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

Rugs meet contemporary furniture

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tour HCD House, a new Toronto home

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

comnarchitects.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LONDON DESIGN MEDALS 2025: MEET THE WINNERS

London Design Medal: Jonathan Anderson

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

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

Lifetime Achievement Medal: Sir Christopher Frayling

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

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

Design Innovation Medal: Anab Jain

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

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

Emerging Design Medal: Solveiga Pakštaitė

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

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

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

Experience Buccellati’s Art de la Table in Milan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AMDL Circles reimagines the Azimut superyacht

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Henry Zankov will make his Diane von Furstenberg debut

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

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

New York’s blockbuster brands aren’t going anywhere

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

There will be a New York retail renaissance

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

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

Zane Li headlines the rising design stars to watch

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

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

Conner Ives will head stateside for a homecoming show

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Celine’s collaboration with Reebok has arrived

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

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

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

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

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

celine.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shop Biologique Recherche

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Step inside Valley House

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@Forvm.Arhitektura

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Carlo Ratti on the bucket and spade

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

carlorattiassociati.com

In the United Kingdom, 1 September marks the first day of meteorological autumn – a change in season that’s been aptly marked this year with leaden skies and the first downpours in months.

It makes a suitable backdrop for the launch of the latest collaboration between Paul Smith and Barbour; the former is known for its eponymous founder’s irreverent riffs on the tenets of a British wardrobe, and the latter’s signature wax jackets have protected against the country’s inclement weather since 1894.

Paul Smith and Barbour unite for their third collaboration

For this third chapter, the two British brands look northwards towards the Highlands of Scotland, a place known for its dramatic vistas and synonymy with outdoor pursuits (as well as its own temperamental climate, with some of the highest rainfall in the United Kingdom).

One of these pursuits is the annual Highland Games, a longstanding Scottish tradition which sees participants undertake a series of tests of strength and endurance – from the ‘caber toss’ (players must throw a wooden log as far as possible) to ‘weight over a bar’ (its rules as simple as the name suggests). The events also feature ceremonial elements, from ceilidh dancing to massed bands of bagpipers.

The Highland Games are the inspiration for this latest 38-piece collection – and its accompanying campaign – with Smith’s reinterpretation of two traditional Barbour tartans, the ‘original’ and ‘authentic’ tartans, at its nexus. The fabrics are here reworked with the designer’s liberated use of colour: pinks, oranges and yellows are woven into the tartans and appear across the collections as motifs, details, or linings.

Elsewhere, memorable Barbour garments are reimagined in new fabrications, like the Beaufort Jacket, which has been crafted in merino wool with a ‘windowpane’ check or in navy corduroy. Elements of play – which have defined the previous two collaborations – appear throughout, like printed motifs of charms, keys and fishing flies; animal embroidery; or vivid flashes of colour.

The accompanying campaign, a ‘Highland odyssey’, mines this lighthearted mood: its two fictional protagonists, Paul and Baz, arrive at the Braemar Gathering (the most famous of the Highland Games) two weeks early. There, they meet an eclectic cast of characters – ‘each embodying the warmth, wit and enduring traditions,’ as Smith says.

The Paul Smith loves Barbour is available at barbour.com and paulsmith.com, as well as selected retailers.

The language of the hands and the art of making take centre stage once again in Venice with Homo Faber 2026, the fourth edition of the biennial organised by the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship, this year titled ‘An Island of Light’. The vast and international celebration of fine craftsmanship has just opened (read our full Homo Faber 2026 review) and, until 30 September, takes over the space of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.

Behind the scenes of Giorgetti at Homo Faber 2026

Among the new presences this year, orchestrated by the 2026 edition’s artistic director (and current Wallpaper* guest editor) Es Devlin, is Giorgetti, as the Italian furniture brand’s creative director Giancarlo Bosio explains. ‘For a company like Giorgetti, which for 128 years has built its identity around the dialogue between design, materials and craftsmanship, the desire to become part of it came naturally’, says Bosio. ‘Our conversations with the Michelangelo Foundation began shortly before the summer, when the curatorial concept for the 2026 edition had already been defined. It was our encounter with Es Devlin that opened up a new possibility.’ It was a certain affinity with her own design vision that led Devlin to incorporate the brand into an exhibition narrative that was already well established, Bosio explains.

The choice fell on a series of Giorgetti’s ‘Summa’ poufs, deliberately designed without backrests, which could sit harmoniously within the Fondazione Giorgio Cini’s Palladian Refectory. ‘Their apparent simplicity allows the quality of the detailing and the high level of craftsmanship behind them to emerge with particular clarity,’ explains Bosio. ‘Despite the short timeframe, the collaboration developed very naturally because it grew out of a genuine dialogue. It was never simply a matter of displaying a product, but rather of understanding how Giorgetti’s design language could become an integral part of the curatorial narrative conceived by Es Devlin.’

The resulting, evocative installation within the refectory, titled A Feast of Light – one of 15 conceived by Devlin for the event – celebrates the purity of white. ‘It is a space that naturally invites contemplation and creates a dialogue between architecture, art and human presence. I believe Es Devlin saw precisely this quality as the ideal context in which our contribution could find its most authentic meaning,’ says Bosio. ‘Our role was not to add a scenographic element, but rather to contribute to the experience visitors have within the space. I like to think that this is exactly what the project expresses: a moment in which design steps away from the foreground and instead chooses to enter into a relationship with the artwork, the architecture and the people experiencing them.’

In this sense, ‘Summa’ – which appears as a cylindrical pouf, sliced into separate vertical sections and recomposed in elements upholstered in contrasting fabrics and leathers – stems from an exploration of geometry and the way form is constructed through material, leaving the piece open to interpretation. ‘At first glance, it appears extremely essential, yet it embodies considerable technical complexity and a highly tailored approach to craftsmanship,’ says Bosio. It was precisely this versatility, he adds, that allowed Devlin to reinterpret the design while remaining entirely true to its identity. ‘Rather than adapting “Summa” to the installation, we allowed the installation itself to reveal a different expressive dimension of the piece.’

Paradoxically, the challenge of this project was one of reduction. ‘“Summa” was conceived as a design that celebrates the relationship between different materials and colours. For A Feast of Light, however, we chose to remove colour entirely and allow the materials themselves to carry all the expressive weight.’ Devlin selected two fabrics and one leather, all united by the same shade of white. In this way, Bosio continues, the piece no longer relies on chromatic contrast, but instead comes to life through the depth of its surfaces, the tactile qualities of the materials and the countless nuances revealed by the light.

‘It was a particularly interesting experience because it reminded us just how much narrative richness material can hold, even when it appears visually uniform.’ In this reinterpretation for Homo Faber, colour dissolves, leaving the materiality of the surfaces to take centre stage. ‘My first impression was that I could immediately recognise “Summa” and, at the same time, see it almost disappear. It steps away from being an object to be observed and becomes instead an element that helps shape the experience, actively becoming part of it.’

Ultimately, Giorgetti’s presence in this platform has a broader significance. ‘For us, Homo Faber is not an isolated occasion, but the beginning of a broader journey,’ concludes Bosio. ‘We believe that today a brand like Giorgetti should also engage with contexts where design intersects with art, architecture and contemporary culture. Not in order to seek out new languages, but to continue expressing our own through different perspectives.’

Homo Faber 2026 runs until 30 September 2026.

For more on Es Devlin read her Wallpaper* guest-editor interview and studio tour.

For our full Homo Faber review, read: Es Devlin casts Homo Faber 2026 in a new light

If the middle seat were an aviation class, it would arguably be premium economy. Sitting above the discomfort of basic economy, yet below the ambition and luxuries of business class, it is an upgrade with an asterisk. Leave it to Emirates’ engineering acuity to reinvent this in-between class with zeal.

Emirates gives Premium Economy a first-class rethink

The UAE flag carrier has just equipped its modern A350 aircraft with a Premium Economy cabin comprising only 28 seats in a spacious 2-3-2 configuration. Each measures 20in wide, offers a pitch of up to 39in and reclines into a cradle position without impolitely encroaching on the passenger behind. Among its pioneering features is an integrated control unit capable of raising, lowering and locking a natty divider into place, creating a private setting for dining, working or sleeping. The seat itself can also be adjusted at the touch of a button, with dedicated lounge and meal modes.

Safran Seats’ U-Dream headrest is also part of the appeal, with adjustable leather wings that support the neck and head, accompanied by a manually deployed leather footrest intended to ease leg fatigue on long-haul flights. In addition, making its debut is a wireless charging pad, joined by a USB-C port and a tray table with an integrated phone holder. The latter can prop up a personal device as a second screen during meals or entertainment.

The entertainment system plays through a 13.3in 4K HDR touchscreen, while newly delivered A350s add left- and right-facing exterior cameras to the existing downward- and front-facing views – offering a window-seat experience regardless of your seat number. Flying long-haul? Expect reusable amenity kits in collaboration with United for Wildlife. Made using bio-based materials, including a cactus-leather alternative, the four designs depict endangered species and their natural habitats. Inside are Aveda skincare products, socks, an eye mask, earplugs and a dental kit.

The Business Class references continue at mealtimes, with regionally inspired menus developed by Emirates’ chefs and served on Royal Doulton china, accompanied by linen napkins and Robert Welch stainless-steel cutlery. Chandon Vintage Brut 2021, an Australian sparkling wine, is reserved for Premium Economy passengers across the airline’s network.

Emirates launched Premium Economy in 2022 and has since introduced it across every market currently served by its A350 fleet. The cabin was named Best Premium Economy Class at the Business Traveller Middle East Awards in 2024 and 2025, followed by Airline with the Best Premium Economy Class at the 2025 ULTRAs.

emirates.com

Buckle up for a deluge of new products from Dyson, an onslaught the company is calling a ‘new era of intelligent machines’. Hot on the heels of the world’s first camera-equipped toothbrush, the Dyson CameraJet, the company has revealed a slew of new releases across its other key sectors, cleaning, cooling and beauty, at the Dyson Unveiled event in Berlin, overseen by chief engineer Jake Dyson.

We’ve had a preview of many key products from this drop, among a total of 12 new offerings. The headline takeaway is that sensor-driven intelligence, underpinned by machine learning and AI systems, is now considered an integral pillar of the Dyson experience, alongside its long history of mechanical engineering and innovation.

‘We’ve always been very focused on mechanical engineering, spending decades honing the physical way that each machine performs,’ says Jake Dyson. ‘Now we have shifted from purely mechanical devices to intelligent machines that can see, think, and respond. We’re using artificial intelligence, vision systems and machine learning to allow the machines to understand the environment they are operating in. The approach is the same, whether it’s operating in your mouth, on your hair or around your home.’

Read on to discover what’s new across all the sectors of Dyson's business.

Dyson R3 Nurovi Spot+Scrub UV

One of three robotic vacuum cleaners in the new Dyson Robot Nurovi range (named for their use of Neural Intelligence networks and an all-new ‘Vision’ sensor system), the flagship Dyson R3 Nurovi Spot+Scrub UV has onboard AI stain detection that uses a combination of ultraviolet light, AI vision, and green laser-like illumination.

When used together, the Nurovi R3 can identify nearly 200 types of household substances and objects, returning again and again to the same spot to scrub away until a stain is removed. The docking system provides liquid refills and waste emptying, while the wet roller has a self-cleaning system and uses 70°C heated water to accelerate stain removal.

Dyson R3 Nurovi Spot+Scrub UV robot vacuum, available early 2027, price tbc

Dyson R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry

The R2 Nurovi innovates with triangular mopping pads based on triangular Reuleaux geometry, enabling the robot to reach right into corners.

Water is heated to 75°C, while the newly introduced Twin-capture system filters debris, separating larger chunks from fine dust for a more efficient clean.

Dyson R2 Nurovi wash+dry robot vacuum, £749.99

Dyson R1 Nurovi Dry

The Dyson R1 Nurovi Dry is a purely dry machine, designed for carpets as well as hard floors that don’t need mopping. With extending side sweepers to get closer to walls, it improves coverage.

Dyson R1 Nurovi Dry, £499.99

Dyson W1 PencilWash

For those who prefer to do the cleaning themselves, a trio of hand-operated machines are available, starting with the new Dyson W1 PencilWash.

This evolution of the slender PencilVac and original PencilWash will mop more efficiently thanks to a more absorbent roller and a new hygienic waste system. The dock also doubles as a cleaning station.

Dyson W1 PencilWash, £299.99

Dyson Big Ball Konical Cylinder Vacuum

Another highlight is the return of the Dyson Big Ball vacuum cleaner. The Big Ball Konical updates the cleaning classic, including a visual throwback to the eye-catching colourway of the original DC01 De Stijl vacuum, with the addition of a green laser-like light to illuminate dust, powerful cyclone-driven suction and the ultra-manoeuvrable, self-righting Ball design.

Another new cleaning product announced but not on sale until 2027 is the new Dyson V15 Konical Cordless Vacuum.

Dyson Big Ball Konical, £349.99, Dyson.co.uk

Dyson HushJet Big+Quiet Cool Pure+Formaldehyde

These new air purifiers follow on from Dyson’s earlier HushJet models, including the cult HushJet Mini Cool Fan launched in spring 2026. This time, the scale pendulum has swung in the opposite direction with three new models led by the mighty HushJet Big+Quiet Cool Pure+Formaldehyde. This offers cinematic levels of air flow, with a variable nozzle inspired by aerospace design and airflow control. The approach has also been used to minimise the sound of the rushing air.

All models have a three-stage filtration system designed to capture particulates and gases as well as destroy formaldehyde. It'll be joined in October 2026 by the Dyson HushJet Pure Cool+ Formaldehyde (£549.99) and the Dyson HushJet Hot Cool Pure+, which goes on sale in December (£549.99).

The former is more compact, yet retains a very high-performance output, with as much as three times more air output than its predecessor models. The Dyson HushJet Hot Cool Pure+ is a 3-in-1 model, bringing not just personal cooling and purification but also heating.

Dyson HushJet air purifiers coming soon, Dyson.co.uk

Dyson Corrale CoolShine

The Corrale CoolShine straightener extends Dyson’s haircare range with a new hot-plate styling tool designed to reduce damage and speed up straightening. The CoolShine uses thermal engineering principles derived from Dyson’s Solarcycle light system, with an onboard cooling attachment that keeps excess heat away from the hair.

Dyson Corrale CoolShine, price tbc

Dyson Airsmooth

The new Airsmooth hot brush is Dyson’s first dedicated hot air brush, incorporating airflow technology, engineered to simplify everyday styling routines without compromising results. It brings together Dyson’s pioneering airflow technology with specially developed Anti-snag bristle technology for use with all hair types.

Finally, Dyson’s acclaimed range of haircare products, including the Supersonic hairdryer, Airstrait dryer and straightener, Airwrap multi-styler and Corrale straightener are or will soon be available in a new Plum and Copper Colourway.

Dyson AirSmooth, £199.99, Dyson.com

The revival of beloved but niche nameplates from recent automotive history continues with the unveiling of the new Jensen Interceptor GTX. This all-new track-only supercar takes the name of a true late 60s, early 70s classic, a proto-supercar from a small manufacturer that brought together American muscle (the timeless Chrysler V8 engine) with Italian styling (by Carrozzeria Touring) with British ingenuity and idiosyncrasy. The 1967 Jensen FF featured four-wheel-drive, anti-lock brakes and traction control a full decade ahead of luxury German rivals.

That innovative, individualist approach is what underpins the company’s new revival, the Interceptor GTX. Squint, and you can see shades of Touring’s elegant original, particular in profile, with aluminium panels, a large rear glass screen and a fluid roofline. Those hints of elegance are all but smothered by the aero, with layers of carbon spoilers, splitters and sills creating a mean, purposeful look that’s way more muscle than the inspiration.

Underneath all this bluster is an aluminium chassis and a supercharged 6.8-litre V8, based on a highly modified GM unit, putting out 960bhp to the rear wheels. For now, the GTX is a one-off – an ‘enhanced prototype’ – that’s legal only for the track. It should ultimately manifest as a production-ready GTX, a street legal but still thoroughly menacing high-performance car. Fans of the original might have to wait a little longer, but if you mentally strip away the carbon excesses, you start to get a hint of what a luxury GT bearing the Jensen name could look like.

The GTX was designed, engineered and handcrafted in the UK, and the company is adamant that it hasn’t gone down the restomod path, rather starting from scratch. ‘We were determined to create something entirely new that carries the spirit of the Jensen Interceptor forward in a modern, authentic manner and, perhaps in the case of our first car, the track-focused GTX, in a way people would not expect,’ says David Duerden, Jensen International’s Managing Director, adding that ‘our intention was never to build a continuation car or revisit something that already existed.’

Eventually, the GTR will be a low-volume, high price performance-focused model, with the GT eventually following on, a luxurious grand tourer that will have much more spiritual alignment with the 1966 Interceptor. ‘We’re taking the process one step at a time and, crucially, making sure that each stage is properly funded, designed, engineered and developed,’ Duerden explains, ‘We’re very clear about what we want those next stages to become, while being fully flexible to work with our customers and respond to their specific needs.’

The Jensen International Group has several decades of experience in the classic Jensen aftermarket, as well as creating bespoke continuation models of the original. Working with American motor industry magnate Jeff Qvale, the company hopes to tap into the -hungry, heritage-sensitive high-end automotive clientele. ‘For me, this project is very personal because Jensen was such a significant part of my father’s life and our family history,’ Qvale says, ‘I spent a great deal of time at the factory during the 1970s, working across different departments and seeing first-hand what it took to build and develop these cars. Those experiences stayed with me.’

The new car has been styled by independent studio Avant Design, with the intention of projecting the design language of the original into the present day. Slim LED lighting elements are combined with large air intakes and those dramatic aero components, including a vast adjustable wing that adds some 350kg of downforce at the rear. Coventry Metalcraft handled the aluminium bodywork using a mix of traditional hand-crafted methods and modern technology, while Artiglio Automotive Studio, a specialist automotive composites manufacture, oversaw the carbon fibre.

The interior shown in these images is purely track-focused, including motorsport-grade polycarbonate glazing and an FIA-approved safety cage, Tillett carbon fibre competition seats and six-point harnesses. Although the essential architecture is all there, future GT buyers will just have to dream of a plusher, less functional configuration.

Can the Interceptor GTX spearhead a revival of this great name? Regardless of model, future Jensens are highly likely to be priced alongside or above even the more bespoke offerings from Aston Martin, Ferrari and Bentley. We hope it all goes according plan, if only to ensure that the 1966 Interceptor gets more credit for its striking form and innovation.

Jensen.Ltd, @Jensen.Ltd

Solange Calio Arquitetos has completed a single-storey house in São Paulo’s Catanduva municipality for a doctor, a businessman and their family. Characterised by clean lines, expressive materials and a dynamic interior/exterior relationship, the new house takes up a generous 517 sq m on a 1,000 sq m plot.

Discover the new Solange Calio house design

The house’s low, linear appearance is complemented by the living spaces’ proximity to the courtyard garden, a landscape designed by LF Paisagismo. Outdoor spaces include covered dining terrace, pool, as well as a pond surrounded by mature trees and shrubs with seating areas scattered around the garden. ‘We designed large openings with fully retractable doors, allowing, for example, the dining room, TV room, and [outdoor] gourmet area to be completely integrated depending on the occasion,’ says Solange.

Inside, warmth is created thanks to the reclaimed wood cladding across many of the vertical and horizontal surfaces. Sanded and treated, the timber is taken back to a light tone that matches the chromium-grey cement floor coatings and Itaúnas granite countertops.

The interior programme includes a large kitchen and dining room, alongside a TV room, a playroom and a powder room, with a children’s suite, primary suite and utility spaces. The playroom is designed so that it can eventually become a second child’s bedroom.

Fixtures, furniture and fittings were acquired specially for the project, including reclaimed timber table, armchairs, and sofa by Carlos Motta and bar stools by Guilherme Wentz. The dining chairs are ‘Senior’ by Jorge Zalszupin, while the bedroom includes ‘Platô’ armchairs by Lucas Neves. Other bespoke elements are designed by the studio.

‘Developing this project was extremely rewarding because the site was excellent and, from the beginning, the clients were very confident in what they wanted,‘ the architects says. ‘Our greatest challenge was meeting both our own expectations and theirs, creating a home that is modern, minimalist, and at the same time full of personality.‘

The overall feel – that of living on a permanent vacation – is carried throughout the indoor and outdoor space, making this a house to enjoy as well as occupy.

SolangeCalio.com.br

Cult streetwear brand Palace Skateboards was born in the concrete underbelly of London's Southbank Centre, where a series of ledges, ramps and pillars has served as an impromptu skatepark for the past five decades. The brainchild of Lev Tanju and Gareth Skewis, who would skate there daily, Palace – as it is usually shortened – was formed in 2009, when the pair created T-shirts which sent up the logos of luxury fashion houses in an irreverent style that would become the brand's signature.

Adopted at first by Tanju's skate gang, the Palace Wayward Boys Choir (PWBC), Palace quickly transcended its subcultural roots to become one of youth culture's most ubiquitous brands, recognisable for its ‘Tri-Ferg' logo (graphic designer Fergus Purcell's riff on the Penrose triangle), which has appeared on a slew of collaborations, including Gucci, Nike, Polo Ralph Lauren and Mercedes-AMG, as well as Wedgwood, Stella Artois and Rizla (Tanju has said he picks his collaborators through instinct; the results are full of the deadpan wit you find in Palace's weekly drops). It also hangs over its bricks-and-mortar stores in London, New York, LA, Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai (among others), and Manor Place, a community space in south London conceived with Nike, which opened in 2025.

For their guest edit of Wallpaper*, Tanju and Skewis turn the lens from themselves towards the Palace community – friends, collaborators and muses from the worlds of skating, fashion, art, music and beyond, all of whom have done sterling work for the brand. Together, they encapsulate Palace's come one, come all spirit. ‘Palace is for everyone,' says Tanju.

Meet the Palace creative universe

Click the photographs below to find out more about each creative.

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

How would you describe what you do?

Designer? A bit of everything, whatever I need to make something work. Some drawing, logos – some funny, some serious – moving image, art direction, pattern design, brand tweaks, a font, books, graphics… General problem solving.

Why do you do it?

Just built that way, what else am I going to do? People ask me to make or do things for them and I usually say yes.

Who or what inspires you?

Everything inspires me, sometimes unexpectedly and often accidentally. I could list loads of people, too, they know who they are (I hope).

What creative work got you excited when you were a teenager, and how does it align with what you're into now?

Everything teenagers get obsessed with – graffiti, comics, record sleeves, sportswear, skateboard graphics, science fiction, late-night films with subtitles, raving, logos, branding, lol. Pretty much the same as what I'm into now – my taste is a little broader, more refined, and I read more books, go to more contemporary classical concerts

How would you describe your experience of working with Palace Skateboards?

It's been a lot of fun, never boring. I've been lucky to collaborate on projects that I wouldn't otherwise have been able to – Wimbledon tennis kits, a Juventus strip, England football gear for the World Cup. Palace doesn't take itself too seriously – that's a big part of what makes it work so well.

What were your thoughts on Palace prior to working with them?

Just that I wanted to get involved as soon as possible, join the gang… even though I've never been a skater. It's a bit of a cliché, but Palace has always felt like an extended family. Or maybe a community centre?

What are you currently working on?

A couple of art books, a really complicated camo design, an exhibition poster, the cover of this issue, and a record sleeve.

Favourite restaurant?

Mr Chow, in Knightsbridge, London, c.1993; Aoi, in Atami, Japan, 2018; The JP Bunker, in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, 2024; Crossroads Cafe, in Peckham, London, always.

Anything you'd recommend?

Air by Christian Kracht, The Rules of the Game by Cop Tears (The Trilogy Tapes), paintings by Christian Hidaka (Éditions B42), Ravenna, Italy (for the Byzantine mosaics), ricotta sour cherry gelato from Gelupo in Soho.

Tens of thousands of real human Wallpaper* print edition readers are out there: what is your message to them?

I'm glad to hear that you lot are reading the print edition. Try to avoid the internet as much as possible.

• Meet the entire Palace Creative Universe

Since its founding in 1921, generations of loyal Moto Guzzi enthusiasts have made pilgrimages to the historic motorcycle producer’s Lake Como-side factory, often simply to take a photograph in front of its iconic red gate. Now, after 105 years in business and almost five years of renovations led by American architect Greg Lynn, the Mandello del Lario campus and production facility is opening to the public with a newly designed museum, event space, shop and café.

Travelling to the Moto Guzzi headquarters is an experience in itself. Located on the eastern shore of Lake Como, the leafy grounds are wedged picturesquely between the steep, rocky foothills of the Prealps and the lake’s tranquil, indigo-blue waters – which, on the day of the opening, are dotted with sailboats and glossy wooden Rivas skimming across the surface.

The company’s founders were wise to establish production in this spectacular location back in 1921, when Carlo Guzzi and Giorgio Parodi began turning their plans for a new kind of motorcycle into reality. Over the century that followed, Moto Guzzi became one of the defining names of Italian motorcycling, its machines serving everyone from ordinary commuters and racing champions to the Italian military and police. By 1934, it was the country’s largest motorcycle manufacturer; during the Second World War, production shifted almost entirely to motorcycles for the Italian Army, while in the postwar period its bikes were adopted by the Polizia di Stato, Carabinieri and the Corazzieri, the presidential guard.

More than 160 of these machines are on display in the new Lynn-designed museum, which, from the exterior, resembles a cluster of grey cupolas rising and falling across the site. Their jagged silhouettes echo the rocky backdrop of the surrounding mountains while striking a distinctly contemporary contrast with the traditional, farmhouse-like buildings that populate the rest of the complex.

Yet, according to Lynn – a pioneer of digitally driven architecture who was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale – this dialogue with the landscape happened largely by accident. ‘I work a lot digitally and we often create these really big models in the office,’ he explains, sitting on a circular OMA-designed sofa by UniFor in the museum’s pristine, all-white foyer, lit from above by skylights whose forms recall gears or spoked wheels. ‘So we never really saw the museum against the mountains. We didn’t anticipate the form resonating so well.’

Instead, the building’s distinctive geometry grew out of the organisation of the interior, which divides the 3,000 sq m museum into a series of interconnected spaces dedicated to different aspects of Moto Guzzi’s history. Within, the collection ranges from the GP, the unique prototype that marked the beginning of Moto Guzzi’s story, to contemporary models, alongside racing bikes and motorcycles associated with cinema, travel, the arts, and the military and police. Moto Guzzi and Lynn worked with the design and engineering team at UniFor to develop the exhibition spaces, a dedicated archive, bespoke structures and plinths for the motorcycles, vitrines for archival material and memorabilia, and display systems for helmets, accessories, clothing and scale models. The machines are arranged across sections devoted to subjects including racing, cinema, travel, art and military and police vehicles.

One of the complex’s most fascinating features, however, is its direct connection to the on-site production facilities. On the museum’s upper level, a viewing platform peers down onto the factory floor, allowing visitors to witness firsthand the precision engineering that goes into the making of a Moto Guzzi motorcycle. One thing visitors will immediately notice is the extensive use of robotics – including platforms that ferry motorcycles from one end of the factory floor to the other – developed in collaboration with Piaggio Fast Forward, the Boston-based robotics company founded by Moto Guzzi’s parent company, Piaggio Group, and also headed by Lynn.

It’s a strikingly high-tech spectacle that feels almost incongruous when set against the tranquil surroundings of Mandello del Lario, a juxtaposition that neatly encapsulates the new campus itself: a place where Italy’s natural beauty, industrial heritage and technological ingenuity converge. And, for the generations of Moto Guzzi devotees who have travelled here simply to stand outside its famous red gate, there is finally a reason to step inside.

Another Fire Island architectural wonder is up for sale, this time in the distinctive form of Julio Kaufman’s Pyramid House at 443 Sail Walk. Just a few streets away from the recently marketed Horace Gifford-designed beach house on Ocean Drive, the Pyramid House is one of the more distinctive homes in a neighbourhood renowned for its architectural self-expression.

Explore Fire Island's Pyramid House, now for sale

The house was designed at the start of the 1960s by Kaufman, an architect who was born in Buenos Aires but came to the US to study architecture at Columbia in 1952. After building his own home on Fire Island in 1957, Kaufman was commissioned by one John Goodwin (a grandson of JP Morgan, no less) to design a private retreat. The pyramid shape came from Kaufman’s idiosyncratic approach – he wanted the living room at the centre of the house to have views of the whole island.

The original structure was raised up above the dunes on a rickety deck on a generous plot going down to the beach. In the decades that followed Sail Walk became more and more developed and the house required sturdier foundations. The original two-bedroom configuration was expanded and altered, whilst still retaining the dramatic silhouette – by then a familiar local landmark. The original Asian-inspired décor has been switched out for a more beach house friendly aesthetic.

In addition, the restored property now has an entire wall plane of steel and glass, dramatically improving on Kaufman’s original vision. The impressive views range across what are now the protected Fire Island National Seashore. Another bedroom was added, with the primary suite located on the lower level, which opens directly onto the pool with the dunes beyond.

There are also three small pyramid-shaped structures that add another two guest bedrooms and bathroom. In total, the Pyramid House offers 2,100 square feet of accommodation, arranged as private, self-contained complex. The agents note there is scope to update and expand still further, although it is being sold with central air conditioning and a refurbished pool.

It wasn’t Kaufman’s only major project in the area – he was also responsible for the new Pines Yacht Club and Botel, following a 1959 fire that destroyed the original, owned by former Ziegfeld girl, actress and producer Peggy Fears. Kaufman designed the replacement – a place for boat owners to moor up and stay for the night that became one of the island’s popular nightspots – despite losing an arm in a seaplane accident during the construction phase of both projects.

‘More than six decades after its creation, the Pyramid House remains remarkably private and unmistakably iconic - a landmark of Fire Island modernism ready for its next chapter,’ says agent Esteban Gomez.

The Pyramid House, Fire Island, NY, is for sale for $3,300,000, through Compass.com, listed by Esteban Gomez at @TheCreativesAgent

If there is one thing that all of Es Devlin's projects have in common, it is a sense of wonder. Whether it's creating scenography for some of the world's most celebrated musical artists and theatres, or making a cultural statement through sculpture, installation and performance, her vision traverses scale, space and time. Born in London in 1971, Devlin started her practice in 1996 after a diverse academic career that reflects today's multidisciplinarity. A degree in English literature from Bristol University was followed by a fine art foundation course at Central Saint Martins and a place on the Motley Theatre Design Course. A multi-celebrated artist (from an OBE and CBE to Tony and Olivier Awards), her work intelligently spans genres. In 2026, in a serendipitous collision of anniversaries, her practice also turns 30, so it seemed fitting that we turned over some of Wallpaper’s 30th-anniversary October 2026 print issue to her. From a 16-page, limited-edition concertina cover with an iris-like cut-out that nods to an installation from her immersive 2024 retrospective (and accompanying book), An Atlas of Es Devlin, at the Cooper Hewitt Museum, to a photographic collaboration that brings her studio space onto the page, Devlin invites us into her world, giving us a glimpse into the breadth of her output, and demonstrating how her works offer moments of marvel and connection.

Out of this World: an exclusive interview with Es Devlin in her studio

She's been called an artist, designer, writer, sculptor, even magician – but really, Es Devlin says, she's an ‘everythingist'.

Thirty years into her practice, Devlin isn't pausing. She is, however, reflecting. With two major milestones arriving this autumn – the Design Museum's ‘Other Worlds' (2 October 2026 – 4 April 2027), the first major UK exhibition dedicated to her work, and a new edition of A Concise Atlas of Es Devlin – she has found herself looking back across three decades of projects that have ranged from opera and theatre to stadium tours, public art, architecture and publishing. Rather than revealing a career of restless reinvention, the process has exposed something else entirely.

The word ‘everythingist' arrived almost by accident. While researching a commission for V&A East Storehouse, Devlin discovered that the Russian avant-garde artist Natalia Goncharova had described herself that way more than a century ago. ‘She did everything. She was performance. She was interior design. She made portraits. She painted flowers. She wrote a Rayonist manifesto with her husband. She was a theatre designer…' The idea immediately resonated. Devlin sees the same expansive curiosity in figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke and, more recently, Virgil Abloh – creative polymaths who refused to be pigeonholed or recognise any boundaries between disciplines. ‘I feel like, these days, you need somehow to find permission to be an everythingist because it feels like there's a sort of pressure always to find your thing,' she says. ‘And actually, maybe the thing is the everything.'

Preparing A Concise Atlas only served to strengthen that conviction. ‘I tend to view it as multiple scenes in one script,' she says. ‘I'm used to working on scripts that have multiple scenes that all add up to one line of enquiry.' Revisiting 30 years of work ‘has really helped me to find the common threads through the practice. Otherwise it can all feel a bit fragmented.'

That thread forms the backbone of ‘Other Worlds'. The Design Museum's exhibition is an invitation to explore the mechanisms of her imagination. Visitors will find a detailed recreation of her London studio, where, surrounded by sketchbooks, paintings and maquettes, a vast circular ‘30-Year Desk' links projects as varied as her revolving stage for The Lehman Trilogy, immersive mirror installation Forest of Us, the London 2012 Olympic Games closing ceremony, the Super Bowl halftime show and monumental concert stages. Audiences will already be familiar with the polished spectacle of an Es Devlin show, but the exhibition is a true behind-the-scenes experience. ‘Other Worlds' exposes the research, reading and relentless curiosity that underpin them. The studio is framed as a living archive, with theatre texts sitting alongside scientific treatises, philosophy beside engineering, and cardboard maquettes next to notebooks full of observations. As the first act of every commission, sketches, often in charcoal or graphite, are centre stage.

Drawing, for Devlin, is less about representation than thinking. But if drawing is how she begins a project, reading is what continually replenishes it. Books have long been the hidden architecture of her practice. The recreated studio at ‘Other Worlds' reveals shelves where literature, philosophy, ecology, neuroscience and engineering sit side by side, their ideas feeding one another as readily as her own commissions move between disciplines. Writing, meanwhile, has become a way of understanding the work after it has been made. She describes it as ‘a workout for your interiority' – a means of strengthening the inner resonance against which every new idea is measured. Preparing A Concise Atlas, she says, forced her to step back from three decades of making and discover the coherence beneath it.

Libraries, too, have become a recurring motif. From Library of Light and Please Feed the Lions to Congregation and The Poem Pavilion, they appear as miniature cathedrals of collectively authored and shared ideas. The fascination stretches back to childhood. Devlin, who lived in London before moving to Rye, East Sussex, at the age of six, is the daughter of a teacher and a journalist, and remembers repeatedly renewing the same library books. Not to read them, but because they were literally propping up the cardboard structures she was building. It's an image she finds funny now, but there's something symbolic in the way books have always underpinned her imagination, both physically and intellectually.

Es Devlin's ‘everythingist' approach doesn't just cover creative disciplines. It's also a philosophy of looking beyond herself. If books are the foundations of Devlin's imagination, collaboration is what powers it. She describes her studio as a ‘no-no practice', where ideas are rarely rejected outright. ‘As I've grown in understanding of my own line of enquiry, I've become less anxious, and less tenacious to my own ideas,' she says. Instead, she has learnt to ‘not block', as she puts it. ‘I've also become fascinated by the etymology of the word compromise – it comes from com-promittere – which really suggests ‘a mutual promise', a much more generous description than we've come to understand, and I've tried to enter into this spirit in my collaborations.'

That openness recently transformed a production of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman. Having spent months developing a plane for the stage, she changed everything when she opened her mind to other ideas. ‘I was fixated on it being a particular thing. It felt like a really good idea: The Flying Dutchman on a huge aeroplane...' The director, Yuval Sharon, was less sure. ‘He kept saying, “But I'm wondering what's at the bottom of the lake? What are the forces that are disturbing this journey? I keep thinking about the forces beneath the lake”.'

Her initial reaction was to dismiss it, she admits. ‘I went to the practical things. The lake is not very deep... the design has to be about 50m wide... so we can't store anything deep. From that point of view, I wasn't really getting anywhere. But when I tried to enter his imagination – when I tried to promise mutually with him – I stopped thinking in language and started to think in image.'

Devlin started to think about Jonah and the whale, Godzilla and the Loch Ness monster. ‘And all of human fear of what is unseen and what lies beneath the surface.' The aeroplane disappeared and in its place came a giant whale. ‘I had to tell the team to imagine the plane had taken some ayahuasca and become a whale,' she laughs.

Across many of the monumental stages, kinetic sculptures and immersive installations with which Devlin has become synonymous, perhaps the greatest secret to her success involves that which she cannot control. ‘The setting of the sun is the biggest event that happens in our outdoor productions,' she says. ‘We torment ourselves for months designing giant hands coming out of lakes and aeroplanes and whales or whatever we're doing, but actually, when the audience are there, the biggest event is the sun setting. Therefore what you need to do is be aware of that and respond to it.'

For Come Home Again, her installation outside Tate Modern, Devlin's team shifted the performance time by several minutes each day to coincide with the changing quality of twilight, waiting for the precise moment when ‘an electric light bulb or a lit flame or a piece of projection will bite', she says. Stadium concerts follow the same logic. The darkness is carefully anticipated, ‘the moment where... the lid of darkness, the shift in all of the audience's minds, will happen'. That evolving relationship with light and nature finds one of its most ambitious expressions in Venice, where Devlin has been appointed artistic director of Homo Faber 2026. Titled ‘An Island of Light', the biennial, which runs until 30 September, unfolds across San Giorgio Maggiore through 15 immersive installations celebrating great craftsmanship from around the world. Devlin's concept uses water, mirrors, light and movement as active collaborators, illuminating the work of hundreds of artisans. Visitors encounter kinetic displays of handcrafted objects, breathing wooden sculptures, live workshops, reflective pools and luminous paper installations.

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised to learn how well this sensibility extends to print. For her guest editorship of Wallpaper’s October 2026 issue, Devlin created a limited-edition, 16-page concertina cover (adorning copies of the magazine that will be available to buy on WallpaperSTORE* and at the Design Museum in London from 2 October) that unfolds like a piece of paper architecture, alongside an intricate insert that asks readers to handle the magazine rather than simply read it. Even here, she is thinking as a scenographer, choreographing revelation one fold at a time. As with ‘Other Worlds', she wanted the issue to place process over spectacle, transforming paper into another space.

Long before she was designing stadiums and museums, Devlin worked as a magician's assistant while training as a set designer. Recruited by theatrical producer David Gothard, she joined the experimental circus of Jean-Baptiste Thierrée and Victoria Chaplin, Charlie Chaplin's daughter, where she worked backstage preparing costumes, props and illusions. ‘Literally, my job was to put the rabbit in the hat,' she laughs. ‘And to clean up the rabbit's poo when it shat in the hat.' More importantly, she says, she learnt ‘how magic tricks work' and ‘the rhythm of a theatrical production from the backstage side'. It's a story she tells in passing, but it clearly shaped her approach to making – conjuring magic for audiences everywhere is what she's known for after all. The experience, she says, taught her that magic has very little to do with deception itself and everything to do with directing attention. ‘Magic isn't about tricking people,’ she says. ‘It's about destabilising people's preconceptions. If you destabilise what an audience thinks is happening, then perhaps you destabilise their preconceptions about other things as well.'

Looking back over 30 years, that feels like a key to understanding the practice. Whether creating immersive worlds for Beyoncé, U2 or The Weeknd, reimagining Shakespeare and Wagner for the stage, filling the courtyard of Somerset House with a forest or designing immersive public artworks that invite thousands of strangers to participate, Devlin is repeatedly asking audiences to see differently. The spectacle has never really been the point. It's just the mechanism through which perceptions are altered.

In the end, this is why ‘everythingist' feels like far more than a rejection of specialism. By refusing to accept the boundaries that separate art from science, nature from technology, reading from making, audience from performer, Es Devlin accesses the magic of the creative mind. ‘I would say,' she reflects, ‘the thesis of all the things I've done... would be an assault on the idea of separation by any means necessary.'

‘Es Devlin: Other Worlds' is on show from 2 October 2026 – 4 April 2027 at the Design Museum, London W8, designmuseum.org, esdevlin.com

Es Devlin: a portfolio

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

Earlier this week, Victoria Beckham revealed that her eponymous fashion and beauty line has made a profit for the first time in its 18-year history (she founded the label in 2008, and has hosted runway shows in Paris, New York and its native London). Those profits amounted to 7.3 million, something bolstered by her critically lauded beauty line, which launched in 2019. ‘We have all worked hard for a long time for this moment of profitability and growth,’ she told the Financial Times.

It feels an apt moment, then, for Beckham to open the doors to the brand’s second permanent home, an outpost in New York’s SoHo district. Designed as a companion to her 2014-opened London flagship on Mayfair’s Dover Street – a two-storey conversion in sleek planes of polished concrete by Farshid Moussavi Architects – the New York address was overseen by artist Alexander May and designer Ole Lund of LNP, drawing on the distinctive cast-iron, post-industrial architecture of the neighbourhood.

‘I really wanted the SoHo store to honour the building’s unique character and give the space a distinctly New York sensibility,’ Beckham tells Wallpaper*. ‘We did this by keeping some of the original features and drawing inspiration from the art deco world of Tamara de Lempicka.’ (De Lempicka, a Polish art deco artist known for her bold, stylised portraiture, inspired Beckham’s A/W 2026 collection shown at Paris Fashion Week earlier this year). ‘At the same time, it needed to feel unmistakably Victoria Beckham – warm, intimate and like an extension of the house.’

‘Our starting point was to create a distinctly New York expression of the Victoria Beckham world: precise and confident, but also intimate and welcoming,’ add May and Lund. ‘We preserved the original character of the SoHo building and introduced a disciplined palette of mineral tones, burgundy, marble, timber, lacquer and velvet, balancing the strength of the architecture with softer, more tactile elements.’ Beckham describes it as a clash of ‘masculine and feminine’, a juxtaposition which also runs through her runway collections.

Much of this mood is created through May and Lund’s curation of furnishing and textiles, which add a feeling of richness to the otherwise simple, wood-floored space. Velvet drapery and curtains, created in collaboration with The Shade Store, line the space’s entranceway, while bespoke sculptural, curving sofas were designed by Pierre Augustin Rose. Elsewhere, a pair of monolithic marble counters intersect the space, used to display accessories and beauty, while a Gio Ponti lantern hangs over the entranceway staircase. Paints draw on the palette of Dorset-based company Farrow & Ball.

The store’s opening coincides with New York Fashion Week, which begins next week (10-15 September) and will feature a number of other big-name retail launches, including a vast new Moncler store on Fifth Avenue and a new Acne Studios address in the West Village. They are part of a bricks-and-mortar luxury retail renaissance in the city, which is largely centred around Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue, bolstered by ‘mega-flagships’ like the four-floor Peter Marino-designed House of Dior New York, which opened in 2025 on the corner of East 57th Street and Madison. In April, property company Savills placed New York as the top city for luxury retail openings for the first time since 2019.

‘New York is where I started my brand, showing my collections there for the first time in 2008, and it’s also where I launched my beauty business,’ says Beckham of the city, where she showed for a decade before shifting to London in 2018. ‘Today, my teams are based in London and New York, so to now have retail spaces in both cities feels incredibly special and exciting. They are two places that have truly become home to my brands.’

Victoria Beckham New York, 150 Mercer Street, New York, NY 10012.

victoriabeckham.com

Paris Design Week runs from 10-19 September 2026, and to mark the occasion Garnier & Linker is branching into outdoor lighting for the very first time.

The French lighting brand’s new collection, ‘Aurora’, is built on a simple premise: rather than inventing a new design language for outdoor use, it extends Garnier & Linker's existing universe – one that founders Guillaume Garnier and Florent Linker say draws from ‘the decorative arts and contemporary sculpture’.

‘Through the various – often technical – research projects we conducted to develop this outdoor collection, we thought it would be interesting to adapt some of our current models. To bring the indoors outdoors, so to speak,’ they elaborate.

'Aurora' reinterprets existing designs – including ‘Nezu’, ‘Kora’, ‘Teree’ and ‘Thea’ – through the introduction of a new material. Where the brand’s indoor pieces have tended towards bronze or plaster, ‘Aurora’ uses cast aluminium. ‘Beyond its qualities, which are well-suited to outdoor use, we also wanted to focus on its aesthetic appeal – which is both raw and refined,’ the founders explain.

Developed at Les Granges, the founders’ studio near the Forest of Fontainebleau just south-east of Paris, ‘Aurora’ still feels sculptural – a hallmark of the brand – but leans slightly more architectural and industrial.

The design process stayed true to the studio's usual hybrid method – ‘moving back and forth between the studio and the workshop, and between drawing and sculpting or modelling’ – but this time layered with demands specific to the outdoors, including electrical testing and the development of a proprietary, compact power source. Interestingly, the attention to materials, texture and process developed for outdoor durability has now found its way back indoors, too – ‘thus bringing us full circle’, say Garnier and Linker.

The pair describe ‘Aurora’, which, they tease, is only the first chapter of a larger outdoor lighting line, as a challenge to the codes of the category. ‘We feel that the conventions are set in stone, both in terms of form and the materials used, and that the design vocabulary is consequently limited,’ they say. The new collection explores ‘how the differences between interior and exterior can sometimes be challenged to achieve greater fluidity’.

Just outside Shanghai and set beside Jinji Lake, the Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has officially launched to the public. The 60,000 sq m landmark soft-opened its doors on 30 August 2026 with a series of preview exhibitions – among them a show on the architecture firm's own work.

Step inside BIG’s Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art

BIG created the museum to unfold like a village, and it features a contemporary interpretation of traditional Suzhou gardens. Under a ribbon-like roof, the project comprises 12 pavilions with a central covered corridor that acts as a stem, branching into the varying exhibition spaces. Bridges and tunnels are positioned above and below ground, connecting visitors to the changing exhibitions.

‘If the historic city centre is the cradle of the Chinese garden, the [Jinji] lake district is the cradle of a new Suzhou. The site of the Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art is sandwiched between the city and the lake. A newly constructed Ferris wheel partially blocks the relationship with the water,' says Bjarke Ingels, founder and creative director of BIG.

'By dissolving the museum into a Chinese garden of interconnected galleries, distributed across the site like pavilions in a park, the museum becomes a connection between the city and the lake, rather than an obstacle. Its urban porosity allows citizens to walk through sculpture gardens to the lakefront, while the water penetrates between the pavilions to reach the city,' he continues.

The Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art marks the first completed art museum for the architecture firm. The museum also presents BIG’s own 'Materialism' exhibition, which invites visitors on a journey that explores ten different materials that helped shape the firm's work. The show includes large-scale mock-ups and models of projects from around the world.

The museum is a significant new venue for contemporary art, design, and public life in Suzhou, with a focus on cross-cultural relationships between Eastern and Western artistic traditions, headlined by a Picasso exhibition and a large survey of contemporary Chinese art.

Ingels continues: ‘Not only do I see our design as an homage to its local heritage, a sort of Scandinavian reinterpretation of a unique typology, the Chinese garden, but the result is in many ways a manifestation of the ancient future of Suzhou and a testament to the construction quality and technical sophistication that is becoming the rule rather than the exception in contemporary Chinese architecture.’

suzhoumoca.com

big.dk

If you were a 1990s kid, then you may feel an affection for Tamagotchi. The portable digital pet became a pocket-sized staple after its first release in November 1996, when its ball-chain design could be hooked around handbags or trouser loops.

Since then, it has gone through many iterations, from a necklace to a wristwatch, while the underlying principle of caring for a digital pet has remained the same. Now, its newest form has been unveiled as a Tamagotchi ring to mark its 30th anniversary.

Everything you need to know about the Tamagotchi ring

Bandai Co, the Japanese manufacturer behind Tamagotchi, has created the device to be worn on the finger. The 28mm piece of technology features a colour LCD screen (a feature first introduced in 2008) and allows you to nurture up to 30 Tamagotchis.

The ring is the 39th product in the main series and is about half the size of the original Tamagotchi (which was around 50mm long), with a 0.56-inch screen. The ring band, which comes with an adjustable spacer, fits Japanese ring sizes 10 through 14 comfortably.

The original egg-shaped design with three buttons and LCD screen remains the same; however, additional buttons placed on the left and right allow for extra operations. After two years of development, it is also the world’s smallest colour LCD device, and the first of the Tamagotchi series that can be charged in a dedicated charging case.

To celebrate 30 years, familiar Tamagotchi characters make a return, further dialling up the nostalgia factor. Depending on how you raise them, the cute digital pets may grow into secret Tamagotchi characters too.

Retailing at 7,700 yen (around US$48-$55 / £44-$55), there are three ‘Tamagotchi ring’ types. Pre-ordering closes on 6 October 2026, with delivery scheduled for February 2027.

Pre-ordering is available at p-bandai.jp and zenintcg.com

The Bugaboo stroller has long been an upward social indicator, the Bugatti of baby buggies, if you will. The Dutch company launched in its home market in 1999 and came to the UK at the turn of the century, upending decades of market domination by a small number of brands and dragging the stroller into a newly competitive sector.

Now the company has teamed up with Stella McCartney to cement its status as a style leader, with new colourways across three key models in addition to a range of accessories. McCartney’s eye brings together a surprisingly masculine colourway – Tobacco Brown with accents in Saddle Brown – along with a diamond-cut chain detail and vintage gold medallions.

Three strollers get the treatment, including the flagship Bugaboo Fox 5 Renew, the compact Dragonfly Plus and the Butterfly 2 travel Stroller. The accessory list includes a tote bag, mittens and footmuff, all of which bear the signature Stella McCartney monogram to give off the right vibes in the playground.

It’s not just about pre-school brand awareness of course. McCartney is bringing her own experience of motherhood – and childhood – to the project, which includes vegan leather, recycled aluminium and polyester fabrics and water-free dyes. McCartney’s Falabella bag (named after her childhood pony) serves as the influence for the chain and stitching details.

Bugaboo’s reputation has also been thoroughly well earned, with design details, material approaches and technical performance that outdid the competition to set new standards for stroller design. Aligning itself with a powerful but eco-conscious brand like Stella McCartney is 100 per cent in sync with its stated values. In 2023, Bugaboo became a B Corp and hopes to reach net-zero status by 2035.

According to Bugaboo’s CEO, ‘Today's parents are design-minded, values-driven and on the frontfoot of culture. They expect the brands they choose to reflect that. Stella McCartney has always proven that style and responsibility belong together, and that's a belief Bugaboo shares deeply.’

‘Working with Bugaboo makes sense, as it’s a brand that shares our commitment to innovation and responsibility,’ says Stella McCartney. ‘This collection is for every mum who wants to bring her own individuality and playfulness into parenthood.’ The Bugaboo x Stella McCartney range is being launched with a campaign headed up by model and new mother Poppy Delevingne.

Bugaboo Fox 5 Renew stroller, £1,850, Bugaboo x Stella McCartney, available 15 September 2026 in store and from Bugaboo.com, @BugabooGlobal, StellaMcCartney.com, @StellaMcCartney

The silhouette is instantly familiar. The curved lines, functional simplicity and pale wild birch could only belong to a quiet Finnish design classic: Artek’s ‘Stool 60’.

Yet this version has a soft twist. Wrapping its circular seat and dressing its feet in ‘shoes’ is the time-textured presence of another material: natural vegetable-tanned leather.

Artek has unveiled its debut collection with Hender Scheme, a Tokyo-based leather brand, with a series of eight products blending the Finnish furniture company’s modernist design with contemporary Japanese craftsmanship.

A dialogue between two raw materials that slowly patinate with time – Finnish wild birch and vegetable-tanned leather – lies at the heart of the new Artek + Hender Scheme collection, which will be exhibited at London Design Festival 2026 ahead of its global launch on 10 October.

The collection includes the circular tops of classic Artek stools and tables wrapped in vegetable-tanned leather, a material also used to shape furniture ‘shoes’ for Alvar Aalto’s classic L-legs – compact containers to pop onto the bases of legs of tables and stools, to prevent scratches and soften acoustics.

The ‘A330 Golden Bell’ pendant light, a sculptural and reflective 1953 design classic, has also been reinterpreted in natural leather using 3D-printed moulds; while the fluidly organic ‘Riihitie’ ceramic plant pots created by Aino Aalto in 1937 inspired a new series of accessories, including leather coasters, a key holder and a clock.

Time – and the shifting beauty of the raw materials – is an elemental theme, according to Ryo Kashiwazaki, founder of Hender Scheme. With birch and leather ageing at different tempos, the ‘finished’ products are just the beginning – as a continuum of colours, textures and atmospheres is shaped by owners’ daily lives, memories and experiences.

It was in 2010 that Kashiwazaki set up Hender Scheme – its name inspired by the idea of gender-less products – in Asakusa, a low-key district in east Tokyo long known for its artisanal shoemaking heritage. Today, the name is synonymous with a clean-lined minimalism and material purity, as embodied by Hender Scheme’s crafted shoes and modern accessories, ranging from bags to furniture.

Its heartbeat is Sukima, a creative space in an industral-edged concrete building housing a gallery on a quiet street in Kuramae, east Tokyo, which stages contemporary art exhibitions. Here, Kashiwazaki spoke to Wallpaper* on the eve of the Artek + Hender Scheme collection launch – about shoes for stools, his passion for Artek, the spaces in-between and his quest for freedom.

Wallpaper*: What philosophy shapes Hender Scheme?
Ryo Kashiwazaki: Timeline. We focus on the timeline of products. Our philosophy is that our products are not finished at the point of sale – they are completed by the user, through the process of ageing and daily use. This is our manifesto. We work mainly with leather, which is a good material to express this concept. With natural tan leather, you can see all the changes with the passing of time and usage.

W*: Tell me about vegetable-tanned leather?
RK: When we started the brand, I just liked it. Then I realised it was a really good material to communicate our philosophy. I wanted to express a timeline through our products and brands so it became our main material. We are half-design industry, half-fashion industry, so we wanted to balance the timeline and make something not too fast but something new.

W*: It’s a sensitive balance.
RK: Yes – we call this balance sukima – the space in-between. We try to be in-between. We are in-between fashion and craft and technology.

W*: Hender Scheme designs are often very clean and minimalist. What inspires this?
RK: If I’m honest, we just naturally do what we want to do. There is no specific design strategy – we are very small. But the most important thing for us is to be very independent and very free. Freedom is the most important thing for me.

W*: What was the seed for the Artek collaboration?
RK: I’m a big fan of Aalto and Artek. I travelled to Finland around 15 years ago on my honeymoon with my wife. Of course I visited Aalto’s studio. I also owned a few Aalto and Artek products. We often do studies in our studio, to practise our leather techniques and our design – and we did one study, making ‘Uten.Silo’ [the 1969 plastic, wall-mounted storage system by Dorothee Becker, currently produced by Vitra] in natural leather. It was just a study for the studio, not for sale. But my good friend was impressed – and he took a picture and showed it to Vitra and Artek. That led to the start of the conversation about four or five years ago.

W*: How did the project unfold?
RK: At that point, it was not about collaborations. The starting point was just making conversation and trying to get to know each other. It was very natural. Then Artek’s managing director visited us and was also surprised to see this. We slowly started talking about what we could do together. We found we already have a very close philosophy.

W*: Where do you feel Hender Scheme overlaps with Artek
RK: I think it is about timeline. We like to respect natural materials. It is a little different in terms of shoes and leather, and wood and furniture, but I think it’s all moving in the same direction: the idea of respecting timelines and the ageing process. Industrial production involves trying to make exactly the same thing – but I feel that we are doing the opposite. We like elements that are unique and different.

W*: Can you tell more about the physical qualities of vegetable-tanned leather?
RK: It’s not coated, so it’s really pure, raw leather. Its surface naturally oxidies with time. Even if it’s not exposed to sunlight, it slowly ages. Firstly, the colour changes and deepens. Then it becomes marked or scratched, with its usage showing on the surface. So when you look at it, you can feel what happened in your life at different moments in time. The user’s memories can be remembered through the material as it ages. This works particularly well with furniture, as it has a long life.

W*: Tell me about the process of bringing this project to life.
RK: It took almost five years. It was quite a difficult balance. We wanted to respect Artek’s outlines and forms and tried not to do too much. There were so many different possible approaches. My friend Daisuke Motogi had already done the ‘Hackability of the Stool’ project [repurposing ‘Stool 60’ into more than 100 other objects, from a flower pot to a turntable, in 2023], so I couldn’t use that approach [laughs]. We did a lot of studies. We did mock-ups for bags. We thought about skateboards. But eventually, because our core process is shoemaking, we found that stools can also wear shoes. That’s when we found our concept. It’s not just about how this looks – it’s really functional. You can avoid scratches on the floor and also soften the noise.

W*: Can you tell me about the ‘Golden Bell’ pendant light?
RK: We’ve never made lighting before, apart from one table light with a New York retailer a long time ago. This time, we wanted to approach something new and we were drawn to this pendant light. Over the past five years, we’ve developed a 3D printer in our studio – and our techniques for making moulds are getting better and better. So I thought we could create a 3D object – which is how we made the lamp.

W*: What drew you to this light?
RK: I felt it was really beautiful. And from a technical point of view, I thought it could be made of leather. This pendant light has many different versions, mainly using a single piece. But in the archive, we found a separate version in several pieces. This one has three pieces. We made the top parts in 3D-printed leather – and kept the bottom part in brass, like in the original model, so light can shine through it. It was very difficult to make – it took almost three years.

W*: How about the accessories?
RK: These are inspired by Aino Aalto’s early planters. She made three different shapes. We wanted to take the shape and do something different with it. So we made a mock-up for these shapes and chose this one. It is a beautiful match with the material. We made these objects by dipping the leather into water and making a mould using a 3D printer. The leather is placed between two mould parts, with pressure applied. It takes about two or three days to dry.

W*: Can you remember the first moment you were drawn to Artek?
RK: When I was a student, I had a few friends who were into architecture and they had Artek stools, maybe a chair. That was my first discovery. Then after, I saw a lot of Aalto stools in Comme des Garçons. I’m very drawn to Aalto’s work. I think it is the balance. If you have an Artek stool in your home, you can feel its presence, but it’s not too much.

W*: And now we’re sitting in east Tokyo, which seems to be in the DNA of Hender Scheme.
RK: We’re on the east side of Tokyo. Asakusa nearby was historically a shoemaking neighbourhood. When I started making shoes here, there were no cafes or stores around. We call it shitamachi – or downtown. It’s very local and people are very connected here. Now it’s getting more popular among younger generations, as central rents increase.

W*: What is the shoemaking industry like here today?
RK: There are still many workshops around us and we still collaborate with many people – there is still an ecosystem here. But it is decreasing as people get older. We’ve also started in-house making now.

W*: Tell me about Sukima, where we are now. The concept seems to go far beyond shoes?

RK: Sukima is a gallery – an alternative space that aims to give opportunities to artists – as well as a showroom and office. The gallery has an exchange system. We don’t take commission for sales – but we ask [each artist] to give us one artwork. It is a really new concept and it works very well. We do four or five exhibitions a year. This piece on the wall behind me is by Kohei Yamada, a very popular young artist. When you avoid money exchange, you become very, very free. Our communication has completely changed as we don’t need to talk about money. I receive a lot of inspiration through this project.

W*: What were the biggest lessons of this creative journey
RK: When I’m designing products for Hender Scheme, I have the answer from the beginning. Then I work towards that idea. With my own collection, everything is inside out – I’m always judging myself. But with this project, it was a totally different approach. There was a lot of information, a lot of people. Especially this time, I really didn’t want to say, ‘Hey, we are Hender Scheme!’ I wanted to find a nice balance between the product and concept and attitude.

W*: And what’s your ultimate hope with this collection?
RK: To [put it simply], I wanted to show shoes for stools as a new product. Because I think no one has thought to put shoes on stools. Also, if I find these products in a 2nd Cycle store in Finland in the future, that would be great. But mainly? I hope people have fun with these projects. Just enjoy.

Artek + Hender Scheme collection will be exhibited at London Design Festival 2026, and will be released globally on 10 October 2026

Sea Cove Drive seems like an appropriate address for a Pacific Ocean-facing home that gazes over Abalone Cove and Catalina Island in California. It is also the address for The Judge & Jeannie Anderson Residence, designed by architect Aaron G Green, which has just hit the market.

The Judge & Jeannie Anderson Residence by Aaron G Green for sale

The Anderson Residence was built by Green in 1959 and stands as one of the most notable works in his portfolio. Green worked closely with architect Frank Lloyd Wright and ran his own practice while serving as Wright's West Coast representative from 1951 until the great master died in 1959.

Although inspired by Wright’s teachings, Green’s Anderson Residence echoes his distinct, personal flair and is an intact example of his own brand of ‘organic modernism’. The property, which sits across 3.5 acres, was conceived to invite the outside in through a single, open and continuous space.

Stepping inside the newly listed $7,800,000 residence, the entryway is recessed, which highlights the home's V-shaped plan. Gabled rooflines jut outward in two directions, which draw the eye towards the surrounding vistas and contrast nicely against the peculiar geometric water pool.

A private bedroom is located to the left of the house with a wall of windows that frames the ocean, while more social spaces, including the living room, dining room, and kitchen, lie straight ahead. The architecture plays with openness and more intimate spaces. Unexpected additions include a private Japanese garden, which is overlooked by two guest bedrooms and baths.

In the living area, steps trace the contours of the land down to a sunken living room with built-in seating and architect-designed furniture. At the heart of the space is a stone fireplace, with adjacent corner glass walls.

In 2003, the property was expanded by architect Eric Lloyd Wright (grandson of the esteemed architect), who focused on the bath, a swimming pool update and a spa tub addition. Green also revisited the home with a plan to create two additional bedrooms and bathrooms with their own entryway. Even though this idea was never realised, its potential remains.

This is a Californian modernist gem that seamlessly tightropes between light, openness, and serene intimacy.

The Judge & Jeannie Anderson Residence by Aaron G Green is listed at $7,800,000. For more information, visit: moderncaliforniahouse.com

Nearly a quarter of a century ago, I experienced the late flowering glory of Bristol Cars, an eccentric British manufacturer approaching the end of its first historic epoch. Spun off from the Bristol Aeroplane Company (founded in 1918), Bristol Cars parlayed the inter-war manufacturing experience it had gleaned from making car and bus bodywork into proper automotive manufacturing.

The car division was founded in 1945, with a factory close to Bristol’s aviation works at Filton Airport to the north of the eponymous town. Its first car was effectively a pre-war BMW, the rights to which had previously belonged to Frazer Nash and which were subsequently acquired via the War Reparations Board.

When Bristol Aeroplane started along the long road to becoming a part of British Aerospace, the car maker became independent, ultimately overseen by the inimitable Tony Crook, a leading dealer, racing driver and former Second World War pilot, who took over from the founding White family.

Crook defined Bristol’s character, eccentric, slightly out of time, but plain speaking and wilfully idiosyncratic. Bristol models evolved at a glacial pace, never quite finding the pulse of fashion but often picked by customers with similar anti-establishment views. Above all, they had to be approved by Crook, who ruled from the company’s sole dealership, a wood-panelled period piece beneath an apartment block in London’s West Kensington.

The cars weren’t especially competitive or even attractive once the Type 410 and 411 gave way to the hard-edged Beaufighter, Britannia and Blenheim models of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Nevertheless, they retained a certain je ne sais quoi, with lazy Chrysler V8 engines providing plenty of power. As the new century progressed, the ageing Crook took a step back, but not before the company’s swansong, the V10-powered Bristol Fighter, made its debut.

This was the car I was assigned to drive, with Crook in the passenger seat barking orders and directions. Low and slim like a cigarette boat, with an engine taken from Chrysler’s frankly over-powered and intimidating Viper supercar, the Fighter certainly looked the part, even if the performance claims were somewhat bold. It also wasn't the easiest car for an inexperienced driver to thread through London traffic, especially as it had a towering list price of over £200,000.

The interior was festooned with dials and buttons, and even had controls mounted on the roof and a gauge that showed the total engine running hours, just like in an aircraft. As we drove west out of London, Crook urged me on, all the while extolling the virtues of the narrow body, the copious luggage space and the effortless power.

Top speed was said to be in excess of 200mph, with an even more extreme Fighter T variant offering 250mph-plus. It’s not known if any of the latter were made, for sadly Bristol Cars was on the way out. The company closed its doors in 2011, sold its London showroom and workshop and shuttered the factory in Bristol. Maybe as few as 20 Fighter chassis were ever built, with some sources suggesting less than ten cars were ever completed.

For the past 15 years, the name was in limbo. Crook died in 2014 at the age of 93, not living to see a stalled revival in the shape of the 2016 Bristol Bullet. It was a blank and the name disappeared yet again. However, those familiar with the auto industry’s current fascination with the recent past will know where this story is going, for the Bristol Fighter is back. A full 80 years after the company's first-ever car, it has returned with a continuation series of five ‘new’ Bristol Fighters.

These cars, constructed on unused original chassis, will all be handmade and built to order. Hopefully they'll secure the claimed coveted 210mph top speed once and for all, courtesy of their 8.0-litre V10 engine. The car illustrated here, unveiled at today’s Salon Privé event in Blenheim (2 September 2026), is a showcase for the revival, with impeccable trim and build quality. As before, it’s a strict two-seater, with generous luggage capacity. As before, it remains a powerful GT machine for the discerning individualist.

It’s the first page of a new chapter for the historic brand, revived by new owner and director Paul King with assistance from chairman Richard Hackett – who once worked alongside Crook. ‘Bringing Bristol Cars back is about far more than reviving a name; it is about bringing back the spirit of a marque that has always stood apart,’ says King. ‘We want to honour its heritage while giving Bristol a future that is every bit as distinctive. This is the beginning of Bristol’s return, and there is much more to come.’

For more information, visit Bristol-Cars.co.uk

Wild Comfort is a new book that sets out to show that the age-old dream of a home in the wilderness needn’t mean compromising on creature comforts. With an introduction by Jim Olson of Olson Kundig (the book includes the practice’s Camp House project), the publication is presented as a compilation of remote but refined architectural design.

Browse the finest remote dwellings in ‘Wild Comfort’

In total, the book includes 30 projects from around the world, all of which are designed to induce some level of envy in the reader. Whether you’re after an island idyll (Peter Braithwaite Studio’s Armstrong Cottage in Ontario), a dwelling in the desert (The Periphery in Boulder, Colorado, by Locus Studio) or a house embedded in the woods (Gonzalo Bardach Arquitectura’s Forest House in Brazil), Wild Comfort has got you covered.

Projects come primarily from the USA, although there’s also a healthy spread from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Latvia and Mexico. Those itching to know more about the process of securing permission to build amidst such stunning surroundings could do with a little more detail – the projects mostly appear as if they have materialised fully formed on their site with little sense of how they got there. A floorplan or site plan or two wouldn’t go amiss, showing how some of these structures literally seem to be threaded through the trees or across rocky shores.

Featured studios include Dubbeldam Architecture + Design, Dekleva Gregorič Architects, Allied8 and Strang, along with excellent photography from the likes of Joe Fletcher and Fernando Guerra. Whether you have a secret valley, private pine forest or your own archipelago in need of a residence or two, Wild Comfort is a mighty fine place to start.

'Wild Comfort: Contemporary Homes in the Wilderness', Images Publishing, £40, ImagesPublishing.com, @Images_Publishing

Alaska Airlines has upgraded its nascent long-haul experience with the debut of an all-new International Business Class cabin aboard its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. The exciting development is shared with Hawaiian Airlines, its sister carrier under Seattle-based Alaska Air Group.

Fly Alaska Airlines’ new International Business Class

Since joining the Oneworld Alliance in 2021, the West Coast carrier has expanded its reach to over 900 global destinations, with a special focus on Europe and East Asia. The new cabin made its debut on Alaska’s inaugural non-stop service from Seattle to Rome, with routes to Seoul Incheon and Tokyo Narita about to follow from its Pacific Northwest hub.

The 34-seat cabin adopts the original Adient Ascent design by Elevate Aircraft Seating, the joint venture between automotive seating specialist Adient and aerospace behemoth Boeing. Arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration, every suite transforms into a fully flat bed and has direct aisle access. Privacy doors, koa wood-patterned floors and wall panels bring warmth to the cabin, while white marble surfaces incorporate wireless charging alongside personal power outlets. An 18in HD screen, paired with noise-reducing LSTN Sound Co headphones, offers over 1,500 films and TV shows.

On the amenities front, premium bedding and kits have been conceived by American heritage brand Filson, known for its weatherproof utility gear. A mattress pad, sleeping pillow, lumbar cushion and oversized duvet, finished in a beige check that complements the cabin’s teal accents, prepare each suite for lights out. Meanwhile, the collectable amenity bag comes in two colours inspired by the West Coast and contains Salt & Stone’s aluminium-free skincare products and other travel essentials, such as socks and eye masks. Passengers also receive a bespoke reusable bottle developed with certified BPA-free brand PATH Water.

Food follows the route. Destination-led dishes include a full English breakfast on London services and gochujang chicken with traditional banchan en route to Incheon. A standout is Alaska’s Chef’s (Tray) Table entrée, created with award-winning Seattle chef Brady Ishiwata Williams and featuring his signature short rib, sourced from Washington’s Klingemann Farms. Drinks span West Coast and European wines, including labels from the Stag’s Leap area, alongside Louis Roederer Champagne, handcrafted cocktails, regional craft beers, mineral water and freshly brewed Stumptown coffee.

Equally tantalising is the fact that Starlink’s satellite service, billed as the fastest Wi-Fi in the sky, is due to arrive on the airline’s 787-9 Dreamliners in the coming months, offering gate-to-gate connectivity for Atmos Rewards members.

alaskaair.com

‘Everywhere I go I see pattern. In the brick buildings of London, in the knit of the jumper I’m wearing, even in the branches of the trees,’ says British designer Tom Dixon, whose previous glassware designs include pieces inspired by the bold geometric silhouette of a game puck and the functional volumes of scientific lab equipment.

For his first collaboration with Nude, the contemporary outshoot of leading glassware producer Şişecam, Dixon observed the patterns made by water, both on the table and outdoors. A signature ripple detail can be found at the base of each piece in the collection, adding a tactile simplicity to its wine, cocktail, highball and lowball glasses.

Combining Dixon’s distinctive visual language and Nude’s contemporary glassmaking expertise, the ripple detail also reflects Dixon’s ongoing exploration of concentric forms, which have appeared on creations ranging from the ‘Press’ collection of lighting and accessories – ‘very much an extension of this thinking, but this time in immensely heavy pressed glass’ – to the art-deco curved ridges of the ‘Groove’ outdoor chair.

‘I have a tendency to get a specific obsession, sometimes in shape, sometimes in materiality, and I originally started looking at this “grooving” or corrugation when I was trying to make the outdoor chair,’ says Dixon. ‘It’s an industrial pattern, and I like the way that it is so universal – when we started looking at glass we loved the way that by having these undulations you get a series of circular lenses that refract and reflect light and give you the impression of the movement of water.’

Both functional and expressive, the expanding glass circles celebrate the joy of pouring a drink, capturing the movement of liquid through the vessel and the quiet pleasure of the final sip. ‘The concentric rings that occur when the last drop of wine is poured, when a raindrop hits a puddle and a series of concentric rings emanate from the centre – they are in fact the perfect structural and decorative device for a wine glass,’ he says.

The ripple also beautifully mirrors the glassblowing process itself. ‘It is not just a celebration of the water, the cocktails and the wine that will inhabit the glassware, but also an acknowledgement of the liquid state of glass during the manufacturing process, during which the molten glass flows, pours and ripples in a way that is reflected in the transition from stem to base,’ says Dixon.

Dixon might be known for his early welded metal creations, but he relished the chance to explore a different material for this new collaboration. The glassblowing process is ‘so much fun, and so much danger... so much heat and such quick decision making – it really is the opposite of metal in the way that you work it, but I loved the brand new challenge’, he says, having tried it for himself at a recent glassblowing residency at Soneva in the Maldives.

Achieving the exceptionally thin, delicate proportions of the machine-made ‘Splash’ collection required significant technical know-how, resulting in a finish remarkably close to handcrafted glass. ‘The ripple effect was particularly challenging: creating a bold texture on the base while maintaining the collection’s lightness and refined proportions required close collaboration between design and production,’ say the team at Nude.

‘With this project, we wanted to capture the subtle beauty of drinking – the way liquid moves, settles, and disappears,’ they say. ‘Beyond the pieces themselves, the collection was designed to create a more sensory and experiential way of drinking, elevating everyday moments through design.’

So, what to serve in these beautifully made glasses? Well, Dixon suggests something fizzy to celebrate: ‘I’m childishly partial to anything with bubbles in it, so give me champagne, give me Kombucha or hand me the simplest gin and tonic – but not all at the same time.’

The ‘Splash’ collection will be available worldwide at Nude Glass and Tom Dixon from 7 September

Bentley has gone through many phases in its 107-year life. There was the pre-war phase, dominated by the suave and swashbuckling Bentley Boys, the wafty ‘walnut wood and cigar smoking’ phase under rival Rolls-Royce between the 1930s and the 1970s and, most recently, the ownership of German juggernaut Volkswagen Group. That parentage gave birth to the Continental, which transformed Bentley’s brand image and fortunes back in 2003. Now comes the latest iteration, the unapologetically athletic Bentley Supersports.

The Supersports is nothing new for Bentley. The name dates back more than 100 years, when it graced a lighter, shorter and faster version of its 3.0-litre model. The rebirth came in 2009, with a dialled-up version of the Continental GT, before a successor arrived with the next-generation Continental GT in 2017. Each model was engineered for performance but kept the Continental GT’s proven four-wheel drive formula, while the latter came with four seats, ensuring its reputation as a refined grand tourer remained unscathed.

But much of that has gone out of the window with the latest iteration. In place of the current Continental GT’s hybrid system, sits a 4.0-litre, non-hybrid twin-turbo V8, while the rear seats are replaced with a carbon-fibre tub and all 657bhp is pushed to the rear wheels exclusively.

On paper, it’s the most radical interpretation of Bentley’s Continental GT yet and in practice, it certainly lives up to that mantle. ‘[Supersports] signifies a return to Bentley making more extreme cars, ones that combine extraordinary breadth of ability with true driver engagement,’ said CEO Frank-Steffen Walliser at the car’s launch. ‘Bentley has always thrived when revealing a more daring side, and the new Supersports is a statement of our intent.’

California’s Laguna Seca racetrack is a particularly unforgiving test ground. Its infamous Corkscrew has a vertical elevation drop of 18m between the entrance and exit of Turn 8. It is not a place you’d expect to find a Bentley, yet the Supersports shrugs off every inch of the track with an ease that belies its grand tourer underpinnings.

The most significant improvement on its weightier, more pedestrian sibling is its clear and sharp steering. It feels lighter and sprightlier through the corners, the rear wheels lighting up and stepping out playfully when prompted. It doesn’t feel threatening or unpredictable. It’s controllable, fun and raucous, with its titanium exhaust (supplied by specialist manufacturers Akrapovič) providing a burbling, spitting and rasping soundtrack to match.

Behind the wheel, it’s still very much a Bentley. The ride is on the right side of firm and the cabin is still filled with the creature comforts you’d expect from a car stemming from the Continental’s bloodline. Bentley has developed leaner, more supportive seats for the Supersports but they’re still comfortable enough to crack on with a cross-country drive if the opportunity came about. The carbon-fibre tub that replaces the rear seats is a structural component, lined with leather.

Externally, the Supersports shouts a little louder than most Bentleys, though never simply for the sake of it. Dr Matthias Rabe, Bentley’s board member for research and development, told the design team that nothing on the exterior could change for the sake of appearance alone. Every new surface had to be proven to work through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tests before any of the design team were allowed to judge how it looked.

What that brief produced is the largest aerodynamic splitter ever fitted to one of the marque’s road-going cars at the front, flanked by cooling channels feeding the engine and front brakes separately. Stacked wings on each corner add more aerodynamic and visual enhancement, while more blades sit behind the front wheel arches. At the rear, a fixed one-piece spoiler and an integrated diffuser. Together, they add more than 300kg of downforce.

For all the fun and bravado, the Supersports delivers, it arrives at an odd moment. While the industry is busy adding batteries, and let’s not forget the marque’s very first electric car is due in less than a month, Bentley has taken one out of the Continental GT and charged an additional £140,000 for the privilege. But the Supersports has a different objective. The limited 500-car run is designed to shift people’s perspective about the 107-year-old brand and rekindle some of the experimental and pioneering spirit the marque was founded on over a century ago and to pave the way for what is to come.

Bentley Supersports, from £342,900, BentleyMotors.com, @BentleyMotors

LABottega has stood on Viale Apua in the Tuscan town of Pietrasanta since 1920, when art director and curator Serena del Soldato’s great-grandparents opened it as a shop on a bare stretch of the Versilia coast, adding a trattoria under the plane trees and an inn for travellers. The family remade the place in 2011, and it now runs as a restaurant, rooms and a gallery. Del Soldato owns and directs it, and has curated its exhibitions ever since.

Above the town, at Strettoia, del Soldato also runs an organic farm, called La Stellata. It’s home to geese, peacocks and goats, a kitchen garden, and some 300 quercetano olive trees, a variety safeguarded by a Slow Food presidium, across a hectare of hillside. Designers and artists are invited to the farm each year to make work inspired by the location; the pieces are built with artisans in Pietrasanta, and what they make stays, first shown in the gallery and then used to furnish the guest rooms.

Federica Elmo’s ‘Naturamagica’, from 2022, for example, saw the designer work dried acanthus branches into a bedside table, and build another table inspired by the lemons from the grove, with raw terracotta set against powder-coated metal. Her table is still in LABottega’s shared kitchen.

Outsiders residency at La Stellata in Tuscany, by Tableau and LABottega

Outsiders is the location’s latest initiative, conceived with Tableau, the Copenhagen studio and gallery founded by Julius Værnes Iversen in 2018; a floral designer by training, his practice runs from flowers to spatial design, objects and curation.

‘Outsiders grew from a shared belief that the most meaningful creative work happens when it’s rooted in a place rather than simply presented in one. Tableau brings the curatorial framework and invites artists into a dialogue with Pietrasanta’s extraordinary material culture, while Serena [del Soldato] opens the doors to a community that can’t be replicated,’ Iversen says. ‘It’s a project built on trust – fittingly, I was the very first guest at LABottega, long before we imagined creating something like this together.’

‘For me, Outsiders is about making people feel that they belong here,’ says del Soldato. ‘Pietrasanta has an incredible network of artisans, growers, neighbours and makers, and my role is to connect artists with that living community. Julius brings a fresh curatorial perspective from Copenhagen; I bring the local relationships and everyday knowledge of this place. Together we’ve created a residency where hospitality becomes part of the creative process.’

Creatives taking part in the residency work with local waste material. The first of resident, Willem van Hooff, showed an exhibition titled ‘I’m Alone With My Thoughts’ at LABottega throughout July 2026. It featured handmade ceramic vessels, each cut with a line of his own handwriting, sharing private thoughts noted during his residency, such as ‘It’s Been Good, I’ll Cry Too, I See You, Last’.

A second Outsiders residency followed at LABottega, yielding ‘Pietra Counter’, by Berlin studio Yont. It’s a modular listening bar built from marble tile offcuts supplied by Bloc Studios, the tiles lifted from the floor of its founder Sara Ferron Cima’s grandparents’ house.

Currently in residency are Jacob Egeberg and Laurids Gallée, both at work on marble discarded by the quarries above the town. Egeberg is setting thin, reflective surfaces on rough offcuts; Gallée is turning large reclaimed slabs into tabletops, steadied on smaller milled blocks that keep the stone’s irregularity in view.

Vestigia 2026

Egeberg is also showing work at Vestigia 2026 – the latest edition of the design platform, running at Villa Marie in Vorno near Lucca, until 26 September 2026 – where his work ‘Erratic’, a two-sided mirror in stainless steel whose fluid form is interrupted by two rock-like pieces of anodised aluminium, floats above a run of lavender.

The show's location is an 18th-century estate that its owners, Marleen and Luc Van Marcke, spent seven years restoring. Titled ‘Don’t Call Me Collectible!’ and curated by Cosimo Bonciani (founder of the Florence practice Bunker Studio and himself one of the exhibitors), this year’s Vestigia places work throughout the villa’s cultivated gardens, in a Lucchese landscape made muse by those like artist John Singer Sargent, who painted the nearby gardens of Villa di Marlia in watercolour in 1910.

Here, the lake, clipped shade, stone and late Tuscan glare give the pieces a grammar to answer to. Vestigia’s founder, Jonathan Bocca, shows ‘Silenti’, made with lighting specialist Ombre-1; anthropomorphic forms in Geolite, a mineral-based material, are lit from within, inviting visitors to walk beneath.

In a deliberate provocation, Bonciani frames the show against ‘collectible design’, the market category that has attached itself to work sitting between art and craft. His case, which draws from design historian Glenn Adamson, is that such labels exist mainly to sort and sell whatever escapes industrial production; the objects themselves belong to something older and less tidy, that is, studio craft and field research. Bonciani takes licence from Carlo Mollino’s line, ‘Everything is permitted, provided it is fantastic!’, to move across design, craft, sculpture and material research without tidying them into a market category.

‘The protagonist here is nature; we are secondary,’ says designer Costantino Gucci of his work ‘Altera’, a mirrored monolith that emerges from the villa’s lake. A slender oval split into two angled planes, it reflects the water and trees around it, so that whoever stands in front of it finds the surroundings looking back at them, and the sculpture all but dissolves into them.

A fragment of Breccia Medicea, the historic Apuan stone that carries the Medici name, anchors ‘Rudis’, the first work that Francesco Maria Messina has made with Acquasanta Edizioni. Its surface is left much as the stone was found, and reclaimed steel blades run through it, the spent tools of the stone-cutting itself, carrying the horizontal planes of a shelf.

Nèemĕsi’s ‘11.07 Violet’, meanwhile, takes a derelict slab of travertine, its broken edges left as they are, lacquers it in high-gloss violet and stands it on a hand-curved metal base. The studio’s piece is presented here by Movimento, the Milan gallery representing several designers at Vestigia this year, also including Tipstudio.

Tableau is also showing at Vestigia 2026, with Bloc Studios, the Carrara marble studio co-founded by Sara Ferron Cima in 2014. Together they present ‘Isole’, a cluster of vessels in veined marble and translucent onyx designed by Iversen with Elsa De Mori, each carved into an organic form, as if shaped by water and erosion.

At Villa Marie’s entrance, Iversen’s ‘Mikado Bamboo’ hangs white limonium from a bamboo gate, the flowers cut in Pietrasanta. By the pool sits the bronze ‘B-fora’ (a play on ‘amphora’) by IAMMI, the studio of Nicolau dos Santos and Stephanie Blanchard. The curve of a buttock is worked into the piece's feminine body, the metal oxidised with acid to a shifting, gold-toned patina, which Blanchard describes as melting into its surroundings.

Pietrasanta and Vorno make a Tuscan double bill, two projects and one line of research. The category they push against is older than it sounds: furniture collected as art goes back to the ‘art furniture’ of 1870s England, made to blur the line the Royal Academy kept between the fine and the decorative, and to furnish the houses of connoisseurs. What Outsiders does at La Stellata and what Vestigia does in the gardens at Villa Marie is to turn the focus back towards the workshop and the quarry, with objects that are valued for how they came to be and for what they were before. Whatever you call it, ‘collectible’ is the least of it.