PrettyLittleThing, famous for cheap clubwear, has received a makeover as it attempts to establish a higher-end identity.

“It’s the fashion equivalent of an influencer getting her lip filler dissolved,” said India Block in London’s The Standard, as the company switches to “elevated fashion essentials”.

Its parent company, Boohoo, is also rebranding as Debenhams after a “fall from grace”, said James Sillars on Sky News. But whether changes for the “struggling” retailer can make a difference remains unclear.

‘Jump on the bandwagon’

Once the go-to for “clubbing attire at bargain basement prices”, PrettyLittleThing’s “all-pink logo and packaging” captured a generation, said Block in The Standard.

So ditching this for a “palette of greige, sage, taupe and watered-down burgundy” leaves something to be desired, especially given price increases not “reflected in the quality of the materials and fit”.

A company that once “conjured up images” of “bodycon dresses covered in cut-outs” now sells items “reminiscent of Angela Merkel’s capsule wardrobe for a G20 summit”, said Katie Rosseinsky in The Independent. The tactic of the brand is “clear”, even if its “sustainability practices or supply chain transparency” are not. Pretty Little Thing (PLT) is attempting to “jump on the bandwagon of so-called quiet luxury”.

These are not just “blazers and beige blouses”, said Tayler Adigun in Blavity, but a symbol of a “right-leaning” and “regressive” culture. PLT exists amid a “tandem cultural pivot” towards the conservative, where women are encouraged to be “financially reliant on their male partners” to secure a “soft life“.

Not everyone will buy this “shallow” attempt at “posturing as a luxe-label” and this could mark the “beginning of the end” for the brand.

‘Struggling badly’

It is “hard to escape the impression” that this fashion company has “simply had its day in the sun”, said Nils Pratley in The Guardian. The “new name” of PLT’s parent group, Boohoo, is Debenhams, restoring a well-known and trusted brand.

But this “resuscitation operation” may prove fruitless, given how the company is “struggling badly” amid competition in both fast fashion and second-hand spaces.

The best way for the company to secure future success is for it to “make good on its promise” to turn away from fast fashion, said Jenn Szekely in The Drum. Only by offering a “higher-end product” and increasing transparency on its progress can this rebrand “have legs”.

Find out how closely you’ve been paying attention to the latest news and other global events by putting your knowledge to the test with our Quiz of The Week.

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1. Which party pulled off a surprise victory in Greenland’s election?

• Naleraq
• Inuit Ataqatigiit
• Demokraatit
• Siumut

2. Which US airline announced a controversial change to its baggage policy?

• Delta
• Southwest
• Spirit
• Alaska

3. Nasa has launched a new space telescope with what name?

• Galex
• Atrex
• Spherex
• Sampex

4. This weekend saw a mass rally in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, calling for the return of what?

• A state religion
• WhatsApp
• Monarchy
• Physical cash

5. A jet fuel tanker collided with a container ship carrying toxic chemicals in which UK estuary?

• Humber
• Thames
• Severn
• Medway

6. According to a new study, men are much more likely to be obese if they are what?

• Tall
• Married
• College-educated
• Religious

7. Which country’s constitutional court has kicked the front-runner off the ballot for May’s presidential election?

• Romania
• Moldova
• Georgia
• Serbia

8. Researchers found that children who regularly consume what are more likely to show kindness towards others?

• Fish
• Oranges
• Turkey
• Broccoli

9. Which Premier League football club unveiled plans for a new £2 billion stadium?

• Manchester United
• Liverpool
• Chelsea
• Arsenal

10. Donald Trump Jr’s ex-wife Vanessa Trump has been secretly dating which athlete?

• Michael Phelps
• Tiger Woods
• Tom Brady
• Roger Federer

1. Demokraatit

The centre-right party took 30% of Tuesday’s vote, comfortably ahead of second-placed Naleraq’s 24%. Naleraq has called for independence from Denmark as soon as possible and closer co-operation with the United States, but Greenlandic voters opted for Demokraatit’s vision of gradual independence and a more reserved relationship with the US.

2. Southwest

The US budget airline will begin charging passengers for checked baggage in May, marking the end of its long-standing free luggage policy. It will also discontinue its “Hunger Games” open seating policy as part of an effort to boost revenue.

3. Spherex

Or, to give it its full name, the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer. The $488 million (£377 million) telescope will help us “answer fundamental questions”, said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, Nasa’s acting head of astrophysics. “How does the universe work? How did we get here within that universe, and are we alone?”

4. Monarchy

Frustration is growing among Nepal’s citizens who see the republic as ‘corrupt’ and impoverished, with some pinning their hopes on Gyanendra. The 77-year-old former king gave up the throne 17 years ago after a failed attempt to impose authoritarian rule.

5. Humber

Cargo ship Solong struck US tanker Stena Immaculate and ruptured its hold, which contained 220,000 barrels of jet fuel. Solong was initially feared to be carrying highly toxic sodium cyanide, but it was later confirmed that the chemicals were no longer on board at the time of the collision.

6. Married

Researchers from Warsaw’s National Institute of Cardiology have found that married men are 3.2 times more likely to be obese than their unwed counterparts. However, no such link was found for married women, with researchers suggesting that women are more likely to take action to lose weight.

7. Romania

Far-right populist Călin Georgescu won a surprise victory in the first round of the presidential election in November, but the result was overturned by the constitutional court amid evidence of pro-Russian interference. The court upheld the Romanian election bureau’s decision to ban Georgescu from taking part in the re-run, saying it was “unacceptable” for him to run while under criminal investigation.

8. Fish

Researchers at the University of Bristol in the UK discovered that nine-year-olds who do not consume fish are 43% less likely to engage in “prosocial behaviours” such as sharing, helping friends or offering comfort to others.

9. Manchester United

The club claims that “New Trafford”, a 100,000-seat stadium to be built close to the existing Old Trafford ground, will be the “Wembley of the North”. But some have questioned the wisdom of the project when the club is £1 billion in debt and currently only 14th in the Premier League.

10. Tiger Woods

Vanessa Trump and golfing superstar Tiger Woods have reportedly been quietly dating for several months. Woods’ new relationship was confirmed just days after he revealed a serious Achilles tendon injury.

Can Canadian consumers take on Trump? Does Nepal want its king back? And could eating fish make you kinder? Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.

A podcast for curious, open-minded people, The Week Unwrapped delivers fresh perspectives on politics, culture, technology and business.

It makes for a lively, enlightening discussion, ranging from the serious to the offbeat. Previous topics have included whether solar engineering could refreeze the Arctic, why funerals are going out of fashion, and what kind of art you can use to pay your tax bill.

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In the early 1300s, the Tuscan hilltop city of Siena lived through a great period of prosperity, said Charlotte Higgins in The Guardian. Its economic, military and political strength provided the conditions for a “rapid artistic transformation”: its painters abandoned “the distant, hieratic grace” of Byzantine-influenced art and concocted a new style, characterised by “dynamism, drama and emotion”.

But, by the 1350s, its “most glorious years” would be “as good as over”. The Black Death “halved” the city’s population and “stripped away its wilder ambitions”. Its chief rival, Florence, emerged as the new superpower, its own art eclipsing Siena’s.

This new “blockbuster” at the National Gallery – featuring more than 100 exhibits including paintings, manuscripts and decorative objects – questions the received wisdom that Florence, not Siena, was “the birthplace of the Renaissance”, said Joanna Moorhead in The Spectator. And convincingly, too. The show is focused mostly on the work of four artists: Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti; Simone Martini; and, “first and foremost”, Duccio di Buoninsegna, a polymath whose “towering legacy would reshape art history”.

The lighting here is “dark”, the galleries “crypt-like”, said Alastair Sooke in The Telegraph. Paintings are “dramatically spot-lit” and juxtaposed with some marvellous examples of Sienese sculpture and textiles. It’s the paintings, though, that really thrill. “Exquisite craftsmanship” is a hallmark of Sienese art – gold leaf was used liberally and virtuosically – along with “a newfound interest in the emotional lives of the holy figures being represented”. One Duccio painting here dating from 1290-1300 sees “a sweet yet sorrowful Virgin” tilting her head as “a perky Christ Child tugs at her veil and involuntarily caresses her wrist” with his toes. Another “standout”, by Duccio’s pupil Simone Martini, depicts a “truculent” young Christ “chided by remonstrating parents. Even the son of God, it seems, could get the grumps.” This is an “intense and bewitching” show.

The “emotional power” of these paintings comes from their “mastery of space”, said Jonathan Jones in The Guardian. While we think of perspective as a 15th-century Florentine invention, these artists were already experimenting with space a century earlier, “to create fairy-tale vistas of walled cities, merchant ships and the soaring interiors of gothic cathedrals”. The climax of these innovations is Duccio’s “masterpiece”, the Maestà – a “massive” altarpiece, whose eight panels have been brought together here. You follow the scenes “like a comic strip”, as Jesus “defeats the devil, heals a blind man and raises Lazarus from the dead”. “Visual trickery” gives the impression of “gothic arches and a particoloured pavement” receding “with hypnotic reality”. It is the highlight of an “epochal exhibition about the moment Western art came alive”.