Marie Claire Australia August 2014

“Picking pieces for my ultimate wish list this month was heaven. I can see myself wearing these exquisite Noor Fares earrings for years to come, so cost per wear, I think they’re my investment pick of the season.” Catlyn Mason fashion office manager “The gap between the Nigerian schoolgirls’ kidnap and the world’s outrage must have been torture for the victims’ families. We’ve seen Twitter at its worst, but #bringbackourgirls showed how powerful and positive social media can be.” Di Webster editor-at-large COVER Photographed by Nathaniel Goldberg/Trunkarchive.com/Snapper Media. Re-create Keira’s look with make-up by Chanel. On face: Perfection Lumière Velvet in 30 Beige; Joues Contraste Powder Blush in Innocence. On eyes: Ombre Essentielle Soft Touch Eyeshadow in Pulsion and Exaltation; Stylo Yeux Waterproof Long-Lasting Eyeliner in Iris; Le Volume de…

On april 14, 276 innocent girls – all aged between 15 and 18 – were taken from their beds in their boarding school in north-eastern nigeria. Armed terrorists attacked their school, rounded up the girls (most of whom had chosen to stay on during the holidays to prepare for their final-year exams) from their dorm rooms and drove them into the deep forest. The kidnappers, Boko Haram – also known as nigeria’s Taliban – are known for their stance: anti-Western, anti-education, anti-women. Despite desperate pleas from the girls’ parents, the nigerian government failed to react. As we know, it took at least 10 days for the rest of the world to even hear of their plight when the hashtag #bringbackourgirls started to light up the Twittersphere. Led mainly by high-profile…

Ask legendary US designer Michael Kors about his influences and one name inevitably comes up: Jackie Kennedy. In his opinion, it was Kennedy who inspired the rich in the 1960s to ditch their travelling trunks and learn to pack light but still look good. It was Kennedy who encouraged women to think about practicality and glamour, and she who epitomised the new “jet set” – an aesthetic that Kors still keeps fresh more than 30 years after launching his eponymous label. It’s an ethos that has won him legions of fans and transcends age, gender and wallet size. Blake Lively and Michael Douglas were just two of the glittering stars seated front row at Kors’s autumn/winter 2014 showing – an unlikely pairing that only helps emphasise the designer’s broad appeal.…

As work trips go it was a pretty glamorous one. When 24-year-old French photographer Brigitte Lacombe was sent by a fashion magazine to shoot actors at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival, she could hardly believe her luck. She was convinced she’d only been given the assignment because her family had a house near Cannes and the accommodation would be free. But she knew she had to grasp every opportunity that came her way, if she could only hold her nerve. A portrait session with Dustin Hoffman – then 37 and at the peak of his fame – by the pool of the Hôtel Majestic Barrière went smoothly. In fact, Hoffman was so impressed that he invited Lacombe to take pictures on the set of his next film, All The President’s…

Standing under a fiery sun, sweat blending with the tears dripping down their heartbroken faces, a crowd masses around a government official in Chibok, a small town in northeastern Nigeria. It was here on April 14, among houses made of sheet metal and red dirt, that uniformed members of a hardline Islamist militia called Boko Haram burst into a boarding school just before midnight and kidnapped 276 schoolgirls (57 of the girls escaped, leaving 219 still missing). The victims were final-year students who had stayed on during the holidays to swot for their exams. “My daughter, Saratou, managed to phone us during the attack. She told us that the other girls were in a vehicle moving towards the forest. She was terrified and asked us to pray for her,” tells…

It’s day five and I have scurvy. I’m quite sure of it. There are three small ulcers on my tongue and I’m sure they’re the result of not having eaten a skerrick of fresh fruit for a week. It’s all Nan’s fault. All week, I’ve been following Nan’s diet – or at least the diet she ate at my age. Before I started, I’d worried about what I’d let myself in for. Would I have to eat offal and, if so, did osso buco count? When Nan emails me her diet, my anxiety quickly turns to amazement. Eggs and bacon for breakfast most days? Pudding and cream after nearly ever dinner? How did she do it? How is she still in possession of her original heart? Our diets couldn’t be…