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Curious Questions: Did Mark Twain really invent the bra strap?
Samuel Clemens Leghorn — better known as Mark Twain — was a man of many trades besides writing, and one of his inventions is still with us today. Martin Fone explains more.
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The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Three things to help you keep fit as Lockdown 3.0 rumbles on
If you stuck to your resolutions in January, congratulations. If, like the other 99.999% of us, you didn't manage it then step this way...
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Tailored for Life: How Savile Row's finest are keeping going even as the new lockdown takes hold
Modern tailoring needn’t be saved for the boardroom: mix and match garments more casually and invest in beautiful separates to be passed down as heirlooms, re-tailored to fit the next generation.
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The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Headphones for wannabe rock gods, an indoor jungle and notebook nirvana
A renewed sense of optimism and positivity seems to be taking hold of the world this week, as rays of sunshine seem to be peeking through the grey clouds that have shrouded 2020's skies.
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The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Winter's least appropriate shoes, a bed of rare glory and an everything-proof mobile for adventurers or the incurably clumsy
Every week in this little slot, we lament the nastiness out in the world and suggest that you alleviate some of that negativity with something to make you smile. This week's selection comes from Victoria Marston and Toby Keel — enjoy.
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The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: A watch that's older than planet earth, the ultimate bowl for tasteful dogs and saving the planet via the medium of cashmere
If Nero were alive today, he wouldn't have fiddled while Rome burns — he'd have bought stuff off the internet. And this is the page he'd have come to in order to help make his choices, where he'd have found the weird and wonderful as picked out by Victoria Marston and Toby Keel.
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The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: A city girl's guide to surviving the Scottish Highlands
Much of this year, Utterly Inessential has focused on things to make staying in your own home for months on end a more pleasant experience. This week, though, we've handed over the keys to Country Life's luxury editor, Hetty Lintell, who went up to Scotland over the summer — and made these notes on how to make it through in one piece.
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Where I work: Jane Taylor, milliner
Jane Taylor is — like so many of us — looking forward to returning to the office. She spoke to Rosie Paterson about her royal clientele and making a mess
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The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: A new take on a 1980s classic, an answer to bad hair days and a foolproof present for an overgrown boy
What not to buy this week. (Unless you really like it.)
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Not just jewellery — future heirlooms to be treasured for generations to come
It’ll be game, set and match to the lucky owners of these classic pieces of fine jewellery. The heirlooms of the future, they are to be treasured now and for generations to come.
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The Utterly Inessential Father's Day Shopping List, from super-luxury to a big old box of beer
We'll tell you what he wants. What he really, really wants.
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The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Pictish gin, Cotswolds veg, and the mice you want in your kitchen
Victoria Marston is your guide to this week's immaculate collection of things that you really, really don't need.
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The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Dressing for dinner, lockdown-style
Let's be honest: we've all let standards slip a bit (well, a lot) since lockdown began. That ends here.
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The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: The finest lounging-around-the house clothes money can buy
Tracksuit bottoms made from cashmere, shoes without pesky laces to tie and untie all the time and silk pyjamas that would make Terry-Thomas wince with pleasure make the cut in this week's list.
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Lalage Beaumont: 'Clothes should be like old friends — you enjoy wearing them, rather than being worn once and put in the back of the cupboard'
The designer Lalage Beaumont talks about her love of classic tailoring and how to master formal dressing.
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Top 10 earrings to bring a little dressing-for-dinner glamour to your life right now
In a world where restaurants have long since been closed — and look likely to remain so for a while — Hetty Lintell has embraced the new vogue for making an effort at home. She picks out 10 beautiful pairs of earrings.
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The Utterly Inessential Sales Shopping List: From Britain's finest shops to refreshing your house in the name of charity
Utterly Inessential is back with the things which you‘d rather have received for Christmas itself, but have resigned yourself to purchasing in the January sales.
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Bespoken for: How Huntsman's personal service creates beautiful suits, and relationships that last generations
Once you experience bespoke tailoring, it’s hard to turn back — and Huntsman is just the place.
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The Utterly Inessential Travel Shopping List: Everything you need for winter sun or hitting the slopes
Last week's Country Life showed you all the best places to travel for a holiday now that the summer is over, from swimming with horses in Montego Bay to curling up in a chalet in Courmayeur. Now that you've booked your trip, Alexandra Fraser shows you all the things which may make your journey a little bit easier, a little bit more luxurious and a little bit utterly inessential.
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The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: A pet candle with a secret, an American culinary road-trip and the inevitable waterproof
In this week of Utterly Inessential, we take a look at a few things we may (but probably wont) need to get through the cold weather.
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PETA told off by advertising watchdog for claiming that 'wool is just as cruel as fur'
The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that an advertisement by animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Foundation, was misleading.
