M.A.G. blog, signed by Lydia

Lydia's Weekly Lifestyle blog is for today's African girl, so no subject is taboo. My purpose is to share things that may interest today's African girl.

This week's contributors: Lydia, Pépé Pépinière, Titi. This week's subjects: Quiet Luxury in the Accra Office, Trouble for the luxury brands, Antibiotics, Climate change and wine, +233 Jazz & Grill Bar

Quiet Luxury in the Accra Office. Embrace the Power of Neutrals: Cream. White. Black. Camel. Chocolate brown. Navy. Grey. These colours have a naturally sophisticated energy and make mixing and matching much easier. Imagine a crisp white shirt with tailored brown trousers, a structured handbag, and elegant loafers. Simple? Yes. Boring? Absolutely not. Quiet luxury is all about making simplicity look intentional. Choose Quality-Looking Fabrics: Your outfit doesn't have to be expensive—but it shouldn't look cheap. Look for fabrics with structure and a polished finish. Think crisp cotton, linen blends, good-quality crepe, structured suiting, and smooth fabrics that hold their shape. The goal is to look effortlessly put together, even after surviving Accra traffic. Grooming Is Part of the Outfit: Quiet luxury doesn't stop at your clothes. Neat hair. Fresh makeup. Well-maintained nails. A beautiful fragrance. Clean shoes. You don't have to look overdone—you just have to look intentional. Because sometimes the real luxury is looking like you had your life together, even when your morning started with traffic, unanswered emails, and a trotro driver testing your patience. The Quiet Luxury Rule? Confidence. At the end of the day, looking luxurious isn't about pretending to be someone you're not. It's about choosing pieces carefully, wearing them well, paying attention to details, and carrying yourself with confidence. Quiet. Polished. Powerful. Expensive-looking that's the corporate luxury fashionista.

Trouble for the big luxury brands. Their sales are down. Many people are coming to their senses and no longer want to pay 15,000 USD for a bag or a watch, or 150 USD for a 100 ml bottle of perfume. Who buys these things anyway? Typically, the “nouveau riche”, those who have come into real money only recently. The old-money people, whose parents were already born rich, do not buy noisy things like Yves Saint Laurent or Dior. They have their own good-quality, reasonably priced things that are less noisy. They do not show off, but if you meet them, you can see that they know what quality is. The luxury brands have another problem: the Chinese market. There are a lot of nouveau riche people there, but now they are starting to have their own luxury brands, like Shang Xia and Songmont. A bit of nationalism and social media can cause a lot of problems as well. For example, a woman who was promised an item from Tiffany, despite making regular purchases, was disappointed and given a few biscuits as consolation. She went viral, and the public started hitting out at the brand. Get ready for Shanghai Fashion Week and Beijing Fashion Week to become part of the New York, London, Milan and Paris sequence. Already, SUNCUN and CHEN 1988 are showing their stuff in our part of the world, too. And there is more. Vogue magazine is suffering, like the rest of the printed press. They are restructuring and can only promise that Vogue in Britain will remain profitable in 2027. Beyond that, it is anybody’s guess. The fashion world is in the midst of a revolution. Start looking for good-quality, well-designed items, wear them with style, and save thousands of dollars.

Antibiotics. These are nice medicines, in fact some of the few medicines that actually heal; mostly medicines suppress symptoms only. The first antibiotic was discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming in London, but commercialization only came in 1941. And before that? If you had a proper infection, you could die from it. So antibiotics are the answer to many ailments, and doctors happily prescribe them. Result: the bacteria become resistant. In England, in 2024, 2,379 people died because no antibiotic worked against the bacteria; the bacteria had outsmarted the medicine. Back to before 1941. And that death toll was up 10% from the previous year. Estimates are that by 2050, 185,000 people will die in the UK because no antibiotic works for their case. So use them as little as you can, not to allow resistance to build up. Ah, but if your neighbor has a resistant bacterial strain, you can get that strain as well. And then, if you are not strong and become sick? These resistant bacteria also populate your intestines and outmanoeuvre the good ones. Recent tests in the Nairobi slums showed more resistant bacteria in these highly populated areas than in the rest of the town. The same was observed in Britain: the poorer the area, the higher the incidence.

Climate change and wine. The 2026 wine harvest in southern France, (the biggest vineyard in the world, with approximately 700,000 hectares) is a disaster, with some areas experiencing a full 5-month drought, scorching of leaves and yields down 15–50%. Only some of those who are irrigating had a reasonable harvest, albeit a bit “watery”. So stay away from 2026 red Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault; rather, go for more northern wines like Burgundy, Beaujolais, Sauvignon and Chinon. Try South American wines, like wines from Chile, value for money.

+233 Jazz & Grill Bar. (Dr. Isert Street, North Ridge, opposite GBC, Accra). TJ is becoming an ever better singer and starting to draw his own crowds. The Zuum band, with Chris in charge (now 85 years old and still kicking) is really giving nice greenbacks, and the sound is good. Pity that the beef kebabs were a bit dry. I’ll try again and let you know.

# Lydia...

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