Italy's top luxury brands including Prada, Armani and Fendi take to the catwalks during Milan's fashion week from Wednesday to show off hotly-awaited collections to global fashionistas. Gucci is set to kick off the autumn-winter 2012 collections which will see 72 Italian and international brands shimmying down sleek runways in a week of dazzling shows and parties wound up by fashion icon Giorgio Armani. Alberta Ferretti, famed for her cocktail dresses and ultra-feminine creations, also stars on Wednesday, followed on Thursday by Fendi and Prada. Thursday will end with champagne at a par

As British designers unveil their latest creations during London Fashion Week, there's no denying the Duchess Effect - as in the Duchess of Cambridge, Catherine Middleton. Designers say  the newest royal has the power to boost retail sales fivefold  simply by wearing one of their frocks. Top British designer Alice Temperley told the BBC that Middleton is "breathing new life" into royal clothing and "looks fantastic." "She's supporting British fashion by wearing British fashion, which is brilliant," said Temperley, who, along with other big-name designers,

Italy's top luxury brands including Prada, Armani and Fendi take to the catwalks during Milan's fashion week from Wednesday to show off hotly-awaited collections to global fashionistas. Gucci is set to kick off the autumn-winter 2012 collections which will see 72 Italian and international brands shimmying down sleek runways in a week of dazzling shows and parties wound up by fashion icon Giorgio Armani. Alberta Ferretti, famed for her cocktail dresses and ultra-feminine creations, also stars on Wednesday, followed on Thursday by Fendi and Prada. Thursday will end with champagne at a par

Running February 22 - 28, Milan Fashion Week will see some of Italy's biggest designers including Gucci, Alberta Ferretti and Fendi unveiling their Fall/Winter 2012 collections. See the complete catwalk schedule here and for more details visit; http://www.cameramoda.it/en/. February 22 09:30 SIMONETTA RAVIZZA11:30 PAOLA FRANI14:00 GUCCI15:00 GUCCI16:00 JOHN RICHMOND17:00 ALBERTA FERRETTI18:00 N°2119:00 FRANCESCO SCOGNAMIGLIO20:00 SERGIO ZAMBON February 23 09:30 MAX MARA10:30 BLUGIRL11:30 FENDI12:30 FENDI14:00 ERMANNO SCERVINO15:00 ROCCOBAROCCO16:00 KRIZIA17:00 JO NO FUI18:00 DANIEL

LONDON - It must be fashion week: leather jeans, African body paint, androgynous clothes and much more were on display in London Saturday as big names like Vivienne Westwood, Mulberry and Paul Smith made their mark. Day Three of London Fashion Week saw a new strategy for leather pants: instead of the skintight Jim Morrison look, both Mulberry and Top Shop showcased wide-legged, baggy leather pants. Others turned to velvet for a showy, festive look. Much of the attention focused on Westwood, once England's high priestess of punk, now a heritage brand unto herself, a designer whose vast

Carnival is the grandest holiday in Brazil, annually drawing millions to Rio de Janeiro and other cities for four days of celebrations that culminate on 'Fat Tuesday' before the start of the Catholic season of Lent. This year the festival included the the usual array of fantastic costumes, gigantic floats and plenty of dancing Renascer Jacarepagua samba school Source: Guardian

"When I started the new collection, the only thing I knew I wanted was the sound and feel of Sinead O'Connor," says designer Christopher Shannon, from behind a big white desk overlooking his busy studio in Stoke Newington. This isn't a sentence you hear every day in the world of fashion, but Shannon, a Central Saint Martins graduate whose designs offer a modern riff on sportswear, has long had a fascination with the Irish singer. "Sinead would have been a super model if her career had launched now," he tells me as we look over his new collection, which will show at London fashion week on 22

Hurrah for Vivienne Westwood! And how true to argue that women in their 70s have a better sense of individual style. They do – if they bother to use it. Because that's the problem, isn't it? We're all too scared of embarrassment, ridicule or making a mistake when we should be learning by our mistakes and laughing them off. As the fabulous flame-haired one did when she made Her Majesty giggle by turning up to collect her OBE in 1992 demurely dressed but without knickers – not a problem in itself; it was the skirt-raising spin for the photographers that revealed all, in every sense

Zelda Kaplan, the 95-year-old socialite best known for her signature African prints and fierce campaigning for women's rights around the world, died on 15 February following her collapse at a New York fashion week show. She had been sitting in the front row at Joanna Mastroianni's catwalk presentation, and collapsed a few minutes into the show before being pronounced dead at Roosevelt Hospital. While Kaplan's name was well known on the New York social scene and around the African continent, many in Europe may not know much about her. So who was Zelda Kaplan? Despite her age, Kaplan was a re

Twenty-three-year-old Jessica Felstead has a new red woollen coat. Buttoning it in front of the mirror she spins round to show her friends. "I absolutely love it!" she grins. Around her women are admiring handbags, riffling through a clothes rail and fishing out brightly coloured scarves from a pile on the table. I'm in the middle of a clothes swapping party at the offices of sustainable PR agency Futerra, and this morning Jessica's red coat was hanging unworn in the back of my wardrobe. Clothes swapping parties have spread worldwide since they were first given "a glam facelift" and a bra