The new buzzword in fashion is ‘excessories’ – accessories that have that little bit extra
• 51 brilliant summer accessories

Accessories is a silly word. Sounds like the kind of fripperies you might find in a dressing up box. Surplus-to-requirements bells and whistles, like fascinators and hair ribbons and floral corsages. But the best accessories are, actually, necessaries.

This is more true than ever in summer. It is not an exaggeration to say that the right accessories are essential for good times in the sunny months. You need shoes that you can walk on grass in without sinking. A basket big enough to sling in a water bottle and your sunscreen. Sunglasses so that you can take your lunch hour outside without squinting.

The stylish garment has been sported by Austin Butler in The Bikeriders, by Little Simz on stage and even by bicycle commuters

They rule the racing track but now motocross jackets are roaring up the style charts too. Featuring patchworked leather with colourful racing insignia, motocross jackets, more commonly known as biker jackets, have become a surprising summer hit, as likely to be spotted on Lime-biking commuters as on track riders.

Last weekend at Glastonbury, Little Simz took to the Pyramid Stage in a black, red and white biker jacket emblazoned with her name. Over the four-day festival, the crowd was divided between team denim jacket and team biker.

Limp salad, bad barbecues, jellyfish stings and chaffing. Summer can be a tricky season - but our experts are on hand to help with your hot-weather headaches

Worr isome wasps
“If you eat near still water you’ll get a lot more insects than if you have a bit of a breeze,” says Ben Quinn, chef and founder of Woodfired Canteen . “But ultimately, if you go to mother nature’s dining room, there will be others at your table. Pack a few sacrifices to the god of the wasps in the form of diluted jam in a mug for them to focus on.” You’re better off firing up the barbecue, he adds: “The smoke annoys insects, so they avoid it.” Simon Stallard, chef and founder of the Hidden Hut cafe in Cornwall, says wait until the last second to open anything sugary: “Cakes, fizzy drinks, ketchup – that’s what they’re attracted to.”

Designer labels rejected in favour of crisp, flattering and functional outfits from British brand

Their predecessors wore Prada and Gucci. But as the Starmers entered 10 Downing Street on Friday, it was clear that there was a fashion policy change under way. The new British prime minister was less Savile Row and more everyman, sticking to his uniform of a crisp white shirt, natty woven tie and dark suit, the jacket worn purposefully undone.

His wife, Victoria, wore a Labour party red midi dress featuring contrasting white stitching, costing £275 from British brand Me+Em. A spokesperson for Me+Em said traffic to that particular dress on its site was up by more than 300%.

Various models promise to tone down decibels or help you focus on a friend. But the experience may not suit you

When something is a must-have accessory for Taylor Swift fans, it’s faster to say everyone’s got some: within a certain age range, that is.

Loop earplugs, designed to protect the ears, came to market in 2016 and the company has tripled its revenue since, reaching €126m (£107m) in 2023. These aren’t any old foam earplugs, but little nifty silicone ones that come between the roar of the crowd and your two-in-a-lifetime eardrums.

Come for the live action, stay for the double-breasted get-up of Poland’s Michal Probierz as football and fashion collide

In the words of Gareth Southgate: “Whenever you put something on, you’re making some sort of a statement,” and it seems the managers currently battling it out at the Euros feel similarly. Because while the high fashion – the catwalk appearances and designer togs – might be reserved for the young-gun players, there has already been a lot to note on the sidelines.

“Football managers are tactical masterminds,” says Daniel-Yaw Miller, sports correspondent at industry publication the Business of Fashion. “There’s not a single element of their preparation that is left to chance — for many of them, that includes their sartorial choices on the touchline. Over the years we’ve seen managers dress in certain ways to communicate their authority and the style of their player management.”

Will I ever look as elegant as Audrey Hepburn? Ask me once I’ve finished licking my nostrils and pinching my jowls

A brilliant author and artist recently opened my eyes to the wonderland of jaw exercise videos. Smiling women in pastel-coloured vest tops chew the air, stretch their lips and tilt their tongues towards their perfectly formed noses. Angry men in blue polo shirts push tennis balls into their chests. People in medical scrubs try to lick their nostrils. Women with perms pinch at their jowls as if they are trying to crimp a pasty. It’s wild out there.

Now, I worked in consumer media and advertising long enough (for more than 30 seconds) to know that pretty much anything that says it can change your face, or life, or relationship, will do nothing of the sort. In my heart, I recognise that my face is my face, a slowly collapsing combination of genetics and expressions that has changed very little since I was about three. Look at my first nursery portrait – in which I am sitting in a pink nylon jumper in front of a marble-effect backdrop – and you can see 39-year-old Nell smiling back at you. Yet the promise of a new, sharp, Hepburn-esque jawline, created from nothing more than a five-minute routine at my desk, is so tantalising – so deeply penetrates a lifelong desire to look like someone else – that I am struggling to resist.

He has worked with Miu Miu and shot Zendaya for Luca Guadagnino. But Alessio Bolzoni also makes artworks – from strangers’ bottom halves to people striking twisted poses while concealing their faces

Halfway through our interview, I tell Alessio Bolzoni that he is unusual: a fashion photographer without an ego. He snorts with laughter. “There’s no way you can do the work and share it with people without a bit of ego,” he says. “But I try to talk to it and work with it.”

Bolzoni’s ego has certainly been stroked recently: he worked on campaigns for brand-of-the-moment Miu Miu and took some very sweaty and sexy on-court shots of Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor to promote Luca Guadagnino’s stylish tennis film Challengers . But alongside this, the Italian-born photographer also produces artwork. An exhibition, There’s a Fine Line Between Love and Hate, You See, opens this month at VO Curations gallery in London.

Blow to London’s fashion scene as British creatives find it makes commercial sense to move shows to Italian city

Milan men’s fashion week is where all the big Italian names converge. It’s where Prada dictates what trouser shape everyone will one day be wearing and where Gucci drops the next it-bag. But as the shows got under way at the weekend an unexpected new trend was emerging: the great fashion Brexit.

Just four months after making his debut as creative director of Dunhill at London fashion week, Simon Holloway instead chose the Italian capital for the brand’s spring/summer ’25 show. On Sunday he aimed to recreate “the sense of a beautiful spring day in England” by showing in a garden in Milan.