After years of torn hems and puddle-soaked baggy trousers, the cropped look is back. But we’re not talking about any old capri pants. The kick flare — arguably the most flattering trouser shape available — has come in from the cold.

Fashion purists are going crazy for the kick-flare specialists High Sport, which does its cropped flares in a series of punchy prints and shades (lemon! gingham! We adore!), but the style is getting kick-back on the high street too, with brands such as Anthropologie and Mint Velvet joining the party. Our favourites are by Victoria Beckham — herself a kick-flare veteran — who has been doing them in tobacco and blue. The fashion way to wear them is with a kitten-heel sandal and a polo shirt. Think Peggy from Mad Men if she’d been able to shop at Miu Miu.

Upholstery, but make it show-stealing

Finding the perfect sofa can be draining, so let this news be a tonic: silhouette or size is barely registering right now. Focus instead on the upholstery. Think statement patterns bursting with florals or woodland scenes that will steal the show. Midcentury LA, one of California’s most desirable showrooms, has collaborated with the lifestyle brand the Elder Statesman on a series of chairs, including one in a peppy cashmere plaid that almost eclipses the fact that it’s covering a Sorina chair by Afra & Tobia Scarpa for Cassina. Closer to home, the Hackney fabric brand Colours of Arley is being called upon to transform banquette seating, garden benches and occasion chairs with its signature stripes. Other stellar examples come from the San Francisco-based Lauren Geremia, whose ditsy jacquard fabric choice (from the Milanese company Dedar) is on the mood boards of stylish renovators everywhere. White bouclé sofas? Begone.

Doh! Homer-core is trending

Great news for fans of swords and skirts: Homer (the author of The Iliad, not the Springfield resident) is top of the cultural agenda again. In a case of life mirroring art, it has taken decades for the Ralph Fiennes version of The Odyssey (The Return, out now) to make it on to the big screen. If you weren’t paying attention in your classics lessons, its events come after those of The Iliad and chronicle Odysseus’s ten-year journey home after the Trojan war. And you know what they say about adaptations of The Odyssey — you wait for one and then two come at once: Christopher Nolan’s star-studded take is due in 2026. Perhaps there’s a sponsorship deal in it for To My Ships, the new beauty brand specialising in deodorants and body washes whose tagline is “inspired by The Iliad and clean armpits”. Feel it’s all getting a bit too manosphere? Be sure to read the historian Emily Hauser’s latest, Mythica (Doubleday £25), then, which reveals the lives of Homer’s women.

Your hand-luggage-only wardrobe has arrived

Spring holiday booked? Or perhaps you’re eyeing up a last-minute city break. Luckily there’s a fashion trend incoming that works for those tricky hand-luggage-only situations: we’re calling it carry-on dressing. Yes, it was a case of the more layers the better at the Isabel Marant autumn/winter 2025 show, where sparkling vest tops were layered over men’s shirting and teamed with micro-shorts and fishnets. Elsewhere, Miu Miu embraced overhead locker-friendly dressing with stacked vests and multilayered cardigans. The DIY version? Just channel Y2K layering meets Joey wearing all of Chandler’s clothes in Friends. Packing light never looked so good.

One more thing …

It’s been eight years since those masters of fragrance Chanel released a new female scent into the world. And Chanel Chance Eau Splendide eau de parfum, a reimagining of the much-loved original, was worth the wait. As the violet hue intimates, it’s springy, light and luminous, delicately juggling raspberry, rose geranium, cedar and musk. Eau my!

Additional words: Phoebe McDowell, Karen Dacre, Hannah Connolly and Rebecca Cope