Very niche this one, but worth your attention. The 11-minute workout known as the 5BX (Five Basic Exercises) plan was created in the 1950s to keep Canadian pilots in shape, and first published to the wider public in 1961. But it has since developed a following among the time-poor and frequently flying one-percenters, as you can do it indoors and it requires no equipment.
Helen Mirren says she swears by it, Prince Philip was a devotee and Princes Charles and William reportedly do it too. It’s pleasingly old-school — think press-ups, running on the spot and toe touches. Look to the charming how-to videos from 1959 on YouTube, or you can download it at bxplans-uk.com.
The best pop culture Halloween costumes for 2021
The Ted Lasso football kit
Ideally accessorised with aviators, visor and comedy moustache. You’ll have to buy the look off eBay or Etsy in the UK, but for diehard American fans there is an official merch shop with AFC Richmond scarves, shorts, tote bags and wine mugs. Maybe a step too far, that.
The Kim Kardashian Met Gala gown
The look that launched a million memes. Very spooky, very funny and very fashion! £77; yandy.com
The Squid Game jumpsuit
In the days following the Netflix debut of the Korean series, the fashion search engine Lyst reported that searches for red boiler suits went up 62 per cent. Which is actually kind of worrying because, well, did you watch the show? Who would want to wear the uniform of a killer guard except at Halloween? Get yours from Amazon.
Espresso martinis get a makeover
The latest instalment in re-emerging Nineties trends? The espresso martini, back in all its love-it-or-hate-it glory. According to the The New York Times, in the first half of 2021 the rate of mentions of espresso martinis in US food and restaurant reviews on Yelp was up nearly 300 per cent from the same period three years earlier. Happily the new wave is less bottomless-brunch sluice, more grown-up after-work tipple. It starts with decent coffee: Conker and Mr Black specialise in coffee liqueurs (the latter is used in the Savoy’s espresso martinis). And this week the founders of that coffee mecca Grind launch their first book, sharing the recipe for its famous espresso martinis, finessed over ten years: 25ml espresso, 40ml vodka and 20ml sugar syrup. Glug, glug, glug!
Remember Nova magazine?
It may have only run from 1965 to 1975 (with a short-lived revival in 2000), but the cult feminist mag Nova changed the game. Billing itself as “a new kind of magazine for a new kind of woman”, its cover stars included everyone from Marlon Brando to Twiggy shaving her armpit. Jean-Paul Sartre, Harold Pinter, Graham Greene and Susan Sontag wrote for it and there were images by the likes of Don McCullin, Diane Arbus and fashion legends Helmet Newton and Terence Donovan. It has been credited with inventing what we now call “street” fashion too, as the new book Rebel Stylist (ACC Art Books, £35, from November 8), about its fashion editor Caroline Baker, shows. “Nova was a new style experience for ‘liberated’ women, so I began exploring alternative sources for clothing … army surplus, ballet shops, waiters’ and chefs’ clothing, even hospital gowns became material for my fashion pages,” she says. Go down a rabbit hole of its most memorable stories.
The singer to watch: Olivia Dean
It’s pretty much a given that if you sang in a gospel choir as a child (Aretha and Whitney) or went to the Brit school (Adele and Amy Winehouse), you’re destined for musical success. So step forward Olivia Dean, who has both under her belt. The 22-year-old Londoner already has a devoted following among Gen Zers, who queued up to see her at All Points East festival this summer, and now music industry giants are backing her brand of soulful pop. Amazon Music named Dean its breakthrough star of 2021 and last month Apple Music listed her as the UK Up Next Artist. The fashion set has taken note too — Dean was at the recent Chanel and Rejina Pyo (above right) shows. There’s a UK tour in spring, but in the meantime listen to her latest song, The Hardest Part, which has 10 million streams on Spotify, or the hit single Password Change, which was written, says Dean, “after my boyfriend and I clashed at a World Cup game after too many pints”. Our kinda gal.
In praise of... Sting’s cameo in Dune (1984)
Yes, the new Dune with Timothée Chalamet is finally in cinemas. And yes, the special effects might be less dodgy than in David Lynch’s 1984 original, but it cannot compete with one of the greatest film cameos ever: Sting in a codpiece. The singer, then 33, plays the carrot-topped nobleman Feyd-Rautha, heir to the baddie Baron Harkonnen. There is one scene in which he inexplicably emerges from what looks like a galactic Bikram class. In a pair of iron underpants. It will, quite simply, never be beaten.
Fashion’s cult new accessory: a haute armband
File next to toe rings and anklets as the latest in divisive jewellery trends, but it could be time to experiment with the armband as the accessory was unavoidable over fashion month. They came with tassels at Pucci, gladiator-style at Etro, sculptural at Tory Burch and in sheeny fabric at Prada. Our vote? Best worn with hippy beachwear or for party dress zhuzhing.
Additional words: Henrik Lischke
Images: Getty Images, Apple TV, Netflix, Alamy
