The winners of the 2023 International Woolmark Prize were announced in Paris this week.

The wonderfully named Lagos Space Programme from Nigeria, a conceptual non-binary label by Adeju Thompson winning the overall prize and the Karl Lagerfeld Award for Innovation going to A.ROEGE HOVE from Denmark.

The winners each receive $200,000 and $100,000 as well as ongoing support from the industry and Woolmark Prize retail partners in the hopes that the designers can have a sustainable and commercially viable business.

It is an important contribution from Woolmark, one that connects Australia’s 60,000 woolgrowers to the global fashion world, and it deserves kudos.

As Adeju Thompson, who used Merino wool to tailor each piece of the winning collection said: “This is a life-changing opportunity. It means that things will be easier for me, coming from Nigeria there’s no support.”

“To have recognition from the Woolmark Company – wow, I’m so speechless and I’m looking forward to the future,” he said.

To me the prize represent the best of the fashion world, fostering an appreciation of quality textiles, mixed with creativity and talent.

Lagos Space Programme’s ‘life-changing’ opportunity. Photo: Lulien M. Hekimian/Getty

“Ultimately, the International Woolmark Prize celebrates Australian Merino wool, with today’s winners and finalists imbued with a life-long love for the fibre,” explains The Woolmark Company Managing Director John Roberts.

It’s a wonderful prize that catapulted the careers of Valentino and Karl Lagerfeld almost 70 years ago, and a reminder that the organic beauty of wool is just as relevant, if not more so today.

Martha the covergirl

So Martha Stewart, the lifestyle doyenne of Martha Stewart Living fame, is on the cover of the Sports Illustrated annual swimsuit cover this week.

The 81-year-old is looking very glamorous in a low-cut one-piece swimsuit, tousled hair and wearing what looks like a taffeta silk beach coat.

These “sexy at any age” stunts are exhausting. Photo: Ruven Afanador/Sports Illustrated

Apparently she is the oldest cover star the magazine has ever featured (they have previously run 74-year-old Maye Musk, mother of Elon Musk, and a 63-year-old Christie Brinkley).

Martha’s shots are heavily retouched and airbrushed – she looks good and she’s obviously approached the whole project with a sort of cheeky “why not?“ attitude, and so good on her for that.

But I’m exhausted by of all these frantic “sexy at any age!” stunts used to sell magazines.

I mean, I naively thought that maybe at 80 it was time to hang up the kimono. But no, ladies, it seems we have to maintain the charade until we drop.

It’s all seems a bit try hard, more so from the publisher’s end than Martha’s. It was like when the infamous Pirelli calendar started to go woke and feature prominent feminists, in clothes, which probably wasn’t going to go down too well in the auto shop.

Sometimes the initial idea just doesn’t play in the current environment and has simply run out of puff.

What about, hear me out, Sports Illustrated sticks to putting sportspeople on the cover?

And, in truly ground-breaking news, they don’t necessarily need to be in a skimpy cossie. Sex sells, sure, but last time I looked so does sport.