Features

MILAN — You enter a room and — gasp! — someone across from you is wearing the same outfit.

Relax, it happens. It’s Milan Fashion Week and guests have sported the same outfits in runway shows running from Wednesday to Sunday.

More than 50 catwalk shows on the women’s Fall/Winter 2024-2025 calendar from Diesel and Dolce & Gabbana to Gucci and Versace draw guests from all over the world but many of them end up looking near identical.

At Fendi on the opening day, two influencers from Dubai stood toe-to-toe chatting and wearing the exact same animal print lace-up boots.

Meanwhile, the colour-block print shirt adorned with the Fendi logo that 29-year-old Fatma Husam sported was the one chosen by multiple other women.

Did that bother her?

“It’s completely normal,” Husam said. “Because after all, how many clothes do these brands make anyway?”

Her friend, Deema Alasadi, 35, agreed.

“At a party I would be a bit busted, but at Fashion Week it’s totally normal.”

Japanese musicians Aya and Ami, known collectively as Amiaya, took it to the next level as only twins can with matching cherry red bob hairstyles and identical high black Fendi boots with gold heels.

Later Wednesday at Roberto Cavalli, a blonde woman in a long flowy gown printed with lemons from designer Fausto Puglisi’s 2024 Resort collection smiled coyly for the cameras.

Nearby, another guest pouted and posed in a bodysuit sewn of cheetah fabric — a mainstay of the brand — that left little to the imagination.

But those not the only lemons and animal prints in the room.

Luxury brands personally dress the A-list celebrities who attend their fashion shows in up-to-the-minute looks — such as the all-black-clad Uma Thurman and Sharon Stone at Tom Ford Thursday night — making sure not to duplicate looks in the front rows.

But influencers — who are sometimes sent the most coveted “it” items by the labels — and other guests are left to rummage through their own closets, making duplications from past seasons inevitable.

But the devil is in the details, said Husam at the Fendi show.

“Everyone may be wearing the same pieces, but styling them differently,” she said.

Copycat looks are most obvious when it comes to brands with in-your-face logos, such as Gucci and Versace, but harder to detect with those taking a subtler approach, such as Prada and Armani.

It is common among fashion editors who attend shows, said Godfrey Deeny, global editor-in-chief of FashionNetwork.com.

“If you’re an editor you’re always looking for the new, but you also have a herd instinct that you want everyone to know you know what the new thing is,” he said.

“So you collectively all wear the same clothes.”

Many in the industry take comfort, he said, in knowing that “when you go, you’ll all be wearing the same absurd sneaker”.

Of course when it comes to the brand’s employees, security guards and ushers at fashion shows, it is standard to wear the same thing: black.

PARIS — Saturn’s small moon Mimas seems an unlikely suspect in the hunt for life in Earth’s backyard — it is probably best known for looking like the “Death Star” in the Star Wars films.

But scientists said on Wednesday that underneath the unassuming moon’s icy shell is a vast hidden ocean that has many of the ingredients necessary to host primitive alien life.

Mimas is the latest to join a growing family of icy moons thought to harbour inner oceans in our Solar System which also includes fellow Saturn satellites Enceladus and Titan as well as Jupiter’s Europa and Ganymede.

But the inclusion of Mimas in this list has come as a surprise.

“If there is one place in the universe where we did not expect to find conditions favourable to life, it is Mimas,” said Paris Observatory astronomer Valery Lainey, the lead author of a new study in the journal Nature.

Mimas, which is only 400 kilometres in diameter, was “not at all suitable for the job”, Lainey told a press conference.

Discovered by English astronomer William Herschel in 1789, the moon has the nickname “Death Star” because one particularly huge crater makes it look eerily similar to the space station used by Darth Vader and the villainous Empire in Star Wars.

Its craggy, crater-riddled surface is inert, showing no sign of underlying geologic activity that would suggest a hidden ocean.

‘Something happening inside’

Other water worlds such as Mimas’ big sibling Enceladus have smooth surfaces due to their rumbling internal oceans and many geysers.

These geysers, which shoot out material from the surface, also demonstrate that there is enough heat below to keep the water in a liquid state.

Despite its seemingly desolate exterior, Lainey said the researchers suspected that “something was happening inside” Mimas.

They studied how the moon’s rotation is affected by its interior structure, first publishing research in 2014 which was not strong enough to prove the presence of a hidden ocean.

Most scientists remained convinced by the other main hypothesis: that Mimas has a solid core of rock.

“We could have left it there,” Lainey said, adding that they were “frustrated”.

For the new study, the team carefully analysed the moon’s rotation and orbit in dozens of images taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017.

They detected tiny oscillations — rotations of just a few hundred metres — which could not have occurred if the moon had a solid rock interior.

“The only viable conclusion is that Mimas has a subsurface ocean,” said two US-based scientists not involved in the study.

“The finding calls for a fresh take on what constitutes an ocean moon,” Matija Cuk of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and planetary scientist Alyssa Rose Rhoden wrote in a comment article in Nature.

Mimas’ ice-covered shell is between 20 and 30 kilometres thick, similar to Enceladus, the study estimated.

The researchers believe the ocean formed relatively recently — between 5 to 15 million years ago — which could explain why signs of its existence have yet to rise and smooth the moon’s surface.

The ocean likely exists due to the influence of Saturn’s many other moons, whose tidal effects shook Mimas and created the necessary heat, they said.

Mimas “brings together all the conditions necessary for habitability: water maintained by a heat source that is in contact with rocks so that chemical exchanges develop”, said study co-author Nicolas Rambaux, also of the Paris Observatory.

So could this nearby water world harbour primitive forms of life such as bacteria?

“That question will be addressed by future space missions over the coming decades,” Lainey said.

“One thing is certain: if you are looking for the most recent conditions of habitability to have formed in the Solar System, Mimas is the place to look.”

FLORENCE, Italy — Even the David gets dusty.

Every two months, Michelangelo’s masterpiece completed in 1504 undergoes a careful cleaning at its home in Florence’s Accademia Gallery, where it has resided for over 150 years.

Considered by many awestruck viewers to represent the perfect man, the 5.1 metre sculpture carved from a single block of marble stands alone under the skylight of the domed gallery on Mondays, when the museum is closed.

His personal restorer, Eleonora Pucci, climbs on a scaffolding for an up-close view — part of a monitoring and cleaning ritual necessary for the preservation of the Renaissance icon visited by over 2 million visitors last year.

Despite David’s good looks and Biblical heritage, the slayer of Goliath needs upkeep.

“A statue that doesn’t get dusted regularly, if you get close and look at it from bottom to top, you’ll see a form of lint,” the museum’s director, Cecilie Hollberg, told a group of journalists on Monday.

“It’s not pretty and it’s not worthy of the work of art that we preserve in this museum,” Hollberg said.

David’s bi-monthly cleaning, then, is “a form of respect, a form of dignity that we want to give to every work”.

‘Delicate work’

With a furrow in his brow, a vein bulging on his neck, his weight squarely on his right foot and his sling held in his left hand, David remains focused on Goliath, oblivious to the primping going on around him.

Pucci, a petite woman wearing a white laboratory coat, white hard hat, jeans and sneakers, scrambles to the top of the scaffolding where she begins taking photos to monitor David’s “state of health”, Hollberg said.

After strapping a portable vacuum onto her back, the dusting begins.

With careful sweeping motions, Pucci glides a soft synthetic brush across the David’s bent left arm, steering the particles from his forearm into the nozzle of the vacuum, which never touches the statue.

Next is his left thigh, where her delicate brush traces the muscles carved by Michelangelo into the Carrara marble, before the scaffolding is shifted and Pucci is once again at work on David’s back.

As the scaffold wiggles despite being locked, Pucci strokes David’s shoulders with her brush while leaning in to examine his curly locks — where spiders sometimes leave tiny webs.

“It’s very delicate work, requiring a lot of concentration, and it needs monitoring centimetre by centimetre in order to control the state of preservation of the work — which is in great condition,” Hollberg said.

Dust deposits left behind are capable of compromising the marble’s lustre, rendering it greyer and duller.

Smooth parts are easier to clean than the rougher areas, which are more apt to grab dust.

The filters in the museum’s state-of-the-art air conditioning system have cut back considerably on air particles, however, while sensors help control temperature and humidity levels, Hollberg said.

The cleaning takes at least half a day due to the scaffolding involved and other statues and paintings in the museum get similar treatment, she said.

The first colossus since ancient times and the symbol of Florence, Michelangelo’s David was unveiled at the dawn of the 16th century to a rapt public in the Renaissance city’s main square, the Piazza della Signoria.

Michelangelo was only 29 when he finished his masterpiece.

It stayed in the piazza until 1873 when it was moved to its current location, with the museum literally built around it.

A copy now stands in the Piazza della Signoria.

Other masterpieces of the museum, Michelangelo’s Slaves — which were designed for the tomb of Pope Julius II but never completed — arrived later in 1939.

BENGALURU, India — Ancient lake systems once provided Bengaluru with critical water supplies, but the Indian tech hub’s breakneck expansion left many waterways covered over or used as dumps.

In the rush to modernise, the city once known for its abundance of water largely forgot the centuries-old reservoirs it depended upon to survive, with the number of lakes shrinking by more than three-quarters.

But after experts warned the city of nearly 12 million — today dubbed “India’s Silicon Valley” — would not be able to meet its water needs with existing resources, mechanical engineer Anand Malligavad decided to take action.

“Lakes are lungs of the earth,” said the 43-year-old, known to some as the “lake man” for his campaign to bring scores of them back to life.

“I tell people if you have money, better to spend it on lakes. Decades later, it will serve you.”

Water shortages are a chronic problem in India, which has nearly a fifth of the world’s population but only 4 per cent of its water resources, according to government think tank NITI Aayog.

Malligavad’s first target was a trash-filled and dried-out site he passed on his way to work at an automotive components maker.

“I thought instead of inspiring people... let me start doing it,” Malligavad said. “Let it start with me.”

‘Simple cost’ 

He began by studying the skills used during the centuries-long rule of the mediaeval Chola Dynasty, who turned low-lying areas into shallow reservoirs that provided water for drinking and irrigation.

The lakes stored the heavy monsoon rains and helped to replenish groundwater.

But of the 1,850 that once dotted the city, fewer than 450 remain today.

Many were destroyed to make room for high-rise towers, while canals were filled in with concrete — meaning heavy rainfall now sparks flooding and is not stored for the future.

Nearly half of Bengaluru depends on water sucked from intensive groundwater boreholes that often run dry in the summer heat, according to the city’s Water, Environment, Land and Livelihoods (WELL) Labs research centre.

Many residents already rely on expensive water trucked in from afar, and the problem is likely to get worse as climate change pushes global temperatures higher and alters weather patterns.

“We’re dependent on a precarious groundwater table, and that is going to get even more precarious as you have a more unreliable rainfall,” said WELL Labs chief Veena Srinivasan.

“We already don’t have enough water to drink,” she added, noting that “the water sources that we do have, we are polluting”.

Fixing lakes can ease the problem, though the city still needs a large-scale urban water management plan, she said.

Malligavad, trekking out to visit more than 180 ancient lakes, said he saw the “simple cost” they had taken to construct.

They did not use expensive materials but only “soil, water, botanicals [plants] and canals”, he said.

He persuaded his company to stump up around $120,000 to fund his first project, the restoration of the 14-hectare  Kyalasanahalli Lake.

Using excavators, Malligavad and his workers took around 45 days to clear the site back in 2017.

When the monsoon rains came months later, he went boating in the cool and clean waters.

Natural process 

The restoration process is simple, Malligavad said.

He first drains the remaining lake water and removes the silt and weeds.

Then he strengthens the dams, restores the surrounding canals and creates lagoons, before replanting the site with native trees and aquatic plants.

After that, he says: “Don’t put anything into it. Naturally, rain will come and naturally, an ecosystem will be built.”

His initial success eventually led him to work full-time in cleaning lakes, raising cash from company corporate social responsibility funds.

So far, he has restored more than 80 lakes covering over 360 hectares in total, and expanded into nine other Indian states.

The renewed reservoirs help supply water to hundreds of thousands of people, according to Malligavad.

Bengaluru resident Mohammed Masood, 34, often fills giant drums of water from one such lake.

He said he typically uses a water tanker, but supplies can be uncertain and expensive.

“If the lake was not built, the hardship would not go away,” Masood said. “We would have to go further away for water.”

Malligavad said his work has carried some risk — he has been threatened by land grabbers and real estate moguls, and was beaten by a gang wanting him to stop.

But the sight of people enjoying a restored lake gave him his “biggest happiness”, he told AFP.

“Kids are swimming and enjoying it”, he said, beside a restored lake.

“More than this, what do you want?”

Historically playing second fiddle to Lamborghini’s glamorous V12 supercars, the Italian carmaker’s 1972-88 Urraco, Silhouette and Jalpa V8 sports cars lived in the shadow of the iconic and Miura and Countach.

Underperforming the V12 models’ sales despite being more attainable, the entry-level Lamborghini was retired until the 2003 Gallardo.

Launched as V10-powered junior supercar, the Gallardo proved to be a success and was succeeded and improved upon by the 2014 Huracan.

Now in its twilight, the Huracan conversely stands as the best Lamborghini on offer.

Perfected with the 2019 face-lift, the revised and redesignated Huracan Evo heralded a punchy performance boost, subtle styling refresh, improved tech and infotainment, better aerodynamics, and the transformative advent of four-wheel-steering coupled with better integrated electronic driving dynamic systems.

A purer, more visceral and engaging drive than its overweight and arguably diluted turbocharged Urus SUV and hybrid Revuelto supercar sisters, the Huracan line has most recently added three last hurrah models including track-focused STO and road-going Tecnica rear-wheel-drive versions, and a higher-riding off-road oriented Sterrato four-wheel-drive variant.

High rev thrills

With the standard Evo Coupe already axed, the Evo Spyder may live on borrowed time, but still looks and drives as fresh as ever. 

Gorgeously low-slung with a jutting design, the Evo Spyder evokes a similar sense of urgency and momentum as the Coupe, while top-down mode flying buttress-like fins flowingly integrating its high-set rear deck and muscular haunches.

Incorporating lessons gleaned from the pre-facelift Huracan Performante, the Evo incorporates features fixed underbody airflow management and a slotted, raised and integrated rear spoiler for improved down-force aerodynamic efficiency.

Aesthetically exuding a heightened sense of drama with its triangular cooling ducts and side intakes, the Hurcan Evo’s sublime naturally-aspirated dry sump 5.2-litre V10 engine is meanwhile similarly improved in the form of a 30BHP power hike to match the outgoing Performante variant.

Producing 631BHP at 8,000rpm and 442lb/ft torque at 6,500rpm, the Huracan Evo’s scintillatingly high revving engine is urgently progressive, with a seamless sweep, and nerve-tingling medley of mechanical staccato, resonant metallic snarls, and wailing high-rev howl to redline, complemented by finger-snap throttle lift-off response.

Quick and committed

Rocketing through 0-200km/h in 9.3-seconds and onto a 325km/h maximum, the Evo Spyder is meanwhile just 0.2-second slower through 0-100km/h in 3.1 seconds than its 120kg lighter Coupe sister. Though high-strung, the Evo nevertheless delivers superb low-end response and mid-range muscle, with 70 per cent of its torque available from just 1,000rpm.

 Swift and slick shifting, the Evo’s 7-speed dual-clutch automated gearbox features different settings for escalating response levels, and fixed column-mounted manual mode paddle-shifters. Massive ventilated and perforated discs meanwhile provide tirelessly effective braking including 32.2 metre 100-0km/h stopping power.

A comparative lightweight at 1,542kg, the aluminium-built Evo is equipped with a new generation central processing vehicle dynamic system that monitors, predicts and fluently adjusts adaptive dampers, four-wheel-drive, torque vectoring and traction control settings for different dynamic attitudes, and can even direct traction to one wheel.

Tidy, balanced and firmly poised through switchbacks, the Evo’s slight rear weight and power bias allow for agility, adjustability and commitment as needed.

Huge 305/30R20 rear tires meanwhile grip hard as its four-wheel-drive provides tenacious traction, and alters rear-to-front power distribution, as necessary.

Agility and stability

Viscerally thrilling with its immediate responses and immersive connectedness, the Evo is sure-footed yet nimble, with a limited slip rear differential allocating power side-to-side for stability and agility, and is complemented by brake-based torque vectoring.

Adopting four-wheel-steering, the Evo meanwhile makes significant agility and stability improvements. 

 With front wheels turning opposite to rear at low speed and in the same direction at higher speed, four-wheel-steering effectively shortens or lengthens its wheelbase. Providing sharp turn-in immediacy and near telepathic directional change reflexes, it also enhances lane change stability at speed.

Settled and buttoned down at speed and in vertical movements, the Evo Spyder is comfortable for a convertible supercar.

Well-insulated with fabric roof up, it meanwhile folds down electrically in 17-seconds. With little wind buffeting with top down, the Evo’s driving position is ergonomic and supportive, with good front visibility and intuitive easy reach controls.

Swathed with Alcantara and leather, the Evo is meanwhile well-equipped with an improved infotainment system with an 8.4-inch vertical touchscreen and enhanced connectivity and voice activation, in addition to various safety and convenience systems.

• Engine: 5.2-litre, mid-mounted, dry sump, V10-cylinders
• Bore x stroke: 84.5 x 92.8mm
• Compression ratio: 12.7:1
• Valve-train: 40-valve, DOHC, direct injection
• Gearbox: 7-speed automated dual clutch
• Driveline: Four-wheel-drive, mechanical self-locking rear differential
• Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 631 (640) [470] @8,000rpm
• Specific power: 121.3BHP/litre
• Power-to-weight: 409.2BHP/tonne
• Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 442 (600) @6,500rpm
• Specific torque: 115.3Nm/litre
• Torque-to-weight: 389.1Nm/tonne
• 0-100km/h: 3.1-seconds
• 0-200km/h: 9.3-seconds
• Top speed: 325km/h
• Fuel consumption, combined: 14.2-litres/100km 
• Fuel capacity: 83-litres
• Length: 4,520mm
• Width: 1,933mm
• Height: 1,180mm
• Wheelbase: 2,620mm
• Track, F/R: 1,668 / 1,620mm
• Dry weight: 1,542kg
• Weight distribution, F/R: 43 per cent / 57 per cent
• Luggage volume: 100-litres
• Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion, all-wheel steering
• Turning circle: 10.9-meters
• Suspension: Double wishbones, optional adaptive magnetic dampers
• Brakes, F/R: Ventilated, perforated carbon-ceramic discs 380mm / 356mm
• Brake calipers, F/R: 6-/4-piston calipers
• Braking distance, 100-0km/h: 32.2-metres
• Tyres, F/R: 245/30R20 / 305/30R20

By Nathalie Khalaf,
Holistic Counsellor

Our shadow: that part of us of which we are unaware. The part of us we are alienated from since very early on in childhood, which hides all we do not want to be associated with.

Our shadow may consist of various human needs such as sex, survival, love, aggression, life, death, will, power, security, acceptance and growth.

Disconnecting from the self

Some studies indicate that some people create images and beliefs and disconnect from parts of themselves. They turn into their “shadow” and that’s how neurosis and mental illnesses emerge.

Mirror of the other

In other words, the shadow is that part of us we are disconnected from.

We notice it in others when we dislike them and even when we praise them. What we should understand is that we are all similar, we have the same wants, needs and feelings.

We are all mirrors of each other. So, whatever I like or dislike in another, exists in me otherwise my psyche will not recognise it.

The shadow. That hidden, repressed, for the most part, inferior and guilt-laden personality whose ultimate ramifications reach back into the realm of our animal ancestors.

We are disconnected with parts of our ‘self’ or psyche at the shadow level. We thus end up disowning some good and some bad qualities. Any undesired characteristic we are taught to believe in as “bad, shameful ” or “ unlovable” will be projected onto others in our surroundings.

When we project something onto others, it will seem as if we have no power over our surroundings and we may get caught up in serious emotional distress.

We can project both negative and positive emotions. So instead of hating a certain person, we feel as though that person hates us! Instead of admiring the good qualities in another person, we may feel we are worthless and that the world around us is filled with people who are better than us.

Suppressing emotions

A simple way to detect our shadow is to notice how we feel towards others in our judgement of them or in praising them. For instance, we may think a person is a liar and always gets away with things.

We can look within ourselves and the discomfort we feel at the idea of lying. We may have been brought up to believe it is a bad characteristic. That lying makes us not loveable and will bring on punishment.

So, most of us shelve the ability to lie into our shadow. But we would not be able to recognise it unless we are capable of lying.

We just suppress it and judge it in others. This may lead to us one day lying without realising or admitting it.

A conscious choice 

We may feel so ashamed that we may bury it even deeper within the layers of ourselves.

Here is what we can do instead: realise that we are all capable of lying, see it as a conscious choice and that we may even need to lie when we cannot or do not want to handle the truth.

Some people may lie as a defence mechanism, others may use it as a manipulative way to get what they want; all of this, of course, comes from our upbringing and childhood.

Our choices

Whatever it is, we simply need to become aware that we all have the option of lying, but can make that decision a conscious one: “I know I can lie if I want to, but I choose not to.

I therefore can understand why another may choose to do it and I find it in my heart not to judge them anymore”.

The second example is of praising someone so we may say: “Oh! I wish I were that generous.” We can all agree that generosity is also a human choice, not a trait some people are born with. So, find the generous self within you, connect to it and make a conscious choice to become more and more generous. In a nutshell, we only see and recognise in others what we know exists inside of ourselves.

So, let us face it and bring it into the light. For one good reason, this exercise will lessen the distance between us and others and help us judge less and accept more.

“Confronting the shadow means to stop blaming others”- Edward Edinger

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

LONDON — From tweed to the iconic low-rise jeans of the early 2000s, London Fashion Week unveiled a spectrum of styles on Friday, kicking off its 40th season which has been dimmed by the UK’s gloomy economy.

Some 60 designers, ranging from rising talents to renowned brands like Burberry, will show their new designs over five days, hoping to draw the interest of buyers and fashion influencers.

Irish-American designer Paul Costelloe’s show, titled “Once upon a Time” — a reference to the iconic 1984 film “Once Upon a Time in America” — showcased wide-belted coats in ecru, anthracite and checkered tweed.

Costelloe, 78, who is bedridden with a virus, was absent from the event.

Gen Z favourite 

In another early show, Ukrainian Masha Popova, a “Gen Z” favourite, presented a collection inspired by early 2000s fashion.

Performed against a backdrop of techno music and in front of a crowd of influencers, it featured models in low-waisted pants, washed out denim — and heels topped with long gaiters.

Elsewhere, Turkish designer Bora Aksu delivered a gloomier mood, aimed at finding and celebrating “the purest beauty amidst the most vivid of horrors”.

Slender models wearing bodices paired with wide sleeves, lace gowns, flowing skirts, blouses and masculine jackets paraded to slow-beating music, with cream, grey, black and dark blue the predominant colours.

The designer, who was inspired by the work of sculptor Eva Hesse who fled Nazi-Germany as a child in 1938, used tones of pink and blush to retain a light, feminine energy, while making use of old stock and rejected rolls for his garments.

British designer Edward Crutchley presented the masculine figure of the cowboy, adorned with a hat and wide coats, subverted by the addition of latex pieces, maxi shoulders, delicate medieval-inspired prints, and long wavy hair on both men and women.

Tumultuous time

Despite the audience’s excitement, the showcase comes at a tumultuous time for Britain’s fashion industry, amid post-Brexit trade barriers and the country’s inflation-fuelled cost-of-living crisis.

The situation has prompted some nascent designers to question the viability of investing in British fashion events.

Rising star Dilara Findikoglu made headlines last September after she cancelled her show days before the event for financial reasons.

The industry, which employs close to 900,000 people in the UK and contributes £21 billion ($26 billion) to the British economy, is facing “incredibly challenging times”, LFW’s director Caroline Rush told AFP.

But what can be garnered from 40 years, she said, “is that in the most economically challenging times, you see the most incredible creativity”.

“There’s almost this visceral reaction to what’s happening at home,” Rush added.

“I’m hoping that the creativity that we see over the next few days will be incredibly uplifting, that it will talk about the role of culture and creativity in society.”

The first edition of British Fashion Week was held in 1984 in a tent set up in the parking lot of the former Commonwealth Institute in West London.

Initially overlooked, the British capital earned its rebellious reputation thanks to legends like Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano, who put the city on the fashion map, and then with the “Cool Britannia” era in the 1990s, a cultural euphoria period when Stella McCartney or Matthew Williamson dressed supermodels Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell.

Since then, London has lost some of its allure, with the departure of star designers and houses preferring Paris, such as Alexander McQueen or Victoria Beckham.

However, the BFC’s NEWGEN sponsorship program, which supports young designers, has affirmed London’s position as a talent incubator.

And while it remains less prestigious than Paris or Milan, London Fashion Week is celebrated for being freer, more radical, and less formulaic.

This anniversary edition also aims to highlight greater diversity and inclusivity, in terms of body shapes, ages, or skin colours of the models, as well as in the designers’ collections, with identities or inspirations from the Caribbean, Iran, India, or Ethiopia.

The weekend will feature more familiar names like JW Anderson, Richard Quinn, Ahluwalia, and Simone Rocha, before Burberry’s show scheduled for Monday evening.

PARIS — Polar bears in Canada’s Hudson Bay risk starvation as climate change lengthens periods without Arctic Sea ice, despite the creatures’ willingness to expand their diets.

Polar bears use the ice that stretches across the ocean surface in the Arctic during colder months to help them access their main source of prey — fatty ringed and bearded seals.

In the warmer months when the sea ice recedes, they would be expected to conserve their energy and even enter a hibernation-like state.

But human caused climate change is extending this ice-free period in parts of the Arctic — which is warming between two and four times faster than the rest of the world — and forcing the polar bears to spend more and more time on land.

New research looking at 20 polar bears in Hudson Bay suggests that without sea ice they still try to find food.

“Polar bears are creative, they’re ingenious, you know, they will search the landscape for ways to try to survive and find food resources to compensate their energy demands if they’re motivated,” Anthony Pango, a research wildlife biologist with the US Geological Survey and lead author of the study, told AFP.

The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, used video camera GPS collars to track the polar bears for three-week periods over the course of three years in the western Hudson Bay, where the ice-free period has increased by three weeks from 1979-2015, meaning that in the last decade bears were on land for approximately 130 days.

The researchers found that of the group, two bears indeed rested and reduced their total energy expenditure to levels similar to hibernation, but the 18 others stayed active.

The study said these active bears may have been pushed to continue to look for food, with individual animals documented eating a variety of foods including grasses, berries, a gull, a rodent and a seal carcass.

Three ventured off on long swims — one travelled a total distance of 175 kilometres  — while other bears spent time playing together or gnawing on caribou antlers, which researchers said was like the way dogs might chew bones.

But ultimately the researchers found that the bears’ efforts to find sustenance on land did not provide them with enough calories to match their normal marine mammal prey.

Nineteen out of the 20 polar bears studied lost weight during the period consistent with the amount of weight they would lose during a period of fasting, researchers said.

That means that the longer polar bears spend on land, the higher their risk for starvation.

Cause for alarm 

“These findings really support the existing body of research that’s out there, and this is another piece of evidence that really raises that alarm,” Melanie Lancaster, senior Arctic species specialist for the World Wildlife Fund, who is not associated with the study, told AFP.

The world’s 25,000 polar bears remaining in the wild are endangered primarily by climate change.

Limiting planet-warming greenhouse gases and keeping global warming under the Paris deal target of 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels would likely preserve polar bear populations, Pango said.

But global temperatures — already at 1.2ºC — continue to rise and sea ice dwindles.

John Whiteman, the chief research scientist at Polar Bears International, who was not involved in the study, said the research was valuable because it directly measures the polar bears’ energy expenditure during the ice-free periods.

“As ice goes, the polar bears go, and there is no other solution other than stopping ice loss. That is the only solution,” he told AFP.

PARK CITY, United States — Packed full of nail-biting chases, hi-tech gadgets and an armed standoff, “Thelma” could be the next “Mission: Impossible” movie — except its star, June Squibb, is 94.

In the film, Squibb’s hero takes matters into her own hands after she is swindled into sending $10,000 to a scammer, racing across Los Angeles on a souped-up mobility scooter with a dusty old gun, determined to confront the villain.

Remarkably, the action-comedy, which premiered at the Sundance festival on Thursday, is the first leading film role for the veteran stage actor, who earned an Oscar nomination for “Nebraska” a decade ago.

So how does it feel to become Hollywood’s hottest new action star in her twilight years?

“It feels great! I love it! Me and Tom [Cruise]!” Squibb told AFP.

Indeed, the film is littered with references to Tom Cruise, whose films her character Thelma enjoys watching with her grandson.

It plays with tropes from the “Mission: Impossible” films, such as a top-secret mission briefing delivered through a hearing aid. Cruise himself signed off on the use of footage from his movies.

“I said ‘Is he letting us do this?’ And they said ‘Sure, they like it!’” recalled Squibb.

Squibb also took more personal inspiration from the Hollywood A-lister — including his famous insistence on doing many of his own stunts.

“They told me ‘Slow down June, don’t go so fast!’” she said, of a chase sequence on her mobility scooter which required a collision.

“I thought ‘this is silly,’ and I just rammed right into him and then took off down the hall. And they got that all on camera.”

‘Real danger’ 

The movie’s colourful premise and stars — including the late Richard Roundtree, and Malcolm McDowell — have it already tipped as one of the “buzziest” titles at this year’s Sundance festival, which champions independent filmmaking.

But it has a personal and poignant message for its director Josh Margolin, who named the film after his own grandmother Thelma, now 103.

She was tricked by a scammer into believing he had been in a car crash and needed bail money.

Thankfully, the real Thelma did not part with any money before his family rumbled the scheme, but the incident got Margolin thinking about what would have happened if she had sought justice — “something that I would not put past her!”

“Watching Tom Cruise jump out of a plane is just as scary as watching my grandma jump onto a bed,” he said.

“It’s smaller, but for her at this moment in her life, and where she’s at, that presents real danger, and is nerve-wracking to watch.

“So I wanted to shrink those tropes down to explore her strength, her tenacity, her determination.”

The movie also examines how society often underestimates the elderly, and how as a grandson Margolin may “feel the urge to over-protect” out of love, even when his grandmother “is more capable than I give her credit for”.

While the stubbornly independent fictional Thelma enjoys living alone and is determined to keep doing so, her silver-haired partner-in-crime Ben (played by Roundtree in his final role) has embraced the support of his care home.

It is a debate that Squibb can relate to.

“I’m always pleased when I’m involved in something that makes a statement about age,” she said.

“I’m alone, and I don’t get lonely. I really don’t. I’m sort of, ‘oh boy, I can just sit by myself and do what I want!’” she added.

Squibb also continues to work, with upcoming projects including an “American Horror Stories” series, and a film directed by Scarlett Johansson called “Eleanor, Invisible”.

After decades in which Hollywood was famously reluctant to give roles to even middle-aged actresses, Squibb believes that is finally changing.

“And I thank God for it!” she said, expressing hope that her own film will find a distributor at Sundance and eventually end up in theaters and on streaming.

Could there even be another Oscar nomination in store at last?

“Well, that would be lovely,” she said. “It was fun.”