Fashion label Biba is returning to the roots of High Street style.

In a move that evokes images of iconic sixties glamour, the retailer has announced that renowned party girl Daisy Lowe will become the new face of the chain.

The cheap, trendy clothing offered by Biba has won favour with many leading celebrities and has become associated with the style of the swinging sixties, epitomised by Twiggy and followed by the likes of Marianne Faithfull and Bianca Jagger.

Biba attempted a high-end re-launch in 2006 with minimal success, leading the group to go into administration two years later. Now, the re-launch is on again, with proud devotee Lowe at the forefront. Initial campaign images have revealed the smouldering Lowe, 21, play on the sixties roots of the brand in a leopard-print coat and kohl-rimmed eyes. The model, who has been seen at several summer festivals sporting the Biba range, said she was honoured to be involved with a label that she has worn since a teenager. Lowe claimed that Biba was one of the first names that she became aware of when she entered the world of modelling, and she leapt at the opportunity to be part of the new campaign.

The new range from Biba features denim and jewellery in addition to favourites such as faux fur and marabou jackets and a series of limited-edition party dresses. The label will be exclusive to House of Fraser, who said that the confident, fashionable and glamorous Lowe was the perfect representation of the brand.

Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson has been named as the world’s sexiest man by Glamour magazine.

It is the second year running that Pattinson has won the award, with this year seeing the competition dominated by vampire characters.

Glamour magazines 50 Sexiest Men poll placed fellow Twilight star and on-screen for, Taylor Lautner, in second, while the Australian Xavier Samuel placed fourth and Kellan Lutz fifth. That Twilight provided four of the top five nominations is a testament to the vampire phenomenon. The current trend towards things with fangs was not broken by the third-place getter, Ian Somerhalder, who is the star of The Vampire Dairies.

According to Charlotte Duck, the acting editor for Glamour, women have been attracted to vampire characters because they are associated with an element of danger. She said that vampires were the ultimate bad boys that female followers wanted to tame. Around 50,000 readers voted in the latest poll, which saw traditional favourites falling well down the rankings.

Johnny Depp came in sixth, while David Beckham dropped from fourth to 21st. George Clooney could only place 35th, while Jude Law, Keanu Reeves and Leonardo Di Caprio did not even make the list. The top ten was rounded out by mop-haired teen idol Justin Bieber, Gerard Butler, Hayden Christensen and Channing Tatum.

Actor Orlando Bloom and musicians Chris Brown and Justin Timberlake also featured in the top 14, with Portuguese footballer Ronaldo voted into 15th place. Other screen stars including Ashton Kutcher, Ryan Gosling and Jake Gyllenhaal all made the top 20 which was completed by Bradley Cooper.

National Magazine Company’s Cosmopolitan Magazine and Company Magazine have reported the biggest decreases in readership numbers.

The latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations for the first half-year shows Cosmopolitan and Company at the head of the declining interest in women’s lifestyle and fashion magazines.

Cosmopolitan recorded circulation of 401,750, which placed it nine per cent down on last year’s period and six per cent down on the second half of 2009. Company recorded circulation of 217,324, which represented a 5.6 per cent fall in year-on-year comparisons and a 9.5 per cent same period-on-period drop. Grazia Magazine returned a flat performance in year-on-year numbers, with a marginal drop of under half a percentage point.

Essentials Magazine was again the biggest upward-mover, growing by 12.9 per cent in the yearly comparisons to reach circulation of 115,432. Woman & Home also rose, with 369,321 meaning yearly growth of 5.5 per cent. Hachette Filipacchi’s Red Magazine, which is edited by the former editor of Cosmopolitan Sam Baker, returned record circulation of 230,067 on the back of 5.2 per cent yearly growth.

Harper’s Bazaar performed strongly, with circulation of 118,553 representing an 8.1 per cent yearly growth, while Good Housekeeping rose by 3 per cent to 422,496. Other leading titles in such as Vogue and Glamour remained on an even par, with Tatler and Vanity Fair both returning minimal improvements.

With the austerity budget and rising VAT set to hit public pockets even further, the industry is bracing itself for a difficult period ahead, although editors remain optimistic that an economic recovery will benefit the market.

Samantha Cameron, Carla Bruni and Michelle Obama have all been voted onto the style elite of Vanity Fair’s 2010 International Best Dressed List.

The eight-month pregnant UK prime minister’s wife joins regulars Bruni and Obama along with other notable UK style icons David Beckham and Lady Gaga. According to Vanity Fair, Mrs Cameron is the ‘UK First Lady’, and wears the ‘realpolitik’ look. The magazine also lists Mrs Cameron as employed by upmarket stationers Smythson as a creative director.

In a comprehensive detail of the PM’s wife, Vanity Fair says Mrs Cameron, 39, is often seen in numbers from Erdem and Phillip Lam, accompanied by bib necklaces, brooches and chain pendants. When it comes to dressing down, Mrs Cameron can be seen sporting a pair of sneakers and more often than not, a pram. Tickets for Troops, the returned services organisation set up by the Tories last year, is listed as her favourite cause. Mrs Cameron is known to have close ties in the fashion industry, with her sister being deputy editor at British Vogue.

Aside from her fabled dolphin ankle-tattoo, Mrs Cameron is best known for sporting a £65 grey polka dot dress from high street retailers Marks and Spencer to augment the austerity theme of last year’s Conservative Party conference.

The Vanity Fair list, which has been one of the key indexes for fashion heavyweights for the past 71 years, also featured Princess Mary of Denmark, Helena Bonham Carter, John Galliano, Martin Scorcese, Alec Baldwin and Javier Badem.

Leading UK retailer Debenhams has revealed the most unlikely of fashion superstars.

Spearheading the new clothing line to hit the high streets is the famous British walker Alfred Wainwright.

Wainwright is more commonly known for his walking guides to the Lake District, along with a reputation for foul moods to suit the foul weather. He is renowned as a notoriously bad dresser, which in some part could explain the new wave of counter-chic. Over the past two years, his fame has increased markedly thanks to a host of radio and television programmes about his life.

The public exposure has cascaded down from the cliffs to the high street in that time, with demand for walking boots, rucksacks and all-weather, hiking-style clothing soaring, leading Debenhams Director for Menswear Buying, Paul Baldwin, to call the new trend ‘Wainwright Chic’. Baldwin claims that both women and men across Britain have taken to the rugged outdoors look, and that the hill climbing image usually reserved for the most extreme of weekends has now found a place in everyday wear. In the past, specialist clothes such as Wainwright’s defining look were the preserve of nature enthusiasts and train-spotters only, but Baldwin says they are now just as likely to appear on the streets of Chelsea and Kensignton as Scafell or Grisedale Pike.

The Wainwright look usually involves a woollen jumper, belted coat and aged flapped-ear cap. These are most often complemented by trousers that use braces rather than a belt for support and which are tucked in to thick woollen socks. The choice of footwear is traditionally unstylish but highly functional.