Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been up to this week
This week saw the Wallpaper* team jet-setting to Jordan and New York; those of us left in London had to make do with being transported via the power of music at rooftop bars, live sets and hologram performances

An ABBA anniversary
Melina Keays, Entertaining Director
I went to the ABBA Arena at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to celebrate the third anniversary of the ABBA Voyage show. The evening was all the more thrilling because actual, real-life ABBA were there (or two of them: Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad). The concert is a technical tour de force imbued with life and joy. The digital versions of ABBA are absolutely mesmerising – you can’t take your eyes off them – and their avatars are accompanied by a live ten-piece band and a spectacular light show. We sang along with them, we danced, we marvelled at the technology, and we reflected on a breathtaking vision of the future of pop performance.
An Arabian night
Tianna Williams, Staff Writer
I have spent the last week discovering the beauty of Jordan. While it was an incredible trip packed with culture, cuisine and exploration, a highlight was staying in the Suncity Camp in Wadi Rum (a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock in southern Jordan, also known as the Valley of the Moon). Here, you can observe unobstructed desert views, and sleep under the stars.
A sunset soirée
Anna Solomon, Digital Staff Writer
Thursday evening is ‘Live Beats and Bites’ night at Mandarin Oriental Mayfair’s ABar. This week, I ascended to the sleek rooftop haunt for cocktails and Korean and Japanese small plates from chef Akira Back. At the risk of sounding curmudgeonly, DJ Earl The Kid’s pulsating set was a little loud, but we caught up with the atmosphere after incredible pear and ricotta, fig and yuzu, and plum and pomegranate cocktails. The spicy tuna sushi, salmon crudo and foie gras brioche were also delicious, but we decided to sidestep the £84 ‘Wagyu Sando’…
A Big Apple opening
Ellie Stathaki, Architecture and Environment Director
I have had a fantastic couple of days in New York this week, and was lucky enough to be here for the launch of The Met Museum's refreshed Michael C Rockefeller Wing. The exhibits, of course, are fascinating and beautiful, and the venue is glamorous and important. But the sensitive redesign by Kulapat Yantrasast's WHY Architecture really shone too. A morning of powerful and inspiring speeches and wonderful cultural works.
Live music in a library
Sofia de la Cruz, Travel Editor
I saw my friend Hani Hooper perform his own music live for the first time at Reference Point, a library, bookshop and bar within 180 Studios, during an inspiring musical soirée organised by Brief Encounters. Set against the venue’s sleek backdrop, washed in red and blue hues, Hani (fresh off the release of his debut EP, Yes) blended genre-fluid electronic beats with pulsing cello interludes – an introspective soundscape palpitating with urgency.
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Anna Solomon is Wallpaper’s digital staff writer, working across all of Wallpaper.com’s core pillars, with special interests in interiors and fashion. Before joining the team in 2025, she was senior editor at Luxury London Magazine and Luxurylondon.co.uk, where she wrote about all things lifestyle and interviewed tastemakers such as Jimmy Choo, Michael Kors, Priya Ahluwalia, Zandra Rhodes and Ellen von Unwerth.
-
The new CLA brings Mercedes's all-electric know-how to a new market sector
Mixing high tech moves with tremendous tactile qualities, the buttery smooth new Mercedes-Benz CLA is an electric winner. Wallpaper* drives across Denmark in a triumphant new car with a three-pointed star
-
Collagerie and Zara Home debut perfectly imperfect furniture and accessories
Lucinda Chambers’ Collagerie collaborates with Zara Home on a collection that is an ode to the everyday
-
‘A beginning is a dialogue’: Simone Bellotti reveals a first glimpse of his vision for Jil Sander with an EP and music video
Titled ‘Wanderlust’, the music video and EP is a collaboration with Bochum Welt, signalling an esoteric start to Simone Bellotti’s tenure at the house before his runway debut later this year
-
Shop the gloriously mad inner workings of Gary Card’s brain in London’s Soho
Set designer and artist Gary Card has taken over London's Plaster Store – expect chaos and some really good accessories
-
The dynamic young gallerists reinvigorating America's art scene
'Hugging has replaced air kissing' in this new wave of galleries with craft and community at their core
-
Meet the New York-based artists destabilising the boundaries of society
A new show in London presents seven young New York-based artists who are pushing against the borders between refined aesthetics and primal materiality
-
Leila Bartell’s cloudscapes are breezily distorted, a response to an evermore digital world
‘Memory Fields’ is the London-based artist’s solo exhibition at Tristan Hoare Gallery (until 25 July 2025)
-
Emerging artist Kasia Wozniak’s traditional photography techniques make for ethereal images
Wozniak’s photographs, taken with a 19th-century Gandolfi camera, are currently on show at Incubator, London
-
‘Her pictures looked like pictures everybody knew were the truth’: Diane Arbus at the Armory
Matthieu Humery curates more than 400 of Arbus’ photographs at New York’s Park Avenue Armory – every picture she was known to have printed
-
Vincent Van Gogh and Anselm Kiefer are in rich and intimate dialogue at the Royal Academy of Arts
German artist Anselm Kiefer has paid tribute to Van Gogh throughout his career. When their work is viewed together, a rich relationship is revealed
-
Alice Adams, Louise Bourgeois, and Eva Hesse delve into art’s ‘uckiness’ at The Courtauld
New exhibition ‘Abstract Erotic’ (until 14 September 2025) sees artists experiment with the grotesque