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Why M&S director Kathryn Turner is the ultimate ‘Gay Halloween’ costume idea

Product development boss at Marks & Spencer inspires niche outfits after unexpected success on social media She is not the most likely viral star. But with 310,000 followers on TikTok and 270,000 on Instagram, Marks & Spencer Food’s director of product development, Kathryn Turner, has suddenly become one of the year’s big hits on social media. Her videos take the viewer with her as she goes in-store to look at new dessert launches, including its banana, caramel and pecan pudding, or taste test its latest products, such as its cherry and chocolate cookies. Turner is part of Marks &

Style

Lime bike jousts? Why youth culture is embracing the medieval era

From chainmail-wearing pop stars to high-fashion catwalks, the spirit of the middle ages is erupting into the zeitgeist Medieval knights used to joust on warhorses with wooden lances, but this week in east London, two men jousted on Lime bikes with PVC pipes. This contemporary spin on a medieval spectacle is just one example of the spirit of the middle ages erupting into the zeitgeist. As part of Frieze art fair, the artist Corbin Shaw staged a show called Feast of Fools. The “‘anti-Frieze” Frieze show took inspiration from a medieval festival where, as Shaw put it to GQ, “the peasant class co

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Nature’s engineering: how Devon beach made its own flood defences

Two-mile long Pebble Ridge looks artificial but was created by waves and storms over centuries Northam Burrows in Devon has an impressive coastal defence: a bank of limestone cobblestones, 2 miles long and standing more than 2 metres above high tide. It looks artificial, but the bank is natural, made by wave action over centuries. Known as the Pebble Ridge, this is an example of a coastal boulder deposit. Longshore drift carries rocks from nearby eroding cliffs eastwards down the coast to Northam Burrows. During big storms, powerful waves carry a mixture of stones, gravel, pebbles and sand up

Style

Camo’s back: noughties pop’s military style is on the march again

A look evoking memories of All Saints and Destiny’s Child has fashion editors, Brad Pitt and the high street all blending in Discussing their style while in All Saints, Nicole and Natalie Appleton said earlier this year that some things don’t change: “Army trousers and combat trousers will always be a staple with us.” If, for a long time after All Saints’ noughties heyday, the sisters would have known this look was not the height of fashion, things have changed in 2026. Judging by those attending shows at London fashion week this month, camo is very much back. Continue reading...

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Why the strengthening El Niño means fewer Atlantic hurricanes

The weather pattern is associated with extreme, stormy weather, but authorities predict a quiet year in one ocean at least ‘Supersizing before our eyes’: UN warns of record El Niño approaching One significant effect of the stronger El Niño is fewer hurricanes in the Atlantic. In the 30 years to 2020, on average the first hurricane arrived by 11 August, the second by 26 August and the third by 7 September. This year the total so far has been zero. At the start of the season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted a quiet year, anticipating between three and six hur

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Weatherwatch: wildfires driven by global heating destroy UK bird habitats

Hot and dry summer created conditions for fires in Scotland and England that tore through vital wildlife areas Major wildfires this summer in the Cairngorms, along the Suffolk coast and in the New Forest have destroyed huge swathes of important bird habitats, affecting the populations of some of our most threatened and specialised species. The first to break out, in mid-July, destroyed much of the RSPB’s Abernethy reserve, home to declining species such as black grouse and capercaillie, as well as scarce songbirds including Scottish crossbill and crested tit. Fortunately it was brought under c

Style

‘I got married in it’: readers on their favourite secondhand fashion finds

To mark Oxfam’s Second Hand September, here are some of your best thrift discoveries and the stories behind them Oxfam’s Second Hand September campaign encourages people to avoid buying new clothes for 30 days and choose preloved pieces instead. From £28 Prada skirts to £5 wedding dresses, we asked people to share their favourite fashion finds and the stories behind them. Continue reading...

Style

Make NHS and military uniforms in UK, fashion firms urge Burnham

More than 1,200 people, including Ben Fogle, sign letter saying domestic contracts will help preserve UK manufacturing London fashion week is only days away, but one industry organisation has turned its attention to clothing that is a little less catwalk-worthy – the uniforms worn by British defence forces and NHS staff. On Wednesday afternoon, the thinktank Fashion Roundtable will hand deliver a letter to Downing Street urging Andy Burnham to commit to manufacturing these uniforms in the UK. Continue reading...

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Mossy catwalks, mycelial designs and Monty Don: the growth of gardener style

Aspirational clobber, hot horticulturists and a TikTok content rise suggest gardening has never been cooler You could argue that photosynthesis, soil bacteria, chlorophyll and germination, by their nature, never go out of style. But somehow, as the news broke this week that Monty Don would step down from Gardeners’ World after 23 years behind the shovel, gardening is having a moment in the sun. On Saturday, New Balance will launch a pair of trainers alongside the jewellery designer Bleue Wickham-Burnham in a campaign fronted by Don himself, photographed shrinking into a bush with a pair of the

Style

Marks and Spencer’s first LFW catwalk gamble pays off with compelling looks at affordable prices

Retailer’s message is ‘fashion with a small f’ as it picks up on trends and brings styles for everyone to debut runway show Joan Collins declared the coats “very chic”, and has her eye on a graceful ivory evening dress with caped shoulders. Kemi Badenoch plans to snap up the classic black tuxedo jacket. If the British public are as enthusiastic as the celebrity front row, Marks & Spencer’s first ever London fashion week catwalk looks like a hit. The show, held at the Design Museum for 310 guests including Ian Wright and Jamie Carragher, was a gamble on both sides. Would snobby fashionistas

Weather

Weatherwatch: UK’s migrant waders feel the effects of a changing Arctic

Warmer winters and springs are drying out wetlands and the birds are missing out on an abundance of insects to eat When we think of spring migrant birds, it is easy to focus on songbirds such as warblers, flycatchers and swallows. Yet during late spring, many are waders – passing through Britain on their way north to breed in the high Arctic from their winter quarters in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the British Trust for Ornithology’s regular migration blog, it has been a good year for waders: including more common species such as ringed and grey plovers, bar-tailed godwit, sanderling and

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Weatherwatch: How UK firm’s low-cost tech can warn of volcanic eruptions

VolcanoTech’s sulphur dioxide detecting sensors are in already in use in a number of countries Weather forecasts now include air quality warnings and cities have networks of air quality sensors driving real-time maps online. Similar air quality sensors can warn of an imminent volcanic eruption. Just as a fizzy drink releases carbon dioxide when the pressure is released, rising magma emits dissolved sulphur dioxide as it rises. So a big increase in this gas warns that a volcanic eruption may be imminent. Continue reading...

Weather

Weatherwatch: How English summer clouds can warn of trouble ahead

Mackerel skies and mare’s tails signal arrival of warm fronts that push moisture to high altitudes and creates distinctive clouds “Mare’s tails and mackerel scales make lofty ships to carry low sails,” runs an old English saying about summer skies. Mackerel skies are cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds in regular but patchy rows, resembling the light and dark-scale pattern on a mackerel. The cirrocumulus version is white and wispy, altocumulus is grey and thicker. One easy rule is that cirrocumulus is narrower than a finger at arm’s length, altocumulus more like three fingers. Continue reading.

Style

Diana’s ‘revenge dress’, worn when Charles revealed infidelity, up for auction

Christina Stambolian dress from 1994 has defined a whole category of fashion and is expected to fetch up to £220,000 The dress that Diana, Princess of Wales wore one September evening in 1994 would have been memorable for its design alone – black, fitted, off-the-shoulder, skintight and short. However, it has another distinction, of defining a whole category of fashion – what has since become known as “revenge dressing”. Worn by Diana the same night Charles would reveal his infidelity on TV, the dress was quickly labelled “the revenge dress” by the media. It has its own Wikipedia page, with th

Style

Ralph Lauren proves the American dream still sells at New York fashion week

Designer mixes burnt-out velvet and shredded denim with a mythology that keeps getting more profitable The opening show of fashion’s month of catwalks was not on the official schedule, but Viola Davis and Cynthia Erivo were snuggled on to celebrity-packed benches in a cathedral-sized marble hall where tapestry-hung walls and a gilded coffered ceiling framed a view over lower Manhattan. Ralph Lauren, 86, took his bow at the end of this women’s wear show casually dressed in a varsity jacket spelling out New York. In an industry obsessed with youth and novelty, Lauren is more relevant than ever i

Style

Is the tie dead? Fashion connoisseurs hope not as House of Lords relaxes rules

Switch to ‘business attire’ is a sign of the times, but formal neckwear still has its place, say some of Savile Row’s finest-dressed The House of Lords has long been derided as a stuffy relic of the past. But now its benches, usually filled with haughtily dressed men, could soon resemble something more akin to “dress-down Friday”. One of the nation’s most storied chambers of power has enacted a rule change: men are no longer required to wear a tie in the House of Lords. Instead, they should opt for “business attire”. Continue reading...

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Weatherwatch: Paving over front gardens is leading to hotter nights

Changing paved areas to grass and planting trees can reduce urban heat island effect by as much as 1C, study shows Add together all the UK’s household gardens and they cover an area three times larger than all the country’s nature reserves combined. But as the demand for car parking increases, many front gardens are being paved over, with research showing that this loss of green is adding to the urban heat island effect, particularly at night. In 2005, about 7.5% of the UK’s front gardens were paved; by 2025 that had risen to 55%, according to Royal Horticultural Society estimates. Those hard

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Weatherwatch: Why Britain’s heatwaves don’t always end with thunderstorms

The science behind summer storms – and why they have yet to break the hot spell gripping the country “The English summer: three fine days and a thunderstorm,” George II is reputed to have said, although the line has also been attributed to Charles II and others. It was not recorded until 1867, by which time it was already in common circulation. A brief hot spell ending in a thunderstorm is a familiar pattern, but it is not what we have experienced in recent weeks. Continue reading...

Weather

Weatherwatch: Will St Bartholomew’s Day bring ‘cold dew’ to parched UK?

According to tradition, saint’s harvest celebration heralds the coming of cooler weather and a prosperous autumn St Bartholomew’s Day was on 24 August, 40 days after St Swithin’s Day. An old saying has it that “St Bartlemy’s mantle wipes dry / All the tears that St Swithin can cry”, at the end of a wet spell. Bartholomew was a disciple, notable for being skinned during his martyrdom. His day heralded the coming of cooler weather: “At St Bartholomew / There comes cold dew.” Continue reading...

Topic: UK news | RocksNews