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: Paris Fashion Week 2026, Naomi Campbell's tall trees catch a lot of wind, Diet drinks work as well as water for weight loss, major trial finds, and A glass of wine? No thank you.

Paris Fashion Week 2026: Paris Was Doing the Most. Paris Fashion Week arrived with one simple message: please leave the ordinary at home. From September 28th to October 6th, the French capital turned into one giant runway, with Spring/Summer 2027 collections bringing drama, tailoring, fantasy and plenty of “Wait… where did she get that?” street style. The runways were serving fashion with a French accent—sharp tailoring, beautiful silhouettes, unexpected proportions and enough attitude to make even a coffee run look editorial. And then there was the street style. Parisian fashion girls stepped out looking effortlessly expensive, while editors, models and influencers turned sidewalks into their own personal catwalks. The real skill? Looking like you just threw something on when you clearly spent an hour making it look that way. For the Accra fashion girl, Paris offered plenty of inspiration. Think relaxed tailoring that can survive the Accra heat, oversized sunglasses for maximum main-character energy, statement bags, elegant neutrals and shoes that say “I have a meeting at 10 and cocktails at 7.” Of course, Ghanaian fashion girls already know the assignment: confidence first, outfit second. Whether it is a perfectly fitted kaba-inspired silhouette, bold African print, sleek trousers or a killer accessory, the Accra woman has never needed Paris to tell her how to make an entrance. Paris may have the Eiffel Tower, but Accra has Oxford Street, Cantonments and a fashion girl who refuses to overdress—because there is no such thing.

Paris Fashion Week 2026 proved once again: fashion is not just what happens on the runway. Sometimes, the real show starts when you step outside.

Naomi Campbell's tall trees catch a lot of wind. Supermodel Naomi Campbell has managed to overturn a five-year ban on serving as a charity trustee that she said had “hurt deeply”. Two years ago, the Charity Commission, which regulates charities in England and Wales, found “multiple instances of misconduct and/or mismanagement” at the charity including using charity funds to pay for Campbell’s stay at a five-star hotel in Cannes, as well as spa treatments, room service and cigarettes. As a result, it imposed the ban on Campbell. In its current ruling, the tribunal confirmed there had been “serious misconduct and mismanagement,” but that the “failures in the management of the charity’s finances and the misuse of its funds” resulted from the conduct of the founder of the charity Bianka Hellmich, not from Naomi. These misconducts were “concealed” from the supermodel. Anyway, Campbell is not very good at choosing her acquaintances. She knew Epstein, of the famous Epstein files. Epstein was very good at getting business favours from rich business men by making under age girls available to them. The Epstein files mentioned Trump and he has been busy trying to keep things covered. Trump was in Moscow in 2013 for the Miss Universe Pageant, when Campbell lived there with a Russian business mogul. Campbell knew Trump. And Campbell knew Nina Keita, niece of Ivory Coast's president, who introduced Epstein to young women and local business leaders in Ivory Coast. It’s who you know, isn't it?

Diet drinks work as well as water for weight loss, major trial finds. A two-year clinical trial involving 493 adults with overweight or obesity found that diet soft drinks were essentially as effective as water for long-term weight loss and weight maintenance. Participants drinking beverages sweetened with aspartame, acesulfame-K, or sucralose lost a similar amount of weight to those drinking water, while both groups also saw improvements in waist size, body composition, and several metabolic measures. Professor Jo Harrold, Dean of Psychology at the University of Liverpool, led the peer-reviewed research with Professor Jason Halford, Professor of Biological Psychology & Health Behaviours at the University of Leeds.

A glass of wine? No thank you. In M.A.G nr. 46, 5th May 2023, I mentioned that most wines in Ghana have a lot of added sulfur in them, (Europe allows till 250 mg/ltr for white and rose, and 150 mg for reds) to avoid that wine starts to referment, which could even result in the cork popping out, like with Champagne, Prosecco and other sparkling wines. On the bottle it is mentioned: added sulfurs. Adding the sulfur stops any effort by the wine to start a 2nd life. Unfortunately this often leads to headache if you drink too much of it, that sort of nail in your head the next day. Call it a Chateau Migraine. But there is also urticaire (another word for hives is the itchy, raised red or skin-coloured bumps and welts on the skin). Recognize this? And on top of that there are all the other chemicals added to give the wine a constant taste; you didn't want to get something else than what you drank last time. And there are the left overs of pesticides, and for example South Africa is known to import pesticides that are forbidden in any other country, so much so that workers in the wine yards and fruit orchards sometimes go on strike because they don't want to be poisoned. And I dare to bet that our FDA does not check for these things. Cheers.

Lydia...

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