Jessica Sherwood

Culture Pieces

London Fashion Week: The British Muslim designer trying to be the future

"I'd see my grandma in a traditional hijab and abaya and my cousin sat next to her in a roadman tracksuit…"

Covering London Fashion Week for the BBC was a bucketlist item I’ve had since I joined the company, but one of the highlights from the experience was getting to meet Kazna Asker, a British Muslim with Yemeni roots raised in Sheffield. With a collection inspired by her family, her garments were a mix of sportswear and traditonal cultural dress. It was one of the most exciting collections at the event that year. Still working for the social team while I was covering fashion week, one of my aims was to spotlight Gen Z designers, especially from working class and culturally diverse backgrounds - one of our main audiences for UK IG and a demographic the BBC was working harder to engage at the time.

Why fans dress up for Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Harry Styles

Special events have always been worth dressing up for. But from Beyoncé's Renaissance tour to Harry Styles's Love on Tour, this year's trend in concert dressing has felt somewhat… extra.

Written during the beginning of hyper-concern dressing, this piece was inspired by my TikTok feed throwing up glittering transitions of fans dressing for the Eras Tour and pulling out their feather boas for Harry Styles. The piece answered the question, what suddenly inspired fans to trade in the classic jeans and a band tee for a three month DIY outfit that made them feel part of the tour.

Rise in sales of second-hand party outfits

It is the first festive season since Covid rules were lifted, but the cost-of-living crisis is limiting spending.

Second-hand clothing apps Vinted and Depop said 18-35s were spending more on second-hand party gear just after the pandmeic, with charities like Oxfam says demand for party wear is up. Now we were finally out of lockdown and back at the office Christmas party, I looked into how women’s spending habbits had changed but their love for sparkle had remained.

Can you dress up for Halloween without hurting the planet?

Online marketplaces offer an easy fix for a last-minute Halloween costume. But is there a more sustainable route to the perfect outfit?

A trend went viral on TikTok in October 2022, aiming to help you find your Halloween costume online so you don't have to. With 120 million views in the #AmazonHalloweenCostume tag, it was popular with the younger generation. Speaking with five influencers, vintage-loving, New Yorker mother-daughter duo Grace and Janice Hampton, British thrifting sisters Mathilda and Liberty Mai and British-born, sewing genius, L.A based model, Madeline White, I asked them if you can still look like an influencer for Halloween, without costing the Earth and making your costume sustainably.

Savage X Fenty: Why Sex Still Sells in Women's Fashion

Modern fashion has taught us that the line between the empowerment and the objectification of women is a difficult one for brands to tread…

This was a piece I wrote for BBC Business for Valentine’s Day 2020. Just before the collapse of Victoria’s Secret, the piece looked at how fashion brands used female sexuality to sell their brands to women. Speaking with London College of Fashion Lecturer Olga Mitterfellner, young fashion journalist Emily and target consumer and fashion graduate Lucy Legret, I explored how these tactics can make or break a fashion company in the modern day.

Love Island: How Amber Gill and Molly-Mae changed fashion

There were two big winners of ITV2's Love Island this year. Amber Gill, the contestant who won the show, and Boohoo, the online fast fashion retailer who signed her…

Written in the autumn after the most popular season of Love Island aired, this piece, written for BBC Business, analysed how reality TV had changed the way in which fashion was marketed to the 18-25 market and has caused a boom in online clothing sales. Speaking with the Celebrity editor of Grazia Magazine, Guy Pewsey, Senior Lecturer of Fashion and Sustainability at Nottingham Trent University Stella Claxton and young consumer and Birmingham University student Masie Alice, I investiaged why the power of influencer marketing helped Boohoo knock ASOS off the top as the biggest online fashion retailer in 2019.  

Depop: Can pre-loved clothes make fast fashion sustainable?

Can it ever be green to buy clothes and only wear them once? Well it might be, if you buy second-hand ones and sell them again when you're finished with them…

During ‘Sustainable September’, people were offering ways they could reduce their carbon footprint, which included swapping and trading clothes. I caught up with four 18-25 year olds for BBC Buisness, who have used social swapping apps such as Depop, and opened up shops on ASOS Marketplace to create successful profiles which encourage buying vintage or used instead of new. Speaking with Professor Tim Cooper, Head of Nottingham Trent University's Clothing Sustainability Research Group, we discussed what effect these profiles have on promoting sustainability in the age of fast fashion.  

For these women, it's Halloween all year round

Halloween is in full swing, with people across the world ordering their costumes and preparing for the annual holiday…

With so many articles during the October season focusing on Halloween costumes, I interviewed two make-up artists for BBC Business who have made Halloween a profession. Mostly self taught, Ellie and Lex took their love of horror, costume make-up, and talent to Instagram and YouTube to create spell binding looks that grace thousands of Pinterest boards worldwide. Speaking with Holly Stewart, head of brand for online cosmetics retailer BEAUTYBAY, I asked how Halloween has become profitable in the make-up world and how influencers like Ellie and Lex have changed the way Halloween is celebrated by young women.

Why people pay for the perfect Instagram wedding

Autumn marks the end of the main wedding season in the UK, but for this generation of newlyweds, planning a wedding is perhaps not as simple as it once was…

In 2019, I wrote a piece for the BBC’s UK page, looking into the way weddings have changed in recent years. Using the 2019 National Wedding Survey, I interviewed two couples planning weddings and asked if they’d felt helped or hindered by social media in planning their big day. I also interviewed self-confessed Pinterest bride Lauren Reynolds who shared how using social media to plan her wedding was a big success and how small businesses such as Sandi’s CalypsoDidIt have boomed as brides go big in search of the perfect picture.

Hard News Pieces

What to know about the Israel-Hamas truce and hostage release plan

With a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip apparently in effect and large numbers of Palestinians moving north as the Israeli army retreated Friday, significant questions lingered over what was next for President Donald Trump's 20-point plan for peace.

My first piece for NBC News as Social Editor, I aimed to deconstruct and help answer audience questions about the Israel-Hamas true deal back in October. Working in social media is such a unique position in journalism as you get to see in real-time how the audience digests media and how they respond to it. During big global events where the news can feel constant and heavy, breaking down a story is sometimes the most effective way to engage them and help them understand how a situation has evolved to the point they’re now picking it up. This story performed very well for us and sat on the front page at the top for a number of hours after being published.

'Nobody told us about the coronavirus pandemic'

In 2017, Elena Manighetti and Ryan Osborne decided to take the plunge many dream of - they quit their jobs, bought a boat and decided to travel around the world. They asked their families to keep in touch, but with one rule: no bad news…

My first article, written during the Coronavirus Pandemic for the BBC’s UK Online, saw me interview a couple from Manchester who had spent the past three years sailing the ocean with little access to the outside world. Living in seclusion aboard their boat, Elena and Ryan hit a patch of 4G to find the world around them had changed, as the world was engulfed in a global pandemic. My most popular piece for the BBC, this story was read by over four million people and was picked up by a number of new outlets after the BBC broke the story.  

Prestigious British university rocked by online allegations of rape, sexual misconduct

The University of St Andrews has been confronted with more than 100 posts on an Instagram account alleging incidents including sexual assault and rape…

In 2020 I worked as an Associate Producer on a piece for NBC News Dotcom and The Today Show on a piece regarding the Instagram account Survivors of St Andrews which had began gaining traction online. My work involved going through the Instagram account and reading each anonymous account of rape, harassment or sexual assault, categorising them, writing them up and placing them into an easily readable format for the rest of the team to be able to work with and use. The piece was both written up for online and aired for The Today Show in the USA.