'What a relief to see the Americans showed up,' murmured a Parisian art dealer at the opening of Design Miami Paris 2026, just days after rioting shook the capital. Indeed, both the fair organisers themselves and a number of deep-pocketed collectors came, undaunted, for the fourth edition at L'Hôtel de Maisons, displaying 140 years of design and decorative arts from around the world.

Take a tour of Design Miami Paris 2026

The show starts in the courtyard with a huge bronze bear by François-Xavier Lalanne from Galerie Mitterrand, a delightful wooden pavilion with three faces designed by Volumnia's Michele De Lucchi, and 'Arabesque', Pierre Renart's monumental bench crafted from a 17m-long twisted ribbon of weather-resistant moabi wood, winner of the Best Design at Large Presentation award (from Maison Parisienne Gallery).

In the vast gardens behind the 18th-century mansion where Karl Lagerfeld once lived, visitors marvel at the 1944 6x6 Demountable House by Jean Prouvé, clad in timber and decorated like a Japanese tea house, presented by Galerie Patrick Seguin.

This year's Best Gallery Presentation award went to Salon 94 Design, which juxtaposes sculptural works by Alberto and Diego Giacometti with antler stools and other brutalist furniture by contemporary designer Rick Owens.

Director Jackie Greenberg says, 'We knew we were bringing the Giacometti, and we've worked with Rick for a very long time, so it just seemed obvious for them to coexist in the space together.'

'It came out beautifully,' said Owens of the stand as he wandered through the fair with his wife, Michèle Lamy. 'They're opening the Giacometti Foundation next to our house. I always thought, Alberto Giacometti – he lived in squalor, in that artist's studio, and that's what I want our house to look like.'

Italians are prominent at this year's fair. Milan's Nilufar is showing a mix of vintage pieces by the likes of Carlo Bugatti and Gabriella Crespi, alongside contemporary collectible design. Hanging above their stand is the newest version of an annual favourite, a sinuous ceiling lamp in bronze and coloured Murano glass by Christian Pellizzari, this year with seashells at the tips rather than flowers.

Nearby, StudioDanielK's paravent in white parchment and solid bronze opens to reveal a bar in high-gloss Brazilian rosewood. 'It has a little table so you can prepare your cocktail here,' says designer Daniel Kolodziejczak. First shown at Salone del Mobile, it comes in a limited edition of six, customisable with different parchments and woods.

The Paris-based Galerie Pron, formerly Galerie Italienne, is presenting a colourful and eclectic assortment, including a cabinet with a signature tartan pattern by contemporary ceramic artist Alice Gavalet, and a hammock woven in Nicaragua in 1974, based on an Alexander Calder design. 'This is one of the few in very, very good condition,' says director Matteo Da Dalt.

Scandinavians are well represented, too. Galerie Maria Wettergren brought a new wall installation called ‘Jade’ by Norwegian fibre artist Gjertrud Hals, woven in green and turquoise threads, like jellyfish attached to the wall. Nearby, Mathias Bengtsson's cast and polished stainless steel ‘Membrane’ chair won the fair's award for Best Contemporary Work. 'He conceived it by using a computer program where a digital seed makes the form grow as a living organism,' says Wettegren. 'So it's no longer an imitation of an organic form, it's actually a simulation.'

The New York gallery Hostler Burrows is showing an oversized hand-tufted carpet by Louise Hederström, ‘September’, a tapestry in autumnal shades with various layers of pile. It was woven at the venerable Kasthall mill in Sweden, using materials from the archives of its former lead designer, Gunilla Lagerhem Ullberg.

The Stockholm gallery Modernity makes its fair debut in a spacious pale blue room that happened to be the perfect size for a seven-metre-long knotted pile rug in forest and river shades, crafted in 1952 by Swedish artist Margareta Sundbom-Eichenholtz.

The stand also brought Uno Åhrén's high-backed easy chair with sweeping mahogany lines, first shown at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels (the centenary of which was celebrated last year). 'The exhibition in Paris was Sweden's breakthrough in design,' says Andrew Duncanson. 'Sweden won 26 prizes there, only second to France.'

Of course, French 20th-century design is also plentiful, with exceptional pieces by masters from Robert Mallet-Stevens to Le Corbusier, along with Thomas Fritsch's impressive collection of post-war ceramics. At the Galerie Scène Ouverte, a contemporary French ceramicist, Adélie Ducasse, is showing her first piece in glass, a spherical dark blue lamp made with Venini in Murano.

The one-year old Dubai gallery The A/P Room stops visitors in their tracks with Rogan Gregory's furry biomorphic chandelier and floor lamps, mixing goat fur or horsehair with bronze, ceramic and alabaster, light peeking through the strands of hair. 'It's like a creature. I love the ambiguity between the object and a living thing,' says the gallery's founder, Christelle Basilla, who contrasted the lamps with Brazilian modernism.

Meanwhile, a French-American trio of veteran dealers, Oscar Graf, Robert Kaplan and James Zemaitis, have joined forces to present masterworks of modern design from the 1870s to the 1960s. Their stand is small but packs a punch, with a Joseph Hoffman chair designed for the dining room of the Purkersdorf Sanatorium in Vienna, De Stijl architect Gerrit Rietveld's asymmetrical ‘Berlin’ chair (which belonged to artist Donald Judd), and a Frank Lloyd Wright living room chair from the Ward W Willits house in Highland Park, Illinois.

The Wright chair won the fair's award for Best Work of Historical Design. 'The house was considered Wright's first masterwork of Prairie School design, and he did almost all the furniture,' says Kaplan, adding that most of the pieces are now in museum collections, aside from this one, which formerly belonged to the visionary collector Daniel Wolf. 'It was one chair, not repeated in the house, and not repeated in another commission, so it is truly unique.

Artists' jewellery is another important theme. Elisabetta Cipriani Wearable Art brought new pieces from the Cosmic Jewelry collaboration with renowned textile artist Sheila Hicks, first presented earlier this year at the Venice Biennale. Hicks, who often works at architectural scale, shrank her weavings down to wearable size, wrapping precious stones, vintage pearls, fossils and coral from Cipriani's own collection in colourful silk and wool threads, for round Boules brooches and loom-shaped pendants.

MiniMasterpiece deals in jewellery made by artists, designers and architects; recently, owner Esther de Beaucé convinced the 85-year-old German minimalist artist Franz Erhard Walther to try his hand. The result is a stunning ladder of three half-circles in gold-plated brass, in a limited series of 50. The gallery also has a rare pair of necklaces by Argentine sculptor Luis Quesada, layered from slices of precious woods in the 1960s and 1970s. 'He never made them before or after,' says de Beaucé, who acquired these from the artist's daughter.

This is the second year for the initiative Designers of Tomorrow, sponsored by Apple to spotlight emerging design studios. While the four projects here used a certain amount of tech to produce, they all revealed an astonishing quantity (and quality) of handiwork, from Isabel Rower hand-rolling hundreds of ceramic beads to Yoonjeong Lee meticulously layering 5,000 thin sheets of wood veneer.

Even in our fast-paced, tech-fuelled world, it's evidence that young designers are firmly wedded to the idea of craftsmanship, for pieces that may one day be vintage collectibles in their own right.

Design Miami Paris is on view until 25 October 2026, L'hôtel de Maisons, 51 Rue de l'Université, 75007 Paris

M Residence is an eye-catching sight. This Greek island home looks almost alien from the air: geometric and mysterious, its upper storey sits high on a cliffside, while its base is nestled low into the ground. From above, its pizza-box shape features a series of cut-outs, reminiscent of eroded rocks on the beach that slowly emerge as the tide goes out. The project is the work of Mold Architects, a dynamic, female-founded, Athens-based practice.

Discover M Residence, a new Greek island home

The residence is located in Lia, Serifos, a small island situated between Kithnos and Sifnos – and it isn't the first time the architecture firm has worked on the island. M Residence was actually first designed in 2011, becoming one of the firm’s very first projects. It wasn't built at the time, but now, a decade later, the new owners have decided to move forward with the scheme.

‘When the client expressed an interest in building it more than a decade later, I was thrilled,’ says Iliana Kerestetzi, founder of Mold Architects, ‘I still loved the idea, but opening that folder also meant confronting an earlier version of ourselves. The challenge was to look at the work critically while committing to its future. Our thinking had changed, and a design that had remained on paper was about to become someone’s home. That gave every decision a different weight. What still felt essential? What needed to evolve?’

Although the original idea held its strength, Kerestetzi explained that they began to see new possibilities with it, telling Wallpaper*: ‘The rooms opened more generously onto the courtyards, the materials became warmer and the details quieter. The house took shape through that exchange between our earlier intentions, our present perspective and the people who would inhabit it.’

This Greek island home's volume is compact and monolithic, inspired by local monasteries. However, internally, the building features smooth curves and rejects harsh angles, allowing the visitor to transition between each room and courtyard fluidly.

‘We combined this with two other local architectural languages: the crisp, cubic rooms of the villages and the softer contours of rural buildings and dry-stone walls. Within a square outline, rooms turn gently towards different views, while curved walls connect them and draw out a sequence of seven courtyards,’ notes the architect.

When the architects focused on revising the original plan, they decided to simplify and soften it. Interior spaces were opened up towards the courtyards, creating a more protected exterior. As a result, the residence feels at once both open and entirely sheltered, with this contrast forming the conceptual heart of the project.

Perhaps the most intriguing change was how the building sits, or in this case, doesn’t sit, on the ground. The entire volume is raised on a plinth, which in turn creates a shadow line that makes it look like it is hovering. A swimming pool was also introduced, positioned outside the main volume in a geometric placement gesture.

One thing that Kerestetzi wants visitors to feel is at ease, saying: ‘A room opens into a garden, a courtyard offers shelter, a shaded corner invites a pause. The warmth of the coloured plaster and the closeness of the planting make these spaces feel intimate. We hope people move through them intuitively, finding the spot that feels right for a particular moment.’

However, she also notes that part of the intention was to allow room for the home's inhabitants to add to its character and make it their own. She explains: 'The residents have already hung a piece of white fabric beneath one of the roof openings. It filters the light and moves gently, bringing a softness we hadn’t designed.’

Her favourite aspect is that the house reveals multiple facets and identities over time; the same spot easily evokes an entirely different vibe depending on light and seasons. She concludes: ‘A detail that recedes in the morning can become the most compelling thing in the afternoon.’

moldarchitects.com

Hanamurasaki is a traditional Japanese ryokan – with a fresh modern twist. Wrapped in nature, the family-run hotel overlooks the drama of a river flowing through a gorge in an ancient hot spring village in the Hokuriku region of central Japan. In addition to its classic ryokan mix of omotenashi hospitality, nature appreciation and hot spring soaking, the hotel has reimagined its 125-year heritage – with contemporary interiors, art installations, a gallery and a bespoke furniture collection, all brought to life through the sharp vision of sixth-generation owner Kohei Yamada and his wife Manami.

Measured yet modern, their contemporary interventions are serene, minimalist and crafted. Simplicity, the Tokyo studio run by Shinichiro Ogata, designed a light-flooded tea room called Sabo, as well as five escapist suites, with tactile material sweeps of stone, washi, mortar and soft white curves. Pared-back interiors are filled with curated scatterings of abstract sculptures and lighting by contemporary Japanese artists (in ceramics, lacquer, wood, paper, glass).

This autumn, the ryokan’s traditional tatami-mat Japanese rooms were also given a modern update, with the launch of Hanamurasaki’s new contemporary furniture collection: ‘Suminobi’. Low-lying, minimalist and softly curved, the furniture is designed to harmonise horizontally with its tatami setting, with clean modern lines shaped by traditional carpentry techniques.

The creative dialogue is ongoing, according to Yamada, who is as comfortable among street art as he is with generations-old craftsmanship. ‘In the past, onsen ryokan would often have artists-in-residence staying with them,’ he tells Wallpaper*. ‘Artists would come and stay and leave an artwork. We are very inspired by this idea at Hanamurasaki.’ The couple – who both previously lived overseas, Kohei in Singapore, Manami studying art and photography in San Francisco – also recently opened the art gallery Yamadart in nearby Kanazawa city.

Wallpaper* checks in at Hanamurasaki, Yamanaka Onsen

What’s on your doorstep?

Yamanaka Onsen is a speck of a village in Ishikawa Prefecture, known for more than 1,300 years of volcanic hot spring bathing and the beauty of its traditional lacquerware – and it’s worth heading off the beaten tourist trail to get there. The Hokuriku Shinkansen bullet train stops at nearby Kagaonsen Station (up to three hours from Tokyo, or 20 minutes from Kanazawa); the hotel is around 20 minutes away by shuttle or taxi.

What’s the story behind it?

It was in 1902 that the ryokan, initially called Yamadaya, first opened, becoming a much-loved local hot spring retreat. Yamada’s father relocated the hotel to a newly built property nearby in the 1980s and renamed it Hanamurasaki – its name inspired by the poetic phrase Sanshi Suimei – ‘purple mountains and clear waters’. Over the past four years, the hotel has steadily transformed through the vision of Yamada and his wife – with renovations, creative projects and artworks continuing to tap into the essence of Japanese culture, expressed through a fresh modern perspective.

What’s the arrival like?

A stroll through a small garden leads to a large white noren curtain with numerous vertical slits, etched with the calligraphic simplicity of a Zen-like circle. Crossing the threshold, the genkan entry is spacious and minimal – a sweep of stone flooring beneath white walls with a wood and lacquerware abstraction by artist Eiko Tanaka, a woody, temple-like incense burning in the air. The stillness continues in the monochrome lobby, alongside a small gallery space showcasing the lacquer creations of Daigo Ohmura and a sculptural circle of light – all setting the tone for a minimalist, modern and crafted stay.

First thing to do?

Have a cup of tea (or six) at Sabo. The Simplicity-designed space at the heart of the ground floor is deeply serene, with softly curved white surfaces, light hexagonal floor tiles, dark wood tables and a tea counter with walls of windows framing bursts of green. Afternoon tea is a highlight. Expertly curated teas, from original Kaga Bocha twig tea to local Ishikawa black tea, are quietly served in exquisite ceramics, alongside tiered trays of creative treats – recently including turnip sushi, candied kumquat, yuzu jelly and lemon-simmered sweet potato (matcha beer and sencha tea gin and tonic are also on the menu).

The room to book

The hotel has 25 rooms – and the most coveted are the five suites by Simplicity. Spacious and curated, these are modern temples of serenity, steeped in modern craftsmanship, with low Western-style beds and an organic material palette sharpened by clean lines and soft curves. Modern Suite has smooth swathes of mortar across floors, ceilings and walls; a sunken table by lacquer artist Akihiko Sugeta; a deep stone onsen bath and sauna, alongside framed greenery. Art Suite has mortar walls lightly imprinted with grid-like mesh; glowing glass panels and lights by artist Rui Sasaki containing flowers and plants collected near Hanamurasaki; softly curved white interior edges; sharp black tiled bathrooms and a large round ceramic onsen bath plus sauna.

Most of the hotel’s Japanese rooms were gently updated this autumn – with the launch of Hanamurasaki’s new furniture collection ‘Suminobi’ (its name inspired by the traditional architectural technique of lengthening temple eaves and roof corners). Designed to harmonise with the traditional Japanese setting, the furniture is low-lying with simple horizontal lines – from window-facing beds to monochrome sofas, with organic white textile forms hovering on low bases of darkened white ash.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

The restaurant is another highlight. Yamada’s father renovated the dining area 20 years ago, with dramatic washi wall abstractions by Kyoto artist Eriko Horiki and partitions between diners. Here, contemporary omakase kaiseki dining steals the show, with a constellation of crafted dishes, shifting according to Ishikawa’s seasonal ingredients from the sea and mountains. From November to March, a highlight is the Snow Crab menu, a celebration of a delicious local delicacy; unusually, vegetarian kaiseki is also available. Japanese breakfasts are expansive and high quality, with snow-white Koshihikari rice, sashimi and simmered tofu hot pots (Western-style omelettes and croissants are also available – again, something of a rarity in a ryokan).

Where to switch off

Aside from endless soaking in alkaline-rich onsen waters, the hotel offers innovative activities, many with local creatives, such as a painting experience with ceramic artist Eijyu Yaguchi. Another wintertime highlight is a snowshoe-making activity, with charismatic locals Aria and Masa, which aims to revive a dying tradition – hand-tying rope around curved bamboo to create kanjiki shoes, before putting them to the test in a nearby snow-wrapped mountain for a face-blastingly fresh hike, with warming tea in washi cups. Further projects are in the pipeline, from artist residencies to collaborations with regional artisans (retreats are scheduled next year with local author and illustrator Hannah Kirshner).

The verdict

Hanamurasaki is a perfectly pitched balance between past and present, materials and spaces, artists and guests. And best of all, it’s a living, breathing work in progress – likely to keep evolving, not only with Yamada and his wife at the helm, but with future generations too.

Hanamurasaki is located at 1-Ho17-1, Higashimachi, Yamanaka Onsen, Kaga City, Ishikawa Prefecture, 922-0114, Japan

A century-old Atlanta warehouse long home to a building supplies manufacturer is now a factory for art called Loop, thanks to a nimble renovation from architectural designer Jennifer Bonner and her practice MALL.

Georgia Tech purchased the property in 2018 from Randall Brothers, a building supplies company in Atlanta on the site since 1885. The seven-acre plot is slated to hold Georgia Tech’s new Creative Quarter, with academic buildings, student housing and even a hotel to come. Most buildings on the site were demolished. The historic warehouse that houses Loop was happily retained, now home to this event, exhibition and studio space operated by local arts organisation Goat Farm.

The project was rooted in felicitous chance. Bonner, who is based in Portland, Oregon, but formerly taught at Georgia Tech and has exhibited with Goat Farm, ran into Mark Dinatale, Goat Farm’s managing director on the site. She explains, 'Mark and I saw each other there and I said "we have to work together on this."'

Goat Farm operates nearly 200 artists’ rental studios at five locations throughout Atlanta. 'The revenue from studio rentals actually goes to support the arts programming. We can use it to subsidise harder-to-fund art forms and more experimental forms of art,' Dinatale explains. Goat Farm has worked with Georgia Tech in the past, and is collaborating on a three-year activation of the warehouse.

The building was in generally good condition. The design team made repairs to the roof and installed new HVAC, plumbing, windows and doors. A lingering layer of sawdust from its prior life was cleared out.

A temporary stay required a light touch, one successfully executed thanks to Bonner’s scheme. The structure provided easy guidance as to where to locate 17 artists’ studios, within the column grid along its two sides, while retaining the central volume for flexible use, including exhibitions, installations and performances.

To accommodate such a variety of uses, Bonner and her team relied on a literal loop, a translucent curtain composed of metallic flame-retardant polyester fabric which can be shifted or removed. 'Basically the curtain became a way to spatially close things off or divide them,' Bonner says.

Forty custom-fabricated planter carts, meanwhile, provide a cheap and easy source of ornament and spatial organisation. 'They can be recombined in terms of shapes and they can be all clustered together,' Bonner adds.

Lighting is another source of verve, consisting largely of LED strips. Bonner, working with lighting designer Pablo Gnecco of New York-based firm Studio Studio, placed the lights vertically on interior columns and horizontally on the building's front facade in a glowing band. '[It's] stretched the whole length of the facade, like Dan Flavin on steroids,' Bonner says.

The lighting design involves a range of shades from pink to purple to green, which can be fixed or pulsate.

The overall aim of Loop, as Dinatale explains, is to achieve 'an experimental space,' that grants artists access to space and technology. So far, Loop has provided a space for exhibitions and events, as well as performances by Hyojin Kwon and Frank Vigroux; dance companies; AI art; video game art; and even Georgia Tech’s Laptop orchestra.

Allie Bashuk, Goat Farm’s creative and design director, notes Loop's proven an ideal location for evening performances, with no residences around. Their aim has been to provide a strong platform for offbeat art. 'We try to elevate all these projects by giving them proper lighting and visual cues,' Bashuk says.

Bonner held an exhibition on roof designs at Goat Farm in 2014 titled Domestic Hats. This time, she's returned to work under a hat of her own devising – and an overdue accomplishment, she notes: Loop is the 'first building on the Georgia Tech campus designed by a female-led practice.'

Of course, it’s trite to say a make-up artist treats a face like a canvas; but with Lucy Bridge the sentiment takes on a palpable truth. Over the course of her roughly decade-long career, Bridge has created some of this era’s most memorable editorial and runway make-up looks with her technical ingenuity (see her velvet lips for Tom Ford), original experimentation with colour and painterly approach to its application.

For her first book, Colour Mode, Bridge applies the same outré approach she is known for as a make-up artist to the process of documenting her work. Instead of compiling a look back at her highly impressive career so far, Bridge used the opportunity to commission entirely new stories by ten leading photographers, alongside a behind-the-scenes section, which showcases her creative process and working practices.

Created in close collaboration with renowned creative director Veronica Ditting, Colour Mode takes a radical approach to the traditional beauty book, making for a collectable document that showcases the work of some of the most talented image makers practising today. Here, Bridge speaks to Wallpaper* about the process of creating the book.

Wallpaper*: Why did now feel like the right time to create a book on your work?

Lucy Bridge: Veronica [Ditting] and I worked on a runway show together and she messaged me shortly after, saying if I ever wanted to do a book, we could collaborate. As soon as she asked me, I knew this was the right time. I instantly said yes, as I am a huge fan of Veronica’s work. From the beginning, I didn’t want to create a traditional make-up book like the ones we are so used to seeing, and I thought the combination of us working together meant we could explore what a make-up book can be. Veronica kept saying how I was the voice of my generation and this really sparked the idea [for the] book.

Wallpaper*: Why did you want to commission new stories for the book, rather than create a retrospective of your work so far?

LB: I wanted a new creative challenge. With the book, there was an opportunity to create new photographic stories where we could develop the concept from start to finish. I wanted to show the world my make-up, under my rules, working with the most inspiring collaborators, who are also a group of people I call friends.

We had created the ten main photographic stories and the 'Looks in Progress' stories, showing the process behind them... it was at this stage when I showed Tim Walker and he suggested that we include an archive section to show how my work has developed over the years as a make-up artist. The archive section is a way for me to look back and also offers a glimpse into where it all started, back in 2009.

W*: How did you select the photographers you wanted to work with? And, once commissioned, what was your process of working with each one to create an individual story?

LB: First, Veronica and I established the tone of the book as being both expressive and dynamic. Then, we started to talk about our dream list of photographers, and that also made us discuss how we wanted to push the imagery to create something unique. Veronica has an amazing process, where she prints out mini images of photographers’ work, and then Sellotapes them together to create a running storyline. We placed them all together to see which photographers would complement each other within a book. We were very lucky – almost all the photographers and collaborators we wanted to work with said yes! We also had to think about the style of the photographers – so they all had a point of difference in the book, but worked well visually with each other. We thought about the contrasts, daylight versus studio photography, extreme beauty versus minimal looks. Every detail was considered. Once we had an idea, we were then focused on starting a collaboration between the team to bring the whole shoot to life.

W*: Does seeing your work collected in one place like this give you any insight into your career so far?

LB: It has made me appreciate how incredible and fulfilling my make-up career has been so far. It’s easy to forget how much you have done; looking back at the archive section, especially, was such an experience. I’m so lucky to have had the career I've had at such a young age, and looking back over my early work reminded me of growing up in the countryside in the north of England and having dreams of working as a make-up artist in fashion in a big city. I could never have expected my career to take off in the way it has.

W*: Are there any lessons from the experience that you will carry into your work moving forward?

LB: The main lesson has been to not take this job for granted. I am so lucky to wake up every day and enjoy the work I do. Yes, it can be stressful at times; there is a lot of travelling and I am often in a high-pressure environment, but at the end of the day, I love being a make-up artist and creating all these different looks and characters for a living. It’s hard not to get sucked into the theatrics of the fashion world, but personally I have found a very good balance between work and a relatively normal personal life. For me, that’s always been important, to retain some normality in life, as my job is so far from “normal”’.

W*: What made Veronica Ditting such a good match for this collaboration?

LB: For both of us, expression plays a role in our work, and we are very particular about colour and texture. If you look at our wider work, you could say that we have different aesthetics. But we share a particularly steadfast process we hold on to when it comes to image-making. While my make-up approach is very avant-garde and Veronica’s work is very chic, through our creative conversations, we found a balance and a rhythm in our work together, which comes through in the book and tells the story of my make-up so beautifully.

In the end, Maximillian Maertens, sci-fi fan and creative designer at the watch brand MB&F, was afforded the right to name his latest product a ‘table clock’. Out went ‘Cyclops’ and, a nod to the alien-like nature of the design, in came ‘Nostromo’. 'You have to get the reference to appreciate that,' says MB&F’s Arnaud Legeret of the object recently launched to mark the 15th anniversary of the MAD Gallery, MB&F’s Geneva showroom of mechanical art and kinetic sculpture, into which the ‘Nostromo’ table clock fits just so.

But the limited-edition ‘Nostromo’ comes – much like many a scene in Alien – with something of a surprise. Once customers have paid their CHF12,000 (about £11,000), they’ll open its box and find the table clock in bits. Put another way, the ‘Nostromo’ comes in kit form, with 233 steel, brass and German silver components ready to be assembled, taking guidance from a sizeable 250-page instruction manual. All the necessary tools are included, too. The ‘Nostromo’, which sits on a turntable-style tripod base, can be put together in about ten hours.

'We’ve sold the table clock mostly to watch geeks who are into independent watchmaking and are interested in knowing more about how the mechanism works, and putting the clock together does give you a very good understanding,' says Legeret. 'It’s still challenging, but the mechanism is simple enough and the parts big enough that a non-professional can tackle it.'

That this is the case is down to Maison Alcée, the French company founded by husband-and-wife team Alcee and Benoit Montfort in 2019 to build just such table-clock kits. Alcee Montfort was inspired to create the product during her time as an engineer with the Richemont Group, where a watchmaker shared his concerns that watchmaking skills were being lost because the industry did little to inspire an interest in them. 'So I thought the best way to do that was to allow people to actually have a go themselves,' she says.

With input from watchmaking teachers, Maison Alcée developed a kit that, she adds, 'everyone could complete but which wasn’t too easy either. [For most customers] it’s an opportunity to connect with a subject they love. But it also presents an opportunity to step back from a busy schedule, take some time, and a rare opportunity for many people to do something with their hands too.'

The ‘Nostromo’ is larger than Maison Alcée’s standard ‘Persée’ model, and, as well as marking out hours, minutes and seconds, also features an hour chime that can be switched on or off, and a 14-day power reserve. MB&F is now considering launching a second kit clock, though those who really like to push themselves of an autumn evening might be disappointed to learn that there is no plan to create a wristwatch equivalent.

Why so? Because making one of those approachable for the amateur would mean using the range and kind of parts that would likely result in a not-particularly-attractive watch, Legeret argues. 'And while we want people to learn through putting all the components together, at the end we’d still want something that looked good, which is why a table clock works,' he says. Fortunately, unlike the cinematic Nostromo, the table clock won’t automatically destruct in T minus five minutes either.

A consideration of the rich and multifaceted lives of women has long shaped Miuccia Prada's Miu Miu, a curiosity that takes shape in both fashion and culture. In 2024, this philosophy was cemented when Miu Miu became the official partner of Art Basel Paris' public programme, with the partnership uniting a host of creatives, from artists to performers and musicians. The programme debuted with Tales & Tellers, by artist Goshka Macuga, and was followed in 2025 with 30 Blizzards, by artist Helen Marten.

For the third year of the partnership, at Art Basel Paris 2026, Miuccia Prada invited French filmmaker Alice Diop to take the reins, with the presentation of a major project at the Palais d'Iéna HQ of France's Economic, Social and Environmental Council in Paris – which is also the site of Miu Miu's runway shows. For the occasion, Diop is presenting an exhibition, ‘Geste de Consolation’ (Gesture of Consolation), which builds on themes that Diop introduced in her 2025 film Fragments for Venus for Miu Miu's anthology series Women's Tales.

For Diop, who for the first time takes on the role of artist-curator, it is an opportunity to broaden a practice which, to date, has encompassed directing and screenwriting.

‘When Miuccia Prada came to me and offered me this opportunity to create a video installation, I was both surprised and intimidated by the trust she placed in me, to do something I'd never done before,' says Diop. ‘But I have learned to trust women who trust me.'

The works in the space are a celebration of Black female creativity, highlighting a thread that has run throughout Diop's work. Now, she gathers the female artists whom she admires, across a prism of mediums and practices, taking visitors on a scenographic journey to discover their work across four connecting spaces. ‘I have invited Black women artists who have helped me over the years to create, and helped to heal and repair me, not only as an artist but as a Black woman. They have considered the way that we have been building ourselves as Black women, due to the need of having to dissociate because of the fetishising gaze.'

Those involved include American artist Simone Leigh, who will present the vast bronze, Sentinel (Mami Wata), an elegant female form cradled by a serpent. ‘Her work has inspired me for years now and has really helped me to grow,' says Diop. Also included is photography from South African artist Zanele Muholi and performances from Ivorian choreographer Nadia Beugré's Prophétique, as well as American composer and musician Angel Bat Dawid with her ensemble, Sistazz of the Nitty Gritty. Visitors will also enjoy a generously stocked library filled with the books that have inspired Diop.

‘At the very beginning, perhaps because I was intimidated by what I was being asked to do, I had no plans to make a work myself,' says Diop. ‘I think the first thing I said was that I was willing to think about an installation, but only from a curatorial point of view. But I was so impressed by the speed and the grace with which these women responded to my invitation, that I felt it was impossible for me not to ask questions of my own discipline, which is film.'

The resulting two-screen video installation unites archival footage from the early to mid-20th century, sourced from so-called ‘scientific expeditions' and private archives. Consisting of both violent imagery, and imagery that has consoled Diop, the installation examines how these have shaped her as a filmmaker. ‘The installation is really a genealogy of my own gaze, in which I've gathered all the images that I have constructed in my own way,' says Diop.

She hopes to take visitors on an emotional journey, through the subjectivity of a Black woman in the 20th century. ‘I'd like the viewer to feel connected to this singular way of looking at the world, that has been developed by the violence that Black women have been subjected to. To also consider the strength and resistance that Black women have developed, through what we have had to resist and survive.'

‘Geste de Consolation' is on show from 21-25 October at Palais d'Iéna, Paris, artbasel.com, miumiu.com

A version of this article appears in the November 2026 Art Issue of Wallpaper*, available from 8 October in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

The bar develops beyond a gathering place in Max Radford’s latest collaboration. Open for business (and drinks) during the recent Frieze Week in London (and now moving to its next destination in Paris, during the city's Art Basel), the Limen Bar at Oranj was commissioned by the design gallerist and interior designer as a temporary space and designed by CLLC, the newly established Parisian studio led by Charlotte Taylor and Pauline Leprince.

For a week, CLLC’s Limen bar took residence at east London’s Oranj natural wine bar, exploring the communal and social space as the centre of a bigger cultural conversation.

It's a project conceived as a creative collaboration, which expanded into a living space. Eschewing conventional exhibition models, Radford and CLLC opted instead for a design that fulfils a function and creates a conceptual and aesthetic moment where spatial design, furniture, objects, wine, food and sound meet. Aptly, the bar takes its name from the Latin word for threshold, becoming a space of transition, a visual moment between inside and outside.

The bar was created in collaboration with PS Lab for lighting, and sound elements by Mateo Garcia Audio. For the project, CLLC collaborated with Atelier de France, Atelier de la Boiserie and Atelier Mériguet, who helped bring the bar to life.

Also included are satellite objects and furniture from some of Radford's collaborators, among them Lewis Kemmenoe and Eddie Olin. Kemmenoe's timber lamps laid with aluminium elements were a continuation of his explorations in metal and patchwork, while for Olin, the project involved creating a series of bar stools from raw steel I-beams with a black-stained ash seat.

The newly commissioned objects, Radford explains, are imagined to respond to the behaviours and gestures usually associated with a bar: leaning, perching and gathering, serving, cooling, carrying and lighting.

CLLC also created glassware, continuing the geometric language they devised for the bar.

The Limen bar itself features a symmetrical form that nods to a contemporary interpretation of postmodern aesthetics, and its materials were conceived for ease of assembly, disassembly and transport. Appearing solid and hefty, the bar is in fact made of what the designers describe as 'imitation surfaces', reflecting the aesthetic of stone and metal with material lightness. 'Materials conventionally associated with weight and longevity become lighter, thinner and more theatrical,' reads a note accompanying the project.

Thanks to this approach, the bar is conceived to travel to different cities for further activations, following the creative calendar's most crucial moments of the year.

The Limen Bar will next land in Paris, 21-24 October, 10 Villa Riberolle, 75020 Paris

If you like to go out regularly in London, particularly in the south and east, you might have noticed a number of new ‘listening bars’ in recent months. The concept, which originated in Japan, means that everything, from the way the space is insulated and designed to the nightly music curation, revolves around sound. Some of these bars have quickly become beloved and highly respected spaces, such as Waltz in Shoreditch, owned by Tokyo-born Gento Torigata, who was formerly the manager of Kwãnt. At Waltz, speakers take centre stage alongside the spirits and a meticulously curated menu in a warm, ambient space.

What separates a listening bar from a bar with good speakers?

While many of these bars are faithful to the original concept, there are, of course, things that differentiate them from the Tokyo-based neighbourhood spots. One is that the price point, naturally, has to be much higher for a bar to survive on the mean streets of London.

James Gilbody is the owner of Freaking Out The Neighborhood, a listening bar in Bangkok. He recently moved back to London, so he has a perspective on the proliferation of listening bars across two continents. ‘It’s definitely a trend globally, and Bangkok is no different,’ he says, telling me that listening bars even got their own awards category this year in the local lifestyle publication BK Magazine. Gilbody’s own motivation for opening one was that there weren’t many places that played the kind of music he and his partner enjoy: left-field jazz, rock, indie and punk. ‘Selfishly, we wanted a space where we could listen to our favourite albums on a nice system at full volume,’ he says.

Michael Sager is the owner and director of Equal Parts, a listening bar in Hackney that opened in 2023 and has since won several awards and a spot on best-of lists. When opening Equal Parts, says Sager, the brief was always sound and drinks in equal measure: ‘The listening element was structural from day one, not a differentiator we retrofitted.’ In his opinion, the popularity of listening bars is down to a simple fact: they give people permission to actually listen. ‘Most hospitality spaces use music as atmosphere management – something to fill silence and keep energy up. A listening bar inverts that. The music is the reason you're there, and the drink is what you hold while you're paying attention. For a certain kind of person, that's an enormous relief.’

Of course, if being a listening bar is something that gives one bar an edge over another, it would follow that some might be tempted to call themselves one without actually understanding what the concept means. Some spaces might do so without actually evoking the soul of some Shimokitazawa neighbourhood spot that’s been built around music.

Sager says that what differentiates a true listening bar is ‘intention and consequence’. At Equal Parts, they developed the sound system in collaboration with Audio Gold, and the room itself is lined with walnut and felt to cancel noise and enhance how sound moves through the space. They play exclusively vinyl, always full albums in order, because they believe in respecting the artist’s intention. The staff themselves are experts in selecting music, and, as Sager says, ‘Any bar can put on a good record. A listening bar is one where the music dictates the energy of the room, not the other way around.’

Gilbody agrees, adding that there are few authentic listening bars outside of Japan. ‘The main trend globally is people opening bars with nice speakers but not much music curation from the venue and not much listening happening,’ he says. ‘It’s Instagram friendly and an easy way to essentially rebrand a cocktail bar or have something else to market.’

What differentiates a listening bar, according to Gilbody, is that the experience should be quiet and cosy, something he and his wife Ki fell in love with. While some Japanese listening bars don’t even let you speak or go on your phone, he doesn’t think it needs to be that strict – but it should be intimate. ‘It should feel like you’re in someone’s living room listening to their record collection. The personality of the place and the curation of the music should ideally come from the owners,’ he says.

The explosion of listening bars across London might point to something beyond a fascination with Japan or simple trend-following. It is harder than ever to break even as a bar, especially a new one, in the city. That means, to stand out against the thousands of bars in London, you have to offer something unique. There’s a need for an experiential component beyond sleek interiors and well-balanced drinks. Guest bar takeovers, collaborations, events and themed menus have become the norm at the city’s top bars, and owners are getting increasingly creative.

Ryan Chetiyawardana, also known as Mr Lyan, is the award-winning owner behind Seed Library and, most recently, Lyaness in the Sea Containers on the South Bank. Lyaness is a bar with stunning interiors, imaginative drinks and an unbeatable view – but going above and beyond that, there are regular collaborations with global bars such as SIPS (Barcelona), Candelaria (Paris), Native (Singapore) and more through the Sunday Lyan series.

Bars innovating to thrive

‘With all our bars, we try to balance the fact that we're a destination venue with being as democratic and available to as many people as possible, functioning as a great neighbourhood bar can,’ says Chetiyawardana. ‘Innovation, excitement and togetherness are central pillars to our work, so we always wanted to go beyond what was more ubiquitous.’

When choosing collaborators, the team look to people who can push and inspire them. ‘Every business needs a point of difference, and having a unique voice is something that tends to resonate well in places where there are a lot of options,’ he says, adding, ‘As the expectations for drinking and dining out have risen, there have been more attempts to differentiate. But these are often copycat moves – the best venues have a USP that is honest and personal to them.’ Chetiyawardana agrees that the financial landscape and pressure on hospitality mean there needs to be more to your experience.

Andy Loudon is director of bars at the Rosewood Hotel in Covent Garden. Rosewood’s Scarfes Bar is uniquely innovative for a hotel bar, with playful themed menus and regular live music. ‘A great cocktail bar should engage all the senses, and live music has the power to transform a room in a way that no design element or drinks menu can,’ says Loudon. ‘Two guests can order the same cocktail on different evenings and have an entirely different experience because of the music, the crowd and the energy in the room.’

Given how competitive bars are today, that experience is essential. ‘The most successful bars understand that hospitality is ultimately about creating memories. That can be through music, storytelling, design, service, education or a sense of community. Guests rarely remember every ingredient in a cocktail, but they will remember how a place made them feel,’ says Loudon.

To survive today, success isn’t only about picking a trend or offering great drinks. Sager says that the best bars have a genuine point of view and hold it consistently. ‘The bars that are struggling are the ones that tried to be everything – great cocktails, great food, great music, great design – without a clear hierarchy of intent. Guests can feel when a venue knows exactly what it is. That coherence is increasingly rare, and increasingly what people seek out.’

Chetiyawardana adds that, as bar owners, it’s important to see one another as peers, not competitors. ‘Hospitality is only in competition with apathy and loneliness, and the more we can show that togetherness is an important factor of happiness, then the better venues do.’

An independent jeweller whose creations have been worn and collected by Rihanna and Marina Abramovich, Patcharavipa Bodiratnangkura has unveiled a new collaboration with Geneva heritage brand Adler.

Bodiratnangkura, who trained at Central Saint Martins in London, founded her eponymous business in 2016. Patcharavipa jewellery has since been made in the designer’s workshop in Bangkok, from where pieces are shipped to clients and stockists around the world, including Dover Street Market in London.

Gold – and in particular a warm-glowing, 18ct alloy known as Siam Gold – is her calling card, cast and hand-worked to a tactile, intricately textured finish. More recently, Bodiratnangkura has also sculpted pieces from Moroccan Thuya wood and a black wood sourced in Thailand.

Now, in partnership with Adler, she has finished a capsule collection in brightly hued titanium. It’s a material in which the Swiss company has long been a specialist. ‘At my workshop, I can’t work in titanium. Working with Adler gave me an opportunity to dream and design in many colours,’ Bodiratnangkura says. ‘The theme is forbidden paradise, so I wanted something different, something dreamlike.’

The capsule collection consists of titanium rings and earrings, some dotted with diamonds. The material’s light weight allowed for earrings that are bold in volume – South African bird-of-paradise flowers featured on the designer’s moodboard.

Ever since he created one of the world’s best-selling men’s fragrances, Le Male for Jean Paul Gaultier, at the tender age of 26, Francis Kurkdjian has been reshaping modern perfumery. Whether he’s working on collaborative projects with the likes of artist Sophie Calle or the Palace of Versailles, crafting fragrances for other houses (in 2021 he was named creation director of perfume for Christian Dior) or creating under his namesake brand Maison Francis Kurkdjian (whose Baccarat Rouge 540 became one of the world’s best-selling fragrances), Kurkdjian uses his knowledge of scent history and physiological impact throughout the ages to create fragrances that speak to the zeitgeist.

Never one to do things halfheartedly, Kurkdjian is celebrating some of his best-loved creations for Maison Francis Kurkdjian and debuting new ones in a holiday campaign that pays homage to France’s ‘Grand Siècle'. Working alongside production designer Antoine Fontaine, Kurkdjian created a miniature construction of the era’s famous Théâtre de la Reine, with a trompe-l’oeil papier-mâché stage and working miniature mechanics. A trained ballet dancer before he became a perfumer, he also makes a cameo appearance as a dancer in the campaign film.

Below, Kurkdjian speaks to Wallpaper* about the extraordinary creation of a miniature 17th-century theatre, and the era’s enduring influence on his practice.

Wallpaper*: Do you remember the first time you encountered the Théâtre de la Reine? Why did it feel like an ideal setting for the Maison Francis Kurkdjian universe?

Francis Kurkdjian: I have a longstanding, strong relationship with the Château de Versailles. I’ve collaborated with them several times, up until recently with the Perfumer’s Garden, of which the maison is the patron. I attended perfumery school in Versailles (ISIPCA) while I was finishing my studies of Classical Ballet and Baroque with a company that used to perform [at the palace]. I fondly remember the shows I performed in, as well as the afternoons spent in the gardens, soaking up the history of a place that meant so much for fragrance and for developing the best know-how in French culture.

In 2006, I signed the reinterpretation of Queen Marie Antoinette’s fragrance, imagined from authentic historical documents, at the time of the opening of Marie Antoinette's estate. I spent an enormous amount of time diving into the archives to learn who the Queen was, what she liked and asking myself what perfume I would create for her if we lived at the same time. I presented and launched this perfume on the stage of the Théâtre de la Reine.

So, I’m deeply connected and attached to Versailles, its heritage, its beauty. I imagined this campaign as a tribute to that era and the Grand Siècle, its iconography and lyricism, and created a small-scale copy of it to bring it to life, working with the very best artisans and making the fragrances themselves become the star of the performance.

W*: Can you share more about the creative process behind the miniature theatre? What fascinated you most about the theatre’s original scenographic techniques?

FK: The campaign was designed to be as historically accurate as possible because the idea was to reproduce a mini opera-ballet, where the stars of the show would be fragrance itself. We did not rely on AI at all. I wanted a real set and a real stage. The miniature theatre was created with my friend, set designer Jean-Hugues de Chatillon, who has been collaborating with me for more than two decades.

We asked painter-scenographer Antoine Fontaine to join in creating a replica of the original, as he participated in the restoration of the real theatre of Marie Antoinette. We included the trompe-l'oeil papier-mâché theatre sets, the choreography of the comedy-ballets, and, of course, the highlight of the show: the perfumer in the 17th-century court dress from the engravings of the time, the ultimate reference for me to what the craft is about. The mechanisms of the backstage of a theatre were reconstructed in their entirety and work like real ones. The theatre, with all its elements, required six months of work, about 2,000 hours. It involved 20 craftsmen for a total of about 3,000 single pieces.

W*: Because Antoine Fontaine had worked directly on the restoration of the Théâtre de la Reine, what did he bring to the project that you could not have achieved through historical research alone?

FK: Antoine has first-hand experience and knowledge of the original theatre. Working on the restoration unlocked its secrets and he brought all of that baggage into the creation of the replica. He was able to bring that vintage soul that was necessary to make this project look real and accurate.

W*: What was the biggest challenge you encountered?

FK: As I mentioned, everything is done by hand, each piece, each detail. The hidden mechanisms that move the products on stage were designed with professional puppeteers. The fabrics were embroidered and fitted for the project. There is an enormous amount of know-how that went into this project. It’s really a celebration of human craftsmanship and creativity. And of course, being on time so we could film the campaign.

W*: If you could go back to the Théâtre de la Reine in its heyday, what performance would you like to see? And, more importantly, what would you hope to smell?

FK: I would love to see one of the intimate performances that Marie-Antoinette enjoyed with her close circle – perhaps a light opera or a comédie mêlée de musique [musical comedy], where the boundary between audience and performers seemed to disappear.

What fascinates me is not only the spectacle itself, but the atmosphere: the sense of wonder created by a place designed entirely for illusion. As for the scent, I would hope to smell a blend of powdered woods from the stage sets, beeswax from the candles, fresh flowers gathered from the gardens, and the delicate perfumes worn by the guests. It would not be a single fragrance but a composition of many impressions, capturing the elegance, creativity and humanity of that extraordinary moment in time.

W*: Why does the 17th century remain an enduring source of inspiration for you?

FK: It was a fascinating period when art and artisanal crafts flourished in France, under the input of the royal court. Among them, the figure of the perfumer emerged, strictly linked to the craft of leathermaking. I often look back at a very famous engraving, very dear to me: that of the Perfumer's Habit, attributed to Gerrit Valck and printed in 1697 by Nicolas de l'Armassin. In the series of trades in Paris, the perfumer is represented with an incense burner as a hat. His test-tube apron presents all of his productions and is a visual representation of his skills: perfumed fans and gloves, soaps, scented waters, essences of all kinds… This very engraving comes to life in the movie, thanks to the help of Marie La Rocca, costume designer of the Paris Opera and the Caraco Couture Atelier. Seven craftsmen with complementary know-how worked with extreme meticulousness to reproduce it for us.

W*: Why did this feel like the right moment to put yourself in the campaign?

FK: It’s not the first time I’ve acted in our holiday campaign. I like to think that perfume can bring joy to people, especially during the holiday season. This movie is special, and I had great fun wearing the Perfumer’s Habit and learning to bow from Béatrice Martel, a dancer at the Paris Opera. Last, this campaign felt different. It tells a story that is deeply personal to me: my relationship with theatre, music, craftsmanship and the history of French perfumery.

A preview of the film can be seen here, with the full video released on Maison Francis Kurkdjian's website on 1 November 2026.

franciskurkdjian.com

In his 2009 book The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture, Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa considers the disconnect between the mind and body as a result of the prioritising of the virtual and the visual, re-examining, over several chapters, the significance of the information a body inherently knows. This is the cornerstone of the first show to be staged at Thea, a new exhibition space focusing on art and technology from photography platform Noorderlicht in Groningen. Adopting the moniker from Pallasmaa’s text, ‘Thinking Hands’ (until 1 November 2026) brings together 23 photographers and lens-based artists and artist duos, working both with traditional techniques and digital programmes, to further interrogate these ideas.

In the days immediately prior to opening, neighbours were invited in for a preview. One of these early visitors, recalls general and artistic director Roosje Klap, was quick to share their surprise in finding the space not filled solely with photographs of hands. ‘That would be really boring, wouldn’t it?’ asserts Klap. ‘It is funny what people expect.’ There are, however, plenty of hands, fingers and forearms captured in close-up throughout Thea, which occupies some 8,000 sq m of Niemeyer, a former tobacco factory currently in development as a major new culture and tech centre (of which Klap is cultural development lead).

In the 1934 short film, Hands, for example, authored by filmmakers Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke for the Works Progress Administration – part of Roosevelt’s New Deal, it employed millions of jobseekers in public works projects – the camera closely observes as people write cheques, tie bandages and hammer nails, without revealing anyone’s identity. Paul Kooiker’s 2023 music video for ‘Ze is pas net begonnen’, by the Dutch band De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig, similarly zooms in: in Kooiker’s trademark grey palette, over four minutes and eight seconds, a pottery wheel spins as a series of hands knead, shape, and open the clay, to varying levels of eroticism.

Nearby, under the banner ‘The Unseen Hand’ (the show is divided into five sections, each focused on a way the body shows what it knows), Kiki Mager’s 5000times (2016) recreates footage from a manufacturing facility in Shenzhen, using animation to highlight the invisible labour of a single pair of hands over one day, during the production of smartphones, tablets and laptops. In ‘The Language of Touch’, Koos Breukel’s The Hands of Sally Mann (2008) centres the American photographer’s hands, her nails stained and dirty from darkroom chemicals, in place of a traditional front-facing portrait, while Andi Gáldi Vinkó’s Sorry I Gave Birth I Disappeared But Now I’m Back (2016-2022), featuring a mix of large framed photographs and 6x4-inch pictures attached to the wall with delicate pink tape, examines the early stages of motherhood, highlighting the body’s intrinsic understanding of (and dealing with) care and comfort.

‘Intellectual knowledge always has been better knowledge, right? It's a higher knowledge. But I'm starting to think that maybe bodily knowledge is actually better,’ reflects Klap, who curated the show with Musoke Nalwoga. ‘The cognitive knowledge can be mimicked, but something that we know in our body, to really have that great intuition, it's not really a cognitive thing. Pallasmaa gave examples like how to sit in a chair, how to walk, and I also thought about for instance, ceramics. If you’ve ever done a pottery course, it's really difficult. This thing is rotating, your clay is going everywhere. But all of a sudden, you can do it, your body has learned.

‘The artists,’ she continues, ‘really understand the urgency of what's at stake right now and I feel, as a profession, they see we're losing shit. So the show really resonated.’ With Taking Care (Love Letter to Fellow Art Work) (2019) – a video piece in which the artist emotes with her hands, at one point licking her finger and appearing to wipe the screen, like a parent might do for a child with food on their face – Laure Prouvost contemplates a central sense of loss, questioning what it means for the digital to replace the physical, when care arrives primarily through a screen.

‘We were emailing, and Laure said, "You know this work's not made for humans? It's made to keep another artwork company; you need to park it in front of a work that needs this caressing’’,’ shares Klap. In Groningen, it is set up opposite Mandy Franca’s Faded Connections (2019), part of a wider project about the artist’s father that considers the way memory functions, using a photograph taken on a mobile phone as a starting point.

A considerable showcase in and of itself, ‘Thinking Hands’ was devised largely to be a prelude to 2027’s Noorderlicht Biennale, titled ‘Play’, which will include most of the artists currently present at Thea and spread out across three provinces. That exhibition has been conceived in part in response to last year’s biennale, ‘Machine Entanglements’, which explored how technology is woven into nature, society and imagination: ‘Play’ will seek to provide an answer, or a way forward, to some of the more troubling questions that arose.

‘With play so connected to the body, it's interesting to have a show [like ‘Thinking Hands’] that talks about what's at stake and the knowledge we still have in our bodies, the generational knowledge – the playing hand, the making hand, also the violent hand and the working hands,’ says Klap.

'Thinking Hands' at Thea until 1 November 2026

Hoteliers Sean MacPherson and BD Hotels founders Richard Born and Ira Drukier made a name for themselves in New York with independent hotels like Hotel Chelsea, The Bowery Hotel and The Ludlow Hotel. Today, the longtime collaborators will expand their growing boutique hospitality empire outside the five boroughs, with the opening of The Nora Hotel in West Palm Beach, Florida. Having witnessed the wave of Northeast transplants to Palm Beach County since 2020, and the subsequent business boom, the trio saw the opportunity to create a timeless hotel with sophisticated style and an urban chic sensibility.

For the design, Wallpaper* US400-listed Gachot, looked to the romanticism of early 20th-century Palm Beach, particularly the influence of Addison Mizner and the region’s iconic hotels. Rather than referencing a single era, the team wanted the interiors to feel collected and layered over time, with a sense of history, personality and a touch of whimsy.

The result is a luxury hotel that feels endemic to Palm Beach with its palette of pink and green, Spanish Colonial Revival grandeur and the ease of its indoor-outdoor spaces. But one that doesn’t fall into the prints and palm tree South Florida vacation trap. As a seductive counterpoint, the New York-based firm wove in sophisticated neutrals, rich textures and cypress woodwork that bridge the gap between the building’s sunny surroundings and the moodier vibes and distinctively edgy perspective of downtown Manhattan.

'The interplay between nostalgic details and more contemporary elements is what makes it feel so special. There’s a sense of discovery, with unexpected moments and thoughtful details that give each space its own personality,' partners Christine and John Gachot tell Wallpaper*.

Plush custom furniture, hand-selected antiques and an art collection, curated by The Madison Melle Agency, enhances the residential tone across the 201 rooms, including 14 spacious suites with Juliette balconies. The glamorous aesthetic extends to the culinary concepts. On the ground floor, sits Pastis, an offshoot of Keith McNally's mid-aughts Meatpacking institution, brought back to life by James Beard Award-winning restaurateur Stephen Starr. Diners can dig into escargots and French onion soup in an airy space with checkered tile, bistro chairs, lush greenery and soaring ceilings. The sexy lobby bar is envisioned as a place to sip ice-gold martinis under the warm, flattering glow of ambient lighting.

The see-and-be-seen, all-day rooftop concept, Lillys​, created in partnership with Mama Hospitality Group, the team behind Mary Lou’s, comprises a serviced swimming pool flanked by playful fabric umbrellas, a swank lounge for sunset cocktails and a restaurant that brings St. Tropez to South Florida with spiny lobster linguine and herbes de Provence-dusted whole ​grilled ​fish, and, of course, plenty of chilled rosé.

When it’s time to switch off, the full-service Sisley Spa, the first in Florida, offers a soothing atmosphere, a steam room, a lounge, a serene outdoor terrace, and four private treatment rooms for facials powered by the the Parisian brand’s plant-based skincare as well as rejuvenating massages.

The Nora Hotel is located at 1135 North Railroad Avenue, West Palm Beach, Florida, 33401, USA

'Good design minds are always, fundamentally, surprising,' says Rodman Primack, who returns as curator for this year's Designers of Tomorrow at Design Miami Paris. 'It’s why we need them: not for the mundane - to find the most efficient choice - but to offer an idea that deviates from the standard.'

Led by Apple in collaboration with Design Miami Paris, the showcase brings together four emerging design practices from around the world to create original works around a theme. This year's topic, Design for Presence, seems particularly pertinent in the era of the attention economy.

Apple's Designers of Tomorrow 2026 explore presence

Displayed across a panelled room in Paris’ Hôtel de Maisons, the thoughtful, highly crafted objects reflect this theme, inviting us to slow our pace – to bask in the soft glow of a lantern by Egyptian-Danish architect Salem S. Charabi, listen to the ceramic beaded fringe on Brooklyn-based designer Isabel Rower’s chair, marvel at the intricacy of Seoul-based artist Yoonjeong Lee’s table and lamp, or share a moment of connection within Mexican design studio Parafernalia’s expandable seating area.

Primack – a designer, curator, former creative director of Design Miami and co-founder of Mexico City gallery AGO Projects – sees a common desire to make something meaningful, despite the four studios’ ‘fundamentally different’ approaches, materials and local contexts.

'I do think designers, not just this years cohort of Designers Of Tomorrow, are seeing that our lives need shape and boundaries and that they can help us by creating objects and circumstances that allow for grounding, for communion with ourselves or each other by inviting contemplation, or the sharing of an experience, or actual presence through physical sensation,' he reflects.

The 2026 cohort was handpicked by a jury made up of figures working across the creative industries – including Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, Fabien Cappello, Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, Minjae Kim, Hun Chung Lee, Marion Mailaender, Nifemi Marcus-Bello, Jennifer Roberts, and Apple’s Molly Anderson. All four of the selected practices used Apple tools and platforms, from iPads to Apple pencils, to develop their pieces.

Wallpaper caught up with each studio to find out how this new generation of designers is thinking about materiality, making and human experience.

Salem S. Charabi, Cairo, Egypt

Charabi's lantern, 'The Emergence of Light', is made from everyday materials found around his Cairo studio, including a limestone base and a banana paper diffuser. The lantern's delicate skeleton frame is made by stacking date palm fronds using a traditional Japanese method.

Wallpaper*: How did the idea for 'The Emergence of Light' emerge?

Salem S. Charabi: Our first point of gathering was around the fire. I wanted to create this totem of light, to celebrate the moment the days turns to night.

W*: Can you tell us about the making process?

SC: Each strand is an octagon in profile – just 3 millimetres wide, split by hand, and carefully drilled. The ends are then sharpened with a chisel to interlock.

For this project, every component had to be mapped out in detail. I sketched and did all the 3D modelling on my MacBook Pro. It was a complex process getting everything to fit just right — from the carving of the stone and the paper moulds, down to the delicate base.

W*: How will it encourage people to slow down?

SC: I think innately, observing light slows us down. The way its reflected on the moon, the way it may hit the crown of a tree. It makes us wonder.

Isabel Rower, New York, USA

The dramatic proportions of Rower's 'The Padded Chair 1860' draw on 18th- and 19th-century papier-mâché furniture and objets d’art. Its high-gloss finish stands in sharp contrast to its ceramic beaded fringe, chosen for the appealing sound it makes when brushed.

W*: How did 'The Padded Chair 1860' begin?

Isabel Rower: A few years ago I took a photograph of a boudoir chair from the 1860s in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. I found the form highly unconventional and I was drawn to its dramatic fringed skirt. When faced with the prompt of ‘Design for Presence’, I felt that this chair was the perfect object to revisit. Ceramics are not simply a medium but a transmission of thought: a way of communicating ideas and variations through touch, and of constantly reworking the material to generate something new.

I was interested in how swapping the textile fringe of the historic object for a skirt of over 1,500 ceramic beads would not only bring it into a contemporary present, but would bring the person sitting into a state of presence.

W*: How do you imagine the piece will encourage people to slow down?

IR: I investigate emulation and the stories of surfaces, drawing from 18th and 19th century papier-mâché furniture and objets d’art. The chair will offer a passage from the surface to interior histories. The sound of the ceramic beaded fringe when brushed against brings awareness to its materiality. It also works to bring the body that is brushing against it into a space of curiosity and presence. It moves sitting from being a passive activity to an activating one.

Yoonjeong Lee, Seoul, South Korea

The base of Lee's 'New Form' – a wooden table with an integrated lamp – is made from roughly 5,000 thin sheets of stacked veneer. Sheets of paper serve as a lampshade held in place by a trio of worn-down pencils that have been given new life as hardware.

W*: How did 'New Form' take shape?

Yoonjeong Lee: I’ve been making nails for a long time. The reason is simple: I wanted to turn something called a 'fitting', a mere part, into something more meaningful and independent. My work is about looking closely at objects that need to be seen differently.

One day, I was looking at a pencil that was almost used up, and I noticed its shape looked like a nail. A pencil doesn’t disappear as it wears down. It stays on in a new form: as a letter, as knowledge, as music. For me, it stayed on as a nail.

I made a nail from the worn-down pencil and used it as hardware. That small piece of hardware became the starting point, and the work took shape step by step from there.


W*: How does the theme, 'Design for Presence', show up in the work?

YL: I approached the future differently. Usually, we set a goal first, picture what the result will look like, and plan the process around it. I stepped back from that and focused on what I was doing right now. I finished the smallest unit in front of me first, and decided the next step based on the result. What we build by focusing on the present adds up to the future. Tomorrow is built on what I did today.

I spend more time looking at what’s around me, and I think that improves my focus on the moment and the quality of my work. This piece was made that way too. It started from one pencil nail. I chose materials that suited it, and used them to decide what the piece would do. I made the wood for the pencil nail from scratch as well.

Instead of carving a log, I stacked thin veneer, one layer at a time. These choices built up one by one, and the piece came together. The finished piece shows the theme, but I think it also matters that I practiced this year’s theme myself, through the process.

W*: How do you imagine people interacting with your piece?

YL: Grand, heavy, epic narratives are certainly important in their own way. But I like a modest ripple. Something moderate, small, slight, yet with an unexpected impact. That’s why I work with familiar objects and prefer physically small ones.

My pencil and nail works are small, so people sometimes walk past them in the exhibition space without noticing. That’s not a problem. If I can share a moment with the person who does find them, that is enough. I think a work made with a focus on something small has a certain pull. At first the overall form catches the eye, but gradually it draws people closer to the small details.

As people look at the pencil nails, each material, and the many layers of the wood, what makes up the whole slowly begins to come into view. When people realise that the pencil nail was originally a pencil, I hope some of them will remember the pencils they used. 


A pencil carries memories that many people share, but within that, everyone has their own personal ones. I can’t predict which memory it will be. But following that memory, even briefly, can be a way of staying in the moment, or with the time that has passed.

Parafernalia, Monterrey and Mexico City, Mexico

Parafernalia founders Genki Matsumura and Sebastián Zorrilla conceived 'MonoAmbiente 1' as an intimate setting, where two people can converse, play chess, or share a drink. When not in use, the expandable seating area – consisting of a table and two stools and featuring acid-etched stainless steel surfaces – can be neatly folded away.

W*: Where did the idea for 'MonoAmbiente 1' come from?

Parafernalia: We interpreted 'Design for Presence' as an invitation to look at the different ways presence can occur: in solitude, in our relationship to our surroundings, and in moments shared with others. This led us to explore an object that could move between these states, from a landscape that invites observation when closed, to a space for conversation and shared activity when deployed.

Conversation is rarely an isolated activity. We talk while we play, eat, drink, walk, or cook. In this piece, the accompanying activities create the conditions for dialogue rather than defining it. The deployment of the piece marks a shift from solitary observation to shared occupation, from looking to participating.

W*: How did the theme ‘Design for Presence’ shape your choice of materials?

Parafernalia: The material selection was mainly based on what we’re personally interested in at the moment, and the decision was cemented once we determined that etched stainless steel could embody different intentions and qualities, from the decorative to the functional, and that these characteristics would be present in the piece. The high contrast graphic nature of the process invites onlookers to observe with a bit more attention, a bit more closely.

W*: How do you imagine people will interact with your piece?

Parafernalia: For starters, we imagine the piece will be difficult to digest at first – there's a lot going on. The piece is deployable, it is a foldout table and 2 stools that nest underneath, completing the landscape etched in the steel. This produces curiosity and invites close inspection. It makes taking your time and slowing down a necessity in order to fully understand the what’s going on.

We hope it will be fully interacted with, and explored with curiosity. A lot of thought was put into the different details in different parts of the piece and we expect the discovery of each one to be an activity in itself.

Design Miami and Apple Designers of Tomorrow is on view at Design Miami Paris, 21-25 October 2026

Hôtel de Maisons, 51, rue de l’Université, 75007 Paris, France

'My father was born in 1892, the son of a factory worker and a peasant woman. I was born in 1950, the son of an industrialist and an office worker. By the age of 27, he had founded a metalworking company. At the same age, having abandoned my parka, my poorly digested years at Bocconi, and my legal studies — I dressed myself up, put on a tie and, without ever truly meaning to, set off as a bicycle entrepreneur.' This is how Antonio Colombo describes his family background, which was similar to many other family-run industrial companies, the backbone of Italian design culture.

Inside Antonio Colombo's design archive

From tubular steel chairs to record-breaking bicycles, the Colombo family embraced technology on many levels and told some of the most celebrated stories of Italian 20^th century design.

Now, many of their achievements will be displayed in the newly opened archive situated within an industrial estate on the outskirts of Milan. The archive occupies a 500-square-metre space, in the very place where, in 1977, Colombo together with Fabrizio Giussani started his visions of modern bicycle industry.

The archive is a collection of stories of industrial culture, products, prototypes and personal events. Curated in collaboration with Melania Andronic, the archive gathers the Colombo family's passions over a century. 'I wanted to inform and to share a memory that has always knocked at my door—a door that sometimes I opened and sometimes I closed,' tells Antonio.

Antonio’s father started his company AL Colombo (Angelo Luigi) in 1919 with the desire of making steel tubing for general applications. At the same time, it was the main supplier to Italian aeronautical companies such as Caproni, Piaggio and Macchi, and supported the Italian Air Force’s achievements in this field. During the 1930s, he created Columbus Mobili Razionalisti to work on special projects including tubular-steel furniture. He collaborated with Marcel Breuer and other Italian modernist designers including Piero Bottoni, Luigi Figini and Gino Pollini, Giuseppe Pagano and Giuseppe Terragni.

'He had become Italy’s most important and sophisticated manufacturer of tubular furniture, with an in-house carpentry workshop, upholstery department and chrome-plating facilities, producing furniture for universities and aircraft interiors,' says Antonio.

In the post-war period, A. L. Colombo also became a leading name in the motoring sector (Ferrari, Piaggio and Moto Guzzi), specializing in the manufacture of high-alloy steel mechanical tubes. When Antonio Colombo took part of the family company, the brand Columbus was going to disappear.

'I asked my father if I could make a spin off of bicycle tubing department and he said yes,' remembers Antonio who founded the cycling tubes brand in 1976 and started another legend of Italian creative industry. With less than 10 people, the company quickly became a leader in bike frames production. 'My farther was friends with Cino Cinelli, of the renowned Cinelli cycling company. When Cino retired, he offered the company to me and I bought it in 1977. That's when the adventure started, describes Antonio, who then devoted his life to bicycles and everything revolving around them.

Cinelli and Columbus dominated bicycle culture for a few decades. Colombo opened shops designed by Franco Raggi, and collaborated with avant-garde designers and artists such as Alessandro Guerriero, Alessandro Mendini and even Keith Haring. 'Art and design entered a place they had never entered before: the world of the bicycle, which at the time was decidedly old-fashioned,' says Antonio, who completely changed the way bicycle producers can collaborate with artists and designers.

In the 1980s, both Cinelli and Columbus were at their peak. Together with engineer Paolo Erzegovesi, Cinelli created the first European mountain bike, the Rampichino, and legendary aerodynamic track bicycle Laser, which won a Compasso d'Oro in 1991.

Following the success of his companies, Colombo founded his own art gallery with Aloisia Resch, completing his cultural world based on industry, design and art. But it was not the end for Colombo. Many years before he sold his companies to American investors in 2021, Cinelli made its progress again and became a cult company embracing new movement of bike fixed-gear culture and street art followed by other commercial companies much later.

'Our archive is not intended to be either a museum or a visitor centre open to the general public, but rather a place of study and research for scholars and enthusiasts by appointment – at least for the time being. We will be devoting a great deal of effort to expanding the website, where many aspects will be further developed,' says Colombo about the archive comprising tens of thousands of documents, photographs, prototypes, objects, catalogues and testimonies, uncovering creative history where industry, design and art create dynamic culture.

‘White gold' was the name given to linen from St Gallen, a Swiss city synonymous with fabric production since medieval times. Then, the monks of the local abbey had found that the region's climate provided the perfect conditions for growing flax, the plant that provides the fibres from which linen is woven; in the centuries since, embroidery became its primary trade, with tens of thousands of people employed in its production at the turn of the 19th century.

It was here that, in 1922, the 26-year-old Alice Kriemler-Schoch opened an atelier producing aprons adorned with polka dot embroidery or lace trims, but also heavier-duty styles that dressed local factory workers. In 1944, her son Max Kriemler joined the business, renaming it Akris (an acronym of sorts for his mother's name) and expanding into ready-to-wear. By the 1970s, Akris was creating clothing and fabrics for Parisian houses including Givenchy, Saint Clair and Ted Lapidus, who used Max and his wife Ute's expertise to manufacture their own burgeoning ready-to-wear collections.

Akris is now a fashion house in its own right, showing twice-yearly at Paris Fashion Week and led by Max Kriemler's son Albert, who is the creative director. Fabric remains at the heart of the Akris project; Albert Kriemler's collections, which are defined by a precise, largely minimalist aesthetic, are enlivened by moments of craft and textile manipulation. ‘A hundred years ago, my grandmother Alice set out to define a woman's presence and enhance her charisma, and that very much remains my mission today,' he said in 2022 on the occasion of Akris' 100th anniversary.

Art is another fascination of Albert Kriemler; he counts works by the likes of Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, Lawrence Weiner, Paul Thek and Ian Hamilton Finlay as part of his personal collection, and has collaborated with numerous others on the runway (notably Thomas Ruff, Ugo Rondinone and Geta Brătescu). ‘Since I started working on artist-inspired collections, I always challenge myself to do exactly that,' he says. ‘Not just to depict an artist's work on fabrics, but to translate it with full respect for the artist and the woman wearing it, while bringing my own interpretations to it.’

His latest collaboration, part of an A/W26 collection shown in March in Paris, provided a fresh challenge: namely, that the artist in question, Olga de Amaral, works in textile (a first for the brand). ‘Because textile is already her medium, I was less interested in translating her work literally than in exploring her intuitive approach to materials,’ he says, noting a similarity in their method that extends beyond the medium. ‘She once said, “The mind was following, not guiding.” That felt very familiar to me. My own creative process also begins with intuition.’

De Amaral is best known for her large-scale abstract works, which see fabrics such as horsehair, wool and linen gilded with gold leaf and gesso before being manipulated into abstract forms that resemble rock faces (other works feature elements of weaving or colourful ‘streamers' of fabric). Albert Kriemler says he had ‘admired Olga's work for years', though the impetus for the collection came from viewing a retrospective of her work at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, which ran from 2024-2025. From there, he took a trip to de Amaral's studio in Bogotá, Colombia, where she lives and works.

‘What stayed with me was Olga's rootedness in Bogotá and her idea of the casa as a place apart from the usual cultural capitals,' he says. ‘That continuity carries into her studio, where she has worked with the same seven assistants for more than 30 years: “seven lives, 14 hands,” as she calls them. I know that dynamic well. Many of my tailors and pattern-makers have been with me for more than two decades. Their command of cut and experience, construction and cloth is central to my work.'

In the collection itself, Kriemler evoked works from de Amaral's Alquimia series, begun in the 1980s and recognisable for its gleaming metallic surfaces. They inspired the collection's molten gold fabrics, such as in the ‘shimmering brocade' coats. Her knotted Nudo and Lienzo series are evoked with dramatic fringing, while a gold-and-black cape coat, for which Akris developed a soft brocade, woven with textured foil tape that fractures the surface, echoes ‘Olga's approach to weaving and fibre manipulation'.

As for working with de Amaral, Kriemler praises her as ‘humble and modest, [but with] a real presence. She lets her work speak. We spent three hours together every day, talking, and she told me that threads have always been at the heart of everything she does. I was especially touched to learn that she has always made fabrics for her friends, so they could sew them into dresses and wear them.’

‘Fabric has always been my language,' he continues. ‘Every collection begins with the material in my hands. That is when the creative process starts: the fabric tells you what it wants to become. I call it the eyes in my fingers. Olga works in a similar way – threads are the foundation of her art.’

The A/W 2026 collection is available at akris.com.

A version of this article appears in the November 2026 Art Issue of Wallpaper*, available from 8 October in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

London Fields might best be known as an after-hours destination for dive-bar martinis and small plates, but Circle13 is aiming to bring a new dimension to the area’s social offering. Recently opened by winemaker and cocktail veteran Marc Sarton Du Jonchay (A Bar with Shapes for a Name, New York’s Gage & Tollner) and former international pétanque player Monty Quaia, the space – taking residence in one of Mentmore Terrace’s railway arches – aims to bring the more than 100-year-old French sport to East London, along with an equal focus on Basque cuisine and low and no-ABV highballs.

'Pétanque has always had the reputation of being for older people, and that’s partly true but it’s also slightly unfair to the game because there are lots of subcultures playing and making it their own,' says Quaia. 'London Fields is already one of the hubs of pétanque in London. We're convinced that the future of the game is making it a bit younger, a bit more fun, and appealing to people like us and our friends.'

In keeping with this outlook, Circle13 has been designed with a thoroughly modern aesthetic in mind. Helmed by experiential designer Joseph Stone, whose work spans high-end residential design and product launches for brands including Google and Nike, its interiors have been curated to reflect the visuals of pétanque itself, where silver balls are thrown onto pitches made of gravel or grass.

'The image we’ve based everything on is as though you’re looking down at pétanque balls on a gravel surface. All of the materials have an earthy backdrop with steel cut through; the back of the bar has a sandy tile, but then the bar slices through it,' explains Stone. 'We’ve taken the elements of pétanque and expanded them, riffed off them, and tried to create a contemporary take on them all.'

Though gaming bars are increasingly rife in the city, Circle13 have approached their brand with a notably different ethos. 'The competitive socialising [scene] is great because having an activity makes it less about excessive drinking. But my biggest gripe is that they're generally quite tacky and the activity isn't coming from people that care about it, so it always feels a bit inauthentic,' says Quaia. Instead, the core mantra of Circle13 is “rebellious simplicity”. 'Petanque is so simple and it refuses to be more complicated, so we wanted everything to reflect that,' he continues.

Spatially, that means creating areas – a front seating space with cocktail tables, a bar area with high stools, pétanque pitches both indoors and out, and a secondary arch for events – that work individually but have a 'porosity' between them. 'When you're having a drink in the front area, there are screen breaks [around the pétanque pitch] at head height so you can see the game through them. Then we also worked with our friend Darran Prior from There’s Light on the expanded lighting design. We've tried to hero each area, illuminating the bar so it’s focused on groups of two, and making sure the pétanque pitches have a really nice diffused light so they have a kind of amphitheatre energy,' explains Stone.

'Pétanque can really be quite fun and chic so the idea is that you should have your sexiest picture in the pétanque pitch with the screens around it, with the lighting above when it's soft,' laughs Quaia. 'We want it to be on everyone's Hinge profile and for it to be known for being the place to get you a nice photo taken.'

The space has been designed in a modular fashion, with most features – from the screens around the pétanque pitch to the bar set-up in their second events arch – able to be rearranged depending on the night. Situated down a side road of E8, the frontage of the building has been kept open and welcoming, with floor-to-ceiling glass that allows the warm light of the interior to invite people in. 'We could have easily gone for the speakeasy feel, where you have a door and a single light and, as you go in, the world opens up in front of you. But because of it already being an industrial-feeling street, having that bigger aperture into the space was really important,' says Stone.

Staff uniforms are equally as considered, with plans for an adjacent merch line in place. A former tailor at Paul Smith, Quaia wanted to focus on 'streetwear with a sports background', working with Lithuanian streetwear brand Püga73 to develop a capsule collection of four pieces. 'Petanque has gone through many different phases, from the south of France rich guy with chinos and cigars, into something sporty with tracksuits, but none of them really spoke to us as modern Londoners,' he says.

The 'rebellious simplicity' also extends to their food and drink menu, headed up by Du Jonchay and chef Sean Donnelly. From the kitchen, Basque-centric pintxos are designed for snacking and sharing, featuring a variety of skewers, toasts and croquetas. Their pork belly and date skewer is a best-selling mix of savoury and sweet, while slices of home-baked Basque cheesecake make up their sweet offering.

Though their drinks menu still features ‘hard’ drinks, including a negroni sour and a mezcal toreador – a twist on a margarita using apricot – Circle13 have purposefully prioritised a less potent drinking culture. Here, non-alcoholic drinks are placed front and centre, with the option to add alcohol as a secondary concern. They’re purposefully kept at a very reasonable price point too: non-alcoholic cocktails are all priced at £6, with low-ABV highballs and spritzes coming in at £8.50.

'If you're not drinking, generally everything is based on non-alcoholic spirits which are more expensive in some cases than the boozy version. It makes no sense to us when there are already so many drinks in the world that don't have alcohol in them and are delicious,' Quaia reasons. 'We want it to highlight some of the ridiculousness of the industry, where £20-plus drinks and £8 pints are becoming increasingly more common.'

It all combines to create a venture that feels quietly radical, where a love of pétanque has brought about a new kind of bar, and a different way to socialise. 'We’re going to be launching different programs. We want to have Tuesday takeovers with different young chefs from Michelin kitchens, giving young people a chance to be creative and do something in the same way that we've been given a chance to open the space,' says Quaia. 'Rather than just trying to sell pétanque as a sport, we want it to be a social experience.'

Circle13, 369-370 Mentmore Terrace, London E8 3SD

Shaker furniture has long been an inspiration to the design world. Guided by principles of simplicity and practicality, the minimalist furnishings created in Maine, US, in the 19th century by the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing are still revered today. Among the most distinctive and universally recognised elements of the style is the rail, a simple wooden band that follows the walls of a room, equipped with a series of pegs, onto which furniture and other interior accessories can be hung.

The Shaker style was on the minds of Elora Joshi and Andrew Greene as they were furnishing their LA apartment. A fashion executive and an artist respectively, they had decided they wanted to create some pieces for the space and landed, as Greene puts it, on ‘a design element that would constrain our ability to get too messy'. The starting point was a commercial hanging system that Greene had been using in his work.

‘It's designed for offices, hospitals and art galleries, the kinds of places where they don't want to keep having to drill into walls over and over again,' says Greene.' Installed in the domestic environment, it added a new layer to the home: ‘We could create opportunities to display some of our favourite things and then also have this utilitarian component where we could hang up clothes if we needed to get them off the floor quickly.'

What started as a personal project took a wider turn as friends started coming over and increasingly asking about the system. ‘That gave us some confidence to keep working on it and expanding the language that we were using,' says Greene. ‘It also coincided with a desire in my own creative practice to explore a more formal aspect of my work that I didn't get to explore as much in the conceptual sculpture that I was making: I wanted to just make a really beautiful space, or a room that was more concerned with architecture than ideas.'

From there, Joshi's ongoing interest in Shaker furniture and minimalist design sparked a project that has turned the couple into a fully fledged creative studio, with the aluminium system being presented as part of Convey, during this year's Milan Design Week. Visitors walking into the bare room discovered the studio's experiment with the Shaker concept: the aluminium rail punctuated the perimeters of the apartment-like space (‘like a picture frame for a room, the room itself becomes the visual interest', notes Joshi), with essential objects hanging from it. A chair, a clock, a hanger, a shelf, a mirror and a vase all featured the same rigid, minimal forms, and all were crafted in honed aluminium. ‘We were designing with some constraints where we didn't want to weld anything,' says Greene. ‘When we started, we wanted to be able to do everything in-house, cheaply and quickly.'

They use the word ‘harmonious' when describing the aesthetic they strive to create (‘we think a lot about how space is laid out and the negative space in a room as well,' says Joshi), informed by the 19thcentury American movement as much as Japanese design and a plethora of other cultural references.

For Greene, creative pillars include 1980s crime films: ‘I have a catalogue of hundreds of them that I keep coming back to, and the LA locations depicted in those films are often the ones we think about designing for.' Joshi, meanwhile, looks both to 1990s British design (from Jasper Morrison to John Pawson and Claudio Silvestrin), as well as the South Asian ephemera that is part of her Indian background, from ‘Buddhas to really rich fabrics, that seep slightly in some of our work; those are the objects that inhabit the world we are building.'

Meanwhile, both designers are adamant that the rail system, with its limitations and opportunities, is where the studio's attention is focused at the moment, and the idea is to expand further on the concept. ‘It obviously operates as this kind of modular system, but we do think about it as an architectural device and a design element,' says Greene. ‘Our dream is to be able to think through what that rail could look like for clients, whether that's bar tables hanging off of it, or perhaps for a retail store. There are so many opportunities, and because we created it originally for our home, now we need those situations to design for.'

joshi-greene.com

Rare is the retrospective that can be described as both revelatory and snappy, but such is the dynamic range of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Roy Lichtenstein: Like New. Titled after a 1962 doubletake on canvas, the finely calibrated blockbuster looks with fresh eyes at an artist best known for his role in igniting and defining the Pop Art movement. But wait, as one of the newspaper ads Lichtenstein harvested for source material might promise, there’s more!

Spanning some 130 works and 6 decades, the exhibition unfolds across New York City’s largest openplan museum gallery – a.k.a., the 1700-square-metre fifth floor of the Whitney, Renzo Piano’s urban-industrial jazz suite of a structure. The space is bracketed by the High Line and the Hudson River seen through floor-to-ceiling windows, and curators Meg Onli and Alex Da Corte have seized it for a show not simply of aggregation but of syncopation.

Beyond the gallery walls, a 9-metre-high aluminum brushstroke sculpture communes with skyscrapers, a hot dog billboard looms over street food carts like a religious icon (complete with ketchup stigmata added by Da Corte), and an 18-piece Gap collection includes a fuzzy quarter-zip covered in giant Ben-Day dots.

'The show is full of masterpieces, iconic works, and rigorous scholarship, but it also has a sensibility that brings Lichtenstein’s work into the present,' said Scott Rothkopf, director of the Whitney, at the press preview. 'We knew it was a once-in-a-generation opportunity.'

Since Lichtenstein’s last retrospective in his hometown of Manhattan (at the Guggenheim in 1993, just 4 years before his death at age 73), the Whitney has acquired a trove of 400 Lichtenstein works as well as the artist’s studio and adjacent home on nearby Washington Street. These gifts from the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation were vital in informing the present exhibition’s multifaceted view, which extends to the 365- page thrill ride of a catalogue designed by Irma Boom, a huge Lichtenstein fan.

The curatorial duo of Onli and Da Corte began by confronting the ubiquity of Lichtenstein. 'The work was everywhere, but in my mind, strangely also always on the surface. I wasn’t so sure of his conceptual practice,' said Da Corte, a conceptual artist himself. 'When we began thinking about what the show could be, we went to Roy’s voice and how he spoke about this work in the time that he made it.'

Lichtenstein embedded his work with oppositions that are enduringly compelling to perceive. Yet now more than ever, those tensions hide in plain sight. He achieved the effortless look of mechanical reproduction entirely by hand, taking pains to erase all traces of craft. He delighted in oversimplifying colours and lines (a ploy he described as 'mock insensitivity'), only to expertly manipulate them through size, shape, and juxtaposition. He made the ephemeral – fugitive subjects such as sunsets, brushstrokes, and mirror reflections – concrete, riffing on art history along the way. (The famed Drowning Girl ruminates on “Brad,” but that wave points to Hokusai.)

'I don’t draw a picture in order to reproduce it,' Lichtenstein said in a 1967 interview. 'I do it in order to recompose it.' The show explores how. To do so, it defies chronology to illuminate gesture and process, experimentation and discovery, across thematic groupings that include a painting-for-painting recreation of Lichtenstein’s first solo show at Leo Castelli’s uptown New York gallery in 1962, a satisfying journey through the brushstroke motif (“Pop Abstraction”), and a playful take on the Artist’s Studios scenes of fictional interiors. The sections reference and reinforce one another, so that even a room devoted to seriality operates profoundly in parallel.

The show begins on an architectural scale with the 29-metre-long Greene Street Mural, a visual greatest hits album that plays all the tracks at once. Originally painted in 1983 on the back wall of Castelli’s newly opened SoHo gallery, it’s the largest of the exhibition’s four recreated murals, which were all done by hand. 'It’s a beautiful mural of icons that Roy had used and would use in time,' said Onli. 'We wanted to meet the moment and give people what they think they know about Roy right away – it’s big, it’s bodied, it’s graphic, it’s instant – and then slow it down.' The experience is paced by vitrines nestled within the mural that contain preparatory drawings, maquettes, and Polaroids. Stand back, look closer, repeat.

What snaps the entire show into focus is the Flash Lab, a section exploring Lichtenstein’s formative years at Ohio State University (OSU) studying under Hoyt L. Sherman, a charismatic professor of fine arts who was obsessed with the nature of human perception and how it could be sharpened. Fueled by intuition, wartime grant money, and anecdotal findings from cohorts ranging from art students to American football players and budding dentists, Sherman backed into principles of sensory physiology – how the visual system processes information – but obscured his discoveries with glibly oracular prose that smacks of L. Ron Hubbard.

'I think most people dismissed him as some kind of a nut,' Lichtenstein said of Sherman in a 1963 interview. 'I had the feeling he knew just what he was saying, but you can’t understand him until you’re able to do it and see it.' The doing and seeing took place in the dark of OSU’s Flash Lab, where Sherman directed students to look at a focal point on a screen, then flashed up a slide for a fraction of a second and had students draw what they had seen. With no time to scan the image by moving their eyes, the students would gradually adapt to a “unified” way of seeing, taking in the whole rather than indexing the parts.

'Roy cited Hoyt Sherman as the person that taught him how to see the world,' said Da Corte, who embodies Sherman in a 15-minute video work. 'So much of what the Flash Lab taught was that it’s not about what you see actively but how you remember what you see.' The show’s darkened space becomes a point around which to orient the retrospective, a kind of big bang for an artist whose impact was not merely a flash or a Pop but all-caps wallop: POW! The work radiates from it as in one of Lichtenstein’s explosions: BLAM, WHAM, VAROOM!

Ideas of doubling and repetition billow and ricochet through the exhibition, in which a recreated Super Sunset Billboard (1967) is placed to echo the museum’s western exposure, but it’s the Mirrors (1969–72) that are impossible to look away from. 'We were interested in creating an almost religious experience with these works, of being in a space that was reflective without reflection,' said Onli. A rounded, silverywalled room is ringed with eight of the canvases—the most every assembled for a retrospective. They flicker between objects and portholes, funhouse fodder and phases of the moon. They isolate and simplify, reflecting nothing, or everything all at once. They look like new.

Roy Lichtenstein: Like New is on view at the Whitney Museum of Art, New York, until 10 May 2027

From branded initiatives to art installations, bespoke sound systems, and immersive playback experiences, soundscapes are the pavilions of our era. So why exactly has the physical shape of sound taken on so much cultural weight? Is it all about the soundtrack, the space, the speakers, or simply the ethos and experience of being completely immersed within audio? What's most notable is who is engaging with sound and why.

The current state of audio fetishisation has moved on a stage from the listening bars of the last decade into something even more involved – a full-on, highly performative sonic immersion. The rocketing revival of physical media, from vinyl to cassettes and CDs, is coupled with a renewed interest in sound systems big and small, bespoke speaker designs and custom installations.

Listening rooms, once considered a niche within a niche, have gone mainstream, as brands, manufacturers and artists realise the power of focused listening as a tool for securing attention in a focus-deficit world. Musicians and sound designers, too, are seeing their work bleed out of traditional venues and into the realm of dedicated events activations.

The emotive qualities of sound and music have been amplified in the digital age. Younger generations appear more wedded to their headphones than any critics of the Walkman could ever have predicted back in the 1980s, perhaps to avoid a world full of misophonic cues. Then there's its inverse, the spine-tingling world of ASMR, which can add a spicy frisson that's simply impossible to achieve via any other medium.

In the meantime, sound design has also found fresh favour across the established design calendar. From Fritz Hansen's Sound Club collaboration with Technics and Bang & Olufsen's Residence of Beautiful Sound at this year's 3 Days of Design to Nine Days of Green in Copenhagen, an ‘international sound art festival' being trialled by the Sonic Museion: Museum for Sound Art, in the city's northern suburb of Sorgenfri Torv, sound has found itself a new audience. These partnerships often result in natural brand extensions – the Fritz Hansen/Technics alliance resulted in a new edition of the ‘SL-40CBT' turntable, while B&O got the opportunity to showcase its bespoke ‘Atelier' series in a (grand) domestic space.

Designer Angelo Nitsopoulos and his studio Bentgablenits worked with Swedish manufacturer Teenage Engineering for a 2025 exhibition, ‘Sounds Like Home', which tapped into music boxes and dolls' houses to evoke nostalgia. ‘People are increasingly craving moments of intentional focus,' says Nitsopoulos. ‘In a world where nearly every brand experience competes for attention, sound installations do the opposite. They invite people to slow down and engage more deeply. Audio is one of the few mediums that can completely shift how a space is experienced without demanding visual attention.'

Bentgablenits was also instrumental in the making of the ‘Choir', TE's anthropomorphic wooden doll chorus (a Wallpaper* Design Awards 2023 winner, no less). ‘Technology should be experienced, not demonstrated,' says Nitsopoulos. ‘For brands, dedicated listening spaces have become a way to create genuine emotional connection rather than simply another product launch. The strongest ones don't feel like marketing. They feel like culture. When someone gives you 20 minutes of uninterrupted attention, that's far more valuable than a few seconds scrolling past a campaign online.'

Then there are the occasions where the audio component feels like an attempt to ensnare the next new thing. Alcohol brands find a natural affinity with sound. At the turn of the decade, Krug enlisted the late Ryuichi Sakamoto to create a symphony, Suite for Krug in 2008, to celebrate an exceptional champagne vintage. This year, it was Dom Pérignon's turn, with Expressions of Harmony, a ‘multisensory experience' in bespoke spaces in New York and LA, timed to accompany the launch of three vintages.

Overseen by Andrew Freesmeier with audio by Jonathan Weiss of OMA and Fleetwood Sound, the spaces were animated through a specially recorded mix of Nepalese cymbals, Koji chimes and Tibetan singing bowls, conjuring up a soundscape with purported links to Dom Pérignon itself. According to Weiss, this mix of ‘harmony, resonance and duration' has parallels with the tasting of the champagne. A surprise performance by Mark Ronson added a bit of fizz.

Soundscapes and intentional listening bring a ceremonial aspect to these activations, demanding greater focus and involvement than, say, a party or performance. There's also a mindfulness element to consider, thanks to the contention that focus and intentionality are a welcome salve for short attention spans, skipped-through playlists and relentless soundbites.

Events like Pitchblack Playback (listen to classic albums, previews and DJ mixes in the dark, no phones allowed) or Polygon Portal (a darkened room with cutting-edge, 360-degree spatial audio) want to bring back the sense of occasion once commanded by the humble vinyl LP, when you put the needle on the record and listened straight through each side, no distractions.

In Las Vegas, you can visit the Vinyl Room at the Mandalay Bay resort and casino, which follows on from Live Nation's Vinyl Room at the Hollywood Palladium. It's a mix of 1970s kitsch, analogue audio, classic albums and a (new term alert) ‘wheatpaste archive' of show posters from artists who have trodden the Palladium stage in the past. Speakers from Fulcrum Acoustic and MasterSounds are paired with Technics' ‘SL-1200s' across the three lounge spaces. Technics has also partnered with Suntory Whisky Toki and London's Spiritland King's Cross, one of London’s original listening bars, to create a series of events running at venues around the UK until December. Toki-ONights is described as a ‘new ritual for UK nightlife, importing Japanese listening bar culture, the kissaten, with a modern twist'.

For sound designers and live musicians, there's more to all this than a pair of massive speakers, moody lighting and a smartphone ban. At Oxford's Schwarzman Centre, Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós worked with David Sheppard and John Best of spatial audio specialists Loss Gain, as well as Oxford University academics, to create Ára. For one week only, this elevated take on ‘deep listening' brought together audio from the band's live shows with D&B Audiotechnik's Soundscape sound system, lighting design by Matt Daw and even a scent (from singer Jónsi's perfume brand Fischersund), all coming together to create a communal ‘transformative state' with wellbeing potential.

Another audio project that puts concentration at its heart is Deeper Focus. This non-site-specific soundscape was created by Richie Hawtin, better known as Plastikman, and released via the Endel wellness app. The Berlin company specialises in ‘personalised adaptive soundscapes' that increase focus and reduce stress.

In autumn 2026, London's Southbank Centre is holding the UK premiere of a ‘mixed-reality classical music experience', Playing With Fire: An Immersive Odyssey with Yuja Wang, the Chinese/American pianist. Bringing together live music with art and mixed reality via spatial audio technology and mixed-reality headsets, this might be the audio version of stepping into an immersive projection of a Hockney or Van Gogh, having a night out at ABBA Voyage or enjoying an IMAX presentation of a Christopher Nolan film. Seekers of authenticity beware; the programme notes clearly state that ‘Playing with Fire does not feature Yuja Wang in person. The experience is a virtual concert featuring a pre-recorded avatar of Yuja and her recital, presented in an immersive environment.'

This uncertain collision of the real and the virtual presents a liminal space ripe for exploration, even if experimentation is limited by commercial considerations. London-based Sonic Design Studios (SDS) is one of the multidisciplinary firms operating in this field. ‘We work at the point where sound meets architecture and interiors, rather than at the AV end,' says the studio's founder Tariq Ibrahim, explaining how sophisticated measuring systems will shape the deployment of audio in and outside the home. ‘Many in the field treat acoustics as compliance: decibels, thresholds, sign-off. There are industry standards that set physical limits, but neither measures the cognitive burden a room places on the person inside it. That's the gap we work in.'

SDS wants to explore the ways in which sound can alter moods, using a bespoke framework they call the Cognitive Load Index that tracks how spatial and material design impacts who is in such a space and for how long. ‘Acoustics is still typically specified building-wide, one treatment logic applied across a scheme. But because our model accounts for occupant and duration, it returns a different score room by room,' says Ibrahim. A recent SDS project that exemplifies their approach is Claude's at Chotto Matte in London's Soho. ‘It's a members' listening lounge where sound is designed as atmosphere rather than infrastructure, and designed alongside the interior rather than after it,' notes Ibrahim.

New York studio Silence Please operates in a similar space. A recent project with Adidas Originals led to an installation at the brand's SoHo flagship store, along with a limited run of track jackets with embroidery inspired by speaker design. The studio describes itself as ‘operating at the intersection of hi-fi audio, spatial design, and contemporary culture', with a speciality in building audio systems that are also ‘sculptural design objects'.

These, too, are a familiar trope. Visitors to Peter Doig's recent ‘House of Music’ exhibition, on show at London's Serpentine Galleries, were awed by the speaker system that accompanied Doig's paintings. Salvaged from derelict UK cinemas by the artist's co-collaborator, cinematic sound enthusiast Laurence Passera, the mighty units date from an era when power and scale were inseparable qualities. Built by Western Electric/Bell Labs in the pre-war era, these rescued audio monoliths have been repurposed for the modern age, alongside a soundtrack library of 300 vinyl records, to provide immersive analogue warmth for a new generation.

This blend of wattage-fetishism is feeding straight back into the higher end of hi-fi. Speakers are getting larger, more ornate and elaborate. Belgian vintage specialist Wauw keeps classic audio pieces alongside its furniture stock, from early B&O to unique pieces by French actor and hi-fi dabbler Alain Delon. And in recent years, we've seen forays into luxurious audio from the likes of Jony Ive (Linn's ‘Sondek LP12' turntable), Brian Eno's ‘Turntable II' (using Pro-Ject components) and B&O's five ‘Beolab 90' editions, with prices upwards of £400,000 for a pair. Many leading hi-fi companies already have specialist home installation services, but others are going further still. This summer saw the launch of Loewe Systems, a dedicated arm of the German audio brand that will focus on integrating sophisticated systems into high-end yachts, cars and residences.

The rapid arrival of the new audio environment has left the gallery behind, favouring pop-ups and festivals, brand activations and elaborate home audio set-ups over the avant-garde physicality of pioneering sound practitioners. The work of artists like Christian Marclay, Laurie Anderson, Janet Cardiff, John Cage, and even Brian Eno and David Byrne, achieved its transcendence without the need to sell something else. Earth-shattering audio is both tool and talisman, a means of self-expression for brands and big rollers alike.

Most importantly, it's not just classic albums and contemporary artists that are playlisted in these new physical spaces of listening, but also specially curated, bespoke soundscapes designed to be enmeshed in the physicality and design of the music systems and spaces themselves. For some listeners, intentional audio spaces are a way of finding a point of focus within a chaotic system. For others it's a chance to redirect wayward attention, a new tool at the busy intersection of commerce and culture.

This article originally appeared in Wallpaper* magazine, October 2026. Wallpaper* is available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

When Wallpaper* witnesses The Hayley Williams Show’s stop at New York City’s Forest Hills Stadium, the texture, lights and silhouettes that bring the performance to life are striking. Williams’ face, music videos of her dancing and simple silhouettes are projected on white drapes. She’s flanked by her band, who are taking up equal visual space. The atmosphere is inviting and nostalgic. It’s all intentional. 'Hayley wanted it to be much more personal than just the regular rock show,' Swedish lighting and conceptual designer Tobias Rylander tells Wallpaper*, describing his work as 'enhancing someone else’s art.'

Tapped to work on the solo tour of Paramore’s Hayley Williams, he and longtime collaborator, lighting designer and director Michael Straun, started by meeting with her and picking her brain. '[The process is] as individual as the artist themselves,' Rylander says.

Williams’ latest album, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party, offers a candid glimpse of personal and professional anxieties, sung with snark and gospel vibrato as she shifts from synth-pop anthems like 'Parachute' to mournful ballads like 'True Believer.' 'You do have to learn the music, and you do have to care about it,' Rylander says. 'We studied the music, read the lyrics, and talk to the artist about what the song is about to them.' They also made sure their concept reflected where she is in her career right now. 'She’s coming from a band and finding her identity in this new band,' Straun says. 'She wanted it to not all be about her, and to also be about the other performers on the stage.'

They worked together in lockstep, sharing references of architecture, paintings and films they felt captured not only the album but Williams’ entire solo discography. 'I think we were all quite aligned from the start,' Straun recalls. 'When we got into actually drawing, it came naturally and organically.' They also work with the Williams, as they do with all artists, on the show’s overall flow. 'I build a big piece of paper, which I call the show arc, where each song has got a card,' Rylander explains. 'And on that card, we have a little annotation of where the automation is on stage, but also a thumbnail of what the video content might look like and the information of what colour the song should be. We sit around this table and they tend to rip it apart and put it back together, sort of like a puzzle. These pieces often become almost like an art piece at the end because we draw so much on them and they move so many times.'

One of Williams’ main objectives was creating intimacy regardless of the size of each venue. 'Hayley physically wanted to be close to the band,' Straun says. 'We shrunk everything down so they’re effectively on one island, and Tobias had the idea of making the show super low so we could fit it under the ring in the Hollywood Bowl [the show will stop at the legendary venue in October], but we decided to make that our height for the whole tour. We’ve gone low and wide, which has this feeling that you’re in the room with them.' Starting with that venue in mind, they adapted to the other arenas and amphitheatres she’d be stopping at, keeping the integrity of the concept.

'The layering of the fabrics is actually how I started to make sure we could scale it,' Rylander explains. 'They’re overlapping, and the way that all the video is programmed and the lighting is laid out in a way that we can overlap and adjust everything sideways so we can actually fit the whole show into more or less any size of stage that they go into. We’re not dependent on the stage depth because we don’t have a huge upstage video wall. We noticed that works really well in big amphitheatres where you normally don’t see a landscape expression on stage.'

In the end, they landed on a show that’s 'much smaller and more intimate than I first had thought we would,' Rylander says. 'We knew that Hayley really wanted it to feel homey, and it was about her and the band and the songs and the music more than putting on the biggest show we possibly could. It’s still a quite complicated show with the automation of the fabrics, but it’s also quite delicate. I think Hayley set the tone quite early. It felt natural that we were going to frame something beautiful and soft and singular.'

Rylander and Straun first met in 2012 when Tobias was asked to work on The xx’s Coexist tour. 'Michael was already then their longtime lighting designer and lighting director,' Rylander says. 'So together we created, again, with video projection used as lighting. Since then, we have more and more often collaborated on shows from anything from The 1975 to Beyoncé.' He adds that they both appreciate 'the quality of projected light in terms of video projection instead of LED screens.' They’ve continued that thread on the current tour. 'We quite early on had the idea of projecting these different worlds onto a white canvas of a stage, which gave us the possibility to colour the stage in any colour that we wanted and also show textures and paint different scenes on stage, but also show historical photography from Hayley’s campaign and her personal life.'

Their attention to building intimacy between Williams and her fans begins as soon as the lights go down. 'We start the show with hardly any front light, so that gives a sense of mystery and you don’t just get drawn into Hayley, you get drawn into all the band as one,' Straun says. Instead of big front key-light moments, the projection is sometimes her only front light or sidelight. 'We also don’t use the [image magnification] on the curtains for the first part of the show, which means your eye adjusts to looking at the stage,' Straun continues. 'You get drawn in, and then gradually we reveal the cameras.'

To make sure the design comes to life properly on stage, they do a lot of testing in their studio, checking the opacity or transparency of fabrics and how they take projection. 'We do a lot of experimenting with technology,' Straun says. 'In the show, we’re using a lot of new technology and all the lights are LED, the projectors are laser projectors, the cameras are 4K, but it’s done to make it look old or make it look like it fits. We found some new lights, so we got them sent to our offices, and we played with them and sent Hayley videos of shadows on a wall with different lights. [When we] get the material, we look at what the projection looks like on that. We make sure structures for the wind are hidden, so you don’t notice that.'

The result is a show where very little of the intricate behind-the-scenes tech is revealed. 'When you look at the show, you don’t really see many light sources,' Rylander says. 'You see the light, but we don’t have lights on trusses that are facing the audience, and you don’t see the lenses of the little LED diodes. We use lighting as the physical medium that it is. So in that term, that way, it’s very classical.'

The dedication to using high-tech to create analogue simplicity can be seen throughout the set. At one point in the set, Williams covers Nina Simone’s 'Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,' making playful hand gestures around her head that create a silhouette of devil horns against the draped curtains. 'Shadow play is the oldest trick in the book,' Rylander says. 'But it’s so effective, and everyone can relate to it, and everyone knows how it works. Everyone knows their own shadow. It’s really special, and my favourite part of the show is how we use the shadows.' One of Straun’s favourite lighting moments is during 'True Believer,' which evolved from Williams’ earlier tour this year. 'We followed some of the musical sounds with these single light bulbs, and on this tour, we have some automation that moves, and just seeing that go from this small venue idea to something bigger that still has the intimacy, that’s a special moment for me.'

Rylander and Straun have worked on everything from esports to large-scale arena tours and theatre. And even when they want the experience to feel simple, science still sits at its core. 'Lighting design is physics,' Rylander says. Each design is planned around how long the stage will take to build and how many trucks the show will travel in before the artist even sees a picture. Rylander also says that as a rule, nothing he shows an artist should be the product of AI. 'I have a firm belief that what we do is a craft and a skill and it shouldn’t be taken lightly. The AI won’t sit in the room with Hayley Williams and talk her through 36 songs that need to boil down to 23, or talk about the feelings that we want to communicate. It’s becoming more and more important for the artist and for the audience to be there in the room and seeing the real thing.'

Despite nearly 20 years of experience and working with some of the biggest artists in the world, they still got 'really nervous,' according to Straun, while watching The Hayley Williams Show on its first night. 'Was this too intimate?' Straun remembers wondering. 'Would you see Hayley from the back of the lawn? We both went up and watched the show from the back of the lawn, and everything worked.' Rylander says the payoff comes with the audience’s first roar. 'It’s a lot of work to get to that moment, and then it’s so definite that it just happens in front of you. It’s why I do what I do. It’s the coolest, and that’s the payoff.'

It’s a landmark anniversary for Art Basel Paris. Now in its fifth year, the fair has evolved, growing to fill the refurbished Grand Palais and branching out across the city. What started as a standalone art fair – albeit an extremely high-profile one as part of Art Basel’s industry-leading stable – has now become Paris Art Week, encompassing events, collaborations and public art initiatives throughout 19-25 October 2026.

'Art Basel Paris has evolved into a major fixture on the international art calendar, while becoming increasingly rooted in the cultural fabric of the city,' says director Karim Crippa, who took on the role in November 2025. 'As I take on the directorship, my ambition is to build on this strong foundation while continuing to foster discovery and new perspectives.'

Paris Art Week is known for its high-level fashion-and-art crossover projects. This time, its annual public collaboration with Miu Miu is Geste de Consolation, by artist Alice Diop, with work by Zadie Smith, Zora Neale Hurston, Audre Lorde and Marie Ndiaye. It will be installed at the Palais d’Ièna.

Also part of the public programme, a monumental work by Japanese artist Keita Miyazaki will be installed on Avenue Winston-Churchill alongside work by Carmen Herrera, Manfred Pernice, Niki de Saint Phalle and Yinka Shonibare.

Maison Guerlain is presenting its annual exhibition at its stunning location on the Champs-Élysées. ‘L’Heure des possibles’ will feature artists Christian Boltanski, Ann Veronica Janssens, Laure Prouvost, Xie Lei, Ugo Rondinone and James Turrell.

Artist CB Evans is collaborating with conceptual fragrance brand The Commentary to bring us ‘The Reckoner’ at Dover Street Market Parfums, and Reiffers Initiatives is presenting another year of their now storied collaborative exhibitions between a younger and older artist, this year featuring Thomas Houseago and Théo Mercier.

Multidisciplinary creative, artist and Ryan Murphy muse Jordan Roth is staging an exhibition of performative sculpture and functional design, ‘To Think of the Tranquil Life of Things’, which will no doubt pique curiosity in both Parisians and the international art crowd.

Inside the fair you can expect presentations from galleries hailing from 41 countries, with ‘blue chip’ galleries bringing stars of art history and the present day. Galleries in the Parcours section on the fair’s balcony bring emerging work, balancing out the biggest names with what is to come. The fair’s talk programme will bring together some of the great minds of the art world including Hans Ulrich Obrist and Simon Fattal, Jeffrey Deitch and Pauline Pavec, Alexandre de Betak and Massimiliano Gioni and Ibrahim Mahama and Zanele Muholi. Those attending the fair at the weekend will be treated to an intervention by Emily in Paris star Sylvie Grateau, who will present a directive along which participating galleries will rehang their booths with new artworks.

'What makes it so distinctive is the dialogue between Paris’ extraordinary heritage and its contemporary energy, bringing together art, fashion, and a vibrant, diverse, youthful, experimental, and creative scene,' adds Crippa.

Paris’ institutions always present a plethora of world-class exhibitions. Ghanaian art star Mahama is in town for his much-anticipated survey at Fondation Cartier, which is one of the must-sees of the week along with Kerry James Marshall’s ‘The Histories’ at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. The trendsetting Lafayette Anticipations has a contemporary focus and is showing exhibitions by Yu Nishimura, Hélène Fauquet and Mungo Thomson. Palais de Tokyo is hosting a group exhibition that includes Valérie John, Ali Cherri, Sonia Gomes and Céleste Richard-Zimmermann. The institution has been on a roll lately so expectations around this show will be high.

Those who love the Impressionists should pop into the Mary Cassatt at the Musée d’Orsay and photography fans should pop into Stan Douglas’ show at the Jeu de Paume, and MEP (Maison Européenne de la Photographie) for ‘Penn & Fashion’, a tribute to legend Irving Penn.

Commercial galleries don’t shut down while the fair is active, putting on shows to complement their offerings at the fair. Heading to your favourite space is highly advised. Hauser & Wirth is presenting a show on the kinetic sculptor Alexander Calder, celebrating his historic return to Paris; Mendes Wood DM Paris is presenting painting and drawing by Afro-Brazilian artist Rosana Paulino; Mariane Ibrahim is showing work by Amoako Boafo and Thaddaeus Ropac is treating us to an exhibition of work by the great painter Jordan Casteel. Gagosian is showing ‘Lee Krasner: Works from the 1960s’, which sounds pretty unmissable – especially in light of the critically acclaimed ‘Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous’ currently on at New York’s Met Museum.

Around town you can head to fairs Asia Now for work from across the whole of the Asian continent, and Paris International which is building a great reputation for presenting the cutting edge. Also running is the new event Reference Festival, founded by Mumi Haiati and bringing together creatives and artists from all disciplines including musician Eartheater, toast of the Venice Biennale Florentina Holzinger, Klaus Biesenbach and Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Five years in and the balance between London and Paris in the autumn art season is still finding its identity, but this range of stunning shows across the board tells a story of a landmark year for Paris. Time will tell…

Art Basel Paris from 23-25 October 2026

Studio Iron, the concept store and gallery led by Isamaya Ffrench, operates in the spaces where the boundaries between art and design become hazy, curating a programme that puts a focus on objects and materiality at its core.

The Severe Mercy exhibition by British-American artist, photographer and director Robin Hunter-Blake, whose work spans multiple mediums, is a natural choice for Ffrench, who placed the works in a considered context in the space.

‘Robin’s work felt like a really interesting starting point because there’s something very emotional and visceral about it, but also a sensitivity to material, form and the body,’ Ffrench says. ‘I chose pieces from the Studio Iron roster that could respond to that in different ways, whether through material, tension, humour or sensuality. I wanted the whole thing to feel like a world rather than an exhibition of separate disciplines.’

For Hunter-Blake, who unites photography, kinetic installations and screen printing here, the exhibition presented a chance to bring ideas to life he had been mulling over for years. ‘The works explore emotion, time, and their relationship, with the aim of allowing the viewer to experience the work rather than analyse it,’ he says. ‘Their abstract nature and scale are intended to provoke questions, inviting the viewer into a process of interpretation. This is where the emotional, almost Rorschach-like quality of the work comes into effect, allowing each person to bring their own experiences, associations, and feelings to what they see.’

The works play on scale, material and proportion, cutting often ambiguous forms which invite the viewer to craft their own interpretations. ‘People tend to spend time with the aluminium works, studying them and allowing themselves to sit with what they evoke,’ Hunter-Blake adds. ‘I wanted to extend this experience across the exhibition, moving beyond observation into something more immersive. The screen prints explore a sense of emptiness, and the feeling of being hollow while continuing to exist, function, and move forward within the world. The installation aims to trigger feelings of overwhelm, love, tension, and impulsive expression.’

This is exactly the point, says Ffrench. ‘That’s a big part of what I want Studio Iron to explore. I want people to experience these things in a more instinctive way, to sit with them, touch them, live around them and form their own relationships with them. Hopefully you leave “Severe Mercy” thinking less about what category something belongs to and more about how it makes you feel.’

Robin Hunter-Blake: Severe Mercy, presented by Studio Iron at The Painting Rooms, Covent Garden, until 27 October

As many contemporary designers increasingly identify as artists, making one-off furniture pieces that turn into collectible artworks, so the two creative disciplines mix and traditional boundaries dissolve. Design galleries show paintings; art fairs exhibit chairs.

The concept of ‘art furniture’ is not new, having emerged in the 19th century with the Aesthetic and Arts and Crafts movements and seen successive waves of exploration since then. Seating, in particular, has long been a vehicle for artistic expression that moves beyond function; alluring for its deep engagement with the human body, artists turn to the format as sculptural medium. Today, it feels like furniture has become a connective thread between the design and art worlds.

So as the behemoth Frieze contemporary art fair comes to London (on until 18 October), we scoured the booths of international galleries – squeezed into tents in Regent’s Park – to find the furniture bringing design to the party. Here are our seven top picks.

‘Bosa Bosa Chair 11’ (2026) by Rio Kobayashi

London-based Rio Kobayashi has garnered a following for his playful furniture pieces that often transform vintage finds with experimental carpentry and decoration. ‘Bosa Bosa Chair 11’, shown with Kate MacGarry, saw Kobayashi repair an antique oak swivel chair and decorate it with mini black and white brushes tied together with blue and red thread. The effect is part mohawk, part crazed broom.

‘Bosa Bosa’ means ‘messy hair’ in Japanese. ‘I liked the idea of repairing and transforming an old chair while adding something like hair to it,’ Kobayashi tells Wallpaper*. ‘Messy hair creates a particular sense of attachment – it can make you want to take care of someone or something.’ Kobayashi has also carved away parts of the chair, removing the dark varnish finish to reveal the raw wood beneath, and punching two holes in the backrest.

‘afterimage of beginning 026-642’ (2026) by Choi Byung Hoon

This ash wood and natural stone cabinet by Korean artist Choi Byung Hoon is presented by Busan-based Johyun Gallery. It appears as a stack of carefully balanced, sleek black boxes set in contrast with blocks of rough, organic stone; a dialogue between natural beauty and human intervention. Seoul-based Choi has carved out an important place in Korea’s art furniture market, and the gallery describes his work as merging the ‘practical object-ness of furniture’ with the ‘sophisticated aesthetics of art and a craftsman’s dexterity’.

‘Bent Around With Love Handles’ (2009) by Martino Gamper and Francis Upritchard

Turin-based Galleria Franco Noero presents an array of chairs by Italian designer Martino Gamper, including ‘Bent Around With Love Handles’, which Gamper designed with his wife, the sculptor Francis Upritchard, for an exhibition in 2009. A four-legged metal base is combined with a curved, plywood patchwork seat and bright green modelling clay sculpted to become bulbous handles.

‘Survival: Protect me…’ (2018) by Jenny Holzer

American artist Jenny Holzer makes literal statements with her work, wielding text through installation and sculpture to offer political and social commentary. In ‘Survival: Protect me…’, presented by Kukje Gallery, the words ‘protect me from what I want’ are engraved onto a bench made from dark labradorite stone. But what if what I want is to sit on her bench?

Bench by Giuseppe Ducrot

Italian sculptor Giuseppe Ducrot makes work that draws on classical and Baroque styles, interpreting these through a loose and expressive contemporary approach. 'Panca verde' (2026), his glazed ceramic bench on show with Galleria Lorcan O’Neill, possesses a decorative grandeur, and wouldn’t look out of place at a palace or cathedral – which is apt, because Ducrot regularly makes pieces for churches and cultural institutions across Europe, including Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

‘Carbonated Express’ (2026) by Steph Huang

Steph Huang’s bar cart is not conceived as a design object, but the London-based Taiwanese artist did turn to the medium of catering furniture to explore systems of mass production and commerce in the food industry. The steel and aluminium ‘Carbonated Express’ cart – on wheels and with a wooden handle carved to look like a baguette – is part of a special presentation from London’s Public Gallery dedicated to Huang’s work, which also features a playful wall light made using a Perelló olive can.

‘Day Tracker’ (2025) by Anna Gonzalez Noguchi

A series of golden, powder-coated steel stools by Anna Gonzalez Noguchi is presented by Shanghai-based Gallery Vacancy. Each stool has a Japanese kanji character cut into its seat, which correspond to the days of the week – while also referencing elements or phenomena in nature. The work, which was showcased outdoors at the Liverpool Biennial last year, is dedicated to the Japanese-Spanish artist’s grandmother, who lives with dementia and regularly records the date and weather. The stools, presented at Frieze in a circle, can be connected or dispersed in different arrangements, reflecting the potential for confusion in those affected by dementia.

In the moment when late summer slips into autumn, attention naturally shifts from beach villas and pool cabanas to cosy woodland retreats, where the chill in the air is welcomed. In New Hampshire, one such property provides a family getaway to suit both seasons, thanks to a colourful-yet-grounded and nature-driven renovation courtesy of Minneapolis- and New York-based Yond Interiors.

This old horse barn had been moved onto the clients’ property many years previously. Painted an auspicious shade of electric green across the exterior, the inside is surprisingly raw and natural, with so much exposed wood that it actually needed toning down a touch. 'It’s harder when you have to build character into the project,' says Yond Interiors founder Julia Miller. 'But this was the opposite. There's so much here that our job was to soften some of it, to make it really cozy and comfortable.'

The three-bed, three-bath residence includes a lofty double-height living space with columns, beams, joists and boarding all left bare. By the time Miller and her team were brought on, the layout, the staircase to the upper level and some of the finishes had already been completed. Their job was to help the interiors feel more stylish and intimate, without compromising the building’s character. 'It’s old and rugged, so we had to be kind of careful when adding a ton of new stuff,' Miller says. 'You can't just have drywall.'

One approach to complementing the expanses of rough timber was to wallpaper generously. Originally from Mexico and having lived internationally, the client had gained an appreciation for colour, pattern and texture, so expressive wall coverings were welcome. From a 'classic cabin' design featuring ducks in the powder room that 'looks like it could’ve been there for 50 years', according to Miller, to a Japanese-influenced print in the primary bedroom, these treatments helped to steer the nature-leaning colour direction for other surfaces, furniture and decor pieces.

In the kitchen, the green tiles across the backsplash were created by New Zealand-based ceramicist Lucy McMillan, who presses different clays to produce a marbled effect across each unique tile. '[The client] wanted these crazier little moments, and this was one of them,' says Miller. 'It’s the perfect place to do something completely unexpected.' Stone countertops with similar patterning also offset the millwork, and a pair of Allied Maker’s Arc Dome pendant lamps over the island visually bring down the ceiling height.

Rugs were another tool for subtly softening the architecture. 'They're not as punchy as they might be if you were interacting with them on a vertical surface,' says Miller. For instance, a yellow carpet based on an Art Deco pattern anchors another unexpected moment in the dining room, where an ash dining table coated with Farrow & Ball’s Bancha green and chairs with two-tone dark leather seats and peacock-blue mohair backs create a layered assemblage. 'By diversifying the materials on these chairs alone, we were able to give something quite special to this room,' Miller adds.

A mid-century-style pendant lamp overhead is one of several winks to the era, with others including the yellow colour of the large, ruched-fabric primary bed and the shapes of the vintage-inspired living room sofas. Yond’s sister brand, Brunel, custom-designed the majority of the furniture and lighting pieces for the residence. A coffee table with fabric-wrapped legs and a flat walnut top was born from the need for something lightweight and durable that wasn’t entirely wood or stone, but that you could still rest a coffee cup on. 'It was a genuine exercise in how to add softness to this room and build a workable surface,' Miller says.

Other items sourced to complement the bespoke pieces include the ceramic-front Riva Sideboard by Patricia Urquiola for Cimento, a Souvenir Table Lamp resembling a conch shell from Kawabi, plus lounge chairs and several decor objets that are all vintage. Textile art again helped to cover large expanses of the wood, including a square tapestry in the living room and a large, brightly coloured and highly textured work hung above the staircase—a family heirloom of the client. 'It's super meaningful to her, and it really helped to soften this space and give this wall a lot of interest,' Miller says. 'I think otherwise it would have been really difficult to hang art here.'

Filled with unusual colour combinations, plenty of pattern and texture, and touches of whimsy, the home invites a sense of discovery as more and more time is spent enjoying its spaces. Spaces in which it only feels appropriate to wrap up in a blanket, sink into the furniture and experience the New England foliage beginning to change outside the window.

Imogen Kwok has made a career out of asking food to do unexpected things, with projects including trompe l’œil white chocolate pears for Loewe and a Georg Jensen installation featuring thousands of crystallised edible flowers. Further commissions for Loro Piana, Miu Miu, Hermès and Bulgari have made her one of design’s most sought-after culinary collaborators.

‘In my world, food is natural, beautiful chaos,’ she says. ‘It is defined by its inevitable undoing: constantly changing, unpredictable and irregular. Cooking is my way of carving out a moment of stillness within that, finding beauty just before the first bite, taste or touch.’

Her route into this world was unconventional. Born in Sydney and raised in New York, Kwok studied art history at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and worked in galleries such as Lehmann Maupin before training at the Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park and Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Since settling in London in 2019, she has brought those disciplines together, constructing edible installations that resemble still-life paintings while retaining the flavour and technique of fine dining.

The British capital has proved to be an apt base. ‘Its energy matches the way I approach food,’ says Kwok. ‘There is this layered friction between the highly curated and the beautifully messy. London isn’t one singular vibe; it is a collection of little cities, all put together.’ Each neighbourhood has its own personality, while history and experimentation continually overlap: ‘You push through a crowd, turn a corner and find a pocket of beauty.’ Relocating here also recast her idea of what a chef could be. ‘It gave me the freedom to experiment,’ she says. ‘London let me be who I wanted to be.’

Imogen Kwok’s London

In Holland Park, The Cosmic House embodies the city’s eccentric streak. Charles and Maggie Jencks’ former home is a postmodern cosmos of celestial symbols, its architecture unfolding like an elaborate visual puzzle. ‘It is whimsical and disorientating in a wonderful way, like being inside a dream,’ says Kwok.

St James’s Dover Street Market is Kwok’s answer to wardrobe panic. ‘I tend to go there because I know I’m going to find something I love,’ she says. Nearby, Gallery Fumi speaks directly to her own practice, with a programme centring on designers who consider the process of making and the emotional life of a material. ‘That is the way I see food as well,’ says Kwok.

For dinner, Kwok chooses Mountain, Tomos Parry’s Soho restaurant. ‘It isn’t pretentious or fussy. The food is incredibly tasty,’ she says. ‘Tomos is known for fire-grilled fish and meat, yet there is also a very delicate hand in the way he handles ingredients.’

In south-east London, Eltham Palace stages the kind of historical collision Kwok values in the city. Built alongside the surviving Great Hall of a medieval royal palace is a 1930s art deco mansion, fusing several centuries into one improbable address. ‘I only discovered it recently, and it is very special,’ she says.

Her final choice takes her east to Cafe Oto in Dalston, a daytime restaurant that turns into a live music venue after dark. ‘They have a genuinely original programme,’ says Kwok. Like London itself, its appeal lies in the unexpected combinations.

Kwok particularly loves London in spring. ‘The sky fills with colour and light, and the streets teem with people, basking in the sun and drinking,’ says Kwok. ‘It makes winter worth enduring.’ And if London had a taste? ‘Creamy and briny.’

According to Imogen...

What is the best month to visit London? The end of June or early July. Or whenever it’s hottest, although that is unpredictable.

What should one wear to blend in? A chic hat – although that is probably better for standing out.

Favourite Londoner? Daniel Day-Lewis. Perhaps because I’ve just watched a run of his films.

What is the best way to make friends? Start a conversation with a stranger and stick with it. Londoners open up eventually.

Where is the best place to misbehave? Hackney.

For more recommendations, buy our London Travel Guide.

Film by Zack Melluish

‘In my teenage years, I enjoyed making my own clothes from paper patterns, but the one thing that was a real challenge was to make a shirt,’ the British designer Margaret Howell said in the 2021 Richardson-directed short, The Making of a Shirt. ‘A shirt has so many strong pieces. You have to halve and quarter to get it to set correctly, and then all these little details – at least two dozen pieces of pattern that go into making the shirt.’

It was in the early 1970s that Howell, then a young Fine Art graduate of Goldsmiths University, discovered, by chance, a men’s pinstripe shirt in a jumble sale; in the months that followed, she set about making her own, sourcing the perfect cotton from David & John Anderson, a traditional Scottish supplier of men’s dress shirt fabrics (materials remain central to Margaret Howell, which now spans a comprehensive men’s and women’s wardrobe). Later, in 2000, she established a workroom in Edmonton, north London, ‘Unit 7’, to create the perfect shirt – each hand-stitched by a single machinist and comprising up to 25 individual components.

Inside Margaret Howell’s new London workroom

In summer 2026, though, Howell established a new home for her superlative shirtmaking: Florentia Village in north London’s Harringay, a former textile manufacturing hub that has been recently renovated into an ‘industrial campus’ and co-working space by architecture firm Turner.Works. The new space marks what Howell calls a ‘commitment to British shirtmaking’, the spoils of which will be marked by a special swing tag and label marked ‘London Workroom’.

Embracing several light-filled rooms on the upper floor of Florentia Village, the move, says Howell, was to create a ‘more efficient, contemporary working environment’ that combines the traditional working methods established at Unit 7 (pattern pieces remain cut by hand; specialised machinists work on the components of shirts individually) with an increased capacity for production, meaning that a larger percentage of Margaret Howell’s shirts can be made in London (other shirts are made in factories in and around Florence, Italy, as well as other British factories). The 17 people currently employed at the workshop have more than 175 years’ combined experience in shirtmaking.

What is most unique about the facility, though, is the way that it sees through the entire life cycle of the shirt. All patterns are created in-house, going through rigorous prototyping across the various steps; as such, when it comes to producing the final shirts, the team is already familiar with the intricacies of the pattern. Visiting the factory gives further insight into this process, which, despite the relative simplicity of Howell’s designs – she is known for a sense of quiet restraint that means garments are rarely embellished or outwardly complicated – requires particular attention to its subtle details, like the lining up of checks and pinstripes on pockets, cuffs and collars so that they perfectly join and match (other processes include the pre-pressing of gauntlets and plackets, which allows machinists to get the shirts perfectly flat).

After the roughly 12,000 perfect stitches it takes to craft a single shirt, the pieces are completed with a final subtle flourish: a set of horn or mother-of-pearl buttons, before each shirt is pressed again and packaged for delivery.

The initial spoils of the new Florentia Village London Workroom are arriving in stores currently as part of the A/W 2026 season. This will include 12 designs in total, spanning both perennial Margaret Howell signatures – the ‘Basic’ and ‘Simple’ shirts are both currently being produced in the facility, alongside what the brand calls more ‘directional’ pieces, including the new ‘Stepped Hem’ and ‘Pin Tuck’ shirts. Rounding out the line-up will be two shirts crafted from leftover shirting cotton, ‘underpinning the brand’s continued commitment to responsible manufacturing’, says Howell.

margarethowell.co.uk

Pioneering Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos has a propensity to reimagine the everyday with bold, larger-than-life expressions, famously once turning tampons into a chandelier, and metal pots into a pair of monumental high-heeled shoes. ‘You can only do a great project when you find the right place: a museum, a location or a client,' Vasconcelos once told us. For her latest commission, she found the latter two of those: the New York apartment of Randi Charno Levine, the former US ambassador to Portugal, in a BIG-designed tower in West Chelsea.

The apartment was designed by Kelly Behun, whom Levine chose for her thoughtful approach to a curated home. ‘I had seen a number of projects by Kelly and her team and was struck by how they balanced restraint with real warmth; nothing felt forced, and nothing felt like it was there simply to impress,' says Levine. ‘That sensibility, of letting objects and art complement each other within a space rather than compete, was exactly what I was looking for. Kelly and I worked closely to ensure that each space was beautiful, but also functional and comfortable for both entertaining and living.'

The space also had to accommodate an important art collection, gathered over decades and featuring significant pieces by the likes of Tschabalala Self, Jenny Holzer, Cecily Brown and Hank Willis Thomas. ‘Much of my collection reflects my life in cultural diplomacy: pieces that came out of friendships with artists, or moments when a work resonated strongly and I knew that I wanted to live with it,' says Levine.

The apartment opens into a loggia with far-reaching views across Manhattan to the Empire State Building, Hudson Yards and the Hudson River, and Levine saw it as an opportunity to commission one of her favourite artists to intervene in the space. In 2023, Vasconcelos had taken part in an exhibition that Levine had curated during her time in Portugal, which brought together American and Portuguese artists. For the occasion, Vasconcelos lent one of her wrought-iron teapots, a monumental 4m-tall structure.

The artist then invited Levine to attend the A/W 2023 Dior show in Paris, for which Vasconcelos had created an immersive environment, featuring amorphous, tentacular shapes, clad in her signature mix of textiles, crochet and knitted surfaces, embellished with elements from the collection itself. ‘As guests, we sat among the various installations, becoming part of the artwork itself,' says Levine. ‘How often do we, as art lovers, get to live, play and rest within an incredible art installation?'

She knew Vasconcelos had to be the one commissioned for the apartment's loggia, and she worked closely with the artist to develop the piece, which is based on a theme of ‘garden of delights'. The elements defining the space include columns and abstracted sculptures shaped like bold, exaggerated palm trees, which metamorphose into seating elements. The colour and material palettes are quintessentially Vasconcelos, with layered textiles embellished by fringes, feathers, beads and ruffles, and some of the upholstery from Behun's interiors have been used to connect the loggia with the rest of the apartment. New York is in the background, and it's hard to say if the city complements the installation or the other way around.

‘There's an exuberance to Joana's piece that creates a strong focus within the space: it's quite literally the first thing you see when you enter the home,' says Behun. ‘It has such a beautiful and radiant spirit, one that really reflects Randi's personality – it's richly textured and layered, and I love how its character shifts as the light changes throughout the day. When it lights up at night, it's as though a small part of the city's storied skyline has been transported inside, albeit more colourfully. It so perfectly represents Randi, her passion for art and her unwavering support of artists.'

joanavasconcelos.com
kellybehun.com

Take a tour of Ambassador Randi Charno Levine’s Manhattan apartment by Kelly Behun

A version of this article appears in Wallpaper’s November 2026 Art Issue, available from 8 October, in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

'I knew I had found my calling, I absolutely loved designing jewellery, but confidence grows when people are drawn to your work, when people are empowered by it, when they truly love it,' says Jacqueline Rabun, the American jewellery designer synonymous with sculptural, sophisticated jewels that have captivated collectors for over three decades.

After many years living in London, and a decades-long, ongoing collaboration with Danish heritage house Georg Jensen, Rabun is back living and working in her native Los Angeles. It is a move that has seen Rabun’s practice extend further, with a much-lauded retrospective at Carpenter’s Workshop Gallery, a growing roster of high-jewellery commissions and, now, the launch of Cave, an extended, reinterpretation of her renowned collection from 2002. 'When an idea comes, it feels like it is my duty to put it out into the world. It can be for a huge audience or it can sometimes just be [about] creating something and sitting with it for a while. But whenever the time feels right and the energy aligns, you must put it out there,' she says.

The original collection, released with Georg Jensen was a masterclass in effective design distillation. 'I was a very serious practicing yogi, and Cave was a natural outcome of everything that I was living at that time. And how meditation and yoga can be so healing and transformative for your life,' she recalls.

That collection consisted of a ring, a pendant and earrings in silver, with the inside of the ‘cave’, or hollow, a moody oxidized silver and the exterior polished; a later iteration came in gold with pavé diamonds. The pieces invited the wearer to ponder the necessity of drawing deep from one’s experiences to emerge into a better place, the material pointing to an evocatively brighter version of self.

Jacqueline Rabun’s new Cave jewellery collection

In this new iteration, Rabun inverts the conceit. 'I really wanted the inner world to shine, and so the inside is now polished and the outside has a more matte finish to it. Imagine if you did the work on yourself, meditated and focused on wellbeing and those around you, how your light would shine so much brighter, and the world would be better.'

Modern and resonant iterations of jewellery essentials that feel both novel and familiar are at the heart of the new collection. The ‘Charm’ ring is a contemporary take on a charm in art-jewellery form; the ‘Cave’ round-drop pendant discreetly references ancient priestly pectorals (ornamental breastplates); and the ‘Cave’ torque showcases the informed opulence that Rabun’s work is known for.

For Rabun, making and meaning have always been inextricably linked. 'I know there is an energy to these things, so I tend to work from my home studio.' Travel to Africa has also influenced her greatly. 'As an African-American, my ancestral homeland is West Africa and African shapes and forms have fed quite heavily into my practice.' Rabun’s travels have taken her to Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal, and in all three locations, the role jewellery plays culturally, and how the practice is informed by intergenerational experiences and knowledge, have inevitably fed into her design ethos.

She notes, 'African jewellery is more of a talisman, the reason for it existing goes deeper than just adornment. For me, jewellery that possesses a talismanic energy when you are wearing it, where you either feel protected or empowered when you’re wearing it, is really important.' Her own pieces possess a similar disposition, segueing into their wearer’s body and movement.

Rabun is aware of the dichotomy of being a feted legend while still continuing to create new bodies of work. 'It is lovely to be considered a jewellery artist, but I also love thinking of myself as a designer, creating jewellery that is artistic. It is really important that my pieces are accessible.'

Rabun’s work’s relatability can be attributed to the way she imbues it with so much of her personal biography. 'It really is about following my heart, my gut and shapes and forms in my subconscious mind.' So far, this design-led spiritual and artistic excavation has produced collections including Offspring, her paean in jewel form to motherhood; Black Love, her response to structural and social injustices; and now the reimagined Cave, a potent prompt to seek and present our highest selves to the world around us. Rabun continues to champion the notion of jewellery that is both collectible and transformative.

jacquelinerabun.com

‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ is the saying, and it rings true for the home extension at this Victorian terraced house in Brockley, south-east London. Bolans Architects recently led the residence's loft conversion and elaborate refurbishment. However, it is the rear extension, unseen from the street, where a green ceramic ‘brick’ façade packs a punch and gives the project its name, Ceramic House.

Step inside Bolans Architects' new home extension, Ceramic House

Lanre Falase, architect at Bolans Architects, led the project. ‘A big part of the inspiration came from wanting to articulate the ceramic brickwork more decoratively, rather than simply using it as a flat finish,’ he explains. ‘That level of detail comes partly from my own self-build, Black Edge House, where every junction and detail really mattered. We also wanted the clients to have a constant connection to the garden, even from the deeper parts of the house. So the extension was not just about adding more space, but about drawing light, views and the garden back through the house.’

The façade is composed of arches, recesses and changing planes, which Falase unified with the smooth, green surface. ‘There is a real playfulness to it, but at the same time it feels quite sophisticated,’ he says. ‘I love the way the façade changes depending on where you are standing. From a distance, it reads as one composition, but as you get closer you start to notice the arches, the recesses, the different profiles and all the smaller details that make it work. It looks playful and almost effortless now, but there was a lot of work behind it.’

The project also included a reconfiguration of the property’s ground floor. A new utility room was introduced, along with a concealed pantry and a guest bathroom. The kitchen gained a new curved island, which draws the eye through the home and outwards towards the garden.

However, trying to make the most of the space without overcrowding it was difficult. ‘We had to ensure that every space had a clear purpose, while also understanding which rooms needed natural light and which spaces could work deeper within the plan,’ Falase told Wallpaper*. ‘The ground floor also had to work incredibly hard. We needed to fit in a utility room, pantry, kitchen, dining area and snug, alongside storage and circulation, without it feeling overcrowded. Everything needed to flow together naturally.’

The loft proved to be the biggest challenge. The architect explains: ‘The original houses do not really have enough headroom to form a comfortable loft conversion, so we had to lower the entire floor structure to make it work. At the same time, we needed not to compromise the character of the first-floor rooms or their relationship with the existing windows.’ This loft space is accessed via a new staircase, with cork flooring seen on the staircase and the upper level.

Achieving a cohesive result was also due to the close involvement of the clients, one of whom is a project manager at a large construction firm. His professional understanding of procurement, sequencing and the realities of delivering complex construction work proved valuable, along with a willingness to see the design through to completion.

Falase concludes, ‘As you move through the house, your eye is drawn towards the garden and the extension, but you also start to notice the different volumes and the way the fixed furniture helps shape the spaces. We did not want it to feel like one large open-plan room. There are different areas and moments throughout the ground floor, but they still connect. Hopefully there is that feeling of the house gradually opening up as you move through it.’

bolansgroup.com

A mood of intuitive style ran through the S/S 2027 season, seeing designers embrace eclectic combinations to reflect the ‘multiple perspectives and perpetual motion of all our lives’, as British designer Sarah Burton described, referring to her latest collection for Givenchy. It’s a summary that could have been applied to numerous shows this season.

Nowhere was this more true than in accessories: across New York, London, Milan and Paris, designers used bags, shoes, hats, belts, and even boas, to express this liberated approach to dress. Here, with input from the Wallpaper* style editors, we’ve collated the season’s statement-making accessories – from Jil Sander’s inside-out handbags to rain hats at Chemena Kamali’s Chloé.

Tory Burch’s velvet boas

In a collection fully loaded with maximalist accessories (the American designer was in a ‘more is more’ mood), it was Tory Burch’s reimagined boa that stole the show. A far cry from the camp staple of synthetic feathers that shed with abandon, Tory Burch’s boas were constructed from more luxurious plumage: carefully shredded velvet that read as the petals of a flower. India Jarvis

Mulberry’s ‘axe’ bag

As new creative director Christopher Kane took a figurative axe to the Mulberry tree – making space for new growth, as opposed to chopping it down to a stump – the image of a sturdy blade became something of a motif within his debut collection for the brand. Across the ready-to-wear, boxy scalloping resembled notches cut into wood, and slender bags took on the curvature of a metallic axe bit replete with signature padlock. The metaphors write themselves. India Jarvis

McQueen’s ‘armadillo’ bag

It must have been a particularly meaningful collection for Seán McGirr this season, who brought the McQueen brand back home to London after it had spent 25 years showing in Paris. Compounding this, the creative director borrowed from one of the late Lee McQueen’s most memorable creations, the ‘Armadillo’ shoes, which were presented as part of his last fully realised collection, Plato’s Atlantis, which was shown just four months before his death in February 2010. McGirr’s treatment of the armadillo motif for S/S 2027 took the form of a diminutive bag – constructed from rigid, high-shine leather, mimicking a plated armadillo rolling itself up into a defensive ball. India Jarvis

LII’s detachable hoods

Iterations of the humble anorak are mainstay shapes in the design language of the 2026 LVMH Prize Karl Lagerfeld award winner, LII by Zane Li, who this season distilled the garment down to its most essential component: the hood. Detachable hoods in bright waterproof technical fabric were worn fastened to camisoles or dresses, or tied like kerchiefs around the neck, their ties left to hang long. India Jarvis

Celine’s sized-up belts

Just as we saw throughout this summer’s menswear shows, statement belts are making their return to fashion. At Acne Studios, buckles were patterned like antique frames, Givenchy’s were worn double wrapped, and Polo Ralph Lauren presented an eclectic range of styles that riffed on the brand’s American roots. But the biggest statement of all came from Celine – literally – where belts with thick bands had exaggerated buckles, C-curve buckles in brass, cinching and adding drama to full monochrome looks. India Jarvis

Prada’s perforated pumps

Elements of the extraordinary, smile-inducing embellishment that encrusted skirts from the 66-look Prada collection were also applied to footwear – sparkling floral-shaped details studded onto heels like jewels. Kitten heels, sling-back pumps, and stiletto courts were made from graphically perforated leather and came in black, white, or grey, with the crystals perched on the uppers.

Bottega Veneta’s leather flowers

Much like her Bottega Veneta predecessor, Matthieu Blazy, the British designer Louise Trotter is using her runway show sets to forge links with the worlds of art and design: this season, the space included a sound installation by Florian Hecker transmitted by 20 speakers prior to the show’s start (the German artist said that he wanted the aural effect to be ‘weightless and enveloping’) and crushed cardboard-box stools by Illya Goldman Gubin. On top of each stool was a leather flower handcrafted by the house’s leather artisans – a keepsake that turned into Milan Fashion Week’s most covetable accessories, with guests from Jacob Elordi to Julianne Moore grasping theirs as they exited the venue. As for whether they appear in store remains to be seen – though the knitted floral bag charms, also crafted in leather, captured a similar feeling of romance. Jack Moss

Gucci’s horsebit belt

The horsebit is one of Gucci’s perennial motifs: introduced during the early 1950s, it was cemented as a hallmark of bourgeois style with the launch of Aldo Gucci’s horsebit loafer in 1953. Part of a collection that Georgian creative director Demna described as both ‘quintessentially Gucci’ and ‘broken bourgeoisie’, the horsebit featured throughout – whether blown up as the buckle on the back of a fur coat, or shrunken onto the collar of a shirt. It also featured on these triple-layered belts: part-equestrian, part-kink, entirely Demna.

Hèrmes’ layered cuffs

Leather is the foundational material of Hermès – the house began as a harness and bridle maker in 1837 – with its superlative accessories made in workshops across France. For S/S 2027, Nadège Vanhée teamed looks with stacks of leather bracelets – minimal in detailing, the thick bands put leather’s natural finish centre stage, designed to patina and mould to the body through time. Jack Moss

Loewe’s go-faster sunglasses

Sportswear-inspired sunglasses remained ubiquitous on the S/S 2027 runways – Givenchy, Rick Owens, Balenciaga, Balmain, Courrèges and Miu Miu all featured, sporty, streamlined styles. Though it was Loewe that provided the platonic ideal of the go-faster sunglasses: crafted from thick acetate branded with the Loewe logo, they wrap around the face to recall those worn by road cyclists and rock climbers, arriving in various neon hues and completed with high-shine mirrored lenses. Jack Moss

Jil Sander’s inside-out handbags

At Bally, Simone Bellotti proved a master of the covetable accessory – his Plume loafers, a lace up-cum-moccasin, remain ubiquitous within style circles today. Now, he brings the same approach to his new role at Jil Sander, from the ‘Hood’ shoe (a minimalist riff on the Wallabee), to brightly hued hosiery and ladylike pumps. For S/S 2027, all eyes were on the bags: a top-handle tote designed to splay open to reveal a colourful contrast lining. It came as part of a collection which rallied against perfection: ‘That idea of perfection at Jil, it’s not enough today, because you can find that many other places,’ he said. ‘Minimalism has become so mainstream.’ Jack Moss

Miu Miu’s New Balance RC 150

Now entering its fifth iteration, Miu Miu’s ongoing New Balance collaboration has spawned some of the most viral sneakers of recent years – from the frayed-edge 574s of S/S 2022 (their first co-branded sneakers), to S/S 2024’s suede 530 SL with their recognisable ‘double’ laces. For S/S 2027, Miuccia Prada puts her riff on the nostalgic RC150 racing sneaker, reimagined with zig-zag embroidery and colourful laces which wrap around the toe. It came as part of a collection which mashed up sportswear with flourishes of glamour. ‘The concept of mixing elements of sports with sophistication is something that has always influenced my work,’ said Mrs Prada. ‘But I have never been so precise, or taken it so far.’ Jack Moss

Chloé’s rain hats

‘May the love that poured into this collection endure forever,’ said the German designer Chemena Kamali of her latest Chloé outing, which is widely believed to be her last (she is tipped to take over at Saint Lauren from Anthony Vaccarello, who confirmed his departure from Saint Laurent last week). Befitting the metaphor, Kamali presented looks fit for a downpour: from colourful raincoats – some overlaid with clear plastic – to dramatic rain hats, sou-wester style and falling away into a draping drape. Jack Moss

Dior’s scarf bags

The silk carré appeared in various iterations throughout the season’s collections, including at Hermès, where its classic foulard was pleated and strapped to the collection’s streamlined tops, while at Burberry, it served as the show’s invitation. At Dior, Jonathan Anderson created a netted Dior bag with two metal hooks on each side: the idea is that you can attach a Dior carré (whether with tassels, petals or whimsical prints) in an act of constant transformation – when you tire of one scarf, you can simply replace it with another for a whole new bag (watch them in action here). Jack Moss

Saint Laurent’s golden heels

Rendered in glimmering shades of gold, Anthony Vaccarello’s S/S 2027 show for Saint Laurent was a fitting swansong for the designer, who evoked the metallic hue to represent fashion’s transformative power (he would leave the house the week after presenting the runway show, marking the end of a ten-year tenure at the Parisian house). The gilded mood went all the way down to the accessories, from opulent blown-up earrings – evocative of the house’s 1980s heyday – to intricate, jewellery-like footwear which appeared hewn from gold. Jack Moss

A low house of aluminium panels and folded steel stands among the olives and pines below Saint-Paul-de-Vence, its long window turned to the ramparts above. The hill town is in view from every room; Chagall is buried up there, and at La Colombe d’Or they still hang the pictures its painters handed over in place of the bill. Jean Prouvé drew the house in 1958, with his son Claude, for a notary at Epfig, in the Alsace vineyards, 700km north.

Tour Maison Prouvé 58

Maison Prouvé 58 came south by a route that would have pleased its maker. Hubert Bonnet bought the house in December 2021, by then due for demolition at Epfig, had it dismantled through 2022 and the parts sent to Nancy for restoration, with the Prouvé historian Catherine Coley consulted on the rescue before it was raised again on the grass here. Two bedrooms in 115 square metres, a kitchen opening onto the lawn, the metal shell lined in wood and stone. A Prouvé desk and daybed, Charlotte Perriand’s Nuage shelving, cabinets by Le Corbusier, pieces by George Nakashima, none of it roped off. ‘In Prouvé’s work, the structure never hides,’ says Bonnet. ‘It becomes the very language of the object or the architecture.’

Trained at a forge in Nancy, Prouvé worked from the proposition that a building is a sum of parts that can be improved one joint at a time, which was tested in the worst conditions imaginable. After the bombing of Lorraine, Raoul Dautry, de Gaulle’s minister of reconstruction, ordered 800 demountable houses of six metres by six, the answer being a frame with panels that three people could raise in a day. Some 400 left the workshops, most broken up once permanent housing caught up. The survivors became collectable for the very quality that had made them useful, coming apart as readily as they went up. By Design Miami/Basel in 2007, Galerie Patrick Seguin had a Prouvé desk at €200,000, one of the 1944 houses, built for the homeless, at €280,000; Seguin and Laffanour now ask nearer €1m for one. The house at Saint-Paul came later, from a gentler need, drawn for a client instead of an emergency, one of five that CAB counts between 1958 and 1961, two of them now gone.

Bonnet bought his first Donald Judd in 1990 and has collected minimal and conceptual art ever since, with the dealer François Laffanour turning him towards the furniture. The houses came afterwards, as somewhere to put it all, a dozen of them now under the name Les Maisons CAB. At Knokke, on the Belgian coast, Le Paquebot is a 1936 villa by the modernist Louis-Herman De Koninck, furnished with Aalto beneath a Sol LeWitt wall drawing. Above Lake Geneva, Les Ailes is a 1930s house with Perriand chairs, a living room reworked by India Mahdavi. There is a chalet at Verbier, a house on Panarea, another inside the walls at Essaouira, a fourth on the Dominican coast at Las Terrenas in white polished concrete by Marc Corbiau, its Nordic furniture gone pale in the sun and salt, and an apartment on rue Jacob in Saint-Germain. The art is hung for guests, who have it to themselves; Bonnet would rather the houses were lived in than looked after.

The mas behind the Prouvé has not been restored as a period piece; the interiors were designed and furnished throughout by Jean-Michel Wilmotte. Beams overhead, terracotta underfoot, vaulted ground-floor rooms open onto the garden; against the stone hang works by Viallat, Saytour, Dolla and Dezeuze, the Supports/Surfaces painters who took their canvases off the stretcher around Nice in the late 1960s. Outside, 3,881 square metres of grounds, a 1980s pool whose long wall carries a Claudia Comte mural. Seven bedrooms across the property make a celebration of almost any size possible; artists have been at work and at play on this hillside for a century, and the Prouvé is an invitation to keep the party going.

The village is twelve minutes up the hill on foot and Fondation CAB eight, with a restaurant, a sculpture garden and galleries given over to residencies through the winter; Fondation Maeght and its Giacomettis a little further on. Places like those, or a dealer’s, are usually where a Prouvé house ends up. The few turned into somewhere to stay include one at Château La Coste, the art and architecture estate near Aix, and now this one.

Bonnet’s reasons for letting them are practical enough: the foundation has to be paid for, the collection otherwise sitting in storage instead of alive on the walls of a house where somebody is having breakfast. He finds hotels clinical, checking you in at three and out at eleven at triple the price of a decade ago, preferring that people have the run of a place, at their own pace. The luxury is time, and the pieces you spend it among. ‘I find that normal, to share design, art,’ he says. ‘Life is short. I have to make the best of it.’

Bonnet is not much good at stopping; by his own account, he is the quickest visitor in any museum, and he has stayed in every house he has made, if only for two nights. He has slept often in the 6x6 that stands in the foundation’s garden, a small thing beside this one, the first Prouvé he could imagine properly living in, and means to take at least a week here with a few books and the phone switched off. ‘I love to be stuck,’ he laughs. ‘Once you are stuck, there is no way around it. You start to think differently.’

Maison Prouvé 58 and Le Clos du Père François are let together through Les Maisons CAB, rates on request. ‘Jean Prouvé, inventeur de maisons’, organised with Laffanour Galerie Downtown, runs at Fondation CAB, Saint-Paul-de-Vence. lesmaisonscab.com; fondationcab.com

‘I have always admired Juergen Teller's uncompromising approach to his work,’ says Danish jewellery designer Sophie Bille Brahe. And so, when it came to teaming up with a photographer to capture her recently finished new collection, Tangerine Sky, it was to Teller, and his creative partner Dovile Drizyte, that she turned. ‘There is a rare honesty and a confidence in following his own vision without compromise. His ability to find beauty in the unexpected and to challenge conventional ideas of perfection is deeply inspiring to me,’ she adds of Teller (who is also behind the cover of Wallpaper’s November Art Issue).

Their team-up came at a pivotal time in Bille Brahe’s career. To mark the 15th anniversary of her eponymous brand, headquartered in Copenhagen, Bille Brahe dreamt up Tangerine Sky, her first full collection of high jewellery pieces. Finished in golds and set with important diamonds, the pieces saw Bille Brahe delve into her fascination with stars and the sky, and her love of contemporary art, including the work of Cy Twombly.

‘What stayed with me was seeing how precise Juergen is in capturing exactly what he wants to create,’ Bille Brahe says, remembering their time on set. ’There is an incredible clarity to his vision, yet the process itself feels effortless and intuitive.’

sophiebillebrahe.com

Now in its 18th edition, PAD London has got us accustomed to its distinctive blend of collectible design, fine art, objects and jewellery. Uniting works by contemporary makers and creatives with historical pieces that represent some of the most celebrated design movements of the past, its eclectic curation attracts international collectors and those curious to see where collectible design is heading.

This year, we wanted to cast our lens on the new names to know in collectible design, creatives working in a variety of materials and techniques, that are merging personal cultural histories with ancestral craft, material research with formal experimentation. Here are five talents from across the globe that are setting new directions in collectible design. Discover their profiles below, and find their work at PAD London, 13 to 18 October 2026 at Berkeley Square

PAD 2026: five new names to know in collectible design

Noe Kuremoto

London-based Japanese ceramicist Noe Kuremoto creates clay objects that speak of Japan’s ancestral traditions, her experience as a mother, and the role of the artist in today’s world. At PAD London 2026, she is bringing significant new bodies of work that reflect how the complexity of her heritage and her life merge in an inquisitive, personal way. They include ‘Project Crane Wife’, a series of black stoneware sculptures shaped like vessels with tall necks and elongated handles, referencing one of Japan’s oldest folk tales. ‘Project Shodō’, meanwhile, is a series of black, unglazed sculptural objects that nod to the traditional art of Japanese calligraphy, while ‘Jōmon’ is inspired by the intricate fertility vessels of the eponymous Japanese era (between 14,000 and 300 BCE).

'When I started to face the complexity of life, I looked for ancestral wisdom; that mythology felt dusty when I was in Japan, it felt like shackles to my teenage self when I was trying to figure out who I want to be,’ she explains. ‘Now, that same mysticism gives me a map to figure out life’s most complex moments.’

Read: Noe Kuremoto reconciles contemporary craft with Japan’s ancestral mythology

Noe Kuremoto is at Pik'd, Booth B7, and Galerie Boketto, Booth A20

Manuel Bano

Mexico-based designer Manuel Bano's love of making deepened during the pandemic, when the ‘OBJ’ collection began; an evolving body of work. Bano found himself drawing and exploring new ideas, even as workshops remained closed. 'I had a friend who had a laser-cutting machine. It was essentially the only workshop where I could produce something,' he says. He made that constraint his starting point, creating the ‘OBJ-01’ table lamp – the first piece he produced independently. The series has since grown to include a floor lamp, chair, bench and stool, while his fascination with metal – stainless steel, brass and oxidised steel – has remained constant.

'What I value about working with metal is the directness of the process. In many of my pieces, I can work with a single material, and I like knowing from the beginning how the finished piece will look. There is an honesty to metal. That doesn’t always happen with stone, glass or other materials, where surprises can occur along the way,' says Bano.

Read: Manuel Bano shows metal’s softer side at PAD London this year

Manuel Bano is at Objects with Narrative, Booth A8

Adriana Meunié

Born and raised in the small coastal resort of Cala Llombards, Mallorca, for Adriana Meunié, exploring different woven textures and volumes offered a return to something fundamental. 'It was like going back to the essential and primordial textile form,' she tells Wallpaper*. Her large-scale weavings and tapestries, appearing like hairy mythical creatures, are made using traditional weaving techniques and local materials sourced from her native Mallorca. Although calm and mesmerising, her works can also be slightly unsettling – possessing a tension that she describes as a kind of 'monstrous elegance'.

Read: Mallorcan artist Adriana Meunié tells us why she doesn't believe in easy beauty

Adriana Meunié is at Sarah Myerscough Gallery, Booth B27

Seungjin Yang

A sense of childhood wonder lies at the heart of Korean artist Seungjin Yang’s ‘Blowing Series’. Soon after graduating from Hongik University in Seoul, he began experimenting with epoxy resin, which allowed him to give lasting form to a balloon’s fleeting shape.

'The first balloon was an inexpensive one from an office-supply shop in Korea,' he shares. 'I was experimenting with ways to coat balloons in epoxy resin and initially used the balloons to make lights. As I made them stronger, I began to wonder whether people could sit on them. I liked the contrast between the balloon’s apparent fragility and the solidity of the resin.'

Read: Korean designer Seungjin Yang’s whimsical balloon furniture offers more than just nostalgia

Seungjin Yang is at Gallery LVS & Craft, Booth B22

Lukas Wegwerth and Corinna Dehn

This October, Gallery Fumi presents 'Companions’, an exhibition of friendly-looking wooden furniture designed by Lukas Wegwerth and Corinna Dehn. The pair have conceived a family of furniture clad in shingles inspired both by animal scales, wings and feathers, and by the vernacular architecture of Wegwerth’s home region in central Germany.

Part of their ongoing ‘Armadillo’ series, the six new works include two cabinets, a sideboard, a birdhouse, a dining table and a stand-alone screen. All feature the collection’s signature shingles, but with new experimentations in tone, density, and pattern. The wooden elements are sourced locally, often recycled, and processed in the designers’ own sawmill, while the colours come from natural pigments and ebonisation as well as traditional oil paints.

Read: Meet Lukas Wegwerth and Corinna Dehn’s shingle-clad menagerie

Lukas Wegwerth and Corinna Dehn are at Gallery Fumi, Booth A24. A solo exhibition of the duo's collaboration is on view at Gallery Fumi, 2–3 Hay Hill, until 28 November 2026

For a chef whose restaurant, Osip, is rooted in the Somerset harvest, Merlin Labron-Johnson keeps an enviable itinerary. When we catch up, he has just returned from a French road trip, and is head to Athens and Tokyo next. It’s often work that takes him abroad, but he makes time for a few extra days for himself, following friends’ recommendations and stopping at an unassuming bar for a cold beer along the way.

It is a familiar rhythm for the Devon-born chef, whose early career took him through kitchens in Switzerland, France and Belgium before he earned London’s Portland its first Michelin star at the age of 24. In 2019, he opened Osip in Bruton, establishing the connection between farm and kitchen that we profiled on our Work in Process video series. His latest project, Pharmacy Field Kitchen, takes that approach outdoors. Developed with Zsuzsanna Toth and Marc Ackland, joint head chefs at his sister restaurant The Pharmacy, it brings together farm dinners and private events, with opportunities for guests to pick some of the produce they will eat.

Labron-Johnson’s travels also feed into his life back in Somerset, from the dishes he cooks at home – Japanese rice, dhal and biryani – to a particularly good pair of scissors he picked up in Japan. For this edition of ‘In Transit’, the chef discusses travelling light, the things he likes to bring back, and why he feels at home in Japan.

How Merlin Labron-Johnson travels

Wallpaper*: What’s your earliest travel memory – and can you remember what you ate?

Merlin Labron-Johnson: All my earliest travel memories are in France, as that’s the only place I went [overseas] until I was 16. I remember the smell of supermarkets, pungent cheeses, freshly baked bread from the boulangerie and peach iced tea.

W*: What role does travel play in your life?

MLJ: I am fortunate to travel a lot through my work, and it is this constant exploration that keeps me inspired and stimulated. It has also given me a renewed appreciation of where I live, which is rural Somerset. I like the juxtaposition of the two worlds. I don’t do many conventional holidays, though; it’s almost always work with a few extra days tagged on.

W*: What attracts you to a destination?

MLB: Well, the food is obviously a very important factor. If I suspect the food isn’t good, then I’m less inclined to visit, but it is also the people, the architecture, the colours, the climate and the thrill of the unknown.

W*: What’s the most unnecessary thing you always bring ‘just in case’ – and the most essential?

MLB: I travel light, bringing as little as possible. I’ll always have my laptop and phone, of course. Comfortable clothes. A notebook. A wash bag. That’s about it. However, I have started to make a habit of bringing small gifts to offer to friends, hosts and colleagues. Especially if I’m going to Japan!

W*: Who’s the most interesting person you’ve met on a trip?

MLB: My guide from my last trip to the Himalayas: Pujan. A wonderful host, with many diverse talents and the most extraordinary knowledge. We keep in touch.

W*: What’s the best thing you’ve ever brought back from a trip?

MLB: Kitchen tools from Japan, which I use every day. Beautiful handmade urushi chopsticks, good scissors and a mottled steel side ladle.

W*: Do you tend to capture moments when you travel?

MLJ: I capture a lot. I take hundreds of photos and videos. I like to share my discoveries and, of course, keep a record of where I’ve been and what I’ve done.

W*: Which place in the world feels most like you?

MLJ: So far, Japan is the place that has resonated with me the most. Everything makes me happy and seems to suit my tastes.

W*: Which place has changed your approach to cooking or hospitality?

MLJ: Japan, Mexico and India.

W*: Is there a meal from your travels that you still return to in your own cooking?

MLJ: Well-cooked Japanese rice, dhal and biryani.

W*: When you arrive somewhere new, where do you go first to get a feel for how people eat?

MLJ: I’ll usually take a recommendation from a friend or a knowledgeable local. It could be a bar, bistro, tavern or roadside café; it really depends on the country!

According to Merlin...

Window or aisle? ‘Window.’

Early flight or last flight of the day? ‘I think I prefer an evening flight, so as to wake up the following day in a new location feeling refreshed.’

Overpack or underpack? ‘Underpack. I like to travel light.’

Plan everything or arrive and figure it out? ‘A mixture of both: plan some things, leave room for spontaneity.’

Go-to travel snack? ‘Onigiri.’

Who’s always on your playlist? ‘Leonard Cohen.’

Last place you travelled to – and where next? ‘France, for a road trip. Next stop Athens, and then directly on to Tokyo.’

Your ideal row on a long-haul flight – who’s sitting with you? ‘Ideally nobody. I would appreciate the peace and quiet and the extra room!’

osiprestaurant.com

thepharmacybruton.com

‘I've always talked about slowness, or slow looking,' says London-born, Manchester-based artist Louise Giovanelli, on the eve of a major new show at London's White Cube gallery. ‘I see more and more of this tendency in painting – to really focus on directing attention into the canvas and not away from it. I'm contemplative. I really try and hold the gaze of the audience.'

It is a considered approach that's reflective of Giovanelli's practice as a whole, in both her subject matter, which captures the heavy slowness of anticipation, and in the oil paintings themselves. In the flesh, the richly worked pigments shine, glint and seduce, rewarding a second, and a third, look.

Louise Giovanelli presents ‘In the Light of False Suns’

Giovanelli, who developed her craft at the Manchester School of Art, graduating in 2015, doesn't make it easy for her viewers. She is fascinated by the spectacle, but resists the easy narratives that her motifs conjure up.

In a series of works focusing on curtains, there is a playfulness in the disparity between the expectation that something is about to be revealed and the access the closed curtains withhold. For Giovanelli, the concept of a curtain as something that shows, but also hides, is a complex one.

‘This idea of action having happened, or about to happen, means the curtains can be very sad things – or honest and happy, or very grand. They can also be very seedy things. They straddle so many different notions of class and geography; nightclubs, working men's clubs, hotels. They denote so many different things. I think that's why the curtains in particular are so frustrating to people, because of this meta narrative that they have,' she says. ‘They are just a painting, and it's super flat. I've realised fairly recently that it's something I do with all my work. Everything I paint is very close up to the surface. It feels very claustrophobic, almost aggressively pushed forward into the realm of the viewer.'

Throughout Giovanelli's work, there is no single-point perspective, but instead a tension between the figurative and the suggestion of abstraction. We are looking at what is real, but that might not be what we think it is.

‘Of course, the image matters, but, for me, it's probably at the bottom of the hierarchy,' Giovanelli says. ‘Or at least it should be when you're learning how to paint. Everything else is much more important.'

She cites Giorgio Morandi's lifetime spent painting clay pots. ‘There's nothing interesting really about a clay pot – but of course there is. There's the idea of light; different configurations, textures, formats, sizes; where the shapes are placed within the canvas, so that your eye doesn't ever fall out of the vista. All those things look nuanced, but they are very powerful.'

It is a universality reflected in Giovanelli's references, which may appear eclectic – there are motifs and techniques from the Renaissance, religious iconography, nods to theatre and pop culture filmography – yet share a focus on the concepts of worship and idolisation.

For the new work she is set to unveil at White Cube (Mason’s Yard, London, 20 November 2026 – 16 January 2027), she draws links between these themes, as well as forming new connections between her existing paintings. ‘For the first time, I've included a face within a curtain image,' she says. ‘That's something I've never done before. It's almost like I create rules for myself, but then I see that almost as a challenge, so I break my own rule.'

Elsewhere, scale is distorted, and Giovanelli breaks another one of her rules by creating a wig painting (a series of her works that compactly frame wigs) that is bigger than a human head. When we speak before the opening, she is working from photographs of hanging carcasses of meat she took during a visit to an abattoir. ‘I know it sounds crazy, but if I can pull it off, it should be very seductive and beautiful. I want it to look like a seascape or landscape, very geological. It's quite a departure.'

Her technique, also, is developing. ‘I've been known to make works that are very thin, with no discernible brushstrokes, whereas this show has much more of them. It feels like I've found a new confidence.'

Ultimately, the power of paint to convey, magnify, and distort meaning continues to captivate Giovanelli. ‘What I'm trying to do is make paintings that initially register as very seductive and are very beautiful to look at – but there has to be an undercover or slightly macabre tone. There's a darkness in my work that takes a minute or so to really understand or appreciate. I'm old-fashioned. I love the idea of beauty. I think it should be beautiful – but beauty with an edge.'

Louise Giovanelli will be on show from 20 November 2026 – 16 January 2027 at White Cube Mason's Yard, London SW1, whitecube.com

A version of this article appears in the November 2026 Art Issue of Wallpaper*, available from 8 October in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Tiffany & Co's ‘Artist-to-Artist' programme at Frieze London (see more Frieze Week highlights) invites established artists to select up-and-coming creatives to present their work at the fair. This year, Yinka Shonibare has nominated self-taught Cape Town-based artist Unathi Mkonto. Spanning drawing, installation, sculpture and performance, his distinctive practice is driven by a keen interest in the possibilities of architecture, exploring, through sculpture, how to create a better standard of living.

Yinka Shonibare: Unathi Mkonto's work caught my attention because he has such a unique approach to minimalist art. Having lived in Cape Town, he's really interested in what's going on in South Africa. His method of presenting his work reminds me of a lot of minimalist approaches, but the difference is that he does have a subject matter, which is South African, whereas the minimalists were really focusing on the object itself.

Unathi Mkonto: I studied architecture, and that is part of my art now – in a newer way and with my own rules. I've been comfortable being in between the two, and never having to choose a side. In my practice, the work is sometimes theatrical. I'm interested in the environment that architecture gives – what people experience in the space and what is left behind. The voids and the in-between; everything can be habitable within my world in my architecture. A cardboard box can be a building, a drawing can be a building, you can live in anything. I'm exploring those theories and trying to stretch a language of architecture from the continent that is also inspired by nature, water and the land, and so I'm pulling from all those things.

YS: I've been looking at the work from London, thinking it's a unique approach to art-making. Is it architecture? Is it sculpture? I like that about the work. It refers to art-making in the past, but in an African setting. That kind of continuity of history interests me.

UM: I had been thinking about how agriculture could become the future of African architecture, because we draw from the ground and we learn from the soil. We know how it works, and for me, it's an important resource – rather than bricks and glass and things to build, the ground gives us so much. I've been thinking about what architecture could come out of the soil, and I've been thinking about trees. There is also an aquatic feel, with trees that are floating in water at the same time. It's a mix of the elements, a continuation of the sea, and the beach and the towers. What is the ancient knowledge that Africa has about soil? And how can Africans look more into the soil to create a language – because at the end of the day, our languages are going to come from the soil, they're going to come from nature.

YS: When people see this work at Frieze, I think they should be broad-minded and nourished by new ideas.

UM: I'm really looking forward to making a singular statement, and encountering this fast-moving audience. I was thinking about a work that is a singular language that can communicate, and also create a moment to pause. Something you can meditate on, something that's raw and quite honest, and that isn't overly done, but that attracts you for its honesty and its openness.

The Tiffany & Co ‘Artist-to-Artist' programme is on show from 14-18 October at Frieze London, Regent's Park

A version of this article appears in the November 2026 Art Issue of Wallpaper*, available from 8 October in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

As part of its special projects, London’s 2026 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair at Somerset House (15-18 October) will spotlight modernist artists from Africa and the diaspora.

Titled ‘West Wind’, the 1-54 Presents initiative takes its name from the 1966 song of the same title by Miriam Makeba, the legendary South African singer, songwriter and civil rights activist. The project is curated by Johannesburg-born South African-Portuguese art historian and researcher Nancy Dantas. It will celebrate the work of pioneering modern artists like Alexander ‘Skunder’ Boghossian, Bertina Lopes, Gerard Sekoto, Kofi Antubam, Sam Joseph Ntiro, Papa Ibra Tall and Uzo Egonu, presented by Hannah O’Leary Fine Art; Baya and Rafik El Kamel, presented by Selma Feriani Gallery; and Ibrahim El-Salahi, presented by Vigo Gallery.

'As we prepare for our 14th edition, I have been reflecting on how differently we understand artists when we place them within the histories they helped to shape, rather than at their margins,' says Touria El Glaoui, the founding director of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, in a statement. '“West Wind” allows us to look back with greater precision and to see the present differently. By bringing these generations into conversation, this edition places African artists where they belong, as authors of modern and contemporary art.'

Speaking of getting history right, writer and curator Folasade Ologundudu will present ‘(Re)Casting the Canon: From Lagos to London’, promoted as supporting the next generation of critical arts and culture writers to bring the hidden histories of African and African diasporan people into cultural discourse. The research-led initiative seeks to explore how contemporary African art history is shaped through collective memory, reflection, and writing via multi-day writing labs and a pop-up exhibition.

Moroccan artist Hassan Hajjaj, known for his colourful portraits and multimedia art that blends Moroccan culture with contemporary pop art and fashion influences, will present ‘My London Rockstars’, featuring a new generation of artists, musicians and designers shaping the city’s contemporary cultural scene, including Jorja Smith, Slawn and Central Cee.

Kianda Contemporary Art Project, a Johannesburg based art centre and curatorial studio will present work from the 1950s generation to the present day by artists based in Angola and in the diaspora, alongside artists from countries whose influence has been significant for the Angolan scene, which is influenced by colonial and post-independence contexts Mario Tendinha, Yola Balanga, Teresa Kutala Firmino, Alice Marcelino, Ia Sueki and Benigno Mangovo, with guest artists Levy Pooe (South Africa), Beré Magalhães (Brazil) and Emmany Koto (DRC). The Marcos Jinguba-curated exhibition is titled ‘Angola, Angolé, Angolema’, taken from a poetry collection by Angolan Arlindo Barbeitos.

A fifth project to look forward to is ‘Commodity/Couture’, a sensory installation that traces Ghanaian cocoa from farm to finished product, and the value that disappears in between, by Midunu Institute, an Accra-based cultural organization, founded by Ghanaian chef, author and artist, Selassie Atadika, and dedicated to Africa’s culinary heritage and food systems through research, cultural practice and craft.

The Talks Programme is a must-attend and will include panels such as an exploration of African Modernism with Nancy Dantas, The Future of African Art Collecting with Strauss & Co, a celebration of Addis Fine Art’s ten-year anniversary, Contemporary African Art After the Spotlight: Visibility, Value and the Institutions Still to Come, the book launch of Ô Cameroon! Modern and Contemporary Art and Artists From 1925 to Now by Ozong Agborsangaya-Fiteu, The New Institutional Moment: African Art After Visibility with Oliver Enwonwu, and Creatives, Collaborators and Catalysts: Contexts and Challenges of Championing Congolese Culture with The Defise Foundation.

As usual, there will be lots of artworks to see by contemporary artists from Africa and its diaspora, presented by 40 galleries including first timers such as 16/16 (Nigeria), 193 (France/ Italy), Addis Fine Fine (Ethiopia), Affinity Gallery (Nigeria), Ellephant (Canada), Errm Art Gallery (Saudi Arabia) Filafriques (Switzerland/ Cote D’Ivoire), First Floor Gallery Harare (Zimbabwe), Gallery Misr (Egypt), LIS10 Gallery (Italy/France/Hong Kong), Maya Art Space (Lebanon) and THK Gallery (South Africa/Germany.)

1-54 London 2026 will be held at Somerset House from 15 to 18 October 2026

When John H Johnson opened the South Loop, Chicago, headquarters of his publishing company in 1972, he called the new home of magazines like Ebony and Jet, among his other ventures, 'the miracle on Michigan Avenue.'

The 11-story building clad in bands of walnut travertine alternating with ribbons of tinted glass was the first downtown tower commissioned by a Black-owned company and became a universe unto itself. Its interiors – furnished wall-to-wall and floor to ceiling in explosive patterns, rich textures and modernist furniture – symbolised the dynamic expressions of Black life Johnson depicted across his media empire.

For nearly four decades, that architectural vision at 820 S Michigan Avenue remained virtually unchanged. Then, in 2010, the Johnson Publishing Company (JPC) had to sell its headquarters in order to cut costs and help stay afloat during a collapsing ad market. What was once the epicenter of Black media would soon become vacant, which sparked last-ditch actions from preservationists, artists, historians and more to document and save what they could from the building.

820 Ebony/Jet: Visions of the Johnson Publishing Company, an American Icon, a new book by the photographer Barbara Karant, is one such endeavor. It features new and archival photos of the building along with a foreword by Deborah Willis and essays by Cheryl Finley, E James West and Carla Williams, among others.

As soon as JPC left the building, Karant (who was teaching at Columbia College Chicago, which purchased the building) toured it. 'I was completely blown away,' she recalls. 'The interiors were so dynamic and lively and graphic and colourful.'

From 2013 until the building’s conversion to luxury residential units in 2017, Karant periodically documented every floor inside of the vacant building, photographing for six to eight hours straight when she came.

'I felt like it needed to be retained for posterity's sake, for historical purposes and cultural purposes,' Karant says. 'The vibrancy that still remained in this space was very compelling and intriguing to me. So I felt like I needed to set up some kind of project to document this interior before it disappeared.'

Karant's images aren’t time capsules. Rather, her frames of empty rooms picked clean serve as a post post-occupancy report, one final look at the center of gravity that was. The sun-bleached wallcoverings, delaminated veneers and scuffed furniture across the photographs depict decades of use. There is, of course, solemnity in seeing what is essentially the corpse of a culturally significant institution. But the fact that the headquarters’ interiors still looked so distinctive in the twilight of their life is still remarkable. Aging is its own kind of honour.

'I never really felt like it was abandoned because there was so much of the spirit of the company in the building,' Karant says. 'From the beginning, it was such a statement for JPC. It was deliberate and it empowered the company and everybody loved it. People were so committed to it that I think that's why everything may have stayed the same for the duration that it did.'

In 1969, Johnson hired John Warren Moutoussamy – a pupil of Mies van der Rohe at IIT and the first Black architect to become a partner in a major Chicago firm – to design its new headquarters. While glistening curtain-wall high rises defined the new downtown skyline, Johnson sought something different. As E James West writes in an essay in the book, 'it had to be Black. Black architect. Black enterprise. Black aesthetic.' Moutoussamy delivered a sophisticated tower whose mass imparted presence and staying power.

Eunice Johnson, the fashion director of Ebony and Johnson’s wife, oversaw the interiors and worked closely with Arthur Elrod and William Raiser on them. The Palm Springs – based designers gave each floor its own maximalist identity. To wit: The lobby was clad in panels of bronze and Mozambique wood and featured a monumental bronze sculpture by Richard Hunt along with red leather banquettes. The reception area of the ninth floor, which housed executive offices, featured a sculptural bronze-toned resin screen, a coffee table made of Mexican onyx, and an earth-toned checkerboard carpet. Some wallcoverings were stylized like peacock feathers and the famous Ebony test kitchen was enveloped in psychedelic, marbled laminate. Eunice’s own office, on the seventh floor, was adorned monochromatically in cream tones, with Space Age executive chairs, Italian lamps and African antiques.

JPC stuck to its aesthetic for the entirety of its tenure in the building. 'The idea that a corporation was so committed to a brand that was presented in their environment that they never renovated,' Karant says. 'They might have retrofitted or fixed things, but they didn't change it. I mean, it's pretty astonishing.'

One of her favorite design moments is a room with leopard-print carpeting that extends up the walls. 'It covers a fire extinguisher and the fire closet,' she says.

After JPC moved out, the building’s future became uncertain. It eventually received designation as a national landmark in 2017, sparing it from demolition; however its interiors were not protected, as is often the case with historic buildings. Rescue missions ensued. Its photo archives went to the Getty Research Center and the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Landmarks Illinois  managed to excise the Ebony test kitchen, which the NMAAHC acquired in 2023 for its permanent collection. With the blessing of Linda Johnson Rice, John Johnson’s daughter, the artist Theaster Gates retrieved over 15,000 objects from the space – 'anything movable,' he said. This included artwork, furniture, books, ephemera and fragments of its interior finishes, like wallpaper and carpet. 'So much was built into the architecture that you had to take large pieces of wall with you just to remove some things,' Gates recalled. 'You had to choose the cut to save the body.'

Evidence of this shows up in Karant’s photos, too. The building was not quite a shell, but it had been picked over. 'What's left behind is kind of always a bit of interest because it tells a story about what came before and it tells a story maybe about what's going to come afterwards,' she says.

And what comes afterward is, in some ways, still unfolding. In 2017, Columbia College College Chicago sold the building to developers who converted it into luxury condos. None of the JPC interiors remain, but the way they shaped the thousands of people who came through them and what their memory might yield remains to be seen. The daringness of JPC to create a corporate headquarters that was fully in its style remains peerless.

Karant hopes the ambition still serves as an inspiration. 'There was a residual message left in their departure,' she says, noting that she hopes the book offers a way to remember and appreciate everything the Johnson Publishing Company achieved.

The symbiosis of art and fashion is well-documented and nowhere is this more evident than at Frieze’s various international editions, whereby the arrival of the contemporary art fair also heralds a slew of activations from fashion houses and brands as they seek to capitalise on the week’s cultural capital (and, indeed, high-spending clientele – it is often said that Frieze is like fashion week with more expensive handbags).

That said, this year’s Frieze London, which arrives in the capital this week (14-18 October), is noticeably lighter on such crossovers, paving the way for more meaningful partnerships between fashion and art. Case in point: Stone Island’s sponsorship of Frieze Focus, the arm of the fair which supports young galleries and their artists, or Dunhill’s continuing Frieze Masters Talks, which have yielded some genuinely meaningful conversations on the state of art and society in recent years (Tracey Emin was 2025’s highlight; this year, Es Devlin and Grayson Perry play headliners).

Elsewhere, Jonathan Anderson – a designer who has long cultivated a strong relationship with the art world – is hosting an exhibition of British artists and craftspeople at his Pimlico store, while the Lee Alexander McQueen-founded Sarabande Foundation will host an ephemeral pop-up in Selfridges, allowing shoppers to purchase the spoils of its artists’ work (and also view the artists at work, via a series of special open workshops). Dover Street Market will also host its usual bazaar-like Frieze celebration on Thursday evening (15 October 2026), including the relaunch of Comme des Garçons’ short-lived but influential magazine, Six.

Discover Wallpaper’s picks of the best fashion moments at Frieze London 2026 below.

Stone Island supports up-and-coming galleries through Frieze Focus

Earlier this month, Stone Island opened ‘Selected Works '982–'026’ at The Corner Shop, Selfridges, an ephemeral space designed by Willo Perron which puts the brand’s collectors in the spotlight (Stone Island has achieved a near-religious following; in the store, various collectors will display their archives as well as curate more recent products). Its opening coincides with the brand’s return as the partner of Frieze Focus, the fair’s ‘platform’ for emerging artists and galleries. Marking Stone Island’s 12th partnership with Frieze London, it will support each of the participating galleries with a bursary that allows them to show at the fair. Alongside, the brand will also reveal its latest Frieze uniform T-shirt, this time featuring an artwork by Senegalese artist Arébénor Basséne, represented by the Dakar-based gallery Selebe Yoon. Not working the fair? You can buy your own at Selfridges across the week.

‘Selected Works ’982–’26 Stone Island: The Collector Series’ runs until 6 November 2026 at Selfridges Corner Shop. For a full schedule of cultural programming, visit Stone Island’s website.

Dover Street Market celebrates Frieze 2026

Each Frieze Week, the London outpost of Adrian Joffe and Rei Kawakubo’s Dover Street Market transforms into a veritable bazaar as participants from the worlds of fashion and art create a series of limited-edition offerings that go up for sale (alongside, on the evening of October 15, there will also be book signings, launches and other happenings unfolding across the Haymarket store). ‘Things to see, hear and stumble upon; with familiar faces and unexpected encounters,’ says the concept store, which will also offer refreshments from its in-store café, Rose Bakery. The event will also see the relaunch of Six by Comme des Garçons, a magazine which initially ran from 1988-1991, alongside appearances from the likes of Marc Quinn, Martine Rose, Matières Fécales, Michèle Lamy & Sissy Misfit, Ministry of Sound, Quil Lemons, Susie Cave, Tim Walker and Tremaine Emory.

Dunhill hosts its latest round of Frieze Masters talks

The Frieze Masters Talks, hosted by British heritage house Dunhill, offer respite from the frenetic main fair. In a specially curated space, the intimate conversations between a select group artists, curators and other cultural figures address a single theme – this year, ‘Breaking the Mould’. Curated for the second year running by Arturo Galansino, director general of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, participants include Wallpaper* October 2026 issue guest editor Es Devlin, Grayson Perry and Goshka Macuga, among others, discussing – across various more specific topics – how ‘historical art forms and materials can be reinterpreted for the present’.

'The title of this year's talks programme, “Breaking the Mould”, suggests not only the possibility of challenging conventions, but also the need to rethink the forms through which we construct, transmit and interpret culture,’ says Galansio. ‘This idea runs through each of the conversations, bringing together some of today’s leading artists, architects, museum directors, curators, art historians and writers. Their diverse perspectives will create a dialogue between contemporary practice and historical research, personal experience and institutional responsibility.’

For the full schedule and to book tickets, visit the Frieze website. The talks run from 14-17 October 2026.

JW Anderson curates a new exhibition in its Pimlico store

Throughout his career, Northern Irish fashion designer Jonathan Anderson has forged a close relationship with the art world – most recently, as creative director of Dior, whereby his Los Angeles Cruise show featured a collaboration with Ed Ruscha, while a Paris exhibition celebrating his haute couture debut put his designs in conversation with the ceramic works of Magdalene Odundo. To mark this year’s Frieze Week, he has curated an intimate exhibition at his eponymous label’s store in Pimlico, titled ‘A Composition’ (it is staged with American Express Platinum). The presentation, which will sit among the store’s eclectic curation of fashion and craft objects, centres around 30 glass wind chimes by Welsh artist Cerith Wyn Evans, developed for the show, alongside selected works from London’s White Cube Gallery, including pieces by Akiko Hirai, Mary Stephenson and Shawanda Corbett. It will be a busy week for Anderson, who will also launch a new collaboration with Australian footwear brand Ugg, accompanied by a campaign starring multi-hyphenate musician Dev Hynes.

Sarabande’s House of Bandits pops up in Selfridges

Sarabande, the charitable foundation which was founded by Lee Alexander McQueen to provide subsidised studio spaces for young creatives, has helped forge the careers of some of London’s best young designers, among them Torishéju Dumi, Paolo Carzana, Aaron Esh and Stefan Cooke, among others (Sarabande also supports those in other disciplines, including art and design). Coinciding with Frieze Week, House of Bandits, the institution’s in-house gallery – headquartered in Sarabande’s recently opened Tottenham space – is staging a two-week pop-up in Selfridges, bringing the anarchic spirit of the foundation to the London department store. Expect ‘graphic, colourful, intriguing and innovative’ works from current Sarabande artists and alumni, including Daisy Collingridge, George Wilkin, Rizza Hadid and Jack Laver, among others. Throughout the event, various artists will also be moving their studios to the new Ground Floor Art Space, allowing shoppers to see their work in progress.

Until 18 October 2026 at the Duke Street entrance, Selfridges.

‘The 90s: Fashion and Art’ continues at Tate Britain

Former Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful has turned curator for a new exhibition at Tate Britain, which traces the relationship between fashion and art during a definitive decade – the 1990s. Opening last week with a starry gala, the exhibition continues throughout Frieze Week and into the new year, attempting to capture ‘the freedom, chaos and creativity’ of the era. Cue works from the likes of Juergen Teller (who created a limited-edition Wallpaper* cover to celebrate the exhibition’s opening), Steve McQueen, Damien Hearst, Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin and the like, alongside fashion from Alexander McQueen (his eponymous house also features as main sponsor), Vivienne Westwood and Hussein Chalayan). ‘It's just my view of the 90s, with my friends, great artists that I was lucky enough to grow up with and be around, have a couple of drinks with,’ says Enninful in the November issue of Wallpaper*. ‘So it was really a pleasure, working with people who were so great at what they did, and redefined a whole decade.’

'The 90s: Art and Fashion’, curated by Edward Enninful, is on show until 14 February 2027 at Tate Britain, London SW1.

Growing up in Japan as the daughter of two artists, Noe Kuremoto was raised around her father’s painting practice and his job at the local university, where she would join him on campus to hang out with artists, musicians and poets. ‘I thought it was very normal to see adults who are so enthusiastic about life, so I was very surprised to find when I went to school that not all parents were so passionate about their jobs,’ she recalls, hinting at the smell of oil painting from her father’s work, or her mum always playing the piano in the background.

Despite this natural connection to the artistic practice, she was fascinated by the freedom of the London art community and moved to the city to study at Central Saint Martins. ‘I wanted to leave the Japanese-ness behind,’ she explains. ‘The Japanese art community is much more academic, technically driven, led by more traditional aesthetics.’ Through the magazines that her parents had at home, she had discovered a different kind of vibrancy: Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Sara Lucas, Damien Hirst, Gilbert and George were all working in London at the time, and it felt exciting. ‘I was born in this little island: now I wanted to look for something more.’

Her chosen medium, ceramics, was also one that she was able to explore freely in London. If you want to be a ceramicist in Japan, she explains, you have to shadow a master and learn the skill as an apprentice, without much freedom to develop your own practice. But in London, Kuremoto started working freely on her own pieces – clay objects that feel totemic and ancestral, based on abstract compositions featuring bulbous forms, anthropomorphic elements and often a sense of symmetry.

Her studio set-up, she insists, is ‘very humble. My most important tools are hands, water, fire and clay. A ceramic studio can be fancy, but mine isn’t.’ Currently based in east London, she is in the process of building a studio in a forest in Lithuania, where her husband’s family is from. But, she admits, the simple set-up of her practice also means she can work almost anywhere.

Despite establishing her work in a context so geographically and culturally far from Japan, she wound up establishing a connection with her native country that transcends her craft. Mysticism is at the heart of Kuremoto’s practice, and the connection with such an integral part of Japanese life and culture doesn’t feel casual. ‘Perhaps when I started to face the complexity of life, I looked for ancestral wisdom; that mythology felt dusty when I was in Japan, it felt like shackles to my teenage self when I was trying to figure out who I want to be,’ she explains. ‘Now, that same mysticism gives me a map to figure out life’s most complex moments.’

Discover Noe Kuremoto's work at PAD 2026

At PAD London 2026, she is bringing significant new bodies of work that reflect how the complexity of her heritage and her life merge in an inquisitive, personal way. ‘Project Crane Wife’, a series of black stoneware sculptures shaped like vessels with tall necks and elongated handles, refers to one of Japan’s oldest folk tales. ‘Like all great folk tales, The Crane Wife carries many layers of meaning,’ she says. ‘But the lesson that remains closest to my heart is this: the tragedy is not losing what we love. The tragedy is that humans only understand the true value of a gift once it is gone.’ For Kuremoto, the allegory brings to mind her elderly mother, back in Japan, and the collection serves as a ‘meditation on the impermanence of true gifts’; the three pieces in the collection all feature a tear, added by the artisan during the process, to make them veritable in-between objects.

‘Project Shodō’, meanwhile, is a series of black, unglazed sculptural objects through which Kuremoto explores the dichotomy of her roles as a mother and an artist, and how these can (or cannot) coexist. The series is named after the traditional art of Japanese calligraphy: ‘I vividly remember the smell of deep black sumi ink while a brush swept gracefully across white paper. As youngsters, we had to write kanji characters every morning that anticipated our day ahead. We were told the process would engrave an ideal into our minds, and help us to make it real,’ she explains. That practice and habit became useful to her as the mother of young children: ‘I get just three sacred hours in my studio per day,’ she says. ‘To make the most of precious time, and distance myself from the failure to attain my ideals, I decided to treat my clay like shodō – to do everything in one go. I committed to make one “drawing in the air” with clay, each and every single day. Good or bad, it didn’t matter. In fact, allowing myself to produce bad, ugly work was a game changer.’

Ancestral Japan also recurs in her final project shown at PAD this year. ‘Jōmon’ nods to the intricate fertility vessels of the eponymous Japanese era (between 14,000 and 300 BCE). ‘It remains astonishing that such complex, expressive forms were created using nothing more than wild clay and pit fire,’ she says. ‘In a time defined by hunting and gathering, when survival was the primary, daily concern, the Jōmon people invested energy in something far greater than individual biological need.’ Kuremoto explores the concept of the Jōmon vessel in a contemporary guise, drawing from her personal experience of and approach to motherhood. ‘Motherhood cracks you open. It gives urgency, depth, a new way of seeing. But society rarely sees this labour as real,’ she says. ‘If your work isn’t paid, it barely exists. We measure output, not care. Invoices, not endurance. I make fertility vessels for women walking this impossible line.’

Guiding her practice is something that Kuremoto's father told her as she was about to leave Japan for London, age 17. 'He said: "If you really want to be an artist, you have to bring light to the world." I didn't understand it at the time, but today I firmly believe that is my mission, and every artist and designer's mission is to bring light to the world.'

Noe Kuremoto is at Pik'd, Booth B7, and Galerie Boketto, Booth A20, PAD London, 13 to 18 October 2026 at Berkeley Square

Hermès has long understood that a dial can be a canvas for creativity. The maison's Arceau collection has a strong history of dial art, often with an equine inspiration. The new Hermès Arceau Cheval Natté sees the brand hand that canvas to Chinese-born, Finland-based industrial designer Tong Ren. Originally sketched for homeware design, Ren's embroidered scene has been reimagined for the delicate proportions of a 38mm watch. The form of a horse's head dissolves into abstract geometry, framed by a ring of 70 bezel-set diamonds.

Shards of red, cobalt, ochre and green interlock, almost like stained glass. The intricate silk-thread marquetry, a time-consuming craft, sits within the Arceau's equestrian-influenced form, a timeless shape that Henri d'Origny gave the house in 1978. The curvaceous case with its stirrup-like asymmetric shape has since become a strong vehicle for artistic experimentation at the Hermès atelier.

The dial is a mini masterpiece, set with 123 diamonds (in addition to those in the bezel). Nearly 400 individually selected silk threads are laid by hand, each angled to play with light as it catches them.

We have seen this type of marquetry before from Hermés; the maison has previously presented dials hand-decorated with straw or micron-thick wood. This particular example repurposes textile techniques for horology, giving the dial a tactility and life that print or lacquer cannot replicate. The diamonds set into the composition are defined by champlevé engraving, so the stones sit within the silk scene rather than on top of it.

Inside, the watch is powered by the in-house Hermès H1912 calibre, visible through a sapphire case back that reveals a scattering of Hermès H motifs. The watch is available in beige- or dark brown-dialled iterations, fitted with a beige or black soft alligator strap, respectively, hand-finished at the Hermès leather workshop.

Hermès Arceau Cheval Natté watch, £79,000, enquire at hermes.com

Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena, the designers behind raucous London-based label Chopova Lowena, have fond memories of Dr Martens footwear. ‘[We remember] wearing our Docs to play at primary school, to thrash at Warped Tour, and to run between classes at university,’ say the pair, who revealed custom pairs of the brand’s Aurix line as part of their S/S 2027 show at London Fashion Week this past September. True to style, they were adorned with buckles, topstitching, faux fur and checkered finishes, capturing what they called the ‘rebellion and joy’ central to their spirited label (they say they are perfect for ‘headbanging, stomping, and dancing’).

The collaboration (available later in autumn) was part of a wider set of partnerships from Dr Martens, whose history dates back to 1945, when Dr Klaus Maertens created an air-cushioned sole to aid his recovery from a broken foot. In the decades since – and after a collaboration with British bootmaker R Griggs Group created the signature ‘1460 Airwair’ boot that saw the brand officially launch in 1960 – Dr Martens has become synonymous with rebellion and subculture, the hardwearing style adopted by punks, mods, Britpoppers and the American grunge movement of the 1990s.

The latest collaborations, which are called ‘Statements in Craft’, and also saw Dr Martens unite with Labrum and Fashion East’s Goyagoma on the London Fashion Week runway, as well as with Sage Nation in a standalone project, are part of a wider reinvention of the footwear brand (an earlier iteration of the series came with Dr Martens’ collaboration with Margaret Howell’s MHL line). In late September, Dr Martens launched its ‘With Bouncing Soles’ platform – its name a reference to a tagline that is stitched into pairs of classic Dr Martens – seeing figures such as actress Chloë Sevigny, musician Jordan Stephens and comedian Naomi Watanabe join a wider cast of ‘community and tastemakers’.

The brand says the campaign is rooted in the ‘micro-joys’ of fandom, with the majority of the participants having worn Dr Martens throughout their lives. ‘I’ve always been drawn to pieces that become more personal the longer you live in them, and Dr Martens has always represented that for me,’ says Sevigny. Each participant was asked: ‘What makes your sole bounce?’; for Sevigny, ‘it’s staying curious – taking on new roles, finding inspiration in unexpected places, and always being open to what’s next’.

‘“With Bouncing Soles” has been stitched into some of our most iconic boots and shoes since production started in 1960. [Now] it becomes the creative thread that connects the people who have shaped Dr Martens with a new generation discovering the brand for themselves,’ says Neil Cummings, global brand creative director, who has led the campaign. Beyond the initial images, a roster of events will take place at the brand’s London Brewer Street store in the coming months, from a set-up by Camberwell’s Lala Books to poetry readings, comedy nights and writing workshops.

The ‘Statements in Craft’ series will run alongside, and is rooted in the idea of collaboration – a defining tenet of the brand. Each of the various collaborations is distinct: at Sage Nation, Sage Toda-Nation took a stripped-back approach, reimagining the cult 1461 shoe with a double-welt seam which runs along the front of the shoe in a reference to his signature welt-stitch trouser; at Labrum, Sierra Leone-born designer Foday Dumbuya adorned the ‘Desert Oasis’ suede boot with a floral motif as part of his S/S 2027 runway show.

Dr Martens has coined the term ‘alternative craft’ to describe the way the various designers have approached the collections: a reference to the way in which its traditional boots and shoes are handcrafted in its Northamptonshire factory using tanneries such as CF Stead in Leeds. ‘Dr Martens is a British icon built on making things properly, boots made to protect you on your journey. I saw a shared language there,’ says Dumbuya, who evoked the Olokun flower, associated with Olokun, a West African deity of the sea, on his design.

‘For me, alternative craft is about who gets to be called a craftsman. Where I come from, the people who carved the Nomoli, who dyed the cloth, who forged the bronze, they were masters, but history didn't always write their names down,’ he continues. ‘Alternative craft is honouring those hands and carrying that knowledge forward into spaces it was never invited into. Craft isn't only technique, it's memory.’

‘At Sage we use very little print or embellishment – the focus always comes down to construction and detail, which is why craft is so important to us,’ adds Toda-Nation. ‘[It’s] why the detailing on this shoe felt like the perfect touch. It was an accent that the Made in England factory in Northampton were excited to execute. We love working with our makers on designs that are new to them; I believe that’s how we can keep heritage craft around, by expanding its vocabulary.’

Dr Martens x Sage Nation is available now. Dr Martens x Chopova Lowena will be available this autumn; Dr Martens x Labrum will be available this winter

drmartens.com

A new jewellery collection by Fernando Jorge is called Armour. ‘Armour is the idea of something that you put on to protect you, whether in the more literal sense, to physically protect you, or in the idea of wearing jewellery as protection,’ explains Jorge. Making its debut at specialist fair PAD London, the collection includes a choice of earrings, a cuff bracelet and a standout necklace.

For this collection, Jorge, who was born in Brazil and trained at Central Saint Martins in London, where he set up his eponymous business in 2011, made brown diamonds, polished smoky quartz, deep black ebony, Brazilian Preciosa wood blond-tone tagua seed his palette. It’s a blend of opposites, as precious gems are set with more humble natural materials.

All materials unite to form geometric shapes.

‘The design spark was the shape of the shield, which also appears in nature as an almond or a leaf, and is very well known in jewellery as the marquise cut,’ Jorge explains.

‘In sacred geometry it is the vesica piscis, the shape formed where two circles overlap, and it represents protection and the union of opposites.’ Cue a sculptural cuff bracelet assembled from carved shapes of preciosa wood, detailed with smoky quartz and brown diamond, all set in yellow gold.

‘These ideas combined were the starting point of the Armour collection,’ says Jorge. ‘I developed the designs thinking of this protective and combative idea, the tension between nature and the man-made, and the idea of fragility and strength. Each piece is constructed on that principle.’

Cindy Sherman is a master storyteller. During a five-decade career, she has acted as her own model, constructing identities and occupying different personas for arresting, revealing photographs. By drawing on a distinctive blend of prosthetics, digital devices and theatrical tools, Sherman presents recognisable caricatures, tropes familiar to us from the movies, and from life – the society hostess, the unfulfilled housewife - stereotypes she presents, confronts, and dismantles.

Throughout, artifice is key. In Sherman’s photographs, we can often see the working. The wig may be a little askew, there are visible cracks in the foundation on the thickly made-up face. Sometimes, you can spot the safety pin, holding together the front of the dress.

Sherman builds on a lifetime spent constructing the finer details in her new ‘Fabric Matrons’ series, now on show at Hauser & Wirth in London. Here, Sherman’s women drape themselves in thick swathes of material, recline in front of hanging reams of fabric or pose for the camera, dripping in jewels.

The results are a sumptuous mediation on what it means to age; how we embrace it, how we mask it, or how we make the best of it. For her portrayals, Sherman was inspired by the pages of a glossy magazine she came across at a store in the Hamptons, its pages filled with women of her age whose wrinkled faces had been smoothed over. She has recreated these women’s glamour with a tactile reimagining of what it means to present a different face to the world.

The material looks expensive, befitting of who these women have become. Sherman was invited by Chanel to utilise their fabrics and jewellery, which appear in some of the works, building on a relationship begun in 2010-2012 with Sherman’s Ominous Landscapes series, in which her characters wore gowns from Chanel’s archives. The Chanel tweeds here, woven through with glinting gold threads, sequins and slivers of leather, are gloriously rich in their clashes of patterns and textures, creating rich contrasts between the gloriousness of the material and the casual, slapdash way it is styled. Bows are roughly tied and hems are frayed. Tailoring is eschewed for shapeless gowns which wouldn’t look incongruous on a member of the aristocracy - or on a peasant.

It is a juxtaposition that simmers throughout. Some of Sherman’s characters here are almost airbrushed in their youthfully clear complexions; others gaze at the camera, their faces, criss-crossed by lines, emphasised by the close crop of the portrait.

Says Sherman: ‘It’s gone beyond beauty. I think it’s showing these characters’ neuroses – probably my own, and similar to many women my age.’

Cindy Sherman at Hauser & Wirth London from 13 October – 23 December 2026