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Taanya Garg

A London-based fashion and lifestyle journalist with extensive experience of working across publications like the Evening Standard and Financial Times, and luxury brands including Alexander McQueen and Jimmy Choo.

My Articles

UAL •

Iris van Herpen

Growing up in a small town in the Netherlands, Iris van Herpen expressed herself through classical ballet, painting and playing the violin, before discovering the transformative nature of fashion. With Time Magazine naming her 3D printed dresses as one of the 50 best innovations of 2020, she is a fashion innovator and designer who reimagines fashion’s potential with her unique, futuristic designs. She graduated from ArtEZ studying fashion design and worked with Alexander McQueen and Dutch Artist
UAL •

Kim Jones

British fashion designer Kim Jones’ journey into fashion is a storeyed one. He studied graphic design and illustration at Camberwell College of Arts and later, graduated in menswear fashion design at Central Saint Martins in 2002, gaining recognition soon after John Galliano bought more than half of his Central Saint Martins graduate collection.

His interest in fashion developed from living a nomadic life from an early age due to his father’s peripatetic profession as a hydrogeologist. Travelli
Financial Times •

The global guide to great vegan food

For serene dining in the foothills of Mount Mino, head for chef Atsushi Hirata’s Le Restaurant du Haze, a macrobiotic and vegan restaurant in a traditional Japanese house. The experimental menu combines local produce – garden salads come to life with petals and amazake dressing, wholegrain spelt pastas and vegetable curries zing, then there’s the desserts of the day and organic teas – with Hirata’s takes on ancient fermentation techniques. Book ahead: to cut down on waste, reservations are requi
Financial Times •

How To Give It with David Sims, Chantal Joffe and a tribute to Princess Diana

Andrew Marr, Chantal Joffe and Greg Wise auction works to support The National Brain Appeal

The National Brain Appeal’s annual art fundraiser is back, this year centred around the theme of movement – be it travelling to faraway places or moving through everyday life. All proceeds from the envelope-based artworks (£85) will support vital projects at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. Pieces by Andrew Marr, Chantal Joffe and actor Greg Wise are up for grabs. The catch? Each art
Financial Times •

A panettone to feed 100 – and other charitable treats

Works sold via the platform Artists Support donate 100 per cent of proceeds to the artist’s chosen charity. Sales have previously been held in New York, London and Los Angeles, and this fourth chapter focuses on Morocco.

A photograph from Marrakech-born Hicham Benohoud’s ‘The Classroom’ series (€6,000) – part of the Tate Modern’s permanent display – will benefit education charity Foundation Zakoura, while funds from Cameroon-raised Belgian artist Eric Van Hove’s conceptual sculptures (€6,360) w
Financial Times •

Cheers to a good cause

Olaudah Equiano was kidnapped into slavery in the 1700s, eventually buying his freedom by selling puncheons of rum. Centuries later, his legacy has inspired Equiano, the world’s first African-Caribbean rum that donates £2 from every bottle sold (plus five per cent of global company profits) to Anti-Slavery International. £49.95

This farm-to-bottle vodka is made using locally sourced Idaho Russet potatoes and spring water from the Snake River Aquifer. The distillery is powered by wind energy, it
PETRIe Inventory •

Alaïa, what will become of you?

Pieter Mulier takes over the reins of the towering legacy left behind by the ‘King of Cling’, three years after his passing. Since Alaïa’s death, the house has reinterpreted designs from his vast collection of archives, until recently, when Richemont Group announced his successor. Alaïa is known for having carved a niche for himself with his form-fitting silhouettes and penchant for abandoning the traditional fashion calendar; stepping into the shoes of a master couturier will be no easy feat.
Shift London •

NFTs in the digital fashion space

Making sense of NFTs this past week left me with more questions than answers. What is an NFT? Well, it stands for non-fungible token. But what does it really mean? And why did someone pay almost $590,000 for a pixelated cat flying through space with a trail of rainbow behind it? After speaking to a couple of experts on this subject and reading every possible article on the internet on NFTs – I finally get it. I think.

Anything irreplaceable is a non-fungible item. NFTs are exactly that – they a
Shift London •

Buy Now, Pay Later

When 26-year-old fashion-conscious shopper, Mike, used Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services to get clothes that he otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford in a single purchase, he did not foresee what would happen next. After being suspended by Klarna, he immediately signed with other credit providers –Laybuy and Clearpay. In a recent interview, he told BBC Panorama: “I’m still struggling to keep up with repayments. I got a message from them (Laybuy) saying they’re going to pass it onto debt c
Shift London •

Grey skies, clouds, and lightning inspire McQueen

Eerily unsettling sounds start playing – squawking seagulls, whooshing winds, thundering clouds and perhaps if you listen closely – creaking doors, even. The anticipation builds.

As if on cue, the sky turns darker, and models stride in one after another. The attendees fanning their faces with show notes take a pause, while some shift closer to the edge of their seats. And that’s how McQueen sets the mood.

Attended by actors Emilia Clarke and Vanessa Kirby, the brand’s SS22 collection, showed i
Shift London •

Meet the designer upcycling iPhone cables into shoes

Necessity drives innovation. Take the instance of Make Do and Mend, a government-launched campaign in Britain during the Second World War that encouraged repairing, upcycling and reimagining existing clothing. It was this crisis back then that gave fashion a new term – utility clothing – made of simple lines and minimal trimming.

Times have changed. When Covid-19 hit last year, we could still stock our wardrobes with comfy loungewear courtesy of online retail platforms like Pretty Little Thing