AnnaGMurphy

Scenes from New York Fashion Week, including gorgeous colours @toryburch @michaelkors @ralphlauren plus a trip to @theglasshouse_newcanaan … swimming pool goals … wing(s) goals … vegetable goals (MURPH courgettes?) … a room with a view @ludlowhotelnyc … a painting that sums up jet lag, Halloween incoming @johnderiancompany … the best ever (vodka and hot honey) pizza @jonnyspizzanyc … pig jumpers @coach … a side order of Serra @gagosian … And not forgetting my ultimate new-season accessory (see last pic 🤣)

A highlight of this year was my visit to @chateauversailles with @vamuseum Read all about it @thetimes this weekend I was there to learn more about the most powerful influencer ever in the run up to ‘Marie Antoinette Style. (It opens at the V&A on Sept 20.) Will Kim Kardashian still be being talked about in over two centuries’ time? I don’t think so. There was much that I expected – an opulence that tipped over into surfeit and some – but much that I didn’t. In fact, I learnt, Marie Antoinette style was a rejection of the grandeur of traditional court style in favour of comparatively humble (albeit expensively rendered) decorative tropes, be that cornflowers and ears of corn on her furniture at Le Petit Trianon or dresses in muslin rather than silk. Sarah Grant, the exhibition curator, credits her with ‘a deliberate shift away from the heavily ornate formality and rigidity of the past.’ What I was most amazed by was the way she lived at Versailles, in cramped and comparatively plain private apartments jigsawed around the vast public spaces. Her rooms didn’t have – metaphor incoming – any kind of view; they gave onto small and bleak interior courtyards. And I hadn’t realised how very public the public spaces were, with anyone able to enter. And so of course many thousands did. Every day. Just like now. One of the most remarkable moments in my visit was when our guide opened the hidden door between the private and the public (scroll through to see the picture; plus video of just how plain her spaces were) and the visuals and audio of the crowds on the other side burst through, as if one had just put one’s head above water. No wonder she needed to escape. There’s another metaphor at Le Petit Trianon, too, her Cabinet of Moveable Mirrors, with its mirrors that slide up to cover the windows. One more room without a view. In fact, she was no more profligate than her husband or predecessors. Sofia Coppola writes that she had ‘no power to do much outside her life, a life that she made her creative outlet, drowning herself in beauty and indulgence’. She was, says Coppola, ‘blamed for the troubles of her times, as other women in history seem to be’

So touched to wake up this morning to a message from the inspiring Juliet Hughes-Hallett about my supermarket fashion shoot @thetimesmagazine … Hughes-Hallett was the founding chair of the brilliant charity @smartworkscharity and understands how important it is from women to have the ability to empower themselves through clothes, even (especially?) if they don’t have much money. It’s easy to say don’t buy anything new if you already have a great wardrobe and/or if you have the time and access to great secondhand clothes. Personally I haven’t found anything that works for me in a secondhand shop in years. It just makes me look scruffy. Vintage (ahem, rather different) only works for me if I buy expensive stuff, which brings me back to where I began. Fine if you can afford it, what if you can’t? Watch this space for an incoming @thetimes @smartworkscharity hook-up that I am incredibly excited about. It’s a charity I love so much I even wrote about it in my last book. Am delighted that Juliet tells me she is going to ‘save my copy of the magazine for the office copy table so people can look and learn’! Speaking to sustainability experts, supermarkets are apparently no better or worse than the rest of the high street. Which, of course, doesn’t mean they are ideal. Barely anyone is, given even certain luxury brands have been paying people a pittance. We need to keep pressuring EVERYONE to get better. Here’s my pick of new-season supermarket schmutter in which to go forth and conquer – or just HAVE FUN. A particular shout out for @fandfclothing @tesco jeans which are just so good season after season. Such great cuts, and they look and feel way more expensive than they are. From left to right: 1. Coat, £69.50 @fandfclothing @tesco (available end of the month); dress, £35 @tuclothing @sainsburys ; boots, £38 @tuclothing @sainsburys ; bag, £20 @georgeatasda 2. Shirt, £22.50; jeans, £22.50, shoes £25; all @fandfclothing @tesco 3. Blouse, £26 @tuclothing @sainsburys jumper, £20, @georgeatasda shoes, £25 @fandfclothing @tesco 4. Blazer, £32, trousers £22.50, waistcoat £22.50, shoes £40, all @tuclothing @sainsburys Which look is your favourite?

Almost 30 years of friendship and sisterhood with @justinepicardie …and we still have so much to say that we barely pause to take breath! Just the best and happiest weekend with Justine and cocktail-guru/host-with-the-most/art-addiction-enabler/bagpipe-wrangler @pdp_astor … Plus not forgetting the fairly new and extremely loveable addition that is Juno. (Face lick, anyone?!) A shout out too for my weekend wardrobe of two my favourite brands - @wiggykit (the dress) and @london.woven (the blouse). Sign up to our free @thetimes @theststyle fashion newsletter (if you haven’t already) to secure an upcoming @london.woven 20% discount. Such a very special label with a heart (and soul) 💚💚💚 And where are we on socks with @birkenstock ? Asking for a friend 🥸

A tale of…. One truly humungous palace @reggiadicaserta One amazing show @maxmara Two knockout muses, Silvana Mangano, seen here rocking shorts and stockings in a north Italian paddy field, as you do, in ‘Bitter Rice’ (1949), and Ruth Orkin’s ‘An American Girl in Italy’, photographed a couple of years later One divided British front row 🤣 - which camp are you in, all-black or all-colour?! 🖤🌈 (Also: long hair vs. short?!) One room with an (amazing) view @hotelsantalucianapoli One aptly named Delizia al Limone 🍋 One handstand practice with added obstacle to avoid if (when) I fall. Not sure if lilac velvet @me_andem platforms are quite what @mcsammyd had in mind 💜 One sea swim One cracking pair of @maxmara shades 😎 One (two?) gorgeous @thefoldlondon @libertylondon co-ords And two (definitely two) equally gorgeous dresses from @wiggykit (the stripes) and @mondocorsini (the pink) 💙🤍❤️🩷

I never forget how lucky I am to have visited so many amazing countries. Travel is one of my great passions, and for three decades now (!) I have been exploring the world and writing about it in British newspapers and magazines. For me it’s one of the biggest Willy Wonka golden tickets of my life. So the fact that Armenia has vaulted into my top, er, something-or-other (don’t make me pin down a number!) is testament to what an incredible country this is. My trip there with @wildfrontiers @timestravel has blown my mind in the best sense. So much I could write about (and WILL be writing about @thetimes ) but here are just a few highlights. The people. (Those giant pink peonies were picked by a little old man from his garden and given to me when he saw me admiring them.) The Miss Havisham houses and gardens, quietly, tragically, beautifully crumbling in depopulated mountain villages. Oh yes, and the mountains themselves. Armenia basically IS mountains. Some of them look like Switzerland, some of them look like Scotland, some of them look like Arizona, some of them look like nowhere else, and my pictures definitely DON’T do them justice. And on top of a fair few of them, looking akin to cake decorations from afar, are some truly epic churches, many of which seem to have grown out of the landscape. There’s even a Roman temple, for good measure. Often, for reasons I don’t understand, we have had these miraculous seeming places almost to ourselves. Baffling. These are sights that are up there with the pyramids. Why this place isn’t mobbed I don’t know, but I am very happy it isn’t. Go to Armenia now if you can. It’s beyond!

Peak church, many of them perched on actual peaks, in Georgia. Incredible interiors, with the kind of natural lighting only the celestial powers can organise, plus some excellent angel action. A favourite pair of angels are shown in the third pic, one with bare feet, the other wearing shoes. Heels, no less! The Angel Wears Prada?! The intended message, according to our guide, is that everyone is welcome in heaven, whatever their status. I can’t help feeling this has an especial pertinence for a fashion journalist like me. My personal takeaway is that you can love (have an addiction to?!) shoes and still be let in. Thanks for that Georgia! And for so much else. What an epic @timestravel @wildfrontiers trip. Next stop Armenia…

Scenes – warning: a whole lot of scenes! – from an Azerbaijani market. Am on the most remarkable tour of the Caucasus with @wildfrontiers for @timestravel I always love a market when I am travelling. But this one – in the historic Silk Road town of Sheki – is up there with some of the best. Where to begin? Perhaps with the fashion? Layering and clash-matching a-go-go, accessorised with lots of gold teeth, and some lovely smiles. And then there are the wares. Four different colours of cherries; a dozen types of walnuts, including unripe green ones that women peel to make jam; black and white mulberries; radishes the size of gobstoppers; home-churned butter (rich people order kilos of the stuff to be sent to them in the capital of Baku); a world of cheese-y, yoghurt-y type stuff, some of which has no clear English translation; honey, honey and more honey; herbs, herbs and more herbs; and a blood-sugar-rush of baklava and halva. Plus pretty much everything you can imagine pickled, and thousands of empty secondhand jars ready and waiting for those who do their own pickling. And remarkable brushes that we then saw being used to sweep the roads. And roses, which are everywhere here at this time of year. Oh yes, and you are never more than a couple of metres from a samovar and/or a tea pot. Turns out Azerbaijanis are obsessed with the stuff. They serve their tea incredibly hot and strong and might drink it flavoured with fresh rose petals (which you will often see them carrying home in a bag). Or they might sip it whilst holding a cube of coloured sugar in their mouth or a teaspoon of what they call jam but what we would call fruit in syrup. Plum, mulberry and strawberry are favourites. A strong recommend for tea and jam from me. And indeed for Azerbaijan in general. Utterly fascinating and beguiling

Belated thanks to @dior for a wonderful few days in Rome and to Maria Grazia Chiuri, its outgoing creative director, for nine years of gorgeous clothes and of advocating both for women and for artisanship. Often the two stories would be combined, like when, researching a show in Mexico, she realised that the traditional embroidery – originally the ultimate sartorial status symbol – was losing its allure for the younger generation, and so set about commissioning women embroiderers to produce work for her show. She did similar closer to home, in Scotland last year, using the handloomed magic of the Harris Tweed weavers for her show there. I can’t pretend that I wasn’t sometimes disappointed, baffled, by Grazia Chiuri talking the feminist talk but always putting exclusively very young, very thin models on her catwalks. When I asked her about this I didn’t find her answer – that it was to do largely with production logistics, and that she alone couldn’t change the system as it stands – enough. She certainly wasn’t any worse than the vast majority of her cohort. I suppose I just hoped for more. Maybe that was unfair. Maybe she too, as a woman who grew up with all that conditioning around size in the 70s and 80s, was just another victim. But my main takeaway, my main sentiment, is gratitude to her for all the joy she brought me and the many other women who loved – and will continue to love – her clothes. And for all the incredible experiences she shared with me, including – in her home town of Rome this time – her beloved @tirellicostumi (where Claudia Cardinale’s dress from ‘The Leopard’ was out on display), the underground wonderland which is Emperor Nero’s old gaff #domusaurea and her own beautiful, newly renovated @teatrocometa , where even the wall lights are beyond chic. Because, no, of course someone like Grazia Chiuri doesn’t rest on her laurels. She goes and buys her own historic theatre. Brava, MGC, Brava!

This is me looking off-brand in black (twice!) at a very on-brand and very fabulous @louisvuitton couple of days. During which everything from the butter to the cocktails –  by way of one attendee’s face! – bore the LV logo. Highlights included an incredible show at the Palais du Papes in Avignon with clothes inspired – said @nicolasghesquiere beforehand – by (wait for it) Excalibur on the one hand, and Janis Joplin on the other. There was also a gorgeous-looking Cate Blanchett in attendance. But not forgetting, too, the @carsten.holler slide @luma_arles (WEEEEEE!); the a lavender biscuit @le_prieure_maussane ; and superior doorknobs. Oh yes, and the perma-blowdry that is the Mistral – a new one on me, and my @johnfriedasalon @potdealer_ hair! Plus the truly moving experience which was watching the film recreation by the artist Philippe Parreno of Paul Fusco’s photos for a book entitled ‘RFK: Funeral Train’. Apparently the coffin wasn’t originally visible to outside onlookers, but when the pallbearers realised how many people were waiting to see it they propped it up on chairs in the observation car. It’s estimated that a million people bore witness to its (his) passing. There’s a bit of the film on the final slide, and this is the music that accompanied the installation. Epic. All of it Merci so very much @louisvuitton A shout out also to the fabulous @reiss #atelier for both the lace dress (old season) and the pearl-adorned trousers (current). It’s the best destination on the high street for evening wear right now. And to @wiggykit for her summer dress genius (my much-admired brown linen sarong dress)

Interviewing the legend that is @normakamali for @thetimesmagazine has definitely been a highlight of 2025 so far. So much to love about the designer’s approach to life, which is the exemplification of positive ageing. She’s 79, and entirely upfront about it — not to mention, rightly, proud. She exercises everyday and looks — as I am sure you don’t need me to tell you – BANGING. ‘I obviously have no problem talking about my age,’ she told me. ‘I just don’t relate to it. I don’t think anybody does.’ Pause. ‘Eighty is somebody else.’ Just one of her cracking quotes: ‘My biological age… I just had all the testing done, and it said I was 53. And, you know, I was disappointed.’ Cue one her many (massive) smiles. She is the ultimate buster of tired old (sic) cliches around age. Just a couple of boxes she has ticked recently? Getting married (‘I have a hard time saying “My husband” – it’s like a possession’) and taking a course in Artificial Intelligence at MIT. As you do. Kamali is banking on living until she is ‘120, maybe 121’. And how does she think that’s going? ‘I think if you put a number in your head and you try to get to it, even if you don’t get to it, you’ll get closer to it than if you didn’t.’ I believe her to be one of the most influential designers of our era. She’s a key figure in, among other things, the streetwear phenomenon that currently rules the waves (she was the first to turn sweatshirts into a fashion statement way back in 1982), and the reinvention of male tailoring for women in that same decade. Like all the best designers she’s an anthropologist. Of those suits, she says, ‘The silhouette I was doing – broad shoulders and thin hips – was my way of reinterpreting masculine power, but with humour. It was feminism put to practical use.’ That she is indubitably well known but also not as famous as, say, Karl Lagerfeld – she even, like him, has the bold-face hair and shades – is largely down to the way she has chosen to live her life. ‘I could have done a lot of things that might have changed my fame and fortune, but I am so driven by freedom and creativity that how could I?’ What an inspiration. Brava, Norma, brava!

A joyous and COLOURFUL couple of days in Florence with @gucci Highlights include the clothes (of course!), the bags (of course!), the scarves (I love to see the early on-paper designs, with their cut-and-paste alterations), the suitcases, and the, er, dragons (RIP Alessandro Michele). Plus, in no particular order, gnocchi served with crisps, ‘Gnocchi’ on t-shirts in the Gucci logo, an Aperol with a view, a cyclist with a hat and a cauldron of tiramisu 🧙