'Pubmaxxing', Black Homes, and the Demise of Wireless Tech — This Is What Our Editors Are Talking About This Month
Whether it's conversations in the office, the emails dropping into our inbox, or what's arriving on the editor's desk, here's the Zeitgeist Edit for October
Does anyone else feel a sense of frustration in the air? I feel it, and I feel it is connected to the fast pace of technology and how it's changing our world. On the grand scale, we're now receiving warnings about the dangers of AI, yes, but I also spend a growing amount of my day trying to untangle it from my daily life. Is that a photograph of a beautiful house, or just an AI render?
With frustration comes reaction, and a lot of the topics we're talking about in the office right now, and turning into articles for Livingetc, feel reactionary. Often, that's what trends are. They're a pendulum swinging. Once it goes too far in one direction, gravity pulls it back, and with some momentum, to the opposite extreme.
So, in all these ideas in this month's Zeitgeist Edit, you'll see some element of nostalgia, a yearning for a more analogue age, and challenges to the frustrations of the status quo.
↑ Going Up — Bringing Your Work Home
Image credit: Yinka Ilori
Image credit: Yinka Ilori
No, I'm not talking about answering emails after 5.30pm. Designer Yinka Ilori MBE could have taken his new exhibition, Chairman, an exploration of his chair designs from his recent book of the same name, to any gallery in London. Instead, the Nigerian-British artist chose to take it 'home'.
The exhibition, running from 14th-16th October, and coinciding with Frieze Week, is exhibiting his work at the Walter Sickert Community Centre in Islington — the same neighborhood where Yinka grew up.
"I was born and raised here in this estate. For me, it is really special to bring this Chairman exhibition to my estate," Yinka said in a recent Instagram video. "It feels like it's a huge gift. I want to give back to the community that essentially raised me and bring the Chairman exhibition to the community center."
↑ Going Up — Pubmaxxing
The Horses in Clerkenwell is like your local pub, elevated.
Two months ago, the Instagram account @thehorses_ec1 came to my attention. Yes, because it was set to be the newest project by the Public House Group, which already has a number of zeitgeist-defining 'pubs' and dining rooms in London, including The Pelican and the Fat Badger, but also because The Horses' soft launch came in the form of a particularly aesthetic renovation account.
The building's remodel process and the material moodboards, beautifully photographed, worked very well for whetting the appetite for the new space, and the resulting scheme takes the best parts of the 'pub', but elevates it.
Stained glass dividers, custom Delft tiles and mosaics, and rich, dark wood make for an incredibly cozy space, but without being a pastiche. It's 'pubmaxxing', for sure, but it's the elements that feel a little more luxurious than your everyday local that make this London restaurant a design moment, too.
The Horses, 26-28 Ray Street London, EC1R 3DJ
↑ Going Up — The Importance of Taste
Livingetc's event with Frieze Connect will be held at Aethos Shoreditch's Willow Room.
We talk about 'taste' a lot in the office. It's subjective, yes, but it's the human experience, and something that AI can't really replicate... well, not this week, anyway.
So, it makes for an interesting topic for Livingetc's first collaboration with Frieze Connect, a global membership for art collectors, enthusiasts, and industry professionals. This Frieze Week, Livingetc's lifestyle editor Gilda Bruno will moderate a panel on The Future of Taste, a look at how design, the arts, and gastronomy are evolving.
Together with interior designer Sophie Ashby, multidisciplinary artist Emmanuel Lawal, and founder of The Goal is to Eat Panayiota "Pani" Soutis, this is the definitive conversation about taste right now.
↑ Going Up — Hyper Texture
Pictured in Coral Dawn, Schumacher's Groove Cut Velvet comes in two other colorways.
I hate to write another 'maxxing' in the same article, but that seems to be the term of the moment. 'Texturemaxxing' is another idea doing the rounds in the design world, but really, it's about the rise of contrast. We're looking for materials that are additive to the scheme, bringing dimension.
The best examples of textiles, in particular, that bring maximum texture are like this Groove Cut Velvet from Schumacher's newest wave of its Atelier collection. It is irregular thanks to its multi-width stripes and two-tone palette, so its even maxes out texture within itself, without being uniform across a large medium, like the sofa pictured above.
↓ Going Down — Centering Western Homes
These decorative earthen homes are found in the Kassena region of Burkina Faso.
Kemide Lawson is, probably, the source of the most interesting conversations about interior design right now. On her own platforms, both her Instagram account Cottage Noir, as co-founder of the 'Afro-chic' retail store The Cornrow, and her Substack Afri-Tectural Digest, she explores the stories, and underrepresentation, of the Black home.
This is where her new book, House Proud, comes in. Kemi says the book, which looks at Black interiors and architecture across continents, is a reaction to the failure to find these stories both in historical accounts and today's conversations about interiors.
It's an eye-opening and educational read, spanning continents, from Ethiopa to the US, to Kemi's own North London home.
↓ Going Down — Stem Snobbery
There's a viral trend online right now where people are describing themselves as 'stem snobs' — that they might just judge a restaurant by how slim the stem of a wine glass is. I mean, fine. In essence, they're likely describing the slight clunkiness of cheap stemware, but you're missing out on a different kind of elegance if you're totally anti-chunky glasses.
Take, for example, the RYE wine glass by Aaron Probyn, which not only is charmingly graphic in its form, but actually has a hollow stem that your drink sits inside, too. It's just one example of a non-fine stemmed wine glass that even the 'stem snobs' wouldn't turn their noses up at.
↓ Going Down — Wireless
The wired earbud might be a retro comeback, or a sign of the desire for a less technological option.
Could my real frustration with technology be less about the growing threat of AI, and more about the fact that I have to charge my electric toothbrush almost constantly? Wireless tech has been a game-changing innovation in our lifetimes, sure, but for all its convenience, it's awfully inconvenient at times, too.
Just like the renewed market for physical media such as vinyls, CDs, even DVDs, it seems like wired devices might just be making a comeback, too. Take Bose, for example, who, noticing the cultural renaissance of the wired earphone, has just launched new Bose Noise Cancelling Wired Earbuds. Of course, they're not your 90s earphones tech-wise — they're noise-cancelling and have super crisp sound thanks to Bose's SoundDesign technology. But, best of all, you don't need to charge them, pair them, or run the risk of losing one out of your ear while you're on a run.
If you liked this, check out our monthly edit of aesthetic inspiration from books, exhibitions, film and more for October, and for more stories, sign up to the Livingetc newsletter.
