The year of gin! Spirit enjoys record sales as drinking habits change
About 40m bottles were sold over the past 12 months – enough to make 1.12bn gin and tonics – as Spain and US become key markets
Life and style
Pantone’s ‘greenery’: can it bring hope and colour to 2017?
The global authority has predicted its shade for 2017: greenery, the universal shade of hope. Fingers crossed
The best thing I ate in 2016
From a homemade birthday cake to wild pig in the Yucatán, the big names in food, including Nigella Lawson, René Redzepi and Nadiya Hussain, recall their favourite eating experiences of 2016
The great Christmas 2016 taste test
Observer Food Monthly’s cast of Dickensian players feast on the high street’s cakes, cheese and chocolates. Which are the best buys? And did anyone ask for more?
Britain’s fashion awards makes nod to youth and internationalism
Renamed awards – the ‘British’ is no more – also inaugural fundraiser for scholarship for design students and apprentices
Chanel celebrates its place in French culture with spectacle at Paris Ritz
French culture minister joins music producer Pharrell Williams for show at newly reopened hotel marking fashion house’s French heritage