Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the week

A Chanel centenary

Bill Prince, Editor-in-Chief

To celebrate 100 years of Chanel in London, I was fortunate to witness the English National Ballet re-stage Nijinska’s one-act ballet, Le Train Bleu, in the spectacular surroundings of the V&A East Storehouse, home to the Picasso curtain created for the original Ballet Russe production in 1924, which featured costumes by Gabrielle Chanel. Its dancers were dressed in contemporary interpretations of their Jazz Age forebears, closing the circle on a century of Chanel’s cultural heritage, both here in the UK and on the exquisitely conjured Côte d’Azur.

An origami occasion

Ellie Stathaki, Architecture and Environment Director

On Saturday afternoon I headed to Clerkenwell and the Zaha Hadid Foundation for a drop-in family session as part of the London Festival of Architecture 2025. ‘Build your own Umbrella House’ guided visitors of all ages to create physical models of Japanese architect Kazuo Shinohara’s Umbrella House as well as learn origami techniques to create your own beautiful paper objects. It was a wonderful experience organised by artist Michaela Nettell and designed and led by, among others, the lovely writer Yuki Sumner.

An ode to long hair

Anna Solomon, Digital Staff Writer

I headed to Allotment in east London for the launch of photographer Francesca Allen’s ‘Plaukai’, a series documenting Lithuania’s ‘Long-Haired World’ competition. Firstly, visually, hair lends itself extremely well to photography as a subject matter, especially when captured with a flash. But ‘Plaukai’ also does a fantastic job of conveying the spirit of the competition, which is bound up with tradition, symbolism and folkloric significance. You can read all about it here.

Britpop brilliance

Charlotte Gunn, Director of Digital Content

Pulp’s show at The O2 last Friday was a masterclass in ageing gracefully. Split into two acts – complete with an interval – the set deftly balanced material from their new chart-topping album, More, with era-defining hits like ‘Babies’, ‘Disco 2000’, and ‘Mis-Shapes’. I'm pleased to report that Jarvis Cocker remains one of the most charismatic frontmen of his generation – signature dance moves still in play – and there's nothing quite as magical as belting out 'Won’t it be strange when we’re all fully grown' with friends of 25 years. See them live if you can.

A weekend among the dunes

Anna Fixsen, US Editor

It’s always a treat to head to the Hamptons, or ‘out east’ as we New Yorkers like to say. A close friend of mine, an architect, invited my husband and me to stay in a beach house of his design outside of the hamlet of Amagansett. The house, which uses passive design principles, is nestled into the dunes, surrounded by scraggly pines and beachgrass. The weather was misty and chilly, lending a magical air to an already-magical place. We dodged the scene-y side of the Hamptons in favour of being total homebodies – cooking up comfort food, roasting in the sauna, cold-plunging in the pool and watching 1990s films. It’s all proof that the beauty of a place comes down to who you’re there with.