Fati Abubakar is used to the odd looks she gets as a young, single woman with a big camera roaming the streets of northeastern Nigeria on her own. But those looks — coupled with curious, sometimes suspicious questions: What are you going to do with those pictures? What's your agenda? — have not stopped her from snapping thousands of portraits of daily life there.

"Because of how our culture is very conservative, they are not used to seeing a woman with a camera walking around, so they kind of disapprove," Abubakar told Refinery29. "Occasionally, people say, 'You should get married,' or, 'You should focus on getting a real job, this isn’t a profession.'"

But the 30-year-old Nigerian woman is on a mission to change the way the world sees her homeland. Borno state, where Abubakar was born and raised, has been plagued by violence and instability as government forces fight against Boko Haram, an armed group that has aligned itself with ISIS. The group made headlines in 2014 for kidnapping hundreds of schoolgirls from the town of Chibok. In all, violence has affected 5 million Nigerians and forced 2.2 million people to flee to other parts of the country, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

"You take it day by day; today it might be peaceful and tomorrow it might be chaos. It’s very uncertain. It can get depressing," Abubakar said of living there. "The fact is that you live life on the edge and you’re never calm, even for a few days. It’s very traumatising."

But amid that violence, there is still hope and resilience. It's those powerful moments of positivity that Abubakar trains her camera on. She captures them all and shares them with the world through her Instagram account, Bits of Borno. She said she also uses the page to collect donations of food and clothing for some of the subjects of her photos.

Ahead, Abubakar shares some of her favourite photos, and why she will never stop doing this work, with Refinery29.

Editor's note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity. All captions were provided by Abubakar.

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It's hard to imagine the morning routine of Gwyneth or Gisele without a green juice in there somewhere. And many of us have taken their cue and added the concoctions to our own lives. However, although these juices are often touted as life-saving elixirs (and they can have some benefits), they are not the sort of magical potions that they've been made out to be.

"One of the major benefits of drinking green juice is that people who don't like many green vegetables (or veggies in general) can actually get some of their vitamins and minerals through juicing," explains Kim Larson, RDN and spokesperson for The Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, in an email to R29. "[But] let’s face it, juicing is trendy and celebrities have made it so. Unfortunately, the health benefits don’t live up to all the hype."

For one thing, juices do pack a lot of fruits and veggies into one container — but that's at the expense of fibre. Without that fibre, "our guts react differently to juices and we don’t feel the same fullness that we do if we eat a whole piece of fruit or a vegetable," explains Larson. "That can wreak havoc in an hour or two, because they are digested quickly, which sets you up to eat again." That's the main reason she doesn't recommend using juices as a meal replacement — they just don't fill you up.

Juices also come with a lot of sugar. Prepackaged green juices especially are often made mostly of fruit, meaning they can have high levels of natural sugars. Although this plant-based variety of sugar isn't the worst, it can still create the same spike in energy and blood sugar and subsequent crash that a candy bar leads to if fibre isn't in the mix.

Even if you're sure you're getting a veggie-dominant juice, the packaging makes it easy to unintentionally take in a lot more sugar than you realise: "Many [prepackaged juices] contain two or three servings," says Larson, "but people drink the whole bottle!"

All that said, Larson does recommend juicing in very specific circumstances. For instance, a juice can be a convenient solution if you're a professional athlete who doesn't have a lot of time in between events, or if you're unable to eat regular foods for some reason (e.g. you're recovering from chemotherapy or surgery).

That means that for most of us, juices should be an occasional treat rather than a major source of nutrients. And, as much as possible, we should stick to whole foods to get our vitamins, minerals, and fibre.

But if you do choose to drink juice, Larson suggests making it yourself and only using one fruit of choice, in as small an amount as you can stand. "Then add one, two, or three different vegetables so that the drink is actually vegetable-heavy rather than fruit-heavy," she says. "Any type of dark green works — kale, spinach, collard or beet greens are great choices." That'll give you the blast of nutrients you want without such a sugary punch.

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Are you married? If not, you’re in good company. In around 2014, the number of singles in the U.S. surpassed the number of married people. Americans spend more of their adult years unmarried than married, and that’s not even a new statistic: "It’s been true for over a decade," social psychologist Bella DePaulo, PhD noted in her plenary at the American Psychological Association's annual convention on Friday. Given the way our society touts marriage as both the norm and a universal goal, however, you might not be aware of single people's dominance.

This "over-the-top celebration of marriage and weddings and coupling" is what DePaulo calls "matrimania," and she's combating it by highlighting an overlooked and yet critically important reason there are so many unmarried people today: It's because they want to be. "They are already living their dream," DePaulo stated in her talk. "Living single allows them to live their best, most authentic, and most meaningful life."

Read on to learn why she considers marriage a choice that suits some and not others, and why we shouldn't consider matrimony a one-size-fits-all milestone.

Most research that claims that getting married improves your quality of life is fatally flawed. "The story out there — that married people are better off and they’re happier and healthier and all that, [that] everybody of course wants to get married — is so dominant and not really challenged," DePaulo tells Refinery29. One reason is that the majority of the research that seems to support this narrative is methodologically unsound. "People are so sure that marriage makes people happier and healthier, because there are so many studies in which the currently married people are doing better than the others," DePaulo pointed out in her talk (emphasis ours). People who try marriage and then opt out — divorced people — may well end up worse off than people who never marry, but they're categorised as simply "unmarried" for the purposes of these studies. DePaulo's metaphor: If a study of a drug that many patients had stopped taking because it wasn't working for them only looked at the health outcomes of people who had continued taking the drug, we wouldn't consider it a very good study.

Your level of self-sufficiency is a clue as to how well marriage will work for you. In one of the 814 studies of never-married participants that DePaulo analysed for her presentation, each of a nationally representative sample of never-married Americans was asked to rate his or her self-sufficiency or desire to do things independently. The more self-sufficient participants were, the less likely they were to experience negative emotions. "Single people value autonomy, deciding things for themselves, and so I think they like to stand back and say, 'Now what do I want my life to be like?’" DePaulo explains.

In the same study, researchers observed the opposite effect among a sample of 3,000 married people: The more self-sufficient they were, the more negative emotions they experienced. "We’re all different as individuals, and some of us really are suited for marriage," DePaulo says. "I think that if social scientists took single people more seriously, and weren’t just out to show that married people are better, we’d know what kinds of people thrive by living single and what kinds of people thrive by being married — and of course there’s going to be in-between examples, too."

Single people enjoy more connected social lives. "When people marry, they become more insular," DePaulo tells us. "Single people have bigger, broader meanings of relationships and love, so single people are actually more likely to be connected to their friends and siblings and parents and neighbours." Rather than investing the vast majority of their time and energy in "The One," unmarried people tend to invest in "the ones." They have more friends and form genuine attachment relationships with multiple people instead of a single person.

Single people experience more psychological growth. DePaulo points to research that suggests that unmarried people are more likely to experience "a sense of continued growth and development as a person" than married people, and that they value meaningful work more — a difference that one study showed existed even before any subjects married. "Single people get to design their own lives more," DePaulo says — and people who prefer to design their own lives are often those who prefer to not marry. "There’s such clear frameworks for what your married life is supposed to be like, but when you’re single, we get to define our lives for ourselves."

As many a single person can attest, though, our society's faith in the superiority of marriage to the single life is deep-rooted. "People want to think that if only they get married, then all the other pieces of their life are going to fall into place and they’re going to be happier and healthier and live longer and be more connected," DePaulo states. "If you arranged your life around that assumption, why would you want to give it up?" One possible reason: realisation that the single life could be the best, most authentic, and most meaningful one for you.

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The Olympic Games kicked off in Rio last week and as ever are serving as a reminder of just how strong and fearless professional athletes are. To compete at a national level in any sport is a feat of super-human determination, focus and sacrifice.

Imagine deciding as a child – as most world-class athletes do – to compete to be the best in the world. Now imagine making that decision whilst knowing you have been born the wrong sex. This is the story of Chris Mosier, the first openly transgender athlete ever to earn a spot on a U.S. National Team.

At just four years old, Mosier knew that his biological sex (female) and his gender identity (male) were irreconcilable.

For years, he competed as a female and when he graduated college, began to compete in triathlete and duathlete (the duathlon follows a run-bike-run format and is gruelling) professionally as a woman.

It was only after Mosier met his now wife that he began gender reassignment in 2010. Fast forward to 2016 and Mosier found himself making the cut for this year's Team USA at the sprint duathlon national championship – for the men's team.

Mosier told Rolling Stone, that it was at this point he knew that he had to make a critical decision."I knew that the minute I said, 'I'm a trans athlete,' that I would never get away from it," he says. "But I asked myself, 'Why does it matter?' Well, it matters because there was no one else out there saying it."

On Wednesday, I ran the #BETRUE run with @nikerunning @nikenyc - but this was not just a Pride run: it was a history lesson and celebration. It was a memorial and acknowledgement of those who fought and those who continue to fight. It was a New York City time capsule & a chance to hear @danielmarinmedina drop some knowledge. It was totally awesome. 📷 by Nike photographer #nikerunclub #nike #nikerunning #pride #betrue #running #training #transathlete #nobaddays #nodaysoff

A photo posted by thechrismosier (@thechrismosier) on Jun 24, 2016 at 3:57am PDT

"We all want to see something we desire to be," he told Rolling Stone. "But I didn't have that model to look at and say, 'That's me. I could be like that someday.' So I either had to give up on knowing that someone like me could be competing at a high level or I had to do it myself. That's what really drives me – being the athlete that young trans athletes can look at and see themselves in."

Beyond beating his own personal bests, records and times, Mosier constantly faces new challenges. Coming up against America's bathroom bill that meant he couldn't use men's locker rooms or bathrooms, and against adapted rules for trans competitors, Mosier has never relented. Due to the stalled procession of regulatory amendments from the International Olympic Commission (IOC) from June 2015 until January 2016, trans-athletes could not compete nationally or internationally.

To honour Mosier's dedication to world-class sport and equal rights, Nike have made Mosier the star of their latest video campaign, 'Unlimited Courage.' The trailer actually aired for the first time during NBC's Olympic coverage last Monday night, and features Mosier talking directly to camera as he competes in each leg of his event.

The footage shows Mosier doing pull ups in the gym, topless in the locker room and running over Brooklyn Bridge (Mosier regularly runs the circumference of Manhattan.) As well as being about championing Mosier's bravery as a spokesperson for the trans community, the video is also a testament to Mosier's world-class athleticism.

“Being the first trans man on a U.S. men’s national team was a dream come true for me", he says, "Everything that I’ve done in the last five, six years since I started to transition, has been with a 'Just Do It' mindset. I didn’t know if I would be competitive against men; I just did it. Every success that I’ve had since then has shown me that anything is really possible.”

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Justin Bieber recently took a tropical vacation in Hawaii, and the home he stayed in is just what you might expect for a pop prince. The seaside mansion is situated right on the eastern coast of Hawaii and contains five bedrooms and seven full baths. The property spans more than nine acres, and the main house rings in at a whopping 8,100 square feet. There's even a helipad on the roof.

Wishing you could stay in this slice of paradise yourself? Well, technically, you can rent the palace through HomeAway, but as you might imagine, it isn't cheap. More precisely, it's £2,459 a night. The house comfortably accommodates 12, but at that price, you'd probably have to get a few more friends together to afford it. But even if the real deal isn't practical, you can still dream; take a virtual tour of the oceanside estate, ahead. (PEOPLE)

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In the fashion world, the word 'boho' has as much stigma attached to it as the monosyllabic noise that is 'crocs'. The thought of the two together might send a shudder down your spine, so we'll ease you in by letting you know that boho skirts, the kind that Sienna Miller wore in 2005, are in all seriousness, back in fashion.

We know, we know – you buried the bohemian-babe with sun-in highlights and disc-belts with the other skeletons in your closet including your uni ex-boyfriend, your brown ra-ra skirt, your brown cowboy boots and that much too-full fringe. The Guardian even published an article blaming Sienna Miller for legions of floppy-hemmed teens in ballet shoes and cropped cardigans, waxing lyrical about how much they wished the skirt would. just. go. away.

Did we care? No. Sienna Miller in Alfie was the 'do, Penny Lane in Almost Famous nailed the outer-wear vibe, and Marisa from The OC, also know as 'the camisole Queen', became a hardcore style icon. There were heavy accents of Kate Moss and subtle hints of Meryl Streep's accessorising habits (more beads and bangles please) and if you squinted, aspects of Captain Hook's style seeped in too. It was, you must admit, a "moment". Although we're quite certain parts of LA never gave the look up and are still in the midst of said "moment" and we do have reason to believe that Vanessa Hudgens was actually born in a boho skirt.

Wake up people, the return of this look was inevitable. We've been disco-chic'ed out this season with houses like Gucci and Prada leading the funky stacked-heeled way, so this softer, sort of '70s cousin was sure to follow – in a cork-heeled wedge on a bicycle with daisies in her hair possibly somewhere in Primrose Hill with some Sauvignon Blanc in hand, no less.

We first noticed the skirt at the shows. For autumn/winter 16, cult denim brand Marques' Almeida sounded the klaxon with heavy leather maxi-skirts asymmetrically cut in both ox-blood leather and indigo denim, worn under puffer jackets and giant Vetements -style hoodies.

Fashion East's Molly Goddard then presented a ghostly and theatrical show of Jacobean tulle dresses and skirts. Icey tutu style maxi skirts with signature boho tiers came in smokey greys and mustard yellows and even Riri wore Molly's acid-green dress about town. Chloé followed suit and showed pink tutu maxi dresses that poked out from underneath Trainspotter -style ribbed jumpers in dull blues and greys. Zeitgeist tracksuit designer and fellow Fashion East member, Caitlin Price's tongue-in-cheek look at the bridal dress was a white silk maxi-skirt, split to the hip, with a coordinating white puffer jacket for the ultimate sport-luxe take on the full-length skirt. And we all know what that means: three's a trend – yes, a trend – and four's basically a putsch.

You know something's legitimate as a sartorial choice when Rihanna chimes in, so her skirt, that all but melted Instagram and rinsed our 3G when it happened in June of this year, sealed the deal.

Then the street style stars adopted them. Phoebe Lettice wore her pink-gauze, tiered skirt with her Nike TNs and Sharmadean Reid paired her red cotton one with sliders.

It might be time to park your denim mini and embrace the power of the twirl. Just leave your big-ass leather belt in the attic, where it belongs, and wear with trainers and hoodies for a fresh 2016 sporty-makeover. Comfy, no?

Never say never!

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Choosing where to go on holiday can be a minefield (although it's a pretty good problem to have). School holiday periods get crowded, winter months mean expensive long-haul flights, and those in-between times can result in unpredictable weather.

It's a totally personal experience, but if you're in need of a bit of Vitamin D and the view outside isn't looking pretty, we've done the research and discovered 12 destinations around the world that will be warm and quiet – a different one for each month of the year.

Of course we don't expect anyone to tick off all 12 in a year, but here are some options if you're itching for a hot holiday in February or a sunny city break in October.

Flights correct as of August 2016, prices may vary.

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Of the thousands of exotic and instant-results ingredients touted in skin care, one has remained at the forefront for hundreds of years: plain and simple H2O. Skin dry and tired? Drink more water! It’s a nice idea — that something so readily available can also be a cure-all for skin. But it’s also a pretty broken one. Research hasn’t really backed up the idea that consuming water will make skin more hydrated.

Here’s what we do know: Our skin needs hydration, which is why water is found in so many of our beauty products. “​Water typically acts as more than just a filler [in skin-care products],” says Raja Sivamani, MD, a dermatologist and assistant professor of clinical dermatology at UC Davis, who holds additional specialties in bioengineering and Ayurvedic medicine. “It contributes to the physical and chemical properties of a skin-care product.”

Water does play an important role in helping the other active ingredients in a product perform. But what about specialty waters in skin care? Products that feature mineral waters from such geologically unique places as the Dead Sea or Icelandic glaciers, botanical waters including rose and artichoke, and, lately, waters that have been steeped in so-called healing energies, are all at the ready. Do these superwaters bring more purity to a product or more skin benefits than today’s typical water supply, or are they just gussied-up, more expensive versions of what's pouring out of your faucet?

To help drill down on how these mineral, botanical, and ionic waters really affect skin, we consulted a coterie of complexion pros. Because while the whole fountain-of-youth thing has proved itself a bust (so far, at least), modern-day science and old-school geological wonders might prove once and for all that when it comes to skin care, water is the answer.

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It's been 12 years since we last saw Renée Zellweger play Bridget Jones on the big screen, but this September, the hapless, calorie-counting, big pant-wearing, perpetually single lady protagonist is back. And this time, she's gone and got herself pregnant – by accident. Bugger!

Of the many questions you might have surrounding the new film, entitled Bridget Jones's Baby (and we shall come to them), the one that's burning the brightest in my mind is: Why? Why is Bridget still in our lives after these 12 long years?

When author Helen Fielding started writing a column, documenting the fictitious diaries of a woman called Bridget Jones in The Independent in 1995, she hit a nerve – and the jackpot. In Bridget Jones, Fielding had not only created a literary phenomenon (indeed, an entire genre: chick lit) but a revelatory tragicomic heroine for a new generation of women. The subsequent novel, the best-selling Bridget Jones's Diary, followed a year after the column first appeared, and was a thoroughly modern comedy of manners (based loosely on Pride and Prejudice) for the thirty-something urban dwelling, Chardonnay-swilling, Cosmopolitan -reading, Marlboro-smoking woman of the mid-1990s. Women identified with her, whether they were pleased about it or not. As a 10-year-old, I remember looking at the cover of a woman in silhouette elegantly smoking a fag and thinking: that looks like my Mum. Everyone read Bridget Jones's Diary – I read it before I was even in a trainer bra, let alone Spanx. Christ, my 12-year-old brother read it.

Fielding had found the zeitgeist, for sure. But in the 20 years since the Bridget Jones franchise and its sassier American stablemate, Sex and the City, clattered into public consciousness on a wave of cocktails, clutch bags and kitten heels, a lot has happened. Online dating, social media, Tinder – the internet in general. We've been through a recession. You can't smoke inside anymore. Plastic bags cost 5p. Mobile phones are smaller than our heads. House prices are up. Unpaid internships are a thing. Gay marriage is legal. Even Bridget's birthplace – The Independent – has shut up its print shop. And so, with the release of a new film, I got to thinking – shit, sorry, wrong character – about Bridget's place in 2016 and, specifically, whether she has one.

When you look for the new Bridgets on our screens, it quickly becomes obvious that the changing cultural, economic and political landscape of the past two decades has necessitated a shift in portrayals of femininity, singledom and the search for love. While Bridget got to wallow in the cosy misery of her solo life and good job in a one bed flat with an SE1 postcode, today's "Bridgets" – Phoebe Waller Bridge's Fleabag, Lena Dunham's Hannah Hogarth, Sharon Horgan's eponymous character in Catastrophe – have to confront their bad life decisions in shared houses with no money. Where Bridget's preferred insult was "arse", our heroines prefer "cunt." While Bridget shared saucy emails with her boss, ours sext strangers. The one thing that hasn't changed is the amount they all drink.

Hollywood, too, has started to show the less shiny and slapstick side to 21st century female life in its romcom output. In 2010's Going the Distance, Drew Barrymore is a single 31-year-old intern who tries to make a six-week fling work as a long-distance relationship. Emily Blunt is painted as the cheating commitment-phobe in The Five-Year Engagement and in 2012's Obvious Child, an abortion is the aphrodisiac needed for Jenny Slate to fall for the guy that put her in the family way in the first place. And yet despite this, despite the plethora of interesting and nuanced and contemporary depictions of women in popular culture, Bridget Jones still seems to be held up as the defining example of female singleness.

our notion of what it is to be single has changed

It's no secret that Bridget's raison d'être has always been to find a man. It's that quest which has propelled the plot of each instalment thus far. In Bridget Jones's Baby, a (quite alarmingly frail-looking, FYI) Colin Firth, aka Mark Darcy, is now Bridget's ex. So she's back to sitting on that sofa in those pyjamas. That's until she goes to a music festival wearing a pair of heels and white jeans in her capacity as a TV exec and meets the rugged Jack (Patrick Dempsey) and shags him, but also shags the ex too so that she doesn't know who the father of her unborn child is. Naughty Bridget! V bad. Must try harder.

I'd argue that the problem with this narrative is that our notion of what it is to be single has changed. The ritual humiliation Bridget would suffer at the annual Christmas turkey buffet for being single in her 30s helped fuel her dogged search for Mr Right. But being single now hopefully inspires far less shame. There are over 16 million single people in the UK according to figures from ONS, compared to 12 million in 2002. The number of married people – around 23 million – meanwhile, has largely stayed the same.

That's not to say that many of us aren't still preoccupied with our search for 'The One' or, at the very least, someone to rub bits with for the weekend. It's just that life as a single person isn't painted as the bleak picture it once was. Indeed, recent research from American psychologist Bella DePaulo suggests that being single allows people to "live their best, most authentic and most meaningful life." So... move over smug marrieds.

But the really bothersome thing in all of this however, isn't how out-of-date Bridget seems to me, but how Fielding and her co-writers appear to have forgotten who first made her famous. Between the last film – 2004's The Edge of Reason – and this one, there has been a book: Mad About the Boy. Unlike the third film, the third book fits the original timeline of Bridget's life: she is in her 50s, widowed, with two grown up children. On its publication, Fielding told The Telegraph that she decided to "be brave" and show Bridget as a 50-year-old woman, challenging stereotypes about the commerciality of "women of a certain age."

Rather than meet Bridget again in her 50s, in the latest movie she is 43

It's a shame then, that the last book didn't receive the same silver screen treatment the first two did. Rather than meet Bridget again in her 50s, in the latest movie she is 43. And while it's undoubtedly positive that we get to see an unmarried, 'older' woman as a first-time mother in a mainstream film, it's disappointing that those women who first championed Bridget seem to have been abandoned by her. As they are time and again by Hollywood.

And so my question is this: who is this film for? Because it's not for the young and young(ish) single women who find any Bridget Jones connotations embarrassing and who are already much better represented across TV and film by the likes of Girls, Fleabag and Obvious Child. Nor is it for the women who actually grew up alongside Bridget, and who are now embarking on menopause and the next stage of their lives – single or not. Instead, Bridget has wound back ten years to try and strike a chord with the early-forty-somethings, gatecrashing a party she knows no-one at. Of course, Fielding never claimed Bridget was meant to be an exemplar of female empowerment – quite the opposite. But in my mind, she's become a parody of herself, a caricature of the modern woman, and one that I sadly can no longer relate to.

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It's a common frustration among many women – you're absolutely killing it at work, at the top of your game, even. And yet people still compare you to the men around you.

Marta Vieira da Silva is thought the best female footballer player ever and has been dazzling audiences at the Rio Olympics as part of the Brazilian women's team.

She's been playing for her country since she was 16 years old and helped Brazil beat China by 3-0 in the opening match at the Games.

Da Silva's stunning performance elicited chants from fans: "Marta is better than Neymar!", referring to the Brazilian striker thought to be one of the world's best players. After the match, she was even asked if she’s better than Neymar.

But da Silva didn't take kindly to these comparisons. She has also been compared to Brazilian legend Pele throughout her career, who himself called her "Pele with a skirt".

"Marta is Marta, Neymar is Neymar," she told a reporter, visibly unhappy about the question.

Uma imagem vale mais que mil palavras! (Foto: @prodoutor) #saineymarENTRAMARTA pic.twitter.com/K9Ucl9AXtv

— Hession Dayan (@hessiondayan) August 8, 2016

She was then asked if a gold medal at the Games would finally stop the comparisons to men and help boost support for women's football in Brazil.

"I have to live my life day-to-day and try my best on the field with my team to get victories. I don’t know what’s going to happen if we win the gold medal. We want the gold medal for ourselves, for our careers, for women’s soccer."

Da Silva has been credited with increasing the popularity of the women's game in Brazil, but she said there's a long way to go before it's as big as the men's game in the country.

"A lot has to happen and evolve and we know that, but the support is way bigger now compared to when I started playing."

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Lucy* was just trying to do her job at the advertising company she worked for when her MD told her, in front of their client, that "Good client servicing, Lucy, would be holding his penis while he takes a piss." The client then spent the rest of the day trying to touch her and telling her what he’d like to do to her in bed.

Chloe* faced similar harassment when she was asked by the local area manager of the high street restaurant chain she worked at: “What’s your blowjob technique like?”

And one summer, while working in a bar where the owner’s son “thought it was his right to sleep with all the waitresses,” Ellie* was faced with him “keeping on at me [about having sex], despite me saying ‘f*** off’." One day he accosted her on the stairs indecently exposing himself.

What these women told me – as anonymous case studies – is a worrying indicator of how women can be and are still treated in the workplace. While the gender pay gap is slowly closing to the point it’s reversed amongst those aged 22-29, the price some young women have to pay in return for their time and effort at work comes in myriad forms of sexual harassment.

According to new research released today, two-thirds of young women face sexual harassment – ranging from jokes to unwanted sexual touching or advances – at their place of work. In the first ever study of its kind, the “Still just a bit of banter?” investigation conducted by the workers’ union, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), in association with feminist activist Laura Bates’ Everyday Sexism Project, found that 63% of young women between the ages of 18 and 24 had experienced sexual harassment compared to 52% of women of all ages.

The study, conducted across 1500 participants from the UK, also found that BME women are more likely to face a combination of racial and sexual harassment and that those on zero-hours contracts, doing precarious work or agency or hospitality work, are far more likely to be the object of sexual harassment in the workplace than those in steadier work.

These results are quite something when you consider that sexual harassment law in the workplace, introduced in 1975 via the Sex Discrimination Act, was meant to make things better for younger generations of women entering the world of work.

The problem is clear, as many of the Tweets received on Everyday Sexism’s #standingup hashtag for documenting experiences of workplace harassment could attest. “A senior manager that has no female staff because he ‘has just never found a woman that is good enough’” is the statement one woman shared. Another woman “was called a prude for objecting to Porn Fridays where female colleagues' faces were photoshopped onto porn pics.”

It’s not just that the incidents happen, it’s that they continue to happen and help contribute to a culture where women and their work are not taken as seriously as men and their work. One woman explained in the report that she complained to HR “about a sexist and flirty CEO" and was "told to put up with it as [she is] ‘young and pretty and they’re men, what do you expect?’”

63% of young women between the ages of 18 and 24 had experienced sexual harassment

Something has to change, and it cannot be that women have to “toughen up” in order to deflect their male colleagues’ (it is, 9 out of 10 times, according to the data, a male perpetrator of workplace harassment) jokes, pokes or advances.

So how do we put a stop to it? Laura Bates tells Refinery29 she wants this “rampant problem” to be tackled at all levels. First, “The government must scrap tribunal fees, which have proved a clear barrier to justice for thousands of women, and reinstitute measures that would make it an employer's duty to protect workers from sexual harassment perpetrated by clients and customers. We also want all workers, regardless of employment status or type of contract, to be given rights and protection at work.”

What can employers do? “They must institute comprehensive training and implement clear, victim-centred reporting procedures that don't require a victim to report directly to the perpetrator and protect those who come forward from negative treatment as a result.” And as for us, the cogs in the working world’s machinery? “Many of the women who share their stories with us make it clear that they feel trapped by a culture of complicity,” says Laura. “They don't feel able to speak out because of a sense of normalisation.”

47% of those who reported experiencing sexual harassment said they did nothing after the incident

Normalisation is an important word because, shockingly, 47% of those who reported experiencing sexual harassment said they did nothing after the incident(s) – this includes confiding in a family member or a friend outside of work. But it doesn’t have to be like this: “Everybody can play a part in challenging the social acceptability of this kind of behaviour by reacting when it happens, reporting it, and supporting victims in the workplace. Nobody should shrug this off as 'just a bit of banter’”, says Laura.

Feminism is a belief in the social, economic and sexual equality of the sexes, but as long as workplace sexual harassment continues to be meted out, all three of those goals will fail.

Young women have the capacity to do better than ever before at work, and some people can’t handle that. If we use the routes we have on offer to call out sexism, and continue to engage our male friends in meaningful conversations about the negative affects of unnecessary jokes, prodding and unwanted touching, the bastards won’t grind us down for much longer.

*Names have been changed

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Most of us wouldn't think twice before holding our partner's hand at the supermarket. A loving PDA in the confectionary aisle is sometimes just what you need after a long, hard day at work.

Well one couple have been reprimanded for doing just that.

On Monday evening, while Thomas Rees and Joshua Bradwell were buying food in a Sainsbury's store in Hackney, London, a woman complained about their behaviour to a security guard.

After they had paid, a security guard called them outside to tell them about the complaint that they had acted "inappropriately", the BBC reported.

The couple have since expressed their shock and anger over the incident. "It's really knocked me for six and I've spent the last day or so analysing how I'm perceived," Rees told the BBC.

The couple merely held hands and Rees said he may have even – gasp! – put his arm around Bradwell's waist, the BBC reported.

To the bigot who complained about my bf & I holdin hands & the security guard at @sainsburys who felt the need to 'talk' to us outside🖕🏻

— Thomas Rees (@doganddinosaur) August 8, 2016

Talking to the BBC, Rees said the couple "weren't all over each other" or "in the throes of passion".

"It was essentially just holding my boyfriend's hand as I do every day. I'm very much in love and that's how I express my love," he said.

"All it's done is strengthen the importance that if you love someone, irrelevant of their gender, that is love and you should express that love in whatever way you desire or wish to."

After tweeting about the humiliating incident, Sainsbury's offered Rees a £10 off voucher. A token gesture that would barely cover the cost of a nice dinner and wine for two.

A spokesperson for the supermarket said: "We sincerely apologise to Thomas and Josh. We are an inclusive retailer and employer and do not tolerate discrimination in our stores.

"We will take appropriate action once we've concluded our investigation with our security contractor."

However, this isn't the first time customers have taken offence to gay people showing affection to each other in Sainsbury's.

In 2014, a young lesbian couple were threatened with ejection from a Brighton store after a customer complained that a kiss they shared was "disgusting". Students then held a mass "kiss-in" in protest at how the women were treated.

Since the incident, Rees said he'd like to know how the supermarket trains staff to deal with diversity. And maybe shoppers should get used to the fact that, in 2016, homophobia has no place in public.

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Before this week, many of us vaguely knew of Helen Skelton. She was the typically bubbly Blue Peter presenter who we thought was crazy that time she kayaked down the Amazon for Sport Relief.

Then she wore a dress.

As the face of the BBC's swimming coverage at the Rio Olympics, Skelton has caused "chaos" with her clothes. The dress she wore at the weekend was navy blue. It was perfectly nice – kind of fashionable but also weather appropriate considering she was presenting beside a swimming pool in Brazil.

But not everyone thought the same. Many viewers were outraged by her clothing choice, saying she should be "ashamed" because "children and families were watching".

@HelenSkelton you should be ashamed of wearing such a short dress because children and families were watching !

— Elaine Wilson (@ElaineWilson2) August 7, 2016

God forbid people might glance at a woman's legs, especially when there are near-naked men competing just metres away and a man wearing shorts – baring a similar amount of leg, might we add – right next to her.

But obviously no one cared what the men were wearing.

Others considered Skelton's dress "naughty" and seemed weirdly aroused by the piece of fabric. The Daily Mail claimed it left viewers "hot under the collar", and Skelton even made the front pages of both the Mail and the Daily Express on Monday morning.

Monday's Daily Mail front page:
A law unto themsleves#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/6hSAc6eHpb

— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) August 7, 2016

Today, news broke that she also owns a BRA, which caused even more "chaos". The Daily Express said her semi-sheer "sexy playsuit" showed off her "toned pins". The same pins which just days ago caused national outrage.

Helen Skelton causes chaos as she flashes BRA in sexy playsuit while hosting Rio Olympics https://t.co/bVE8yYplz9 pic.twitter.com/AXMR9sc48X

— Daily Express (@Daily_Express) August 10, 2016

Why do female TV presenters' clothes cause such an outcry? The Daily Mail is always ranting on about Susanna Reid her "low-cut" or "thigh skimming" dress. Holly Willoughby can't even wear a black long-sleeved top without it being commented on. And when they wear brown over-the-knee dresses (!) they're still deemed "sexy".

Even when they wear glasses – to help them see what they're saying to the camera, i.e. do their job – they're a "sexy secretary".

In a world where we campaign for ordinary people to be able to bare their breasts on social media, through campaigns such as #freethenipple, and we are outraged when women's right to breastfeed in public is questioned, why can't presenters do whatever they want with their bodies, too?

Perhaps the answer lies in the way the tabloids treat them.

Personally, I think it's refreshing to see a TV presenter like Skelton wearing something she's comfortable in, looking more relaxed and like she's actually having fun – as anyone working in Brazil would be.

Her decision to shun the 'power dresses' we're so used to makes her a thoroughly modern personality on TV.

Not to mention the #OOTDs she's been posting on Instagram.

Day 4 outfit before make up x #rio2016 #ootd #olympics2016

A photo posted by Helen Skelton (@helenskelton) on Aug 8, 2016 at 1:43pm PDT

Now that Skelton has apparently hired Cara Delevingne’s stylist, we wait with baited breath to see what she wears next. We just hope it's something she wants to wear – not something the trolls and tabloid journalists would prefer.

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"No, this is not safe, I don’t want to do this," Jane Doe No. 1 said she told hot yoga guru Bikram Choudhury before he allegedly raped her. Doe claimed that Choudhury repeatedly called her an "idiot," and told her to "look at his penis to see how 'big it got,'" according to a lawsuit she filed in May of 2014.

Jane Doe No. 1, now identified as Maggie Genthner, alleged that she was then made to lick his penis and that he “vigorously penetrated her vagina,” according to her complaint. Choudhury allegedly forced Genthner's legs into yoga postures and laughed at her while telling her: "You are a yogini!" she alleged.

Genthner’s civil case, which was settled on July 26 out of court, claimed that Choudhury raped her twice in the fall of 2011 during a nine-week-long Bikram teacher training session. The terms of the settlement have not been made public, and Genthner is not allowed to discuss them, a representative from the firm representing her told Refinery29.

She is just one of six former students — as well as his former legal advisor — who filed lawsuits against the 70-year-old yoga teacher. Mary Shea, a lawyer representing all six students, told Refinery29 that the alleged "pattern of [abuse] was eerily similar" in their cases. The other students' cases are going forward, Shea said. Choudhury's organisation did not respond to Refinery29's requests for comment via phone or email.

But, who is Choudhury, and how was this alleged abuse allowed to take place? As a once Bikram-certified instructor, I spoke with Shea and others about the accusers' search for justice and what happens next.

The Jafa-Bodden lawsuit alleged that Choudhury created an environment that was 'hyper-sexualized' and 'degrading' for women.

The beginnings of the "Bikram Cult"

It’s often hard to convey to those outside the Bikram world just how pervasive Choudhury’s influence was — it has diminished since the times of the alleged rapes because of his legal challenges. (Disclosure: I have been to several Bikram trainings and was a certified Bikram teacher who taught in London.)

The Bikram yoga series involves practicing 26 poses in a room that is heated to 105 degrees. There are hundreds of Bikram yoga studios around the world. Only students who attend and complete a nine-week Bikram training session, which today costs at least £9,500, are permitted by Bikram to teach the series. Students are also now required to stay at the hotel where the training is held. The training I underwent consisted of classes twice a day and hours spent in “posture clinics” memorising and perfecting the dialogue that accompanies each of the 26 postures.

Choudhury certified instructors and decided which studios were authorised to use his name and hire his teachers through his franchise programme. Some of the prospective teachers I know used their entire savings to pay for the training, and were therefore financially dependent on Choudhury’s blessing to teach. He could also blacklist instructors from the community, essentially wiping out a source of their income.

However last year, Choudhury lost a years-long legal fight to copyright his sequence of yoga instructions. The federal court ruling meant that teachers (and other studios) could not be sued for teaching Bikram-style yoga without the founder’s approval. As a result, studios around the world have ditched his name — though exactly how many is unclear.

The common denominator among all six [women] is each of them was vulnerable in some manner; they either had a prior history of sexual abuse, or were economically forced into dependence, or young, but all of them were vulnerable in some way.

Choudhury's legal and marital troubles

Since moving to California in 1971, Choudhury has built a formidable empire converting millions of people to his style of hot yoga. But now, that empire is a shadow of what it once was.

On July 6, a California judge granted the yogi's legal team's request to stop representing him in an insurance coverage dispute relating to the defence of five of the lawsuits accusing Choudhury of sexual assault and harassment, according to Law360. Choudhury’s attorneys from another law firm also asked to be relieved from representing him in Genthner’s case before it settled, claiming that it was “unreasonably difficult” to represent him because of a “breakdown in communication," according to Law360.

His former chief executive officer, Petra Starke, sued Choudhury and claimed under penalty of perjury that he “placed various assets of his companies into the names of other entities or himself in order to avoid the payment of obligations to creditors,”according to a declaration filed in court by Starke. Starke added further that Choudhury “secretively and hurriedly planned to move Yoga College operations and revenues overseas in the wake of the sexual harassment lawsuits filed against him.” His wife of more than three decades and a respected teacher in her own right, Rajashri Choudhury, has since split with him, citing “irreconcilable differences.”

Starke also claimed she urged Choudhury to be mindful about his exchanges with younger women, given the lawsuits against him. She said she witnessed an unidentified 23-year-old instructor’s head in his lap, "a ski jacket on top of her head, in what appeared to be an act of oral sex," according to Starke's declaration. The teacher allegedly told Starke she was not comfortable with Choudhury’s behavior. Starke said she reported the incident to Choudhury’s wife.

According to Baughn, Villani asked her to stay with the training because, while Choudhury was 'not a good man' he was a 'good teacher.'

The first lawsuit is filed and other women come forward claiming assault

Sarah Baughn was the first woman to file suit alleging sexual assault. She claimed that she dropped out of college when she was 20 years old and took out loans to attend Bikram training. By the fifth night of her training in the spring of 2005, she claimed that Choudhury told her: "I have never, never felt like this about anyone…So, what should we do about this?" Choudhury is alleged to have made similar statements to the other women who have filed claims against him — that the yoga guru and the women were destined to be together, and somehow "spiritually connected," according to Baughn's complaint and one filed by another student, Larissa Anderson.

Baughn, who said she worried she could be blacklisted, alleged that she spoke to a senior teacher, Craig Villani, who recommended that she respectfully decline Choudhury’s advances. According to Baughn's complaint, Villani asked her to stay with the training because, while Choudhury was “not a good man,” he was a “good teacher.” (Although Baughn’s complaint referred to Villani by the initials “C.V.,” Villani’s full name was revealed in a subsequent memorandum filed by Genthner's attorney). I have heard this mantra repeated — even today — in the Bikram yoga community to excuse Choudhury’s behavior. Villani has since left Choudhury to start his own company. Villani did not respond to Refinery29's request for comment regarding this alleged exchange.

On April 19, 2010, Jill Lawler began her certification course when she was just 18 years old, making her one of the youngest women to have ever attended. She alleged she was repeatedly sexually assaulted and raped, according to a complaint she filed in February of 2015.

Separately, in January, Choudhury was found liable for sexually harassing his former legal adviser, Minakshi Jafa-Bodden, and was ordered to pay her almost $1 million in compensatory damages.

Larissa Anderson, who had a prior history of sexual trauma, alleged that Choudhury raped her, first in his living room when his wife and children were upstairs, according to a complaint she filed. Dana McClellan also alleged she was raped during teacher training, according to her own complaint filed in April of 2014. She is currently settling her case, according to Shea, her lawyer.

Choudhury has denied all of the allegations made by the plaintiffs in court.

"The common denominator among all six [women] is each of them was vulnerable in some manner; they either had a prior history of sexual abuse, or were economically forced into dependence, or young, but all of them were vulnerable in some way," Shea, the women's lawyer, told Refinery29.

Separately, in January, Choudhury was found liable for sexually harassing his former legal adviser, Minakshi Jafa-Bodden, and was ordered to pay her almost $1 million (£780,000) in compensatory damages and $6.4 million (£5 million) in punitive damages, which was later reduced to $4.6 million (£3.6 million), her lawyer told Refinery29.

The Jafa-Bodden lawsuit alleged that Choudhury created an environment that was “hyper-sexualised” and “degrading” for women, whom he referred to as “fucking bitches,” “fat bitches,” and “stupid bitches.”

T​he Los Angeles district attorney told Refinery29 via email that on September 13, 2013, "a case was declined due to a lack of sufficient evidence." It was one case with multiple alleged victims, according to the district attorney. Baughn was one of the alleged victims, Shea confirmed.

The hardest problem of my life…is staying away from women.

Jane Doe No. 1 and New Allegations

Genthner claimed further that many individuals close to Choudhury (identified as defendants Does 1 through 25) knew what Choudhury was up to, and that they “had advance knowledge” he “would engage in this despicable conduct, and by their actions and inactions, ratified, authorised, and condoned this unlawful behaviour,” according to the complaint she filed. Genthner earned income as a Bikram yoga instructor, and she feared if she reported the alleged assault she would be prevented from working at approved Bikram studios.

Choudhury's headquarters did not respond to queries in time for publication. However, he has consistently denied the allegations in interviews with the media.

"The hardest problem of my life…is staying away from women," Choudhury told ABC News in 2012. "Women like me, and I have to run, city after city, country after country, all my life, to stay away from the women. Yes, that's the number one problem, all my life."

In addition to those who have decided to sue Choudhury for sexual harassment or worse, other former students have come forward in support of Genthner, making previously unreported allegations of abuse by the yogi, which Genthner's lawyer said support her claims regarding Choudhury’s alleged behaviour.

A court document filed by Genthner's attorney described the testimony of at least three additional women who claimed Choudhury tried to kiss them; another who said she was asked to massage "his exposed penis"; one more who claimed she was asked to "massage his legs, then his groin area"; and yet another who claimed the yogi "tried to coax her into sexual favours by promising to make her a champion," and "forced himself onto her."

Ultimately, the accusations against Choudhury are incredibly serious. ​ Soon courts will hear the other women's stories. They are cases that have ​divided the Bikram yoga community. If the allegations prove true, Choudhury has egregiously abused his position of power, and destroyed the lives of women who trusted him. And whether Bikram yoga can survive his demise is not yet clear.

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Pedocin Beach is nestled in the northeastern city of Trieste, Italy. It looks like any other beach in the seaside town, save for one key detail: Men and women are separated.

Since its founding in 1890, Pedocin has been totally segregated by gender. A low wall divides the men's side from the women's side, and while that may not sound like a beach you've ever visited, Pedocin's regulars find this distance freeing rather than restrictive.

Photographer Lavinia Parlamenti paid a visit to Pedocin to photograph and speak with beachgoers one on one. She met women who prefer to chat with their friends rather than have men look at them in their swimsuits, men who spend their days sunbathing in silence, and couples who enjoy the beach but crave alone time, too.

Parlamenti's images show people totally at ease, happy to relax on the beach as they wish. While a gender-divided beach might not be everyone's first choice for a vacation destination, the single-sex experience is what makes it special to some. Pedocin's visitors have found a beach they love; it's a place where they feel comfortable. And isn't that what we're all looking for in a summer getaway?

Click ahead to learn more about Pedocin Beach and see the men and women who frequent its shores.

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It's never comforting to hear a story about a drunken night out that you don't remember. Not only is it super freaky to feel like you have a doppelgänger out there who's a little (or a lot) more adventurous than you are, blackouts can also feel unpredictable.

Why is it that they seem to happen randomly on some nights, but not others, no matter how much you drink? How is it possible that you seemed normal, yet you were drunk enough to not remember how you made it home? Luckily, researchers are learning a lot about the answers to these questions — and the best ways to prevent blackouts from happening in the first place (without skipping the party).

"When you black out, [you've drunk] to a point that you’re still able to interact with your environment — you’re still having conversations — but your brain isn't able to make the memories for what’s going on," explains Reagen Wetherill, PhD, who co-authored a review of the research on blackouts in April.

This happens because of the way alcohol interferes with your brain. To create a memory, you first have to take in information from your environment. That information then hangs out in your short-term memory, which keeps track of what's happening in the moment. Then, for something to stick in your long-term memory, that specific connection between your neurons needs to physically change and get stronger. That happens with the help of chemical messengers (neurotransmitters) in your brain, such as GABA, glutamate, and acetylcholine.

But alcohol affects the release of nearly every neurotransmitter in your brain — and it does so in the hippocampus in particular, an area that we know is extremely important for making long-term memories. (The hippocampus is one of the areas in the brain that Alzheimer's disease damages.) "These [neurotransmitters] are kind of the bread-and-butter that makes the brain work the way it does," Dr. Wetherill says. "But alcohol interferes with the neurons in this part of the brain such that the processes that go into making a memory are interrupted."

The processes that go into making a memory are interrupted.

Specifically, alcohol takes away your ability to transfer something from your short-term memory into long-term memory. And even more specifically, it affects your ability to create "episodic" memories. "That's the memory for what's really going on in one's life, such as what happened on Friday of last week," as opposed to straight facts, explains Dr. Wetherill.

However, your short-term memory isn't affected. This is why you'll seem totally normal (or, you know, normally drunk) while you're partying. It's only when your memory is tested later that you'll realise something was up.

Blackouts are definitely not an experience you want to be having very often. Aside from the general creepiness of not knowing what you were doing for a chunk of time, blackouts aren't great for your memory overall. For one thing, Dr. Wetherill's research has shown that having one blackout makes another one much more likely. And those who report blacking out show differences in their brain activity while performing memory tasks compared to those who don't black out when given the same amount of alcohol.

The more alcohol you consume, the more likely it is that you’re going to have memory problems.

Older participants who have been chronic heavy drinkers show even more significant memory deficits, and their brains can actually atrophy — similar to the effects of a severe vitamin deficiency. But if you're regularly drinking to the point of blacking out at a younger age, you're already incurring damage that isn't going to be repaired. "It's a 'You'll never be who you once were' kind of thing," Dr. Wetherill says.

So how can you stop it? First of all, the obvious: "The more alcohol you consume, the more likely it is that you’re going to have memory problems," Dr. Wetherill says. But researchers have uncovered a few other specific factors that make blackouts more likely. Drinking a lot at once quickly, like you might do during "pre-gaming" or drinking games, and drinking sugary, liquor-masking cocktails can up your risk for a blackout. So, the old rules apply here: If you're drinking alcohol, avoid multiple shots or chugging, eat before you go out, and drink water (ideally alternating one glass of water for every alcoholic beverage you imbibe).

You can also have a genetic predisposition to blacking out, which is, of course, hard to control. This means that if you have a family history of alcohol problems or you simply feel like you seem to experience blackouts more than your friends, it's especially important to stick to responsible drinking behaviours to keep your brain sharp (and to remember all your excellent party times).

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We're notoriously bad at deciding what to eat for dinner. The options for dining out and even ordering in feel endless. And when we're cooking sometimes we don't know where to start, other than wanting something quick, easy, and delicious. To help us decide once and for all (or at least for tonight!), we got some professional help.

We already check our horoscopes for dating, job, and travel advice, so why not turn to the stars for meal inspo, too? We spoke with Tali Edut of the Astrotwins and she told us exactly what we should be eating based on our astrological signs. Ahead, see if your zodiac sign lines up with the food you love, and get a few meal suggestions while you're at it. Although, we have to admit all of these ideas sound pretty appetising, regardless.

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Ask anyone what 2015's ultimate fashion shoe was and you'll likely get one answer: the Gucci slipper. In all its fluffy glory, this status symbol was a staple at Fashion Month, gracing the feet of basically every industry insider you follow on Instagram.

But that was then, and this is 2016. With show season just around the corner, there's a new shoe that's about to gain just as much traction. Sure, there may be no kangaroo-fur soles, but that's exactly what we love about Alberta Ferretti's new Mia Mule. The brand's first true signature piece of footwear, the Mia is inspired by a '90s archive style (as if we needed any more proof that the '90s are alive and well) and made of soft velvet. Available in two colourways, each shoe is embellished with silk threads that create 3-D petals and foliage. And get this: The all-over embroidery requires two whole days of meticulous craftsmanship, so know you're know you're paying for something special.

Speaking of paying, it should come as no surprise that no true It shoe comes cheap. This particular pair will set you back £580, but that's part of what makes them so covetable — they're just high-end (and expensive) enough to be slightly out of reach for the masses (unless maybe you save religiously for them, in which case, we applaud you). Still, they're pretty good-looking — and who doesn't love to gaze at a really great pair of shoes? Click on to see how some style stars are currently wearing theirs.

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Deep in the dark, moist depths of your makeup bag lurk some shocking truths that you’d probably rather not know. From that year-old liquid foundation and those unwashed brushes to the slowly drying mascara and out of date lip balm, it's time to stop ignoring these items. Because while we’ve been turning a blind eye, they've been busy making friends. Bad ones.

“It’s a well-known fact that makeup bags are a breeding ground for bacteria,” explains Dr Anjali Mahto, consultant dermatologist at the Cadogan Clinic. “Many laboratory-based tests where makeup items have been swabbed have shown the growth of all sorts of different microbes that can cause infection.” Nancy Crossley, makeup artist and founder of Beauty So Clean adds, “We have done studies with outside labs and on average, 11 out of 25 products tested contained Staphylococcus Aureus [a common cause of skin infections and food poisoning], Pseudomonas Aeruginosa [which can trigger bloodstream infections and pneumonia] and E-Coli.”

So… how much bacteria could be in your makeup bag? Short answer: a lot. But there’s also a lot you can do about it. Click on...

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If your wardrobe is awash with sea-blue denims, well, what's new? Nothing else quite manages to be so comfortable and chic in equal measure. The only question that remains is how to prevent it from all being a little bit predictable?

Beyond the crop of washes and finishes that arrived on the scene post the Marques'Almeida frenzy (frayed denim never looked so purposeful or so good) that breathed life into our mainstay fabric, there are loads of new ways to do denim this season. We're suggesting you chase the rainbow with the latest offering of coloured denims to brighten up your summer. It's time to ditch your indigo favourites in favour of something a little more fancy. From soft pinks to punchy reds, Acne Studios' satsuma padded jacket, to Topshop's post box mini, it's time to stitch up and look smart.

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