When we think about London Fashion Week, we think of experimentation, bold colour, print clashes, and designers who aren’t afraid to challenge British restraint. Yet long before today’s runways embraced maximalism, one woman quietly rewrote Britain’s relationship with colour: Althea McNish. In the grey austerity of postwar Britain, colour was more than an aesthetic choice; it was a radical act. And few wielded colour as powerfully as Althea McNish, the Trinidad-born designer

I first came across Andrea Thompson in 2020, not in person but online, in the middle of the Black Lives Matter movement. She reached out to ask if she could use a photo I took during a protest for a Marie Claire article. I replied too late, so it didn’t end up featuring, but we stayed connected on social media from then on. Since then, I’ve followed her work closely. From the stories she’s led at Marie Claire to her work as Chair of the British Society of Magazine Editors (BS

Dr. Gladys West was a pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology. Known as a “hidden figure”, she played a pivotal role in mapping satellite paths which helped create accurate models of the Earth; that technology is still embedded in today’s world including global commerce, aviation, and everyday navigation. Early Beginnings West was born in 1930 in Virginia, USA, and spent most of her childhood working on her family’s farm. As the dau