In a new Wallpaper* summer series, architect Carlo Ratti explores Italy through the ordinary objects that define daily life. Third up: the condom, the only piece of industrial design that everyone owns, and no one shows off

Carlo Ratti's 'Objectify' explores the condom

In almost every Italian home, there is at least one: forgotten at the bottom of a bedside drawer, long past its expiration date. It may be the only piece of industrial design that everyone owns, and no one puts on display.

We are in Padua, in the second half of the sixteenth century. One of Europe’s most important centres for anatomical research at the time. It was there that a professor named Gabriele Falloppio – yes, the one after whom the fallopian tubes are named – is conducting what may be the first clinical trial in the history of preventive medicine.

The object: a linen sheath soaked in wine, guaiac and mercury, shaped to cover the glans and tied with a little pink ribbon. The pink, Falloppio notes in his De Morbo Gallico, published posthumously in 1564, was chosen to make it 'more attractive to the ladies.' The volunteers numbered eleven hundred. The result: 'I call upon the immortal God as witness that none of them was infected.'

In its original form, the condom was to the bedroom what the diving suit was to the early underwater explorers: an enclosure that guaranteed no watertight seal whatsoever. Innovation, therefore, began almost immediately. First goat intestine. Then, once a miraculous new material arrived from the colonies, drawn from the rubber tree, came latex.

But back to the object. The modern condom is a masterpiece of minimal design: a cylinder of latex just 0.07 millimetres thick, rolled onto itself and sealed inside an aluminium sachet. No other object is so thin, so functional, and so universally embarrassing to buy.

The sachet itself is an exercise in semiotics: it must communicate safety, discretion and a certain eroticism, all within the footprint of a postage stamp. Falloppio had grasped something fundamental: design must seduce before it protects. The pink ribbon of the sixteenth century and the glossy packaging of 2026 answer to the same logic - the logic of desire.

Of course, some will object today. Between the pill, cycle-tracking apps and PrEP therapies, the condom seems to be losing ground, a relic of a more anxious age. And what consolation is it, they might say, for Italian design to claim a five-century-old invention while elsewhere artificial intelligence is being built?

But perhaps that is not the point. If, in the middle of the sixteenth century, without latex and without germ theory, a man in Padua could imagine an object at once so clinical and so seductive, then we can do it again.

And on this warm midsummer night, as the scent of jasmine drifts through the open window and the zampirone mosquito coil burns slowly in the corner of the living room, let us remember that the most discreet of everyday objects was invented by an Italian. With a little pink ribbon. To make a good impression. To make bella figura.

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

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

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

carlorattiassociati.com

You’d be forgiven for not rushing to acquire a folding smartphone. While the form factor does have its fans, no manufacturer has yet made a convincing case for the doubled-up screen size, added weight, complexity, delicacy and cost that comes with these pocket tablets.

Like Samsung and Google, Honor has stuck to its guns and kept the dream of the functional foldable alive. Through excellent devices like the Magic V2, as well as the more practical but even less common flip-sized Magic V Flip2, the Chinese manufacturer has kept itself at the forefront of the tech, iterating, improving and refining with each generation.

The new Honor Magic V6 is the current state of the art. A companion for the brand’s latest Watch 6, it represents the current peak of this ever-evolving technology. For a start, the Magic V6 is 8.75mm when folded, barely more than, say, a Google Pixel 10 Pro (8.6 mm).

The large 6,660mAh battery is the largest offered in any foldable – usually an area of compromise with all the space taken up by the screens (for comparison, the Pixel 10 Pro has a 4,870 mAh battery and the iPhone 17 Pro Max offers 4,823 mAh). All in all, it weighs in at 219g.

Durability – the Achilles’ heel of the foldable – has also been improved, with IP68/IP69 dust- and water-resistance ratings. The Honor ‘Super Steel Hinge’ forms the core of the mechanism, specially designed to absorb impact when dropped and maintain the phone’s structural integrity. The processor is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 platform.

The other obvious drawback in foldable design is the visual crease down the centre of the main display. A special flexible glass minimises this like ever before, with both inner 7.95-inch display and 6.52-inch outer display offering high refresh rates and what Honor describes as ‘advanced eye-comfort technologies’ to salve the eyes of the addicted.

Honor’s MagicOS 10 is more of an acquired taste. Out in the wild for nearly six months, this new version of the in-house operating system is very AI-heavy, with dedicated agents for photos, settings and general contextual queries. Google Gemini is bundled in, along with a three-month trial of Google’s AI Pro. The over-reliance on cartoonish avatars is also a little grating.

The UI adopts (some might say copies) some of the transparent design details from Apple’s iOS26 Liquid Glass aesthetic. Once you’ve become adept at manoeuvring between the various split screen options, a foldable phone becomes a very effective piece of multi-tasking kit.

Can it replace a laptop? Paired with a Bluetooth keyboard, it can come close, although as we know all too well, adding more and more tech to our lives rarely results in simplification.

These days, there are more and more alternatives, both new and on the second hand market, like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7, and the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, although one detects a certain ennui in the way in which these flagship devices are being sold; they simply don’t offer enough advantages.

There has even been the adventure of the triple-screen foldable, which turns out to be perhaps a screen too far. The very limited availability and take-up of the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold and the Huawei Mate XT hasn’t encouraged a flood of imitators.

Finally, there’s the looming spectre of the iPhone Fold, as yet unsighted but much rumoured and certain to upend the desirability and reach of foldable tech should it ever actually appear. Unlike Apple, Google and even Samsung, Honor is unafraid to ramp up the bling and the sparkle when it comes to marketing its phones, with collaborations with Porsche Design and Jimmy Choo. The white, red and gold trim of the Magic V6 certainly stands out, for better or for worse.

Honor Magic V6, £1999.99 as one of several packages with other Honor tech (or £1499.99 until 31 July 2026, with Honor’s on-site discount) Honor.com, Community.Honor.com, @HonorGlobal

Until 5 August 2026, those purchasing the Magic V6 from some mobile providers (including O2) and Amazon.co.uk, have the chance to claim a bundle of additional Honor tech worth £549 post-purchase, including the Choice Projector Air Pro, Choice Headphones Max and Choice Watch 2 Epic

Few companies have a more rightful claim to being part of 21st century micromobility than Fiat. The Italian manufacturer effectively defined the small family car with the original Cinquecento, a design that continues to resonate through that car’s successful descendants.

With the subsequent release of the Topolino quadricycle in 2023, Fiat doubled down on the value of small scale, positioning the micro two-seater as a chic urban or beach accessory, complete with partnerships with the likes of Vilebrequin and yours truly at this year’s Salone del Mobile.

The company went further in Milan with an exhibition, Ciao Futuro!, which explored the past, present and future of the small car in the city. Now the company has reaffirmed its micromobility credentials with new products and partnerships.

At an event in Vatican City, Fiat revealed the Multiplina Concept, a four-seater quadricycle that harks back to the original Fiat 600 Multipla introduced in 1956.

This tiny machine actually sat six people, using the same platform as the 600 saloon. Fiat describes the Multiplina as ‘the missing link between a Topolino and a car,’ and the available rendering shows a compact monobox design that takes its cue from the original.

Back in 1956, there was nothing like the original 600 Multipla. The model, which was in production until 1967, was also available as a taxicab. Packaging was everything – even the spare wheel was carried inside the cabin.

The little 633cc engine put out just over 21hp, with a top speed of under 60mph. Foot to the floor, the 600 Multipla would reach 50mph in about 43 seconds.

Another old-school archetype enjoying a revival is the three-wheeled truck. Last year, Fiat Professional unveiled the Tris, an ultra-compact commercial vehicle that’s broadly similar to the iconic Piaggio Ape three-wheeler. Variants of the Ape have been in production since 1948, familiar as everything from micro-scale coffee trucks to farm transport in rural Italy.

Fiat and its partners have been here before in recent years, with the Fiat 500 Jolly Spiaggina Icon-e and Castagna Milano’s Fiat Topolino Spiaggina, all referencing the wicker seats and canvas-topped originals created for Italy’s smart set back in the 60s.

The Tris wants in on the action. Just 3.17m long, with handlebar steering and an open cabin, the electric truck has a 56-mile range. In keeping with the spirit of multifunctional micromobility, Fiat also showed a new Tris variant alongside the Multiplina Concept.

Decked out in blue- and white-striped canvas, the Tris Dolcevita is perfect for the Italian Riviera, a hotel transit and beach boulevard machine designed in the spirit of the original Spiaggina, or beach cars.

Topolino sales are on the up, and the tiny bodywork is ripe for reinterpretation and brand partnerships, as shown in the current line-up, which now includes the open sided Dolcevita, the striped Topolino Sport and a new limited-edition collaboration with the swimwear brand, the Topolino Vilebrequin Collector’s Edition.

‘Our mission has always been the same: to make mobility simpler, smarter and more accessible,’ says Fiat’s CEO Olivier François, ‘Today, with Topolino, Tris, and our vision for the future – Multiplina - we are building on our legacy and creating a complete ecosystem for the cities of tomorrow: joyful, ingenious, sustainable, and unmistakably Fiat.’

Fiat.co.uk, "

The south of France’s annual design competition and festival, Design Parade, celebrates a milestone anniversary in 2026, marking 20 years of its ‘Objet’ (Product design) competition, and 10 years of its ‘Architecture d’intérieur’ (Interior design) competition. The occasion was customarily revelrous with passionate speeches, a pétanque tournament, a retrospective exhibition curated by David Giroire, and a talks programme featuring India Mahdavi hosted by Matter + Shape beneath umbrella pines to a soundtrack of cicadas.

Design Parade 2026 at Villa Noailles

At the 1920s Villa Noailles in Hyeres, the ten ‘Product design’ finalists included ‘imprecise candle clocks’ that challenge our relationship to time by Matisse Vrignaud and Lundja Medjoub (winners of a residency at the Sèvres National Manufacture). Yohan Thomas’ efficient lamp that hacked its own design system bringing autonomy back to small-scale manufacturing. And Mexican designer Eduardo Altamirano’s hypnotic, minimalist open speaker won the public prize.

Tin Ayala (Ecuador), who remixed precolonial Andean ceramic huacos with characters from video games and comics suggesting pre-to-post-colonial continuities, won the jury’s ‘Product design’ grand prize. Meanwhile conceptual designer Shahar Livne (Netherlands), a former student of Formafantasma, examined colonialism through the lens of rubber, examining its human and animal cost.

Stanislas Colodiet, director of CIRVA (France’s International centre of Glass and Plastic Arts) and member of the ‘Product design’ jury this year, remarked that post-colonialism has gained more interest from designers in recent years, as well as how objects can shape new rituals. 'An object should have agency,' he says.

Colodiet will work closely with winner Ayala during an upcoming residency at CIRVA in Marseille, which is part of the prize; and was proud to reflect on the collaboration with last year’s winner Simon Dupety, whose installation of organic glass vessels and lamps formed a dystopian garden inside the Villa Noailles.

Transforming Villa Noailles through contemporary interior design

The ten ‘Interior design’ competition finalists each transformed a room in the villa. Winner of the jury’s grand prize, Valentin Bayoud’s hearth-inspired cocoon replaced fire with water, inviting shared contemplation. Water was central to Elen Rio’s Mediterranean garden with a dynamic basin and playful hosepipes; as well as Yohann Hubert and Carlotta Lagazzi’s (winners of the Nationale manufactures Mobilier national Prize) reimagining of a wrecked boat.

Julie Liger, Artistic Director of Design Parade, noticed an increase in ‘spaces that isolate you from the intensity of life, yet not to be alone – to be with friends and discuss, and to see and observe nature.’ Reflecting on her own pioneering participation in 10 years of the ‘Interior design’ competition, she’s seen the rise of environmentalism. Today it’s integral to how all finalists think, yet this year explored it with the most freedom and sophistication in the use of circular and natural materials.

As well as noting an almost ‘Baroque’ approach to craft and decoration, with designers showing intensive interest in materiality and taking craft back into their own hands. See Boris Cojean’s silky beeswax surfaces; Simon Searle and Victoire Lesthevenon’s local timber tinted with plant-based dyes (Public prize winner); Marion Moustey and Ewerton Alves’ aubergine curtains; and Clément Pasquier’s magical cork oak skin.

Liger sees the competition as an extension of the rich French heritage of interior design, and importantly one that, rather than in Paris, is rooted in the Mediterranean context of the south. Taking place during intense heat-waves across Europe, Design Parade’s question of how to live in the Mediterranean felt very relevant, as Northern Europe looks south for wisdom and innovation from shading, to water management.

An eco-system of design

Each year of the festival, the regional eco-system of design further strengthens. This year, visitors can discover new collectible design gallery Pour Vous and return to the Banane d’Or concept space in Hyères; be inspired by graduate presentations at the Camondo Méditerranée school and an exhibition on design and textiles at the Hôtel des Art featuring Sheila Hicks, Hella Jongerius and Muller Van Severen in Toulon.

They can also experience the work of Design Parade veterans of all levels in various places. During opening week, Edgar Jayet (5th Interior design winner, 2021) opened a recently designed home to curious visitors; pétanque played out at the sea-front Hotel Le Provencal designed by Rodolphe Parente (6th Interior design jury president, 2022, and 10th Interior design jury member); and lunch was hosted at Hotel Lilou designed by Kim Haddou and Florent Dufourcq (3rd Interior design finalist, 2018).

One day, dreams Liger, Design Parade will take to the streets with regional public commissions from designers, such as a fountain or landscaping. Perhaps more critically and environmentally engaged than ever before, this year’s Design Parade shows that it’s set on further expanding its impact through its community, as well as continuing to inspire surrealist imaginations through its enduringly playful spirit.

Design Parade is on view until 4 September 2026
villanoailles.com

The 60th Montreux Jazz Festival starts today. What better way of getting into the swing of this pivotal point in the musical calendar than by looking back at some of the greatest poster designs created to promote the event?

This year the artwork has been undertaken by Swiss fashion designer Kévin Germanier, while the Swiss-Iranian photographer Anoush Abrar has completed a new photography monograph, The Elegance of Time, capturing some of the key participants over the years.

Germanier is in good company. Over six decades, the Montreux team has been able to tap some top talent to create the annual poster, as well as finding elegant and timely representations that epitomise the graphic style of each era.

Past contributors include Keith Haring (who also worked on a poster with Andy Warhol), David Bowie, Jean Tinguely, Milton Glaser, Tomi Ungerer, Sylvie Fleury and Julian Opie.

The 60s and 70s in Montreux poster design

Set on the shores of Lake Geneva, the modern festival has been directed by Mathieu Jaton since 2013. The event was started in 1967 by Claude Nobs and represents the intersection between jazz and contemporary music in all its forms.

Some of most significant names in 20th and 21st century music have performed over the years, including but not limited to Etta James, Quincy Jones, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Ms. Lauren Hill, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, James Brown, Kendrick Lamar, Leonard Cohen, Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis, and Nina Simone.

The 80s at Montreux

Germanier’s poster has been formed from more than 60,000 glass, wood and plastic beads and sequins, embroidered onto a velvet canvas. The vivid, densely layered piece was worked on by six artisans and was inspired by the non-literal, abstract tradition of Montreux poster design.

The 90s in Montreux Jazz Festival Posters

‘My favourite Montreux posters are those that represent the Festival in a non-literal way, Germanier says, ‘Music isn’t just a saxophone or a guitar – it’s a feeling. I tried to convey that explosion, that emotion that moves both your body and your heart. I wanted something generous, dynamic and vibrant.’

Montreux Jazz poster art in the 2000s

The 60th Edition features performers as diverse as PinkPantheress, Loyle Carner, Billy Cobham, Van Morrison, The Roots, Raye and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, part of a total of 700 concerts, DJ sets and events over the fortnight, all housed with the Montreux Music & Convention Center, newly reopened this summer after a multi-year renovation.

Montreux Jazz Festival posters from 2011 to the present day

The 60th Edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival runs from 3 to 18 July 2026, MontreuxJazzFestival.com, @MontreuxJazzFestival

The Elegance of Time, Montreux Jazz Festival by Anoush Abrar, CHF 60, MontreuxJazzShop.com

La Fantaisie in Paris has handed over one of its 73 rooms to the Hungarian artist Szabolcs Bozó, whose vibrant creatures and fluid, folk-inflected forms now occupy Room 607 for a nine-month residency. Running until 22 February 2027, the project continues the hotel’s ongoing artistic series, which previously saw a takeover by French contemporary artist Ben Arpéa.

Tour La Fantaisie’s Art Suite by Szabolcs Bozó

Bozó’s work has always carried the cadence of a spontaneous drawing and the nostalgia of a childhood memory. Rooted in Hungarian folk traditions and shaped by a self-taught visual language, his paintings, sculptures and installations are populated by zoomorphic figures that orbit somewhere between dream, fable and playground.

The walls of Room 607 have become an in-situ canvas, layered with works made directly for the space, while the existing artworks have been replaced entirely with pieces by Bozó. Handmade cushions and bespoke bedspreads woven with his signature animal-like motifs bring the collaboration into the soft furnishings; large-scale soft sculptures introduce a more physical sense of play; and hand-painted lampshades cast the room in a warmer, stranger glow.

A booklet for guests offers an introduction to the artist alongside the works available to purchase, while a selection of co-branded objects is also available and is exclusively sold at La Fantaisie, featuring caps, stickers, playing cards, and trays.

The Art Suite by Szabolcs Bozó spans 42 sq m, sleeps up to three guests and overlooks the hotel’s garden. It comprises a large walk-in closet, a plush bathroom with a bathtub and shower, and a sofa bed which can be turned into an additional sleeping quarter. Designed by Martin Brudnizki, La Fantaisie is already a botanical exercise in colour, pattern and exuberance, with boutique rooms, a glass-roofed restaurant, garden terrace, street-facing café, rooftop bar and spa in Paris’s 9th arrondissement.

‘Coinciding with my exhibition Antidote at Semiose, my collaboration with La Fantaisie brings together familiar elements from my studio, but also new materials, including fabric and everyday objects, allowing guests to experience my work in an even more tactile way. Paris as a location has always been close to my heart, with my first show taking place here,’ says Bozó of the opening.

La Fantaisie is located at 24 Rue Cadet, 75009 Paris, France. Rates for the Art Suite by Szabolcs Bozó start from 1,000 EUR inc. breakfast (approximately 862 GBP)

A walkway is an unlikely reason for improved college enrolment, yet when Farrell Wray Architects designed the first iteration of a flyover gallery in Australia for the Caroline Chisholm College in Braybrook back in 2015, they saw the renovation of the quadrangle landscape increase school sign-ups and a new sense of optimism and pride for the institution.

Discover an Australian gallery for a gum tree

After much positive feedback, the firm was asked to reimagine the Marcellin Flyover Gallery, an existing open-air walkway bridge between two buildings at Marcellin College in Victoria, to increase its functionality and visual impact.

With a senior school teaching and learning building to the east, which was the first structure on the site, erected back in 1963, and a junior school building to the west, the walkway is used to seamlessly travel between both areas.

However, this project required more than a simple spruce-up. Rooted between both buildings is a large gum tree, which the firm felt compelled to preserve. Founders of the firm, Ellie Farrell and Brad Wray, decided to craft an ellipse for the tree to branch through, framing its natural beauty.

Farrell and Wray particularly liked the contrast of the geometry of the ellipse against the organic freedom of the garden. ‘A series of early sketches evolved in quite an organic way, which led to questions about the relationship of the organic nature of the tree versus how to approach an architectural response around it. We were interested in not attempting to create a parody, but rather a contrast between formal geometry and the organic sort of geometry of the tree,’ says the architects.

One of the biggest challenges the architects faced wasn't working around the tree’s branches, but more navigating its trunk and what lay beneath – the root system. They explained, ‘Before any works had commenced on site, we had a tree root scan undertaken.

'As a result, we had to be flexible in where the four final column locations would be. We also had to be flexible in what we found upon digging in the ground, as there was a really small tolerance to the number of roots that could be cut and removed before the tree is dramatically affected or actually could die.’

Like with previous projects, the walkway was designed to act as somewhat of an emblem for the school, something which spoke about the school’s history and origins. The architects nodded to St Marcellin Champagnat, after whom the school is named, specifically his Hermitage building in France.

Using this as a primary reference to design the Marcellin flyover’s main elevation, they used two a-proportional archways to create an opening with edge details that look like they've been carved out.

Now, ‘Gallery for a Tree’ is not only used as a walkway but also adorned in the school’s work, showcasing art in specially created ‘art boxes’ placed across the flyover.

farrellwray.com

The Museum of Architecture's newest activity, a bonsai treehouse exhibition set in a leafy central London park, has something for everyone. There is delightful miniature architecture, reminiscent of a fun, adventurous dollhouse; green spaces to elevate the soul and provide some cool shade; and workshops for visitors of all ages, to both explore architectural model making and concepts, and bonsai tree growing. Opening this weekend (4 July – 31 August 2026), the show is the perfect antidote to the UK capital's current hot summer spell.

Tour this bonsai treehouse exhibition in a central London park

The display is arranged at the heart of a small park, a green square in a quiet corner off Connaught Village. The mini treehouses and their plant pairings are set on plinths, offering a breath of fun and fresh air to the lovely, traditionally laid out residents' patch.

It all started with an idea the Museum of Architecture was working on a few years back, centred on a giant treehouse. The idea soon evolved into a miniature version, and indeed, not one but many, the institution's director Melissa Woolford explains.

'The range of practices joining “Bonsai Treehouses” this summer is really exciting – from some of the most established names in architecture to brilliant younger studios, every one of them has embraced our brief. Each bonsai in the collection is unique, and we asked every architect to respond to that individuality: to design for the specific tree in front of them, not for a treehouse in the abstract. The results are surprising, thought-provoking, and genuinely fun to discover.'

Architectural participants include larger and established studios such as Foster + Partners, Haptic Architects and White Arkitekter as well as boutique and more emerging ones – among them EcoLogic Studio, McCloy + Muchemwa and Macro Micro Architects.

The variety in approaches to the treehouse designs is also wide and entertaining. Each practice was given a bonsai tree to work with, and Foster + Partners, for example, found inspiration in mycorrhizal fungi – 'the buried networks through which trees quietly sustain one another across a forest floor', they explain.

Nothing could have materialised, however, without the help of Peter Warren, founder of Saruyama Bonsai, who collaborated with Woolford and the architects and brought his valuable expertise in bonsai-growing to the table.

He said: 'I have brought trees from my own collection to this exhibition – each one shaped over many years, and every one with its own character. I was very curious to see which trees would be chosen, and how each architect would respond to the particular form in front of them. I hope visitors will be delighted by the pairing of tree and miniature built structure.'

The exhibition will be complemented by a programme of creative workshops for all ages. Offerings will include treehouse making, treehouse gardening, and a bonsai masterclass with Peter Warren himself.

Bonsai Treehouses Exhibition is on 4 July to 31 August, 9am-6pm, Oxford Square, a short walk from Connaught Village at Connaught Street and Albion Street.

Advanced booking strongly recommended

museumofarchitecture.org

Haute Couture Week represents the rarified pinnacle of the fashion calendar, taking place each year in January and June or July in Paris. To be considered a couture house – and show as part of the official schedule – you must adhere to a series of rules set by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM). Notably, garments must be made to order for clients using a dedicated couture atelier of over 15 staff and 20 technical workers, with participants showing more than 50 designs twice a year (several of fashion’s biggest names, including Chanel, Dior and Armani, have couture arms, and present during the week). The FHCM also chooses a series of guest designers to show each season, while off-schedule events take place across the city – including the presentation of high jewellery collections in showrooms in and around Place Vendôme.

Held this season from 6-9 July, the A/W 2026 edition of Haute Couture Week looks set to be defined by a pervading newness: Pierpaolo Piccioli and Duran Lantink will show their first couture collections for Balenciaga and Jean Paul Gaultier respectively, while Olivier Theyskens – formerly of Rochas, Nina Ricci and Theory – will debut his new label, Boloria. Meanwhile at Chanel and Dior, Matthieu Blazy and Jonathan Anderson, respectively, will host their sophomore haute couture collections, after lauded debuts earlier this year. Rounding out the schedule are shows from Schiaparelli, Armani Privé, Viktor & Rolf, as well as a debut on the schedule from London-based label Standing Ground.

In anticipation, we break down all the moments to look out for at Haute Couture Week A/W 2026.

There will be debuts at Balenciaga and Jean Paul Gaultier

On Wednesday 8 July, there will be a duo of debuts at two of haute couture’s major houses: Balenciaga and Jean Paul Gaultier. At the former, Pierpaolo Piccioli will show his first couture collection for Balenciaga, taking the mantle from Demna, who reinstated the house’s haute couture arm in 2021 (the Georgian designer’s couture collections were critically acclaimed in their subversion of the historic medium, with memorable moments comprising haute couture ‘jeans’ and runway appearances from Kim Kardashian, Nicole Kidman and Dua Lipa). Piccioli is no rookie when it comes to haute couture, though: his memorable collections for Valentino were some of the most lauded of recent times.

At Jean Paul Gaultier, Dutch designer Duran Lantink will host his first haute couture show at the house, having presented two ready-to-wear collections at Paris Fashion Week in recent seasons. Expect the unexpected from the boundary-pushing designer: his debut was a polarising take on the French house’s codes, featuring bodysuits printed with the naked body. ‘I’m trying to break free of what’s considered good taste,’ he told Wallpaper* in our March 2026 Style Issue.

As well as sophomore shows at Chanel and Dior

Last season was marked by its blockbuster debuts: there was something of a fashion arms race as Matthieu Blazy at Chanel and Jonathan Anderson at Dior showed their first couture collections (both for the houses, and personally, having previously worked at Bottega Veneta and Loewe respectively, which do not have couture offerings). Both presented different – but equally beguiling – debut collections, with Blazy striving for impossible lightness (memorably, a pair of ‘jeans’ were cut from featherweight organza) and Anderson conjuring a series of bold sculptural forms, inspired by the contours of Magdalene Odundo’s ceramics, which bloomed with floral adornment. ‘You realise that that's why we love clothing – it's this idea of the make,’ Anderson said of his first experience in the medium. ‘Couture is really a dying craft; it’s nearly instinct. There are only a few houses doing it. So in a weird way, it’s about protecting that.’

London label Standing Ground will join the schedule

The acclaimed Irish designer Michael Stewart, who started his label Standing Ground in 2022 after graduating from the Royal Academy of Art, has never been one to stick to the typical fashion schedule. In fact, he hasn’t shown on the runway since 2024, preferring instead to either present via cinematic lookbooks or simply work directly with the clients who purchase his designs. This season, Stewart will show as a guest of Haute Couture Week on the evening of Monday 6 July, a decision that tracks with the designer’s vision: his elongated, columnar silhouettes are painstakingly constructed by hand and to the wearer’s body, in an echo of the couture atelier. Winning the Savoir Faire award at the 2024 LVMH Prize, expect a continuation of his distinctive aesthetic, which marries the graceful forms of ancient standing stones with a more futuristic sensibility, where body-clinging contours and ectomorph-like protrusions have an HR Giger-esque bent.

Fendi will show in Rome

Maria Grazia Chiuri will host her first haute couture show for Fendi not in Paris – where the house has shown traditionally, and did so under previous creative director Kim Jones – but in Rome, the home city of both the designer and the house. Taking place on 9 July (many editors will fly straight from Paris to Rome for the show), it will unfold at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea – a nod to both Chiuri’s longtime collaboration with the art world, and the location of a new exhibition, ‘After, a Creative Journey. Fendi / Karl Lagerfeld 1985’. Marking just her second outing for Fendi, after a debut ready-to-wear show in Milan in February, the event will see guests move straight from show to exhibition preview, ahead of the latter’s opening to the public the next day, on 10 July.

Olivier Theyskens will reveal his new label, Boloria

The Belgian designer Olivier Theyskens, who began his eponymous label in the mid-1990s before roles at Rochas, Nina Ricci and Theory, is often seen as one of fashion’s most prodigious talents, forging a darkly romantic aesthetic that borrowed from historical costuming with an industrial edge (Madonna was an early fan, wearing a memorable corseted yellow dress for the VH1 Fashion Awards in 1998). On the eve of Haute Couture Week, 5 July, Theyskens will make his return, debuting Boloria, a new label led by the designer. Fellow Belgian Willy Vanderperre shot the teaser images for the brand, which is based in Antwerp and intriguingly funded by Weareone.world, a Belgian company that runs the Tomorrowland music festivals. What to expect? ‘[The] distinctly Belgian values – sensitivity, integrity, emotional resonance – that have always inspired Theyskens’ work and approach to fashion,’ said a statement when the news was revealed earlier this year.

A landmark Maison Martin Margiela auction will take place

For the wealthy few, Haute Couture Week is one for shopping: fashion house’s top-spending clients attend to shows to select the looks that they will purchase over a given season (they are then remade to the exact measurements of their body, and oftentimes in an edition of one). But, for those after something even rarer – or, at least, a definitive piece of fashion history – an unprecedented auction will take place on 9 July at 2pm in Paris, featuring 200 pieces from legendary Belgian designer Martin Margiela’s personal collection (known for staying entirely anonymous, he founded his highly influential eponymous house, Maison Martin Margiela in 1988, before leaving in 2009). Held in collaboration between Paris’ Maurice Auction and London’s Kerry Taylor Auctions, it will span clothing, photography and ephemera. ‘These objects are like holy relics of fashion; they’re part of a great mythology, which is a real dream for an auctioneer,’ Kerry Taylor Auctions’ Alex Baddeley told Wallpaper*.

READ: This auction sees Martin Margiela’s personal archive go on sale for the first time: ‘These are the holy relics of fashion’

Madrid is a long way from the sea, which is partly what makes new bathhouse Riela’s founding image so persuasive. Its name comes from the old Spanish rielar: the shimmer of moonlight on water; light broken across a surface, something seen indirectly.

Riela Bathhouse, Madrid

Designed by Barcelona-based architecture firm Oficina Satélite, Riela takes that idea and brings it into the city. Inspired by Roman thermae, Japanese onsen and Russian banya, the space has been conceived as a modern setting for an old ritual: a 75-minute, self-guided circuit through heat, steam, water and cold. Guests move between a Finnish sauna, a hammam, a mineral hot pool, cold plunges, and a heated granite stone.

The venue avoids the usual language of urban wellness, with its beige softness and scented neutrality. Instead, Riela feels darker, more mineral and cinematic. Backlit glass bricks cast a greenish glow through the corridors, giving the rooms the quality of something submerged. Rough walls hold the light rather than reflect it. Granite from Madrid quarries gives the pools and benches a certain local weight, while wood is reserved for the sauna, where it brings warmth and recovery.

Oficina Satélite sought to achieve the sensation of stepping out of water on a summer day in Menorca, when the body is slowed and the skin is alert, soaking in light from several directions at once. That idea is visible through Riela's glass-block corridors glowing like diluted moonlight; pools sunk into rough, shadowed rooms; granite benches held against walls of pale green opacity.

‘Riela is a place where people and emotions coexist. As in Turkish baths or Russian banyas, there is social exchange: the space is open, free, non-intrusive. But that exchange happens in an environment of low light, where you don’t feel exposed; you feel held,’ say Marc Castaño and Laia Rafel, founders of Oficina Satélite.

Guests can book individual session passes or opt for a monthly membership. The hot-cold circuit is designed to stimulate circulation, support recovery and help regulate the nervous system, with regular use linked to better sleep, improved mood and greater resilience to stress. Expansion plans for Riela are already underway, with a second, much larger Madrid location on the horizon before the concept ventures into Barcelona, Paris and London.

Riela is located at Calle de Apodaca, 20, Centro, 28004 Madrid, Spain

Sadly, you won’t be able to buy the concept car shown here. This white and red monster of an EV rally machine is strictly for display; it heralds the announcement of a new capsule collection uniting French fashion brand Lacoste with Alpine, once the sporting side of Renault and now a standalone brand (which already has a partnership with Gucci in the bag).

The result is ‘Beware of the Crocodile - Alpine Lacoste A290 Rallye’, a cartoonish blend of iconography that pushes the respective boundaries of each brand into edgier, more eye-catching heritage. The collaboration is also marked with a short film, The Test, featuring Lacoste ambassadors, actor Pierre Niney and Pierre Gasly, BWT Alpine Formula One Team driver.

The basis for the concept is the A290 Rallye, the performance-focused variant of the Alpine A290, itself a clear derivative of the Renault 5. The Rallye model is aimed at customers who want to get into electric motorsport.

Happily for the partnership, Alpine’s historic racing heritage dovetails perfectly with Lacoste’s status as the preeminent expression of sporting style and luxury. Founded by the French tennis player René Lacoste in 1933, a ferocious player nicknamed ‘the Crocodile’, the company has remained at the intersection of high fashion, sportswear and design.

The Lacoste x Alpine collaboration ably conveys this cross-pollination with just the right amount of strength, style and playful fury. The vehicle itself is straight out of the rally paddock, with a widened track, hefty spoilers and exposed carbon-fibre elements. Finished in bespoke white paint with hints of blue (redolent of Alpine landscapes, apparently), it has a purposeful, minimal appearance.

Inside, it’s more of a fashion-forward environment. Red envelopes everything, ‘as if the driver were literally stepping into the crocodile's mouth’, according to the two companies. As Lacoste proudly points out, there are no fewer than 290 crocodiles incorporated into the design, from semi-submerged creatures on the parcel shelf to a scattering of logos across the dash, a veritable bask of toothy menace.

Seat and door panels are finished in Lacoste's emblematic petit piqué fabric, with embroidery by Potencier, the workshop responsible for the embroidered crocodile logo that graces Lacoste polo shirts. 3D printing is also deployed throughout the interior, both for weight-saving, but also to express branding elements wherever possible.

All this design synergy has also resulted in a capsule collection. Comprising of polo shirts, T-shirts, accessories and co-branded objects, the Lacoste x Alpine Collection illustrates two French brands eager to join hands to promote their core values.

As Lacoste CEO Eric Vallat, notes, ‘by bringing together our heritage, expertise and creative standards, Lacoste and Alpine have imagined a project that celebrates French ingenuity through a shared vision of performance and elegance’.

Alpine-Cars.co.uk, @AlpineCars, Lacoste.com, @Lacoste

The BMW X5 has a lot to answer for. Usually cited as the first true SUV of the modern era of behemoth family cars, the first X5 was designed in BMW’s Californian studios and swiftly became the front-runner in a crowded field of elevated and oversized passenger cars that still dominate the global automotive landscape.

Times they are a changing, however, and whilst there’s still no shortage of fire-breathing, fossil-fuel burning SUVs out there, the form factor has proved especially attractive to electrification. There’s plenty of space for a sizeable battery, for a start, along with the retention of the sense of safety and status that an SUV conveys. In a self-proclaimed lifestyle vehicle, the switch from ICE to EV is relatively downside free.

The latest X5 is the model’s fifth generation. It continues BMW’s current push towards a new, highly efficient form of electrification, following on from the i3 and iX3. It’s also the first X5 represented in the Neue Klasse design language.

Interestingly, the X5 is being billed as the ‘first BMW model engineered to support five drive systems’, namely BEV, PHEV, diesel, ICE and Hydrogen. Barely ten years ago, the trends was towards visual diversification between powertrains. X5 shows how far the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction.

The iX5 is the most interesting machine here, the first pure EV X5. In 60 xDrive configuration, it has a WLTP range of up to 525 miles, along with ultrafast 460 kW DC charging. All models share the monolithic Neue Klasse exterior design language, with the new era’s compact kidney grille.

Light signatures are also very distinctive, with what BMW is calling the ‘double-X’ daytime running lights, while other new elements include the ‘Winglet’ door handles and the ability to have all four doors power operated.

The simplified and more architectural Neue Klasse forms can only go so far towards minimising the X5’s considerable size. Unlike iX3 and i3, the larger X5 starts out more proportionally challenged, with a taller front and rear elevation and more space above the wheel arches. Specifying the largest available 23” wheels goes some way to normalising the looks, but overall the car’s scale is hard to disguise.

All that space is put to good use inside. The X5 gets the new generation interior, complete with Panoramic iDrive – a ribbon of information beneath the windscreen – and the choice of an optional Passenger Screen. The main screen isn’t exactly small, continuing the asymmetric design approach seen in the other Neue Klasse cars, and the graphics and responsiveness are top tier.

The powertrain agnostic will have plenty to choose from, although the straight up petrol version will only be available in certain markets. The bold can opt for the BMW iX5 Hydrogen, the company’s first ever hydrogen-powered production vehicle.

Performance options are available in the form of the plug-in hybrid X5 50e xDrive and X5 M60e xDrive, both of which feature 3.0-litre six-cylinder petrol engines paired with an electric motor. The flagship BMW X5 M60e xDrive offers a total power output of 612 hp, with a 0-62 mph sprint time of 4.5 seconds.

Standard features on top of the range models include a panoramic sunroof and sports seats, while the BMW Individual programme will take customisation as far as your wallet allows. There are also oodles of unique M Sport styling additions for the BMW X5 M60e xDrive model, including M Yellow double-X headlights, spoilers, different illumination for the grille and quad exhaust pipes.

Driver assistance systems are also upgraded, with the optional Motorway Assistant supporting hands-free Level 2 driving with automated lane changes, provided you glance deliberately at the relevant wing mirror for confirmation.

All new X5s get Driving Assistant Plus as standard, with adaptive cruise control and ‘AI-supported’ parking space detection and manoeuvring. The Parking Assistant Professional package brings remote-control parking functionality via your smartphone.

We’ll be driving the new X5 variants in due course.

BMW X5 and iX5, UK market launch in Spring 2027, more information at BMW.co.uk

Over its three-century life, LSO St Luke’s has taken on many forms. Originally built in 1733 as St Luke’s Church, the building later fell into ruin before being restored and transformed into the London Symphony Orchestra’s headquarters in 2003. Since then, it has welcomed world-renowned artists including Elton John, Annie Lennox and Bruce Springsteen, while also becoming a valued community hub.

Now, following a multi-million-pound upgrade, the Grade I-listed venue has opened a new suite of facilities, giving one of the capital’s most distinctive cultural landmarks a new lease of life.

Inside the new LSO St Luke's

The works, led by Levitt Bernstein, build on the practice’s original transformation of the building in the early 2000s. Rather than reinventing LSO St Luke’s, the project carefully enhances its existing character. The qualities valued by the orchestra have been retained, while technical infrastructure, acoustics and public spaces have been upgraded to support a wider range of creative work

‘Every intervention has been shaped by the need to respect the historic character of the building while making it more appropriate for contemporary use,’ states Arts Studio Director at Levitt Bernstein, Mark Lewis

Central to the transformation is a new bespoke Audio Control Room, designed to meet the highest standards of recording, mixing and post-production. Featuring an impressive Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 reference monitoring system, ATC speakers and an Avid S4 console, the space gives LSO St Luke’s a world-class technical backbone.

Linked to every performance space in the building, the Audio Control Room allows the venue to accommodate a broad range of uses, from orchestral recordings and podcasts to broadcast projects and commercial content. The main Jerwood Hall has also been upgraded with new acoustic measures to significantly improve sound quality. Alongside this, the enhanced Clore Rooms and Master Control Room provide premium digital and broadcast recording facilities, including a camera gallery for high-definition capture.

‘We now have the facilities we need to support our work properly,’ says Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra, Kathryn McDowell.

Careful attention has also been given to how people arrive, move through and experience the building. The aim was to make the underground spaces feel more natural, warm and welcoming,’ says Lewis. Improvements include changes to the main entrance, enhanced external lighting to the façade, more accessible spaces and the introduction of gender-neutral facilities.

‘We wanted to make the building more appropriate for the needs of today,’ says McDowell.

For the managing director of LSO, these changes have shifted how the former church can be used. ‘The project has opened the building up in a completely new way, making it more connected, accessible and better equipped for the needs of artists, producers, and filmmakers’

With its historic shell, LSO St Luke’s is a striking music venue rooted in the past yet designed for the future. Like the London Symphony Orchestra itself, it brings together heritage and innovation, creating a place where history and music meet. ‘LSO is a historic orchestra with a contemporary heart and this building is exactly the same.’

In early July 2026, after circa 30,000 units built, the last petrol-powered Alpine A110 is set to sashay off its Dieppe production line. Debuted in 2017 at the Geneva Motor Show, the rear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive, lightweight and low-slung two-seater was an instant hit with critics, including this one. As I commented back then: ‘A delight in all departments. Design, performance, handling and overall feel-good factor are sky-high in this wonderfully pared-back but still high-quality sportscar.’

The car was also significant for resurrecting the long dormant Alpine brand – which traces its roots back to the early 1950s and a French garage owner in Dieppe called Jean Rédélé, who tinkered with Renaults to make them racier. With some of his greatest rally successes taking place in the French Alps, when Rédélé created his own brand in 1955, he named it ‘Alpine’ in recognition.

The A110 nameplate has serious history too. First produced as a similar two-seater sports car from 1963-1977, the original version has a wonderfully curvaceous body embedded with four round and distinctively arranged headlights created by the Italian car design master Giovanni Michelotti.

Owned by Renault since 1973 and merged with Renault Sport in 1976 with some motorsport success in Le Mans and elsewhere, the Alpine brand was mothballed in 1995 but slowly brought back to life via various concept cars in the early 2010s.

The modern A110 references the original’s form language and front face too, but in a suitably 21st-century way via Anthony Villain, Alpine’s current design director. Not a great deal has changed since the 249hp A110 launched nine years ago for just over £50,000, aside from an infotainment system upgrade and the addition of Apple CarPlay compatibility.

Some faster (and more expensive) editions were created – including the £75,840 300hp A110 GTS model driven to Le Mans for this article – but the basic formula remains the same. Keep the weight down – the basic 2018 A110 was just 1103kg, and the GTS is still only between 1119-1140kg depending on options (in a world where many cars regularly exceed two tonnes). Make it low, compact and agile – the A110 is 1252mm high and 4181mm long – and let a modest but fun 1.8-litre petrol unit do the rest.

As a test of that formula, taking the annual pilgrimage from the UK to the 24 Hours of Le Mans race seemed like a fine idea. It is a journey that has been undertaken for as long as the race has existed, starting back in 1923, due to the involvement of British racing teams such as Bentley and more.

London to Le Mans in an Alpine A110

Kicking off the 700-odd mile round trip from south London, it’s optimal to keep the A110 on regular roads without speed bumps – its sporty suspension will let you know about some asphalt imperfections – but where they cannot be avoided, it’s far from a deal-breaker, and not ‘crashy’ like some German rivals. The A110’s seats, although bucket-style racers, also have sufficient padding to keep its occupants in fine fettle for such a long drive.

But the proper fun starts when the roads clear, especially once through the Channel Tunnel and into France. The 300hp 1.8-litre petrol engine makes a cracking sound when clicking through the automatic gearbox via tall aluminium paddle-shifters, and 0-62mph in 4.2 seconds is easy. Press the orangey-red Sport button attached to the south-east edge of the steering-wheel hub and everything tightens up and becomes louder, which lots of the (mainly young and male) fans lining the route on the way to Le Mans liked a lot.

As soon as the A110 GTS popped out of the Le Shuttle car train in Calais, the unofficial Le Mans paparazzi were quick to photograph the little French motor alongside far more expensive and bigger-engined McLarens and Ferraris. This crowd response was repeated time and again along the route down to Le Mans, from kids at the side of the motorway or on top of bridges spanning it – videoing, photographing and urging you to just rev the perky engine further.

It should be noted that along the same route there were also French police pointing a different type of camera at the exotic automotive convoy, hoping to catch those straying over various variable speed limits. Which kept the mind focused on driving, at least.

Within those emotional bookends, the A110 GTS handles with an easy and controllable charm through twisty roads, and feels sublime accelerating up to top-end French motorway speeds and its 6300rpm max power.

It’s not a perfect car, though. Luggage space is limited to a little bit of storage room behind the seats, for a slim laptop case, and a tiny rear boot that will only house a soft weekender bag after a gentle downward shove. However, due to the A110’s rear mid-engined layout, there is also a shallower and wider luggage space at the front that might take a small aircraft carry-on bag or two.

Partly due to its keep-things-simple focus, the outgoing A110 only offers a small hole between the front seats behind your elbow to store a drink – and it’s not really cupholder-shaped – and the old-school USB slots alongside a phone jack underneath the floating centre console make charging modern mobile phones tricky. You’ll need a USB-C converter or a power bank for longer journeys.

Still, the A110 is a fine example of a small petrol sports car that does just what it should: turn heads, rev sweetly, propel you forward with confidence and aplomb and handle brilliantly – while putting a big smile on your face (and that of most people who see it). With only 40 or so left in UK dealers at the time of writing, plus a few more around the world, now could be a great time to invest.

It’s not the last A110, though. The next one, due in 2027, will be an all-electric two-seater coupé followed by a 2+2-seat version. With Villain involved in its design and Alpine’s engineers promising a still-low (if slightly higher) kerb weight, we’re hopefully confident the racing spirit of this car will not be lost.

Alpine has motorsport provenance in spades, both historically and now. Its A424 is competing in its final season of the World Endurance Championship – within which the 24 hours of Le Mans race is the most famous round – and its drivers performed decently in the mid-June race, finishing sixth and tenth in the Hypercar category.

Alpine is still involved in Formula 1 too, where it is currently underperforming but future-focusing its racing efforts, due to F1’s greater standing as the pinnacle of motorsport and the related larger (social) media attention. In the last few weeks Alpine announced that, from the 2027 season, its cars will race under a new name – ‘Gucci Racing Alpine Formula One Team’.

This headline sponsorship would suggest the world-famous Italian luxury fashion house finds Alpine as credible as those Le Mans fans lining the French auto routes. And the vehicle should look spectacular in Gucci’s iconic colours.

In an automotive world where so many historic brands have lost their way, Alpine seems like a great example of a marque with a compelling story past, present and future – and its management is spending time and resources to tell it convincingly.

Literally the last public interaction I had, while filling up the A110 at a random London petrol station before its collection by Alpine, was with a very regular elderly gentleman pulling in to pump up his car’s tyres and saying, unprompted, ‘What a beautiful car.’ He’s right. It is, in every sense.

Alpine-Cars.co.uk, @AlpineCars

If you love vintage furniture and British heritage design, this one's for you. Pre-loved furniture marketplace Vinterior is joining forces with British design house Liberty London on a five-piece capsule collection, launching today (1 July 2026), which pairs meticulously sourced midcentury and modernist furniture with fabrics drawn from Liberty's archive.

The collaboration is led by Liberty's head of design for home and interiors, Genevieve Bennett, who selected each furniture piece with specific fabrics in mind. The result is a tightly curated edit that bridges the design philosophies of both brands: Vinterior's commitment to circular furnishing and Liberty's century-and-a-half tradition of textile innovation.

Our favourite pieces from the collection include a ‘Cassina Maralunga’ two-seater sofa, originally designed by Vico Magistretti for the Italian manufacturer Cassina, now upholstered in Liberty's ‘Shadow Stripe Weave’ in ‘Amalfi’, a pattern drawing on Futurist and Vorticist influences. Equally covetable is an early 1970s ‘Alky’ chair, designed by Giancarlo Piretti and produced by Anonima Castelli, finished in Liberty's ‘Zig Zag Velvet’ from the ‘FuturLiberty’ range, a jacquard velvet referencing early 20th-century design and the energy of jazz-age dance.

The collection also features two 1960s Vico Magistretti ‘Carimate’ chairs, sourced from Vinterior's archive and dressed in Liberty's densely embroidered ‘Mount Stitch’ fabric in ‘Acacia’, a woodland and mountain-inspired print that pops against the chairs' red frames. A 1960s Swedish ‘Lamino’ footstool is covered in Liberty's ‘Cravat’ fabric in ‘Scarab Lacquer’, chosen to complement its curved silhouette, while a vintage 1960s beech standard lamp is finished with a bespoke Liberty lampshade in ‘Ottoman Spot’ velvet, a design inspired by a 19th-century artwork unearthed in the Liberty archive.

‘[Liberty’s] designs have outlasted trends for over 150 years, and the pieces in this collection have done the same. That's the spirit this partnership is built on: timeless design, beautifully made, built to last,’ says Vinterior founder and CEO Sandrine Zhang Ferron.

‘We were naturally drawn to fabrics from our FuturLiberty and The House of Liberty collections, inspired by the same 1960s-70s periods as the selected furniture pieces – each fabric felt perfectly aligned in history and aesthetic,’ adds Bennett. ‘Sculptural, curved silhouettes juxtapose dynamic geometrics, charming scenic landscapes and bold textures.’

With just five pieces available, this collection is unlikely to stay on the market for long. Shop the furniture below for a rare opportunity to own a timeless piece of design history, reimagined for the present.

Shop the pieces

A cooling evening breeze is much appreciated after stepping out of the Tube exit at Notting Hill Gate. What is even more of a relief in the summer heat is that Kinz, a new Lebanese brasserie in the district, is only a few steps away.

Locals in the area may recognise the building from a previous incarnation. Designed by Sir Edward Maufe, it was a branch of Lloyds Bank. With tall ceilings and exposed brick walls, it has the restrained and almost clinical elegance that Maufe was known for. Yet, once you’re inside Kinz, his 1930s architectural severity is balanced with a warm and inviting atmosphere.

If you think the interior is reminiscent of Palestinian restaurant Akub, you are not mistaken. Founded by Rasha Khouri Bruzzo, co-owner of Akub, alongside brothers Jad and Karim Lahoud, Kinz blends authenticity and modernity in both its aesthetic and its food, highlighting the multifaceted flavours of Lebanese cooking.

‘The project is rooted in the food and traditions I grew up with – the small details, rituals and flavours that are passed down at home rather than written down. Kinz takes its name from the Arabic word for “treasure” and is our tribute to those treasures: cherished recipes, generous cooking, and the spirit of Lebanese food as it’s meant to be shared today,’ says Khouri Bruzzo. ‘It’s a place designed to feel as natural for everyday visits as it does for long, lingering meals.’

Wallpaper* dines at Kinz, London

The mood: a trove of authenticity and modernity

The interiors were spearheaded by London-based Fare Inc. Working with the pre-existing architecture, they implemented pockets of warmth by injecting colour. This is seen with the bright teal in the entrance deli space, which is broken up with a neutral tone in the central area. The ochre-hued bar and mezzanine glow from the far end. ‘Refined zones are needed in such a large space to create a more inviting atmosphere, yet we still wanted to highlight the original architecture of the space with pared-back tones that complement it throughout the main room,’ explains founder Annabel Harrison.

Above the heart of the dining area is a wine-red, oversized lantern that acts as a modern ‘sun’ for what feels like a courtyard-style space, albeit indoors. ‘The lantern [helps create the feel of] an elegant terrace, accentuated further by striped banquette seating and iron dining chairs,’ says the designer. ‘The red was chosen to add vibrancy to the otherwise delicately finished ceiling and original metal braces of the bank.’

The bank vault is converted into a wine room. A space that was built for security has been softened to allow for intimacy. ‘Lighting has been really important here, so there is pretty much no overhead lighting, only very low-lit wall lights and soft LED highlighting the wines. The walls and ceilings are drenched in Roman Plaster paint, which has softened the swathes of concrete and the steel beams, and we have a single, glass-grape pendant over the sharing table, for a playful nod to its purpose,’ says the designer.

The urban charm of Lebanon informed the practice’s design choices. Taking inspiration from Beirut’s metalwork, the studio designed iron screens to divide the retail and entrance area from the restaurant space, and continued this up the staircase and along the mezzanine edge to create a street-balcony feel. Harrison explains that they wove in squares of colourful seeded glass that glow in the sunshine and add a vibrancy to the space.

The food: a menu designed to be shared

The menu offers an array of flavourful morsels that showcase the best of the country’s flavours. Plates come out at similar times, creating a beautiful spread. To begin, we recommend the hummus, meat kibbeh (bulgar shells stuffed with spiced lamb and beef, with pine nuts and onions), and the spinach patayer, which are filled triangular pastries.

There are three salads, which add a refreshing zestiness to the savoury dishes. We suggest the fattoush, which is scattered with gem-like pomegranate seeds and fresh mint. A menu highlight is the warak enab – tender lamb cutlets resting on a bed of vine leaves and courgettes stuffed with fragrant rice and spiced lamb. But leave room for the flourless chocolate cake. It’s decadently delicious; you can’t go without.

The constant bringing and clearing of plates adds a sense of buzz to the atmosphere, giving Kinz the feeling of a welcoming local restaurant. It is easy to find comfort in the design’s small cultural details and the consideration of the menu, making you feel right at home.

Kinz is located at 50 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3JD, United Kingdom

Since the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicked off, it is only to be expected that the world has gone a little football crazy. New York has become a new stomping ground for soccer fans, and to accommodate them, Crosby Studios has designed ‘Home of Football: Home & Away’ (tickets here), a pop-up exhibition created in collaboration with cultural platform Home of Football and arts collective Air Afrique. The exhibition is designed to serve as an interactive space that offers a new perspective on the sport’s enduring legacy.

Football memorabilia is reimagined in New York exhibition

Founded by Harry Nuriev, Crosby Studios is best known for championing a transformative spirit within spaces – from Clive Christian’s London flagship to a reimagined Parisian espresso bar. Located at High Line Nine in New York’s Chelsea Gallery District, the new exhibition is no different. Divided into six chapters, the showcase looks at the codes of sport, art, design, and fashion and how they intersect.

What marks out this exhibition from others is the new viewpoint provided. Designed through Nuriev’s architectural lens, the space is graphical, with acoustic elements to enhance the impact of the presentation. The colour palette alludes to a football field, with hues of mint green, while circles and curvatures integrated within the space nod to the shape of a football and the markings on the pitch.

Memorabilia was selected and curated by Air Afrique, with highlights such as Pelé's 1958 Brazil World Cup jersey and Ronaldo artifacts from Brazil's 2002 World Cup triumph. The presentation also includes more than 60 other match-worn jerseys, as well as trophies, and photographs of defining footballing moments.

Coupled with the display of archival pieces is a new retail concept, The Crosby Shop, a platform to present some of Nuriev’s favourite brands – among them Baccarat, Nothing, publisher Rizzoli, men’s grooming brand Obayaty, and olive estate La Terra Di Neena – including some that will be available in the US for the first time. The shop is also home to Balira Coffee, a café pop-up from former Real Madrid star Sami Khedira, a World Cup-winning player for Germany in 2014, who will make select appearances.

Says Nuriev, ‘This concept is about the clash between football, fashion, and art culture. It is a form of cultural transformism, translating the energy and visual codes of football into a new media format that feels open and accessible, not only to football fans, but also to people discovering this world for the first time. The green is a digital version of the football field colour, and the circles reference both the ball and the centre point of the field, becoming symbols of movement, gathering, and play.’

'Home of Football: Home & Away' is located at High Line Nine, Hudson Yards, 507 W 27th Street, New York, NY 10001 ,until 19 July 2026. Tickets are available here

For the first time in three decades, one of La Jolla's most celebrated architectural treasures is coming to market. The Thomas C Kravis, MD Residence – a remodel completed between 1976 and 1987 by the organic architect Kendrick Bangs Kellogg – sits on Vista Del Mar Avenue, steps from the legendary Windansea Beach.

Although the home dates to the 1940s, its story truly begins in the 1970s, when physician Thomas Kravis purchased the property and turned to Kellogg (1934-2024) to reimagine it. At the time, Kellogg was at an early stage of his career – before the sweeping, almost sculptural fluidity that would define later works, such as the Doolittle Residence in Joshua Tree and the Yen Residence in La Jolla. Working within the constraints of a standard city lot, he demonstrated here that organic design doesn’t require a grand scale to make an impression.

The property announces itself through its stacked wood fascia, which frames the rooflines and signals something a bit different from the surrounding streetscape. Inside and out, Kellogg deployed his signature textured concrete – a recipe entirely his own – that originates at the interior fireplace and flows outward into the landscape through planters, water features, garden walls and seating areas. Natural wood and earthy tones lend the home a particular warmth, a quality that has made it a perennial favourite on the La Jolla Modern Home Tour.

The residence gained a further dimension in 1998, when the parents of the current owner – architect Yum Kee Fu and his wife Susan – undertook a two-year renovation that wove nature-inspired Asian detail throughout. Their most exquisite contribution is the upstairs suite, where artisan-crafted interior doors feature intricate wood inlays. The work was guided by Yum Kee Fu's philosophy that any design should 'create and meet the peaceful environment and peaceful nature of life'.

The residence comprises three bedrooms and three bathrooms, with ocean and sunset views throughout. The primary suite – accessible via an exterior stairway and complete with its own rooftop deck – functions equally well as a self-contained one-bedroom apartment.

The Kravis Residence is a home shaped by three distinct creative hands across five decades, each leaving its own mark. Available off-market, it is a rare opportunity to own a work of enduring architectural significance in one of Southern California's most coveted coastal neighbourhoods.

The Kravis Residence is listed with Keith York at Agents of Architecture.

A fan of the architect? Tour another Kendrick Bangs Kellogg California gem

We’ve all become very accustomed to a world where A hooks up with B to cross-pollinate their respective audiences, an ‘x’ association that goes beyond straightforward creative collaborations to tap into new revenue streams via a canny intersection of cross-demographic appeal and straightforward marketing.

On the face of it, 23-year-old American singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo is no more a collab queen than any of her peers, but that doesn’t mean she’s not busy; recent commercial and ‘ambassadorial’ tie-ins include Sony, Glossier, AmEx, Casetify, Lancôme, and even chunky cup maker Stanley.

This is a roundabout way of introducing Rodrigo’s new collaboration with Lego, five sets that mark a sea change in the way the Danish play specialist works with external creative forces, as well as a canny way of connecting the Californian songstress with her fans young and old.

Wallpaper* spoke to Amy Corbett, senior design manager at the Lego Group, about the origins and execution of the new collection, the first time Lego has ever worked with a contemporary music artist.

Rodrigo has been hot property for several years, following the success of her first two albums, Sour (2021) and Guts (2023), global tours, three Grammys, and appearances at Glastonbury, Lollapalooza and her own forthcoming all-female festival Daisy Chain Fields in California. This year saw the release of her latest album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, from which the singles ‘Drop Dead’, ‘The Cure’ and ‘Stupid Song’ have already been taken.

Diving into the infinite realm of the plastic brick might seem like an unusual creative decision, especially as Rodrigo has never said much – if anything – about her own Lego fandom. It’s not like she contacted the makers of her favourite childhood toy and requested they work together.

Instead, it was the canny marketing folk at Lego who recognised that the singer’s attitude, oeuvre, and personal style contained the perfect combination of powerful, playful and extensive reach. It's the perfect demographic split to tap into Rodrigo's legions of admirers, many of whom skew younger, with an added contingent of savvy adult pop fans who recognise a generational talent when they see one.

‘We look for passions,’ Corbett admits. ‘We look for what is going to drive our consumers to have a great building experience by creating something that they love. And, of course, music is a huge, universal passion.’ A Lego set requires a long lead time, from ideation and design through to manufacturing and distribution.

All in all, it’s a good 18 months of work behind the scenes before a set appears on the shelves. When the collaboration began, the third album was very much a work in progress. ‘We knew there was going to be something exciting coming,’ Corbett says. ‘Olivia is just a really creative powerhouse. She writes her own songs, she plays her own instruments and she’s such a great role model.’

The result is five new Lego Editions sets launching around the world on 1 August, and are already available to pre-order. Among them are Olivia Rodrigo’s Dual Guitar (43031), Olivia Rodrigo's Concert Moon (43029) and Olivia Rodrigo’s Flower Bouquet (11507).

The bouquet represents the first time the Botanicals series has included a collaboration. Introduced in 2021 as part of the Creator series, Botanicals became a standalone product line in 2025, neatly parlaying the themes of design, intricacy, and display into a series of sets that have become cult home objects among adult fans of Lego and tween builders alike.

The other two sets are Olivia Rodrigo’s Vinyl (43028), a 360-piece that serves as a portmanteau of hidden messages and callbacks, all of which will be seized upon by fans, and the 1,085-piece Secret Storage set (43030), a display item that includes a representation of her cherry red guitar (she favours both Fender Mustang and Jazzmaster, as well as a purple St Vincent-designed Music Master), the Guts tour megaphone and a lyric book.

There’s a high degree of fan-favourite winks and nods across all five sets. Whereas the more literal sets are rich with imagery and the all-important Easter Eggs, the 400-piece bouquet set is embedded with slightly subtler symbolism. Flowers and butterflies – an enduring Rodrigo motif – represent her mixed Californian-Filipino heritage, whereas the honeybee is a literal callback to the third track on the new album.

Lego's team searched high and low to find a flower with guitar-like petals for added authenticity, eventually settling on the African Daisy. Flower parts are also formed from stars and cupcakes, with a purple and pink colourway that also comes to the fore in set 43031.

This 1,228-piece set is a display model that mashes up an electric and acoustic guitar, unfolding to reveal a concert scene, with an internal pull-out dressing room (complete with burger). The set also includes two of the five unique Olivia minifigs that are being launched as part of the collaboration.

Corbett describes the collaboration as a three-way process, between Lego, Rodrigo and her legions of fans. To that end, the five sets tick off the tropes and lore that inevitably accompany contemporary global megastars, a mix of breadcrumbs dropped via social media, lyrical analysis and overt, in your face imagery.

The last naturally applies to Rodrigo's image and wardrobe, which is richly analysed and obsessed over. The five minifigs represent five different stage costumes, as evidenced in the Concert Moon set, which offers a recreation of the giant moon prop used during the Guts tour.

Rodrigo herself is happy to use Lego to continue playing a game she’s used throughout her career. ‘I’ve always loved hiding little details and meanings in my music and videos, so working with the Lego team to bring something that fans can actually build and explore together has been so exciting,’ she says. ‘There are so many pieces of my world inside these sets – little nods to songs, memories, outfits and moments that mean a lot to me.’

Officially, these five collectible sets are pitched at nine- to 14-year-olds, but if Lego has learnt one thing in the nearly three decades since it signed the lucrative Star Wars licence, it’s that any form of collectability explodes the idea of age ratings.

Working with Rodrigo also opens the door to limitless future musical partnerships; the company can rightfully expect to be besieged by creative directors and merchandise managers. More importantly, for the Livies, it could be the start of a whole new obsession.

The Lego Editions x Olivia Rodrigo sets are available to pre-order now and will be released from 1 August 2026.
Store.OliviaRodrigo.com, @OliviaRodrigo, Lego.com, @Lego

Utilitarian and unassuming from the street front, All Projects, a new gallery spearheaded by architecture studio EBBA, has recently opened its doors in Hoxton, east London. The project, housed in an old brick-clad warehouse, sits adjacent to the practice's own workspace – yet it is more than simply a showcase for its work. This flexible space has been conceived as a platform for multidisciplinary collaboration and creative cross-pollination across the fields of art, architecture, design, fashion and music.

Tour All Projects, a new gallery by EBBA

Working beyond the strict remit of building architecture has long been part of EBBA founder Benni Allan's thinking. The architect has been approaching his profession in broad and inclusive terms since the inception of his dynamic studio in 2017, and when we first met him in 2021 – as part of our profile series on London's exciting emerging architecture studios – he told us: 'We are not afraid of trying different things and use the process of making to help generate something that is least expected.'

Allan remains true to his word, and All Projects is an extension of his ambition. When the ground-floor space next to his studio became available, he snapped it up, spruced it up and launched it as a hub for creative expression – expressly beyond architecture.

All Projects' motto is that culture does not operate in a silo. The gallery aims to build upon 'EBBA’s record of collaborating with key cultural protagonists, including the listening bar Space Talk and music festival Houghton’, Allan explains.

The main space has been cleaned up and painted white in order to accommodate a variety of activities and exhibits. Film programmes can also be offered, projected against the crisp white walls.

That said, the gallery maintains its character and historic patina, with various existing surfaces refurbished and beautifully juxtaposed against contemporary additions – EBBA's own designs for anything from furniture to sinks and storage. Sleek metal designs meet with all-timber constructions that showcase the practice's feel and material palette.

All Projects launched with events by independent institutions such as bookstore Tenderbooks and the Architecture Foundation.

All Projects, Unit 3 Mill Row, Whitmore Estate, London N1 5RL

eb-ba.co

The Honda Super-N is a mish-mash of design influences. Perhaps someone at Honda thought it would be amusing to make an electric car, shaped and styled like a retro games console and call it the ‘Super-N’. How they haven’t had ‘cease and desists’ from Nintendo’s famously litigious legal team, I don’t know, but I’m here for it.

While some brands – *cough* Renault – have been leaning into more literal reimagining and namesake recreations of ‘80s icons, Honda has chosen to take some small inspiration from its 1983 City Turbo II and make something completely new-tendo instead.

Based on the company’s beloved Kei car platform, the Super-N draws on Honda’s extensive experience in this segment but pushes beyond strict Kei car dimensions. Seeking better handling performance and more aesthetic creativity, large project leader at Honda R&D, Hidetomo Horita-san says, ‘With Kei cars, automatically, the design becomes boxy and not very beautiful.

‘In order to appeal to a European market, not that the car was designed for Europe, but as Europe is one of the leading regions when it comes to design, we were happy to go beyond the Kei car boundaries because that gave us a lot of possibilities and a degree of freedom in terms of the design.’

A wider track and longer body balance the practicality and sporty dynamics the team was looking for. Its Kei car roots are a refreshing reminder that small cars can be just as practical, if not more, than modern SUVs – forget the sloping roofs, porthole rear windows and shoe box boots.

As seen in the Honda Jazz, the Super-N is given the ‘magic seats’ treatment in the rear. This allows the back seats to fold completely flat or the seat bases lift up so you can use the rear floor space for taller items. As someone who uses a three door Polo like a van, this speaks to my Facebook marketplace soul.

Normally, practical means boring but Honda is bringing back the hot hatch vibe with a vibrant purple colour scheme inside and out. Boost Violet Pearl is the new paint colour which sounds like a power-up in Mario Kart but was actually inspired by the haiku-worthy phenomenon of lightning rising up from the earth in stunning bolts of purple energy, a fitting visualisation for a sporty little EV.

In keeping with Kei car regulations, in its normal modes, the Super-N’s power output is limited to 47kW but press the ‘boost’ button on the steering wheel and it delivers 70kW. Unlike boost buttons in the likes of the Genesis GV60, this isn’t a short-term burst for overtaking, if so inclined, you can drive around in boost mode all the time, like electric NOS that won’t blow up your engine.

Inside, the ambient blue lighting switches to purple, the dash display is reconfigured with three dials along the bottom showing battery temperature, rpm and power output – think Tron but on four wheels. Usually, that’s where performance modes stop, but Honda was keen to incorporate noticeable mechanical changes as well as a new soundtrack.

Simulated gear shifts combined with faux engine and exhaust noise coming through the Bose sound system make you almost forget you’re driving an EV; and for any would-be boy racers it comes with a ridiculously oversized subwoofer under the boot floor which sells the authenticity of the combustion sounds. You can even use the flappy paddles in ‘manual’ mode to make it ‘redline’ before changing ‘gears’. It’s very ‘80s kitsch, which is kind of the point.

Horita-san explains that the idea was to give drivers an instinctual perception of the vehicle’s dynamic behaviour in any given moment through audible cues. He says, ‘The most efficient and the most comprehensive way to transport that information is an engine sound, because an engine sound has the advantage that it changes its specific characteristic of sound, depending on the rpm.’

It’s a novelty but a welcome one that feels far better executed than the obnoxious artificial canned vroom vrooms in the Abarth 500e. Although it’s not a sports car, the firm bolsters and grippy fabric on the front seats hug you and give you the confidence to have some fun. Most of the time, just the front seats will be occupied, but two passengers in the back have a surprisingly generous amount of space for such a small car. So everyone can jump in for the late-night McDonalds runs and womp-womp bass sessions.

The Super-N has captured the magic of what hot hatches were in a sensible yet silly way, much like the salarymen of Tokyo clocking off after a long day in the office to sink a couple Asahi and sing karaoke until the early morning. Cruising around in its Econ, City or Normal modes, it’s a city commuter’s best friend: quiet, relaxing, top notch sound system, easy touchscreen interface. Find a back road on the outskirts of town, however, and it’s impressive how Honda has given such a small lightweight car so much dynamic presence.

In real world conditions, expected range is around 128 miles but city driving only will up that to 199 miles. It’s positioned as a fun second car or a less likely sole car for younger drivers, competing against the likes of the BMW 1 series and Audi A1, which believe it or not, due their competitive financing options, are now the first cars for many Gen-Z and Alpha drivers. In comparison the Super-N is a compelling option coming in at £18,995. If I had to choose my first car today, I’d be hard pushed not to press start on the Super-N.

Honda Super-N, from £18,995, Honda.co.uk, @HondaUKcars

A minimalist, new virtual house design by Miami-based studio Oppenheim Architecture allows you to try-before-you-buy in an immersive experience that celebrates design and digital advances. Initiated by client Swiss frameless door and window specialists Sky-Frame, the project, which launches today (29 June 2026) explores the boundaries of digital design and virtual worlds through the practice's sophisticated aesthetic.

Take a taster tour of this virtual house by Oppenheim Architecture

The project is a subtly abstract house design - a single-level, long and linear residence clad in seamless glazing. The residence features a pared-down aesthetic (the Swiss manufacturer is famous for producing virtually frameless openings) and a sculptural timber and concrete look.

The design was developed as a somewhat 'infinite' design, conceived to allow the creativity to run wild and potential to be imagined. As a result, the house can be seen in two distinct settings - visitors can experience it in a sun-drenched Miami beach scenery, or a snowy Swiss peak, the Matterhorn in the distance.

'The brief was to create an experience that captures the essence of Sky-Frame: openness, continuity and a seamless connection between inside and outside. By collaborating with Oppenheim Architecture, we were able to explore these ideas without physical constraints and demonstrate the emotional power of architecture in an entirely new way,' says Andrea Zürcher, CMO at Sky-Frame.

'Evolving the original thinking, together with Beat and Rasem, into this virtual dream world, was a really fun experience right from the start. We enjoyed working creatively to build our own ‘dream house’, as much about the beautiful design, as the conceptual thinking - and we enjoyed the process of being the client!'

The idea is that prospective clients - customers, including contractors, designers, architects and the general public - can book an appointment for a private viewing, where they can explore the look and feel of Sky-Frame's product through Oppenheim Architecture's sleek design.

'The brief was deliberately open, which is both a gift and a discipline,' says Oppenheim Architecture's Beat Huesler. 'Sky-Frame asked us to design a house that was architecturally rigorous but not site-specific. A residence that could exist anywhere, yet feels entirely at home in each location. The only non-negotiable was the landscape: every space had to earn its relationship to the view. That is very aligned with how we at Oppenheim Architecture (OA) approach architecture more broadly. We started with two concrete planes and let everything else follow from that discipline - services hidden, structure quiet, the frame of the window becoming the frame of the world outside.'

'We value Oppenheim’s visionary architecture and their philosophical approach to light, space, and integration with the surroundings,' says Zürcher. 'When approached, they immediately understood both the challenge and the opportunity of the project. The collaboration was based on a shared perspective and mindset on architecture.'

The architects were also challenged and pleased by the project. Huesler adds: 'The freedom to design without the constraints of a real site, a real budget, or a real planning authority and then to discover that this freedom actually demanded greater discipline, not less. When you remove every practical excuse, you are left with pure architectural intention.'

'The collaboration with The Boundary also pushed us to think about how architecture is experienced sequentially, almost cinematically. Miami Beach and Zermatt - each setting asked the house to perform differently, and watching it hold its identity across all three was genuinely satisfying.'

oppenoffice.com

sky-frame.com

RH has arrived in London, and it's done so in style. The American luxury home furnishings brand – formerly known as Restoration Hardware – has chosen 7 Burlington Gardens, one of the city's most storied addresses, for its new flagship.

The project marks RH's first London outpost, following its 2023 debut at Aynho Park – a 400-year-old landmark estate in Banbury – and subsequent openings in Paris, Milan, Brussels, Madrid, Munich and Düsseldorf. But London, it seems, demanded something different in scale and ambition.

The venue is Uxbridge House, a rare surviving Palladian mansion designed in 1721 by Italian-born architect Giacomo Leoni for the 1st Earl of Darnley. Restored and reimagined alongside three adjoining landmark properties, it now houses what RH bills as the largest curated collection of luxury home furnishings in the world. Working with Foster + Partners, the brand has unified four buildings – spanning five levels and over 5,000 square metres – into a single destination encompassing retail, dining, design and culture.

Visitors arrive through a Roman Doric portico into the Architecture & Design Library, where herringbone floors of European white oak and museum-style plinths frame a collection of rare classical books. The centrepiece is a 1521 first Italian edition of Vitruvius' De Architectura, a foundational text of Western architecture. Through Leonardo da Vinci's later interpretation, its principles of proportion helped shape the design philosophy that continues to influence RH today.

A scenic lift designed by Foster + Partners – its shaft clad in champagne gold-finished steel and glass – connects all five levels. The Wine Bar and Tea Salon, finished in Bronze Amani Spanish marble, sits nearby, while deeper in the mansion the former banking hall has been reborn as the The Dining Room: a 136-seat restaurant where champagne-lacquered Roman columns rise nearly eight metres to a coffered ceiling hand-finished in gold leaf, tiered chandeliers of hand-blown Venetian glass suspended from mirrored skylights above. The menu leans into British classics like rib roast and fish and chips, cooked on custom Molteni rotisseries.

Upstairs, the first floor's historic Piano Nobile state rooms retain their elaborately decorated 18th-century ceilings by master plasterer Joseph Rose, now framing RH Interiors collections. The second floor is arguably more dramatic still. Designer and hotelier Anouska Hempel has created two spaces: the The Perch at RH London, with its smoked-glass aviary canopy, blackened églomisé walls and bar of pure Absoluto Nero marble, which opens onto a terrace garden of laurel trees, diamond-laid marble floors with water rills and grand glass birdcages evoking the domes of Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan. Nearby, the World of RH Lounge is anchored by a 360-degree hologram floating within a case of bronze and fluted mirror.

The third floor, meanwhile, has been transformed into a sheltered garden oasis beneath a massive ridged skylight of triangular glass panels and hand-selected European white oak beams, housing RH Outdoor among fountains, pleached plane trees and open fireplaces.

Situated opposite the Royal Academy of Arts, between New Bond Street and Savile Row, the location is as deliberate as everything else here. RH London is a store, yes – but it's also a statement.

Studio RAP describes itself as ‘Architects of Bespoke Ceramics’. Since the Rotterdam-based studio was founded in 2016 by Lucas ter Hall and Wessel van Beerendonk, it’s been on the cutting edge of new ways of manufacturing. The studio has an array of in-house 3D clay printers, working on ceramic designs for façades, artworks and ornamentation in collaboration with architects and designers.

The latest artwork from Studio RAP is Powerwall, which the duo reckon is one of the largest robotically 3D-printed ceramic artworks anywhere in the world. Comprising 322 unique ceramic titles, each 3D printed through a layering process using a robotic clay printer, the artwork began life as an algorithmically generated form.

Powerwall graces the façade of a high-voltage transformer station, Switchstation Beverwijk. The inspiration behind the forms was patterns of electromagnetic energy – invisible, but dynamic, transforming the windowless utilitarian form of the transformer station, owned by Dutch grid operator TenneT and designed by Powerhouse Company, into a piece of urban artwork.

The 300-plus panels form an installation that’s 8m high and 5m wide, gracing the brick façade of Switchstation Beverwijk. The wave forms that appear ripple across the surface were originally shaped by an algorithm, then output as three-dimensional forms via the 3D clay printer. Each tile is then coated with a translucent turquoise glaze and fired, creating a surface that shimmers and shifts depending on time and day and point of view.

The ribbed effect on the surface not only accentuates the form, but lays bare the act of clay printing, where ribbons of clay are extruded along a path, stacking up on each to create an organic feel. The addition of the glaze adds a layer of unpredictability, with different thicknesses of the colour pooling in the depths of the folds.

‘The studio embraces the reality that ceramics shrink and warp during the firing process,’ van Beerendonk and ter Hall explain. ‘The intense heat of the kiln transforms the raw material, meaning the final piece is never an exact sterile replica of the digital model, but rather an organic, highly characterful architectural element.’ Creating the final assembly required that each panel be perfectly engineered with the correct tolerances and stability so that the artwork could be put together in situ.

Studio RAP’s work brings the Dutch ceramic tradition into the modern era – a recent project, New Delft Blue, was a pair of gates incorporating reinterpreted traditional porcelain. Other recent work includes Ceramic House in Amsterdam, with its 3D-printed façade.

StudioRAP.nl, @Studio.RAP

In a new Wallpaper* summer series, architect Carlo Ratti explores Italy through the ordinary objects that define daily life. Second up: the tiny Microlino car, a lesson in design, driving and keeping things compact.

Carlo Ratti's 'Objectify' explores the Microlino

In a summer that promises to be scorching, what could be better than opening the door of a refrigerator and clambering inside? Welcome to the Microlino, two and a half metres long, one and a half metres wide, weighing less than five hundred kilos. Two seats, and a front door that opens on to the city as a fridge door opens on to a kitchen.

We are in Turin, at Cecomp, in the same industrial district that once produced the Fiat 500. If the original 500 motorised postwar Italy, the Microlino asks whether Italy still needs to be motorised quite so much, and with this much metal per person. Because today, on our roads, its nemesis reigns supreme, the SUV, two tonnes of sheet metal snarling itself up while searching for a parking space.

Call it the Ozempic of the automobile. A vehicle stripped of everything the twentieth century had prescribed. Reduced to an essential dose, a bubble, two seats, a door, and enough range to cross a city twice. Ozempic works by intervening in the feedback loop between appetite and satiety. The Microlino does something similar with the feedback loops of urban traffic.

Its design lineage is the BMW Isetta, the bubble car of the 1950s, which was itself an Italian invention, licensed to the Germans by Iso of Milan in 1955. The Isetta was famously the car in which postwar couples could sit closer together than in almost any other vehicle on the market. The Microlino continues that line of thought and discovers that the intelligent car might also be the most romantic.

The Microlino was conceived in Switzerland by the Ouboter family, designed in Italy by Icona, and finally assembled in Turin. Its cultural logic, however, is entirely Italian. The Fiat 500 compressed family life into three metres of steel. The Microlino compresses it into two and a half metres of aluminium and a fourteen-kilowatt-hour battery.

At the Senseable City Lab, we conducted a study called Unparking, which showed how the shift to shared autonomous vehicles could reduce the need for parking in cities such as Singapore by more than seventy percent. The Microlino reaches a similar conclusion, but by simpler means. It occupies around a third of a standard parking space. Three Microlinos beam in the space where one SUV sulks. Here, the parking problem is answered by shrinking the car itself.

After all, how much car do you really need to move through Italian cities, designed for human bodies, built before cars existed, and governed by streets once measured in feet and arms? For most journeys, the answer is simple: very little. The Microlino has understood that the city does not need a smaller version of the old automotive fantasy. It needs much less car. With the self-assurance of someone who has just completed a diet, it wants everyone to know.

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

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

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

carlorattiassociati.com

A sublimely minimalist Belgian penthouse by architecture studio Merckx-Holvoet is just the thing for those long, hot summer days when easy living and going back to basics are in order. The project, titled V Penthouse, was crafted in an existing unit by the Antwerp-based architects Marc Merckx and Sébastien Holvoet and their team, and blends contemporary chic with the glamour its established seaside resort, Knokke-Heist, is known for.

Explore this Belgian penthouse by the sea

The client, a couple and their two young children, came to the studio with the desire to create a coastal pied-a-terre, a space that can allow for carefree time over weekends and holidays. The project would acts as a refreshing counterbalance to their busy urban lives in a Belgian city the rest of the year.

As a result, the architecture team focused on opening up to the surrounding landscape and, at the same time, bringing hints of the context in. Compositions are framed towards large windows, which create long views of the beach and sea. Meanwhile, the project's materiality takes its cues from local, natural colours and materials, and the shifting hues of the North Sea.

To achieve the textures of its setting, in a refined, polished way that is befitting of 21st-century family life, Merckx-Holvoet clad the walls and floors of the main living spaces in a unifying way, using sandblasted Travertino Noce stone. The ceiling's plaster gives a subtly sandy finish.

Timber elements bring smoothness and warmth to the composition, such as the main, solid oak-built staircase at the heart of the home. Bespoke millwork also features in the kitchen cabinets and its generous island.

A balcony acts as an extension to the living space. When the glazing is drawn back fully, living room and outdoors become one, highlighting the long views across the North Sea waters.

The ultimate aim? The architects write: 'More than a temporary retreat, it becomes a quiet extension of the coast itself, a place shaped as much by atmosphere as by function.'

ericpetschek.com

It’s all about the collection. If we must be subjected to unwanted and extraneous objects to facilitate our digital lives – chargers, extension sockets, power packs, etc. – then let them at least be beautiful, harmonised and something that doesn’t look out of place in a calm desktop environment.

That’s the thinking behind two new productions from Daily Objects, Node and Loft (both currently available in India, not yet on the company’s US site). Designed by London-based industrial design agency Layer, the ecosystem offers up two different ways of charging. Node is a modular wireless platform, a desktop dock for a variety of different modules, available in either two- or three- bay configurations.

Node has four interchangeable modules, an array of functional but sculptural pieces that can be placed anywhere on the flat, puck-like charging surface and then used around the house. They include a Wireless Charging Phone Stand, Wireless Charging Disk, Apple Watch Charging Stand and Portable Lamp.

The intention is to distil charging needs down into a single-wire solution without compromising on flexibility. The phone stand has 25W fast charging and incorporates a 7800mAh battery, bringing a wireless and cordless overnight charging solution to the bedside table.

The disk is also fast-charge compatible but presents a more compact solution for earbuds, while there’s also a dedicated Apple Watch charging stand. Finally, Layer has added in a portable lamp, a lantern-like object with bright yellow carrying handle. An onboard battery provides eight hours of battery life away from the Node.

It’s joined by Loft, a desktop 65W charging station with twin plug sockets and twin USB-C outlets. The unit is available in four colours, Charcoal, Clay, Forest and Mandarin, all of which compliment the components in the Node system. Loft is designed to power four devices at once, including laptops and tablets. Ergonomically angled, it comes with a 1.5m braided cord with integral cable loop and a non-slip silicone base.

‘Charging your tech is one of the most repeated interactions in daily life, yet the products that enable it are often treated as background objects,’ says Layer’s founder Benjamin Hubert, ‘With Node and Loft, we wanted to bring clarity, flexibility and character to that experience and create a family of products to the fore, that work beautifully, feel intuitive to use, and establish a distinctive visual language for Daily Objects.’

DailyObjects.us, @DailyObjects_global, LayerDesign.com, @Layer_Design

A new private home draws on the drama and natural feel of the Karijini National Park, set within the vast, open landscapes of Western Australia. The project, fittingly titled Karijini House, was designed by Tenille Teakle, design director at Studio Gritt. Her goal? 'To create a home that offers the same sense of solitude and connection to nature [as the national park],' she explains.

Explore a house inspired by Karijini National Park

The property is located in the Perth suburb of Wembley Downs. Inspired by the materiality, tactility and wild feel of the Karijini nature, the 409 sq m house (spanning two above-ground levels and a basement) features 7m-high rammed-earth walls and large glass windows that connect it to the outdoors at every turn.

Explaining the connection between her inspiration and the home's context and reality, Teakle writes: 'Horizontal banding in the imperfect and damaged face brick (weathered by age) evokes the carved Karijini rockfaces. The undulating texture of the rammed concrete walls echoes the tactility of the rockface. Burnished concrete floors and soffits are reminiscent of blackened sand.

'Upstairs the lighter hemp render and palette replicate the experience of re-emerging onto the plains from a hike down the gorge, being bathed in natural daylight, no longer in the dark and dank and mysterious. Large, banded iron boulders feature as architectural monuments, sparking curiosity and storytelling.'

The designer and her team sought to craft a home that feels like a sanctuary, a solitary cocoon, cool and calm – making the everyday appear like a holiday, even in Karijini House's dense urban and suburban broader setting. '[It evokes] the experience of traversing a gorge,' she says.

The creative team took into account sustainability principles, as well as questions around provenance and longevity. As a result, the home features recycled rammed concrete walls, repurposed second-hand local materials, and a rich green garden of native planting that allow the local wildlife to thrive.

Teakle highlights: 'To distil the Karijini experience into identifying features, they would be scale, grandeur, light and shade, horizontal banding and privacy.'

@gritt_studio

A new monograph published today makes the case for Miyako Ishiuchi as one of the most important photographers of the modern era. Ishiuchi Miyako: Traces, edited by Lena Fritsch and Yasufumi Nakamori, spans five decades of the artist’s career while placing unusual emphasis on Ishiuchi’s own voice. Alongside extensive reproductions of her work, the volume includes extracts from her earlier writings, an in-depth interview conducted by Fritsch and a newly commissioned essay by the photographer herself.

Born in 1947 and raised in Yokosuka, a Japanese port city shaped by the presence of an American naval base, Ishiuchi emerged within a photography world that was overwhelmingly male-dominated. She became one of the few women of her generation to achieve international recognition, developing a practice that challenged conventional approaches to documentary photography.

At the heart of Ishiuchi’s work lies the premise that history reveals itself through surfaces. Rather than documenting events, she photographs the traces they leave behind – scars on skin, worn clothing, crumbling apartments, lipstick tubes, dentures. In her images, objects and body parts become repositories of memory, carrying the imprint of lives that might otherwise go unrecorded.

Her breakthrough came with ‘Yokosuka Story’ (1976-77), a series made upon returning to the city of her childhood. Rather than producing a straightforward documentary account, Ishiuchi photographed streets, buildings and neighbourhoods marked by the proximity of the US naval base. She followed it with ‘Apartment’, a study of ageing interiors and decaying architecture that earned her the prestigious Kimura Ihei Award in 1979.

In the 1990s, Ishiuchi turned her attention to women’s bodies, producing close-up photographs of surgical scars and other physical marks – records of experience inscribed on flesh. This was followed by ‘Mother’s’, made after her mother’s death, in which shoes, dresses, cosmetics and dentures become vehicles for exploring grief.

Two later series extended this logic from the personal to the historical. For ‘Hiroshima’, Ishiuchi photographed the clothing and personal belongings of atomic bomb victims. Her focus was not the disaster itself but its intimate residue.

A similar sensitivity informed a project commissioned by the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City. Ishiuchi photographed the Mexican artist’s most personal possessions – the corsets that supported her damaged spine, the dresses that became part of her public image, the medicines that sustained her and the cosmetics used to construct her iconic appearance. Kahlo’s belongings had been sealed away by Diego Rivera following her death in 1954 and remained hidden from public view for half a century; it was fitting that Ishiuchi – an artist preoccupied with what objects carry across time – was the one to photograph them.

Traces is the book that Ishiuchi’s career has always deserved.

Leica introduced the SL-System in 2015, an evolution of the classic L-Mount with a full-frame sensor and enough sophistication and quality to satisfy even the most demanding professional user. At the same time, the SL-System has proved an effective gateway into the Leica universe for those looking to elevate their photography and videography.

This is the new SL3-P, the latest SL-System upgrade, which is being launched alongside two new lenses, the Summilux-SL 50 f/1.4 ASPH. and APO-Macro-Elmarit-SL 100 f/2.8. Taken together, they offer an unbeatable and hugely flexible package that stays true to the Leica ethos while also prioritising ease of use and minimalist design.

A new 44-megapixel BSI full-frame sensor is paired with a new autofocus system, giving the camera the ability to shoot images at up to 176 megapixels, with a vast ISO range (50 to 200,000) to facilitate low-light photography. The autofocus blends phase detection, depth mapping and contrast detection, for instantaneous focus.

As a result, the Leica SL3-P can shoot continuously at up to 40 frames per second with full autofocus. It also supports 8K video, including the industry standard 8.1K Open Gate format and can produce 4K slow-motion footage at 120 frames per second.

The new camera and lenses are manufactured in Germany; they don’t depart from the firm grip of the Leica aesthetic, although on this particular occasion the red Leica logo is conspicuous by its absence. The body is metal, weather-resistant, and finished in sober black. L-Mount capability gives the SL3-P incredible flexibility, with the choice to use not just Leica’s own lenses but compatible glass from alliance partners.

Taking and managing photographs is handled by Leica’s crisp UI and the Leica Fotos App, which connects to the camera via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB-C. The unit can also be tethered to Lightroom Classic, or via Adobe’s cloud, further expanding the ways in which content can be managed and processed.

The Summilux-SL 50 f/1.4 ASPH is billed as the ‘world’s most compact autofocus lens with this focal length and a lens speed of f/1.4’, with a length of 75.5mm. It’s joined by the new APO-Macro-Elmarit-SL 100 f/2.8 macro lens, capable of delivering outstanding detail thanks to its close focus distance of 30cm. The camera is available now, with lenses coming later in the year.

Leica SL3-P, £5,150.00 / €5,990 (camera only)
Leica Summilux-SL 50 f/1.4 ASPH, £3,890.00 / €4,500.00
Leica APO-Macro-Elmarit-SL 100 f/2.8, £2,110.00 / €2,450.00
Leica-Camera.com, @Leica_Camera

Amble is a new mobility company out of Portugal, assembled by a team with a diverse range of specialism and a passion for industrial and mobility design. The team of four includes hotelier and entrepreneur José António Uva, industrial designer Julian Hoenig, Michael Tropper of London-based creative studio forpeople and Adrien Roose, one of the co-founders of e-bike manufacturers Cowboy.

Together, the four founded Amble as a bridge between off-road, quadricycle-style vehicles like golf buggies and fully street-legal vehicles for short-range mobility in small communities. Their debut product is the Amble One, a stripped-down, ultra simple electric buggy that’s also fully legal for road use in both the US and EU.

Amble One is built on a modular platform, so the passenger version you see here can be simply modified for cargo, light commerce and other use cases. The new company’s ambition is to have vehicles on the road for 2027, starting with hospitality orders with personal vehicles available the following year. The target start price is €20,000 / $25,000 plus local taxes.

The Amble One follows a long tradition of beach cars, island transport and remote mobility requirements. Rugged tyres give it light off-roading ability – perfect for gravel tracks and sandy lanes – while the canvas-toppped open framework is evocative of the classic Mini Moke and contemporary seaside-themed quadricycles like the Citroën Ami Buggy and Fiat Topolino.

According to Roose, ‘cars are engineered for speed, distance and efficiency. Yet many journeys are short, and for those journeys the car is often too big, too complex and too expensive. Amble is our answer: a new kind of electric vehicle designed for short-range mobility, where the journey becomes part of the experience.’ It’s not hard to imagine a fleet of Amble’s at António Uva’s own destination resort, the 780-hectare São Lourenço do Barrocal in Alentejo.

Then there’s the name, implying a journey without urgency and the opportunity to take in more of your surroundings. ‘Amble One is built to embody that idea in its open, simple design, with no unnecessary separation between interior and exterior, people and place,’ says Julian Hoenig, ‘No doors to close you in, no unnecessary screens to pull you away. It is about the people on board and how they enjoy the world around them.’

Michael Tropper describes the design approach as a holistic one, encompassing not just the way the materials – aluminium, leather, cotton and a cork-clad steering wheel – will patinate over time, but also the way in which the vehicle sounds and feels. ‘We believe that when you slow down, the world opens up, and your relationship to everything around you changes,’ he says.

Hospitality destinations eager to take a first bite include Amangiri in Canyon Point, Six Senses Residences Loire Valley and the Caribbean island of Mustique. ‘The best hospitality properties obsess over every guest’s touchpoint. Amble was built with the same thinking: a vehicle where the journey is part of the experience,’ says António Uva.

DriveAmble.com, @DriveAmble

Creating a make-up look is much like creating an outfit – you start with one element and build it out from there: lipstick or shoes; eyeshadow or jacket, etc. Yet the starting point for the world’s most famous living make-up artist, Pat McGrath (behind countless runway looks for major houses, from Louis Vuitton to Maison Margiela and Marc Jacobs, and founder of Pat McGrath Labs), is an unexpected one: the lip line.

‘Every look I have ever created on the Louis Vuitton runway begins with the lip line,’ says McGrath. ’It is where precision becomes art.’ No surprise, then, that her latest launch as creative director of Louis Vuitton Beauty is the LV Crayon, a lipliner that is shaped like the brand’s signature monogram flower and enhanced with peptides to smooth and plump lips.

Designed to be worn with the brand’s previous launches – the LV Rouge lipstick and LV Baume lip balm – the liners come in ten different shades, ranging from 190 Beige Atlas (a beige-brown inspired by the sun-warmed patina of an ancient map) to 896 Monogram Rouge (a deep bordeaux developed by blending a classic red with the brand’s signature monogram brown). Other notable shades in between include 193 Sépia Panorama, a deep, universal chocolate; 390 Pink Aurora, an electric magenta; and 490 Plum Comet, a rich purple with dark red undertones.

When it comes to wearing the pencil, McGrath recommends creating a look she calls ‘Blur Illusion’, which, she says is her ‘love letter to the lip. It is imperfect, it is romantic, and it is entirely addictive. Once you try it, there is no going back.’ To create, simply pair your preferred neutral lipstick with the corresponding liner drawn just beyond the natural lip line, then softly blur with a brush or finger at the edges to create a diffused finish. Another of her suggestions is combining one of the collection’s brown or nude liners with a pink gloss to create a classic 1990s lip, which McGrath calls ‘the greatest lip moment in history’.

No matter how it’s worn, the collection is, for McGrath, an extension of what she’s been doing with Louis Vuitton beauty since the beginning. ‘I have always believed that the most powerful tools in any make-up artist's kit are the ones that enhance without overpowering. The LV Crayon shades were built from that philosophy – the finest nudes and rosewoods, each one chosen with absolute precision, anchored by a fearless edit of iconic LV reds that bring the unexpected and deliver the drama.’

Imagine the Barbie Dream House was designed by an experimental Hungarian studio – the result might look something like Remise Rosa, a 2,500 sq m permanent timber complex in Zurich, conceived by Budapest-based Hello Wood.

The destination occupies a formerly abandoned railway site, breathing new life into it across three levels of open-air, year-round space comprising a restaurant, a beer garden, entertainment areas and relaxation spaces. Clad in an immediately arresting rosy pink, the structure makes no attempt to blend in – nor should it.

Behind the visual intrigue lies a rigorous technical framework. With Remise Rosa, the studio set out to demonstrate the extent of what timber can achieve in an urban environment. The entire structure is built from CLT (cross-laminated timber), chosen for its sustainability credentials – renewable, durable and well-suited to long-term urban use. Every component was manufactured to millimetre precision using CNC-based prefabrication, a process in which building elements are designed digitally and fabricated off-site before final assembly – allowing the entire complex to come together in just five months.

Hello Wood has been active in Zurich since 2019, steadily shaping its neighbourhoods through projects including Urban Surf, a timber-clad surfing venue inspired by coastal landscapes; June & Julie, a seasonal pop-up bar blending architecture with nature; and Fräulein Holle, a public installation inspired by the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale.

But Remise Rosa represents something more. For CEO András Huszár, it is ‘the culmination of [the studio's] journey in the market – a permanent landmark where architecture is not merely the backdrop to a business, but its heart and soul’: ‘[It shows] what is possible when timber architecture meets a truly visionary business goal.’

‘People feel special when they enter Remise Rosa; it's a space designed to bring out their inner child,’ adds lead architect Balázs Szelecsényi. ‘The project proves that visionary architecture can inspire, strengthen community and also be good for business.’

The space is unabashedly photogenic, turning heads and inviting exploration, and a reminder that serious architecture and genuine joy are far from mutually exclusive.

One of Airbus’ five BelugaST aircraft has been moved from the company’s industrial flight line to the Aeroscopia Museum in Toulouse, ending a working life that began in 1995. The aircraft, an A300-600ST registered as F-GSTD, will become a permanent exhibit at the museum, joining Concorde, the Super Guppy and the A380.

Airbus’s BelugaST joins Toulouse’s aviation hall of fame

Developed to replace the Super Guppy, the BelugaST became one of the most recognisable aircraft in commercial aviation. Its bulbous upper fuselage, short cockpit section and rounded nose gave it the unmistakable profile of a beluga whale – a resemblance Airbus leaned into with the aircraft’s name. For aviation enthusiasts, it has long occupied a special place in the spotting hierarchy: not the fastest, rarest or most glamorous aircraft, but one of the most rewarding to see.

The aircraft was built for a specific job: carrying wings, fuselage sections and other large components between Airbus sites across Europe. The fleet helped support the company’s move towards higher production levels, with each aircraft able to carry a payload of 40 tonnes – roughly the weight of an adult humpback whale.

Aircraft F-GSTD turned 27 years old on 18 December 2025. Its arrival at Aeroscopia follows Airbus’ announcement earlier this year that the BelugaST fleet would be retired. From mid-2027, component transport will be handled solely by the larger BelugaXL fleet, which already serves 11 Airbus sites around Europe.

The aircraft’s career extended beyond Airbus logistics. In 1997, a BelugaST set a world record for the largest payload carried by air, transporting a chemical tank for a merchant ship. Two years later, another aircraft in the fleet carried Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People from Paris to Tokyo. The BelugaST was also used to transport the Columbus module for the International Space Station, large telecommunications satellites and, in 2003, three Airbus Helicopters rotorcraft on a 25-hour charter flight to Melbourne.

aeroscopia.fr

It has been 11 years since Ilse Crawford launched her first collaboration with Ikea, marking a new chapter in the Swedish retailer's relationship with independent designers. Called 'Sinnerlig', the collection of cork and natural-fibre homeware translated Crawford's human-centred design approach into products available at Ikea's scale, and scooped her a 2016 Wallpaper* Design Award in the process. While some pieces from that first collection remain in production – including the popular bamboo pendant lamp – many sold out quickly, becoming collectors' items that now command several times their original price on resale sites.

Now, Crawford revisits the partnership with ‘Halgatt’, a pair of table lamps made from ceramic, linen and brass. Rendered in the earth-toned materials Crawford describes as 'classic', the designs embody the visual warmth and tactility that have long been hallmarks of her work.

One comprises a white stoneware block with a matching linen shade – square and architectural, tone-on-tone. The other pairs a dark cylindrical ceramic base with a beige linen shade. Both feature neat brass dimmer switches on their side. It’s the sort of understated design that you can imagine fitting into any interior, which, as Crawford explains, was her intention.

‘When I design lamps, I want them to bring warmth and life to a room,’ the designer reflects. ‘The challenge is to capture a classic's qualities – the right proportions, choice of materials and shade, and a timelessness that makes the lamp always feel relevant. My inspiration for “Halgatt” comes from how we live our lives. The lamps have a versatility that supports the decor rather than dominating it – and are just as suitable in the living room as in a dining room, a bedroom or a work area.’

Crawford, who began her career as the founding editor of Elle Decoration before establishing Studioilse in London, has built an international reputation for designs that prioritise human experience. From furniture collections and homeware to hospitality projects including Cathay Pacific's acclaimed airport lounges, her work is guided by a belief that good design should support everyday life through care, comfort, trust, soul, dignity, generosity and resourcefulness.

Writing in Wallpaper's February 2025 issue, Crawford reflected on these values: 'We believe that design is a tool for building new and better models for life and living. In the studio, we think about how we can “elevate the elemental”, by which we mean prioritising the tactility of the things we touch daily, optimising natural light and celebrating natural materials to support humane experiences.'

The Ikea x Ilse Crawford ‘Halgatt’ collection is available online and in UK stores, with the beige/brown ceramic lamp retailing at £35 and the white ceramic lamp retailing at £25.

Lest you forget, Toyota’s origins lie in industrial weaving and textile manufacture. The company was built around Sakichi Toyoda’s automatic loom, invented in 1924, and it wasn’t until 1933 that the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works set up an automobile division. Toyota is now the largest auto maker in the world, a position it has held since 2008, innovating in both automotive and production technology.

In recent years, despite its early dominance of the hybrid car market (Toyota had sold over 15 million hybrids by the turn of this decade), the company has been a little lacklustre when it comes to committing to EVs.

Nevertheless, it hasn’t stopped turning out conceptual mobility visions, with urban areas a special consideration. From the tiny Toyota Land Hopper revealed at the 2023 Japan Mobility Show to the playful Kids Mobi concept shown two years later, Toyota seems committed to re-shaping the world of personal transport.

So where better to explore the interaction between next-generation mobility and people than in your own test laboratory? Woven City is a purpose-designed community in Japan’s Shizuoka prefecture, located close to Mount Fuji.

Described by the company as ‘a real-world test course for mobility innovation’, the ultimate aim is for this modest complex to serve as a place where Toyota’s experiments in mobility, autonomy, robotics and AI can be tried out in a full scale ‘live’ environment.

Comprising of clusters of offices and apartments on a triangular plot, Woven City is now in its initial phase. The idea for the complex stems from Toyota’s planned transition from a conventional car maker into an all-encompassing mobility company, a move it announced back in 2018.

The Woven City complex was unveiled at CES Las Vegas in 2020. The site was once home to the Toyota Motor East Japan Higashi-Fuji plant, once home to production of the first Toyota Century, the company’s enduring flagship (soon to become a more standalone entity). Today, it is overseen by a dedicated sub-company, Woven by Toyota.

Residents will be known as Weavers, while workers from Toyota and partner companies, startups and entrepreneurs will live and work alongside each other, part of a process known as kakezan, or multiplication, here meaning ‘the successful collaboration of diverse industries and individuals.’

Phase one began last Autumn, with 50 households currently occupied out of a total of around 300. Next up is the Inventor Garage, a hub/incubator space that Toyota hopes will be a cradle for next generation products, services and collaborations.

Right now, you can ride on the e-Palette autonomous micro bus,or see the diminutive Guide Mobi shifting goods. This ‘medium-sized, mid-speed autonomous transport robot’ is the modern equivalent of a mule, with the idea that autonomous systems will eventually co-exist with conventional road traffic and pedestrians.

Of course, the name Woven City is also closely linked to Toyota’s heritage - the company maintains working looms in the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology.

As the population of Woven City increases, Toyota hopes to catalyse innovation across four key areas - People, Goods, Information and Energy – with formal and informal partnerships taking technology into new and innovative directions.

Ultimately, Woven City will be the contemporary equivalent of a massive loom, knitting together various strands of today’s technological innovations into a cohesive whole.

Woven.Toyota

Thirty years on from the launch of the Land Rover model that dominated the compact SUV market in the late 1990s and early 21st century, Freelander is returning as a standalone brand with the backing of longstanding Jaguar Land Rover joint venture partner Chery.

The top five Chinese carmaker by global sales – already behind the UK smash hit brands Jaecoo and (to a lesser extent) Omoda – isn’t going slow with the project either. Pitching the new marque as a 'British Premium Intelligent All-Terrain Brand' it plans to launch six Freelander models inside five years in left- and right-hand drive configurations and across 90 markets, including the Middle East, European Union and the UK.

The Freelander has a laudable model history, trailblazing a more soft-surfaced exterior style of compact SUV with more passenger car-like interior creature comforts, in contrast to more rugged 4x4s (like the then very boxy and offroad-focused Land Rover Defender).

Launched in 1997, it quickly became Europe’s top-selling 4x4. And while it could still handle the rough stuff it boasted simpler ways to tackle such terrain, as the first vehicle in the world to offer the patented ‘hill descent control’ feature now commonplace across more serious SUV segments and beyond.

After two generations the model was discontinued in 2015, as other models from the JLR group such as the Range Rover Evoque became more popular. But a letter of intent between JLR and Chery in June 2024 announced the revival of the Freelander name – and this time as a brand in its own right.

Crucially for its credibility, a very significant Land Rover and Range Rover designer, Phil Simmons – with a CV including the 2001 Range Rover Mk3, 2017 Velar and 2018 Evoque Mk2 – was behind the new Freelander brand’s design relaunch.

Early in 2026 a teaser image of the Concept 97 vehicle was shown, to reference the Freelander’s original launch year and in late spring the brand officially launched with its first production model – the Freelander 8 – at the large and impressive Museum of the China Sculpture Institute in Wuhu, home of Chery International.

Wallpaper* was on hand to witness both the Concept 97 vehicle colourfully lit up at the Wuhu museum’s entrance and the five-metre-long Freelander 8 inside, the brand’s first showroom-ready car. In a private ante room where press cameras weren’t allowed there was also a full-size model of the next slightly smaller Freelander production car to follow, to show the consistency of design direction.

All three vehicles are more impressive than expected and in keeping with the original Freelander, including details like its ‘castle-style' body, interlocking headlight elements (from the Mk2), triangular rear side windows, dual peak bonnet and high ‘command’ driving position.

To keep things more 2026 than 1997 the Freelander 8 will offer nine switchable terrain modes, dual-chamber air suspension and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8295P chip, able to power up to eight displays at once in an ultra-responsive fashion.

The cabin of the six-seater Freelander 8 wasn’t available to jump inside just yet, but what we could discern through the windows revealed a smart and restrained interior with a large central screen and a full-width surround view driver display at the base of windscreen.

Reclinable ‘zero gravity’ seating will also be part of the kit list, to allow owners to rest better while recharging – as the SUV is set to offer full-electric, plug-in hybrid and range extender power units.

The brand will initially be built in China and exported around the world and likely to be priced well above current Chery export brands Jaecoo, Omoda and Lepas, but also well below Land Rover and Range Rover models, to avoid any clash. Sales are due to start from late 2026.

CheryJaguarLandRover.com, LandRover.co.uk

A few short years ago, the industrial district of Certosa was one of Milan's forgotten corners. A neglected neighbourhood on the city's northwestern fringe, it was a landscape of former factories, warehouses and industrial buildings. But in a metropolis developing as rapidly as Milan, few areas of the city and its immediate outskirts have remained untouched. Today, thanks to an ongoing wave of regeneration, the post-industrial district is home to newly built offices, hip cafés and restaurants, and, most recently, the latest addition to Milan's burgeoning nightlife scene: Duro Club.

Duro Club, Milan's latest nightlife opening

Housed inside a former cement factory, the club was designed by Gianluca Bocchetta and Rosella Castagnotto of Turin-based Velvet Studio. Their aim was to 'preserve the building's original Brutalist character,' says Castagnotto, 'while completely rethinking the existing layout and circulation.' Fortunately, the brief from the owners was largely logistical. 'They told us how many people the club needed to accommodate, that it required a chill-out area and an outdoor smoking terrace,' she says. 'Beyond that, they gave us complete freedom.'

The pair drew heavily on the building's industrial past, retaining much of the exposed concrete while introducing stainless steel, coloured tile and mirrored surfaces. The mirrors are concentrated along the central corridor that runs the length of the building, punctuated by porthole-like openings that offer glimpses into the main dance floor and the adjoining aubergine-coloured lounge. 'We wanted to play with viewpoints,' says Castagnotto. 'The mirrors and openings create this interesting "see-but-can't-see" effect.'

At the end of the corridor lies the dance floor, an expansive room with warm parquet flooring inset with white squares that echo the colour-block lighting installation overhead. 'The white squares make it feel as though the light is projected onto the floor,' explains Castagnotto, who collaborated with ILTI Luce on the lighting design. 'But we didn't want the lighting to dominate. It had to be more about shadow than illumination.'

Near the far end of the room, a rectangular concrete-and-stainless-steel island serves as the bar — a monolithic centrepiece surrounded by built-in benches that provide a moment of respite without disconnecting from the energy of the dance floor. Opposite, the DJ booth appears to have been carved into the wall like a bunker. A projecting steel frame forms a rectangular aperture from which the DJ surveys the scene below. On either side, a pair of semi-private booths offer more intimate vantage points while remaining partially concealed from the crowd.

Duro Discoteca is the latest venture from brothers Marco and Riccardo Augeri, the entrepreneurs behind Da Orient, the vintage store-turned-cocktail bar in Milan's Chinatown. While Da Orient has become synonymous with the city's aperitivo culture, drawing crowds of stylish young Milanese onto Viale Montello each evening, Duro is conceived as a destination for late-night dancing and experimental electronic music.

'It has a Studio 54 spirit,' says Castagnotto of the club, which opened in April. 'People arrive dressed up and aren't afraid to be extravagant. It's not the typical Berlin club where everyone wears black from head to toe. Here there's colour — it’s very refined.’

It’s exactly a decade since the epic foot-shooting exercise of Brexit was set in motion. A new design exhibition, ‘The Other Side: Ten Years after the Referendum’, features the work of ten creative practitioners, including graphic designers, type designers, artists, architects and product designers, offering up a graphic view of the current state of play.

Curated by GraphicDesign& and designed by LucienneRoberts+, a team consisting of Lucienne Roberts, John McGill, Rebecca Wright, the show is at Pentagram's Osh Gallery in London’s N1 until Friday 26 June 2026.

The raw material is of particular interest. As Lucienne Roberts explains, ‘In 2020, GraphicDesign& published The Other Side: An Emotional Map of Brexit Britain. The book reads ‘Remain’ in one direction, flip it over and the focus is ‘Leave’. Included are the voices of 26 Leave and 24 Remain voters from throughout the UK. Every MP received a copy.’

It’s safe to say the publication didn’t rock nearly enough boats. Hence the existence of a number of unsold copies. ‘Our distributors got in touch, asking if we would like the few remaining copies of the book pulped,’ Roberts continues. ‘[We decided] we’d like them to become something new. Here are the results of this decision. We sent ten designers, ten (or more) copies of the book, inviting them to make a personal response to this poignant anniversary. “Feel free to draw or write on them,” we said. “Do cut, shred or pulp them.” Here is what happened next.’

Here are the results, and the creatives’ personal insights on Britain ten years post-Brexit.

‘The Other Side: Ten Years after the Referendum’

Hugh Miller: The works draw on post-Brexit financial data, referendum statistics and political contradiction to explore the consequences of separation and nationalism. The paper suit is made in collaboration with Harris Elliott – it’s a symbolic stand-in and a surface for statistics, headlines and contradictory political narratives.

How do I feel about Brexit now? Brexit still feels like a bad dream come true. A decision shaped by false promises that left us worse off, still burdened by red tape. It exposed the corruption of those meant to serve us. In today’s political landscape, hope and optimism feel increasingly distant.

Michael Marriott: [My work is] a small side table for a cup of tea / glass of wine / etc. My first thought was how to make something useful, something that would extend the life of the book, too. A small side table seemed like a good idea. It’s made using offcuts that I had in the studio already, so it’s all 100 per cent recycled – which is more sensible than Brexit!

How do I feel about Brexit now? Still amazed it was seen as a reasonable thing to do. Still annoyed by the complete stupidness of it.

Stefanie Posavec: For Leavers, achieving Brexit must have felt like birthday and Christmas rolled into one. Riding high on hubris and fantasies of ‘British sovereignty’, everything seemed possible. Ten years on, reality has set in and the party’s over, leaving the rest of us (and future generations) to clean up the mess.

How do I feel about Brexit now? I became a UK citizen only four years before Brexit began. I still have a red EU passport (my first UK passport) and, when I look at it while waiting in long EU border queues, I feel both bereaved and cheated.

Lucienne Roberts, John McGill: Our ten books carry the message ‘HELLO HELL’, legible from both sides of the table. The incisions into each book reveal some of the more poignant pages within. Glimpses of Farage, Boris and an SOS projected onto the White Cliffs of Dover, trigger feelings as powerful now as they were then.

How do we feel about Brexit now? We felt sad then and even sadder now. In the book, writer on human behaviour Ian Leslie describes the vote as akin to a marital breakdown, with neither version of the UK hearing the other. Ten years later, no one is unscathed and, if anything, miscommunication prevails.

STORE: With this work, we represent those too young to vote in 2016. Facilitating in-depth conversations with other young people, we want to give them a voice. We are exploring paper pulping and paper pressing to construct spaces that can facilitate these conversations. Shown here are seats used to give voices and space to this overlooked group.

How do we feel about Brexit now? In the last ten years, three million people have become eligible to vote. We are three of those people. Our opinions weren’t sought at the time of the vote. Now, we face the repercussions of Brexit and the disproportionate effect it will have on our lives.

Sarah Boris: Remain Together is a series of ten artworks using the words ‘Remain’ and ‘Together’ found in the books. The pages are painted in colours from various European flags, leaving only the chosen words visible. These pieces act as tokens of hope in these divisive times.

How do I feel about Brexit now? I was born in London to French parents, so I feel European. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the EU stood for peace and togetherness. The UK left, nothing positive materialised, division grew. Now, we must listen to each other and vehemently oppose the far right.

Marianne Mueller, Mia Mueller Kneer: Eurotrash shows the five prime ministers connected with Brexit operating a standard office shredder. Like these pieces of legislation, The Other Side’s deliberation – to remain in or leave the EU – has become redundant in the face of ‘Brexit done’. Reduced to shreds, the remains of the books now lie discarded like trash on the gallery floor.

How do we feel about Brexit now? Brexit has affected us deeply, both personally and professionally. It has been a catalyst for many significant shifts, from becoming dual nationals to moving countries, opening a new office and shifting school systems to remain within the EU. For us, Britain was the ultimate model for a cosmopolitan society, a sentiment spoiled by Brexit.

Ella Krispel: I use weaving to reinsert what has been lost, or deliberately stripped away, from charged subjects like Brexit. For this project, I wanted to explore the aesthetic attributes of historical artefacts, of relics from another time. As it developed, I wanted to situate Brexit in history, to see it at a distance. The imperfect documentation, fragmented narratives and incomplete framing of the piece mirror the fragility of memory and knowledge over time.

How do I feel about Brexit now? I challenge people when they claim Britain has been harmed by immigration. The response is often, ‘But you're not an immigrant!’ They are unaware this reveals misguided beliefs about the identities of immigrants and definitions of immigration. Brexit didn’t create such views, but it did solidify them, with current media and policymakers deepening the damage.

Rebecca Wright: Using the cut-out letterforms from HELLO HELL, the companion piece by GraphicDesign&’s Lucienne Roberts with John McGill, I have sought to take something left behind and turn it into something hopeful. Brexit changed how I felt about and understood my sense of home. It shattered my belief that we were a country where all of us could feel welcome and where we were welcoming to others. But, ten years on, despite everything, a stubborn hope of home remains…

How do I feel about Brexit now? Still sad but also determined. I do not believe that Brexit accurately reflects or should define who we are as a nation, or our core values.

YiMiao Shih: I wrinkled pages [of the book] with watercolour – a literal soaking – as I depicted a variety of British scenes. Then I used torn pages to make paper pulp reliefs embedded with stitched imagery. In these, I revisited the fictionalised Rabbit Referendum of my project Rabbrexit Means Rabbrexit (2019), tiny embroideries that draw on myth.

How do I feel about Brexit now? My version of post-Brexit reality doesn’t scream positivity. In the aftermath, the right wing gathered traction. I fear they will continue to stoke division, while differing echo chambers deepen it further.

‘The Other Side’ runs until Friday 26 June 2026, 11am-4pm, Osh Gallery, The Old Sorting House, 46 Essex Road, London N1 8LN

@oshgallerylondon, graphicdesignand.com, @graphicdesignand_, luciennerobertsplus.com, @luciennerobertsplus_

This is something rather special. The new Morgan Midsummer Coupé is the next stage of a collaboration between Italian design house Pininfarina and purveyors of hand-hewn sports cars from Worcestershire. It follows on from 2024’s Morgan Midsummer barchetta, fifty of which have been built and delivered over the past couple of years.

The Midsummer Coupé continues this blend of exotic design and handcraft, only this time in the form of a fixed head coupé. This time the commission is even rarer, with only nine cars being made available worldwide, in addition to this, Car 0, the so-called ‘artist’s proof’.

Morgan describes their approach as ‘contemporary coachbuilding’, and there’s certainly a lot here that wouldn’t be possible in a conventional car factory, let alone on the regular Morgan production line. Even though the Malvern Link facility already goes above and beyond what’s possible, the Midsummer Coupé is a showcase of technology and craft.

The latter is most evident in the hand-formed centre body, manipulated and shaped on the traditional English wheel system for hundreds of hours to achieve the precise curves and radii that shape the body. Panels are joined by solid aluminium riveting, a method dating back to early aircraft manufacturing. Digital scanning is used throughout the process to ensure complete accuracy.

The car also sits on an aluminium chassis, Morgan’s own new generation CXV Aluminium Platform – as seen in the Supersport and new Supersport 400, as well as the machine-billeted aluminium A-pillars.

What differentiates the Midsummer Coupé from its production siblings is the glazed roof and rear profile. The tapering tail sweeps up and over the passenger compartment, with four individual glass panels bisected by a line of chrome.

The treatment is both classically elegant and in keeping with the familiar Morgan aesthetic and cutting edge, in that the fixed glass panels are bonded directly into the aluminium roof structure, adding stiffness and saving weight (the car is on 2.5% heavier than a Supersport with a hardtop).

This fixed-head format is very different in character to the open-top and removable hard-top Morgan, as well as the completely open original Midsummer. A large luggage compartment will no doubt be supplied with specially fitted luggage in at least a few of the nine customer cars.

In practical terms, this also makes the Midsummer Coupé even better suited to everyday use than the Supersport, already one of the most practical day-to-day Morgans ever made. It also allows for some newly crafted components that depart from traditional Morgan details. These include the door handles integrated into the aluminium belt line, and the streamlined side window graphic, with a droppable window section.

The Coupé sits on 19-inch forged aluminium wheels that can take a contrasting paint colour, while the interior of Car 0 has a teak and pale leather trim inspired by nautical design. Future configurations will be completely determined by the customer. The Midsummer features the new Morgan gear selector seen in the Supersport 400 (the car has a BMW engine and gearbox). Roof-mounted window switches and teak-inlaid sun visors attach to an aluminium rail.

Jonathan Wells is Morgan’s Chief Design Officer. He describes the Midsummer Coupé as ‘the culmination of an extraordinary creative journey. What began as a celebration of coachbuilding, craftsmanship and collaboration has evolved into one of the most ambitious and rewarding projects we’ve ever undertaken,’ he continues, ‘Working alongside the team at Pininfarina, together with our own designers and engineers, has been both a privilege and immensely rewarding. Midsummer Coupé marks the closing chapter of that remarkable collaboration, but it also represents a defining moment in Morgan’s coachbuilding story.’

Car 0 is just the start. The nine cars that follow offer customers a rich canvas for their own tastes, guided by Morgan’s team. All cars will bear the Pininfarina Fuoriserie emblem (‘out of series’); beyond that, they will ‘share a common foundation yet [be] entirely unique in their execution.’

As Morgan’s Managing Director Matthew Hole explains, ‘the Midsummer Coupé began with a conversation. A client came to us with an idea and, rather than asking how closely we could meet that brief, we asked ourselves how far we could take it. Special projects [give us] the opportunity to apply our skills in different ways. Working closely with each client, we can explore new ideas, refine new techniques and continue to develop the knowledge that defines Morgan coachbuilding today.’

The approach that will increasingly shape more and more output from the Pickersleigh Road factory as Morgan invests in skills and options that only it can provide thanks to the scale of the production process and the close integration between design, engineering and manufacturing. There are very few companies who can create this kind of richly evocative automotive special project.

Morgan-Motor.co.uk, @MorganMotor

Louis Vuitton men’s creative director and polymath Pharrell Williams presented the brand’s S/S 2027 collection yesterday evening (23 June 2026), against scenography also designed by himself. The enormous construction – which stood at eight-metres high and over 37-metres wide – was conceived to look like a tidal wave, and featured real water provided by the Eau de Paris corporation, which manages the city’s aquatic network. Following the show, the water will be discharged into Paris’s famous sewer-system, in a closed circuit. Cascading into pools of water evocative of a beach, it gently misted guests who watched on in the still warm evening sunshine.

Pharrell Williams continues his run of bold sets for Louis Vuitton, with a larger-than-life tidal wave

The set concept echoed a collection inspired by international surfing communities, and, fittingly, stood in the open air under blue skies. The ground at Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris had been covered with fine sand for the occasion, and will later be repurposed for ‘beach’ volleyball on the campus, and was bisected by a boardwalk-style runway.

Ideas of renewal and regeneration extend beyond the perimeters of the show and its materials, with Louis Vuitton pledging support to Coral Gardeners as part of its sustainability roadmap, to further reef restoration efforts in French Polynesia – not only an important environmental campaign but one which will directly benefit communities who live and work in the South Pacific. World Surf League athletes will take part in monitoring the restoration efforts during the Tahiti Pro competition this August, giving the brand a vital opportunity to hear direct feedback on the project from those the most emotionally connected to it.

The wooden seating was reused from last season’s show, which took place around an architectural ‘hotel’ designed in collaboration with Tokyo-based Not a Hotel, set within the parkland of the Bois de Boulogne and named ‘Drophaus’ for the structure’s affinity with a droplet of water. Audacious set design has become a Williams signature during his tenure at the house, with the S/S 2026 edition even becoming the subject of a documentary, which charted his process of research in India all the way to the execution of a supersized version of Snakes and Ladders co-created by Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai, at the Centre Pompidou.

louisvuitton.com

Your latest cartographic assignment from Blue Crow Media is this map of modern Rome, a guide to over 50 examples from among the eternal city’s best-known and most impressive 20th-century architecture.

Mappa di Roma Moderna has been edited by the architect and author Jacopo Costanzo, while Stefano Perego has contributed original photography, showing these buildings in their contemporary state. The folded map is the newest addition to a long-running series of architectural city maps and monographs – see also BCM’s guide to Brutalist Boston and Concrete Montreal amongst many others.

Rome’s contemporary gems are spliced into a cityscape that’s evolved over millennia, with the outer suburbs better represented with contemporary work. One of the cradles of both modernism and rationalism, the city has an impressive collection of contemporary churches and public infrastructure, as well as large-scale housing by the likes of Carlo Aymonino, Mario De Renzi and Studio Passarelli.

Other highlights include Luigi Moretti's Palazzina Girasole, the Palazzetto dello Sport by the famed structural engineer Pier Luigi Nervi, and Sir Basil Spence’s British Embassy. Blue Crow’s maps are a must for the modern architectural tourist, providing insight and context into the major 20th century works that have shaped European cities, whilst also highlighting overlooked gems that are due for a revival.

Ikea just launched its latest PS collection, and it's full of playful surprises. An initiative started in the 1990s, PS is Ikea's way to engage with experimental design within the domestic realm. 'We decided to take a long hard look at ourselves. Sure, we made furniture, but was it design?' Reads a note introducing the concept. 'The world around us had started making interpretations of Scandinavian design, but with ridiculously high prices. Wasn’t it time to make Scandinavian design accessible to a lot more people than just those with really fat wallets? This was our opportunity.'

What followed were three decades of experimenting with the possibilities of affordable furniture within the home, with concepts including 'The Democratic Home', 'Inspired by History, Designed for Today' and the latest iteration, 'Playful Functionality'.

Ikea furniture is here to play

'Central to Ikea PS is the idea that simplicity doesn't have to be boring, but that it can reveal design in its purest and most engaging form,' says Maria O'Brian, creative leader at Ikea. 'My hope is that through interaction and surprise, this simplicity gives way to discovery, with objects that have multiple functions and unexpected details that make people happy.'

Happiness seems a thread running through the collection, with pieces designed for interaction and smiles. From a rocking bench to an inflatable armchair, masks for your wall and adjustable furniture, there is a lot to like in this colourful and carefully conceived series.

'Too much design is treated as precious and untouchable,' says Ikea designer Mikael Axelsson, the mind behind the cleverly conceived inflatable chair. 'I wanted to create the opposite response, with something that engages your interest and curiosity. When furniture invites play like that, it becomes something you use and live with fully, that brings joy into the everyday.'

Here are some of our favourite pieces from Ikea's new collection.

Ikea Play: Wallpaper* favourites to buy now

A joint project between artist Rana Begum and Steve Webb of engineering firm Webb Yates sees a pink, fenced sculpture erected in the heart of London. Fabricated in collaboration with open-access workshop BLOQs, with materials lent by Albion Stone, No.1616 Fence (2026) is a timely response to the 2026 London Festival of Architecture's theme, 'Belonging'. The sculpture is reflected and refracted by the wide windows of the central London brutalist architecture landmark Space House, offering a moment of quiet contemplation on what it means to belong, and indeed to not belong.

Explore Rana Begum and Webb Yates' installation for LFA 2026

The piece is the latest in a series of collaborations for Begum and Webb. As with their previous installation in Verbier, No. 1387 Fence, the pair set themselves the challenge of erecting their sculpture with minimal environmental impact, by using a base of materials native to the site. In Verbier, these were logs; in London, Portland stone.

Webb explains: 'So much art has a big lump of concrete under the ground… Here, the context is the City of London and Portland stone. We have a good relationship with Albion Stone, so they lent us a block. The reason [the sculpture is] clamped [to the plinth] is so the block isn't cut or broken [...] there's no welding or cutting, everything can be taken to bits.' He continues, 'We’re trying to do something that brings a lot of joy, but actually isn't wasteful or impactful.'

On the origins of this body of work, Begum explains: 'I think for me, when I'm making (the work), it wasn't about identity, it wasn't about culture, it wasn't about religion. I realised one of the things I've been really driven by is this idea of the infinite. Like, how tall Steve can get this to go, but I love that you can play with the idea of the infinite. You can push the boundaries of some of the limits of engineering as well as this visual splendour that you have with material and sculpture and spaces.'

Begum and Webb are quick to highlight that the making of this sculpture goes beyond just the hands of an artist and an engineer, with many other actors involved; namely, Arnauld Nichols, director of BLOQs (the UK’s largest open-access factory) and Sam Kennedy of Commissioned by You, a studio that operates from the facility. Says Nichols: 'We've been around for 14 years. We call ourselves a pay-as-you-go factory, and we're there to provide anyone access to really good manufacturing equipment and workspace.'

With more than 1,000 small and medium businesses, BLOQs boasts a network of users working at all types of scales. 'Our whole mission is, don't tie people down to creativity, let them do [manufacturing] when they need it. [We offer] machines that are normally unaffordable to small, medium, or even large businesses; you put amazing modern tech together with new or existing talent, and then that brings great stuff.’

This way of working couldn’t have been a better fit for Begum and Webb’s site-specific, temporary installation. 'It's a combination of vision and sign-off and delivery, when no one's doubting each other,' affirms Begum.

With uncharacteristically hot and stormy weather expected for the month of June, when LFA runs, Webb Yates had to conduct climate-related stress tests and even consider the possibility of people climbing on the piece – a totemic-like sculpture that commands a moment of pause, pushing the gaze upwards to see how it contrasts with the giant skyscrapers that enclose it.

On the theme 'Belonging', Webb says: 'Belonging had a slightly sinister edge to me. And I think with the vision, the fencing, our collaboration is [about not belonging]. You know, we're working together across fields and across fences and barriers, and we're going where we don't belong.'

ranabegum.com

webbyates.com

As the mercury rises this month, we’re expecting to see unprecedented temperatures at Paris Fashion Week Men’s, and, accordingly, brands including Dior and Rick Owens have moved their showtimes to earlier in the day for much needed respite from the afternoon heat. In addition to the prospect of early-morning outdoor events, or hopping from one air-conditioned show space to another, there are many fashion moments to look forward to: Saint Laurent will make its return to the the start of the schedule, showing on on day one, and there are menswear debuts to come from Meryll Rogge, Michael Rider at Celine, and Sarah Burton at Givenchy. In anticipation of Grace Wales Bonner’s Hermès debut next January, the brand has opted for a presentation this week, rather than the usual show, and Paris Fashion Week Men’s regulars from Lemaire to Comme des Garçons are also on the schedule.

Here, follow our real-time look at Paris Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2027 – from behind-the-scenes glimpses to access to the shows, presentations and parties, alongside runway reviews – as seen through the eyes (and iPhones) of the Wallpaper* editors. Stay tuned.

Saint Laurent’s S/S 2027 show is staged amid Fujiko Nakaya’s Cloud #07156

The opening act of Paris Fashion Week Men’s is Saint Laurent, staged in the Tadao Ando-designed rotunda of the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection art gallery (the gallery has been a venue for the house’s runway shows for a number of seasons). For S/S 2027, it is backdropped by Fujiko Nakaya’s Cloud #07156, an installation which turns the space into a ‘landscape of fog’. ‘Nakaya does not depict fog; she sculpts it,’ writes Anne‑Marie Duguet of the Japanese artist in the exhibition catalogue, with the work on display to the public until 14 September 2026. JM

Saint Laurent opens Paris Fashion Week Men's with effortless seduction

Opening Paris Fashion Week this evening, Saint Laurent’s S/S 2027 menswear show was staged amid Fujiko Nakaya’s Cloud #07156, currently on display in the Tadao Ando-designed rotunda of Bourse de Commerce – Pinault collection.

The collection itself had a mood of sensual ease: featherweight knits traced the line of the body, while arms were exposed in shrunken waistcoats and classic men’s underwear reimagined in leather. Typically broad shouldered tailoring – a signature of creative director Anthony Vaccarello – came with jewellery-like buttons, and the windbreaker returned, here in colourful technical taffeta. Closing the show was a series of looks in molten gold fabric.

Vaccarello said he was thinking about the idea of restraint as seduction, turning away from the constant need for drama and noise. ‘Nobody is trying to seduce you,’ he said via the collection notes. ‘What makes them seductive is that they do not need to. JM

Louis Vuitton brings the beach to Paris 

Continuing the run of bold sets which have come to define Pharrell Williams’ menswear shows for Louis Vuitton, tonight’s staging saw the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris transformed into an inner-city beach, complete with sand and a larger-than-life tidal wave cascading with water. Models emerged from a tubular structure at the centre of the swell, and walked down a wooden, boardwalk-style runway. IBJ

The Dior show invite is a disco ball

Under Jonathan Anderson’s tenure, Dior’s show invites have become collectible objects – from plates of porcelain eggs to miniature versions of the green metal chairs found in Paris’ Tuileries gardens. For his third menswear show, taking place this morning in Paris, the invitation is a black disco ball, delivered to attendees in a grey and white Dior box. JM

The Dior breakfast? Perfectly packaged strawberries 

Shifted from its usual afternoon slot to 9am this morning to protect guests from the heat, Jonathan Anderson’s latest show is taking place in the grounds of Musée Nissim de Camondo on Rue Monceau. Guests were welcomed into the museum’s gardens where personalised fans sat on each seat and strawberries were served in individual Dior boxes. JM

The story behind the Louis Vuitton set

Louis Vuitton men’s creative director and polymath Pharrell Williams presented the brand’s S/S 2027 collection last night, against scenography also designed by himself. The enormous construction – which stood at eight-metres high and over 37-metres wide – was conceived to look like a tidal wave, and featured real water provided by the Eau de Paris corporation, which manages the city’s aquatic network. IBJ

Continue reading here: Surf’s up! The story behind Pharrell Williams’ tidal wave set for Louis Vuitton

'Sampled and remixed' classics at Dior

This morning in the grounds of Paris’ Musée Nissim de Camondo, Jonathan Anderson showed his latest menswear collection for Dior – a wardrobe of ‘sampled and remixed’ classics, ‘skewing conventions, juxtaposing ideas from different eras and replicating what already exists in unexpected ways,’ as the Northern Irish designer described.

The inspiration came from British musician, DJ and producer Fred again.., who provided the show’s custom soundtrack, featuring songs from KTNA, Mabe Fratti and Jamie T, alongside original vocals by Christine and the Queens.

Cue loosened up tuxedos (one transformed into a hybrid blouson, others came in ultralight fabrications printed to give the appearance of tailoring wool), shredded denim, shrunken ceremonial jackets and metallic ‘jeans’ and shorts, while accessories included colourful zig-zag totes, bow ties, and ‘disco ball’ boots. JM

Meryll Rogge debuts menswear

It’s a year of big debuts for Belgian designer Meryll Rogge, who unveiled her first collection at the helm of Marni in March, and today shows menswear under her own label for the first time. Taking a typically pragmatic approach, the S/S 2027 presentation, held at the ambassador for Belgium's Paris residence, celebrated ‘the wearer’s fundamental role in revealing the brand’s aesthetic, rooted in the everyday realities of fashion.’ So – how does a Meryll Rogge man style himself? Folded, piled, layered and assembled: bomber jackets, floral prints with contrasting collars, knit pieces paired with striped poplin bloomers. An eclectic embrace of masculine and feminine styles. IBJ

Acne Studios is here to dress the Personality Hire

Jonny Johansson was thinking about office hierarchies this season – not necessarily the explicitly understood pecking order, from C-Suite to intern, but the unspoken. ‘I have been studying people as far back as I can remember,’ the Acne Studios founder and creative director said, continuing: ‘Lately, I have been fascinated by individual expression at the office, which can function as a kind of everyday social experiment.’ Who commands the space versus who is in charge comes down to more than just title.

For today’s presentation, Acne Studios played upon the idea of disparate people with their own set of references and backgrounds coming together in one space, in ‘a scenario in which their personal uniforms coalesce like a master remix.’ At the more casual end there was denim (of course), paired with graphic T-shirts – some featuring trompe l’oeil ties – and sweaters which at first glance appear cable knit, but were actually ruched and crimped. There was a vintage-tinge in places, ice-cream shades, sporty blousons and Cuban heels. ‘The attire flourishes that would ordinarily denote age or status no longer apply in this office mash-up,’ the notes said. ‘From this constructed vision emerges a composite look in many forms – each one transcending the office walls and reclaimed as an attitude above all.’ IBJ

Solid Homme explores ‘the tension between the natural and the artificial’

Solid Homme took guests to the lab for their S/S 2027 presentation, in which models walked through a space filled with hydroponic chambers – terrariums where plants are grown in mineral-rich solutions rather than soil – a comment on humanity’s ‘hubristic ambition not simply to understand nature, but to reconstruct it.’

The collection itself was outdoorsy, but without being bucolic. Technical fabrics in hues of violet and canary yellow, perforated surfaces, and shapes inspired by field equipment (note: windbreakers and boonie hats). IBJ

The story behind the Dior soundtrack

Despite having produced songs for some of music’s biggest names – among them Charli XCX, Skepta and Ed Sheeran – the British musician Fred Again (stylised Fred again..) did not rise to prominence until the release of Actual Life, a three-volume series of mixtapes that served as an aural diary of the years 2020-2022.

This morning in Paris, Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson recruited Fred Again to soundtrack his S/S 2027 menswear show for Dior, his third men’s outing for the house so far (Anderson became creative director in 2025). JM

Continue reading here: Dior’s Jonathan Anderson on why he chose a historic Parisian museum for his Fred Again-soundtracked menswear show

Rick Owens gets wet 

Moved from its usual early afternoon slot to 10am, Rick Owens’ latest menswear show unfolded on the already sweltering forecourt of Paris’ Palais de Tokyo – the designer’s longtime venue of choice in the city. This morning, an enormous ramp had been erected across the forecourt’s front pool, from which fountains looped dramatically over the runway (and provided guests and models alike with a welcome spray of mist).

This season, the American designer said he was thinking about the idea of training: ‘We are all processing menace, some of us arm, some of us train,’ he wrote in his usual letter to attendees prior to the show. Central to this was a new collaboration with Adidas, seeing the sportswear behemoth’s Climacool sweatsuit reimagined in Owens’ singular style. This included a series of ‘inflatable’ looks, their billowing forms achieved by fans installed inside – ‘when worn with an ice vest, they create a personal air conditioning system,’ he elucidated. In close to 40 degree heat, they sounded tempting. JM

Sarah Burton’s debut menswear presentation for Givenchy

At home in Givenchy’s Paris headquarters on Avenue George V, Sarah Burton held her first menswear presentation as creative director of the house, which she joined in September 2024. The presentation comes off the back of a surprise campaign for the collection, which was photographed by Juergen Teller and released this week – starring talent including Don McCullin, Don Letts, and Danny Fox.

The collection was presented in dialogue with a triptych of works of British artist Rachel Whiteread, and elements of her treatment of surface and colour were interpreted through the garments, particularly in the butter-soft leather pieces, rugby shirts and wide-leg trousers, in solid blocks of pink or forest green with the gentlest of folds. Classic Burton-isms could be read through precisely tailored jackets with slightly nipped-waists and sharp shoulders, as well as in the painterly florals which appeared as both print and embroidered elements. ‘I wanted this to feel very personal and intimate, and to reflect the conversations that I have with the friends of the house,’ Burton said. IBJ

A closer look at Dior’s latest menswear collection

Details from Dior’s proposition for going out out dressing at the Musée Nissim de Camondo, show venue turned showroom: satin bow-ties, multi-colour zig-zags and oversize knits shot through with sparkles. IBJ

IM Men looks to bamboo for inspiration

Earlier this morning, IM Men – part of the Issey Miyake umbrella of brands – presented a S/S 2027 collection which looked to bamboo for inspiration. The initial inspiration came from a visit to Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs which drew them towards the institution’s collection of East Asian art – ‘misty bamboo forest landscapes in ink wash paintings and the intricate layering of branches and leaves created by the paper stencils used in katazome kimono dyeing,’ as the notes described. In the collection, this led to criss-crossing bamboo-style hats and chest pieces, while other pieces took the reference more lightly: like a series of dyed wash denim, designed to evoke the the traditional ink wash paintings, or a series of motifs by designer Rikako Nagashima, derived from images of the shadows cast by bamboo. JM

Julian Klausner continues to delight at Dries Van Noten

Despite the soaring temperatures inside the Paris Tennis Club – its greenhouse-like construction required ice lollies, water, hundreds of fans and two paramedics on standby to keep guests cool – Julian Klausner continued a thrilling run of collections at Dries Van Noten, with an ethereal S/S 2027 menswear offering that paid homage to the eponmyous house founder’s grasp of colour, print and embellishment (Klausner took over from Van Noten in 2025).

The idea of lightness was at the heart of this latest outing, with Klausner marrying diaphanous layers – sheer organza jackets, silk cargo pants, tabard tops left open to reveal the back, and the like – with sunset and sorbet hues (some matching the strawberry, violet and lemon lollies on offer prior to the show), and plenty of embellishment (clear paillettes, floral embroidery and feather headpieces added richness without weight). Footwear was also a highlight – the leopard-print lace-ups and beaded sandals elicited coos of approval from the longtime Dries fan who sat to my left. JM

Behind the scenes at Dries Van Noten

Wallpaper* went backstage to speak with Julian Klausner following the Dries Van Noten S/S 2027 show – watch here.

Junya Watanabe puts his riff on streetwear

This morning at Le Trianon in Montmartre, Junya Watanabe opened proceedings with a collection which put his distinctive riff on streetwear, collaborating with a slew of other brands – among them Kappa, Needles and New Balance. The sweatsuit was a recurring motif, with versions spanning classic Watanabe black and more vivid hues of yellow, green and burgundy, while signature elements of deconstruction – from shredded tweed jackets to back-front-jeans – were layered throughout. Bold, jewellery-like embellishment completed the look, from a multitude of chains to crystal brooches studding American sporting caps. JM

Studio Nicholson hosts its first-ever runway show

This afternoon, in the historic Hôtel d'Évreux on Paris’ Place Vendôme, Studio Nicholson founder Nick Wakeman hosted the first-ever runway show for her London-based label in its 16-year history. ‘I want the crowd to appreciate our journey and the brand’s provenance,’ Wakeman said of the choice. ‘I want people to see the clothes move; I like the idea that it’s live and not just another static image.’ Choosing an intimate, salon-style presentation, the collection was an evolution of the look Nicholson has honed since the brand’s founding: a minimalist, ‘no tricks’ approach where fabric quality is foremost and ‘clothes are believable and fit for purpose, but not boring,’ as she described. Comprising both men’s and womenswear, the result was a comprehensive wardrobe of Studio Nicholson classics – including the Sorte trouser, which has been in production for the last 16 years – alongside some new additions, like a fisherman’s-style jacket and boxy, safari shirt. JM

Hermès evokes the spirit of the Gaucho

Hermès’ design team looked to the folk figure of the Gaucho – the itinerant, wild horseman of the South American frontier – for today’s presentation (not the usual runway show, while the brand is between creative directors, with Grace Wales Bonner making her debut at the helm in January 2027). Gently tapering slacks were worn slightly high-waisted, bombacha style, and the classic Hermès silk scarf was styled with a nod to a rustic neckerchief. The palette was redolent of sedate, dusty plains – earthy browns and muted teal, with an occasional flash of lavender – but tempered with more playful prints of cacti and jumping fences. IBJ

Backstage with Willy Chavarria

Willy Chavarria tells Wallpaper* the story behind his S/S 2027 collection

‘This season there was a lot of conversation about how we find joy and levity in this time of chaos,’ says American designer Willy Chavarria of his S/S 2027 collection, shown yesterday in the dome of Paris’ Espace Niemeyer on a cast which included Bella Freud and Romeo Beckham.

In the latest of Wallpaper’s Ground Report series, we caught up with Chavarria at his studio before the show to discover the story behind the collection, which was titled Comunión. ‘There are two strong feelings in this collection,’ he says. ‘One is joy and colour, the other is shock and awe.’ JM

One hundred years of Lanvin menswear

It’s the centennial year of Lanvin’s menswear line, and the surrealist milieu of Lanvin’s eponymous founder was on creative director Peter Copping’s mind this season. The couturier's relationship to the artistic movement – which celebrated its own centennial in 2024 – was more subtle than her contemporary Elsa Schiparelli, but, according to the show notes for S/S 2027, she dressed members of the loose group of artists and poets including Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau. This connection was communicated through discreet subversions of menswear classics: tailored trousers which pool around the ankle, a silk pyjama set modified for daytime, tasseled dress scarves styled with safari jackets. IBJ

Soshiotsuki debuts at Paris Fashion Week Men’s

‘A usually strict father allowing himself to loosen up, just slightly, while on holiday,’ was the central image of 2025 LVMH Prize winner Soshiotsuki’s debut Paris Fashion Week show – the atmosphere of a fantasy resort encouraging the patriarch to let go a little, to resist the impulse for perfection. This was told through a collection made from mostly original fabrics, manufactured in Japan, and constructed to give ‘the impression that gravity has naturally caused the garments to collapse’. IBJ

Backstage at Studio Nicholson

Yesterday afternoon, in the historic Hôtel d’Évreux on Paris’ Place Vendôme, Studio Nicholson founder Nick Wakeman hosted the first-ever runway show for her London-based label in its 16-year history.

Speaking to Wallpaper* for our Ground Report series, Wakeman said the collection was something of a ‘greatest hits… these are my codes, my design language’. Across both men’s and womenswear, it meant a comprehensive wardrobe of Studio Nicholson classics – including the Sorte trouser, which has been in production for the last 16 years – alongside some new additions, like a fisherman’s-style jacket and boxy safari shirt. JM

Wooyoungmi’s S/S 2027 collection was about dressing with joy

Opening the final Sunday of Paris Fashion Week Men’s, Madame Woo looked towards the Korean concept of ‘heung’ for her latest Wooyoungmi show – an expression which captures a mood of ‘joy, spontaneity and rhythm,’ as the Seoul-based designer described via the collection notes.

Cue a collection designed to lift the spirits: colourful hoodies were faded as if the wearer had been lying out all day in the sun, clashing patterns were mixed in a single look, and leather charms hung off belts, their shapes evoking gwaebul norigae pendants, historically worn with the hanbok as protective talismans. JM

At Celine, Michael Rider is creating the clothes he loves

Taking place at the Tennis Club de Paris this afternoon, Michael Rider hosted his first dedicated menswear show for Celine – a continuation of the American designer’s distinctive aesthetic at the house so far, one which melds Ivy League prep (Rider was at Polo Ralph Lauren before Celine; he is also an alumnus of Brown University) with a Parisian insouciance rooted in the house’s codes. Rather than a specific theme, Rider instead said he was simply developing the Celine man’s wardrobe: ‘[It’s about] enjoying what we do in the studio, and desiring it ourselves, all of it, the clothes and the characters.’ Cue a collection of eclecticism and ease: ballooning trousers, metallic leather jeans, colourful cummerbunds, and a multitude of low-pro shoes, sandals and sneakers featured as part of the highly desirable line-up. ‘[It’s about] building toward something bigger,’ he said. ‘Something with legs, and roots.’ JM

Sacai closes out the week

And with Sacai, Paris Fashion Week Men’s comes to a close. ‘The new classics’ offered just what it promised, colliding ‘the rigid, historically conservative codes of traditional tailoring with the vibrant, non-conservative energies of contemporary culture’. Voluminous panel pocketed suit trousers were juxtaposed with tie-dye rugby shirts, and a roomy tailored jacket was hybridised into a duffel with the addition of toggle-and-rope fastenings. Shown concurrently with womenswear, the collection also debuted the brand’s first collaboration with Birkenstock, new footwear which comes from ‘layering and exchanging elements across archival styles.’ IBJ

London workspace One Triton Square has just been given a refresh by the architecture studio Piercy&Company, bringing the nine-storey 1990s office building into the 21st century through smart internal arrangements and a considered, timber-led materiality. The project is part of the Regents' Place campus and was developed by British Land and Royal London Asset Management (Arup is leading the building's overall reconfiguration). Within this context, Piercy&Company spearheaded the communal areas' transformation, crafting an interior that is not only fit for contemporary purpose, but also exudes a soft, organic minimalism and a welcome balance.

Discover Piercy&Company’s One Triton Square interior

Piercy&Company worked on the full range of common areas within the tower – from the ground-floor entrance lobby to event, collaboration and breakout spaces throughout. Meeting rooms and shared amenity spaces at Levels 1 and 2 and flexible offices and the Triton Lounge and its adjacent terrace at Level 6 were also included.

The vision was for all these areas to adhere to a single vision – one that prioritises innovation and accessibility within a cohesive 'ecosystem of adaptable spaces', the architects explain.

Fiona Neil, director & head of interiors at the London-based practice, explains: ‘Unrecognisable from its previous life as a trading floor, the shared Level 1 now exudes calm and sophistication, becoming an interconnected sequence of spaces that flow in and out of one another, creating pockets of activity alongside places to rest. We took our lead from the rigour of the original building’s design, as well as from scientific work, and juxtaposed this with more playful and softer moments.'

Throughout the building, crisp, clean geometries have been juxtaposed with soft, organic or engineered, tactile materials. Sensory warmth and richness have been at the forefront of the team's surface selection, in order to craft an interior that encourages both concentration and collaboration.

The material strategy is supported by carefully controlled lighting and careful acoustic treatments everywhere. The project features clear wayfinding designed by Frost Collective.

For its efforts, the building has been rated BREEAM Outstanding for its sustainable architecture approach, while art curation by New Public further enhances the interior's layering. Featured pieces include works by artists such as Anicka Yi, Majeda Clarke, Eleanor Lakelin, Richard McVetis, Blast Studios and makers from Cockpit Studios.

Tim Downes, development director at British Land, said: 'Piercy has really delivered on the brief to humanise the interior of a big, intensely engineered building. Many of the occupiers who will take space at One Triton will spend hours performing highly concentrated periods of deep work, and the ability for them to step away from their screens or lab benches into a place of calm tranquillity to recharge and recalibrate has been a big draw. The ambience of the space hits you the moment you walk in.'

piercyandco.com

Conceived by Italian architect Fabio Fantolino, Lève Office Bar in Turin takes its cues from an unlikely source of inspiration: the workplace. Here, the visual language of the 1960s office interiors is reworked into a sophisticated bar environment that evolves throughout the day.

Fantolino reinterprets the era’s emphasis on materiality and composition through chrome-plated metal, stainless steel, reflective surfaces and bold colour accents. The result is a layered space that favours corporate precision with warmth and conviviality.

Tour Lève Office Bar, Turin

The venue unfolds across three distinct zones. Guests enter through a room anchored by a dramatic stainless-steel counter that culminates in a deep red enamel backdrop. The minimalist structure shifts function as the day progresses, operating as a casual counter by day before transforming into a cocktail station in the evening. A brick-toned herringbone floor introduces a domestic touch against the reflective finishes.

At the double-height central space, references become more prominent, combining green resin flooring, mirrors, chrome and stainless steel with wood and leather details. Upstairs, leather and bouclé seating arrangements subtly echo the open-plan layouts of midcentury American workplaces, framed by red wood and laminate panelling.

Lighting plays a central role throughout. A luminous ceiling grid animates the lower level, while retro-inspired pendant lamps establish rhythm above. Further statement lighting by Lambert & Fils and Santa & Cole completes the scheme.

Open from 7.30am until 1am daily – extending to 1.30am on Fridays and Saturdays – Lève Office Bar serves breakfast through to late-night drinks. The cocktail menu features five signature twists on classics, including a cherry-and-cinchona Boulevardier and a clarified Piña Colada with coconut, pineapple and tonka bean. Alongside bocadillos, oysters, caviar, bao and gourmet focaccia, the venue also serves sushi (nigiri, gunkan and uramaki).

Lève Office Bar is located at Via Stampatori, 21, 10122 Turin, Italy

Commodore’s new flip phone, the Callback, gets hip to the demands and requirements of the modern age, swapping out obsessive scrolling with intentional friction and an old-school form factor. While it’s not as sophisticated as, say, a Motorola Razr, nor nearly as basic as the reborn Nokia brand from HMD, the Callback walks a fine line between functionalism and full-on digital detox.

Straight up, the flip phone format beckons you back to an earlier time. However, it’s a little more sophisticated than that. Among the key apps that the Callback includes are Uber, WhatsApp and Google Maps, bringing a level of functionality that other so-called dumb phone options have talked themselves out of.

Commodore has deployed the Finnish-developed Sailfish OS, an operating system that’s mostly compatible with everyday apps but is stripped of Android’s more aggressive data-mining habits.

What you don’t get is any social media, or even a browser. There’s a camera – billed as a ‘retro camera’ – and the ability to listen to streaming music services, thanks to an onboard digital audio converter (and the all-important 3.5mm headphone socket).

Essentially all you’re missing is the ability to receive information to engage with or get enraged by, as well as other people’s unsolicited opinions on said information. In short, the worst bits of the modern world.

All this is wrapped in a series of limited-edition cases that run the gamut from classic Commodore beige to a techy-translucent finish that evokes the custom gaming rigs of the noughties and a blingy gold Founders Edition. The company’s graphic approach is also deliberately archaic, with highly polished 3D renders and light flares.

Commodore’s modern-day story is a strange one. Founded in the late 1950s by Jack Tramiel, the American company is best known for its business calculators and the Commodore 64 home computer, launched in 1982, and the Amiga, one of the mainstays of early digital music-making. The brand was bankrupted in 1994, but the name, logo and identity was revived in 2025 as the Commodore International Corporation, overseen by a team including Tramiel’s son Leonard.

The returning company’s first product targeted computing nostalgists with Commodore 64 Ultimate, updated for the modern age with USB and HDMI connectivity. The Callback is pitched at those too young to remember the heyday of 8-bit home-computing but old enough to abhor the toxic attention suck of the smartphone while yearning for something a little more Y2K.

The Callback 8020 is a world apart from 2026’s line-up of flagships from Apple, Google, Samsung and more, but it’s also very distant from Commodore’s first telephone, a rotary dial phone it sold in Canada back in the early 1980s. Other nods to the period include the exterior display in chunky segmented LEDs showing the date, time, battery, and signal.

Casual gamers will be sated by the inclusion of Snake, as well as a selection of original Commodore 64 games, while the absence of email and Slack make for blissful out of hours isolation. Finally, there’s a recreation of the original 64’s SID music player, the genesis of crunchy 8-bit chiptune music.

The new iteration of Commodore wants to build more examples of ‘purpose-driven future-facing technology,’ retaining the retro-futurist aesthetic with added layers of privacy and simplicity.

According to Peri Fractic, Commodore’s CEO and president, ‘the Callback can be an evening phone, a weekend phone, a going out to dinner with the family phone, or replace our everyday phone completely, depending what level we want to start reconnecting with the world around us. Those of us who have already done it can vouch for its impact and will never go back – we’ve learned to live with less scroll, and more soul.’

Commodore Callback 8020, from $499.99, pre-orders and more information at Commodore.net, @OfficialCommodore

If you were to sail around Sardinia, it would be easy to glide past Poltu Quatu without a second glance. True to its name meaning ‘hidden port’, the small Sardinian village peeks through the mountains like a hidden oasis. Its topography is reminiscent of Greece, and its flora that of Spain, making the Italian island a cultural conglomerate, offering an environment that is distinctly different, yet familiar.

At the heart of the village is the new W Sardinia by Marriott Bonvoy. The hotel is nestled within the pre-existing architecture designed by Jean-Claude LeSuiss – he originally designed the resort's buildings in the early 2000s. The hotel replicates his signature style of white-washed facades and irregular arches (known as occhio de bue, meaning eye of the bull, a construction nightmare but one that results in a visual delight).

Sardinia became a tourism hotspot in the 1960s, and W Sardinia echoes this. There is a feeling of nostalgia and glamour within its interior, from the poolside bar, to the chunky bridge connecting the hotel suites to the main lobby, it is a surprising reposition for the company, known for having a vibrant party atmosphere, but now embarking on a new, elegant chapter – still with a sprinkling of W’s playful energy.

Wallpaper* checks in at W Sardinia - Poltu Quatu

What’s on your doorstep?

After perusing the small village of Poltu Quatu (home to a few boutique shops and restaurants), book a 15-minute taxi to the neighbouring village of San Pantaleo. Enjoy a gelato at Il Buon Gelato (we recommend the salted pistachio), and explore the bohemian village. Known for its art, head there on a Thursday to see the street market, or check out Sardinian artist Nicola Filia’s art gallery – he designed the W sculpture outside the hotel.

You can also choose to spend an afternoon at Surrau Winery and taste a selection of Sardinian wines against the backdrop of rolling vineyards. The winery itself is full of architectural intrigue, from its wooden ceilings to the large underground tunnel home to various wines.

Who is behind the design?

The design was spearheaded by Will Meyer and Gray Davis, founders of their eponymous New York design firm. The duo kept the architecture, flooring and pool completely original, while every interior detail is considered and locally made, including the large hand-sculpted art feature by Luca Scassellati behind the lobby deck, to ceramic vases by Walter Usai and tapestries by Fabrizio Sanna, to the woven carpet which nods to the crystal seas, a stone's throw away.

‘There’s something kind of mystical about the area,’ says Will Meyer. ‘There is a depth of history, and myth, and there's something kind of magical about it.’ Gray Davis continued to note, ‘I think the narrative is such a key element. We learned about the native Sardinian Nuragic civilisation, and the archaeological treasures found in Sardinia that were created by the civilisation, and that in itself felt very mysterious.’

From the minute you enter the building, the architecture strikes you as unique. As Davis explains, ‘[The architecture] speaks to a lot of the caves and kind of an underwater world. We really leaned into this and enhanced those elements within the main lobby living room area.’

This abstract storytelling was balanced with contemporary functionality. The designers created a space which slowly reveals itself. The lobby feels compressed and cosy, before entering the ‘Wet Deck’ which opens up as if stumbling upon a secret lagoon offering a sense of discovery. Meyer and Davis were also inspired by the mythology of the Janas, fairy-like creatures which resided in caves and ancient sites around the island. In Sardinian folklore they are the protectors of the fisherman on their journeys at sea. This is celebrated with a large mural at the back of the W Lounge restaurant.

The room to book

There is a lot of artistic expression across the 157 rooms and suites. From the vibrant veining of the stone cabinets to the chunkiness of the makeup vanity coupled with an overlapping mirror which mimics an oceanic ripple effect. Each suite feels like a secret grotto. Either book the premier room, which offers a private balcony to enjoy views of the pool below, or indulge in the deluxe suite, a more spacious room with a tub, lounging area, and large makeup vanity. In either room, the layering of materials creates a soothing oasis that encourages you to exhale as soon as you step inside.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

The Tanit restaurant, named after the ancient goddess of abundance, is perched overlooking the harbour where one can gaze at the yachts in transit. Breakfast is a main event here with a dedicated Dolce Room by Italian chef Fabrizio Fiorani offering an array of delectable pastries and cakes (the petite custard-filled fruit tart is divine). Dinner at the restaurant is fresh, local and light, and centred around seafood. We would recommend the freshly caught sea bass accompanied with garlic potatoes and roasted vegetables, followed by a symphony of frozen fruits stuffed with a refreshing sorbet. The cocktail menu stays classic, but fair warning: the drinks are strong.

If you want to venture out of the hotel and into the small village for dinner, we recommend Il Marchese for an authentic Italian experience. A table outside is perfect to watch the sky light up in sunset hues. Enjoy the fried courgette flowers and Matriciana pasta, with 18-month-aged pecorino romano and traditional pork cheek.

Where to switch off

The best place to switch off would be poolside. Don't miss the hidden sauna and steam room. The cave-like architecture makes it a soothing destination which perfectly captures Sardinia’s spirit.

If being active is your way of unwinding, then head to the resort's fitness centre, fully equipped with Technogym. W also suggests experiencing sunrise yoga and power walks around the marina.

The verdict

Stepping away from W’s party roots, the Sardinian location is more like a chic older sister, offering a more sophisticated stay while still uniting W’s signature energy. It's transportative, comfortably straddling the past and the future, and engulfed in timeless, Sardinian beauty.

W Sardinia - Poltu Quatu is located at SP59, 07021 Poltu Quatu OT, Italy. Rates: from £423

AlUla Manara is a proposed new destination for the burgeoning world of Astrotourism. Located in Saudi Arabia’s AlUla region, around 1,100 km to the west of Riyadh, the 22,561km² area has a diverse landscape of lush valleys and sandstone peaks, as well as heritage sites dating back over 2,500 years to the Lihyan and Nabataean kingdoms, with the ancient city of Hegra one of many important locations.

Apart from its history and geography, AlUla is also designated as a Dark Sky Park, an officially certified area (see DarkSky.org) that receives special protection thanks a minimal approach to external lighting and development. As well as benefitting flora and fauna, the designation is a boon for sky-watchers, and Manara is designed to make the most of this remote desert site.

The proposed observatory has been designed by Heatherwick Studio, drawing on surrounding geographic and natural forms as well as the spiralling forms of distant galaxies. The structure will blossom out of the desert floor like an indigenous plant, clad with a specially textured stone that asserts its geographic place.

Looking as if it wouldn’t be out of place in the Dune universe, it’s a typically bravura piece of Heatherwick form-making, one that the region hopes will lure in tourists looking to have an otherworldly experience.

According to Stuart Wood, Executive Partner and Group Leader at Heatherwick Studio, ‘Space observatories are often remote, sterile places, technical outposts that feel distant from the public. We saw an opportunity to dissolve those barriers and create a place where visitors can step inside the wonder of the cosmos: an environment that is both immersive and inspiring, standing alongside the most advanced science of our time.’

The shell-like forms that spiral out from a central hall resemble a cluster of lenses, complete with iris diaphragm like shutters that can close off each viewing gallery. Other facilities will include gallery spaces and immersive exhibitions, as well as a planetarium and restaurant. The plan is for scientific research to also occupy the site.

The project, located close to the Gharameel Nature Reserve and Harrat Uwayrid Reserve, is part of the Saudi Vision 2030. Phillip Jones, Chief Tourism Officer at the Royal Commission for AlUla, describes Manara as having ‘the potential to become a defining symbol of AlUla's future as a destination for exploration, learning and inspiration.’

There’s no word on start or completion date just yet.

ExperienceAlula.com, @ExperienceAlula, RCU.gov.sa
Heatherwick.com, @OfficialHeatherwickStudio