It could set the industry back 50 years: fashion braces for impact of Trump tariffs

From farmers to designers, the entire supply chain will be hit – but it is unclear what duties apply to a finished product

First it was steel producers. Then automobiles. Now the fashion industry has been left reeling from Donald Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that he was imposing tariffs on more than 180 countries including severe levies aimed at some of fashion’s biggest manufacturing regions.

Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs included a 10% duty on all imports to the US but “worst offender” countries – those with whom America has bigger trade deficits – face a higher rate. Several of these are key to fashion’s supply chains. China, where everyone from Prada to Zara outsource production, faces a 54% duty. Vietnam, where more than half of Nike’s footwear was produced last year, will be subject to a 46% tariff. Pakistan, a key manufacturer of denim items, will be hit with a 29% duty. Bangladesh, where garment manufacturing makes up to 80% of its total exports, will be subjected to 37% levy, while the EU, which accounts for at least 70% of the global luxury goods market, will be hit by a 20% tariff.

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RIP hoop earrings – fun, quirky, colourful styles are the way to go now | Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion

Minimalist modern is giving way to a more individualistic, vintage-inspired look. Time to layer bead-style necklaces and add some colour

Jermaine Stewart was right, you know. We don’t have to take our clothes off to have a good time. I’m talking about fashion, naturally. If you want to tap into the most fun update happening in style right now, you can do so without changing a single item of clothing. Because the party is happening in your jewellery box, not your wardrobe.

Fun jewellery is back, and I am thrilled. I love a hoop earring as much as anyone, but I think it is time to admit to ourselves that the hoop has got a little tired at this point. For several months last year, the biggest thing that was happening in earrings was that the precise shape of the hoop had changed a tiny bit. Instead of being shaped like car tyres, they had a melted quality, heavier at the bottom. Before that, they had shrunk slightly, into huggie hoops that tightly clasped the lobes. They had switched from gold to silver, and sometimes to a combination of gold and silver. To put this another way: I think we can agree that we have explored all possible avenues of what a hoop earring could look like at this juncture.

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What to wear for an April wedding

The invite has arrived and (fingers crossed) the weather is playing ball. Lean into spring with light layers and mood-boosting accessories

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Jess Cartner-Morley’s April style essentials: from sexy spring sweaters to the loafers that won the high street

It’s time for a reset! Our fashion guru reveals how you can shake up your wardrobe for the new season

• The best Chanel-style jackets to rival the real thing

In the winter months, I crave the comfort of repetition. I want to make a vat of soup to keep in the fridge and have a bowl for lunch every day. I long to discover a TV drama that I have somehow missed and have seasons to catch up on so that I can watch an episode every night. Hibernation, essentially.

Then, after months of that, the clocks go forward and – like clockwork – I get an itch for novelty. Yesterday I went to refresh the water in a vase of flowers on the mantelpiece; 15 minutes later all the stems were piled up around me on the floor and I was curating a whole new arrangement. Change is good! In the mood to shake something up? Out with the old. In with the newness! Read on for some hot-off-the-press thoughts.

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Want a limited edition artwork tattooed on your skin? Berlin is the place to go

The city’s tattoo studios are booming while the art world flounders. Under a new initiative, buyers receive exclusive rights to an artist’s new design, and the artist receives 50% of the profit

It may be the oldest art form in the world, practised 5,000 years ago by Ötzi the iceman and his fellow copper age Europeans. But with its more recent associations with red-light entertainment and gangland crime, modern tattooing has long been shunned by the galleries that turn lines on canvas into financial assets.

A new initiative in Berlin concedes that the tables have turned. With tattoo studios in the German capital booming but many artists struggling to make a living, the Works on Skin project specialises in selling works by established and emerging contemporary artists that are not to be hung on a wall but to be etched on the human body.

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