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

A dazzling duo

Ellie Stathaki, architecture and environment director

I recently came across jewellery entrepreneur The Diamond Lab, and this week, I had the opportunity to meet its founders, sisters Ruby and Jamie Patel, at their Selfridges pop-up with Maddox Gallery. Beyond their mission to bring ethical, lab-grown diamonds to the forefront of the luxury industry, the pair also plans to establish their own laboratory in Kenya, where the sisters hail from. Working within the country’s Special Economic Zones – which aim to boost local manufacturing and exports and to create jobs – they are hard at work, picking their architect and crafting their business's spatial representation. More to come.

A London institution

Charlotte Gunn, director of digital content

On Monday, it was off to The Connaught to celebrate editor-in-chief Bill Prince's new book about the hotel, with martinis served by the master Agostino Perrone. In attendance: the cute little white pooch from the cover.

A photographic pilgrimage

Hannah Silver, art, culture, watches and jewellery editor

I was lucky enough this week to have a walk around the exquisite new Diane Arbus exhibition at London’s David Zwirner gallery with curator Jeffrey Fraenkel. The intimate exhibition of 45 rare photographs focuses on the works Arbus created in private spaces between 1961 and 1971. Raw, honest, and respectful – they speak to Arbus’ massive talent.

A visual voyage

Jamilah Rose-Roberts, social media editor

I previously went down to Sadie Coles HQ for the opening of Arthur Jafa’s GLAS NEGUS SUPREME. Having missed his presentation in Croydon earlier this year, I was determined not to miss this one. There was an undeniable pull to this exhibition: the scale, the sound, the weight of it all. The highlight of the evening was meeting Jafa himself. Our brief, easy chat left me with a sense of privilege and a deeper connection to his work. His exacting yet generous nature made me want to return – to sit longer with the work, to let the sound and imagery seep deeper.

For his first exhibition at Sadie Coles, Jafa fills the Kingly Street space with a charged edit of new and recent works: two moving-image pieces, several paintings, silkscreens, and cutouts, all orbiting the same gravitational force – the depth and complexity of Black life. His films unfold with a cosmic and intimate allure, a surge of imagery and music that catches you off guard and carries you into a world of profound intrigue and captivation.

There’s a rhythm to Jafa’s world, a ‘Black visual intonation’, as he calls it, that folds sound and image into one another until they feel inseparable. Clips, faces, fragments, and beats move as if guided by pulse rather than sequence; everything vibrates. Musical figures appear as apparitions, passing through history’s veil with ghostly defiance. And yet, even in that spectral space, the work feels vividly alive.

The new paintings and silkscreens extend this dialogue: Kurt Cobain’s body hovers in a void; Foxy Brown glows, commanding her crowd. Fame, pain, transcendence – all held in tension, all rendered through Jafa’s unmistakable visual cadence. To witness his work is to feel language reshaped; it’s to understand how sound, image and memory can coalesce into something beyond narrative: a collective vibration.

GLAS NEGUS SUPREME continues that conversation with force and tenderness, expanding Jafa’s lexicon of Black being and becoming. On view at Sadie Coles HQ until 22 November 2025.

A Middle Eastern medley

Tianna Williams, staff writer

On Wednesday evening, I headed over to Lamb’s Conduit Street to enjoy a Middle Eastern feast at Honey & Co. The evening, which coincided nicely with Bonfire Night, was a display of festive dining that made me consider swapping the Christmas turkey for spiced lamb and stuffing shawarma. Honey & Co founders Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich (who also run sister outposts Honey & Smoke and Honey & Co Daily) served a vibrant mezze, complete with dips and salads. Mains followed, ranging from smoked duck with pickled cherries to slow-roasted lamb shoulder with plums and roses. The evening was rounded off with desserts, from feta and honey cheesecake (divine) to spiced apple mince pies, paired perfectly with Persian tea. The great news is that this delectable menu is available throughout the festive period if you fancy a fragrant feast for yourself.

A theatrical tempest

Gabriel Annouka, senior designer

If an apocalypse had a dress code, it would take the form of BULLYACHE: WHO HURT YOU? at Southbank Centre this week. Part of the Kunsty festival, and staged in the ample setting of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the performance – directed by Bullyache, the artist duo Courtney Deyn and Jacob Samuel – unravelled as a drag requiem: an end-of-days cabaret that played with glitter as much as it did with grief. East London drag star Barbs, sequins blazing, ruled the stage as a diva in disarray, balancing Deyn’s singing and the dancers with a lawless, intoxicating narrative. Music and lights begged for mercy, and surrender never looked so good. I may have cried, probably laughed, and most definitely both. Absolute mayhem, pure perfection.

A scent-sational history

Anna Fixsen, US editor

‘There are three things no respectable woman should do: smoke, dance the tango and wear Shalimar,’ a famed 1920s-era adage went. Unfortunately for those upright citizens, the appeal of Shalimar – a hypnotic amber fragrance dreamed up by French perfumer Jacques Guerlain in 1925 – has remained a favourite of bad girls everywhere (Frida Kahlo, Brigitte Bardot, Rita Hayworth… need we go on?) for exactly a century. To celebrate the milestone, Guerlain has concocted a 21st-century version of the flapper-era fragrance, Shalimar L’Essence, which emphasises the perfume’s mouth-watering, vanilla notes for a scent that’s suited to today’s rebel. I popped by an exhibition at the Waldorf-Astoria (now home to the world’s largest Guerlain spa) to experience both new and old formulations and geek out over the fascinating history of this storied art deco aroma. Time travel hasn’t been invented yet, but Shalimar might be the next-best thing.