Big hair is back — plus more trends to know

Find out what’s heating up (and cooling down) in our weekly barometer of trends from fashion to pop culture.

Big hair, do care

As Brenda Blethyn marches along the marble floors of the smart department store that her character, Emma Harte, founds in Channel 4’s adaptation of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s A Woman of Substance (out on Wednesday), it’s her glass-ceiling-smashing hair that says “I deserve a seat at the table”. In the rags-to-riches tale Emma goes from impoverished maid to being the richest woman in the world, and it’s a story arc told through her power ’do.

But it’s not only Seventies drama where we’re seeing the re-emergence of the perfectly coiffed blow-dry. See Pamela Anderson at the Berlin Film Festival, Ayo Edebiri at the Golden Globes and Penélope Cruz at haute couture fashion week in Paris, all sporting “power hair”, aka a high-commitment head that screams authority.

“This season is all about embracing voluminous, gravity-defying silhouettes,” the renowned hairstylist Sam McKnight says. “Think hair that’s larger than life, full of attitude and effortlessly textured.”

It signals the end of the “I dashed out the house with wet hair” aesthetic, but luckily it’s still achievable without a glam squad. “Power hair doesn’t have to take a long time to style, ensuring your ends look defined. Gloss throughout can be all you need,” McKnight says. Out: minimalism. In: hair that alludes to a stressed-out assistant scheduling regular appointments.

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Pop! goes the wine bar

Does your wine bar have a bottle shop and micro deli? Does the bottle come with a handwritten label? And is it poured into your glass by the winemakers themselves? If you’re a certain type, chances are you’ll be nodding along so vigorously your corduroy baseball cap may have toppled right off your head. These days wine bars are importers, restaurant suppliers and cultural hubs, where the flow of natural plonk is as free as the dress code is laid-back. At Ancestrel Wines in Forest Hill, south London, natural wines are low-intervention (meaning minimal additives and filtration) and come with a world view that everything we consume should be traceable.

As a wine importer it supplies bookshops, bouji supermarkets and every London restaurant worth knowing about (Brat, Rita’s, Smoking Goat). Other new-gen wine bars include Spry in Edinburgh, which invites its winemakers to come in to chat “zero additions”, while Rinse Natural Wine in Leeds champions small producers via its natural wine, charcuterie and deli treats.

“Wine and being a foodie have merged into the same cultural current — ethical producers, low-intervention methods and a focus on the story behind the product itself,” says Louisa Payne, founder of the canned wine subscription service Vinito. “It’s less about intimidating expertise and more about genuine enthusiasm. Pouring something interesting, talking about it in plain English and opening another bottle.” At last, no more nodding along cluelessly to sommeliers only to order another glass of savvy B.

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Say what?

Words of the week, decoded

‘Born again caf-fiend’
Discovering coffee in midlife and evangelising about having energy for the first time since your twenties.

Welcome to the cabbage patch

Heralded as a star ingredient on some of the capital’s hottest menus, cabbage has shed its school-dinner reputation and had a glow-up. And now it’s cropping up on the interiors scene too, with not a single piece of trad cabbageware in sight. Jess Wheeler’s bronze and plaster cabbage leaf wall lights are the current sconce of choice, and if you want to go the whole (cole?) hog, there’s Robert Kime’s block-print cabbage wallpaper. For a less literal take on the trend, try Terra Bella’s Moss Zellige tiles on a kitchen splashback or bathroom floor.

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Leave me on red

It’s the colour of romance, love, danger and now… our next fashion fix. Say hello to the red nylon jacket, making its way to a wardrobe near you (probably soon). Think not so much Thriller video (c’mon now, that was leather), more James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. See Levi’s Simone blouson, H&M’s red trackie top, Zara’s nylon jacket with ties and Massimo Dutti’s high-neck bomber. Perfect for brightening up neutrals, diverting attention from eyebags or for when you’re going incognito on the red carpet.

Additional words: Phoebe McDowell