5 Contagiously Inspiring Cultural Things Feeding Our Aesthetic This Month

Sandwiched between unexpected Indian summers and the return of the cold season, October is a month of reset, quiet introspection, and considered planning. As days shrink, we might find ourselves retracing what's happened to us over the past couple of months, considering our next steps, or, more simply, bracing for winter the old way, retreating into the comfort of our homes by leaning into the seemingly mundane yet grounding power of everyday rituals before coming out the other side reinvigorated, hopefully.

Perhaps it is no coincidence, then, that the five cultural moments that caught my eye this month all carry a sense of transition with them — of moving from point A to point B, of stopping for a moment and observing, of trying to understand how the past can still inform the present, no matter how uncertain the latter feels.

Whether doing so through one single color used to make a book imprint instinctively recognizable, by recasting a centuries-old tradition like weaving into unexpected forms, reviving it through added function in an exhibition, or by prompting us to question what the silhouette of our clothing or the interiors of the rooms we spend time in reveal about us, this pop digest of happenings and talked-about sensations captures global creatives' desire to make the warmth, emotion, and value that lie in times now gone their own — and carry those forward with them wherever they might be heading next.

The Literary Mood: Fitzcarraldo Editions Blue

A certain white-and-blue book imprint has been taking over underground train carriages and digital space lately, but if you're not already familiar with the rise of Jacques Testard's pioneering publishing house Fitzcarraldo Editions, well, now you are.

This design-friendly enterprise, founded in 2014 in Peckham, has grown into the champion of contemporary and experimental fiction in just over a decade. Its titles range from novels and long-form non-fiction and cultural essays to pocketable yet mighty poetry collections and works in translation.

Fitzcarraldo also published the first English edition of a book by Italian author Vincenzo Latronico, the International Booker Prize-shortlisted Perfection. The novel's unfiltered portrayal of a millennial expat couple confronting the illusion of their seemingly ideal Berlin life became a literary phenomenon, further contributing to the virality of Ray O'Meara's minimalist book covers and custom typeface.

In a chaotic world, could the calming Fitzcarraldo Editions blue be the color cue we need to find some peace and focus? Readers losing themselves to the stories in its collection know the answer already.

The Craft Moment: Soft Newstalgia

If there's one thing the latest edition of London Design Festival taught me last month, it's that textiles — rugs, curtains, decorative drapery — are having a moment, and gathering new narrative strength along the way.

Perhaps the most famous example, the Bayeux Tapestry — an 11th-century, 70-meter-long embroidered cloth masterpiece illustrating the lead-up to the Battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror's 1066 successful invasion of England — landed in the UK for the first time in nearly 1,000 years to be exhibited at the British Museum earlier this year. But it's the preview of artist Yumo Yuan's first solo exhibition at Spazio Leone, embodying a sentiment I'd sum up as 'soft newstalgia', that brings it into a contemporary context.

Open between October 9-24, the show draws on antique Chinese folk art to bring its emotional, tactile essence into the present. Yuan's pieces, also gracing the interiors of new London design destination, coffee shop, and canteen Cremer, are realized by hand-painting pastel motifs inspired by the natural world onto silk warps before weaving, a process that makes each creation perfectly imperfect; slightly blurred, as if transient.

Draped across frames, screens, and window displays alongside Spazio Leone's vintage collection, as well as garments and creative interventions on reclaimed furniture, they act as a gentle reminder of the countless stories and centuries of practice that live on in these interlaced fibers.

The Fashion Story: Comfort Is In

I am not the first and certainly won't be the last person to think that fashion and design cross-contaminate continuously, and the looks the world's foremost maisons sent down the runway this Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 confirm it. After years of monochrome and minimalism in the designer wardrobe, brands, like the interiors world, appear to be embracing more nonchalant, voluminous, and playfully irreverent silhouettes, with layers, considered pattern, and softly vibrant, mismatched tones suddenly very welcome on the runway.

A new wave of unbridled romanticism is on the horizon, where softer cuts that embrace the body shape rather than constraining it, and details traditionally considered 'feminine' — think oversized bows, ribbons, see-through veils, fringes, and frills — are becoming sources of confidence and comfort.

As passementerie (dramatic fringing and tassels on anything from sofas to chairs and lamps) enjoys an unexpected popularity in the home space, as do theater-like tented ceilings and drapery, interior and fashion designers alike have decided: even as society grapples with economic, environmental, and humanitarian crises, the show must go on. This time, at least, there won't be any need to squeeze your stomach in.

The Film Set: "Verity" by Michael Showalter

Out this week, Michael Showalter's seductive psychological thriller, Verity, based on a Colleen Hoover 2019 book of the same name. The film follows struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson), tasked with ghostwriting the remaining novels of best-selling author Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway), after a tragic car accident leaves her bedbound. She relocates to a secluded, sprawling estate entrenched with disturbing family secrets. A 1960s Armonk home, originally built by Danish designer Jens Quistgaard for Martha and Ted Nierenberg, founders of homeware and design brand Dansk, offers a striking backdrop to a thick web of intrigue and chilling confessions Johnson's Lowen finds herself caught in.

But in all the drama, there is some relief: the house, brilliantly reinterpreted by production designer Amy Williams, is a true mid-century modern marvel, sculpted with tactile timber built-ins, rugged rock outcroppings, and organic textures that bridge domestic warmth with corporate austerity. Of all rooms, a scenic office, complete with a custom-built, womb-like sunken conversation pit tucked beneath a hexagonal skylight, is the un-discussed protagonist. A house of mirrors of sorts, it is here that Lowen finds what she shouldn't have, browsing through piles and piles of Verity's notes. Alas, the rest is history.

For us, though, the film confirms what other recent releases, from Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen to Rosebush Pruning, have proved before: that when it comes to capturing the discrepancy between apparent wealth and life at its most unsettling, nothing hits quite as hard as the mid-century aesthetic.

The Gallery Show: The Future of the Past

The mind behind one of my favorite exhibitions at LDF's Brompton Design District this year, Mexican creative Rafael Prieto, has just unveiled his second solo show with Emma Scully Gallery in New York.

Titled The Future of the Past, the display reunites a series of color-blocked tables and chairs in painted wood incorporating early 20th-century architectural fragments salvaged from a Tribeca demolition opposite the artist's studio. Rather than simply preserving these ornamental elements, including plinth and frieze remnants and heads sculpted in stone, in their original state, Prieto fuses them into the experimental furniture and sculptural forms he has become known for in his work.

The resulting collection establishes a tangible dialogue between the aged surface of reclaimed architecture and the provocative boldness of deep red and dark purple lacquered wood. Perceived as a whole, each piece demonstrates that honoring the past requires letting it evolve, transforming historical erasure into forward-thinking expression.

If you're in the capital this month, my edit of the 5 too-cool-to-miss things to do in London this October should be at the top of your list.

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