The Sunday Times Style – August 23, 2026

Summary

Sophie Koella wears Gucci jewellery totalling more than £25,000 on the cover of The Sunday Times Style (23 August 2026), where the "easy elegance of jeans and jewels" sets the tone for a late-summer issue heavy on luxury buys and autumn wardrobe planning. Inside, Cooper Hoffman, 23, discusses sex scenes with Charli XCX in I Want Your Sex, while Meg Mason follows up Sorrow and Bliss with a new novel and a writing shed "smaller than a prison cell".

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The Sunday Times Style 23 August 2026 leads with the cover fashion spread built around jeans-and-diamonds dressing, then moves into a solid mix of reported features and shopping pages. Phoebe McDowell investigates the rise of the high-maintenance man — men spending £600 per session on microneedling, radio-frequency and red light therapy. Sylvia Patterson's memoir excerpt recalls interviewing Mariah Carey at 4am in Bel Air and having her hair brushed by the singer. Ben Cobb's bag column runs through options from Metier to M&S. The fashion desk files six autumn trend spots — the turbo biker jacket at £300 from H&M, Reformation's £528 knee-high boots and a £35 Arket pearl earring among them. A 5Rhythms dance class write-up by Emily Woof doubles as a book plug for Ecstatic (£16.99, Wilton Square Books).

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Beyond the features, regular columns hold the issue together. Sarah Jossel answers reader questions on post-holiday pigmentation and recommends Eucerin Pigment Control Sun Fluid SPF 50+ (£26) and K18's new FutureIQ Biomimetic Hair Longevity Serum (£110). Helen Atkin's Shop With Style flags TWP Clothing blazers at £860 and Jude sandals at £450. The Barometer, edited by Anna Silverman, rounds up cultural chatter. Going Up / Going Down covers monster martinis, fantasy book clubs and AI bank statements. A two-page interiors spread by Alexandra Cameron shows her bar-focused family room with Anglepoise's new 1227 desk lamp in opal blue black satin (£219).

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Content Guide

▸ Cover Feature

p.1 · The easy elegance of jeans and jewels
Sophie Koella models fine jewellery against denim and simple basics in a spread shot by Giampaolo Sgura. Pieces range from a £45,600 Pomellato rose gold necklace to a £3,980 Gucci horsebit ring. The story's core argument: high jewellery works harder when styled down. Pick one bold necklace and wear it with a £54 Cou Cou Intimates bralet rather than a cocktail dress.

▸ Interview

p. — · 'I Hope My Dad's Proud'
Cooper Hoffman talks to Scarlett Russell about his father Philip Seymour Hoffman, his relationship with Nico Parker and playing opposite Charli XCX in I Want Your Sex. Hoffman describes Charli XCX as "this insane performer" who turned up at 6am after her own LA show. The lesson for any young actor: prepare to work opposite someone who outworks you.

▸ Interview

p. — · Meg Mason: 'I Had Total Stage Fright'
The Sorrow and Bliss author speaks to Hadley Freeman from her Sydney writing shed. She describes the pressure of following a breakout bestseller and the loneliness of writing "smaller than a prison cell". Mason's advice for blocked writers: accept that the second book feels impossible and write through it anyway.

▸ Features

▸ Cover Story

p. — · Mr Vain: Rise of the High-Maintenance Man
Phoebe McDowell profiles Greg Zimmerman, 34, who spends approximately £600 per session on microneedling, radio-frequency and light therapy, and David Bennett, 64, who pays up to £4,000 per treatment for Botox, micro-collagen threads and polynucleotides. The piece normalises male aesthetic spending. A useful benchmark: six-weekly appointments are the reported minimum for noticeable results.

▸ Feature

p. — · Madonna, Prince and My Silver Shoes
Sylvia Patterson's memoir excerpt recalls 4am at Mariah Carey's Bel Air mansion, a Pete Doherty interview in a grey police jacket and Marianne Faithfull in Copenhagen. The book I'm Not With the Man (Little, Brown, £25) collects 30 years of rock journalism. One takeaway: a good jacket starts the conversation before you say a word.

▸ Feature

p. — · The rise and rise of couture cossies
High-end swimwear gets the feature treatment, with pieces from Burberry x Hunza G at £325, Triangl at £99 and Away That Day at £215. The segment tracks the growing market for designer swim. If you want label cachet on the beach, the crossover collaborations offer the best value entry point.

▸ Feature

p. — · Hippies are hip
A trend piece tying Olivia Rodrigo's Daisy Chain Fields festival — featuring Doechii and Stevie Nicks — to the paperback release of The Hippies Were Right! (£17.95, Imprint Academic) and Sam Mendes's forthcoming Beatles biopics. The connecting thread: counterculture now sells as lifestyle. Watch the festival merch drops for early signals of next season's boho revival.

▸ Feature

p. — · The literary world loves Taiwan
A short cultural dispatch on Taiwan's growing presence in global literature. No specific book deal cited but the piece positions the island as a rising publishing force. Useful for scouts tracking non-Western literary markets.

▸ Style & Trends

p.16 · The Power Pairing / The Turbo Biker / The Preppy Pearls / The Boss Boots / The Retro Kicks
Six autumn transition looks costed and credited. Standouts: Next's striped polo (£30) and tailored skirt (£42) for office dressing; Reformation's Remy knee-high boots at £528; H&M Studio leather jacket at £300. Each item comes with a specific styling note — wear the polo with kitten-heel mules, tuck jeans into the boots. Copy these exact combinations rather than starting from scratch.

p. — · How to carry off a bag (just don't call it a 'man bag')
Ben Cobb's column runs through a spectrum of carry options from Metier's suede All Day bag to a £16 Marks & Spencer tote. The central rule: choose a bag that fits your document size and don't apologise for carrying it. Cobb's own pick is Swaine's Whitehall briefcase in jaguar green.

▸ Beauty & Wellness

p. — · Sarah Jossel Beauty: pigmentation and hair repair
Jossel answers reader Christa, 59, on post-sun pigmentation and straw-like hair. She recommends BareMinerals Complexion Rescue Luminous Skin Tint Stick (£33.50) for instant evenness, Eucerin Pigment Control Sun Fluid SPF 50+ (£26) for prevention and K18 FutureIQ Biomimetic Hair Longevity Serum (£110) for density. The critical timeframe: at least 12 weeks of consistent serum use before judging results.

▸ Regulars

p. — · Shop With Style by Helen Atkin
Five product picks including TWP Clothing blazer (£860) and leather dress (£2,240), Jude sandals (£450) for wedding season, and Anglepoise 1227 desk lamp in a new opal blue black satin finish (£219). Atkin also highlights an M&S x Aries St Michael collaboration at £25. Limited-edition brand collaborations move fast — buy within the first week of drop.

p. — · Going Up / Going Down
The weekly culture barometer puts Monster Martinis and Camo Crew on the Up side, Fantasy Book Clubs and Toner on the Down. Each item runs one line. Skim this page first to catch the week's conversation starters before they hit your feed.

p. — · Pure Poise: Alexandra Cameron's home
Cameron documents her new family home, specifying every piece from the King Living Promenade bed to Ca'Pietra Riviera Limestone floor tiles. The practical detail: she recommends Ruggable washable rugs for high-traffic rooms and a two-hour "ask me anything" session with a decorator for finishing conundrums.

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Editor's Take

This is a solid late-August Style with stronger features than usual — the men's grooming piece and Cooper Hoffman interview give genuine reporting weight beneath the shopping pages. The cover, while handsomely shot, is essentially a jewellery ad dressed as editorial, and the Patek Philippe advertorial (the "There Is No Star" gatefold) occupies prime real estate without offering reader value. The 5Rhythms dance write-up feels like a book extract in disguise, and a few trend pages blur into advertorial territory (Tescos, WithU, Audemars Piguet). Best suited to fashion-interested readers who want specific price points and brand names they can actually buy, not aspirational fantasy; the obsessive product-credit reader will find more usable recommendations here than in most competitor weeklies. The weakest stretch is the back-half travel promotion — three pages of Times Holidays rail itinerary that belongs in a supplement, not a fashion magazine.

Strengths
• Men's grooming feature with real spending figures
• Ben Cobb's bag column is genuinely useful
• Six autumn trend spots with exact prices and stockists

Weaknesses
• Cover is effectively a jewellery advertorial
• 5Rhythms piece reads as a book extract, not journalism
• Back-half padded with travel promotions and fitness ads

Verdict: Selective read — the front-of-book features and shopping pages reward close reading, but the back half loses momentum to ad content, and the cover delivers brand service over editorial value.