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

A playful pavilion

Ellie Stathaki, Architecture & Environment Director

A trip to south London on Monday included a sneak peek at the Dulwich Picture Gallery's new ArtPlay Pavilion and Sculpture Garden, which opens its doors to the public this weekend. Whimsical interiors, sensory immersion, arty nods and cracking architecture by Carmody Groarke make for a guaranteed fun visit with little ones. My family has test-driven it already.

A love letter to leather

Jack Moss, Fashion Features Editor

A family of dog-shaped bag charms caught my eye at Bottega Veneta’s Harrods pop-up, which opened earlier this week and celebrates 50 years of the Italian house’s signature ‘intrecciato’ leather-weaving technique (think of them as a tasteful alternative to the Labubu). Also on the wishlist? A pair of – sadly not for sale – leather armchairs, rendered in a jumbo version of the weave.

An east London institution

Anna Solomon, Digital Staff Writer

Everyone should have a chef friend. Mine, formerly at the helm of Clapton cult favourite My Neighbours the Dumplings, has an unerring knowledge of culinary gems in London. Last night, she took us to Tayyabs – an icon of the Punjabi food scene that is tucked away down an unassuming backstreet in Whitechapel. Still, the gleam of its iconic blue neon sign – and the congregation of people outside – leave no doubt that you’re in the right place.

Founded in 1972 and still family-run, Tayyabs is an operation of prodigious proportions – multi-storey, packed to the rafters and buzzing with barely contained chaos. I’d been once before, on a Saturday night, when it felt more like a club than a curry house, and Thursday wasn’t much different. The service is, at best, brusque. But the food doesn’t lie. The smoky, spicy lamb chops are Tayyabs’ speciality and a must-try; for dessert, the rasmalai – spongy cheese balls bathed in fragrant milk – is a concluding counterpoint to a punchy, flavour-filled experience.

A rainy-day remedy

Tianna Williams, Staff Writer

After harping on in the office about how excited I was for autumn to arrive – with the romance of crisp air, big coats, and Nora Ephron movies – I plummeted back down to reality when dreary September weather greeted us in London this week. With the number 27 bus on diversion (again?), forgotten umbrellas, and straightened hair turning frizzy in the humidity, I’ve exited this week mourning summer.

But with rainier days comes more hermit-like behaviour, giving me the chance to devour Vincenzo Latronico’s novel Perfection. It follows the lives of Anna and Tom, expats who have relocated to Berlin as they chase an ideal – yet entirely superficial – life revolving around slow cooking, Danish furniture and sexual experimentation.

Latronico holds up a deeply satirical mirror to a world captivated by social media and a consumerist lifestyle. At just over 100 pages, I respect the author’s appreciation for the current generation's limited attention span.

From sharks to Switzerland

Malcolm Young, Managing Director

I have just returned from a holiday on Holbox, off the north coast of Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula, the highlight of which was a private tour to swim with nine-metre whale sharks in the island’s turquoise waters. The trip opened with a pitstop in Miami and dinner at Carbone – opening an outpost in London next month in the former US Embassy on Grosvenor Square.

No time to settle at home, it was straight back on a plane to Geneva for the opening of Lombard Odier’s new headquarters. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the curved, sculptural building makes a striking new addition to the banks of Lake Geneva.

A Parisian presentation

Gabriel Annouka, Senior Designer

While in Paris on my way south, I stopped at the Centre Pompidou for Wolfgang Tillmans’ Nothing could have prepared us – Everything could have prepared us. Nothing could have prepared me for this image overload: photographs commanded the room – some monumental, others more intimate – while captions were mostly exiled to the margins, letting images be in conversation with each other. The room had its own rhythm; benches became places to nap, sigh, or look at the work from a further distance.

I even ran into a friend, which felt perfectly normal, as if the centre's Bibliothèque had turned into a café or club. Some shelves stayed filled with books; others were stripped bare and carried photographs instead, like they’d changed job descriptions for the weekend.

The video archive was another gift – a library of short pieces you could freely scroll through, and my first chance to properly see Tillmans’ video works. It also recalled Raven Row’s People Make Television (2023), which offered a similar sense of generosity and access.

I wished for days to sit with the photographs, but the clock was ticking. This is the Pompidou’s final act before closing for its five-year renovation. Almost too fitting that Tillmans has the last word, staging an exhibition about images, memory, and the impossibility of taking it all in.

‘Wolfgang Tillmans: Nothing could have prepared us – Everything could have prepared us’ is on until 22 September 2025.

An esteemed art fair

Anna Fixsen, US Editor

There’s a lot to see at the Armory Show (taking place in New York now through 7 September) – so much so that the annual art fair has inspired its own bingo card. Venture outside the halls of the Javits Center and you’ll discover enough gallery shows, satellite fairs and cultural openings to keep you busy well until next year’s edition. As far as contemporary design is concerned, however, Collectible is always a highlight. A favourite display – part of the fair’s Curated section – was dreamed up by my former colleague, Hannah Martin, senior design editor at Architectural Digest. Her selection of work both surprised and delighted in its thought-provoking riffs on history and domesticity.

I was especially drawn to Annie Coggan’s bright blue chair, based on unrealised Chippendale-inspired designs from 1766, and Miles Gracy’s hand-carved Conch Couch which was inspired by over-the-top Rococo shell forms. Other items came with a distinct message, like a sleek stainless steel room divider by Georgia-based Around the Studio that was inspired by police riot shields used to counter protests in Tbilisi last year. There were also moments of levity, like Cat Snodgrass’s scenography, which featured trompe-l'œil desserts, plates and other household objects, and Jisu Han Jung’s chair with feet made from lightbulbs, part of a body of work he calls ‘useful useless objects’. In all, Martin’s presentation felt like a breath of fresh air in a week that can feel filled with so much naval-gazing.