Italian pop legend takes the lead in Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Fendi collection

Milan show full of diaphanous dresses and visible bras celebrates ‘incredible feminist’ of the 1970s, Raffaella Carrà

Maria Grazia Chiuri has been having more fun with clothes since she decamped from Paris back to her native Rome to work at Fendi. “I have less of a uniform these days. I think it is because being back here makes me feel young again. I’m not sure my daughter appreciates [this attitude]! But I don’t care,” she said at a preview before her Milan fashion week show.

Not that Chiuri doesn’t approach her work as a designer seriously. She described her second ready-to-wear season at Fendi not as a show, or a collection, but as “the second part of the project I am working on for them”.

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Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: in praise of slightly silly clothes

The push to buy lasting, sustainable clothes is a good thing, but every wardrobe need a bit of mischief

I do hope you are wearing your zebra stripe trousers today. Anyone who is anyone is wearing zebra stripes this month, you know. If you haven’t yet got with the programme, I suggest you nip to the shops and snap some up before they are all gone. It would be mortifying to be the last one without a pair. Hurry!

Only teasing. Fashion doesn’t work like that any more. The days when people like me bullied everyone else into wearing banana yellow one season and puffball sleeves the next are over. Looking trendy is over. Timeless chic is the only show in town. Peacocking has been phased out in favour of understatement and personal style.

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Sali Hughes on beauty: if you can’t use retinoids, these proven anti-ageing formulas are the next best thing

Stop ‘pushing through the pain’ or ceaselessly search for the ‘right retinol’ – there are some great alternatives

Anyone with an internet connection will no doubt have heard that retinoids – a group of vitamin A-based compounds – are the most evidenced and effective ingredients in treating the visible signs of skin ageing. Message received loud and clear. But what often goes unheard are the voices of many beauty consumers who have found that they simply cannot use them. All too often, I see experts online telling those complaining of discomfort, unremitting dryness, persistent redness, stinging or angry reactions that they just need to “find the right retinol” or simply “push through” the pain barrier. But I will die on this hill: not everyone can use retinoids, and they can still achieve great results without them.

If I don’t convince you, believe my esteemed consultant, dermatologist Dr Justine Hextall (a woman I respect and trust so completely that I have entrusted her with my children’s skin health), because she agrees. While Hextall, as any good derm would, prescribes retinoids on a daily basis, she also sees patients for whom there is a more appropriate, kinder pathway. “While retinoids are effective, they can be difficult to tolerate and may not be used consistently in those with sensitive skin,” she says. “Consistency is the key in skincare.”

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From 50p gold hot pants to Paul Smith suits: how Kylie Minogue became one of pop’s ultimate chameleons

The star’s rise from Ramsay Street to global superstar is the subject of a new book. It’s a journey that has cleverly harnessed the power of fashion to transform, subvert – and shock

On 20 December 1989, Kylie Minogue first harnessed the power of fashion. Attending the Australian premiere of her film The Delinquents, she wore a custom sequined noughts-and-crosses minidress by Australian designers Morrissey Edmiston and a cropped blond wig. She also arrived with a new accessory: a rock star boyfriend in the shape of Michael Hutchence from INXS.

Before then, there’d been her Neighbours character Charlene’s peak-80s silk taffeta and lace wedding dress, and Kylie the pop star on the cover of her first album, in 1988, wearing a topless hat showing off cascading curls. But that had been fashion forced on her, at a time when she had no say in her image.

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Skirts take star billing as Prada eschews trousers and dresses in Milan

Combination of Miuccia Prada with Belgian designer Raf Simons once again spins gold for fashion house

Miuccia Prada’s style formula is simple: begin with a great skirt. Her personal uniform is a knee-length skirt, A-line or pleated, most often with a plain sweater and kitten heels. The Prada collection that opened Milan fashion week made a compelling case for her favourite outfit, with a skirt the star of every one of the 63 looks – no dresses, no trousers. It won the room over, so expect to see the personality skirt on a high street near you soon.

For the past six years, Miuccia Prada has shared design duties with Belgian designer Raf Simons, 20 years her junior. The arrangement was considered unusual when announced, but the house of Prada has always had a way of spinning gold from quirky ideas, and it has worked. “She had the idea to focus on skirts this time,” Simons explained before this show. “And I said, why not make it an all-skirt show?”

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