For his second edition as curator of London Design Festival's Brompton Design District, Alex Tieghi-Walker chose a theme of 'Perfectly Imperfect', continuing on last year's honest view of design and the processes that drive the industry in its more independent and emerging practices.

The intersection of craft, applied arts, and design is what underpins Tieghi Walker's work as a curator, and this year's London Design Festival presentation will celebrate 'the experimentation, research, collaboration and occasional failures that underpin every creative practice.'

As part of his direction for the District, he has invited some of today's most exciting creative voices to take part, including Isamaya French's Studio Iron, Rafael Prieto, Conie Vallese, Patricia Urquiola, Laila Gohar, Tino Seubert, Kelly Wearstler, Cristián Mohaded, and more.

As part of the District, Tieghi-Walker is also unveiling a pop-up library: dubbed The Reading Room, the space will be dedicated to queer design, creativity and cultural history in London (36 Thurloe Place, SW7 2HP). True to his previous projects, the space will serve as a meeting point and salon and feature furniture and objects by London queer artists and designers, alongside books (curated by Soho-based Tenderbooks). On the occasion of the library debuting at London Design Festival, we asked Tieghi-Walker to share his personal reading list, and why each title is special to him.

Alex Tieghi-Walker must-reads

Completed in 1908, Nara Prison was the last of Japan’s ‘Five Great Meiji Prisons,’ a clutch of Western-inspired penitentiaries built to showcase the country’s modernisation and openness to the foreign world. Architect Keijiro Yamashita designed the Romanesque, brick-walled complex, modelling its central detention house on architect John Haviland’s radial prison design: Five cell blocks radiate from a central surveillance station, allowing a few guards to monitor hundreds of prisoners. In 2017, the last inmates were transferred, and the iron gate clanged shut. The complex was designated an Important Cultural Property and slated for transformation into a new luxury retreat.

Less than a decade later, the gate has reopened. The exterior is unchanged, but tucked inside are two new entities: The Hoshinoya Nara Prison Hotel and Nara Prison Museum. While some guests remain apprehensive about sleeping in a former prison, the hotel preserves and elevates the interior architecture without reducing it to a gimmick. Staff, many transferred from other Hoshino properties, are warm and assured; afternoon tea and evening ‘gramophone soirees’ enliven the space. Ultimately, the property positions itself as a turn-of-the-century heritage stay, leaving the prison’s more sombre stories to the museum.

Wallpaper* checks in at Hoshinoya Nara Prison Hotel

What’s on your doorstep?

Nara Prison was built at the north edge of town and is surrounded mostly by residential streets. The main attraction is Nara Prison Museum, and it's worth spending an afternoon learning about the history and current state of Japan's criminal justice system. Hotel guests can slip out a private side door to visit free of charge and enjoy exclusive after-hours access to preserved Cell Block D.

A popular day trip destination from Kyoto, Nara is also home to several UNESCO World Heritage sites. The property is a quick taxi ride from Todai-ji Temple and the 660-hectare Nara Park, where hundreds of sacred deer roam free.

Who is behind the design?

Rie Azuma of Azuma Architect & Associates helmed the transformation from prison to hotel, while Hiroki Hasegawa of Studio Onsite oversaw landscape design.

The property’s heritage designation forced the designers into tight constraints. A ‘before and after’ of the halls reveals the same skylights, whitewashed railings, and steel support beams overhead, though plush pewter carpeting adorned with navy sunburst medallions has been laid, and contemporary layered lighting adds an inviting glow. Throughout public spaces, Azuma preserved as many original architectural elements as possible, from wood plank flooring outside the chapel-turned-lounge to the exposed steel support beams and shorter-than-average interior doors. Art is sparse but thoughtfully chosen to reflect the vibrancy and optimism of early 20th-century Japan. The end design is a careful balance of historic floors, walls, arches, and window frames with a Western-style Art Deco colour palette and furnishings.

The room to book

Each of the 48 long, narrow suites was formed from a strand of either nine, ten, or eleven original cells. The 11-cell deluxe suites are the clear standout, and not only because they're the largest. In addition to spacious dressing rooms with chaise lounges, they include a complimentary mini bar with local spirits, a record player-like CD player with a small music library, local teas and bath salts, and thick-knit wool blend socks made in Nara.

In all rooms, the prison-issue white plaster was carefully removed to expose hand-laid red brick walls. Alternating walls are left raw, covered in warm wood panelling, or hand-brushed in shimmery silver-grey or cerulean paint. The ceilings and windows are high, affording no views beyond treetops and sky. Through those clerestory-like barred windows, framed in new wood, beams of sunlight create a dance of patterns on the walls that change throughout the day. The sum of all these parts? A space resplendent in cosy, cocooning privacy.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

Dining at Nara Prison Hotel is limited to breakfast and dinner sets, though the adjacent museum offers a curry bread lunch. As with other Hoshino Resorts, meals follow strict reservation timetables. There are a trio of breakfast sets: Japanese, Meiji-style, and Western, with requisite bounties of seasonal fruit and rice or bread assortments. Return later for the signature Gastronomy Chronicle supper, a light-hearted, French-inspired culinary journey through the 20th century, including a starter with five bites of Western culture to represent the Meiji era, breaded sole in Albert sauce, and, for dessert, fluffy chocolate mousse cake.

​Step outside and walk across the courtyard to indulge in a cocktail, whiskey, or brandy from the Dining Lounge. This former storehouse features a glimmering wall of windows, jewel-toned upholstery, and an old gramophone hand-cranked by staff.

Where to switch off

The hotel has no spa, pool, or fitness centre. The vaulted prison chapel, however, has been transformed into a sumptuous lounge that hosts afternoon tea and an evening fragrance-blending workshop. The left wing, awash in sunlight filtered through translucent windows, offers complimentary drinks and nibbles throughout the day – green tea in the morning, sparkling sake in the evening – along with plush armchairs and chaises. To the right are private alcoves with luxuriously deep sofas. Soaring ceilings buttressed by thick wooden beams, soft rosewood floors, and layered contemporary lighting create an airy, relaxed atmosphere that belies the building’s history.

The lounge beckons year-round, but in pleasant weather, there’s freedom in snagging a chair in the courtyard-like yard between the Dining Lounge and Dining Room. A raised white boardwalk crisscrosses ornamental grasses, leading to tables and chairs set here and there for coffee or a book in the sunshine. It’s difficult to overstate the pleasure of the outdoors when relaxing beneath a barred window once used for solitary confinement.

The verdict

Nara has far more centrally located hotels, including those that offer a more classic Japanese atmosphere, but Hoshinoya Nara Prison Hotel is as distinctive as they come. Beautifully renovated without losing the architecture's original character, and with delightful heritage experiences in a naturally contemplative setting, this hotel makes a great short stay for unwinding after a few days spent exploring Nara or nearby Kyoto.

Hoshinoya Nara Prison is located at 18 Hannyajicho, Nara, 630-8102, Japan

In 1974, Diane von Furstenberg introduced the now-iconic wrap dress – a simple garment that wrapped around the body and tied at the waist. At the time, it was a revolution in women’s fashion: sexy, practical, and stylish enough to move seamlessly from the office to a night out. It became a symbol of women’s liberation, offering a new kind of freedom and confidence through its ease. By 1976, more than a million had been sold.

Earlier this year, with Von Furstenberg’s blessing, the brand named Henry Zankov the brand's first artistic director – a newly created role overseeing the American brand’s full creative vision. Zankov served as Diane von Furstenberg's design director of knitwear from 2014 to 2018 before stepping out on his own with Zankov in 2020, eventually earning a place as runner-up for the 2023 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund prize and the CFDA Emerging Designer of the Year award a year later in 2024. This morning (September 10), for S/S 2027, he debuted his first collection staged on a landmark of present-day New York: the High Line.

Over the years, Von Furstenberg and Zankov have formed a special relationship – the two speak on a daily basis. ‘She told me that body language is the most important,’ Zankov told Wallpaper* the day before the fashion show. Von Furstenberg taught Zankov how to work with the body: ‘how clothes move, how they reveal, how they communicate,’ read the show notes.

The Russia-born, Brooklyn-based designer grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, raised by strong women. Even as a child, he ran his own play-fashion business, setting up a boutique where he designed outfits and sold them. As he got older, he would cross the Hudson River to visit New York, and he became fascinated with the Comme des Garçons store, an early education in the city that would later shape his career.

‘New York is a very fast-paced city, and naturally the clothes usually feel more relaxed, nonchalant, and people dress for what excites them, not for the expectation,’ he said. ‘I always believe fashion can be a tool to highlight a person’s desires, feelings, and aspirations.’

Zankov's debut collection was a celebration of femininity. His muse is a strong, self-assured woman. ‘She is a rebel; she dresses for herself and no one else,’ he explained. ‘She moves through life to her own rhythm.’ The designer looked deep in the house's archives for inspiration. ‘I was drawn to prints and patterns which feel like house codes,’ he said. ‘Juxtaposing them with new colours and materiality feels like there is one foot in the past and one in the future.’

Archival animal prints, long, lean silhouettes, colour-blocking and tailoring ran throughout. Everything looked comfortable and liberating; his own takes on DVF’s signature silhouette were a green checked wrap dress and a colour-blocked maxi dress. Zankov also infused the idea of wrapping into an anamorphic leopard-print trench and a colour-blocked baby blue and oxblood wrap jacket. A boho-tinged enlarged leopard print dress has a free-spirited flair. The clothes were meant to seduce – but not in the conventional way. There are exposed shoulders and plunging necklines, but, according to Zankov, the seduction comes from movement and body language.

A new suit silhouette, in particular, merged Von Furstenberg's legacy with his own aesthetic. ‘It is an elongated shape for the jacket and trousers in the most beautiful raspberry red wool and constructed lightly inside so it feels tailored and substantial yet languid and easy,’ said Zankov.

But it’s not time for rest just yet; Zankov’s latest runway show for his eponymous show is on September 14. He even conveniently moved Zankov into the same building as Diane von Furstenberg. ‘I divide my time on both depending on the needs of that week,‘ he said. ‘It has become very clear the differences even more so between both brands.’

Zankov hopes to propel Von Furstenberg’s ideals into the future with the same ethos as its namesake. ‘I believe clothes feel modern today when they feel light,‘ he said. ‘When a garment is made in the most wonderful fabric and constructed lightly, it is true luxury.‘

Stay tuned to wallpaper.com for more from New York Fashion Week S/S 2027.

The origins of BWGTBLD, the production business Philipp Ramhofer set up in 2012, are humble as they are personal: the founder's own bedroom in the small German city of Solingen. Visiting the firm's current headquarters, a majestic Berlin townhouse on Neue Schönhauser Straße 13, the difference appears stark – yet Ramhofer's relationship with his workspace is just as intimate, despite the seemingly grander setting.

The building sits in the fashionable Mitte neighbourhood, a handsome, early 1890s structure designed by architect Alfred Messel. It was originally built as a communal dining hall for Berlin workers, a revolutionary concept for its time. It has since changed hands and had different lives, from a cafe to a cinema and was eventually listed for its beautiful architecture. When Ramhofer acquired it, he envisioned not just a workspace for his thriving business, but also an opportunity to celebrate art and the creativity BWGTBLD represents.

'I'm very sensitive to spaces. To me a space is one of the highest art forms there is, up there with music and film. An office can be a devastating place. In the worst case it drains every bit of creativity out of you. So I asked myself, what would have to change to create the exact opposite: a place that infuses you with energy and creativity, that sparks rather than depletes,' he says.

'The building was a good foundation. It's an Alfred Messel house from the 1890s, originally Berlin's first communal dining hall for working people, later a cinema, so it already had more character than anything we could have designed. My ideal way to show the space for the first time is empty, late at night, when it feels like a gallery. I put on a playlist, light an incense, dim the lights, and we walk from room to room. Its in this setting that you can really get an impression for the core of the company's DNA. It's also, frankly, very selfish. It would kill me to work out of a conventional advertising office.'

In short, BWGTBLD is not just another office. Set against the structure's neo-renaissance architecture is a slew of artworks by names established and emerging, in all different shapes, media and sizes. The idea, the founder explains, is to create something where creativity in its different forms merges and flows together, and what might be perceived as a conventional office during the working day can become an art gallery at chosen times of the year.

Every three months or so, on select weekends, the property becomes a museum to visit, with organised, bookable sessions and art tours led by Ramhofer himself and BWGTBLD's in-house curator. The pieces on display come mostly from the founder's own collection - he has been collecting for over four years now.

'The first "real" piece, in the sense of a serious gallery and a serious artist, was a Wolfgang Tillmans from Galerie Buchholz, followed by Tim Breuer from Tramps and Raphaela Simon painting from Max Hetzler. I decided early to collect only what I truly love and would actually hang. I would never acquire something as an investment that I don't want to live with every day,' he explains.

'What attracts me is hard to articulate. In painting it's bodies, mostly. Figures pressed into each other, faces, skin. It leans heavy and dark, strong emotion over anything light or decorative but then in photography it's the opposite. Nothing dark, snapshots, intimacy, people caught in a moment. And it isn't only painting and photography. With design it's different again. There I go for material and a bit of humour. Almost everything is a type of metal, Frederik Fialin's brushed aluminium and stainless steel tables, EJR Barnes' polished steel Parasol Lamp, Mario Tsai's Pagoda, and then the USM cabinets in orange and green against it,mixed with 70s pieces like a Bellini Area lamp. And things that play with you, like Illya Goldman Gubin's bench, which is a crumpled cardboard moving box cast in resin, it looks like it's about to be thrown out and it weighs a ton.'

He continues: 'Where I find the pieces depends on what they are. For painting, photography, vessels, it's mostly galleries, and some of those artists have become friends over the years. For design, lamps, tables, the occasional sculpture, it's largely Instagram. My feed is nothing but design and young, emerging artists. And then online auctions. I'll go through thousands of lots looking for the strange thing nobody else noticed. That's how I ended up with a two-by-four-metre painting for my office. Sometimes it's shit, sometimes you get lucky. With the established artists, I wait for a show and buy there. So it's both planned and impulsive.'

There is no particular rotation or a strict plan as to how the collection grows. When a new piece is acquired, room is made for it. Some things might never move, but some might also shift according to the mood or the changing needs of each room. Specially commissioned pieces also adorn certain areas, created specifically for their spot. And when desired, specific shows are mounted, working with external galleries or particular artists, so the whole is kept alive year-round.

Ramhofer is behind the styling and the curation's oversight. Taking a deep, personal interest in how it all comes together and where everything sits, he is a keen maestro of space and interiors. Much of the furniture is made bespoke by Frederik Fialin, such as the long Manta Manta table, the reception desk, and a wall sculpture. Lamps are by EJR Barnes, and it all works with an Erco lighting system for the art. There is also a Yasmin Bawa-commissioned hempcrete wall relief.

As to why open his space to the wider public? He explains: 'I'm bored by most spaces right now. Instagram and the algorithm have flattened taste into a single, agreeable look and I see it even in the work of good interior designers, a lot of it plays it safe, chasing whatever the interior accounts happen to be pushing that month. It's hard not to fall for it yourself when we all drink from the same feeds and mood boards. That's why I love to go back to books and I love looking at collectors' houses from the 80s and 90s, it's wild how nobody would dare to live like that anymore.'

'I suspect it's the same reason we keep returning to architects like Lina Bo Bardi, to Niemeyer, to Bofill. Individuals, not consensus. Strange, personal places that still refuse to look like anything else. But I'm also not free of it myself, of course we didn't invent the metal look, it's been everywhere the last few years. But then I'm still excited that Frederik Fialin made us something like the Manta Manta table, in a shape and a size I've never seen anywhere before. I hold an almost spiritual belief that people are meant to create, and that what they create is meant to be shared.'

bwgtbld.tv

Cutting-edge contemporary furniture and iconic archival rugs come together in ‘Progressive Permanence’, an exhibition for London Design Festival hosted by Max Radford Gallery and rug producer Christopher Farr. Works by emerging designers such as Lewis Kemmenoe and LS Gomma are paired with designs by acclaimed artists including Gary Hume and Louise Bourgeois, in an installation that shows how creativity across eras and geographies can come together to produce new interior dialogues.

Rugs meet contemporary furniture

Both Max Radford Gallery and Christopher Farr are keystones of design in east London, with the exhibition taking place in Farr’s Shoreditch studio, where custom rugs are developed in wool and silk. While Farr started out in 1988, setting out to preserve weaving traditions while exploring new design expressions, Radford established his eponymous gallery in 2020, seeking to platform London’s emerging talent combining craft with artistic experimentation. ‘Progressive Permanence’ marks their first collaborative exhibition.

Radford describes Christopher Farr as an ‘OG supplier’ of rugs in London, and the fact the company has worked with such illustrious artists ‘speaks volumes’, he says. For ‘Progressive Permanence’, Radford – who is an interior designer as well as gallerist – was invited to select pieces from Farr’s impressive archives to combine with furniture made by the contemporary names he represents.

‘All the rugs have been chosen because we love them as individual textiles, but also love how they sit with the works from our roster of designers,’ Radford says. ‘It also enables us to put our designers on a platform with respected names of the 20th century, which is a new for all of us. I think presenting these contemporary works alongside such heavy hitters reinforces our belief that the designers we work with can go on to become the respected names of the 21st century.’

In the exhibition, ‘Graywacke OffCut Chair’ (2024) from artist-designer Carsten in der Elst – a brutalist assemblage of discarded stone blocks – is paired with ‘Plate 111’, an abstract and geometric tapestry of colour by Bauhaus artist Gunta Stölzl.

An orange chair made from polyurethane rubber and industrial metal mesh by LS Gomma (‘XR Mesh 2-seater (orange)’, 2025) is placed against Louise Bourgeois’ ‘Has The Day Invaded The Night? Has the Night Invaded The Day?’ (2009), a striking text-based monochrome work by the artist, inspired by insomnia.

A new bench from designer Tessa Silva – who uses smocked textiles to create sculptural furniture pieces – is offset by a colourful rug from fashion designer Romeo Gigli featuring a painterly sun. And chairs from Lewis Kemmenoe’s recent ‘Quilted Fragments’ series, in which timber offcuts are crafted into wooden patchworks, are united with minimalist green rugs from the painter and sculptor Gary Hume, which depict hospital doors.

The rugs and furniture works are presented ‘as a foil to each other – matching or contrasting sensibilities’, says Radford. ‘The rugs create spaces in which they are in dialogue with the furniture, rather than simply being surfaces for them to sit on.’

For Radford, the show celebrates the designers his gallery works with – people that he builds long-lasting relationships with, transcending notions of market trends. ‘We believe these works will be the masterpieces of the future,’ he says, ‘and, much like the classics of the 20th century, they deserve to be visited and revisited to fully appreciate their beauty.’

‘Progressive Permanence’ takes place 15 to 20 September at Christopher Farr, 18 Calvin Street, London, E1 6HF

American artist Tschabalala Self was keen to bring a modern, urban ‘everywoman’ to tower over the crowds at Trafalgar Square. Her commission for London’s Fourth Plinth, Lady in Blue, is a joyful and proud young woman cast in bronze, the blue of her dress and jewellery inspired by the vibrant tone of lapis lazuli.

Self, who works across mediums including painting, sewing, collage, quiltmaking and printing, imbues her figurative works with a vibrant energy. It is a vitality she translates into her Fourth Plinth commission, the 16th since the programme began, creating work she hopes will be relatable.

‘She is not an idol to venerate or a historic figure to commemorate,’ Self says. ‘She is an everyday person much like the many who occupy the square daily. She is striding forward into our collective future with ambition, purpose and optimism.’

New York born and based Self, who was announced as the winning commission in March 2024 by the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, chaired by Wallpaper* contributing editor Ekow Eshun, has always been inspired by London, she adds. ‘London is to thank for many milestones in my life. My first institutional show was held here in London, along with my first major gallery exhibition. I have come to know London as a truly global metropolis, and Lady in Blue reflects the sophistication of this city.’

Lady in Blue brings a significance to the everyday, adds Eshun. ‘Tschabalala Self takes the familiar figure of a woman moving through the city and gives her an extraordinary presence at the heart of London. This powerful sculpture will invite conversation about contemporary art, giving audiences a chance to engage with the work of a remarkable and inspirational artist.’

Lady in Blue will be a highlight of London Sculpture Week (19-27 September 2026)

‘What does America look like?’ is a question whose answer has shifted incessantly across National Geographic’s 138-year history, from frontier landscapes and postwar prosperity to a nation tussling with its own complexities and contradictions. A new tome from Taschen meshes those perspectives together, using the magazine’s archive to survey the United States through a century of photography.

Tour the history, people, and beauty of the United States 

On the cover, the Mayflower II – a reproduction of the 17th-century ship – enters New York Harbour in 1957, greeted by a flotilla beneath a silver US Navy airship, with the Manhattan skyline hovering in the distance. Captured by B Anthony Stewart, the brilliant photograph perfectly frames the country’s founding mythology, technological ambition and appetite for spectacle, setting the tone for the 792 pages that follow.

National Geographic. The United States of America takes shape as a substantial XL Taschen edition. Organised geographically, the title journeys alphabetically through all 50 states before turning to US territories. Each chapter opens with a quote that waxes lyrical about its destination, drawn from figures ranging from musicians and scientists to authors and poets, which is then followed by an introduction by travel writer Joe Yogerst that traces the state’s history, culture and regional identity alongside National Geographic’s own coverage.

Recurring subjects include the grandeur of the American landscape, the growth of its cities, industrial and agricultural labour, transport, leisure, religion and regional traditions – all captured through a candid, occasionally irreverent lens. Collectively, the photographs chart the country’s shift from an agricultural and industrial power towards an increasingly urban, suburban and consumer-driven society, while objectively registering the environmental damage and social tensions that accompanied its growth.

National Geographic. The United States of America also maps the evolution of photographic technology. Early black-and-white images and Autochromes from the 1920s and 1930s give way to the saturated Kodachrome photography that came to define National Geographic’s postwar identity. During the 1970s and 1980s, staged scenes and picturesque travel imagery were increasingly joined by documentary work confronting pollution, poverty, urban decline and cultural change. Digital photography closes the century with an expansive, often ambiguous portrait of American life.

Photography editor David Walker examines this evolution in his introductory essay, ‘America the Beautiful’. He considers how the magazine’s photographers helped construct an aspirational national image rooted in exploration, prosperity and individualism, while frequently reinforcing the perspective of white, middle-class America. As its editorial priorities evolved, the archive began to accommodate a fuller and increasingly complex picture of the country – one marked by social unrest, ecological damage and regional identities threatened by economic and technological development.

The evolution can also be traced through the photographers themselves. Early figures including B Anthony Stewart, J Baylor Roberts, W Robert Moore and Willard R Culver arguably initiated the magazine’s carefully composed visual language. Later generations – among them William Albert Allard, Jodi Cobb, Nathan Benn, Jim Richardson, Cary Wolinsky and Michael Melford – introduced documentary immediacy, psychological depth and increasingly individual approaches to colour and composition.

Edited by Reuel Golden and designed by Andy Disl, the book pairs its photographs with captions by Jeff Z Klein and illustrations by Cristóbal Schmal. Its generous format allows each image to act as historical evidence, editorial construction and object of visual nostalgia. The 250th-anniversary edition revisits material first published by Taschen in 2016, presenting it anew at a moment when American identity is once again under intense examination.

‘National Geographic. The United States of America’, published by Taschen, is available now, priced £125

Moncler’s story began in the mountains outside of Grenoble, France in 1952. Now, nearly 75 years later, it’s taken root amid Manhattan’s skyscraper canyons.

Today the luxury outerwear and lifestyle brand opens the doors to a new global flagship on Fifth Avenue, New York’s most famous shopping district. At nearly 24,000 sq ft, the store marks the largest Moncler location in the world, a destination where shoppers can immerse themselves in the brand’s latest collections; exclusive collaborations; and performance gear across two floors of dazzling retail spaces.

The store is also a love letter to New York. ‘When this iconic location on Fifth Avenue became available, we saw the opportunity to create something unique,’ explains Remo Ruffini, Moncler’s executive chairman. ‘Not just our largest flagship in the world, but a place to welcome existing and new communities, to express Moncler DNA at its best.’

To translate that ethos, Ruffini enlisted longtime collaborator Patrick Gilles of the acclaimed Parisian design firm Gilles & Boissier. ‘Patrick and I have worked together for more than two decades,’ Ruffini says. ‘Over the years, we have built a relationship based on trust and a shared vision. I do not need to explain everything; he instinctively understands what I have in mind, sometimes even before I say it.’

Gilles & Boissier had worked on Moncler boutiques in the past, and helped develop the brand’s architectural language when Ruffini took the helm 23 years ago. But for a New York flagship of this scale, Gilles knew he had to create something unique.

The store takes over the base of the GM Building, a 50-storey modernist tower designed by Edward Durell Stone in the mid 1960s. More recently, it was the location of FAO Schwarz, the beloved toy store that closed its doors a decade ago. ‘Every time that I went to New York there were a few things to do, FAO Schwartz was a destination,’ Gilles says – and whatever his firm created had to be just as memorable.

One opportunity was the scale of the space itself. ‘It’s super deep, and super big. It has nine-meter-high ceilings so it is something quite impressive,’ the architect says.

That allows for a grand entry sequence, an experience Gilles likens to the anticipation of stepping inside of a darkened theatre. From there, visitors step into a dazzling retail wonderland that marries the exhilaration of whizzing down slopes with the energy of Times Square. Collections are organised into enveloping bays that reveal themselves as you make your way deeper into the store – a sensation the architect likens to progressing through Manhattan’s neighbourhoods.

On the ground level, shoppers encounter the Moncler Collection encompassing men’s, women’s and children’s apparel; Moncler Genius designer collaborations; as well as accessories. Here, Gilles re-interpreted the General Motors Building’s modernist facade language – defined by vertical bands of white marble – with strips of bright white light on the walls and ceilings, a move that contrasts with gray-and-black checkerboard marble floors, and stone-clad columns. Whimsical house-shaped ‘curiosity cabins,’ clad in a mirrored finish, punctuate the space, as do towering evergreen trees and a monumental artwork by Ugo Rondinone. ‘It’s full of surprises,’ Gilles says.

Nods to the mountains appear in the store’s raw material palette of textured stone, timber and icy textured glass. But there are also nods to French culture, an important element of Moncler’s history, even though the brand is based in Italy today. Retail niches feature elegant details, including intricate plaster mouldings, and fanciful wood boiserie. ‘The story of Moncler comes from nature and from French culture,’ Gilles explains.

There’s more to discover upstairs, a level that’s devoted entirely to Moncler Grenoble, the brand’s collection devoted to life on the slopes. Here, guests can discover high-performance apparel and accessories for mountain activities ranging from skiing to snowboarding to trekking or simply relaxing in a chalet. This section also displays partnerships with Stöckli skis, POC helmets and even snowboards creed in collaboration with champion snowboarder and Moncler brand ambassador Shaun White.

The mood is slightly more hushed on this level, not no less dynamic thanks to illuminated ceiling panels (another modernist hat-tip) and dramatically-lit niches that elevate ski equipment into works of art. ‘The purpose was really to be in the Moncler style, which is quite discreet, but at the same time take the level of sensation as high as we could,’ Gilles says. ‘You will be in the shop, but also a part of the shop.’

The unique flagship experience is not just limited to the design; shoppers can also discover the latest LoveFrom, Moncler collection, an exclusive collaboration with designer Jony Ive, or customise their own jackets with Moncler to Measure, the brand’s first-ever bespoke atelier. Don’t know what to pick? Just consult Moncler’s AI-powered Outerwear Guide, another innovation coinciding with the boutique’s opening.

It’s all about leaving guests with a memorable experience, whether they’re selecting a new down jacket or encountering Moncler through its latest open-air art program, now on the streets of New York.

‘It’s more a project of sensation than anything else,’ Gilles reflects. ‘Your experience could be different than mine.’

Moncler New York is located at 767 5th Ave New York, NY 10153 USA

Lego House has launched a Ready, Set, Build experience to encourage Formula 1 fans to visit the company’s iconic headquarters in Denmark. The new activity will inspire families and children of all ages to design and test their own Lego race cars, then put them through their paces in a series of interactive challenges.

It's not just about building a car either. Visitors to Billund become the engineers, experimenting with aerodynamics, speed and performance. They also take on pit-stop style build challenges, with giant F1-themed installations throughout the Lego House, all part of an ongoing partnership with the sport that has activations at the Miami Grand Prix and elsewhere.

Known as the ‘Home of the Brick’, the Bjarke Ingels-designed Lego House has become a bucket list destination for build enthusiasts. Filled with more than 25 million bricks, the Jutland attraction – a 90-minute flight from Heathrow - is the ultimate hands-on day out.

Lego’s automotive history now dates back decades. The company first offered model vehicles made of plastic or metal in 1953, long before the DIY modern brick system existed. Models of real world cars and trucks like the Volkswagen Beetle and Ferguson tractor thrilled children, until Lego designers finally reinvented the wheel.

The arrival of the Lego wheel in the early Sixties saw rubber ‘tyres’ mounted on plastic wheels, with a metal axle that could be plugged into a specific brick. Set 400 launched in 1962 and marked a massive evolution in model building, allowing children to create their own wheeled vehicles for the first time. Since then, Lego cars have become some of the brand’s most popular sets.

From the Batmobile to the James Bond Aston Martin DB5, The Back to the Future DeLorean to the Lamborghini Countach, there's a Lego kit for every four-wheeled eventuality. Today, the detail on modern Lego Technic sets – the most advanced line of building kits – is staggering. The 3,599-piece Bugatti Chiron featured a modelled W12 engine with moving pistons and originally cost around £450, rather more than my first road car.

If that’s beyond your skillset or budget, the Red Zone at Lego House is a vibrant play area where enthusiasts can let their imagination run wild. Beside a giant, cascading waterfall built from 2 million bricks, I set about creating a replica of the Porsche 911 Targa that brought me to Billund.

With a huge smorgasbord of colourful bricks at every turn, Lego fans from around the world are here designing their own unique creations. However, built in an era when Lego consisted of simple bricks and not much else, I’m helped by a master builder who could probably knock up a Porsche with his eyes shut.

Surrounded by intimidating Lego masterpieces, including life-size dinosaurs, planes, trains and automobiles, my modest motor looks a rather feeble effort. Other Porsche 911s kits are available off the shelf but at least none are quite like this – one that includes a matching ‘mini me’ figure.

Lego House so proud of its Danish roots that a special edition ‘I Love Billund’ miniature of the building is now available exclusively at the venue. The 1,404-piece set costs £88.

Lego House spokesman, Sven Bering Andersen, said: ‘We wanted to capture not just the landmarks but the feeling of what the town means to us. Billund is at the heart of our story. It’s where Lego play began and where it keeps evolving. This place reflects how a small Danish town grew into the global home of play and creativity.’

For opening hours, tickets, and more information, visit LegoHouse.comPorsche 911 Lego, set 10295, £149.99, Lego.com

This Toronto home has two personalities. From its street-facing exterior, HCD House presents itself as a cosy neighbourhood home with red slate roof tiling and large window frames – a reasonably low-key period design, friendly and inviting. Its rear end, however, is more raw and modern, comprising cubic volumes and a stripped-back brick façade. What unites both façades is the interior they enclose, which is an ode to local heritage and craftsmanship.

Tour HCD House, a new Toronto home

COMN Architects, an architecture and interior design firm based in the city, was asked by the clients to preserve the home, which is designed in the Craftsman style (similar to the Arts and Crafts movement) and its original 1921 façade. ‘The main inspiration was finding a way to allow the original 1920s Craftsman house and the new contemporary addition to coexist naturally,’ Clarissa Nam, founding partner of COMN, tells Wallpaper*.

Nam continues, ‘Rather than treating the heritage portion as something separate or simply preserving it as a façade, we wanted the original character, proportions, and craftsmanship to influence the design of the entire home. The clients’ love of books, music, and entertaining also became a major part of the design. This led to the idea of the two-storey library and intimate music space as the heart of the house, creating a central space that connects the old and new portions of the home.’

As a result, the project naturally slots into its Toronto neighbourhood, nodding to its architectural history while also supporting contemporary functionality. Inside the two-storey home, the heritage section features the living room and dining area, with large original windows.

At the rear of the residence, the clients had an unexpected request. They desired a solarium with buckets of natural light. To accommodate this, the architects installed large windows and skylights, while a newly landscaped courtyard acts as a divider between the kitchen and solarium and the remaining living spaces.

Throughout the home, the joinery is something to be marvelled at. ‘We sought to honour the authentic spirit of craftsman design in this portion of the interior, which inspired our choice of custom wall panelling,’ notes Nam. ‘An existing wood-burning fireplace was also preserved, offering a subtle modern interpretation of historical elements.’

Peter McNeil, also founding partner of the firm, adds that their favourite part of the residence is the library and music space: ‘It became the heart of the project and is where many of the ideas behind the house come together. The library brings natural light into the centre of the home, while the plaster stair and walnut shelving create a layered backdrop for the grand piano and intimate concert space. We also like that it was carved out of the existing structure. It feels simultaneously connected to the history of the house and completely new.’

The Toronto home now sparks warmth and curiosity, and is designed as a slow reveal. Despite the openness of the spaces, the firm describes the sense of intimacy as you move through each room, and the relationship between the original house and the new addition gradually becomes apparent.

The architects conclude, ‘Natural materials, custom millwork, books, music, and carefully framed views give the house a lived-in quality. We wanted it to feel like a home first and a piece of architecture second.’

comnarchitects.com

On December 20, 1964, Ralph Lauren married his wife, Ricky Lauren, after just six months, having met in the eye doctor’s office where she worked as a receptionist. Over 61 years of loving matrimony, she remains by the designer’s side for his finale bow each season – as she did yesterday afternoon at Lauren’s S/S 2027 womenswear show, which was held at the Clock Tower Building in Tribeca and marked the opening act of this season’s New York Fashion Week (albeit unofficially: Ralph Lauren and Coach both chose to show the day before the schedule’s official start on Thursday).

Which means it’s safe to say that Lauren – a stalwart of American style who is currently enjoying a renaissance as the fashion world embraces the preppy aesthetic for which he is best known – knows plenty about romance. Prior to the show, guests received a bouquet of white tulips, delphinium and hydrangeas, as one might woo a potential love interest (or indeed for acts of diplomacy with a longtime partner), setting the tone for a show which the designer described as ‘an irreverent take on romance’.

Soundtracked by the swooning ‘I Found My Love in Portofino’ and The Police’s ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic’, the collection itself saw Lauren riff on hallmarks of romantic dress – among them ruffles, corsages, lace and feather – in the designer’s easy, insouciant style. Much of the ‘irreverence’ lay in the often eclectic mix-up of garments, which swayed between masculine tailoring (a tailored pinstripe waistcoat, dress shirt and wide tie referenced early designs for his Polo line, launched in 1967) and diaphanous, body-skimming dresses in plissé organza, lace and silk. Such juxtapositions ran throughout: shredded denim jeans, a nod towards Lauren’s longtime fascination with the workwear fabric, were worn with ladylike brocade jackets or shirts trimmed with colourful slices of shearling and feathers.

Other garments seemed to move between decades, often in a single look: waistcoats evoked at once the 1920s and the 2000s, the latter also referenced in the low-slung cut of trousers or in parka-style jackets adorned with boa-like feather trims. Elsewhere, a touch of Louis XIV grandeur was found in the corseted line of ceremonial jackets and billowing ruffled collars – albeit in Lauren’s contemporary, undone style. Undone too were a series of ‘spritz and tumble’ pieces, a technique which left garments purposefully rumpled and creased.

In a letter distributed to guests – which included his usual coterie of celebrity well-wishers, among them Cynthia Erivo, Viola Davis and Elizabeth Debicki – Lauren called it a proposition for ‘a new elegance’. ‘It’s about ways of dressing that celebrate ingenuity, originality and character,’ he continued. ‘The freedom and fun of creating a style which is truly personal.’

Stay tuned to wallpaper.com for more from New York Fashion Week.

The watch world has long has strong associations with the automotive one, from ties to Formula 1 to models named after famous races and tracks – most famously Heuer with Carrera, Monaco and Monza – to collaborations the likes of Jacob & Co and Bugatti, or, launched earlier this year, Breitling and Aston Martin, and Bianchet and Maserati. Both worlds celebrate the mechanical, typically also cross-fertilising notions of high luxury and extreme performance.

But spare a thought for the less high-profile, more arcane collaboration. Take, for example, Seiko’s new tie-in with Honda. Not the Honda of the NSX or the S200 but of the Motocompo, the 49cc, petrol-powered folding scooter-cum-mini-motorcycle manufactured by the Japanese car giant for its home market and just for three years in the early 1980s.

Seiko’s 8000-piece limited-edition Seiko 5 Sports Field model could hardly reference the Motocompo more bluntly, sharing the scooter’s bright yellow colour scheme, accented with bold black lines and a Honda-branded dial, while the nylon strap echoes that used to secure the scooter in the boot of Honda’s City car. Seiko offers the model as a collector’s piece 'celebrating two legends of Japanese design' – though it speaks to the potency of the Watchmaking Automotive Industrial Complex that in its selection Seiko should make such a localised and arcane reference.

'The fact is that car nuts are just that – very knowledgeable about the most esoteric history. They would know about the Motocompo,' argues Michael Benavente, managing director of Bulova, which has just released its own limited-edition Shelby Racer chronograph – with aluminium case and mirror-polished dial – to mark the 50th anniversary of the aluminium-edition Shelby Daytona Coupe, an iconic design in the US, but less so further afield.

Carroll Shelby was the visionary racing car designer who engineering and helped style not only the Daytona but the AC Cobra and the Ford Mustang. He was, in fact, the only person to win Le Mans as a driver team manager, team owner and race car manufacturer, doing so twice with a Ford GT. Indeed, some may know the Shelby name from 2019’s movie Ford v Ferrari: that’s Carroll Shelby, played by Matt Damon. Many, though, won’t know his name at all.

'I think the movie helped the Shelby name find more of a place on the international stage, but what works is that there’s an authenticity to Bulova, as a US brand, collaborating with a name in US automotive culture,' adds Benavente, who notes that the watch brand was the first timekeeper of NASCAR in the 1950s and was worn by Shelby, according to his estate. 'As much as I love the cars, it wouldn’t make sense for Bulova to work with the likes of Maserati, for example. But it’s remarkable how much watches and cars speak to the same kind of people.'

Certainly less obvious, and more left-field, watch car collaborations are on the up. Casio too has teamed up with Honda to celebrate the Honda RA272, while German brand Stowa has just launched its second of its World Rally Championship collaboration watches. In January Seiko also releases a chronograph inspired by the anime character Keisuki Takahashi and his beloved Mazda RX-7 - with a triangular 12 o’clock marker inspired by the car’s signature rotary engine. This relationship cuts both ways too: Porsche may be a household name, less so the watch micro-brand Aera, though the two companies are now working together.

This year’s ‘September Event’ was something of a double whammy for Apple, which not only introduced the world to a shiny new CEO in the form John Ternus, but also unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first ever folding phone, alongside the new iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 and AirPods 5, plus iOS27. Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook earlier this month, had the privilege of standing on stage at Apple Park and casually saying ‘there’s one more thing’, the traditional prelude to an earth-shaking announcement.

So what’s the big deal? It wasn’t as if the Duo was unexpected (although some thought it would be called the iPhone Ultra). The physical form is certainly unconventional (although Apple was beaten to the wallet/passport size ratio by both Samsung and Xiaomi), but what really matters is how it performs and what Apple has done to make the two-screen format feel essential rather than an impressive gimmick.

After all, this is the first change of form factor for a device that has sold upwards of two billion units (a figure that’s hard to verify as Apple doesn’t disclose sales figures), and while folding screens are a pretty technology at this point, Apple’s engineers and technicians are pretty much second to none, so any hardware-related issues feel extremely unlikely. At nearly $2,000 for the base model, rising to $3,199 for the 2TB model, this is the flagship phone to end all flagship phones.

Ternus began the presentation after extolling the extensive abilities of the iPhone 18 Pro, more of which later acknowledging that we all consider smartphones to be our ‘intelligent portable hubs’. ‘A larger display would open up entirely new possibilities,’ he continued, explaining how Apple didn’t want its foldables to look like ‘two phones stuck together’.

Instead, Ternus described the company’s quest to create ‘a larger display that feels as natural and intuitive as iPad – we believe it’ll redefine the experience of using a foldable phone.’ Design chief Molly Anderson called the iPhone Duo ‘new but remarkably familiar – the same size as your passport’.

With its rounded corners, asymmetric shape and sized to feel right in both open and closed modes, the key thing is the proportions. ‘We designed iPhone Duo around a consistent aspect ratio that is the same across both displays,’ said Anderson.

A lot has had to change to make the experience work, both in hardware and in software. For a start, there’s a hidden facetime camera behind the main display, along with the sophisticated new hinge system which includes magnets to snap the device satisfyingly shut. When open, it’s the thinnest iPhone ever made, while the frame is made from mirror polished Titanium for strength (available in two finishes, Star White and Night Sky).

The inner screen measures 7.6 inches (80 per cent bigger than iPhone 18 Pro), while the outer display, slightly shorter and wider than a ‘regular’ phone is 5.4 inches. When closed, the operating system orientates status and navigation to the right-hand side of the screen; open it up and content scales but controls stay in the same place. All apps have been redesigned to accommodate the screen sizes, while orientations happen naturally – when open, closed, propped half open.

A lot of what the Duo can do – run two apps at once, swapping them around sharing info between them – is par for the course on rival folding screen phones, but don’t forget this is Apple’s first swing at the form factor. You can be sure that a lot of these transitions will be a lot smoother and more intuitive than the occasionally hacked-together feel of Android-based systems. It’s all very sleek, from the alarm clock mode to the animation that expands the outer image onto the inner screen.

Apple Pencil compatibility is also coming, the first time the iPad accessory has been applied to the iPhone. The twin batteries provide up to 31 hours of video watching on the larger inner display, while the new flagship doesn’t scrimp on camera quality, with the same camera unit as iPhone 18 Pro. Helpful features like Duo Preview allow subjects to preview their own photograph on the outer screen as it’s being taken.

It was a good thing that the Duo was saved to last, because it would have made the regular hardware and software updates seem rather pedestrian. The new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max doubled down on the scope and power of Apple Intelligence. It’s all part of the ongoing Mexican stand-off taking place in Silicon Valley; in the ultimate scenario, the first company to blink faces ruin as everyone else swoops in and gathers up all the addicted AI users. One sign that Apple is taking AI ennui seriously is the new Apple Reference Image, all part of the substantial camera upgrade.

New image-making features include aperture control on the 48MP main camera with a physical shutter with blades thinner than a human hair. Apple Intelligence has been deployed to amp up the Photographic Style function for added texture and tone, while new Cinematic Effects can be applied to regular video in onboard ‘post’. 4K time-lapses have been added and a new set of Pro Controls have been added for greater manual control and custom controls. Apple clearly wants to take back the crown as the king of smartphone cameras.

Apple Reference Image is a new function that ‘signs’ each photo at pixel level at point of capture by creating an unalterable ‘reference’ version of every photo you take – a ‘digital negative’ – that can be used as verification after intensive editing and generative work.

Battery life is improved, with the 18 Pro offering the same durability as the ‘old’ 17 Pro Max, while 18 Pro Max has the longest battery life of any iPhone to date, 45 hours of video playback. A new A20 Pro chip sits at the heart of both phones, squeezing on even more transistors with a 6-core CPU and 7-core GPU. Visually, there’s now a smaller ‘dynamic island’ at the top of the screen, although it’s more flexible now with up to three different status indicators on screen at once. All this is powered by iOS27.

The new AirPods 5 (pre-order now, available 18 September) come with improved personalised spatialised audio and Active Noise Cancellation, offering up to 50 per cent more noise reduction than the previous generation, as well as Adaptive Audio that automatically adjusts between ANC and transparency depending on background noise. Total integration with Siri AI allows hands-free, context-rich access to info on your device and in your messages. The Live Translation feature has been updated.

Apple Watch Series 12 (pre-order now, available 18 September) includes a new chip to power a host of Audio Intelligence features, along with much more accurate fitness metrics. New features include Live Rewind, which can transcribe the last 15 seconds of audio as well as Siri Recap, coming soon, which uses the watch’s ambient listening abilities to take away, decode and summarise key points from meetings and events (very much like what standalone devices like Plaud already do, effectively ending their small window of advantage in the rampant AI device sector). Notably, Apple pointed out that Siri Recap will deliberately not be able to identify speakers or store audio.

There’s also more customisation on watch and band – ‘it’s not just a watch, but it’s your watch’. Series 12 finishes include Space Grey, Black, White Gold and Dark Bronze, all using recycled aluminium, with tougher glass and surfaces. Polished finishes in titanium (also recycled) are available, while a Pearl White and Night Blue ceramic finish has been introduced. The new flagship Ultra 4 model (pre-order now, available 18 September) gets up to two days of battery life, better durability and even more finishes.

When the dust settles and the analysis, stress tests, and teardowns begin we’ll see if Apple has made a smart move waiting for folding tech to reach full maturity before throwing its hand in the ring.

Alternatively, Apple iPhone Duo could simply be a low-volume, high status flagship device that further broadens the iPhone’s global appeal.

Apple iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 for 256GB with pre-orders from October 16
Apple iPhone 18 Pro, from $1,199, Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max, from $1,299, Apple Watch Series 12, from $399, Apple Watch Ultra 4, from $799, Apple AirPods 5, from $129, Apple.com/store

The winners of the 2026 London Design Medals have been announced as the London Design Festival prepares to kick off (12-20 September), with Jonathan Anderson, Sir Christopher Frayling, Anab Jain and Solveiga Pakštaitė awarded the annual design accolade. The winners were selected by a jury of global creatives led by the festival’s director Ben Evans, and will be celebrated at RH London, The Gallery, on 14 September.

The winning quartet embodies the breadth of creativity and ingenuity at the heart of London's creative industries. 'This year's medal winners demonstrate the transformative power of design, from Jonathan Anderson’s work blending high fashion, art and craft, to Sir Christopher Frayling’s lifelong dedication to design education and cultural history, Anab Jain’s pioneering work in speculative futures, and Solveiga Pakštaitė’s solutions for intuitive, inclusive and considered design,' comments Evans. 'Each medal recipient exemplifies how creative innovation shapes our culture, industry and shared future.'

LONDON DESIGN MEDALS 2025: MEET THE WINNERS

London Design Medal: Jonathan Anderson

Blending his work in fashion with a lifelong dedication to craft, both historical and contemporary, makes Jonathan Anderson a fitting winner for one of London's most important creative accolades. 'It is a true honour to be recognised by the LDF for my work within the field of craft and design, which have always been a personal passion of mine,' says Anderson.

Throughout his career, and both as a personal pursuit as well as through his work for brands like Loewe and Dior, as well as his eponymous label JW Anderson, Anderson has operated, a note from the festival reads, as a 'creator and curator'. Through projects such as collaborations with The Hepworth Wakefield and the Offer Waterman gallery, and the founding of the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, he transformed the role of creative director with a distinctive cultural perspective.

Lifetime Achievement Medal: Sir Christopher Frayling

British cultural historian, academic, broadcaster and champion of design education, Sir Christopher Frayling represents the festival's belief in the importance of fostering and nurturing the industry's future. Frayling recognises the similar mission the two share: 'Since 2003, the London Design Festival has been drawing the public's attention to the key importance of design in everyday life,' he notes. 'Through my teaching, my publications, my broadcasts – and my leadership of the Royal College of Art (RCA) – I have been on a similar mission.'

Frayling is a former rector of the RCA; among his achievements, he set up the pioneering History of Design postgraduate course with the V&A Museum, contributing to bringing modern and contemporary design at the forefront of the academic discourse. His belief in the accessibility of design education and the industry has led him to write and present programmes for the BBC and Channel 4, and to be a key voice in the crucial conversations surrounding funding for creative education.

Design Innovation Medal: Anab Jain

The co-founder of challenge-facing, future-oriented studio Superflux, Anab Jain is a futurist applying creative thinking to 'the complex and deeply interconnected nature of the challenges we face today'.

Today led by a mission of 'meaningful legacy', Jain was born and raised in India, where she studied filmmaking at the National Institute of Design before moving to London for a master’s at the RCA. Founding Superflux with Jon Ardern in 2009, her work has focused on designing speculative solutions where technology, politics, and nature are considered to confront the increasingly complex challenges facing current and future generations (as seen in the studio’s recent exhibition ‘The Craftocene’ in Venice). 'For us, [the award] is recognition that speculative and future-led design is inherently innovative and entrepreneurial,' she says. 'At Superflux, we have always believed that design’s greatest power lies in making complex, systemic futures viscerally felt, so people can step outside established narratives and find the courage to imagine alternate futures.'

Emerging Design Medal: Solveiga Pakštaitė

This year's Emerging Design Medal winner is chief design officer and founder of tech venture Mimica, and runs a multidisciplinary practice that deals with user-centred and sustainable design. Among her early achievements is Bump, which she developed while attending the Industrial Design & Technology course at Brunel University London: the surface of a temperature-sensitive label is applied to food, and its tactile pattern changes when the food is about to go bad – the mission being to cut food waste and support visually impaired individuals in their everyday life.

'I'm passionate about promoting inclusion and sustainable habits through design, and I think it's wonderful that work that makes the world a little bit better is being recognised,' she says. 'I feel very honoured! I'm proud of what I have worked on so far but I'm even more excited by the design challenges yet to come.’

Storied jewellery and silverware house Buccellati and Armenian-Lebanese interior designer Chahan Minassian work together like caviar and mother-of-pearl. Having previously collaborated on the expansion of the Maison’s Milan flagship store with the opening of a grand ‘Piano Nobile’ showroom on its first floor, their creative partnership is back in bloom with an intimate caviar bar overlooking the courtyard.

Experience Buccellati’s Art de la Table in Milan

Dedicated to the art of entertainment, the new space visually references Buccellati’s timeless caviar tableware collection: an emblematic range dating back to the 1930s and beloved for its signature micro-beaded motif and exceptional silversmithing craftsmanship. The Palazzo’s Neoclassical bones, originally designed by Luigi Chierichetti and completed in 1839, converse effortlessly with the soothing colour palette that defines the furnishings and fixtures.

‘Maintaining a residential spirit was essential,’ says Chahan Minassian. ‘The objective was to create an interior that felt welcoming and lived-in while preserving the architectural grandeur of Palazzo Gavazzi. The mirrors introduce light, movement and depth, while the materials, textiles and Murano glass bring warmth and intimacy.’

Past a gallery-style entrance, the caviar bar unfolds across two levels, with a glazed mezzanine overlooking a central bar and an arrangement of plush lounge chairs and sculptural bistro tables that are reserved for clients and guests. Above, vaulted surfaces, clad entirely in copper, silver and smoky-grey mirrored panels, split daylight across the room.

Throughout, silvery greys and taupes co-exist with accents of bronze and gold, while velvet, Fortuny fabrics, textured leather and custom rugs counter the harder reflective surfaces. Minassian designed each piece of furniture for the room, then added vintage Murano glass chandeliers with a characteristic amber light. The same colours and materials appeared in Minassian’s earlier work on the Piano Nobile, creating continuity between Buccellati’s retail and hospitality spaces.

Alongside the micro-beaded caviar line-up, including wine glasses, holders, and serving plates, are Buccellati’s pieces made with Ginori, coloured glass from its Murano Collection and the Furry Animals series of sculptural silver creatures, as presented during the 2025 edition of Milan Design Week.

Buccellati is located at Via Monte Napoleone, 23, 20121 Milan, Italy

For most people, a retrospective of their life’s work is the ultimate occasion to celebrate themselves, but for Charlotte Mensah, her new exhibition, ‘Charlotte Mensah: Community Matters’, is, as its title suggests, as much about the people who helped her become a pioneering force in Afro, mixed, and curly hair culture as it is about how she got there.

Open in London’s Ladbroke Hall 8-13 September 2026, ‘Community Matters’ is a mixed-media exhibition that traces Mensah’s life and career, from her childhood in Ghana to the opening of her famous salon, Hairlounge, on Portobello Road, and her position as one of Britain’s most influential hairstylists. In doing so, it showcases the people who inspired Mensah along the way and highlights the larger conversations around culture, creativity, and belonging that have always informed Mensah’s practice.

According to Mensah, the ambition was never simply to take things from the salon and put them into Ladbroke Hall. ‘We wanted to translate something of the feeling of the salon into an exhibition context: the intimacy, the conversation, the photography, the objects and, most importantly, the people,’ she says. ‘To do that, we had to look at my whole life and understand how it had informed my practice.’

Working with friends and Hairlounge customers, senior curator at V&A East Madeleine Haddon, and interior designer Jacqueline Douglas, Mensah filled the space with images and artifacts, creating an immersive space that will also, for the duration it is open, play host to talks and workshops like ‘Beauty, Business & Belonging’ and ‘The Modern-Day Salon: A Cultural Institution.’

Seeing her life presented before her in this way was an illuminating experience for Mensah. ‘It confirmed something I have always felt: none of this happened overnight, and none of it happened alone. My practice has always been social and relational. The work is hair, but around the hair there has always been family, friendship, conversation and collaboration.’

That was especially true when it came to Mensah’s family: ‘What surprised me was how present my children were at so many important points in the story,’ she says. ‘My son’s bedroom became my first salon in the mid-1990s. Then, while we were going through the archive, I found a photograph of my daughter in 2002 hiding inside the counter that was being made for the salon. That same counter is still there on Portobello Road today. The salon itself was designed by my neighbour, the architect Robert Grace. So even when I look at the physical space, I can see relationships embedded within it.’

Importantly, the exhibition also highlights Mensah’s trailblazing role in the history of afro and textured hair, and how that history has changed over the past 40 years. Mensah says he has seen the visibility of Afro hair change ‘enormously’ but, ‘visibility is only one part of progress’.

‘The conversation I want us to have much more seriously now is about education. There is an art to hairstyling, of course, but underneath the artistry, there has to be knowledge. You have to understand the fundamentals before you can improvise. You crawl, then you walk, then eventually you can run.

‘That is why I believe we need clearer standards and qualifications that properly demonstrate a stylist’s skill set, and that should apply across hairdressing. It is also why education has become such an important part of my own practice.’ To that end, Mensah runs Curl Workshops for families and delivers professional masterclasses for salons because, as she says, ‘ultimately, my idea of inclusion is very simple: somebody with Afro, curly or textured hair should be able to walk into a salon anywhere in this country and know that their hair can be cared for properly.’

'Charlotte Mensah: Community Matters' is on view at Ladbroke Hall until 13 September 2026

Set within a wooded plot beside Wimbledon Common stands 22 Parkside, a landmark of British modernism, recognisable for its glass-and-steel exterior. The home, also known as the Rogers House or Wimbledon House, is a pioneering home designed by Richard Rogers. Built between 1968 and 1970 for his parents, Nino and Dada Rogers, and inspired in part by his upbringing in Italy, the house is considered one of his most personal and influential works.

Enter 22 Parkside, aka the Rogers House, in Wimbledon Common

An example of Hi-Tech architecture and functionalist design, 22 Parkside was built using a prefabricated construction system, reflecting Rogers’ interest in flexible living. Arranged around a central courtyard, two separate single-storey pavilions are flooded with natural light. The house became a testing ground for ideas that would later find expression in some of Rogers’ most celebrated international projects, including the Lloyd’s Building in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Renzo Piano, who designed the latter with Rogers, said: 'There is no doubt that 22 Parkside was one of the most important buildings that Richard created. It worked as a miniature prototype for the sort of approach we took in the Centre Pompidou.'

With the aim of protecting one of the UK’s most important examples of modern architecture for future generations, the house has been donated to the National Trust by the Rogers family through the Richard Rogers Charitable Settlement. Ben Rogers, the son of Richard and Su Rogers, said, 'As a family, we wanted to ensure that this remarkable house would be protected, cared for and shared with future generations, rather than remaining a private asset.'

This acquisition joins the National Trust’s growing collection of 20th-century heritage, which includes 2 Willow Road in Hampstead and The Homewood in Surrey. The charity will curate a programme of guided visits, partnerships and digital content, opening the house to students, researchers and visitors.

The house’s new role as an educational resource reflects a belief that was close to Rogers’ heart, as his wife, Ruthie, explains: 'Richard regarded public access to culture – whether architecture, art, theatre, music, or design – as one of the great aspirations in life. It filled him with such joy that the public would have access to this house that was once private, a house that was a prototype for what he thought houses could be for all.'

22 Parkside will open to the public on Saturday 12 September as part of Open House London. A week later, visitors will also have the chance to step inside Rogers’ Lloyd’s Building, which this year marks its 40th anniversary.

The National Trust notes that public access to 22 Parkside will be introduced in stages while it cares for the building and develops its future programme. nationaltrust.org.uk

Every year, Le Labo distills the essence of one city into a bottle. Known as the City Exclusives, the fragrances within this limited collection attempt to capture the unique atmosphere of a place in scent so that, with one spritz, its wearer can be transported there. It’s a compelling approach to fragrance making, made all the more so by its unique distribution – the scents are only available to purchase in their home cities, except in September, when they make their journey to other Le Labo stores around the world.

The latest addition to the brand’s City catalogue is Shiu 25, an homage to Beijing that blends powdery iris notes with resinous frankincense and rich woods. Its an alternative version of Beijing to the soaring towers and busy streets that might come to mind. Rather, Shiu 25 draws inspiration from the city’s historic, peaceful spaces of traditional artisanship with their well-worn wooden floors and hidden gardens.

Le Labo opened its own such space in Beijing last year, the Beijing He Yuan Fragrance Lab, a unique perfume boutique inside the culturally protected Beizi Mansion in the Wang Fu Central neighbourhood. The Lab is housed in a traditional Chinese courtyard house, known as a siheyuan, offering a moment of stillness and peace to those entering, with Le Labo’s signature glass bottles filling dark wooden shelves.

‘Our City Exclusive fragrances began as a way to honour the places that leave an invisible imprint on us, and to distil their irreplaceable spirit through the senses,’ says Deborah Royer, global brand president and creative director. ‘When they travel each September, they offer a chance to feel something of their soul, even from afar.’

Shiu 25, Royer says, ‘emerged from our time in Beijing, and is an expression of what the city holds for us in its traditional spaces built for quietude and inner return – a lineage we’re privileged to nurture and continue in our historic He Yuan Lab. This fragrance carries that forward: an invitation to find centred calm, self-reflection, and a moment of pause in a world that rarely grants one.’

Shiu 25 and all other City Exclusive fragrances will be available in Le Labo stores around the world until the end of September, after which availability reverts to the home city.

After working with luxury yacht brand Azimut for more than ten years on land (including designing the company's HQ), Michele De Lucchi is now navigating the waves with an interior design for the new Magellano 27M. Launching in September 2026, the third-generation Magellano superyacht maintains its character as a comfortable long-range cruiser, with a freshly discerning atmosphere that embraces adventure as a route to inner discovery too.

For Giovanna Vitelli, chair of Azimut Benetti, Magellano’s adventurous soul matched that of design visionary De Lucchi: a philosopher, leader and humanist, who has embraced innovation as creative director of Olivetti, radical ideas as co-founder of the Memphis Group in the 1980s, and today, curatorial perspective as creative director of Triennale Milano.

Since joining her father’s company in 2000, Vitelli has pioneered cross-pollination of the design and yachting worlds: ‘Each range needs its own designer, because each range has a different soul and scope,’ she says. ‘You need to find two souls that match.’

The Magellano range was originally launched in 2009, imagined as an ‘SUV of the seas’, explains Vitelli, balancing comfort and safety with distance and speed. This 2026 edition maintains the characteristic dual-mode hull (enabling dining and relaxing at both slow and fast cruising speeds), with an exterior design distilled to ‘just a few lines’ by Finnish yacht designer Jarkko Jämsén.

AMDL Circles reimagines the Azimut superyacht

Working closely alongside Davide Angeli under AMDL Circle, De Lucchi’s sinuous wooden interior enhances this minimalist fluidity, flowing around expansive glazing and out to the main deck shaded by a teak, fan-shaped brise-soleil. The Mediterranean atmosphere inspired by the ‘pergolas, patios, loggias and porticos of old aristocratic houses’ finds harmony between domestic warmth and the omni-present potential of the sea, with its shifting cadence of personalities.

‘Perhaps this was the most beautiful aspect of working on a boat for the first time,’ says De Lucchi, ‘imagining an interior that was not separate from what was happening around it, but could continuously change together with the journey and your state of mind.’

The softly dimensional geometry is crafted predominantly of light oak wood, important to De Lucchi for its transformational patina that could continue to evolve with each adventure. Shape is illuminated by travertine, metal and integrated lighting and lamps, such as the Metafisica and Tolomeo. Whilst movement is guided by wood-working techniques: walnut detailing, subtle ribbing, flame-treatments, and hand-chiselled Japanese ‘Naguri’ finishes.

Drawing further influence from Japan, a wall in the primary bedroom is upholstered in Hosoo fabric that echoes the growth rings of a tree trunk, handwoven on a traditional loom at the eponymous Kyoto company founded in 1688. Japan is an enduring inspiration and pleasure for De Lucchi, and showing the harmony of distinct world cultures was essential to the spirit of Magellano.

'For us Italians, Japan is also the other side of the moon, not only because it is on the other side of the world, but because it approaches working with the hands with the same emotional intensity, yet in a completely opposite way,' says De Lucchi. 'When different cultures and skills meet, things emerge that neither could have created alone.'

De Lucchi’s ability to embed meaning in design for both our aesthetic and metaphysical selves is what draws Vitelli to his way of thinking. 'His background is not only in architecture, it’s in experiencing new limits,' she says. 'This interior is about atmosphere, rather than ornament' – qualities that can be seen at his previous designs for Azimut’s exhibitions, boat shows and the company’s own HQ in Piedmont.

For Vitelli, the Magellano 27M expresses the development of a post-pandemic ‘mindset shift’ that has brought new perspectives on wellness and culture to luxury yachting, where exploring the world is an exercise in self-exploration too. It’s a trajectory that’s no doubt set to travel even further with De Lucchi’s design mind on board.

Aston Martin’s foray into high-powered two-wheeled machines has been rumbling on for many years. A partnership with Brough Superior was first announced way back in 2019 with the track-only AMB 001, followed by the AMB 001 Pro superbike in 2022. Along the way, the motorbike has also manifested into a collaboration with Richard Mille, but at no point have the fruits of the partnership with the heritage biking brand resulted in a road-legal product.

All that is now set to change. This is the new AMB 002 Roadster, a road-ready iteration of the original superbike that’ll be produced in an edition of 300 units from 2027. The AMB 002 Roadster isn’t simply an adapted AMB 001 but an all-new machine, designed and developed in close collaboration with the Aston Martin Design Studio.

A sport-focused superbike with a pared-back, lightweight form, extensive use of carbon fibre and, naturally, plenty of power. The AMB 002 Roadster will be powered by a water-cooled V-Twin putting out 130bhp, which is tuned for dynamic but usable power delivery to make the most of winding, far-flung roads.

Just as Aston Martin’s definition of automotive beauty has evolved since 2019, so has form language of its two-wheeled collaboration. This is still a sleek machine, no doubt about that, but the AMB 002 is more insectoid and animalistic than the original, swapping out organic, biophilic forms for a ripple of gill-like air vents on each flank and a seat that tapers upwards like a scorpion’s tail. Even the stalk-like wing mirrors feel alive.

Such complexities are complemented with the usual raft of craft, from the glossy carbon fibre surfaces to the hand-stitched saddle leather seats. ‘It was always a long-term dream to make an Aston Martin motorcycle for the road,’ says Marek Reichman, Aston’s executive vice president and chief creative officer. ‘The AMB 002 combines the bold design aesthetic and pioneering engineering innovation which define Aston Martin and Brough Superior’s work to date. It’s a vivid expression of our shared passion for sculptural, visceral, covetable machines.’

Henriette describes the motorcycle as ‘truly one of a kind, both in its design and in the riding experience it delivers’. ‘The AMB 002 is every bit as striking dynamically as it is visually, a razor-sharp roadster that offers exhilarating sensations, creating the impression of becoming one with a lightweight, precise blade, propelled by our all-new, even more powerful engine.’

The new motorcycle will be machined and built at Brough Superior’s HQ in Toulouse, France, where a full array of high-grade CNC machinery is on hand to transform materials like aluminium and titanium into ultra-strong, high-grade components. In particular, the bike’s titanium structural frame demonstrates the benefits of having skilled design and manufacture on site. This crucial component weighs in at the just 5kg, a small fraction of the bike’s total 190kg mass.

Brough Superior can trace its origins back to 1919 and is famed for being TE Lawrence’s motorcycle manufacturer of choice. The company was reborn in the 2010s under the leadership of French enthusiast Thierry Henriette. Orders are now being taken for this limited-edition machine with first deliveries expected in Q3 2027.

AstonMartin.com, @AstonMartin, Brough-Superior-Motorcycles.com, @BroughSuperiorMotorcyles

And so it begins: with runway shows from Ralph Lauren and Coach, today marks the opening day of New York Fashion Week (albeit unofficially, with the two American powerhouses choosing to show off-schedule), and with it, the start of fashion month. With further stops taking place in London, Milan and Paris, the industry is preparing for four weeks of runway shows, presentations and happenings, as designers set forth their vision for the S/S 2027 season ahead.

There is a buoyant mood to New York this season, which against the odds is enjoying a luxury retail renaissance (read more below) and has a solid fashion-week schedule to match. This is bolstered by the presence of its big-name designers, which are largely in the midst of a renaissance of their own: among them Ralph Lauren, Coach and Tory Burch, which have each enjoyed social-media virality in recent seasons, particularly among younger consumers, as well as Calvin Klein Collection, Michael Kors, Thom Browne and Proenza Schouler. Each will show across the week.

Elsewhere, injections of newness come via Henry Zankov’s debut at Diane von Furstenberg (the New York-based designer has garnered an enormous amount of goodwill through his award-winning eponymous label Zankov, which will continue to show alongside), as well as the young labels Diotima, Ashlyn and LII, the latter of which saw designer Zane Li pick up the Karl Lagerfeld Award at the LVMH Prize 2026 earlier this month.

Here, Wallpaper* breaks down all the moments to look out for at New York Fashion Week S/S 2027 (9–15 September 2026).

Ralph Lauren and Coach will open the week – off-schedule

The week will begin with two American mega-brands – both currently in the midst of a renaissance – showing off-schedule on Wednesday. Up first, Ralph Lauren, whose signature preppy aesthetic, particularly the colourful Polo Ralph Lauren offshoot, is currently in the midst of a revival (collections from Celine, Dior and Miu Miu have all riffed on similar collegiate and varsity styles). The designer, who turns 87 next month, will host the show in a venue in New York’s Tribeca neighbourhood – expect famous faces on the front row and a coterie of major models on the runway, as well as a collection which riffs on the tenets of American style.

Later that evening, at an as-yet-undisclosed location, Stuart Vevers will show his latest collection for Coach (an afterparty will immediately follow). Vevers has hit his stride in recent seasons, combining his eye for accessories (styles like the Brooklyn or Tabby have gone viral) with collections which capture a New York insouciance increasingly geared for young consumers. ‘We embrace the continuous reinvention of what it means to be young and forward-looking, resourceful and creative,’ he told Wallpaper* last season.

Henry Zankov will make his Diane von Furstenberg debut

New York-based designer Henry Zankov has steadily built a reputation as one of the city’s most intriguing talents; his colourful, inventive knitwear under his eponymous label Zankov cleverly toes the line between the grown-up and the playful. After being initially embraced by fashion insiders (we called him the designer ‘making fashion’s favourite sweaters’ in 2024), he has gone on to find international stockists and won a CFDA Award for American Emerging Designer of the Year. ‘It’s just about letting the audience take it however they want to take it,’ he told Wallpaper* of his eclectic aesthetic. ‘There's a playful aspect to [my work], but it never feels matchy.’

This season, alongside the latest show for his eponymous label on Monday 14 September, he will show his debut collection for Diane von Furstenberg on the morning of Thursday 10 September. Taking over all creative for the brand, which was founded by its namesake in 1972, Zankov said he hopes to continue Von Furstenberg’s liberated approach to fashion (she is known for the advent of the jersey wrap dress, and always put women at the centre of her designs). ‘I have always been surrounded and inspired by strong women, and Diane is the ultimate embodiment of that,’ he recently said. ‘The DVF woman is a rebel – confident, curious and independent. It is an honour and privilege for me to build on Diane’s legacy and to carry the brand into the future.’ The woman herself added: ‘I am excited to watch Henry’s designs, sense of colour, and effortless sensibility seduce a new generation.’

New York’s blockbuster brands aren’t going anywhere

Joining Ralph Lauren, Coach and Diane Von Furstenberg will be a number of other names that have long been synonymous with the city. Proenza Schouler, now under the creative leadership of Diotima’s Rachel Scott, will show on Thursday 10 September, followed later that evening by Tory Burch, who will present her latest collection at the Isamu Noguchi Sunken Garden on New York’s Pine Street. Michael Kors and Calvin Klein Collection will both show the following day on Friday 11 September, while Khaite – one of New York’s more successful exports of recent years – will host its latest show at the Brooklyn Storehouse on Saturday 12 September. The vast warehouse space will no doubt be occupied by a typically cinematic show set by designer Catherine Holstein’s husband Griffin Frazen, an architectural designer who helped conceive the sets for The Brutalist.

There will be a New York retail renaissance

In April, property company Savills placed New York as the top city for luxury retail openings for the first time since 2019, cementing the renaissance of bricks-and-mortar retail happening across the city (notably, on Fifth and Madison Avenues, though there has also been luxury retail growth Downtown). Joining a slew of new Uptown mega-flagships – including the four-floor Peter Marino-designed House of Dior New York on Madison Avenue – will be a vast new Moncler store, Moncler Fifth Avenue, marking the largest-ever global flagship for the Italian outerwear brand. It will celebrate the opening with an event on Thursday 10 September.

Elsewhere, Acne Studios will open a new store in New York’s West Village on Greene Street with a party later that evening, while a new Victoria Beckham store created by the British designer alongside artist Alexander May and designer Ole Lund of LNP in SoHo will no doubt attract those visiting the city. Speaking to Wallpaper*, she called it her ‘home away from home’.

Zane Li headlines the rising design stars to watch

LII, the eponymous label of Zane Li, has been a Wallpaper* favourite for some time: in our January issue, we rated him as one of our names to watch in 2026. ‘Zane Li’s clothes are endlessly intriguing,’ wrote Orla Brennan at the time of the young Parsons School of Design graduate. ‘Starting from a flat shape, the Chongqing-born FIT graduate constructs garments the way an architect might a blueprint, leading to silhouettes that sit on the body in curiously sculptural ways.’

These intriguing silhouettes and a bold use of colour won Li The Karl Lagerfeld Prize at the LVMH Prize 2026 earlier this month, with chairman and chief executive officer of Christian Dior Couture Delphine Arnault praising him for designs that ‘seamlessly blend sportswear with couture influences’. Buoyant on this success, he will show his third runway show this season on Monday 14 September. Elsewhere, there are several other brilliant young labels in New York: Rachel Scott’s Diotima will host its third runway show on Monday 14 September; Henry Zankov will hold his latest Zankov show, also on Monday 14, and Ashlyn Park’s Ashlyn will show at the Cristina Grajales Gallery on Saturday 12 September.

Conner Ives will head stateside for a homecoming show

In something of a homecoming, Conner Ives will bring his irreverent London-based label back to the United States, where he was born and grew up. Previously showing at London Fashion Week, the buzzy label – which gained international prominence with his ‘Protect the Dolls’ T-shirts, which advocated for Trans rights and were worn by numerous high-profile figures – will hold its first New York show on Saturday 12 September. Expect the usual liberated blend of pop cultural references, insouciant glamour and upcycled garments, and a no-doubt memorable cast (his previous shows have drawn from London’s queer and creative communities, as opposed to typical runway models). Titled ‘Across the Pond’, the show will take place at The Grill, a chophouse located in the former Grill Room of the Four Seasons restaurant in New York’s Seagram Building.

Thom Browne will return to New York for the week’s finale

The closing act of New York Fashion Week belongs to Thom Browne, who, after runway shows in New York and San Francisco, returns to his home city (as chairman of the CFDA, the organisers of New York Fashion Week, it is also a show of support for the event). Details for the show, which will take place at 5pm on Tuesday 15 September, are so far under wraps, though expect theatrical spectacle and plays on his signature garment, the grey suit. ‘Sometimes we don't realise how transformative the suit is until the person is wearing it,’ Browne told us in the August Creative American issue of Wallpaper*. ‘You do feel the shift when you put it on. It’s powerful’

Ninjago is a world where ancient temples exist alongside powerful dragons, mechanical giants and ninjas mastering elemental powers. Drawing on mythology, martial arts and East Asian influences, Lego’s long-running franchise (initially released in 2011) began as a toy line before expanding into television, film and video games. Yet beneath its battles, mystical powers and fantastical landscapes, the series has always been about how young people can unlock their potential.

To mark Ninjago’s 15th anniversary, Lego has partnered with New York-based artist Futura to create new artwork drawing on the fantasy series. It brings together two worlds connected by imagination, curiosity and a shared instinct for world-building.

Inside the Lego x Futura Ninjago collaboration

Born Leonard Hilton McGurr in New York, Futura adopted his moniker as a teenager when he emerged from the city’s graffiti and subway culture during the 1970s. From the beginning, anonymity became a space for invention. ‘I started off anonymous but wanted to create a mythology behind my work,’ he explains. That impulse would become central to a practice populated by recurring characters, symbols and forms that together feel like fragments of a larger universe.

Over the decades, Futura developed a distinctive graphical approach of fluid aerosol gestures, atmospheric colour and floating forms. Figures such as Pointman emerge from these compositions as different facets of an imagined future. Moving between painting, sculpture and product design, he has continually expanded that language without losing his youthful approach. This energy and playfulness drew Lego to Futura, whose visual language seemed naturally suited to the Ninjago series; he has now been named an official creative collaborator and artistic co-creator for the brand.

The collaboration began in Billund, Denmark, at Lego’s headquarters. There, Futura met the designers shaping Ninjago, delved into the company’s archives and witnessed how designs move from an initial sketch to a finished object. Walking through the factory and seeing the precision and care invested in every component shifted his sense of what the partnership might become. ‘My visit completely expanded my vision of what could be possible,’ he says. ‘After that experience, I truly understood the outcome would be fantastical.’

Back in New York, McGurr’s studio became a playground of scattered bricks and unfolding ideas. At the centre was the minifigure, one of Lego’s most important storytelling objects, first launched in its current form in 1978. This plastic figurine became the vessel for Futura to carry his visual language into the Ninjago universe. As a result, ‘the design process began with simple silhouettes, front, back and side views’.

A natural point of departure was Pointman, Futura’s elongated, futuristic figure that has appeared throughout his work for decades. With its sharp edges, stretched head and extended limbs, this alien-like symbol exists somewhere between human and machine. But the intention was never simply to reproduce this character as a minifigure. Instead, the Lego team worked closely with Futura to explore how elements of his creative style could be translated into the Ninjago world – the result was Ninja of the Futura, a 3D art piece. ‘We started by working up sketches of a mask, gear and body plates,’ says Futura.

Pointman’s influence is most clearly seen in this new artwork, its elongated form, pointed details, and sharp oval eyes echoing the silhouette of Futura’s iconic figure while fitting carefully within the Ninjago universe. In Lego’s fantasy series, this type of accessory conceals a person’s identity, but can also be a powerful magical artefact, giving the design both a visual and narrative role. Yet for the New York-based artist, appearance is only the starting point.

‘There are two parts to creating this character. What they look like and, more importantly, who they are,’ explains Futura. ‘There is so much room to tell a wonderful story, but we also have to respect the audience Ninjago has created and understand how young people grow with that world.’

Rather than creating a hero defined by strength alone, Futura has imagined a grounded figure who acts as a teacher to the young ninjas. ‘The character does not necessarily need to be the strongest or have the most spectacular powers. His strength could come from knowledge, experience and wisdom,’ states Futura. To reflect this, Ninja of the Futura’s rucksack is filled with tools rather than combat equipment. ‘The backpack has an assortment of selected items, not weapons, but necessary tools. These will be of great power to the character and the community,’ he explains.

Futura’s collaboration with Lego also includes original artworks that reimagine fan favourite characters from the fantasy series, Nya and Kai. ‘This project feels bigger than a single product. It brings together an entire world that can continue to grow.’

For Futura, collaborating with the Danish toymaker marks the fulfilment of a long-held ambition. A lifelong Lego collector, he had imagined what it might be like to work with the company for decades, long before the opportunity became a reality. ‘For years, I always thought it would be incredible to work with the brand, and now it is happening,’ he notes. ‘This is not a vanity project or simply about being able to say that I worked with Lego. What excites me is the possibility of becoming part of a story that can guide, empower and inspire young people.’

Ultimately, the collaboration goes beyond placing an established artist within a global franchise. Through Futura’s work, the Ninjago universe introduces a different idea of what power can look like in the series. Not greater strength or a more spectacular weapon, but knowledge, experience and the ability to pass both on.

In a fantasy world built around young ninjas learning to master extraordinary powers, Futura’s character feels especially fitting. He offers a reminder that growing stronger is not only about what you can do, but what you can share, teach and leave with others.

The new partnership will be experienced for the first time on Friday 18 September 2026 at the I Park Mall Yongsan, Seoul, as part of the Lego Ninjago: Legends DuskFall Fan Event

lego.com

‘I'm absolutely mad about rules,’ says artist Amelia Cross, sitting at her studiously arranged desk at Sarabande, the foundation set up by designer Lee Alexander McQueen to support a new generation of creatives. Meticulously realised miniature drawn studies of items of clothing or clothing-related details, such as shirt cuffs, reside alongside a pair of feet shaped canvases encased in white lace socks. Cross has been preparing her first UK solo show ‘Rules of Disappearance’ which opens 10 September 2026 at Angelica Jopling’s Incubator – a gallery championing emerging contemporary art voices – and will showcase a new series of her wonderful ‘sewn paintings’.

Prefect, a new work, is laid neatly on the studio floor. It looks like a school uniform that its wearer has literally just stepped out of. Composed of a perfectly pleated skirt that sits just so, the emerald velvet ribbon trim of its jacket exquisitely stitched, while the matching tonally coloured button is, as you lean in, in fact not a real button at all, but a tiny and perfectly painted rendition of one. As buttons go, it’s beguiling. Prefect is a great introduction to Cross; the prefect badge that sits on the jacket’s lapel is also painted and actually reads ‘perfect’. This kind of knowing use of words and trompe-l’œil effects is central to the way Cross wants to invite the viewer to engage and interact with her painstaking, thoughtful work – most pieces, depending on their size, take around five weeks. ‘I like the idea of the double take or second look,’ she says. ‘My work is quite multiangular too, so you do have to move around them.’

Other pieces in the show include a series of 32 small panels featuring a variety of buttons – 31 of which will be painted and one of which will be real; Cross liked spot-the-difference books as a child. One of the largest works, Marketing Graduate, is a painter’s shirt rendered as a biting dig at the idea of what a young artist might have to endure in the ever-volatile and competitive art market; the interior of the collar reads ‘Tailored for Blue Chips’, while its four front pockets are festooned with the typical artistic tools, from oil sticks to scissors. ‘It’s called the Marketing Graduate because that really is what a lot of emerging artists are,’ says Cross in a refreshingly matter-of-fact way. ‘It’s very anti-art.’

Inspired by McQueen learning the craft of tailoring on Saville Row, Cross initially studied bespoke tailoring at London College of Fashion – her degree show featured four looks that riffed on Lucian Freud paintings – before completing a master’s in painting from the Royal College of Art in 2025.

Her initial experiments in oil revolved around paintings of clothing, but with the figure all but removed, leaving perhaps a singular hand amid two beautifully executed shirts. Cross says her creative breakthrough came with the work Neck (Study) in 2024; having observed her own trench coat draped over a chair, she felt inspired to make its collar, followed by painting its buttons and a subtle shadow that you can barely see in a reproduction photograph.

‘I had to almost reject fashion,’ she says. ‘And then get into painting to return to it. My sewing machine and paints had been next to each other for years, but it had never clicked until the RCA.’

Cross tells a wonderfully rudimentary and DIY story of an early art-fashion cross-over; at around 16, inspired by a Miu Miu collection, she drew cats on a school shirt collar. ‘I would use up all the data on my phone to look at runway shows,’ she laughs. But her interest in clothes began with her mother, who she says has always been very well dressed – ‘She always taught us, if you have a good handbag and a good pair of shoes, you can walk into any room, and you'll be fine’ – while her father’s career as a pilot instigated her lifelong curiosity around uniforms.

Comparisons to Domenico Gnoli are obvious – Cross describes the way he painted the twill diagonal line of a tie with a slight shadow as ‘just delicious’. She notes, too, that conceptual artists such as Yoko Ono, Lawrence Weiner and Marcel Duchamp feel pertinent inspirations. ‘Mary Kelly, I think, is really interesting,’ she says. ‘She did a lot with fashion, in almost using clothing as a documentation of a life, and creating an archive. I think, in a way, maybe that's also what I'm trying to do: create a form of an archive.’ Agnes Martin’s rigour and simplicity similarly chime with Cross’ sensibility. ‘You can see it has taken her years to get that perfect stripe, and I think I'm also chasing that perfect button or stripe.’

Painting mostly from life, Cross’ signature greyish beige Belgian linen offers her a certain restraint – ‘It allows the shadows or the form to do the talking.’ Her process begins with a sketch. She will then pattern-cut as if she is making clothing, deciding crucial measurements before cutting the linen, figuring out dimensions for the stretcher bars and which bits of the linen will need to be primed in order to be painted upon. This is followed by the cutting of each individual piece; she will then begin to paint and sew.

Born in London, Cross grew up in Portugal, returning to the UK to study for her GCSEs. She recognises that the shift in school uniform from a very simple polo shirt to the traditional state-school grey skirt with a blazer and tie cemented her fascination with the language and codes of clothing. ‘You’re judged immediately on how exactly you wear your uniform – there’s such an unspoken language around it,’ she recalls of school-era styling nuances. ‘I do like that tension between the idea that a uniform is a way to equalise but somehow also offers a way in to breaking the rules.’ On a first date, she says her initial question is always ‘What was your school uniform and how did you wear it?’

For a recent show at Nino Mier Gallery in New York, Cross completed extensive archival research into uniforms, specifically school dress codes and workplace attire at both the V&A and the Goldsmith’s Textile Collection. On a board in her studio, there are images of men wearing plus fours from the 1920s, including Cambridge undergraduates. Inspiration is also gathered from real life, specifically on her Northern Line commute. ‘I like to look back, but also look at what people are wearing now because that makes for a new language.’ One of her favourites among this latest work is Sardines, featuring four almost identical navy suit-jacketed arms, which was largely informed by journeying bankers and the varying iterations on a classic navy sartorial uniform.

For those who invest in Cross’ work, they may find a secondary element in addition to the painting itself in the form of some kind of correspondence from the artist. Secret messages, confessional ideas and writings circulate her practice – perhaps another way to keep the audience alert, engaged, looking. For her New York show, Cross made a work called The Price of Privacy, consisting of a small pocket detail and a partly concealed confessional letter detailing the artist’s own sins of the past year. After it sold, she sent the full letter to the buyer – as yet with no response. ‘But that’s part of it,’ she grins. ‘In my mind, I thought they could post it online or maybe just keep it for themselves… I like that these added elements aren’t obvious straight away,’ she says. ‘My work allows me to play, but also to mess with people a little bit.’

Amelia Cross, ‘Rules For Disappearance’, 10 September – 4 October 2026 at Incubator, London, incubatorart.com

From Santiago Calatrava’s helical red-and-white Peace Bridge to Foster + Partners’ crescent-shaped The Bow, Calgary’s urban identity is seemingly defined by bold contemporary statements and relentless upward transformation. Yet those whose gaze extends beyond its palaces in the sky will be rewarded with midcentury gems and storied landmarks that carry memories of the city’s past. Making a case for the dynamism of adaptive reuse is the new restaurant Stable Palms Club, situated amid Kensington’s urban buzz and adjacent to well-known landmarks such as the Plaza Theatre and the Pointe Flatiron building.

The site was formerly home to Molly Malone’s, a long-standing Irish pub deeply woven into the neighbourhood’s social fabric, and later to Free House. Independent restaurant and nightlife group Block Hospitality collaborated with local design studio Way of Normal to transform the cavernous 3,600 sq ft space into a seductive midcentury Californian-style home primed for hosting.

Wallpaper* dines at Stable Palms Club, Cagalry

The mood: California comes to Calgary

Way of Normal approached the project as a conversation between intimate, interconnected rooms, each adopting the logic and scale of a private home. At its centre, the stainless-steel and red-oak bar acts as a visual stronghold, furnished with bespoke metal stools and small lamps mounted directly onto the counter. Beyond it, a sculptural archway frames a partially concealed sunken lounge that recalls a sultry conversation pit. Mirrors, portals and shifts in floor height extend this sense of discovery, obscuring the full plan from the entrance so guests can peel Stable Palms Club’s layers gradually.

The material palette continues the residential theme. Red oak envelops ceilings, beams, walls and fitted joinery in the amber density of a well-preserved 1960s house, punctuated throughout the dining room by stainless steel, aluminium, stone and deep-green zellige tiles. The treatment continues on the upper dining tier, where steel cladding introduces a cooler, sharper surface. These forms draw on Populuxe and Googie design, channelling the expressive architecture of roadside restaurants, motels and the space-age years into swooping openings, circular cut-outs and broad timber planes.

Elsewhere, custom joinery, commissioned lighting and furniture establish a consistent scale across the rooms. The dining tables alone took a year to develop, while several bespoke lights required over 18 months. Where possible, production was kept local, with reclaimed timber and aluminium used alongside reworked vintage furniture. Plants, table lamps and artwork bring the residential fiction into focus.

The food: elevated home comforts

Familiar smaller plates are given an inventive turn. Raw oysters come with classic mignonette and rhubarb hot sauce; bluefin tuna zuke is paired with fresh wasabi; and Southern-fried chicken thighs are marinated in koji and dill pickle. Mains then grow heartier with slow-cooked duck breast, brown-butter parsnip purée and apple jam; sea bass with fregola, asparagus and herb oil; and a 45-day dry-aged T-bone accompanied by black garlic, mushroom butter and veal consommé.

Chef Jordan Mayo says the menu has ‘something for everyone’; its breadth is shaped by French and Italian references. His recommendation? The entirely house-made beef burger with Gruyère, soubise onion and pickles, served alongside fries and a veal-stock bordelaise. He also singles out the ricotta gnocchi with lobster and fried focaccia croutons as an increasingly popular choice. Room for dessert? The brown-butter caramel tart arrives with malt ice cream and a sprinkling of sea salt, while the Black Forest sundae layers kirsch ice cream with macerated cherries.

That appetite for unexpected combinations continues at the bar, where Zachary Fox and Justin Dysiak preside over a programme of bright, refreshing cocktails made with irreverent ingredients and techniques. The ‘Et-Tu Brute?’ is a clarified Caesar in which frozen cherry tomatoes replace ice cubes, preventing dilution. ‘A Fistful of Dollars’, meanwhile, combines Italian tomato gin and balsamic vermouth to create a caprese-inspired Negroni.

Stable Palms Club is located at 1153 Kensington Crescent NW #001, Calgary, AB T2N 1X7, Canada

In March, British furniture brand SCP announced plans to relocate from the Shoreditch showroom it had occupied for four decades – an unexpected, though perhaps inevitable, development. The previous month, Wallpaper* met founder Sheridan Coakley to hear about the impending move to a townhouse showroom in Clerkenwell – a significant shift not only for the company but for London’s design scene.

When SCP opened in a former upholstery warehouse in Shoreditch in 1985, Coakley chose the location because it was affordable and close to the manufacturers he worked with. As a retail destination, however, it was an industrial backwater. He recalls customers arriving by taxi and asking the driver to keep the meter running. Over the following four decades, the neighbourhood and its design community grew around SCP. New designers were discovered, countless pieces of furniture launched and many a party held.

Coakley himself has remained a pivotal yet famously self-effacing figure in the industry. He began his career as an antiques dealer in Notting Hill before making his name as the man who brought Philippe Starck’s furniture to the UK. He subsequently helped launch the careers of designers including Jasper Morrison, Matthew Hilton and Konstantin Grcic. SCP feels as much like a family as a business, but its ethos is also underpinned by a longstanding commitment to British manufacturing. Its vertically integrated model includes a Norfolk upholstery factory, opened in 2003, which now specialises in sustainable materials and production methods.

Coakley has never shied away from bold decisions, and the Shoreditch building – which combined the company’s offices, showroom and shop – was, he says, 'from a retail point of view', simply no longer working out.

'It’s changed,' he says of bricks-and-mortar retail. 'From a trade point of view, Clerkenwell is a much better place to be located.'

Here on Clerkenwell Green – among the area's many other furniture showrooms – the five-storey townhouse will benefit from the existing trade footfall while continuing to welcome those who want to browse and buy in person, something that Coakley notes is otherwise lacking in the area.

'Our retail and contract businesses are much more aligned now than they used to be,' he explains. Offices and hospitality interiors increasingly have a softer, more residential character, and SCP’s new showroom has deliberately been designed to feel more like a home than a conventional contract space – an approach also embraced by Danish brand Gubi at its nearby Charterhouse Square outpost.

Although its facade resembles a Victorian terrace, Coakley tells us the building was actually constructed in the 1980s. It also comes with a useful annexe, which SCP are using as an events and office space. The interior design is by Simone McEwan and Sacha Leong of Nice Projects – the studio behind 40 Duke, Selfridges' private shopping destination, which opened earlier this year.

At the shop's smart tobacco-brown entrance, a large window draws passers-by inside, where they will find accessories and gifts displayed in a space finished with finger-block parquet flooring. The basement hosts a lighting department designed by long-time SCP collaborator Jon Harrison while the other three floors are dedicated to furniture, arranged in distinct room sets divided by shelving and curtains. The top floor, known as the Apartment, is staged as a private residence rather than a conventional showroom.

The result is decidedly more polished than the previous store, with carefully considered materials and finishes, warm colours, soft lighting and an intentionally residential feel. 'I hope it's not too fashionable,' Coakley laughs. 'We haven't gone for a completely minimalist look.'

The annexe, which was formerly a metalworking workshop, sits in a courtyard at the rear of the building. Its ground floor serves as a meeting space with a materials and samples library, while a kitchen by Very Simple Kitchen – an Italian brand which SCP is launching in the UK during London Design Festival 2026 – is separated by a glass wall. SCP's offices are located upstairs on the first and second floors.

For this month's opening, which happily coincides with London Design Festival, the store is hosting a showcase of vases designed by Martino Gamper for Italian manufacturer Bitossi Ceramiche, alongside furniture by Swedish brand Källemo and lighting by Blue Green Works. Outdoor furniture by London-based woven-textile brand Shore Studios will be displayed in the courtyard.

Ever the pragmatist, Coakley is cautiously optimistic about the move. 'I feel less emotional about it than I did to begin with,' he admits. 'I was very resistant in my head initially because I thought [the move] would be looked upon as a negative thing. But actually, as a project, I'm very excited about it – this is the part I like.'

SCP, 16 Clerkenwell Green, London, EC1R 0QT

Marking 30 years of Wallpaper* in print, the October 2026 issue welcomes three guest editors – Es Devlin, Carrie Mae Weems and Palace Skateboards – each of whom was given creative carte blanche to produce their own section of editorial.

Designer and artist Devlin – known for creating immersive worlds for the likes of Beyoncé and U2, showstopping theatre sets, as well as lauded sculpture, installation and performance – served up not only an exclusive studio visit, a portfolio of greatest hits and a fold-out poster, but also an additional treat to showcase the multidimensional nature of her work, while also highlighting the possibilities of print.

Devlin’s limited-edition, 16-page, concertina cover unfolds to reveal a panorama of her scenographic works, as well as perforated motifs on each page that, once the cover is closed, form an iris-like shape, echoing the Iris sculpture from her 2023/24 exhibition ‘An Atlas of Es Devlin’ at the Cooper Hewitt museum in New York.

In putting a hole in the Wallpaper* cover, she’s in good company – Zaha Hadid pioneered the approach for her October 2008 cover, a die-cut gatefold, while artist Alex Israel gave us a hole in the shape of his own head for the February 2020 issue.

Copies of the October 2026 issue featuring Devlin’s spectacular cover are now available to buy at WallpaperSTORE*, and will also be for sale at the Design Museum in London, celebrating the first major UK exhibition of her work, ‘Other Worlds' (2 October 2026 – 4 April 2027).

Get yours before they go – there are only 1000 issues available.

For a further Es Devlin fix, read her guest editor interview here, and delve into the new edition of her A Concise Atlas of Es Devlin, published 1 October and available to pre-order.

Wallpaper’s October 2026 Guest Editors’ Issue is available from 3 September, in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

This past June, Michael Rider held his first standalone menswear show for Celine at the Tennis Club de Paris. ‘[It’s about] enjoying what we do in the studio, and desiring it ourselves, all of it, the clothes and the characters,’ the Washington, D.C.-born designer said, honing an aesthetic that combines American preppiness and Parisian flair, offering a spin on the familiar tenets of a classic wardrobe.

Amongst an array of desirable accessories – including colourful cummerbunds, patterned ties and wooden beads – was his first major collaboration as the house’s creative director, a riff on Reebok’s 1982 Reebok Freestyle Lo, created alongside the American sportswear behemoth. True to style, Rider describes the nostalgic sneakers as ‘heritage two ways... Paris street, American movement.’

Celine’s collaboration with Reebok has arrived

‘Celine and Reebok are both about the tension between heritage and forward motion,’ he continues. ‘The past, and the here and now.’

Constructed in soft, pliable leather, lending a gently worn-in feel, the sneaker comes in eight colourways, including ‘Peanut’, ‘Oxblood’, ‘Dark Brown’, ‘Fluo Red‘ and ‘Butter’, as well as more classic white, black and beige (Rider is also known for a vivid use of colour, seeing bold primary shades paired with classic tones evocative of the house’s traditional bourgeois codes). ‘One style. 8 colours. Infinite possibilities,’ describes Celine.

Introduced in 1982, the 1982 Reebok Freestyle Lo was designed by Angel Martinez to initially appeal to women during the rise of aerobics classes in the early 1980s. It would become one of the brand’s best-known unisex styles, evolving into the Freestyle Hi, which features two Velcro straps. Reebok has continued the style in various iterations in the years since.

Rider describes it as ‘A shoe that has moved through time, and still moves with us, with you.

After a launch event during New York Fashion Week, the collaboration will launch on September 12 at selected stores worldwide, including New York Soho, Tokyo Ometesando, Beverly Hills Rodeo Drive, Miami Design District, Paris Montaigne, Milan Montenapoleone, Dubai Mall Men & Women, London New Bond Street, Shanghai IFC, Seoul The Hyundai, Hong Kong Harbour City and Singapore Marina Bay Sands.

celine.com

Ask many a skincare obsessive what their favourite brand is and chances are the response will be Biologique Recherche. Founded in the late 1970s by the biologist Yvan Allouche and physiotherapist Josette Allouche, Biologique Recherche has achieved its cult following and commercial success almost entirely through word of mouth, rarely engaging in traditional advertising or public promotion. But the brand has yet to become a household name, at least beyond its native France.

That, however, is about to change, thanks to the opening this week (8 September 2026) of the brand’s first flagship store in New York City. Located on 132 Greene Street in SoHo, the 2,500 sq ft space is the brand’s debut of its new, more public-facing identity. In the words of Wandjina Glasheen-Brown, SVP of global creative at Biologique Recherche, it’s a space that ‘is giving our reputation a voice, a vibe, and a physical grammar’.

Designed by London- and Berlin-based architecture studio Casper Mueller Kneer, ‘the Residence’ is the first boutique to bring Biologique Recherche’s new architectural concept to life. Inside, visitors will find a retail area for products; a space for the brand’s signature ‘Skin Instant’ diagnosis and expert consultation, allowing staff to create a personalised skincare routine for clients; and treatment rooms for both facials and body treatments.

‘Casper Mueller Kneer’s approach allowed us to explore the contrasts and contradictions that are central to Biologique Recherche,’ says Glasheen-Brown. ‘Precision and warmth, science and emotion, technical expertise and human touch – while also creating a dialogue between the maison’s Parisian heritage and the energy of New York. Together, we developed a new architectural language for the maison that feels contemporary and distinctive, without losing the unconventional spirit that has always been part of its identity.’

Upon entering the space, visitors are greeted by an ‘altar table’ where the products are displayed and which gives the serums, in Glasheen-Brown’s words, ‘a kind of sculptural authority, almost reliquary-like’, while a gold-leaf ceiling creates a warm, opulent aesthetic that contrasts with the clinical appearance of the glass-cylinder bottles. That clean, restrained look is picked up in the stainless-steel display area beyond, however, and, past that, the opulence returns with a blue marble bar inspired by the journey that the Seine takes through Paris.

Those who visit the treatment rooms will find themselves transitioning into a progressively more secluded environment, with the acoustics and atmosphere shifting to create a more intimate feel. Soft carpets underfoot are decorated with a design inspired by the Sistine Chapel ceiling, while the lighting and soundscapes in the treatment rooms are engineered to complement the rhythm of each treatment.

For Biologique Recherche, the New York space is an important moment for the brand, reflecting its move into a more public arena. That said, it is essential to all those behind it that the company retains the principles that have defined its approach since the 1970s.

‘Growth, for this maison, has to stay disciplined and highly selective. The things that built our reputation – professional expertise, the quality of our client relationships, and a genuinely personalised approach – are not negotiable as we scale exposure,’ says Glasheen-Brown. ‘What makes Biologique Recherche special was never scarcity for its own sake; it is the depth of methodology, of efficacy, and of the practitioner relationship. Our job now is to protect that depth while finally letting the maison show up with the confidence it's earned, on a global stage.’

Visit the store at 132 Greene Street, New York City, NY 10012, biologique-recherche.com/en-us

Shop Biologique Recherche

The long-awaited return of one of Audi’s most celebrated modern model names has been expected for a while. The contemporary A2 isn’t quite the same kind of design revival as a Renault 4 or 5, but traces of the original car’s form are certainly in evidence, not to mention its spirit.

The new Audi A2 is an e-tron, a pure electric car. The headline figure is that it offers a WLTP range of up to 646km (a shade over 401 miles) from the top of the line 84 kWh battery (smaller, cheaper 52 and 61 kWh variants are available).

Audi is citing this as the most efficient model in its history, with an energy consumption of 12.8 kWh/100 km (which converts into a UK-specific Miles per Kilowatt-hour 4.85 mi/kWh – anything over 4.5 is not uncommon but still impressive).

That frugality is all the more fitting given the history of the A2. The original debuted in 1999, following on from the 1997 Audi Al2 concept. A compact, upright hatchback, the A2 combined ultra-light (and expensive) all-aluminium construction with finely honed aerodynamics and a range of efficient combustion engines, including a 1.2l turbo-diesel that could get record-breaking mileage (around 140mpg). It was also beautifully detailed inside and out.

Sadly, it didn’t achieve the required sales to survive and production ended in 2005. It was not replaced. Expensive to buy but cheap to run has never been a particular successful formula in the auto industry – note how difficult it is to get the wealthy into expensive electric cars. Nevertheless, the A2 was ahead of its time in almost every respect and has garnered an enthusiastic following in the ensuing years.

Can the new A2 e-tron combine efficiency with popularity? EVs have made a good deal easier to charge more for less, if you’ll pardon the pun, despite the market’s broad attempts to lower the barrier to entry at the bottom end.

An Audi is a premium machine, however, and although the A2 e-tron won’t change that, it’s notably sparser in interior details if not equipment. The extensive use of 'Softwrap', a new fabric surface, across the dash and door panels gives a certain minimalist, old school vibe.

Other useful features include Vehicle-to-Load (V2L), ie, you can charge your e-bike from the car, a large panoramic glass roof and magnetic charge stations for smartphones. Recycled materials are used extensively, from aluminium to plastic, with a special focus on designing components for recycling at the end of the car’s life cycle.

Visually, there are clear nods to the earlier car, especially in the shape of the glass house and the way the rear window is bisected by the descending roof glass. The front end is rather disappointing in comparison – any hope that Audi was going to head back to the clarity of 90s icons like the TT and A2 were raised by the recent Nuvolari reveal and then cruelly dashed by the towering grille of the new Q9.

The A2 e-tron splits the difference but still errs on the side of big grille=bold personality. Odd, given it’s a pure EV (and even odder given the 1999 A2 barely had any grille at all).

These are all hopefully minor quibbles about a car we’re nevertheless excited to drive. A2 is a perfect name for an EV that majors in minimalism in the service of slippery aero and efficient use of available resources. Here’s hoping that the A2 e-tron can avoid cult status and head for high up in the sales charts instead.

Audi A2 e-tron, from 38,200 euros, first European deliveries Q4 2026, Audi.com, @Audi

Twenty years ago, Freitag, the Swiss bag makers with a penchant for second-life materials, opened its first flagship store in Zurich. At the time, the idea of using a stack of decommissioned shipping containers was rather novel, and not yet a ready identifier of commerce-driven pre- or post-development pop-up ‘happening’.

Working alongside architects Spillman Eschle, the company took a site in the former industrial district alongside Zurich’s Hardbrücke road bridge, hardly a very prepossessing spot for a retail experiment. The architects craned a total of 19 containers onto the spot, with nine of them forming what the company called ‘Zurich’s smallest skyscraper’.

The spot was actually logistically perfect (just 150m from what was then the Freitag bag factory) and close by a busy road populated by the tarpaulin-swathed trucks that provided Freitag’s unique source material. To this day, no two Freitag bags are the same, each crafted from reused heavy duty trucking tarpaulin to enjoy a second life as a backpack, carry on or messenger bag.

As well as proving a swift and cost-effective method of creating a ‘permanent temporary structure’, the Zurich HQ was an instant PR masterstroke, even in the days before virality, let alone social media. Visible from both road and rail lines, the project was featured in design, architecture and lifestyle magazines around the globe, including our September 2006 issue, literally helping put Freitag on the map.

It took just six months to get the Flagship Store installed, with containers sourced from Hamburg’s port craned into position. The modular construction allowed for new containers to be added and in 2014, thanks to near continuous upgrades and maintenance, it was granted permanent status. Over the years, the elements haven’t been kind to the building blocks, and a complete overhaul was required in 2019 to cover up the rust and smarten up the exterior.

The most recent improvements include a new photovoltaic system to shade the metal roofs and generate onsite power, as well as the installation of a dedicated Repair Studio for customers to visit the company and give their bags a fresh lease of life. Since 2006, the surrounding area has also had a glow-up, with bars, restaurants, vintage stores and other businesses springing up alongside.

‘The store became a physical extension of that same philosophy: giving existing materials a new purpose while challenging conventional ideas of retail and design,’ say the firm, who have extended their material palette to include old car seat belts and unwanted ski boots.

For the next few months, the upper floors of the container tower will play host to a new exhibition, ‘A Second Life’, that delves into the company’s past and its role as a pioneer in the circular economy.

The Freitag Flagship Store is at Geroldstrasse 17, 8005, Zürich, Tel +41 433 669520

Founded in 2005 in Oregon, the Oscar-nominated stop-motion studio Laika is the groundbreaking creative force behind films such as Coraline (2009), The Boxtrolls (2014) and Kubo and the Two Strings (2016). The studio’s latest film, Wildwood, directed by Travis Knight, is a darkly magical adventure story, based on the Wildwood Chronicles book series by Colin Meloy, and, to coincide with the film’s release in October, the Design Museum in London is staging a new exhibition.

In a world in which AI is rapidly infiltrating all elements of creative output, Laika’s command of stop-motion (the cinematic practice of photographing real, 3D objects in constructed environments, with puppets moved incrementally between frames) is a joy to behold, offering a celebration of the art of telling visually and emotionally rich stories using technically-precise physical craftsmanship.

The exhibition, created in collaboration with the Portland-based studio, traces the development of the film from early ideas and visual research through to character and environmental design, costumes, puppets, props and miniature sets. Meloy’s best-selling fantasy novel Wildwood tells the story of a precocious seventh grader and her mission to rescue her baby brother from an enchanted forest after he is kidnapped by a murder of crows. Laika first optioned the rights to the story shortly after it hit the shelves in 2011.

‘Wildwood represents everything Laika believes animation can be: emotionally resonant, visually ambitious, and made by artists, craftspeople and technical innovators working at the highest level,’ says Laika COO David Burke. ‘This exhibition gives audiences a rare opportunity to see the extraordinary artistry and ingenuity behind the film, from its puppets and costumes to its sets and environments, and to understand how thousands of individual creative decisions come together to build a cinematic world.’

The exhibition will also offer visitors a wider behind-the-scenes look at the creative and technical processes involved in building Laika’s stop-motion worlds, both in Wildwood and the two decades it has spent film-making. This invaluable show brings together original creative material, production objects, costumes, film-making tools, audiovisual content and large-scale interactive installations, and will reveal the work of the visual development artists, model makers, scenic painters, and more.

‘Laika presents Wildwood’ will be on show at the Design Museum from 15 October-10 January, designmuseum.org

Gazing across the rolling hills of Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, the keen-eyed traveller might spot a flash of terracotta in the distance. It wouldn't be entirely out of place to presume it might belong to one of the agricultural region's traditional farmhouses, defined by their clay roof tiles. Approaching the site, however, it soon becomes clear that an altogether different architectural proposition is at play here. All blocky, geometric shapes and a brutalist spirit, House on the Hills cuts a confident, albeit remarkably stealthy, figure among the area's wheat fields, vineyards and woodlands.

The project is the holiday home of architects Fabio Calvi and Paolo Brambilla, who co-founded their namesake Milan-based studio in 2006. The creative duo were after a countryside retreat, and they found what they were looking for near Piacenza, an hour and a half south of Milan, just beyond the industrial plain of the Po Valley.

Step inside this Italian retreat on a hill

‘From the very beginning, we wanted the house to be a strong, contemporary architectural gesture that clearly stands apart from the natural landscape,' the duo say. ‘At the same time, we wanted its colour palette to feel deeply connected to the place, echoing both the surrounding countryside and the traditional colours of the local architecture. This balance between contrast in form and harmony in colour was one of the project's guiding ideas.'

As a result, the house is a bold blend of regional references and 20th-century modern architecture, sprinkled with its creators' sharp sense of style and conceptual clarity. A pleasingly weighty concrete roof in an earthy colour becomes a key exterior feature that appears to float above the leafy surrounding, thanks to the subtle, organic mineral hue (somewhere between warm grey and taupe) of its similarly sturdy walls. It also translates into a powerful coffered ceiling internally, offering a 90 x 90cm grid that helps shape the layout's arrangement.

‘Beyond the colour palette rooted in the local landscape, our references included the coffered ceilings of the region's historic noble residences and the terracotta friezes of the medieval castles around Piacenza,' the architects add. ‘We are passionate students of architecture and design history. Rather than repeating the same formal language or design attitude from project to project, we try to find references that are specific and appropriate to each context. We often reinterpret elements from the past through a contemporary lens, allowing every project to develop its own identity.'

Stepping inside, a compressed entrance area opens up into a generous living space with a slightly sunken seating and entertaining area that makes you feel like you are nestled within the surrounding garden – the property's thick walls not only acting as structural load-bearers, but also accentuating the framing of verdant vistas in all directions. Spreading out beyond to the outdoors, the interior's coffered ceiling becomes a deep lattice outside, shading the terrace and swimming pool.

The sense of security provided by the house design's honest solidity is matched by its material selection. Gridded artificial stone paving flows inside and outside, connecting all spaces. Its finer, 5cm square grid ‘evokes the visionary landscapes imagined by Superstudio during the Radical Architecture movement of the late 1960s', the architects explain, referencing the era's Italian movement that challenged modern architecture and consumer capitalism through bold and imaginative photocollages and design visuals often featuring grids.

Furnishings are a balanced mix of 20th-century vintage finds and pieces designed by the architects for companies such as Zanotta, Frigerio and Pianca. And bespoke elements abound too, defined by oversized solid wooden knobs, which can be found on the kitchen cupboards and other storage elements. As the pair put it: ‘These tactile details introduce an almost archetypal domestic quality, recalling traditional farm furniture and affirming the building's primary vocation: a country house intended to be shared around long meals, seasonal gatherings and everyday family life.'

As to whether it was challenging to design a home for themselves, Calvi and Brambilla's 20 years' experience makes them feel confident in their choices: ‘We approached the project in exactly the same way, treating ourselves as the clients. The design evolved through a very careful and continuous dialogue between us, and looking back, we would make almost exactly the same decisions again. Apart from a few minor details, we wouldn't change anything.'

calvibrambilla.it

Jewellery designer Shaun Leane is marking a change in his decades-long jewellery practice, with the launch of a new commission-only atelier which will create only twelve pieces a year.

The shift in focus, to a considered and slower pace, is reflective of Leane himself. He began his career 44 years ago while still in his teens, as an apprentice in Hatton Garden, alongside Lee Alexander McQueen who was working as a tailor on Savile Row. The bold, strong pieces Leane created for McQueen defined a career notable for its blend of avant-garde aesthetic and rich celebration of craft. In 2019, Leane began spending more time in rural Ireland, and in 2024 left his flagship boutique in Mayfair.

It has been a culmination of events which have triggered a new direction for Leane, who is working at the antithesis of repetition and the mass market with his new atelier, 12. ‘Luxury, to me, has always meant rarity. Not only the rarity of materials, but the rarity of time and attention given to a single object. That belief is central to my approach with 12,’ he says.

The peace and solitude he enjoyed in rural Ireland enabled a period of great introspection, he adds. ‘12 represents a return to how I started – creating works with the highest levels of craft, passion and responsibility. By making just twelve pieces a year, each work is given the time it deserves, allowing me to create objects that are deeply considered, deeply personal, and made to become the heirlooms of the future.’

Leane’s first piece for 12 has been an incredibly personal objet d’art – a stone headstone in commemoration of his late father, embellished with intricate flora and fauna, and accompanied by a cat cast in bronze.

Other works, including a couture sterling silver collar commissioned by Daphne Guinness, unite heritage techniques and rare materials, and draw on skilled craftsmanship from goldsmithing and silversmithing to engraving and archive photography.

12creations.com

Canadian studio Superkül has often graced these pages. Now there’s a chance to own a recent project by the practice, Valley House in Hogg’s Hollow, a verdant residential enclave about 10km due north of downtown Toronto.

Step inside Valley House

The house makes the most of its location. Ostensibly set on a gentle suburban crescent, the generous lot backs onto a forested ravine. The car port and drive give little clue as to what is within, with only the crowns of the neighbourhood’s mature trees at the rear indicating the combination of verdant views and privacy that the site allows.

Superkül have combined the calm, four-square minimalism of the exterior, with its timber and brick screens, clean lines and set back entrance, with an richly designed interior that opens up onto the rear view thanks to large sliding glass full height doors. Where privacy is more of a concern, light is brought into the spaces through clerestory windows and rooflights.

The interior palette is warm and natural, using cherry wood, walnut and teak for cabinetry and floors, with details in porcelain, glass and stone. Grasscloth (seagrass) wallpaper is used extensively to add another layer of natural texture and warmth. The primary living spaces flow between one another, with a sunken family room, study and snug alongside a kitchen, dining and living space.

Specification is high throughout, including bespoke Bulthaup cabinetry and Gaggenau appliances in the kitchen, with Caesarstone work surfaces and a substantial central island. A dining area is situated adjacent to the rear yard, as are the main living spaces. A large double-sided wood-burning fireplace provides a focal point for the room.

The primary suite is also sited on the ground floor, with panoramic views out into the courtyard, while three further bedrooms are located upstairs, along with a separate lounge and study. The latter contains a run of custom banquette seating, a place to sit and overlook the ravine. A basement level houses the guest suite along with a utility room, media room and a gym.

Naturalistic planting and the preservation of the forest floor allow the rear garden to blend with the natural landscape, suggesting a limitless space beyond the glass, while at night, the house glows like a lantern shining through the trees.

Valley House, Toronto, $7.298M CAD, for sale via Sotheby’s International Canada, SothebysRealty.com, Superkül.ca

For their first major commercial design collection, film director Luca Guadagnino and production designer and architect Stefano Baisi aren't interested in recreating the sets from their movies. Instead, they're interested in what happens when world-building becomes real.

Their debut collection for Zara Home, referred to by the brand as an 'atlas of desire', spans some 200 pieces including garments, scents, lighting, furniture and homeware. For the duo, who have spent almost a decade working together, it marks their first commercial foray into the world of furniture and fashion. 'We understand each other,' says Baisi of their creative dynamism, 'and we can speak the same language when we when we work together.'

The collaboration began in 2017, when Guadagnino hired Baisi to head up his eponymous interiors studio. As the studio's architect, Baisi worked across everything from homes and shops to hotels and fashion shows. In 2024, he took on his first role as a production designer, building a surreal version of 1950s Mexico City for Queer, Guadagnino’s adaptation of William Burroughs’ novel featuring Daniel Craig. After the Hunt, starring Julia Roberts, followed in 2025, for which Baisi conjured rarefied East Coast interiors for the film's academic characters.

'Cinema doesn't reflect on the physical objects,' Guadagnino explains. 'It reflects on the silhouette – on an image that can communicate something you need to know about the character.' Design, by contrast, the pair agree, is made for real people. 'I personally believe that a [film] set must reflect the lives and the story of the characters,' explains Baisi. 'So from my perspective and in my experience, nothing [in cinema] is done for the sake of beauty itself. That's the point, and I think that design is something different. It's done for people, to be desired and to last forever – and to enrich people's lives.'

While you won't find an exact armchair from I Am Love or a kitchen table from A Bigger Splash, cinema wasn't entirely absent as a source of inspiration. Rather than their own films, it was the colour and atmosphere of others that provided a visual compass – Guadagnino name-checks Cemetery of Sun by Nagisa Ōshima (The Sun's Burial), Yi Yi by Edward Yang and Prenom Carmen by Jean-Luc Godard.

The collection's accompanying text freely acknowledges its historical reference points, from Viennese Secessionism – clearly seen in the 'Uncollected' sofa – and French Art Deco to Brazilian Modernism and Italian Radical Design. Some of those references are more explicit than others: the oak-and-wool 'Purkersdorf' chair – which closely resembles a squatter version of Josef Hoffmann's 'Seven-Ball Chair', circa 1907-1908 – takes its name from the Austrian sanatorium designed by Hoffmann, whose work Baisi has previously cited as an inspiration for After the Hunt. The resemblance has not gone unnoticed, with some commentators online questioning where homage ends and imitation begins.

A series of stainless lighting designs have a playful Italian postmodernist appearance – all squiggly stems and legs with geometric diffusers and feet. Guadagnino highlights the 'little touches of surrealism' that appear throughout: the collapsed legs of the 'Amalita' desk and 'Cygni' coffee table, which seem to slump under their own weight, or the scalloped bases of the 'Fainting' armchair and 'Bretonita' sofa that peep out beneath the upholstery. 'We had a great pleasure in thinking of the collection in these terms with our friend [film producer] Carlo Antonelli.'

Are these the pieces they wanted to live with but could not find? 'I think we are not so selfish,' smiles Guadagnino. 'I think we really wanted to do something that we felt could speak the language we wanted to speak, which was a language of form and colour.'

Guadagnino, who previously made a short Christmas film for the brand in 2021, recounts how the seed of an idea for a collection with Zara was planted during a visit to the Marta Ortega Pérez Foundation (MOP Foundation) in Spain where Zara's vast headquarters in La Coruña is also located. Conversations with chair of Inditex Marta Ortega turned into concrete plans and by April 2025, the duo were working with the Zara Home team to bring the collection to life. Zara, they said, gifted them complete creative freedom.

For Baisi and Guadagnino, this meant extending the collection to include a wardrobe for men and women including roomy trenches and pea coats in tweed, fresco wool and leather, tailored suits and chunky knitwear. The prevalent earthy palette is enlivened by jewel-toned satin and sequins across shirts, skirts and dresses, while printed illustrations of fruits, flowers and fauna by Italian artist Francesco Snote appear on clothing and ceramic tableware. A series of scented candles adds another sensory layer – the Baisi Guadagnino world smellls practically edible, in case you were wondering, with blends of verbena, kumquat and galbanum, and blood orange, grapefruit and orange blossom. Together, these elements create a complete domestic universe – a Gesamtkunstwerk in the manner of Hoffmann himself.

'We knew we wanted to create a world, not just a collection comprised of few elements,' says Guadagnino. 'Apart from our pleasure of working together and creating together, this comes mostly from the way in which you have these very wide possibilities in Zara and in Zara Home.'

Indeed, collaborations with designers including Vincent van Duysen, Collagerie and Colin King have helped Zara Home bring a particular strand of contemporary design to a broader audience. It is worth noting, however, that accessibility is relative. While fashion starts at £19.99 for a pair of socks and rises to £289 for a leather jacket, the furniture is decidedly less high street: the 'Uncollected' sofa will set you back £11,660, while a table lamp costs £399.

To mark the launch, Baisi and Guadagnino have also created a 20-minute short film. Directed by Guadagnino and written by Scott Z. Burns – the screenwriter behind Contagion, The Bourne Ultimatum, and The Report – it stars Jamie Bell, Patricia Arquette, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chase Sui Wonders. 'It's like a feast,' enthuses Guadagnino of the short. 'When we started shooting and then wrapped four days later, it was a bit strange because for me it was like a movie – I was like, "why are we finished so early?". It was amazing.'

Baisi worked on the film's production design and has also designed staging for the collection's in-store presentation, which will be unveiled in Milan during Fashion Week as a two-day public pop-up at the city's La Pelota event space. For now Baisi is not giving much away, but promises it will be 'playful, fanciful and consistent'.

'I would like people being pleasantly surprised by the collection,' reflects Baisi, before Guadagnino adds, 'as a way to change their mind about themselves.' There is, they suggest, something intuitive and even revealing about the objects we choose to live with. 'There's no single way of choosing pieces, and it's not always consistent,' says Baisi. 'It's something that comes from instinct.'

For Baisi and Guadagnino, home is not a fixed point but wherever they hang their hats. These pieces, they hope, will become part of other people's stories. 'You can make love, and you can embrace, and you can be five people on a couch,' laughs Guadagnino. 'It could be a machine of love.'

Baisi Guadagnino for Zara Home will launch on 26th September at zarahome.com, zara.com, and at select stores worldwide. The collection will be presented on 26 and 27 September during Milan Fashion Week at La Pelota, Milan, through a two-day public pop-up set within a site-specific installation by Luca Guadagnino and Stefano Baisi. The pop-up will be open from 11am to 8pm

London diners have become used to the idea of a sushi-based omakase menu; now this Fitzrovia import – the first European outpost of Ushio Haruyoshi Bettei in Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu – is introducing the capital to multi-course menus of wagyu beef. Put aside any preconceptions of fatty meat, however: the dinner-only restaurant specialises in akami (lean) wagyu rather than heavy marbling. Almost all the meat has been imported from Japan, along with the chefs who grill it and the ceramics it’s served on – not great for air miles, perhaps, but a guarantee of the niche authenticity the restaurant offers.

Wallpaper* dines at Wagyu Yakiniku Ushio, London

The mood: Counter-top cool

The restaurant’s interiors have been modelled on the Fukuoka original, with the best seats arranged around the L-shaped counter behind which the chefs sear and serve, though unless you speak Japanese, don’t expect much in the way of cheffy chat. Not that beef-based banter is the point, says chef-owner Hakusei Chin. ‘At Ushio, we’ve always believed that the quality of the ingredients and the skill of the chef should speak for themselves, so we wanted the space to feel equally calm and focused.’

He’s certainly managed that. All the staff – from the chefs to the saké-pouring sommeliers – are charm itself, while ceramics sourced from Kyushu display the same individual character. A backlit shelf behind the counter carries ceramics from Arita, the Kyushu town where Japan’s first porcelain was fired four centuries ago. Some of it is Ko-Imari, the heavily decorated porcelain that Europe bought by the shipload from the 1600s; some from Lin, a modern range glazed to a metallic finish. Vases holding seasonal flowers come courtesy of ceramicist Taeko Kajihara, who builds her pieces by hand instead of throwing them on a wheel.

‘Rather than expressing Japan through decoration,’ Chin says, ‘we chose to work with natural materials like wood, stone and plaster, and to keep the space as minimal as possible. In doing so, the counter and the act of cooking naturally become the centre of the experience.’ That minimalism extends to the lack of any obvious signage on the exterior, but rest assured that once inside, the experience doesn’t feel in the slightest bit unwelcoming.

The food: Lean cuisine

Each course of beef, whether from an omakase of A5 wagyu, a six-piece tasting selection or the à la carte, arrives with a card with the relevant cut stamped on an illustration of a cow. First comes top blade served sashimi-style, the pink meat lightly scored and faintly marbled; it looks almost like a slice of fatty tuna garnished with a shiso leaf but tastes powerfully and lingeringly of beefy umami.

The rest of the cuts come cooked, treated to the briefest of sears on the grills (‘yakiniku’ means ‘grilled meat’ in Japanese) before being flipped over and plated up. One arrangement features a trio of tongue, tenderloin and kurimi (lean shoulder), simply seasoned with salt; another plate brings top blade lightly glazed with tare. The richest-tasting of all is sirloin seared with sukiyaki marinade and presented with an egg yolk and a dome of steamed rice.

This lighter style of beef, the restaurant claims, is higher in protein and lower in fat than traditional wagyu, with the result common to many omakase meals that you may still be hungry at the end. If you’re feeling peckish, ask for an extra course of Fukuoka-style wagyu curry of slow-cooked beef tendon, its gravy-like sauce scooped up with a wooden spoon – it’s as comfortingly unsophisticated as the rest of the meal has been elegantly refined.

Wagyu Yakiniku Ushio is located at 12 Charlotte Street, London, W1T 2LU, UK.

See more of London's newest restaurant openings.

He bombs around Los Angeles in a Mercedes-Benz, top-down, the Santa Ana winds emphasising his artfully floppy hair. He is seductive, a polyglot, has an easy charm, an expensive watch and a tasteful home. He’s ridiculously handsome. When he’s wearing clothes, the clothes are Armani. He is, of course, the American Gigolo, as played by Richard Gere in Paul Schrader’s impossibly stylish 1980 hit. Don’t you want to be just like him?

It was through Hollywood that the late Giorgio Armani steered the course of dressing in a new direction, starting with American Gigolo’s wardrobe of louche, earth-toned linen tailoring – but the film was also the first hands-on encounter with the world of cinema which would become central to the house’s reputation for decades to come. A manifesto, if you like.

The brand was then just half a decade old, but now, almost 50 years later, the 83rd Venice International Film Festival is underway, and Armani is a ubiquitous presence – from the branded boats which zip visitors across The Floating City, to the gowns and suits worn on the red carpet outside the Palazzo del Cinema.

But this year is the first edition of the festival without Mr Armani himself, who passed away in the final days of the 2025 event. Now, the torchbearers are continuing where the maestro left off. Armani Beauty is the official beauty sponsor for the ninth time, returning with its exclusive Armani Cinema Club, and bringing a host of talent who represent the future of film, including the newest fragrance ambassador, Jonathan Bailey, alongside Sydney Sweeney, Nicholas Galitzine, Madisin Rian and more. But it’s not just the new generation of stars who choose Armani for their moment. When George Clooney went on stage last week to accept the prestigious Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement award, he was wearing, almost inevitably, an Armani tuxedo.

The role of the fashion house is clear, but the beauty arm has its role to play too. ‘Our ethos is one of dramatic simplicity,’ says global makeup artist Hiromi Ueda. ‘The most important thing we take from the world of cinema when designing a makeup look is that consideration of how light hits the face; some parts radiant while others are more in shadow.’ The original poster for American Gigolo comes to mind. ‘I’m very inspired by films with beautiful cinematography, especially films where the colours, angles, composition and atmosphere are very strong,’ she says.

For the Armani Privé A/W 2025 collection – the house’s haute couture arm – Ueda created a makeup look which nodded to the sculpted sophistication of Marlene Dietrich, and she also cites Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda as a key reference point in her process. ‘I love how his films show everyday life in a very honest and natural way. He finds beauty in simple, quiet human moments rather than creating unnecessary drama.’ She continues: ‘That is also very close to my makeup philosophy. I don’t see makeup as a mask or something that should hide who you are. I see it as a way to enhance what is already there and make someone feel more like themselves. In that sense, I feel connected to Kore-eda’s approach, which is finding beauty in reality, in natural details, and in the quiet moments of everyday life.’

Armani makeup ambassador Vittoria Ceretti tells Wallpaper* that beauty is integral to building a character in front of a camera. ‘Whether it’s for the red carpet, or for a photo shoot, I will often start with the makeup to help inform the storytelling,’ she says.

It is hard to imagine a red carpet event without the elegance of Armani, films like The Untouchables, Goodfellas, and The Wolf of Wall Street without their distinctive tailoring, and the 1980s – full stop – without American Gigolo. Mr Armani’s passion for film has not only shaped the brand he founded, but also shaped Hollywood itself.

The 83rd Venice International Film Festival runs until September 12.

armani.com

The white stucco church with a crucifix-topped bell tower on the corner of Lucile Avenue and Griffith Park Boulevard in Silver Lake has stood as a local landmark for almost a century. Originally constructed in 1931 as Bethany Presbyterian, the building was put to various uses before sadly spending the best part of the last decade vacant, bar a brief spell as an antiques market.

Now, Casetta, the California-based boutique hotel group that specialises in breathing new life into architecturally significant properties, have made it the sixth addition to their portfolio and pulled off a wholly remarkable act of resurrection. Not only is the gracefully refurbished and rechristened Hotel Lucile ideally located for exploring the east side of Los Angeles and beyond, but it’s also home to Sous Sous, a superlative restaurant set inside the church’s high-ceilinged nave with a menu that blends Southern French cuisine with Deep South flavour.

Wallpaper* checks into Hotel Lucile, Los Angeles

What’s on your doorstep?

Silver Lake has long been established as the trendy, creative heart of east Los Angeles, but strangely the neighbourhood has limited hotel options. The opening of Hotel Lucile may be bad news for the area’s AirBnb hosts, but it’s a winning development for anyone seeking an elegant stay within stumbling distance of Sunset Junction. Many of the city’s best and buzziest bars and restaurants, including the Seco, Bar Stella, Bacari and Night + Market Song, are all just moments away. Outdoor activity hubs such as Silver Lake Reservoir and Griffith Park are also close by, as is Barnsdall Art Park and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House. The hotel has teamed up with the Usal Outdoor Research Center to provide guests with a tailored field guide to local experiences.

Who is behind the design?

The Romanesque Revival-style church was designed by architect Scott Quintin in 1930 and built at a cost of around $75,000 (equivalent to just under $1.5 million in 2026). Casetta’s tasteful renovation was overseen by architecture and interior design studio Electric Bowery, led by Lucia Bartholomew and Cayley Lambur, who say they set out to celebrate the church’s ‘European sensibility’. The central nave of the building is now occupied by the restaurant, Sous Sous, with a food concept by The Butcher’s Daughter founder and creative director Heather Tierney.

The original wooden beams, vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows have all been lovingly preserved and are complemented by two large, impressive murals by the classically trained oil painter Erin Lynn Welsh. Each references the local landscape: The deep red mural above the chancel stage pays tribute to Altadena’s Eaton Canyon, which was devastated by wildfire in January 2025, while at the other end of the space is a verdant green scene inspired by the native flora of Elysian Park.

The room to book

Hotel Lucile’s 25 guest rooms are designed in a refined, minimalist style, featuring Parachute linens and Aesop bath amenities. The walls display original works by local Los Angeles artists, curated by the Rhett Baruch Gallery. Minibars are stocked with select products from the nearby Erewhon market, including sea salt popcorn, dark chocolate protein bites and Anytime organic vodka and gin. Wellness products such as a hydrating sheet mask and citrus-vanilla vitamin C gel are also available. The pick of the rooms is number 106, known as the Lucile Suite, which has a living room and its own private courtyard.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

The hotel’s restaurant Sous Sous dominates the main building, and seems destined to become a Silver Lake institution in its own right. In part, this is due to the sanctified ambience that remains in the beautifully renovated space, but it’s also down to the earthly delights being cooked up in the kitchen. Led by Chef Patrick Costa and bar director Lee Zaremba, the restaurant’s inspired mingling of Southern Californian ingredients, Southern French recipes and flavours drawn from the American South leads to some ingenious creations.

The Green Tomato Margarita is one such example, a crisp, refreshing twist on the classic cocktail served with a rim of espelette pepper and Old Bay seasoning. The hamachi crudo pulls off a similar trick, with Virginia peanuts and red pepper relish lending the yellowtail a Deep South tang. There’s also warm, crunchy country bread that seems to have appeared directly from a farmhouse in Provence, but the star of the show is the delicate rainbow trout served with a smoky, Cajun-style blackened polenta crust. Given the surroundings, it seems apt that Sous Sous does miraculous things with loaves and fishes.

Where to switch off

The spacious rooftop deck, which is reserved for guests only, offers panoramic views of Silver Lake. There’s also a pool tucked away in a sun-kissed grotto below street level, which may be too small for swimming laps but is just the right size for sipping cocktails.

What’s the verdict?

Hotel Lucile might have rested on the laurels provided by its prime Sunset Junction location, but thankfully it has loftier ambitions. The gorgeous stained glass windows and innovative menu at Sous Sous make it a restaurant worth proselytising about, while the hotel’s commitment to showcasing local artists on its walls suggests a sincere intention to restore this former church to the centre of its community. Silver Lake’s prayers have been answered.

Hotel Lucile is located at 1629 Griffith Park Blvd, Los Angeles, California 90026, United States

The historic Czech town of Jihlava lies nestled between Brno and the capital of Prague. It is a lesser-known destination for the meandering tourist, often enjoyed for its quaint architecture and picturesque town squares. However, this sleepy city is about to welcome a big cultural moment with the opening of the Jihlava Municipal Arena.

The new sports space was designed by Brno-based architecture firm CHYBÍK + KRIŠTOF, the same studio creating The London Bowl, a proposed multifunctional arena and mixed-use development designed to accommodate basketball, boxing, and international e-sports events. The firm designed the new arena after winning a regional competition and securing an 80,000,000 EUR public investment.

‘Building today is all about having context. Here, the context is these beautiful grown trees. It doesn't look like an arena in the middle of nowhere. It is a truly urban environment,’ explains Ondřej Chybík, co-founder of the firm. ‘These layers of trees, buildings, and even the neighbouring brewery give the feeling of a grown, built territory.’

When approaching the arena from the park, the building emerges in glimpses of red and grey triangles juxtaposed against the greenery, its seemingly spiky facade inspired its nickname, ‘The Hedgehog.'

'The shape comes from the Gothic origins of the city,’ explains Chybík. ‘You see a lot of these triangles in local Gothic architecture from the era when the city was the richest in its history. But it's not just a slightly sophisticated historical story; it can also be understood as a hedgehog, as this is the city’s animal. Even 100 years ago, there wasn't a Czech name for this city; it was a German name, Iglau. Igel in German means hedgehog.’

Chybík shares that local children are also calling the building ‘our hedgehog’, a positive sign that it belongs to them. The popular triangular facade, however, came as a surprise, as the firm won the competition with a different external design – one that consisted of white, horizontal lamellas.

Says Chybík: ‘It was really not enough to be a new symbol of the city, and that is what it should be: a new symbol, because it's funded by public money and is publicly accessible and oriented. We wished to have a building where, if you close your eyes, you would remember the shape forever – a building that could be memorable and understandable even to small kids.’

Sandwiched between the garden and a university, the multifunctional space can accommodate 5650 spectators and is divided into four buildings, including a 230-metre running track on the roof, a food court area, a 29-room hotel, and a gym and sports hall accessible through open-air walkways and seating spaces.

Inside, the oval-shaped arena was designed to highlight the spatial experience. Its large exterior shell transitions to a compressed area indoors, which in turn opens up into an expansive arena at its heart. The ground floor is a 360-degree open space, allowing easy access to seats and to grab a quick drink while the game is still on, without missing a moment.

The materiality is honest, easily legible and often left raw. Concrete is prefabricated; its curved shape symbolically embraces the pitch, while also expressing the civic presence of a coliseum. Curtains surrounding the exterior seating soften the concrete and add a theatrical element. The fabric can also be lowered for the space to feel cosier and the stadium to appear fuller for junior games. The chairs were crafted to support the acoustics and were designed in colours that match the club.

The second floor is designed to be symmetrical in plan. The large windows connect the exterior with the interior – one side overlooking the park, and the other, the university. The VIP area is located on this level, and overhangs allow guests to feel closer to the game.

After six years of construction, the building’s bold façade, coupled with its simple but striking materiality, has resulted in an inclusive destination for locals and beyond to enjoy coming together through sport.

chybik-kristof.com

A giant windmill installed at annual desert music festival Coachella. A Christmas tree made of metallic propellers. Huge inflatable towers serving as backdrop for Craig Green's Moncler show. A train for half a dozen eggs to swirl and dance on a table. These and more marvels are the product of London-based creative studio Isabel + Helen, founded in 2016 by Isabel Gibson and Helen Chesner.

Focused on an analogue, hands-on approach, Gibson and Chesner started out as university friends and over the course of a decade, they built a practice rooted in problem-solving through playfulness and spectacle through ingenuity. Craft, movement and colour are at the heart of their installations, which often appear as larger-than-life, ambitious playgrounds for creativity.

During London Design Festival 2026, as the pair celebrates a decade in business, The Conran Shop stages an exhibition titled 'Motion Sickness' (12-20 September 2026), chronicling the studio's obsession with movement and offering a peek behind the scenes of their creative process. For the occasion, the designers have also created a series of objects and sculptures that will be available to buy, namely a series of 'Blimps' (kinetic optical sculptures), stools in stained birch plywood, and paintings from their Twister Series, made by a rotating canvas pressed onto 20 paintbrushes.

Here, the duo tells Wallpaper* about their journey so far, the unlikely inspirations behind their creative process, and what they want to do next.

Ten years of Isabel + Helen

Wallpaper*: How did you become creative partners?

Isabel Gibson: We met while we were studying graphic design communication at Chelsea College of Art in 2009 and became really good friends.

Helen Chesner: We were drawn to the same reference points, and humour was quite a big thing that underpinned a lot of our work.

IG: Because we shared the same sense of humour and were both naturally coming up with ideas that were really playful and exciting. That seeps into our work quite a lot because even just coming up with ideas together becomes this playful experiment. But we're also quite logical people, very interested in the way things work, in making and repurposing objects and bringing inanimate objects to life through movement. I think we've always been interested in the different feelings and emotions that movement can bring to an inanimate object. We bonded on that.

W*: What your first steps as a studio?

HC: When we first started out, we didn't have any money, and so we had quite a DIY ethos to the way that we worked, using really low-fi materials and simple kinetic special effects. We would just build everything ourselves and learn on the job and design through making.

IG: one of the first projects we did was for the V&A, the brief was really open, but it was to do with Russian art and culture. So, we picked up on the Constructivist movement and created a piece that people could really physically engage with. We made a play set of shapes that people could then interact with. From the outset, our work was just about how can we engage the audience in a really physical and tangible way, and then that's led us to more movement and motion over the years.

W*: Do you think of yourselves as designers, artists, or something else?

HC: We do fluctuate between the two quite a lot. Fundamentally, we see ourselves as designers, as we answer briefs and we work in quite a logical way. But then at the same time over these 10 years we've evolved into this artistic practice, and so now that's what we're known for.

IG: We are designers at heart, and we're usually designing something that serves a bit of a function or a purpose, even if it's a bit futile.

HC: Like, how do you make eggs dance? And then make a performance with some eggs.

IG: The function of the object is to bring a small moment of joy to someone.

W*: Can you tell me more about the eggs?

IG It's called the Scrambler, and it's a little train that can carry half a dozen eggs, and it makes them spin and dance as you move them. That was just a self initiated project, we're always developing ideas that we've had in the studio alongside more of our commercial work. As the 10 years have gone on, we get to spend more and more time on that part of our work this obsession of movement and mechanisms.

W*: What is the starting point for a project?

HC: We'll just kind of bounce ideas back and forth.

IG: But the starting point is usually some kind of transformation, whether that's a visual effect or whether that's something actually physically changing. The experimentation and the process are just as important as the outcome

HC: That's something that we really relish in and leads us it takes us down paths that are quite unexpected. And that's why it's always really important to document the process

W*: What are the pillars of your creative process?

IH: It goes like this: does it have some kind of transformation or optical effect? Does it celebrate the beautiful simplicity of the analogue and the tactile? Does it inspire some human reaction? We need to tick each of these boxes in order for a project to feel like it's got legs.

W*: What have been the encounters that have shaped your creative practice?

IG: We were both inspired by similar artists and designers, there's a few that we met while we were studying, like Daniel Eatock, his work was all about process and the joy and the experimentation within that. But also also video artists John Wood and Paul Harrison, with their dead plan performance art. They often use quite low-fi tricks in camera to create really graphic scenarios that include the human body. That encouraged us to look at human interaction within space and sculpture.

A real moment for us was when we saw Julio Le Park in 2014 at the Serpentine; we were really amazed by the simplicity and the hypnotic nature of his work, something which we take into our practice today. We love the idea that a piece of art could act as visual therapy, or put you in a meditative state.

HC: On a more personal level, We've both had children in the last few years. So that's also had a really positive impact on our work in quite a different way: [our kids'] sense of wonder and the excitement and intrigue when they're experiencing stuff for the first time. They get completely obsessed with one thing, don't they? Even just the repetition of opening and closing a door that can just become the most exciting thing.

W*: You work on a variety of scales. Do you have one that you prefer?

HC: We're constantly fluttering between the smaller scale and the large scale and I think that's what we love about it.

IG: The biggest work we did was at Coachella, which was a 60 foot windmill. And then it goes right down to the Scrambler. They both offer challenges in quite different ways. Obviously the larger scale is all about achieving an impact in a spatial, architectural way, whereas the smaller projects have to be much more specific in the detail. I think we quite enjoy the contrast of the two, and they both offer different experiences for the audience as well, and I think both are just as important.

W*: What commissions have felt like a turning point for the studio?

IG: Craig Green was a huge inspiration to us and also just an amazing collaborator as we have worked for a few seasons on the Moncler Genius Collection, and also for his individual label as well. But his work has always been a big inspiration to us, and we've been so lucky to work alongside him; he really pushes an idea and we've been able to really increase the scale of our work with him.

HC: The Moncler Genius installations meant that we could think of our work much more spatially and in a multisensory way.

W*: What are the things that inspire you and fill your life and as a result creative work?

HC: Most of the time, it's the mundane. We always say the playfulness in the everyday is something that really inspires us. It could just be some really simple mechanism you see on your daily commute, and it can then lead to a whole project.

IG: We're also quite inspired by really old school films that we'd watch as kids, where special effects are really analogue - things like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, Toys with Robin Williams, or the 80s animation film Button Moon.

HC: Labyrinth with David Bowie, or the old Beauty and the Beast, when all the candlesticks come to life and start dancing.

IG: A lot of theatre is quite inspirational to us as well, I recently saw some great mime performances where they interact with the set and it's all about telling a story through props and movement, using the body to communicate.

W*: what can we expect from your exhibition at The Conran Shop?

IG: One of our first projects was with them back in 2016. They are such a great British institution for design so it's really nice to be back there doing our exhibition. It explores this obsession with movement and motion that we've had over the past 10 years.

We're going to showcase a lot of our process and all the models and maquettes that are behind our projects over the years, they act as starting points for explorations and experiments. So you'll be able to see a lot of those low-fi tests. There'll also be a series of films that we've collected over the past 10 years of those different experiments.

HC: We'll show the behind the scenes, the inner workings of the projects, and then we're doing some limited edition artworks as well.

W*: How do you feel about this past decade, and what would you like to achieve in the next 10 years?

HC: It does feel quite lucky to make a living out of this.

IG: And that we're still working as a duo. I remember when we first started out, an accountant we went to see about setting up our partnership was like, "You do know that 100% of partnerships fail?" like what? We are happy to have made it so far, and just hope that we can carry on working together.

For the next 10 years, I think it's just about trying to remember to be in the moment and enjoy the process

HC: And also doing more things in the public realm as well, so people can really experience and interact with our work and see it at scale.

IG: And the things that we get excited by, we want to be able to share that with more people.

Motion Sickness, an exhibition by Isabel + Helen is on view 12-20 September 2026 at The Conran Shop, 16 Sloane Square, SW1W 8ER

The Curious House is a new-built private residence in Zagreb, completed by Dinko Uglesic, Ina Vlahovic and Marijana Rancic of the Croatian architecture studio FORVM. Arranged across two storeys on a sloping site, the new house is set amongst a carefully planted landscape on a plot that’s set back from the main road. The architects have divided the accommodation up into three distinct components, a mirrored box, a metal-clad self-contained studio, and a bedroom wing that is cantilevered above the ground floor.

The mirrored box contains a glazed ground floor, with one façade opening up onto the sloping garden and the other onto a terrace with steps down to a lap pool, which runs beneath the seating area above. The floor plan incorporates the garage, above which is the studio, and the primary entrance, which opens up into a linear kitchen, dining and seating area adjacent to the terrace.

The other end of the box houses the primary bedroom suite, complete with bath with a view across the slope to distant trees. The angled studio box, with its all-over metal cladding and mono-pitched roof houses a kitchen and bathroom alongside a raised bed and sitting area, both of which have views across the distant city rooftops. As well as the internal staircase, there’s also an external pathway leading down from the French doors and across the flat roof to the adjacent bedroom wing.

This component incorporates two en-suite bedrooms and a study, alongside a generous shelf-lined landing. Here you’ll find a straight staircase leading down to the living room below. The way the three elements are juxtaposed creates a series of pathways through the space, as well as unique views, and public and private areas. The programme and plan also conceal the house’s generous 400 square metre size.

As a result, the Curious House certainly earns its name, from the reflective ground floor that serves to amplify the plants and trees that surround it, to the elevated, discrete, upper storey components. Far-reaching views are combined with space, privacy, and an endless source of fascination.

@Forvm.Arhitektura

The original Fiat 500 is one of those evergreen, highly democratic objects that transcended wealth and class during its lifetime. In the decades that followed, the little 500’s image blossomed into cult car, design classic and highly desirable automotive tchotchke.

The latter status has been given another bump by the recent resurgence of high-end beach cars, spiaggina, inspired by the 60s original commissioned by playboys and industrialists to serve as a last mile transportation solution on the Mediterranean coastline, traversing solely between the yacht, the bar and the beach.

Preeminent in this tiny category of waterside trinkets was the Fiat 500 Jolly, created by Carrozzeria Ghia in the early 50s as a direct commission from Fiat strongman, Gianni Agnelli (Ghia had previously been applying the chopping roof and wicker treatment to other compact European cars).

In the modern era, original Jollys find themselves at luxury car auctions, whilst companies like Castagna Milano can provide a Jolly-fied Fiat Topolino Spiaggina, for a price. Even Fiat itself has ventured into homages based on the contemporary 500C.

The most prominent purveyor of the modern, ultra-restored Jolly, however, is Garage Italia, the creative lab plaything of Lapo Elkann (Agnelli’s great grandson). In addition to electrifying original 500s, the outfit also builds tantalising Fiat Panda restomods and gaudily transformed Ferraris, Maseratis and Alfa Romeos. Garage Italia doesn’t quite have the class of the original carrozzeria, but it certainly has the Chutzpah.

This new, new interpretation of the Spiaggina doubles down on its nautical origins. A collaboration with the Italian yacht design studio Hot Lab (part of the Swedish Viken Group), the new Spiaggina is very much intended as the kind of toy that could be hoisted on and off a superyacht for a spot of onshore exploration.

There are plenty of ways to transform the little Fiat into something with a cheekily camp, more shipshape attitude, from the interior materials to the boat-like livery. The central ‘Heritage Tunnel’, decked out like a Riva, culminates in rear seat storage area that could hold beach reads, magazines or even a bottle of bubbly.

Another obvious nod are the marine grade blue and white floor mats by Italdek, side ropes and specially developed indoor-outdoor fabric, ‘Scia’ by Mariaflora, that will also show up in future accessories. There’s also a Nardi Classic steering wheel, a marine spec item in wood and aluminium. Garage Italia describe this particular Spiaggina as being ‘conceived not simply as a car, but as an extension of the aesthetic language of a boat.’

Interested crews can find out more at Garage-Italia.com, @GarageItalia, Hotlab.it, @Hot_lab_yachtdesign, VikenGroup.se

Space stations have long served as a fantasy brief for designers of all stripes, from transportation to industrial, automotive and even architects. Something about the combination of pure function, dramatic lighting and weightless environment brings out the utopian retro-futurist in everyone, unburdened by gravity, budgets or the faintest chance of actually getting these designs into orbit.

That’s not to say that a huge amount of work and research doesn’t go into these projects. With the current kerfuffle around all things space and the investment/bubble/confusion over the astronomical stock value of the ability to shoot things into orbit, it’s surprising that there aren’t more aesthetic adventures in design for rocket science.

That’s why this concept design, the Thunderbird Space Station, by OMI studio for start-up Max Space is so interesting. Thunderbird is the orbital component of Max Space’s expandable habitat technology, an ongoing project to create Lunar, Martian and low-Earth orbit living spaces for future space missions. Working with OMI (Of My Imagination), the conceptual vision has been created in close collaboration with a number of former-Nasa astronauts with the aim of ‘reimaging the space station as a human-centred environment rather than a purely functional spacecraft’.

The stark contrast between the sleek modernity of Stanley Kubrick versus the chaotic jumble of cables and pipes that line the interior of the International Space Station is the usual example of what might happen to good intentions when harsh reality intervenes. For the OMI team, functionalism, flexibility and modularity are at the core of the Thunderbird modules.

Intended to be launched aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 medium-lift rocket, the key to the Thunderbird concept is expandability, allowing modules to be ‘opened up’ once in orbit, allowing much more orbital space to be sent up with each payload.

The circular structure makes full use of how microgravity changes perception and navigation through three-dimensional volumes. As OMI notes, this approach meant having to rethink everything from CAD software to fixtures, fittings and the alignment and orientation of equipment. In addition to quarters for a permanent crew of four (complete with private sleeping pods), the brief called for gym facilities, control centres, scientific laboratories and a communal living space, a total of eight functional areas.

Max Space is currently being funded by Nasa to explore the potential of a similarly modular approach for a lunar habitat. That’s a different challenge again to a space station, where internal divisions can be made from hard-wearing textiles, with a structural tubular framework in the laboratory space to allow equipment to be easily upgraded over time. Cable management is also part of the deal – thinking back to the ISS.

External surfaces are made from multi-layered Kevlar, light and strong with a triple safety redundancy, often exceeding Nasa’s requested standards for protection against things like micrometeoroids.

In total, there’s 350 cubic metres of living space, all of which can be packed into a single Falcon9 rocket. That’s just over a third of the size of the ISS, which according to Nasa, ‘required 36 Space Shuttle assembly flights and six Russian Proton and Soyuz rocket launches’ and is often cited as the single most expensive object ever created by humankind. That’s not the kind of record Max Space and OMI want to challenge.

‘At OMI our best work happens when challenging what is possible in transport design,’ says the studio’s Dan Window. ‘By engaging at the very start of the Thunderbird project, we were able to employ our unique expertise to create a completely novel habitat which rethinks how humans live in space. Our design language for the project is focused on creating an environment that is as functional as it is liveable.’

For Max Space co-founder and CEO Saleem Miyan, the Thunderbird platform is a ‘viable and evolutionary leap towards the future of human habitation beyond Earth the team has done a beautiful job of relieving the frustrations involved in current space habitats (privacy, small spaces, and laboratory environments), and I’d love to experience the Thunderbird station myself.’

ofmyimagination.com, @ofmyimagination, getMaxSpace.com, @getMaxSpace

Famously, David Bowie was a prolific music lover, with a huge and eclectic appetite, consuming everything from Britpop to classical, delta blues to electronica. ‘It would have been a real surprise not to be surprised by David Bowie’s tastes,’ says musician and journalist Jérôme Soligny, who together with Bowie’s lifelong friend Geoff MacCormack has delved into the subject for new book, David Bowie: Music Lover, published by ACC Art Books. ‘Music Lover highlights, particular, lesser-known artists who were crucial to David, such as Biff Rose, and some may come as a surprise to some readers.’

The book, which unites over 100 artists who had a regular slot on Bowie’s turntable, begins with Little Richard, whose tracks Bowie played on his childhood Dansette record player, and ends with Kendrick Lamar, whom Bowie listened to during the recording of Blackstar, his final album, released just two days before he died.

‘I have been friends with [record producer] Tony Visconti since the 1990s, and it was Tony himself who revealed that they had listened to this Kendrick Lamar album a great deal whilst they were working on Blackstar,’ adds Soligny. ‘For this book, and the other ones we wrote, we have made a point of not ‘putting words into David’s mouth’, so it would be presumptuous to explain why he liked this album. However, the fact that Lamar is such an adventurous artist could only have appealed to David Bowie.’

Inside David Bowie's record collection

Wallpaper*: Having known and listened to music with Bowie for so many years, what does his record collection reveal about him that perhaps his own records and public persona don’t?

Jérôme Soligny: Not much, to be honest, or a great deal – which, in the case of an artist like him, who worked in a way that was a bit like communicating vessels, amounts to the same thing. David Bowie’s music is a sort of fantastical journey, and his musical tastes inspired his work. Lou Reed’s ‘I’m Waiting for the Man’, for example, is a sort of benchmark song that inspired him to write many others. David believed that to know him was to know his music. Everything he wanted to reveal is in his songs.

Geoff MacCormack: I would say that they are one and the same.

W*: Bowie was famously restless in his musical curiosity. How did he discover new music? What did he look for in an artist?

GM: It wasn’t so much as being restless, there was always much he wanted to do with many forms of art, including music – added to which fame and the opportunity to experiment came fairly late. He was already 26 in 1973 when it all took off for him. In many ways, he was trying to catch up. I think he liked anything that had soul, not as in the genre but as in authenticity. Also, if it was quirky or strange too, well, all the better.

W*: How important was listening to music to Bowie’s creative process? Could you tell when something he was listening to was beginning to influence what he was recording?

GM: I think the reason Bowie tolerated me being around him (even taking pictures) was because I never asked him stuff, I was just there as a trusted friend. At any rate, what was happening in David’s life was completely new to us both. I can tell you he, and I, loved Black American music all our lives and would say, obviously, of course it influenced him.

I can tell you we were listening to Kraftwerk around the time of the recording of Station to Station, but I can’t tell you, absolutely, whether it influenced him or not because I didn’t ask him. I would say that what we listened to over the years or recommended to each other, together with what his musicians and other friends introduced to him and whatever he discovered by any source, it would be a given that, like any great artist, all kinds of music would seep through purposely or unconsciously.

accartbooks.com

In a Wallpaper* summer series, architect Carlo Ratti explores Italy through the ordinary objects that define daily life. Enjoy building on the beach with a classic bucket and spade.

Carlo Ratti on the bucket and spade

No architecture firm in the world can match the volume of construction that goes up along the Italian coast every summer. The tools behind this seasonal boom cost less than an espresso and are wielded by a workforce with no licences whatsoever.

We are talking about the plastic bucket and spade. They are the entry point for new generations into the world of construction. They still hold their own against the digital temptations of tablets and smartphones, introducing children to the logic of space through a cycle of rapid creation and immediate collapse: a kind of creative destruction, as Joseph Schumpeter might have called it, that probably works better on the shoreline than it does in economics.

Today, we are once again on the shoreline, bucket and spade in hand. We have seen them a thousand times this summer, hanging from metal hooks outside virtually every tobacconist along the coast between May and September, swaying like brightly colored fruit. They signal that the coast is about to be transformed into an open-air public-works construction site: fortresses, canals, and ramparts erected by tiny master builders who can indulge their architectural fantasies without having to answer to anyone (a bit like, some might say, the current occupant of the White House).

The true kings of the Italian bucket, however, are not found here but in the industrial North. Companies such as Androni Giocattoli churn out endless quantities of these sets using injection-moulding presses. The design is an anonymous midcentury one that spread across the country at the intersection of the construction boom and the boom in seaside holidays.

The design is brilliant in its simplicity. The bucket is not a container but a geometric mould in negative: wet sand is packed into it, the bucket is turned upside down, and voilà – a tower appears. The trick lies in the slight taper of its walls, which makes it easier to release whatever has been formed inside. The spade, meanwhile, is an extension of the arm, sized to fit a child’s hand. No decorative frills: its form follows entirely from the physics of the sandcastle.

The bucket challenges our obsession with permanence. We live in a society devoted to pouring concrete, locking down data, and designing structures to last forever. This plastic toy puts the human ego face to face with an unappealable critic: the tide. You build a castle for three hours, admire it for five minutes, and the sea erases everything. The true value lies in the joy of making, not in the longevity of the structure. We might call it a seaside mandala: beauty that knows it is ephemeral and is enjoyed on the spot for exactly that reason.

When the season ends, the shops take down the beach toys and the shore goes back to being flat and empty. The toys, however, do not disappear – they merely migrate. When the tan has faded, and the fog has sealed our cities, one day we will reach beneath the back seat of the car and our hand will strike a rounded plastic edge. That cracked and faded bucket, with a few grains of dry sand rattling at the bottom, carries a certain promise: another building summer will soon arrive.

About 'Objectify' – a summer series from Italy by Carlo Ratti

Italy’s design canon has been told many times. The Bialetti moka pot, the Vespa, the Fiat 500, the Arco floor lamp: you know the list, and so does every airport bookshop and first-year design student. This column will discuss, poke, investigate, prod, ridicule and beatify the less glamorous Italian objects. They are the ones you ought to know, so that when you visit Italy, or spot apparitions of it on a friend’s social media, you can smugly point out: ‘Did you know the mosquito coil is a masterpiece of Italian design? The condom? The motorway toll transponder?’ Objects so ordinary that Italians walk past them, or handle them every day, without registering that someone, with a mellifluous surname, designed them.

Proust wrote a seven-volume novel because a small cake dipped in tea, the madeleine, unlocked an involuntary flood of memory. For followers of the Italian version of this column, published weekly in Il Sole 24 Ore, the nation’s favourite Sunday read, perhaps these objects will have a similar effect. For you, anglophone readers peering at this somewhere between Rummidge and Euforia, they offer something else: beach conversation topics, an eye trained on unexpected places, and perhaps a few new madeleines for when you visit the peninsula yourself. After all, objects are never just objects. As the great Milanese designer Achille Castiglioni of Arco-floor-lamp fame once declared: ‘objects should keep us company’. Especially during this scorching summer.

carlorattiassociati.com

Zaha Hadid's sudden death at the age of 65, in 2016, was a cruel blow. Having fought so hard for her ideas, she was at the height of her career and had so much more to do. It was an incalculable loss in a world that desperately needs her sense of ambition and visionary thinking. An extraordinary architect and individual, Hadid's personality and professional output are hard to disentangle, and nowhere is this more evident than in her vast archive of drawings, models, furniture, clothing and design tools.

Step inside the Zaha Hadid Foundation and its archive

Her former tutor at the Architectural Association (AA), Rem Koolhaas, famously described her as ‘a planet in her own orbit.' The phrase aptly captures the enormity of her talent and the vivid image of a person who was constantly questioning and creating, in a class of her own. With characteristic foresight, in 2013, Hadid set up the Zaha Hadid Foundation (ZHF) with three main objectives: to support the education of young people in architecture, design and related disciplines; to take care of her archive and collections and produce exhibitions; and to establish or support a permanent museum or gallery. A few months after setting up the ZHF, she bought the site of the former Design Museum at Shad Thames, next to Tower Bridge in London, for approximately £10m. Sadly, she did not live to complete her vision for a museum there, but her team at Zaha Hadid Architects moved the archives and collections to the site in the summer of 2018 to continue the archiving process.

Hadid often seemed to live in a future world, imagining a form of architecture that was well beyond our experience. Indeed, for the first decade of her career, she struggled to find a client who would commit to her bold vision. At the same time, she was a magpie with an avid interest in the world around her. She was fascinated by culture, other architects' work, and the related disciplines of fashion, design and art. She was a keen collector and shopper, who would acquire work by a fashion graduate she had spotted at their catwalk show; or buy the same shoes or garments in several colourways.

For many architects, legacy is about the buildings they leave behind rather than the rolls of drawings and models that gather dust (or the servers full of CAD files, a struggle for museums due to constant software updates). Conventionally, an architect's output becomes part of the built fabric of society, whereas in the case of Hadid, legacy is a broader and more complex subject. There is no doubt that she changed the course of architectural practice. But in the UK – the country she chose to make her home, having grown up in Iraq – her vision was not widely accepted. Despite the advances in design thinking and construction that she led, British architecture largely consists of what her long-term friend and current ZHF trustee, Archigram co-founder Peter Cook, describes as vernacular-inspired, ‘biscuit-coloured' buildings.

During her life, Hadid completed around 35 buildings, alongside pavilions, installations, and design, furniture and fashion projects. Built work includes the Vitra Fire Station (1991) in Weil am Rhein, Phaeno Science Center (2005) in Wolfsburg (both in Germany), MAXXI Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome (2009) and the London Aquatics Centre (2012). More than 35 projects were in progress at the time of her death, including the Port Authority Building in Antwerp and the Mathematics Gallery at London's Science Museum.

Her ideas, particularly research into parametricism, virtual worlds, product design and new materials, continue to be developed by the architectural practice that now operates as ZHA. In June this year, the practice replaced her name following a court case, in which ZHA won the right to terminate the 2014 agreement that committed the company to paying six per cent of its revenue to the ZHF to continue using her name. The ruling and title change mark a new era in the practice's development. The renaming has caused controversy among many of Hadid's loyal followers, but as ZHA principal, Patrik Schumacher, says, ‘Of course, we love Zaha, and we've been working with her, the leadership and myself, for many decades, on these projects, but she's no longer with us – in spirit only – and we have a lot of new projects coming out.'

The court ruling, which came a decade after Hadid's death, also marks a new era for the ZHF under the leadership of architecture and design curator Aric Chen. Since the summer of 2025, Chen has brought a fresh wave of energy, initiating a new brand identity and website by Amsterdam-based design collective Experimental Jetset, as well as a light renovation by Studio KA of the practice's former studio, on Bowling Green Lane in Clerkenwell, which will become a public architecture centre complete with residency space and room for temporary shows and other programmes. Alongside this, the team is accelerating its work to catalogue and display Hadid's collections and archive, most of which are stored at Shad Thames.

Plans are also coming together for a major retrospective exhibition, aiming to tour Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the US. One of Chen's first moves, just a few months into the job, was to organise regular ‘Guess Who's in Town' evening events, where a mystery architect visiting London is invited to speak to an audience about their work. The sense of fun, informal debate and international glamour of these events seems an appropriate way to honour Hadid's fast-paced life, strong views and global network. Chen acknowledges that the ZHF's two properties need a lot of work, and that it will take time to plan for the future. In the meantime, his aim is for the Clerkenwell studio to provide galleries and education spaces for architectural culture, welcoming the public five days a week.

Chen has been busy creating alliances that reflect the life and work of Hadid. This autumn, to mark the relaunch of the ZHF, the team is planning a two-day, multi-venue symposium. Taking place 30-31 October (the latter being Hadid's birthday), the event will be a collaboration between the ZHF, the AA and the Serpentine, which built one of her first completed buildings, a temporary pavilion in the summer of 2000 (it was also the Serpentine's inaugural pavilion). Chen describes the planned sessions as ranging from ‘scholarship to gossip', looking at influences from the architect's early years in Baghdad and Beirut, through to her student days at the AA, her furniture and product designs, and the broader networks of clients, media and institutions in which she operated.

Over at Shad Thames, the archive is a longer-term project. The building is more than 40 years old and requires repairs. Some are ongoing. When we visit, a bucket positioned below a newly replaced rooflight catches rainwater drips - teething issues with one of the fixes to be done to ensure Hadid's collection, arguably one of the largest and most diverse archives ever created by an architect, has a safe home. The team says it is undertaking further improvements in order to maintain the progress of its inventory.

In Zaha Hadid: Complete Works, published by Thames & Hudson in 2004, US architect Greg Lynn, who taught alongside Hadid at Yale School of Architecture, wrote she ‘has always been at the epicentre of innovation of architectural communication, as well as having one of the strongest creative visions in our field... She combines painting, projective geometry, perspective, model building, computer renderings and smooth curvaceous geometric surfaces into the masses, interiors and structure of her buildings.'

The 2004 publication was a remarkable object in its own right – its red Perspex box contained four hardback volumes, of varying shapes and sizes, which seemed to explode from its sides. Lynn compared Hadid to the Italian Renaissance architect and stage designer Vincenzo Scamozzi and to Inigo Jones, the 17th-century architect, who also designed elaborate stage sets and costumes.

In the early years, Hadid's focus on ‘paper architecture' reinforced her drive to work in different formats, including set design. This work will be the subject of an exhibition at the ZHF in the newly renovated gallery in October. Curated jointly by Libby Sellers and ZHF's Catherine Howe, it will consider how Hadid's architectural language extended into immersive environments for contemporary dance, classical opera and pop music, and will include the Music Video Pavilion in Groningen, Netherlands (1990), which was commissioned for an urban festival promoting the fast-growing music video phenomenon, as well as a set for the Pet Shop Boys' Nightlife world tour (1999-2000).

Hadid's remarkable archive will be the subject of research, speculation and debate for years to come. Chen aims to make the material as accessible to students and scholars as possible, but he also faces a challenge. The ZHF consists of a team of 16, eight of whom are collections and research staff working their way through thousands of items, many of which have not been catalogued. Rolls of drawings are stacked up in tubes, with no detailed inventories. Part of the problem is that, although the entire archive covering the period up to 2016, including paintings, models and Hadid's fashion collection, was transferred from the practice to the ZHF in 2019, the digital transfer of the data, including provenance for objects in the collection, has been complicated.

Because of incompatibility between digital platforms, the ZHF collections and research teams are having to painstakingly retrieve information and add it to a new database. At the time of Hadid's death, the studio had inventorised and assigned unique archive collection numbers to roughly 17,000 objects. Given the scale of the archive and the resources available, many items had not been processed. Since then, the ZHF team has continued the documentation and cataloguing programme, resulting in a rough estimate of approximately 300,000 objects in the collection as a whole.

For Hadid, the collecting and archival process was of fundamental importance, and its origins reflect her holistic design vision. On a personal level, the collection includes her clothes (both those she collected for their design value and those she wore), shoes, handbags and furniture, together with her own designs for shoes, bags and jewellery. There are also folders of receipts from her clothing purchases, carefully put to one side. In her library, architecture books – many of them gifts from friends – sit alongside exhibition and building product catalogues, and copies of her favourite DVDs, including American Gigolo, which she reportedly used to watch on repeat.

Why did she keep all this stuff ? ‘I read into it a kind of sweet sentimentality,' says Chen. ‘She felt deeply about things, and people were important to her.' Many of the objects give an insight into Hadid's personality, and in particular, her playful side. For example, she is pictured on the cover of a publication accompanying her 1989 solo show at Arc en Rêve in Bordeaux, wearing an asymmetrical jacket that she had hand-painted, featuring a single ‘googly eye' tucked into one of its lower corners.

ZHA's head of exhibitions and archive Manon Janssens worked alongside Hadid for more than 20 years and formed a unique insight into her magpie-like ways. ‘The archive was at the centre of her practice. It was never considered a dead repository; it was very much alive and constantly consulted, revisited and used,' she notes. ‘Every detail was important to her, from the clothes she wore to how she lived at home and the office. She never threw anything away. The archive preserves not only the final outcomes but also the evidence of Zaha's creative thinking and development.'

Janssens joined the practice in 2003 as press officer. Hadid was much in demand as a speaker, and the pair often travelled around the world together, with Janssens preparing slides for lectures, responding to press requests and organising press conferences, such as for the Pritzker Prize ceremony at the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg in 2004. At that stage, the archive was recorded on a series of Excel spreadsheets, with items listed mainly if they had been part of exhibitions. There was no full catalogue, but Janssens recalls ‘colourful polaroids glued to boxes to show what was inside'. She says, ‘Zaha would frequently challenge me to locate models or documents at short notice, reinforcing the need for a database that was capable of tracking all things in the archive and its continual growth.'

Janssens left in 2005 for a stint at David Chipperfield Architects, but returned in 2008 to work on the practice's exhibitions, together with Zaha Hadid Design director Woody Yao, and to set up detailed catalogues of its physical and digital assets. These operated as a research tool, while also supporting the regular requests for loans and exhibitions that came from all over the world. Having visited archives at the Tate, Royal Academy, V&A and various global practices, the decision was made to build a bespoke cataloguing system that could deal with specific Hadid requests – for example, automating printing of well-designed product booklets, linking the personal archive to an iPad app, or printing shipping labels.

The bespoke catalogue is still in operation as the brain of the renamed ZHA, but the pre-2016 objects have been physically handed over to the ZHF. While it is understandable that the ZHF chose to adopt a system designed for museum collections (TMS), the bespoke digital platform itself is arguably a Hadid-designed ‘object'. Her dedication to producing such a sophisticated tool reflects the importance of exhibitions to Hadid and the meticulous way she approached them. The system was beautifully designed with graphic icons to symbolise categories of items, and even recorded the clothing Hadid had worn to particular exhibition openings. From 1981 to date, the practice participated in and organised 250 exhibitions, ranging from installations in art galleries and private residences to loans and displays at major retrospective exhibitions, such as those that took place at the Guggenheim in New York (2006), the Design Museum in London (2007), the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg (2015), the Palazzo Franchetti in Venice (2016) or, most recently, at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning in Shenzhen (2026).

Hadid's creation of the ZHF and her dedication to collecting were part of her commitment to making a better world, and that vision was inseparable from design innovation. The founding document of the charity specifically states that it should ‘advance the public knowledge of modern architecture…and the parametric style.' Today, in the UK at least, parametricism – a style that was synonymous with Hadid – seems out of step with a culture that is more interested in small-scale, artisanal approaches to making buildings. So it seems fair to ask, how will the ZHF be true to Hadid, as well as being, as Chen puts it, ‘relevant to our time'?

Chen believes the notion that Hadid was futuristic is reductive: ‘It relies on a singular notion of what the future looks like,' he says. ‘Zaha was immersed in the present – she didn't think she was futuristic. She was about invention and imagination, re-envisioning spatiality and the ways we live and operate in the here and now.' He chuckles, recalling the famous quote of French philosopher Paul Valéry, ‘The trouble with our times is that the future isn't what it used to be'.

zhfoundation.com

Wallpaper’s 30th-anniversary, October 2026 Guest Editors’ Issue – with guest-edited sections by Es Devlin, Carrie Mae Weems and Palace Skateboards – is available from 3 September, in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Based in San Francisco, Nicole Hollis has created an interior design empire known for merging fine art, fashion and nature. The US400 honoree specialises in high-end residential design, including the recent interior renovation of a Mickey Muennig-designed home, while her studio also delivers sophisticated hospitality spaces for the likes of Rosewood Hotels.

With two books under her belt, an eponymous homeware collection, and a decanter and glass collaboration with tableware brand Saint Louis launching this autumn, Hollis is booked and busy.

Spending time between ‘The Golden City’ and Hawaii, Hollis injects a laid-back coastal temperament into a fast-moving industry, which permeates her hosting style. Colour-coded tablescapes, cocktail making, and a platter of ‘picky-bits’ are all essentials, presented as a 'still life on the table'. However, don’t let the intricate attention to detail fool you, as Hollis’ dream dinner party ends with dancing, wacky ice cream flavours, and a psychedelic expert. This is how we host with Nicole Hollis.

How we Host with Nicole Hollis

Wallpaper*: Are you a relaxed host and pull it all together at the last minute, or is there careful planning?

Nicole Hollis: I'm very relaxed. We just spent two months in Hawaii, and we entertain there with friends, and it's just very laid-back. There's a lot of prep that goes into making it feel less formal. My husband's very good at pre-mixing cocktails. He'll do a pre-mixed Margarita, a Negroni, or an Aperol Spritz. He's just pouring, and everyone's enjoying. We then assemble salads and charcuterie and lots of picky food, but we don't do a lot of formal sit-down dinners. A little bit of preplanning is helpful

W*: Can you cook?

NH: I can cook, but I don't cook very often. When I do, it's very classic dishes. My mother is Italian, so there are a lot of pasta dishes and chicken cacciatore. I usually try to keep it simple: grilled fish or grilled chicken. I don't really do a lot of heavy French cooking.

W*: What was the first dish you perfected to feed a group of friends or family?

NH: I love assembling food more than anything. I think that's my favourite thing. It's all visual for me. For example, I might say everything's going to be black tonight, so the charcuterie board has dark fruit like cherries. It gets out of hand sometimes. It's really about creating a still life on the table, so much so that people ask, ‘Can we touch it?’

W*: Drinks on arrival – what’s on offer?

NH: We usually start with champagne. It's always my favourite. It seems more and more friends are cocktailing than drinking wine, I've noticed. During perimenopause, a lot of the women are like, "I can't drink wine anymore," so we're all cocktailing. Tequila and vodka seem to be a big request.

We have a lot of friends who don't drink alcohol. So there's definitely a mocktail on offer. It's usually a light spritzer using fresh lime, mint, and ginger beer. Nothing too heavy, because some of the non-alcoholic spirits are just not there yet.

W* Go on and tempt us – what’s your go-to menu, from starters to afters, whether homemade or bought in?

NH: The charcuterie board would be presented upon arrival, and then we serve a big grilled or roasted salmon or our roast chicken. My husband, being English, loves a roast with potatoes in duck fat. In San Francisco, we have quite a few vegans or vegetarians. So there's usually a couple of non-meat dishes that we'll serve as well.

We're not really big dessert people. It's usually options for ice cream. We have some pretty good artisan ice cream in San Francisco, so we'll grab those unique flavours, and everyone can try. Smitten has flavours like lavender with olive oil, whiskey with cereal, and sweet corn, and all kinds of fun flavours. I like to surprise people with those.

W*: What’s on your dinner party playlist?

NH: Lots of Britpop, The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, or we have Prince, The Cure. The Velvet Underground, The Smiths, and Björk. I think it's on the chill side, and nothing too high energy. If we feel like getting up and dancing later, there is always a dance mix on the ready – we do love it when it turns into a dance party. I think it's an excuse to blow off some steam.

W*: Who’s your dream dinner party guest?

NH: Right now, everyone's into psychedelics, so it'd be interesting to have a leading doctor in that field, like Robin Carhart-Harris, because we're all just sort of fascinated with longevity. I also love Louis Theroux. Louis Theroux and a psychedelic specialist; I'm already visualising my mushroom arrangement on the table

W*: Dish the dirt: what should a host never do?

NH: I have been to a party where the host told us what time everyone had to leave. Everyone took offence right away when the invitation arrived. It was a hard "dinner ends at this time." I'm sure there was a good reason, but a hard stop didn't feel welcoming. So I made a note of that, like, never put an end time to your dinner party.

W*: What should a guest never do?

NH: If somebody is planning dinner, and you've RSVPed saying you're coming, and then you don't show, I think that is probably the worst thing for a guest to do.

W*: What’s the secret to a successful evening?

NH: Keep the drinks flowing, the good music playing, and keep everyone engaged. Make sure people don’t break off into little groups, but stay engaged in conversation as a group is important. That's what makes it a great dinner party.

‘There is still quite a narrow visual language around men’s engagement jewellery,’ says Rachel Boston, on the eve of the launch of her collection of ten men’s rings. ‘I wanted to create something design-led and timeless, but with our own design signatures. Rings that feel substantial and masculine, where the interest comes through proportion and form rather than decoration for its own sake.’

London-based jewellery designer Boston, who has made a sculptural sensibility her own, has created wedding bands and bespoke pieces for men before, but felt now was the time to create a collection for men. ‘Relic’, encompassing ten engagement or statement rings in 18ct gold or platinum, distills ancient Roman inspirations into edgy, modern silhouettes.

‘I’ve always loved the forms and heft of Roman signet rings. There’s a sense of permanence to them; the strong proportions and sculptural band shapes have always caught my eye on museum visits,’ says Boston.

‘Roman signet rings would traditionally have been set with carved gemstones such as onyx, garnet and carnelian, but I loved the idea of taking these ancient forms and setting them with modern-cut white diamonds instead. There [seemed] something quite fitting in that combination, the permanence of these forms alongside the diamond, with all its associations with longevity and marriage. It allowed us to reference something ancient while making the pieces feel unmistakably contemporary.’

Boston considers every detail, including the way the diamonds sit in their gold bands, with several of the designs referencing a historical Roman setting technique which outlines the stone in an architectural profile. ‘The starting point was to take these recognisable ancient forms and strip them back. I wanted the historical reference to be felt rather than for the rings to look like replicas,’ Boston adds. ‘It was also about bringing in elements of our own design language. Some pieces incorporate our signature knife-edge setting, giving the metal a sharper and more angular profile around the diamond, while the white diamonds themselves bring a brightness to these heavier gold and platinum forms.

‘That contrast runs through the whole collection: weight and lightness, ancient and modern, something that could feel almost excavated but at the same time very precise. I wanted the rings to carry a sense of history without belonging to the past.’

rachelboston.co.uk

A weekend in the woods – or indeed, any kind of wilderness – has perennial appeal when it entails a stay in a contemporary or vintage cabin. The humble architectural cabin is as romanticised as it is versatile; it may adapt to different terrains, climates and levels of social battery, but its quirky, pared-back allure remains. Here, from a midcentury gem in Sonoma County to an off-grid red hut set in Irish turf and a treetop hideaway swallowed by the Ecuadorian forest, we’ve handpicked ten cabins for design lovers with a discerning eye and a fondness for a good old wooden refuge.

Book ten of the world’s best architect-designed cabin stays

Cedar + Skye, Sea Ranch Living, California, USA

Twenty-five feet separate the floor from the ceiling in Cedar + Skye’s living room – arguably an extravagant gesture in a cabin built for two. Architect Ralph Matheson designed the midcentury home within Sea Ranch, the northern Californian planned community established in the 1960s, and it now belongs to Sea Ranch Living, The Sea Ranch Lodge’s collection of 13 renovated modernist homes. Downstairs, glass walls surround a freestanding wood stove and a kitchen finished with white quartz, Italian appliances and cerulean glass. Meanwhile, the bedroom occupies an open loft, with an en-suite shower, compact workspace and a skylight trained on the treetops and night sky. Stays include access to Sea Ranch’s recreation centres, private beaches and 50-plus miles of hiking trails.

Cedar + Skye is located within Sea Ranch, Sonoma County, California, USA; rates vary by date

Cucu, WestMeath, Ireland

Cucu is the latest addition to Irish company Samsú’s roster of bijou off-grid cabins. An hour from Dublin, the 20 sq m off-grid shelter occupies 350 acres of County Westmeath countryside, its tapered red form punctured by a single circular window. Studio Bucky, led by Irish architect Alexander Buckeridge, oversaw the architecture, merging a compact timber shell with plywood walls, terracotta tiles and copper details. A custom roll-top copper bath calls for rest and relaxation, while a private sauna extends the bathing ritual outside. The analogue kit supplies a cassette player, film camera, journals, dumb phone and local map; there is also a king-sized bed, wood-burning stove and locally roasted coffee.

Cucu is located on the Meath–Westmeath border, Ireland. Rates: from €225

El Hormiguero, Mindo, Ecuador

From the road, El Hormiguero by Añanku Cabins is a charcoal-black triangle half-swallowed by the ferns of Ecuador’s Andean Chocó. Estudio 2850 and Janna Lasso Hadweh positioned the 24 sq m A-frame on nine steel legs, leaving roots and undergrowth undisturbed beneath its blackened timber, metal and glass shell. The roadside flank cleverly comprises the cabin’s services, including a semi-open shower screened by eucalyptus slats, while the south-west façade faces towards Mindo and the mountains beyond. Stairs, tables and partitions shift to accommodate different uses within the compact interior. Upstairs, a ridge skylight opens the bedroom to the sky and funnels daylight down to the lower level when fog settles over the forest. Birdwatching begins on the charred-timber balcony; waterfalls and butterfly farms are nearby, and central Mindo is a seven-minute walk away.

El Hormiguero is located in Mindo, Pichincha, Ecuador; rates vary by date

JR’s Eco Hut, Nangus, Australia

This solid, A-frame wooden structure, designed by Luke Stanley Architects and located in the rolling hills overlooking the bushlands of south-western Australia, resembles the top half of a Swiss chalet, emerging from a gravel bed. A celebration of off-grid living, the eco hut is intended as a place for dropping out and forgetting the rest of the world, a feat facilitated by panoramic views and congenial midcentury élan, thanks to Anthony Hunt Design’s luxuriously minimal treatment of its airy interior. Solar power runs the lights, gas heats the water, and cooking happens outdoors on a Weber barbecue and twin-burner stove. In winter, the wood-fired tub keeps guests outside after dark; in summer, it becomes a plunge pool. In the morning, expect cockatoos returning to roost and a regional-produce breakfast ready to cook.

JR’s Eco Hut is located at 1214 Nangus Rd, Nangus NSW 2722, Australia; rates vary by date

ÖÖD at Sûr Jumigny, France

Sûr Jumigny pairs two mirrored cabins with two rather older neighbours: a 350-year-old wine cellar and a historic dovecote. The Cave cabin has a private terrace above the cellar, while Pigeonnier turns the dovecote’s chalk-white interior into a cold post-sauna shower. Designed and built by Estonian cabin maker ÖÖD House, the structures stand in a wildflower meadow on an old manor estate at the edge of Champagne. Host Godfrey Hill led the interiors and landscape execution, marrying mirrored glass with limestone, long grass and the estate’s 19th-century buildings. Each cabin sleeps two, with a kitchenette, private terrace, sauna and outdoor shower. Naturally, champagne awaits on arrival.

ÖÖD by Sûr Jumigny, 1 Rue du Jeu de Paume, 02160 Jumigny, France; rates from: €220 per night

Pan Treetop Cabins, Finnskogen, Norway

Moominvalley appears to have taken a detour into Finnskogen, leaving three steep, black cabins among the pines. Norwegian architect Espen Surnevik also borrowed from North American A-frames and electricity pylons, raising each 40 sq m structure eight metres above the forest floor on four supports. The cabins occupy the rocky ground lightly and can be removed without leaving a permanent trace. Each sleeps four to six, with heated floors, a kitchen, fireplace and full-height glazing trained on the birch, spruce and pine outside. Elsewhere, reclaimed barn materials frame a hot tub inside the roofless House with Three Walls. Autumn days can be spent hiking, canoeing and tracking elk (or perhaps elves).

Pan Treetop Cabins is located at Gjesåsen, Åsnes, Finnskogen, Norway. Rates from: £407 per night

Scrubby Bay, New Zealand

Scattered across Banks Peninsula, a rocky Pacific headland of muscular ridges, private coves and grassy hills, Annandale’s collection of spacious villas is the work of architect Andrew Patterson of Pattersons. Of the collection, Scrubby Bay comes closest to the ideal of the New Zealand bach: the cedar-clad villa stretches along the beach, with three sea-view suites, an eight-bed bunk room, a deck with a fire pit and an outdoor spa. Arrival, naturally, is effected by helicopter or a panoramic 40-minute drive along cliff-top farm tracks.

Scrubby Bay is located at Pigeon Bay 7583, New Zealand; rates on request

Skyhawk, Vermont, USA

Skyhawk sits in the woods at the foot of Mount Ascutney, with a bike trail tracing the edge of the property. Catherine and VW Fowlkes of Fowlkes Studio redesigned the midcentury cabin as a four-bedroom retreat for eight, opening the upstairs ceiling to create a lofty gathering room. Original wall boards were reused between exposed joists; rubber floors, caged bulkhead lights and custom steel kitchen furniture add a utilitarian note. Bedrooms swap wardrobes for peg rails and open niches, while a former bedroom serves as a timber-lined boot room. Outside, new Accoya cladding is paired with a large deck, where a built-in bench screens the hot tub. There is no TV, but Mount Ascutney makes a strong case for hiking, snowshoeing and skiing.

Skyhawk is located in West Windsor, Vermont, United States. Rates from: $375 per night (two-night minimum)

Vipp Salaca River, Latvia

Vipp Salaca River arrived at its riverside plot one log at a time. The listed fisherman’s house, built in 1876, was dismantled and rebuilt on 180 stones in Salaca National Park, having once served travellers between Riga and Wolmar. Now part of Vipp’s guesthouse portfolio, the 110 sq m cabin has interiors by Julie Cloos Mølsgaard. Dark log walls and a grey-brown ceiling frame a black Vipp V1 kitchen, mirrored fireplace and open living area. Upstairs, the master bedroom – freestanding bathtub included – overlooks the room below; a twin bedroom faces the woods. A separate terrace holds a wood-fired hot tub with panoramic views. The Salaca River Valley is perfect for kayaking, salmon fishing, cross-country skiing, swimming and autumn mushroom hunting.

Vipp Salaca River is located within Salaca National Park, Latvia; rates from: €375 per night (two-night minimum)

Yamanakako 1st, Japan

Two hours from Tokyo beside Lake Yamanaka, Yamanakako 1st forms part of the Sanu 2nd Home’s nationwide network of bookable retreats. Its Bee cabins were designed by Kotaro Anzai of ADX Architects, who combined a mountain-like profile with the structural logic of a honeycomb. Digitally slit cedar bends into curved partitions around the sleeping and work areas, while a floor-to-ceiling window borrows the surrounding woodland as scenery. Domestic timber construction and raised foundations limit disturbance to the site, while vacuum glazing and substantial insulation prepare the cabin for Japan’s humid summers and snow-heavy winters. Each cabin sleeps four, and features a kitchen, workspace and terrace.

Yamanakako 1st is located at Lake Yamanaka, Yamanashi, Japan; sa-nu.com; rates vary by date

Perched on a sleepy residential road in the Vancouver neighbourhood of Kitsilano is a contemporary, cabin-like home. Designed by Canadian firm Scott and Scott Architects (past projects include a farmhouse on the country's West Coast), the house was crafted with longevity in mind, slotting neatly into its leafy plot, garnished with mature oak trees.

Step inside Kitsilano House

Much like its surrounding context – the neighbourhood is known for its outdoorsy aesthetic with streets selling activewear and outdoor gear – Kitsilano House feels suited to a grounded way of living. The design is put together with two distinct parts: the first is a more robust volume, while the other is a delicate ‘cabin’, which is under a canopy of flowering rhododendrons and magnolia trees. Much like a dainty bird's nest nestled within the branches of a sturdy tree.

The clients approached David Scott, founder of the firm, with a desire for a crafted home that would feel like a family heirloom. ‘The site of the home is a stretch of a corridor which is in transition from bungalows to taller, denser buildings,’ explains Scott. ‘Our objective was to design a home which has both a gentle strength and a form of privacy which would be generous to the neighbourhood.’

The result was a residence that offered a living and dining area within the solid-feeling concrete base. On the terrace, a series of flowering trees would create a natural screen to secure more private bedrooms on the two timber floors.

The lower floors have white walls and a western clerestory window to frame the evening sun and bring gentle light in. The living room is tucked into this north side of the house. In contrast to the walls of the street-level living spaces, the home's central core is clad in locally sourced Douglas fir boards extending upwards through the bedroom floors and down into the movie room below. A soothing atmosphere is underlined by the sounds of morning birdsong from the canopy's wild residents. Shelving is built into the walls to display the client’s ceramics, both made and collected.

Scott, who also designed Osler House, a midcentury gem in Vancouver, loves that Kitsilano House is always changing, saying, ‘On the exterior, the plants and split cedar siding and fencing are evolving each season. The joinery within the home is all solid wood, while the cabinetry tops and handrails are all finished in leather to be durable, all of which will show use and age.’

It is these small details that Scott wants to highlight, as they magnify the history of the house and the materials of the region. He notes, ‘The base of the house was formed with the boards from the small bungalow which preceded it, and the hand-split cedar boards, interior fir, and the oak tables which we made in our studio were all sourced from small mills on Vancouver Island.’

A distinct sense of calm permeates all areas at Kitsilano House. As the residence is designed to evolve with time, the shadows and light which disperse through the space add a cinematic quality. Scott concludes, ‘Vancouver has a long grey rainy season which leads to a month in the spring where the quiet streets come alive with magnolias, rhododendrons and wisteria. We wanted to make a home where the warmth of the wood is comforting during winter and which celebrates this colourful spring moment.’

scottandscott.ca