave because her work is her “phone” but the decision to leave the role at the company was “collectively” decided with the brand. The news comes as Campbell announced she has welcomed her second child, a baby boy, on Thursday (29 June). Campbell shared the surprise on Instagram with a photo of herself and her two-year-old daughter holding hands with the newborn. “It’s never too late to become a mother,” Campbell wrote in the caption. Read More Meghan and Harry in their flop era, says Rolling Stone magazine Jo Lindner death: YouTube bodybuilding star known as Joesthetics ‘dies from aneurysm’, aged 30 Plans for Prince Andrew to move into Harry and Meghan’s former home ‘quietly shelved’ Naomi Campbell welcomes second child at 53: ‘It’s never too late’ The history of royal fashion at Wimbledon Water companies may be taking the pee but I’m the one left bathing in it
1970-01-01 08:00

The history of royal fashion at Wimbledon
Ties between Wimbledon and the royal family go back a long way. To 1907, to be precise, the first year that the Prince and Princess of Wales (who would become King George V and Queen Mary) attended the famous Championships. King George V later became patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, a role now held by the current Princess of Wales. Kate’s outfits are pored over almost as much as the action on court, and looking back at royal appearances at the tournament we can see how fashion has evolved throughout the decades. As the iconic Championships begins on July 3, a fashion expert talks through some key looks and what they tell us about the style of the era… King George V and Queen Mary During the first Wimbledon Championships after a four-year hiatus due to World War I, the 1919 women’s final was attended by King George V – who was known to dislike contemporary fashion – and Queen Mary. “When George arrived at Wimbledon, the hub of fashion inspiration for trendy Brits going into the Twenties and Thirties, he stood out like a sore thumb,” says Rosie Harte, author of The Royal Wardrobe. Queen Mary wore a fringed dress with a loose coat, hat and gloves, and carried an umbrella. “She, like other members of the royal family, felt pressure to fall in line with George’s conservative fashion preference,” Harte continues. “And so appears here dressed in a slightly dated, soft and cluttered outfit at odds with the trim tailoring and sleek silhouettes beginning to emerge in women’s fashion.” Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II became patron of the All England Club in 1952, but only visited the Championships a handful of times. The first was in 1957 when she attended the women’s singles final, wearing a floral midi dress with white accessories. “Unlike the celebrities of their day, the most dutiful of Wimbledon-bound royals have often avoided pandering to the tennis aesthetic when styling themselves for an appearance,” says Harte. “Even as a young Queen at Wimbledon, Elizabeth was always more fond of an outfit that read homely British romance rather than the wardrobe of the modern woman.” The monarch returned to the tournament in 1977, donning a pink coat dress and hat, and in 2010, wearing a similar ensemble in aqua blue. “Each appearance followed the rubric of the Queen’s royal uniform which, as the years went on, became more and more regimented,” Harte says. “Whether she was on the green or sat in a sea of spectators, the eye needed to be drawn to the Queen through the use of vibrant colours that do not typically feature in the Wimbledon setting.” Diana, Princess of Wales Tennis fan Diana attended Wimbledon more than a dozen times during the Eighties and Nineties, during which time her personal style evolved considerably. “Going into the Nineties, the Princess of Wales was under no illusion that her marriage was the fairytale it had initially been framed as,” suggests Harte. “Consequently, the frothy, fairytale elements of her wardrobe, inspired by the traditional looks of more senior royals, began to disappear.” Floral frocks and roomy sailor dresses made way for more structured and tailored looks. Harte says: “Her white pleated skirt in 1991 embodied an elevated tennis skirt, and in 1995, her pale suit jacket with sunglasses folded over the collar set her apart as a sleek modern woman.” The Princess of Wales Another big tennis fan, Kate has been snapped in the audience at Wimbledon as far back as 2007, but her first memorable fashion look came in 2012, a year after she married the Prince of Wales. Kate donned a seemingly tennis-inspired knitted dress from Alexander McQueen (the label that made her wedding dress) with a drop-waist and blue accented cuffs and hem. “She radiated the essence of the iconic pre-war tennis star – an aesthetic largely rejected by the royal family,” says Harte. Taking over from the late Queen as patron in 2016, Kate has continued to reference tennis colours over the years with green and white dresses, and in 2022 opted for vintage-inspired looks. “Last year saw her attending Wimbledon in various outfits that used cut, colour and accessories to reference the fashions of the daring, modern woman who emerged in the 1920s and Thirties,” says Harte. “Her bright yellow Roksanda IlinÄić frock was the most subtle of these, but the vibrant colour was uncompromising, making her an unavoidable figure at the event.”
1970-01-01 08:00

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1970-01-01 08:00