FROW News #132: Celine Reworks a Reebok Classic, Skin Rocks Goes Plus & Jhené Aiko Returns 👀✨
Fashion Month is officially in motion, with New York Fashion Week under way before London takes its turn next week. The shows may be dominating the conversation, but they have not stopped everything else from dropping, and this is a bigger FROW News because there was simply too much we felt you needed to know.
Celine has put a luxury spin on a Reebok classic, Skin Rocks has entered a whole new category, Shark Beauty is taking its LED technology from face to body, and Jhené Aiko has finally returned with a new album. Let’s dive in ⬇️
Celine Has Given Reebok’s Aerobics Classic a £590 Makeover 👟
The Reebok Freestyle Lo first arrived in 1982 for the aerobics boom. Four decades later, Celine has remade the low-top in lambskin and attached a very different price: £590. If the Freestyle has ever had a place in your wardrobe, there is something nostalgic about seeing it return with Celine’s stamp on it.
Eight colours are available for women and men, ranging from optic white, black and dark brown to oxblood, butter and fluo red, with sizes spanning 34 to 47 across the two ranges. The familiar shape is still unmistakably Reebok, while Celine’s Triomphe on one heel and Reebok’s logo on the other give this version its luxury finish. The collection is available online, although some pairs appear to be selling out quickly.
Primark Is Giving Its Activewear a Proper Name, and Keeping the Prices Low 🏃🏽♀️
Primark is getting more serious about activewear with Primark Form, a permanent new range covering women, men and children. The name might be new, but the real story is in the details: sweat-wicking fabrics, four-way stretch, shower-resistant layers and reflective finishes, without Primark wandering away from the prices people actually go there for.
For women, that means a £5 Seam Free Crop Top, £8 matching shorts, £11 Buttery Soft leggings and a £16 coordinating jacket. Men’s pieces start at £4 and children’s at £3.50, so you could go in for your own leggings and leave having updated everybody’s gym drawer.
Matalan Is Asking Us to Look Again 👀
Matalan is stepping into a new era on 12th September, when its AW26 collection arrives with sharper tailoring, butter-soft leather, lace, heritage checks and oversized knits. The first pieces include a grey pinstripe suit, tie-neck blouses in khaki and burgundy, cinched barn jackets, barrel-leg jeans and peg-heel suede boots.
The collection will be available through Matalan’s website, and it is already giving us a reason to look twice. That is precisely what this new direction needed to do.
Timberland Is Spelling Out More Than 50 Years of Culture, A to Z 🥾
There aren’t many boots that can move from a building site to a hip-hop video and Fashion Week without looking out of place, but Timberland’s yellow boot has been doing exactly that for more than 50 years. The A to Z of Timberland maps that journey through a visual dictionary narrated by RZA, bringing Yaeji, Sha’Carri Richardson and Tyshawn Jones together with archive moments from The Notorious B.I.G. and Ozzy Osbourne.
During London Fashion Week, the A-to-Z will leave the screen and become a physical exhibition, with live art from Teoni on 18th September, followed by Ryan Hawaii customisation workshops and limited-edition patches the next day, before Balamii DJs close things out. Timberland is keeping the venue and public-access details under wraps for now, so don’t plan the outfit just yet, but this is one worth keeping on the radar.
Skin Rocks Has Gone Plus and Its First Drop Is a £65 Barrier Mask 🩵
Skin Rocks has created a whole new category called Plus and, thankfully, it is not another excuse to turn a five-step routine into twelve. It will be home to targeted products for those times when your usual routine needs a little more support, rather than adding another permanent step. First up is The Support Mask, a creamy treatment costing £65 for 100ml and created for dry, dehydrated or sensitised skin. It can be left on for 10 minutes or used overnight in place of moisturiser.
The formula includes Skin Rocks’ Lipid-Advanced Complex, ceramides and a blend of oils and waxes, with the brand estimating that one tube should last around three months when used twice a week. But the most honest line on the product page may be the one telling customers they do not need it if their skin already feels balanced and comfortable. In a beauty industry that is usually very happy to add another product to our routines, we appreciate being told when not to buy something.
Armani’s New Blush Is Serving Patisserie-Counter Glamour 🍰
Armani Beauty has been looking to the Italian dessert counter for its new Dolci Makeup Blush, and the shade names are every bit as delicious: Rose, Caramel, Apricot, Cinnamon and Mauve. The £38 cream-to-powder colour can be worn on cheeks and lips, building to a soft-matte finish that Armani says lasts for up to seven hours. It is available exclusively at Selfridges now before arriving more widely on 16th September. The only difficult part may be choosing between Caramel and Cinnamon.
Huda Beauty and Cardi B Are Making the Face Card Even Louder 💜
Before Ultra Snatched was even available to buy, Huda Kattan and Cardi B were already all over social media teasing what was coming. Now the Ultra Snatched collection has landed, taking Huda Beauty’s Easy Bake powders into bright pink and lilac territory with £34 Loose Powder Duos that can be worn separately or mixed, alongside £32 Pressed Powders in Pink Velvet Cookie and Ube Birthday Cake. Cherry Lilac is intended for fair-to-light skin tones, while the deeper Pink Ube pairing is aimed at medium-to-tan tones. Huda and Cardi together were never going to give us beige, and honestly, why would we want them to?
The Organic Pharmacy Is Taking the Slow and Steady Route to Retinal 🌙
The Organic Pharmacy is trying to make the introduction to retinoids less dramatic with its new Retinal Renewal Night Serum. Retinoids remain high on beauty wish lists thanks to their promises around texture, pigmentation and fine lines, but dryness, peeling and irritation can make those first few weeks feel anything but glamorous.
This formula pairs 0.03% encapsulated retinal with 0.5% bakuchiol, peptides and rose water, using gradual-release technology intended to make the retinal easier to tolerate while still working on texture, pigmentation and fine lines.
The 35ml serum costs £65 and is available through The Organic Pharmacy, its Chelsea flagship, and M&S. Retinal is still not an active to freestyle with, so beginners are advised to start twice a week, increase gradually and keep SPF firmly in the morning routine.
Nailberry Has Put an Entire LED Manicure Into One Box 💅🏽
Nailberry is making a serious play for the at-home manicure with BioGlow, a complete system containing a 48W LED lamp, primer, base and top coats, three colours, acetone-free remover and the accessories needed to put everything to work. The brand says the finished manicure can last for more than 12 days, which should appeal to anyone who loves freshly done nails but could happily skip the regular salon appointment. BioGlow is available now and, if you're quick, it is currently £90 instead of £130. With Christmas creeping closer, this is exactly the kind of beauty gift a committed nail lover would still be using long after December.
BYOMA Is Playing the Long Game With Your Skin 🧬
BYOMA is taking its barrier-first approach into skin longevity with the new Longevit-8 Peptide Serum. The fragrance-free formula brings together copper peptides, niacinamide, vitamin E, vegan Phyto-PDRN and the brand’s Tri-Ceramide Complex to support hydration, firmness and barrier health over time, rather than treating every new line as a full-blown emergency, thank goodness. The 40ml serum costs £21.99 and is available from both Boots and Cult Beauty, bringing one of beauty’s increasingly expensive conversations into a much more accessible bracket.
Shark Beauty’s New LED System Is Coming for More Than Your Face 💡
Shark Beauty has decided the LED skincare routine should not stop at the jawline. Its new Shark CryoGlow Clinic LED Face + Body System combines a face mask with a flexible body panel, using red, blue and deep infrared light across the face, neck, chest, back and hands, alongside hot and cold therapy for tired under-eyes.
With 17 routine options, it covers concerns ranging from fine lines and blemishes to firmness and under-eye puffiness. The original CryoGlow has already built a proper following, holding a 4.5 out of five average from more than 900 customer reviews at John Lewis, so this expanded version is not arriving without receipts.
At £549.99, this is a serious beauty investment, but there is something very satisfying about an LED system that finally remembers the rest of our skin did not stop existing at the chin.
TOOTILAB Wants Our Curls Ready for Any Forecast 💦
Anyone with curls knows one glance at the weather app can change the entire wash-day plan. Rain, humidity and heat all have opinions, so TOOTILAB is calling its weather-ready line-up the Extreme Weather Styling Wardrobe. Its new addition, Extreme Weather Styling Water, is a water-thin, strong-hold styler designed to define waves, curls and coils without the weight, flakes or sticky residue that can come with heavier gels.
Dropping on 14th September in fragranced and fragrance-free versions, it has taken three years and more than 30 testing rounds to develop, with particular attention paid to finer curls and waves that can collapse beneath richer formulas. It does create a temporary cast, but scrunching that out leaves the curls softer while keeping the definition in place.
The Extreme Weather Styling Water costs £13 for 75ml or £34 for 300ml, giving you the option to test the waters before committing to the full-size bottle. Yes, the pun was sitting right there.
Anabel Kingsley Is Untangling the Internet’s Hair Advice 📚
The internet has given us endless hair hacks, miracle oils and enough conflicting advice to make wash day feel like an exam. Trichologist Anabel Rose Kingsley is cutting through the noise with Haircare, a 256-page hardback dealing in science rather than whatever happened to go viral before breakfast.
From identifying your texture and choosing products to scalp concerns, hair loss, nutrition, salon visits and styling damage, the book tackles the questions that usually send us down a two-hour internet rabbit hole. It is available now for £25 and feels less like another glossy beauty book and more like the knowledgeable friend we need before adding yet another bottle to the bathroom shelf.
Six Years Later, Jhené Aiko Is Back Where She Belongs 🌴🎧
Jhené Aiko fans, our wait is officially over. Six years after Chilombo, she has returned with Westside Whimsy, a 20-track album carrying her West Coast roots through R&B, soul and hip-hop.
And Jhené has not returned quietly. Kendrick Lamar reunites with her on “So Good”, while Ab-Soul, Tyga, Larry June and OHMA also join her across the album. Westside Whimsy is streaming now, and pressing play feels less like checking out another new release and more like catching up with an artist we have genuinely missed. Perhaps good things really do come to those who wait.
World Afro Day Is Taking Its Tenth Birthday to the Streets 💜
World Afro Day is turning ten, and one afternoon was clearly never going to cover it. From 15th to 17th September, its first FRO Festival will take over Lower Stable Street at Coal Drops Yard in King’s Cross, bringing Afro hair, beauty, fashion, food and culture together for three days.
The programme includes a Wondermarket filled with Black British brands, community catwalks where Afros, locs and braids become the main attraction, Flowers & ’Fro workshops, live radio, an Afro After-School Club and free hair and scalp checks. World Afro Day itself continues into the evening with Beverley Knight, Zeze Mills and Olympic weightlifter Emily Campbell joining conversations around Afro hair, health, identity and luxury.
Daytime entry is free, although several workshops, checks and tasting sessions require booking, while the World Afro Day + Night event is separately ticketed and limited to just 75 people. Ten years in, this is no longer one date asking people to notice Afro hair. It is giving it the street, the stage and the celebration it deserves.
Two Things Can Be True Is Here for the Conversations Without Easy Answers 🎙️
Some conversations are too complicated for a neat yes or no, which is exactly where Two Things Can Be True wants to sit. The independently created podcast brings our very own founder, Leanna, together with Carissa B, two women in different seasons of life talking honestly about faith, relationships, careers, motherhood, culture and the contradictions running through all of them.
Full disclosure: this one is close to home, but it is not here for a comfortable little promotional chat. Three episodes are available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible and YouTube, making room for nuance, laughter and those uncomfortable truths that tend to appear when nobody is trying to win the conversation.
Caitlin Moran Has Had Enough of the Doomscrolling Too 📚
If the relentless news cycle has been making the world feel particularly heavy lately, Caitlin Moran is right there with us. In How to Be Hopeful: My Year of Living Joyfully, she reaches what she calls “Peak Despair” and sets herself a year-long mission to find out whether hope can be rebuilt without running away to a remote farmhouse or pretending everything is fine.
Her route back is refreshingly ordinary: leaving social media, stepping away from 24-hour news, sitting on buses without headphones, picking litter, donating blood and rewilding her garden. This is not about blind positivity; it is about finding small, practical ways to fall back in love with the world we actually live in. The £22 hardback arrives on 17th September and is available to pre-order now.
Charli xcx Is Bringing Music, Fashion, Film Back Home 🎟️
Charli xcx is taking her Music, Fashion, Film tour across the UK and Europe in February 2027, with Audrey Hobert joining her as special guest. The UK run lands at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro on 15th February, Manchester’s Co-op Live on 17th February and The O2 in London on 19th February. Three cities, two beyond the M25. We’ll take it.
Presale begins on Wednesday 16th September, followed by general sale on Friday 18th September. In other words, now would be a very good time to decide which group chat can actually be trusted with securing the tickets.
And just like that, a very full FROW News #132 is complete. From fashion finding fresh energy and beauty shelves refusing to slow down to new music, books and conversations worth making time for, this was a big issue because there was a lot we genuinely felt you needed to know. We’ll see you back here next week.
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