What links Prada to fabulous chips via Frank Ocean’s lab-grown diamonds?

Spring/summer 2023

Bringing his own label to London fashion week is Raf Simons … Photograph: Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images

’Tis the season – fashion season. New York fashion week is under way, with London’s kicking off on Friday. That’s followed by Milan, then Paris, making up the big four of fashion. (Copenhagen fashion week in August leads the way in the Europa League slots.) On Friday, Prada’s co-creative director Raf Simons brings his own label to the London catwalk for the first time.

Diamonds are for …

… who’s been sung about by Frank Ocean, whose luxury line Homer includes diamonds, as does Uncut Gems starring Eric Bogosian … Photograph: Getty Images

In 2017 hip-hop collective ASAP Mob released Raf, its homage to the Belgian designer – including a vocal from Frank Ocean, who has launched a luxury brand, Homer: possibly you read about its $25,000 diamond-studded cock ring. For environmental reasons the diamonds Homer uses are “lab-grown” – but less ethical diamonds were the driving force behind the Safdie brothers’ supercharged Uncut Gems, with Adam Sandler and Eric Bogosian going head to head.

Talking head

… who crossed paths in Deconstructing Harry with Bob Balaban … Photograph: Getty Images

Bogosian is among the dying breed of 80s new-wave polymaths: a theatre-maker, playwright, novelist, occasional historian and actor, from Succession back to Oliver Stone’s relentless Talk Radio in 1988, based on Bogosian’s play. In 1997 he featured in Woody Allen’s caustic Deconstructing Harry, where he crossed paths with, among others, Bob Balaban.

Bob Balaban!

… who was also in Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman … Photograph: Getty Images

You’ve seen Bob Balaban (part of his charm is saying the name) in almost everything, but let’s jump to 2001 and Robert Altman’s last great film, Gosford Park, where Balaban played a film director in the English country-house whodunnit. Back in 1994, Altman attempted to do for fashion what he did with Hollywood in The Player (one of his many masterpieces) …

Photo-finish

… whose Prêt-à-Porter revisited the pomp of the early 90s, as does new indie film All is Vanity. Photograph: -

Altman’s star-filled Paris fashion week satire, Prêt-à-Porter, is a mess, frankly, but worth a look to revisit the pomp of the early-90s supermodel era. Stephen Rea plays a rakish photographer – it’s a type also used in Blow-Up with a David Bailey-like photographer in the swinging 60s. A new indie film revisits the trope: due next month, All Is Vanity skewers fashion and film as an eccentric photographer, his team and a model gather at a London warehouse. What could go wrong?

Pairing notes

Read The invitation-only newsletter Opulent Tips from Rachel Tashjian is the gold standard for insider style knowledge. Less exclusive but worth a look are Amy Odell’s dispatch Back Row and Laura Reilly’s Magasin newsletter.

Eat Last season, Café Cecilia in east London was fashion’s canteen. Now Toklas just off the Strand is where to be seen. The chips are “fabulous”.