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Lifestyle Barometer: Your guide to what’s hot and what’s not this week from period poverty to Game of Thrones

From Jennifer Lopez to halloumi fries and Coachella, this is our guide to what’s hot and what’s not

Sarah Young
Friday 19 April 2019 13:17 BST
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Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams in ‘Game Of Thrones’
Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams in ‘Game Of Thrones’

GOING UP

Lopez will receive a fashion accolade

Jennifer Lopez

The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) announced on Instagram this week that Jennifer Lopez will be honoured at this year’s ceremony with the coveted Fashion Icon award.

“The CFDA is thrilled to reveal #JenniferLopez is this year’s recipient of the Fashion Icon award at the 2019 CFDA Fashion Awards this June,” the caption read.

“The CFDA Board of Directors is giving the actress, singer, dancer, and producer this award for her longstanding and global impact on fashion.”

Lopez has had a number of memorable fashion moments throughout her career, starting with the now-infamous Versace plunging tropical-print dress she wore to the Grammy Awards in 2000.

Most recently, she made headlines by wearing a mirrored Tom Ford column dress to the 2019 Academy Awards and a bright pink Giambattista Valli haute couture gown to the premiere of Second Act.

Fans queue up for hours in Soho, London, to receive Game of Thrones tattoos (Now TV)

Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones might have aired the first episode of its final season on Sunday, but fans’ dedication to the fantasy epic is showing no signs of slowing down.

Earlier this week, more than a hundred GOT fans queued for hours outside Soho-based tattoo parlour The Circle in London to get permanent tattoos.

During a two-day pop-up event at the tattoo studio, GOT devotees received a range of inkings, drawing on inspiration from the programme’s themes, quotes, and symbols.

The hit HBO show has also inspired a series of GOT products in recent months, from guitars and makeup palettes to Easter eggs and whisky.

Subway goes vegan (Getty)

Subway

Subway has become the latest food chain to jump on the veganism train.

This week, the sandwich franchise unveiled its first-ever vegan Sub that contains a patty made with red pepper, chilli, garlic and red onion.

The 6in sub was launched nationwide on Wednesday 17 April with prices starting at £3.80.

Customers can either choose to consume the patty as a sandwich inside a bread of their choice – the chain’s Italian and the Hearty Italian breads are both vegan – or they can add it to a salad.

The vegan sub will also be served with a newly-created garlic aioli, which is also plant-based.

Fashion brand Shrimps has teamed up with high street favourite Warehouse

Designer collaborations

This week saw two of Britain’s biggest names in fashion launch collaborations with high street stores.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Alexa Chung has partnered with British heritage brand Barbour to create a 10-piece capsule collection of jackets, tote bags and bucket hats, all of which will be released this June.

Just two days later, a new collaboration between luxury fashion brand Shrimps and high street favourite Warehouse hit stores.

The 40-piece collection includes everything from tiered cotton dresses and T-shirts to bucket hats, espadrilles and slinky halter neck jumpsuits.

Aldi brings in rationing for alloumi fries

Halloumi fries

Last week, Aldi announced that it was brining back its hugely popular frozen halloumi fries following their sellout success last year.

However, due to popular demand, the German supermarket has been forced to limit the number of boxes people can purchase.

To avoid running out of the product, known as specially selected golden and crispy specially selected halloumi fries, several Aldi stores across the UK are prohibiting customers from buying more than two boxes of the fries at one time.

Speaking about the restriction, a spokesperson from Aldi told The Independent: “Our halloumi fries are proving incredibly popular once more, and as a result a small number of stores may limit customers to two boxes to ensure that as many customers as possible have a chance to enjoy them.”

GOING DOWN

Primary pupils in England will be offered free sanitary products

▼ Period poverty

The Department for Education announced this week that primary pupils in England are to be offered free sanitary products from early next year.

The move comes after campaigners hit out at the government’s announcement that tampons and sanitary towels would be made available in secondary schools, saying it did not not go far enough.

The scheme, which was announced on Tuesday, is due to be rolled out across primary and secondary schools early next year.

Last week, the Welsh government also announced that free sanitary products would be given to primary and secondary pupils across Wales under a new £2.3m scheme.

The new Welsh government grant will provide more than 141,000 female students with a range of sanitary products free of charge.

Amazon has been inundated with fake reviews, an investigation finds (Reuters)

▼ Amazon reviews

Amazon’s customer review section came under scrutiny this week after a Which? investigation found that it is being inundated by “fake” five-star reviews.

The consumer group analysed the listings of hundreds of popular tech products across 14 different categories including headphones, cameras, fitness trackers and smart watches.

It found that many of the top-rated items in each category were from little-known brands, while tens of thousands of positive reviews were written by unverified purchasers – meaning the person could not verify they had actually purchased the product from Amazon.

In response to the investigation’s findings, Amazon said it invested in “significant resources to protect the integrity of reviews” and that it had clear participation guidelines for both reviewers and selling partners.

Measles cases are on the rise, says the WHO (Getty/iStock)

▼ Measles

A mother has shared “heartbreaking” photographs of her child suffering from measles, in a bid to encourage more parents to vaccinate their children.

The images follow the recent news from the World Health Organisation (WHO) that in the first three months of 2019, the number of cases of measles increased four-fold in comparison to the same period last year.

Over the weekend, Jilly Moss, from London shared pictures of her daughter, Alba, on Facebook. The images show Alba lying on a bed attached to medical tubes, while being treated for measles.

Moss was asked by the doctors and nurses at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital to share the photographs to highlight the severity of the condition, which can lead to blindness, encephalitis and pneumonia.

Measles is a highly infectious viral illness which, if left untreated, can lead to serious health complications, the NHS states.

Early symptoms of the condition can include feeling generally unwell, having a runny nose, experiencing sore eyes and a fever as high as 40C.

The MMR vaccine combats measles, mumps and rubella.

Gordon Ramsay‘s new restaurant has attracted criticism (Getty)

▼ Cultural appropriation

This week, Gordon Ramsay‘s new Asian restaurant sparked a cultural appropriation row after a food critic described the eatery as a “kitchen nightmare”.

Ramsay and his head chef Ben Orpwood recently hosted a preview event for the restaurant, which is due to open this June in Mayfair, London.

One of the journalists who attended the event was Angela Hui, a freelance writer for London-based food publication Eater.

In her review of the Lucky Cat restaurant, Hui described it as a “real-life Ramsay kitchen nightmare”, adding that she was the “only east Asian person in a room full of 30 to 40 journalists and chefs” at the event.

Ramsay responded on Instagram to the criticism he was subjected to in Hui’s review of his restaurant stating that while he thinks it’s important that critics and reviewers to have “freedom of speech”, the “slew of derogatory and offensive social media posts that appeared on Angela Hui’s social channels, were not professional”.

Montana Brown is not enjoying Coachella (Rex)

Coachella

Former Love Island star Montana Brown revealed what attending Coachella is really like with a scathing Instagram post.

The 24-year-old explained that while she had “a wicked time” at the music and arts festival, she found it isn’t really all it’s cracked up to be.

“YES I took some nice pics and the acts were AMAZING,” she said of the musical lineup, which this year included Childish Gambino, Ariana Grande and Tame Impala. “But I also had blisters from my shoes, you have to walk like an hour from the Uber drop off to the festival itself.”

Brown went on to criticise the general scent of the festival (“it smelt like gerbils”) and its high price tags: “I bought some loaded fries for about £20. And then at the end of all that when you finally get to the cab ... you gotta pick sand and dust out your hair and nostrils.”

Brown’s post has garnered more than 124,000 likes within just 24 hours, with thousands of her 1.3 million followers leaving comments praising her for giving an authentic account of the experience.

“Love the honesty,” wrote one person.

“Here for the realness,” added another.

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