Innholdsfortegnelse for September 15, 2021 i Stylist

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MARRIAGE “Marriage never interested me until I realised I was a lesbian” For Paula Akpan (left), 27, marriage felt like an abstract concept that was doomed to fail – until she began dating women I wasn’t interested in getting married growing up. I’ve watched too many marriages, including that of my parents, crumble and others turn into something incredibly unhealthy for both the couple and the people around them. Whenever I thought of marriage, especially before I realised that I was a lesbian, it was some sort of blurry abstract that was doomed to fail. While I couldn’t put my finger on it, there was something about it that terrified me. Then I met my fiancée, a woman, and things changed. I have never felt that fear with her and…

MARRIAGE “I rearranged my dream wedding five times” Shannen Rahmen, 27, has spent two years postponing the wedding of her dreams. Here, she shares what it’s like to have Covid routinely destroy the biggest day of her life It was New Year’s Eve 2019 when my partner, Simon, proposed. From that moment on, we were full steam ahead with wedding planning – I even booked our dream venue the same week. I’m from a South Asian background and I’ve grown up loving the idea of having my own big Asian wedding. While I was initially worried about how we’d blend both our cultures on the day (Simon is White British), I soon got into the groove. It was going to be really special, I knew it. Little did we know…

beauty The new books celebrating Afro hair From the practical to the political, discover the new titles combing through the topic of textured hair words: Ata-owaji Victor Granted, it was long overdue, but the recent shift towards a more inclusive hair industry has birthed shelves-worth of new Afro-focused product lines and improved accessibility to reams of all-important care and styling intel. And thankfully, the world’s top book publishers have been paying close attention, too, as evidenced in the steady stream of new titles dedicated to exploring every facet of Afro hair. Whether you want tips for giving textured hair a new lease of life or you want to dive head first into the cultural legacy of Afro hair, here are four upcoming books more than worthy of space in your…

marriage The marriage Divide Like so many areas of our lives, marriage is in a moment of unprecedented flux. Stylist explores what the institution means to women today words: hannah Keegan When Catherine Marr, 26, got engaged last September, there was more to consider than getting giddily swept up in wedding plans. “I’d always dreamt of getting married in Italy, but when was I going to be able to fly all my friends and family out there in a pandemic?” she says. “Needless to say, there are no plans for it to happen any time soon.” Dashed hopes have been a repeated motif in the world of matrimony this past year and a half – weddings postponed time and again as couples weigh up ever-changing restrictions versus a wish to…

marriage “I turned down a proposal because I thought I’d never want to get married – I was wrong” Rhiannon Birch, 29, used to feel wracked with anxiety whenever marriage was mentioned. Then, she met a man who changed how she thought about love When my ex proposed to me in my early 20s, the defining emotion I felt was anxiety, not joy. I wasn’t against marriage per se, but it wasn’t something I saw myself doing in a rush. I didn’t see the value in spending so much money on one day, I thought there were wiser ways to use it and I also wanted my freedom. For this reason, I turned him down, which was extremely hard. I still cringe when I think back to that – unsurprisingly,…

marriage “The ordeal of divorce has put me off ever getting married again” When Sarah*, 39, married her boyfriend of nine years, she was sure they’d be together forever – but things started to fall apart When I entered my 30s, there was a shift within my friendship group. Suddenly, everyone started to get married – there were years where I’d go to five weddings in one summer. I had been with my boyfriend for almost a decade, and marriage hadn’t really been on my radar. It just felt so grown up. But I started questioning that. It was like, well, we probably should get married, shouldn’t we – everyone else is? So we did. My mum said, “Oh, thank god!” when I told her he’d proposed. I was doing…

fashion A love letter to the sweatshirt As autumn rolls in, Billie Bhatia explains why the grab-and-go sweatshirt is her forever favourite and shares her edit of the best There is no piece of clothing I love more than a heavy, slightly oversized, grey marl sweatshirt. The bright breezy summer dresses I have just packed away hold a special place in my heart, and on occasion a great rollneck has the ability to make me get a little teary, but right at the top of my sartorial pinnacle sits the sweatshirt. From a young age, I idolised those all-American women such as Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and Cindy Crawford who made a sweatshirt look like the most effortless piece of clothing in their wardrobe. The relaxed easiness of that throw-on piece set…

MARRIAGE “To me, buying a house and having a baby together is commitment enough – why get married?” For Lucy*, 38, culture and tradition aren’t good enough reasons to tie the knot I wasn’t always anti-marriage. In my 20s, I presumed that one day I’d do it, but as time went on it started to feel less and less relevant to my life, despite being in a long-term relationship and watching my friends and family get married around me. On their big days, I would feel genuinely thrilled for them, but also reminded of how it didn’t mean anything to me: walking down the aisle, the merging of names, the rings. Growing up, my parents didn’t have a marriage I aspired to, which I think probably contributes to my point…

MARRIAGE “My friends can’t believe I’ve become a traditional wife” As a teenager, Aishah Siddique rebelled against her family’s expectations that she should become a homemaker. Now, at 25, she’s finding joy in being part of a couple As a Muslim girl growing up with Pakistani heritage and traditional parents, I was trained for my future role of ‘wife’ from a young age. My cousins and I grew up with the message that the man is the breadwinner and the woman is the wife – it was drummed into us that our futures would involve cooking, cleaning and keeping our husbands happy. And until 18, I was fine with that. But getting the opportunity to study nursing at university in Hertfordshire changed everything. Suddenly, away from the family home in…

daisy haggard “I’m very emotional. I love a good cry” Stylist meets Daisy Haggard, the creator and star of black comedy Back To Life words: helen bownass “Where have everyone’s pubes gone? I have a lot of pubes.” Show me a funnier line that’s been uttered on TV this year. I’ll wait... Those bon mots come from the mouth of Miri Matteson (played by Daisy Haggard), the protagonist of Back To Life, currently lighting up BBC iPlayer with its brilliant second series. In the same way that Aisling Bea’s wonderful This Way Up focused on what happens after a breakdown, Back To Life, which launched in 2019, examines what happens when you try to put your life back together after something awful has happened. In series one, Miri has just…

beauty Hair Equality Update: Where next for the natural hair movement? There’s never been more conversation around racial bias. Yet what progress has been made when it comes to hair equality in the UK? Ahead of World Afro Day on 15 September, Amerley Ollennu investigates In 2018, after almost two decades of chemically straightening my tight curls into submission, I finally decided to embrace my Afro-textured hair and turn my back on the ‘white hair privilege’ I gained at the mercy of the salon chair. While I only started using the phrase three years ago, it was clear from a young age just how differently I am treated, as someone of mixed-Black heritage, the closer my hair resembles society’s white beauty ideals. Compound these experiences with the fact that growing…