Did you see the solar eclipse last week? I didn't do anything fancy with a colander; I just sat in the garden observing it get a little darker and a little cooler. I have vague memory of the day of the eclipse in 1999, when I was alarmed when a wasp was buzzing round my baby son. When my husband suggested I write an eclipse special, I decided to look back to 1999. The first part recalls three trends from 1999 that are still worth wearing. The second looks at sustainability an

I had the pleasure of speaking to Katherine Capaldi, the founder of Shop My Palette. In the interview, Katherine shares her style journey, her passion for sustainable fashion and how she made a reality of her vision for a sustainable, colour-based online shopping platform. Please tell us a little bit about yourself I had my colours analysed in late 2024 , at a time in my life when I spent years focusing on my kids, and just being a mum. Work had taken a back seat and I wasn't

an interview with Zoe Groves I had the great privilege of interviewing Zoe from Take One TV. Here, Zoe reflects on finding her style as a trans woman. A human rights advocate, Zoe talks about the importance of taking our happiness in our own hands and shares pertinent messages whatever our gender. Skip to the end to watch a clip from the interview. Zoe, please tell us a little bit about yourself. Hi. Thank you for having me on. It's a real pleasure to be here. My name is Zoe.

This blog post is a combination of two articles written for my transformEd style magazine, one for Earth Day 2026 and one I wrote for Earth Day 2025. A Powerful Message (written for Earth Day 2025) Earth Day 2025 - 'our planet, our power' - has a focus on the global drive towards clean, renewable energy. But how does this relate to the fashion industry and is anything in the power of the consumer? Non-Renewable Power The use of fossil fuels for intensive clothing manufacturin

Or are they pulling the wool over our eyes? It's the time of year when we see lambs in the fields when we're out on our school-holiday jaunts, and lambs feature in Easter imagery with Jesus called the Lamb of God in the Bible. Polish families make sugar lambs, and many of us will eat roast lamb on Easter Sunday. In the UK, especially in Yorkshire where many of you will be, we're unlikely to have a heatwave, so wearing our woollies is still a viable option over the Easter holi

The sun is shining, the lambs are gambolling and the daffodils are blooming. The clocks are about to spring forward, and the Easter holidays are imminent. Now could be the perfect time for a spring clean and a wardrobe reset. The spring equinox was on Friday, and there are longstanding links between this annual phenomenon and sustainability. In the northern hemisphere, the spring equinox is the beginning of astronomical spring. It occurs when the northern hemisphere begins ti

Recently, I got to meet one of my favourite contemporary crime writers, Elly Griffiths. Before she said anything else to me, she admired the colour of my coat! Prior to entering the Merchant Adventurers' Hall in York for the talk, my friend had recognised me from a distance because of my apple-green coat. But can colour do anything for us other than prompting compliments from writers, and making us stand out on a dark, wet evening? You may have heard of dopamine dressing. Dop

'Green' Sleeves: sustainable style and wellbeing Ask me which industry I work in and if I'll tell you that I work in the wellbeing sector. With the core pillars of empathy, diversity and sustainability at the heart of my personal styling business, it's clear to me that transformEd styling by Charlotte is part of the wider wellbeing sector. I'm aware, however, that this alignment might not be obvious to everyone. My first article this week therefore takes a look at the link be

The sad reality is the need for it: an interview with Anna Bergfors for International Women's Day I had the great privilege of interviewing creative director at StudioBergfors, Anna Bergfors, for International Women's Day. Here, Anna reflects on her personal style evolution, the significance in the current climate of International Women's Day, the need for greater inclusivity in the fashion industry and the challenges the queer community are facing. Read the interview here or

An Interview with Ollie Smith for LGBT+ History Month 2026 Hello, Ollie! Welcome to the interview. Please tell us a little about yourself. Cool. My name’s Ollie, and I happen to be Charlotte’s future son-in-law, being engaged to her oldest son, Josh. We are due to marry in July 2027. I live in London with Josh; we’ve been here for coming up to five years. I’ve previously worked in the trans healthcare space and a little bit in HR. Right now, I’m in a customer service role whi

Are you feeling blue? Moody Blues And seemingly out of the blue, we find ourselves in the third week of the new year, with yesterday being 'Blue Monday'. The third Monday of the year has since 2004 been dubbed Blue Monday, allegedly the most depressing day of the year. The concept originated as a marketing ploy by Sky Travel to encourage more holiday bookings – exploiting post-new-year depression at (in the UK) a dark and cold time of year. In this blog post, I'll focus on t

All that glitters... All that glitters isn't gold... in fact with sequins, the colour may be golden but they're basically plastic. Small discs of PET or PVC, they are far removed from their high-status, luxury origins. The word sequin itself came from the Arabic word sikka meaning coin and there are also links to the Venetian zecchino. In both cases, these were precious coins sewn into fabric. Stocking fillers to landfillers Bearing in mind that sequins these days are petr

No-Sweat Solutions: Your Christmas Sweater FAQ Answered! Q When can I wear a Christmas jumper? A Like putting up the Christmas tree, when is early too early? It would be a waste of a garment if we only ever wore them on Christmas Jumper Day, so any time from 1st December or even Advent Sunday seems legitimate to me. If you're taking part in an event (perhaps a Christmas fair) before December it could easily be deemed seasonal (and draughty-church-hall-appropriate!). And if yo

An interview for Transgender Awareness Week 2025 I recently had the pleasure of interviewing fashion designer Jen Hartmann. Here, Jen talks about his fashion label, Baal, his quirky upcycling designs and his long-term project to create clothing sizes with transgender women in mind. Tell us a little about yourself, Jen, and about what you're working on at the moment My name's Jennifer Hartmann. I'm from Germany, but haven't lived in Germany in almost 10 years now. I lived in

The Fashion Industry and the Purple Pound Today is Purple Tuesday which is recognised globally as an opportunity to raise awareness about the customer experience for people with disabilities. Celebrated annually on the first Tuesday of November, Purple Tuesday highlights the need for greater inclusion and accessibility. In Hull where I live, the Minster and other buildings will have been illuminated in purple from around 4 pm. Below, I take a look at the fashion industry thro

Does my tum look big in this?! All change Many things can change our body shape such as puberty, pregnancy, childbirth, illness and medication, and of course the change: menopause. Perimenopause and menopause can affect our body shape leading to us carrying more bulk around our midsection. This in turn can mean styles we felt confident in previously don't seem to work for us. You 're a natural As women, our natural shape typically is to have some curve in our abdomen (think

In 2017, Vogue UK appointed its first Black editor-in-chief, Ghanaian-born Edward Ennifulm, responsible for modernising and bringing greater diversity to the publication. Under his leadership, Vogue portrayed a transgender woman on its cover for the first time and has featured disabled models. Enniful's replacement, Chioma Nnadi, was born in London to a Swiss-German mother and Nigerian father and uses the title Head of Editorial Content for her role leading Vogue UK. I've pic

October is ADHD Awareness Month. A study last year in The Independent found that as many as 2 million people in the UK alone could have undiagnosed ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), with the study suggesting that 80% of those with ADHD are undiagnosed. Do you ever find buying clothes or choosing daily outfits a chore? It's ADHD Awareness Month but you don't have to be an ADHDer to take something from this blog post on 'de-stress' dressing. Impulsivity For th

Breast Cancer Awareness Month I’ve been moved by the women who shared their breast cancer stories for this article. I’m no expert, have no lived experience of breast cancer, so this is a tribute to those women and all the others who are going through treatment, have survived or lost their lives to breast cancer. Breast cancer bulldozes its way through someone’s body and can consequently batter their sense of identity, blow apart their perceptions of body image and destroy the

An interview with Kerry Harrison It's 1st September and the beginning of Oxfam's annual Second-Hand September campaign. To celebrate and to raise awareness of the joys and benefits of shopping prevloved, I interviewed Kerry Harrison who stood as the Green Party candidate in the recent mayoral elections in Hull. Here, she chats to me about sustainable approaches to the way we dress, about pressures from society to conform, about gender equality and about her own evolving style