Minimal white porcelain plates are both a long-standing staple and an unwritten rule of fine dining restaurants. Lending their neutral 'gallery wall' to dishes rich in texture, color, and flavor, they are known to allow taste to, quite literally, 'pop' against the plain background. With roots stretching back to European aristocracy, even centuries later, these timeless tableware picks are still preferred by many Michelin-star eateries and beloved osterias alike for combining industrial durability and stain resistance with the understated elegance of fine bone china.

Only recently, though, things have begun to change, at least here in London, where more and more chefs have been lured by the patterned, the tactile, and the colorful as an equally strategic way to present and exalt the sensory essence of their pièces de résistance. And so it's out with the conventional, and in with the ornate. But mind you: you'll still need to nail the right mix, or so think the experts.

There are no real rules to get it right, if not to lean into your appetite. "It always starts with the food," renowned Spanish chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author José Pizarro, who has already shared his cooking must-haves for our series Chef's Essentials, tells me in an email exchange. "Sometimes a white plate is perfect because the ingredients and colors do all the work. Other times, a beautiful ceramic or terracotta inclusion, a little color, or texture can completely change how a dish feels. Really, I look at the individual recipe and think, 'where is this going to look most delicious?'"

"It All Starts With the Food": How Tableware Completes Your Favorite Dishes

If Pizarro's choice is informed by a dish's substance and aims to match the flavor profile of the tapas and hearty mains that have made his London locations some of the buzziest in the British capital, other establishments, like NYC cult 'red sauce' Italian Carbone London, drive on atmosphere. Viral for its retro-inspired, flamboyant energy and its A-list fanbase, the address, which launched in the city last year, builds on its 'more is more' approach to luscious pastas, melt-in-your-mouth crudo, and flaming flambés with its collection of vibrantly tinted, floral-design ceramic plates. While at Carbone London the patterns marry the wrap-around spectacle of a Ken Fulk-designed dining room clad in plush red fabrics and dotted with golden lights and original artworks, elsewhere in the city, those same ceramics are chosen as a nod to humbly delicious origins.

"As a chef, I've always believed the plate itself can be so much more than just a quiet backdrop," shares Filippo La Gattuta, executive chef at Big Mamma UK, the prolific portfolio behind dazzling Italian restaurants including Circolo Popolare, Carlotta, Gloria Shoreditch, and Barbarella, with a brand new location, Edmondo, set to launch next month. Every address from the group serves up its homemade pastas, triumphs of seasonal vegetables, and comforting nibbles in striking crockery proudly handmade and painted by local artisans in southern Italy.

"To me, these vibrant plates just naturally belong with the ingredients we pour our hearts into," the chef adds. "Back home, a juicy mozzarella di bufala would be served up on a brightly painted plate right at the family table. Why shouldn't we share that exact same, authentic joy with our guests? Using these stunning ceramics lets us dish up a true 360-degree experience, bringing the warm, beating heart of Italy right into our dining rooms, even when we're thousands of miles away."

"The Right Plate Makes It Possible for a Meal to Become a Memory": Why Food and Emotion Go Hand in Hand

The biggest argument against patterned and colorful plates tends to be that, even subconsciously, they can take the spotlight away from the actual meal. Even then, neither La Gattuta nor Pizarro have specific no-go motifs: instead, the choice always falls on plates that allow both their surface and the ingredients to convey emotion to the diners. To say it in the words of the Big Mamma executive chef, "the right plate makes it possible for a meal to become a memory." It is no coincidence, then, that childhood memories influence their preferences and vision of a perfectly plated feast.

"Growing up in Spain, the table was never perfectly matched. There were white plates, terracotta dishes, patterned bowls, bread, bottles, glasses, and food everywhere in the middle, and everybody reaching across the table," Pizarro recalls. His Spanish upbringing is what makes him look at terracotta dishware with special affection. "In Spain, we have cooked and served food in barro for generations. There is something incredibly honest about it: it comes from the earth, it is practical, and it gets more beautiful with use. I want my restaurants to have that generosity and informality."

Big Mamma's La Gattuta feels similarly about the traditional Italian majolica ceramic dishware that serves as the protagonist, along, of course, with food, at all of the portfolio's addresses. Among those designs, recently made available to purchase online via the group's e-shop and largely crafted in family-run workshops in the Umbria region, a few stand out: "whether in classic red or blue, the Gallo (rooster) brings a real sense of the Umbrian countryside to the table, acting as a traditional folklore symbol of good luck and protection. I also love our astrology-themed plates, featuring signs like Capricorno or Gemelli, as they add such a fun, conversational spark to the meal that taps right into our Italian passion."

Why It's Time to Embrace the Patterned Plate — And Bring Joy to the Table

What do patterned plates bring to the table, then? Far from distracting the eye, these irreverent pieces layer flavor with history and atmosphere, transforming a simple dinner into an immersive, multi-sensory story. They serve as an active canvas for emotion, proving that eccentric tableware can amplify the visual and cultural essence of a dish just as much as a secret ingredient. As Filippo La Gattuta highlights, "a lively, colorful plate doesn't distract from the food, it amplifies the energy of the recipe and tells the beautiful story of the culture it comes from."

In a world that often defaults to safe, sterile minimalism, our dining spaces crave a return to character, generosity, and authentic craftsmanship; a return to offline taste. Striking the right balance may require a bit of intuition so you don't have "everything shouting at once," allowing the vessel and the food to harmoniously elevate each other. Still, it is well worth the trial and error. "A table doesn't need to match perfectly to be beautiful. In fact, I often prefer it when it doesn't," concludes Pizarro. If you haven't done it yet, dare to be less traditional and bolder with your tableware: it might just be the incipit to a night to remember.

Get Inspired by Our Plates Edit

For more culinarian-backed picks, revisit the archive of our Chef's Essentials series, or become a pro restaurant connoisseurs with our guide to the 5 things restaurateurs secretely judge restaurants on.

Sandwiched between the Fashion Week and Frieze frenzy and the comeback of everything festive, November in London can feel like a bit of a non-month. But if you think that is enough of a reason for the Big Smoke to go quiet on culture, design, and all things restaurants and bars, well, you will be surprised.

Including the hottest reservations at London's best restaurants to wine and dine side by side with the city's foremost cuisine connoisseurs; the most exciting art appointments deserving a mention on your agenda; and a colossal museum reopening in one of London's buzziest neighborhoods following an 11-year restoration, here are the top five things to do in London and look out for this November.

The Design Moment — The Nue Black Aesthetic

The Design Museum. November 6-August 8, 2027

Read editor Hugh Metcalf's latest zeigeist edit? Then you should know that Black homes, and design more widely, are enjoying a moment. The rise and rise of pan-African style is best embodied by the Design Museum's forthcoming group exhibition The Nue Black Aesthetic, a major new showcase masterminded by author and journalist Charlene Prempeh of A Vibe Called Tech and Mount Street Neighbourhood Arts Festival fame (more on the latter in our October guide to things to do in London). Bringing together more than 100 objects curated into six sections, the display rejects the idea of a monolithic identity, instead proposing a 'Nue' era defined by nuance and the varied, diasporic traditions of contemporary Black designers: keep an eye out for a think piece exploring precisely that. Key design highlights include a stunningly tactile braided rocking chair by Taiba Akhuetie, Tejumola Butler Adenuga's sculptural Àgbalàgbà (Elderly) Chair, and an evocative, textured installation by Mac Collins, Open Code.

Book your ticket for The Nue Black Aesthetic.

The Art Pick — Hyundai Commission: Tarek Atoui: Hold at Tate Modern

Tate Modern. Through April 11, 2027

One of my favorite appointments on the annual Frieze Week agenda, the unveiling of Tate Modern's Hyundai Commission captures the city's artistic scene at its best — immersive, collective, and totally free to experience. Now in its 11th edition, Hold, the 2026 edition, is the brainchild of Lebanese artist and composer Tarek Atoui, and was revealed during a special live performance hosted on the eve of the Frieze fairs' return, the inaugural instalment of a six-month improvisational programme where international musicians will take turns in activating the room's wind-driven and electronic frequencies. Functioning like a "living orchestra", Hold plays with the combined sensory effects of light, texture, and sound to absorb visitors in a pulsating cloud that can be felt with every inch of your body. Sculpted from Issey Miyake textiles coated in conductive, bass-generating paint, the piece gathers 3D-printed bamboo-dust horns, Uzbek trumpets, and Southeast Asian mouth organs into a vibrating system suspended in space and time.

The Cultural Spot — London Museum Smithfield

London Museum Smithfield. From 28 November

Following an 11-year, £437-million transformation, London Museum is very nearly ready to welcome its first visitors on 28 November. While much of the upcoming launches and spectacular programming set to take place all around it remains under strict embargo for a handful more weeks, I got an exclusive preview of the site during a hard hat tour of the address earlier this month and can confirm: London Museum is the free-to-all hub for culture and community the city of London was desperately missing — a place to learn more about the Big Smoke, get inspired, and become one with its people and architecture. Reviving the beautifully restored, Grade II-listed Victorian General Market and the 1960s Poultry Market at Smithfield, the institution is a collaboration between studios Stanton Williams, Asif Khan, and Julian Harrap Architects.

Expect a sweeping journey through 450,000 years of regional history and an explosive exploration of London's vibrant food scene, unraveling across multiple galleries and lounge areas. Four tailored dining destinations are set to debut on site, powered by Green & Fortune, while writers and curators Ruby Tandoh and Jonathan Nunn (Vittles)'s London Tastes will get to the matter of food through a spotlight exhibition, public events, and day-to-night activities produced in partnerships with Morley's chicken shop, Punchdrunk Enrichment, and Hive Curates. Right alongside the complex on the museum's historic footprint will be The Poet, a highly anticipated multi-story pub launched by the acclaimed team behind Hackney's Sune, helmed by chef Charlie Tayler. There is so much more to look out for in the coming months as this masterclass in architectural conservation and civic storytelling unfolds. Stay tuned.

Learn more about the opening of London Museum Smithfield.

The Foodie Find — Lunette

Lunette at St. Clement

There are openings you only hear about once, and addresses that, once opened, you never stop hearing about. 180 Quarter, with its hotspot-packed premises reuniting Soho House former CEO Nick Jones's new hotel, St Clement, alongside in-house restaurant Café Clement and cocktail destination Bobbi's Bar, Toklas, and Corner Shop 180 under the same roof, is definitely one of the latter. Launching this month, Lunette, the highly anticipated debut solo venture from Sessions Arts Club alumna, chef Florence Knight, is the latest establishment to set up shop in what has become London's undiscussed 'It' development. Knight's deeply textured approach to cuisine lands in a brand new skyline sanctuary, teasing diners with an ever-changing single menu of four or six courses, each packed with bold flavor juxtapositions, color, and just a pinch of spice. The dining room inserts warmth into the brutalist context of 180 Strand while remaining largely neutral: audiophile Devon Turnbull has designed custom sound systems to transform the industrial architecture, Alexander Kirkeby provides tactile, light-bending glassware, and artisanal pottery from Tetsuya Otani and Michel Francois grounds the tables, while the utilitarian-elegant staff uniforms are by Alex Eagle Studio — the finishing touch by its namesake, who is 180 Quarter's mastermind.

Book your table at Lunette.

Where to Drink — alto 19

alto 19

It opened on October 15, and yet alto 19, a 100-cover bar by studio Holloway Li, has already made its way to the top of my hit reservation list. Created by the minds behind the hip Locke Canary Wharf and located nearby, this new, moody nightlife cove finds its strength in its passion-red palette and flair for tactile textures, channeling the lure and mystery of 1960s Hitchcockian film sets. Inside, the evening unfolds around a bright tomato marble bar, with plush velvets and high-gloss burgundy lacquered surfaces proving London's growing affair with red bars is far from over. As days continue to shorten, wrap-around windows draw the glowing skyline inside, making alto 19 the perfect autumn escape to soak in atmospheric warmth, panoramic views, and the unparalleled comfort of modern Mediterranean dining.

Book your table at alto 19.

Nearly seven years since relocating to the British capital, I still think one of the city's greatest perks is that, as long as you have energy left to search, you never run out of things to do in London. Revisit our earlier edition of October highlights for moments that matter beyond trends, or head to our lifestyle pages for a full immersion in the current zeitgeist.

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If there's been one media format that will define this generation, it's the podcast. Podcasts have become the modern talk show. Presidential candidates used to sit in front of a live audience to talk to Jimmy Fallon or David Letterman. Today, they're more likely to appear on Call Her Daddy. In just the UK alone, at least 15.5 million people describe themselves as podcast listeners, and globally, the industry is estimated to have a market value of over £29 billion. So it bears questioning: if podcasts play such a significant role in the cultural conversation today, why do so many of them still look like... that.

Stephen Bartlett, from The Diary Of A CEO, regularly pulls in upwards of 15 million YouTube views on his interviews — and that's not even counting the several million people tuning in via other streaming platforms. Joe Rogan, perhaps one of the most recognizable names in the industry, has amassed over 30 million views on many of his most popular episodes. For some perspective, the most-viewed episode of SNL from the past decade reached an estimated 6 million people, less than 1/5 of the viewership Rogan is regularly attracting on YouTube alone. And yet, when you look at so many of these shows, with their multi-million-viewer fanbase, the background looks more akin to a teenage boy's basement than it does to a million-dollar production.

While TV shows and movies regularly use set design as a way of world-building, many of the most successful podcasts are yet to ascend beyond the outdated spinning chairs and neon lights aesthetic. Even though podcasts have moved far beyond the audio-exclusive experience they once were, with major networks like Netflix adding podcasts to their roster, many still seem to be stuck in this purgatorial design style. But as this format moves more into a visual arena, is this interior design drought set to end?

Harrison Sheinberg, co-founder of Interwoven Studios, the brand behind the sets of some of the most successful podcasts, including Jake Shane's Therapuss and Alix Earle's Get Real With Me, thinks so. "Podcasts started as an audio format, so the visual side often came later," he explains. "Now someone’s first encounter with a show might be a fifteen-second clip. That little window needs to feel like a world you want to spend more time in."

If you've tuned into any number of the most popular shows available today, you're likely already relatively familiar with the kind of aesthetic we're talking about.

It comes in different forms, of course. There's what the New York Times so aptly defined as 'manly minimalism', a style defined by a gamer-like setup, often accessorized with neon signs and a smattering of non-descript accessories. Perhaps there might be a trophy of sorts, pointing towards some kind of unidentified athletic achievement, or a collection of seemingly untouched books, sporting suitably vague titles. Essential to this setup is the absolute lack of any distinguishable identity behind it. It's meant for the everyman, an appropriately bland space, so as not to present any sort of challenge or point of tension for its viewers.

But it's not just the manosphere-type shows that sport this remarkably nondescript design style; there seems to be an equally bland blueprint across the categories. "The standard podcast set has become almost uniform," agrees interior designer Emily Cunnane. Having worked on several podcast sets now, developing a new vision for what these spaces can look like, Emily is very familiar with what she didn't want to create. "It’s either the old-school look, with timber, bookshelves, and branded coffee cups, or the 'gaming' aesthetic: dark charcoal or black walls, gray foam acoustic panels, a neon logo sign."

When designing the previous studio for Jay Shetty's popular podcast, On Purpose, designer Hema Persad, from Sagrada Studio, had a clear vision of what she wanted to avoid. This space needed to feel different from the thousands of other podcasts out there, and that meant departing from the "wood, white, and beige" color palette, accessorized with "lots of bouclé, bookshelves, and brick walls", as seen in every other studio.

As monotonous as it is, there is a reason behind the lack of personality found in these spaces. "For a long time, podcast studios were really designed for your ears, not your eyes," explains Haley Draznin, a former CNN journalist and the founder of The Chat Room, a podcast studio dedicated to changing the standards for set designs.

But as the format grew and evolved into a multi-sensory experience, studios struggled to keep up. "As the format grew, a recognizable template grew with it; the cliché that I refer to as the 'bricks and books' aesthetic," says Emily. It's understandable why this formula caught on. It's inoffensive, with a vaguely cozy atmosphere from the library-style bookcases. But it also leaves much to be desired.

But now, as podcasts enter their new era, with an increased focus on video content, we're beginning to see a shift in these spaces.

While design neutrality in the podcast world hasn't disappeared, there are some signs of relief. A few choice podcasters have worked directly with celebrated designers to create a space that actually contributes to the design conversation, imparting something of the personality of the host, and helping define the atmosphere and energy of the show.

For me, no show exemplifies this more than Jake Shane's Therapuss. The show was recently acquired by Netflix, a major indication of the direction of growth in the genre. But even while it was still a humble YouTube production, Jake's set was a clear departure from the drab set designs we'd become so accustomed to.

Led by Conner Brock, a designer on Interwoven Studio's roster, this set was inspired by Jake's vision of a midcentury therapist's office. With wooden paneled walls, cool leather sofas, and a heavy mid-century modern design influence, the room looks more like a stylish, modern living room than it does a podcast set.

For Harrison, it was important that the design felt "warm, personal, and a little nostalgic, with room for Jake’s humor." And every step of the design process kept this goal in mind. "That came through in the furniture, textures, and details," he explains.

So much of what works about this set is how comforting it feels. "The room was small, but we used that to our advantage. The close quarters suited the therapist’s office idea and made it feel more intimate," says Harrison. This sense of comfort was integral to the show's success, and it goes beyond just the viewers' experience of it. "We designed the green room as part of the experience: a comfortable place for guests to hang out and chat before heading into the back room where we built the set. There’s also a viewing area where both teams can watch together. We wanted the experience to start when someone walks through the door, well before the cameras roll."

A focus on guest experience was also top of mind for Hema when working on the set of Jay Shetty's podcast. Though it has since been redone, Hema's original design, completed back in 2022, set a new standard for what a podcast studio could look like.

With dark, cocooning walls, warm neutral furniture, and a 'collected' feel to the decor, this space stood apart from the bright, sterile studios that were prevalent at the time.

This was, Hema explains, an intentional design choice. "Bright lights and a really 'professional' setup can make some people nervous," she says. Instead, "We decided that a darker color palette and a room that felt more like a comfortable den rather than the typical setup, with unique furniture and objects, might make people feel more at ease, like they were just talking to a friend."

This shared perspective is perhaps the defining characteristic of these design-led studios. The idea of the set not only shaping the experience of the viewer but also the guest runs across all these projects, and is a large part of what makes these spaces so appealing. There's a warmth to them, a sense of reality that you often miss with the stereotypical podcast set.

"A podcast studio has two audiences: the people in the room and the people watching," explains Emily. "In a regular project, I design for how a space feels to live, work, or spend time in. In a studio, every decision also has to work through a microphone and a camera lens. For example, when working on the layout, we are not just thinking about how to create a comfortable space that facilitates an engaging conversation, but also how this conversation is viewed through the camera, and how to make the viewer feel like they are in the room. There are far more technical considerations than in an ordinary room, so elements like acoustics, sightlines, and glare all come into the picture."

But when these different variables are considered, what you're left with is a space that feels honest, like a true reflection of the content. The thing so many people will say about their favorite podcast is how much comfort it brings them, often describing it as something akin to chatting with an old friend, so when the settings for these podcasts also embody that sense of familiarity and comfort, it helps to intensify this feeling.

Now, the format is going through some changes, and it might just be time for the set designs to change alongside them.

As Harrison describes it, at Interwoven Studios, the term 'podcast' is no longer enough to encapsulate the breadth of what they're working on. "It could be a live show on Twitch or a recurring YouTube series. One of our recent projects was just on MSNBC, another is headed to Hulu, and Therapuss is now on Netflix. The lines between these formats and traditional television are blurring. We help creators build their own world, with a format and visual identity they can own, wherever the show ends up living."

As podcasts take on an increasingly visual identity, the way the sets are designed becomes more integral to the way these shows are perceived. Having a clear point of view or voice isn't enough nowadays; that sense of clarity and intention needs to bleed into every aspect of your content.

It all comes back to the idea of building a 'brand', and having an identifiable aesthetic plays a huge role in this. "The biggest podcasts aren’t really just podcasts anymore. They’re media brands. It's a 360-degree approach. They’re on YouTube, they’re creating social content, they’re doing live podcast shows, writing newsletters, and bringing in brand partnerships, so visual identity suddenly matters a lot," explains Haley.

This is exactly why ubiquity of podcast design feels so palpable now. It removes the sense of individuality from the podcast, no matter how unique the subject matter is. If you watch five different podcasts, and they all have the exact same set and interior design style, the chances are they'll begin to blend together in your mind, losing that lasting impact a show needs.

This is why Interwoven Studios places such importance on customization in their designs. "We build dedicated sets with a specific crew behind them, so the space becomes part of that creator’s identity," says Harrison. The sets are conceived as an extension of the show itself, a physical manifestation of the content. It's scene-setting, helping to build a clear mood and atmosphere right from the jump. "The set tells you something about the show before anyone speaks," he says. "The furniture, colors, and objects give you a sense of the person hosting it. When the room feels comfortable, that can help guests settle in and make viewers feel invited into the conversation."

It all comes down to the shift from an audio-first format to something more all-encompassing. As Emily points out, "A considered room signals credibility, care, and a point of view." It also reflects the growing requirements placed on decreasing attention spans. With such an endless stream of content to scroll through, podcasts need to find a way to keep the viewer engaged, and "backdrops with depth, color and real artwork give the viewer something to rest on without pulling focus from the speakers."

This is a point echoed by Haley: "We’re all scrolling at a million miles an hour now. If you come across a 30-second clip and it looks beautiful, polished and different from everything around it, you’re more likely to stop."

As podcasts transition from small, home-grown productions to appearing on major streaming platforms, it's only time before design-led sets become the norm. "Now that podcasts are getting picked up by Netflix, etc., and more people are watching them like talk shows, the pressure is probably higher to create a set that stands out and is memorable and on-brand for the host," agrees Hema.

And, if these designers are right, it may not be long until the neon lights and swivel chairs are simply a relic of the past.

The changing face of podcasts and the promise of a new era of design-led spaces feed into our recent exploration of the future of taste: design is a reflection of our identity, so we look forward to seeing how our favorite podcasters choose to present themselves through this medium.

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Most creatives believe developing a signature language is the ultimate recipe for success. Russian-born, Paris-based architect and designer Harry Nuriev isn't one of them. His retail and residential projects, furniture releases, and pop-up installations all embody the same vision, a philosophy he calls "transformism": the belief that the most interesting ideas often emerge not from creating something entirely new, but from looking at what already exists differently. And looking differently is exactly what Nuriev, named Designer of the Year 2026 by Maison & Objet this January, has been doing for just over a decade since the launch of Crosby Studios, the multidisciplinary practice he has been growing between Paris and New York in a continuous dialogue between design, fashion, and hospitality.

A transparent-vinyl couch stuffed with unsold, damaged Balenciaga clothes; a wall-to-ceiling, denim-clad interior sculpted from jeans reworked into sofas, mirrors, a DJ booth, and even a home gym with matching weights; a dining set cast from discarded computer keyboards, giving office hardware a more convivial purpose and a second life at once; a humungous Jimmy Choo shoe comically bursting through the window of the brand's Miami flagship; a Louis XV settee sofa wrapped in adhesive tape, showcased as one of the centerpieces of his The Transformist Apartment at Design Parade 2025 — there are very few things that burgeoning designer Nuriev's material, alteration, and narrative-led production hasn't reimagined yet.

The otherworldly, soft-industrial aesthetic of Kim Kardashian's latest venture into activewear, NikeSKIMS, and its temporary stores in Le Marais, Tokyo, and Shanghai are among the latest entries on Nuriev's CV. In time for Art Basel Paris (October 23-25), the powerhouse is back with more news and work this week: The Stage is an immersive takeover of Restaurant Le Dalí at palace hotel Le Meurice, transforming a dramatically lit, monumental communal table into a cabinet of curiosities dotted with molten silver-coated, classical as well as contemporary belongings. A collaboration with in-house chefs Alain Ducasse and Amaury Bouhours, the space will be activated throughout Paris Art Week (October 20-25) with a ten-course, black-and-white tasting menu for just 24 guests, while working as an all-day eatery open for breakfast, lunch, and tea-time during the week, and hosting evening performances in the evenings.

The format may shift, but the intention behind Nuriev's projects stays the same: bringing people from different industries, backgrounds, countries, and corners of the world closer together. "During Art Basel Paris, visitors will have the opportunity not only to see the installation, but to interact with it, become part of it, and, hopefully, walk away with a thought, a feeling, or a certain energy that they can bring back into their lives. For me, this is what makes the work meaningful: becoming part of the cultural environment of Paris, while continuing to build and connect our community." Below, the designer helps us trace the evolution of his creative approach, delving into some of his most exciting projects to date, how he got here, and where he is heading next.

You've said that true luxury is something money cannot buy. What does luxury mean to you today, and how does your practice incorporate that?

"For me, luxury is about bringing people together, creating space for genuine conversations, meaningful interactions, and simply enjoying quality time. I also believe that silence, peace, and reconnecting with nature are equally important forms of luxury. I always try to bring this feeling into my work, even when creating projects in the middle of a busy city."

For you, the history of art and design unfolds as a spiral rather than a straight line. When did you realize that transforming what already exists was more interesting to you than creating something entirely new?

"At some point, I came to understand that convincing yourself you're creating something entirely new is almost a form of self-deception: things don't simply repeat themselves; they evolve from one another. Accepting the idea of layering, reinterpreting, and transforming what already exists became much more interesting to me.

"I've always loved archives and been fascinated by history. Today, we have access to an extraordinary amount of historical knowledge and references, available in museums, books, and archives all over the world. For me, this is an incredible creative resource. I'm much more interested in bringing new life to forgotten corners of art history, or even to things so familiar, so visible, that people have stopped noticing them altogether. This process leads me to ideas I could never have discovered when I was trying to reject everything old and focus exclusively on creating something new or imagining the future. Today, building a bridge between the past, the present, and the future is infinitely more exciting to me."

From the Balenciaga Sofa to your Denim Furniture Collection and NikeSKIMS collaborations, your work moves fluidly between fashion and design. What interests you about bringing these worlds together, and where do you see the boundaries between them disappearing?

"For me, there are no real boundaries between different creative disciplines. What matters is the pure act of creation, an idea that comes to me and that I feel an irresistible desire to bring to life. With projects like the Balenciaga Sofa or my Denim Furniture Collection, I simply wanted to express the idea that what we wear on our bodies can just as easily become part of the furniture we live with. Furniture is an extension of our lives, our taste, and our everyday needs, just as clothing is. And in the same way, I believe that works of art can become a natural part of our everyday lives, rather than something separate from them."

Your Art Basel Paris 2025 installation Objets Trouvés, hosted at Beaux-Arts de Paris's Chapelle des Petits-Augustins, turned the church into a living marketplace of exchange where visitors could trade unwanted objects for items left behind by someone else. What fascinates you about the stories and invisible histories objects accumulate, and how does changing their context alter the way we see them?

"I have very little tolerance for display cases, for the accumulation of objects, and for many of the conventions that shape our everyday surroundings. I often find beauty in things that others might consider completely unremarkable, while sometimes feeling incredibly bored by objects that are celebrated as masterpieces of perfection. This imbalance comes naturally to me. I don't force it or try to turn it into an artificial statement. It's simply the way I see the world. That's why my installations — where I bring objects out of oblivion, things that were gathering dust just yesterday — and place them in a completely different context, whether a museum or a gallery, feel entirely natural to me. For me, this process is as instinctive as a pen, a pencil, or a computer is to a writer."

Your work questions consumerism even as it involves creating new objects and increasingly ambitious installations. How do you navigate that dichotomy, and what does a more conscious relationship with the things we own look like to you?

"On one hand, of course, I create things and help my partners and clients develop increasingly ambitious installations and projects that attract more and more attention. On the other hand, I'm constantly questioning consumerism. I think this contradiction brings us to a much more important question. There is absolutely nothing wrong with rewarding ourselves with beautiful things, enjoying them, or surrounding ourselves with objects that bring us pleasure. But I believe we should be more conscious of why we consume. The problem isn't consumption itself, but the moment it becomes automatic, when we stop questioning what we buy and why we need it."

"Isn't it beautiful that we can exchange objects without any financial transaction? Something you no longer need might be exactly what someone else has been looking for. And something another person can't wait to get rid of might find its perfect place in someone else's home. What fascinates me about this exchange is that it's not a selfish act of getting rid of something old to make room for something new. There is also an incredible, invisible connection between people. Objects carry stories, memories, and a certain energy from their previous owners. And when we exchange them, we are passing a little piece of ourselves to someone else.

"I find something deeply philosophical in the idea that everything entering our home absorbs a part of our energy, and that this energy never completely disappears. When an object moves into another space, it begins to absorb another person's life, another history, another energy. Over time, objects accumulate these invisible layers of everyone who has lived with them. There is something incredibly beautiful, and also quite ironic, about it."

For The Stage at Le Meurice's Le Dalí, you've brought sculpture, light, gastronomy, and performance together in a space shaped by Salvador Dalí's surrealist legacy. How did you approach transforming this historic setting, and what did you want the installation to make possible that a conventional dining experience could not?

"Paris has so many layers of extraordinary history. Some are hidden, almost secret, while others are right in front of us, part of everyday life. With this project, I wanted to take something familiar, something with history, and give it an unexpected twist. In this case, I was thinking about a stage, a dance floor, something that could suddenly become a dining table or a platform for an art installation. Paris itself is a stage for so much of what happens in culture around the world. I wanted to see how that idea could be transformed into a single object.

"The Stage is inspired by the academic understanding of sculpture and installation, but I also see it as something with its own energy and personality, something that lives alongside us throughout the day. Who knows what it might be thinking, or what new idea it might bring? I wanted this installation to exist not only through its physical form and light. Light has become one of the most exciting new materials for me to explore in my work. The platform itself is already a statement. It is a stage for objects, a stage within the space, a stage for performance, and eventually, a dining table within a single structure.

"The accumulation of objects is particularly important to me, as it continues the ideas I explored with Objets Trouvés, which I have continued developing in my work ever since. What fascinates me is that objects that were considered useless yesterday can become part of an artwork today without being physically altered at all. This can happen simply by changing their position, context, or how we look at them. I believe every object deserves the possibility of being itself and, at the same time, being considered art. Especially in a world where we often assume that creating art requires making something entirely new from scratch. And of course, this brings me back to two of my greatest artistic inspirations, Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol."

You've reimagined everything from discarded clothing and scrap denim to digital realities. What is one medium, industry, or concept you haven't had the chance to explore just yet, but are incredibly eager to dive into?

"I'm very interested in cinema, theater, and ballet. I find it fascinating how, in just two hours, a person can experience so many emotions, question so many things about life and the future, and almost live an entire lifetime through the characters on stage or screen. The idea that an artistic experience can take you through so many different lives, feelings, and perspectives in such a short amount of time is incredible to me, and I believe this would be a very interesting and unexpected medium for me to explore in the future."

If you're a fan of Nuriev's work for NikeSKIMS, wait till you see how he turned a formerly deserted corner of East London into an ever-evolving restaurant interior with our review of the chrome-tinted Noisy Oyster.

Got your Art Basel Paris and Paris Art Week itineraries sorted? Make sure to check back in on Livingetc's lifestyle stories for weekly updates on all the hottest hospitality openings and culture and film releases, and get them sent straight to your email by joining our newsletter today.

Frieze Week isn't the kind of city-wide event to leave the public short of spectacle, but I am not the first, nor will I be the last, to say that PAD and Frieze London 2026 and satellite events like hotel-based fringe fair Minor Attractions had a rather unsettling atmosphere this year.

Open through Sunday, October 18, the latest edition of Frieze London presents 172 global galleries across five sections, including the emerging, young international platform and experimental programming-dedicated Focus, the peer-nominated Artist-to-Artist, and newcomer The Code Universe, an invitational curated wing organized by Carol Yinghua Lu with an eye to mass culture, societal transformation, and post-digital image economy. Not far from Regent's Park, home to Frieze London, Frieze Masters, and Frieze Sculpture, PAD London 2026 (through October 18) transforms Berkeley Square into a walk-through jewelry box through premium collectible design and decorative arts. Whether at either location or over at Minor Attractions, whose fourth edition — closing today — reunites 75 galleries, publishers, and cultural organizations at Fitzrovia's hip hotel reservation The Newman, makers and artists' concern with the present will follow you anywhere on your Frieze Week 2026 trail.

From eerie androids springing out of wardrobes and carved-out, disembodied, sculptural limbs standing in for home accessories — reminders of our increasingly screen-bounded way of living — to melty furnishings echoing the ecological transformations brought about by the climate crisis, and a more daring, cut-out way to experiment with surfaces and materials, the coolest booths on our radar reframe decorative interior accents as a tongue-in-cheek exercise in exorcising an uncertain present, surreal, at times humorous, and yet uncompromisingly forward-thinking.

Here for the hospitality side of things? See where top gallerists and curators eat and drink during Frieze Week.

The Mood

Molten Modernism ↔ Nouveau Ice Age

The first recurring motif to catch my attention during the press preview of PAD London 2026 was the contrast between seemingly melting and iced surfaces across a variety of furniture pieces. On one side were crystalline silhouettes that looked as though they had been sculpted directly from ice blocks; on the other, fluid forms in glass, resin, and leather appeared to be fading away under a scorching sun. Together, these weirdly hypnotic textures felt like a wake up call on our changing environment, echoing widespread anxieties over where the climate is heading. It is a timely concern: this aesthetic dialogue follows one of the driest summers in history, even as a rapidly intensifying El Niño event dominates global weather patterns. Meteorologists have indeed confirmed that the phenomenon increases the statistical odds of a disrupted polar vortex, threatening to bring a severe, unexpectedly cold late winter to Europe after a stormier start. It is no surprise, then, that the British government has already urged people to stock up. Similarly to the fractured homeware elsewhere at the fair, these elemental, loosely nature-informed accents defy traditional decorative rules, using 'frozen' and dissolving materials to force a stark environmental message.

The Texture

Fractured Furniture for a Fractured World

Walking through PAD London 2026, I was surprised to find a widespread, almost "broken" or patched-together upcycled aesthetic cutting through the fair. This raw, fragmented look brought an unexpected, almost grungy edge to exhibitions that otherwise featured many historical and traditional pieces. It might be just me, but these fractured surfaces felt like an indirect reflection of a growingly fractured world, while still managing to fulfill the core functions of aesthetics, comfort, and daily practicality. Beyond mere metaphor, this trend directly spoke to the values of sustainable design practices and raw material experimentation, proving that contemporary furniture must be as conceptually layered and multifaceted as it is functional. Ultimately, these pieces fight against traditional decorative rules by daring to, quite literally, break through. And boy did they succeed.

The Decorative Twist

The Body Is the Message

In an increasingly digital age, the body, it seems, has never been more central for the practice of artists and designers alike. I have seen it at Minor Attractions and PAD London 2026, where the human form has been fragmented, stylized, and even motorized to the most contrasting effects, though the appearances I appreciated most of it were the ones that — whether through texture, the rendition of an embrace, or the hint of a smile — managed to remind me what life is all about. And in the positive sense, for once. At Frieze London 2026, meanwhile, the presence of bodies went hand in hand with some kind of absence: parts of their silhouettes had been removed, or were totally missing, leaving the body to float more like an abstract form than a sentient thing. Elsewhere again, the state of constant fatigue and disconnectedness many are lamenting nowadays was made manifest. In both cases, one thing is for certain: even in our mediated era, the body — caught present to his senses or asleep, undiscussed protagonist or portrayed unaware — remains the strongest message.

The Lesson

Do the (Extra)Ordinary

As numerous booths at PAD, Minor Attractions, and Frieze London 2026 portrayed today's reality as increasingly mechanized, a place where the most genuine ties and ways of spending time feel endangered by the metaverse and the rise of AI, others retreated to the comfort of what we know best: the simplest actions, from reading and painting in bed to sketching on a desk, discarded objects of little value as both traces and proof of our physical passage despite our chronically online lives, and the inexplicable beauty of a messy bookshelf.

Perhaps, then, in the absence of better alternatives, the answer to coping with an uncertain presence lies in doing — and making — the ordinary 'extra'-ordinary, something the artists and designers I came across over these last couple of days do extremely well. Because, in times of crisis, nothing feels and looks better than the things we love most, be it our favorite room in the house, an object we have cherished for decades, or memories we share with others. And that's exactly the kind of art people will hang on their walls this season.

My favorite booth in the fair, Steph Huang's solo show with Public Gallery scrutinizes "the price paid for global convenience, from the ambiguous origins of mass-produced goods and our dependence on ultra-processed additives, to the ecological destruction and human rights violations associated with the seafood industry and transshipment at-sea". It does so by reinterpreting found objects and food packaging of everyday use into a whimsical, vaguely cartoonish interior that gives even the seemingly worthless a function, reflecting contemporary society's "low-cost, efficient modes of consumption", but making its critique imaginative, quirky, and weirdly captivating.

If there's one thing that Frieze London 2026 taught me, it is not to underestimate the decorative and emotional power of still life. Sophie Barber's In Our Paradise, part of Alison Jacques's group booth at the fair, captures a flower vase of daffodils and freesias placed atop a texture-heavy dining table as a metaphor for the shortlivedness and tension characterizing everyday life, their furled stems standing for the "gravitational pull" bringing us closer to one another. The bold lettering "IN OUR PARADISE", meanwhile, contrast with the apparent simplicity of the setting, forcing viewers to reconsider what counts more — flamboyance or the lived comfort of a space sculpted by human habit and bonds.

Just because PAD and Frieze London 2026 come to an end this weekend, it doesn't mean you shouldn't keep looking for thought-provoking creative expression anywhere in London. See what else is on in October in the Big Smoke, and look out for fresh updates on next month's best in the coming days.

In Paris this week? Discover what designer and Kim Kardashian collaborator Harry Nuriev is bringing to the table. Browse more lifestyle stories like this one, or subscribe to our newsletter for weekly sendouts on the finest house tours and hospitality openings and the season's definitive trends.

There was a time when taste — an individual's inherently subjective discernment of anything good, appropriate, or beautiful in food, behavior, or the arts, from design and music to fashion, and their ability to not only acknowledge it but also interact and respond to it just as impressively — was something earned, ageing and evolving with you as you progressed through different stages in life. It was, then, a shape-shifting portrait of what you rated, valued, most, ineffable and unrepeatable as such. Now, with social media granting people a platform and, with that, a temptation to build an algorithm-dictated version of themselves, that time is gone, and taste within everyone's reach. Seemingly, at least.

The year is 2026, and you don't have to window-shop or, 'worse', spend hours trying on different clothes, to know what needs adding to your wardrobe. Instead, you can Google Lens it straight from [insert X influencer name]'s Instagram grid. On the most next-gen e-commerce websites, you can even get an idealized virtual avatar of your likeness to give the outfit the first spin before you proceed to add it to your cart. *Sends screenshot to friend*: "What do you think?"

Weight-loss injections Ozempic and Mounjaro are shrinking bodies worldwide back to 1990s, size-0 standards, while digital filters and AI-manipulated imagery, along with appearance-enhancing phenomena such as Looksmaxxing, Baby Botox, and wider cosmetic procedures appealing to an ever-younger crowd, all contribute to making formerly unattainable beauty canons more desirable and purchasable. Except beauty itself, much like taste, has begun to fade. Not in its internet-shared, increasingly homogenizing representation, of course, but as a quality and a pursuit innate in people, unregulated and uninfluenced by platforms and tailored ads telling you what you should like — *read: buy* — and look like — *read: also, buy*. That, to many, is the hard truth of the current zeitgeist.

"Everyone wants to be chic, cool, and intellectually sexy. But what if actually being cool was defined by a life unaffected by algorithms?" culture platform Impact's associate editor Nardos Haile wrote in an Instagram carousel earlier this month. With my antennas up as I researched this piece, I couldn't help but agree. "As digital natives, we are too accustomed to a life built in an algorithmic silo where our opinions aren't our own, our sense of personal style is from a curated guide on how to be a cool girl, and our filmography echoes what movie people are thinkpiecing to death online," Haile continued. "We once had taste forged from our own distinct personal preferences. Now, we've reached a point in the digital age where everyone seems to be a curator of taste without the lived individual experience outside of the algorithm."

A great deal of this stems from everyday fatigue: aesthetics-rich but money- and time-poor in a global cost of living crisis, we find ourselves treating picking our next decor or fashion buy, or planning our next holiday or home renovation — what would have once been considered stress-free, leisure activities — as the next time-pressured chore to tick off our work to-do list. Not even spending time with friends and loved ones has been spared.

"The death of hosting, the loneliness epidemic and the fact that everyone's home but no one's coming over, is the depressing result of late stage capitalism," Panayiota Soutis wrote in a new post on her thought-provoking culture and food Substack, The Goal is to Eat, this week. She argues that what's particularly interesting about that shift is that it coincides with "the rise of hosting-as-performance, both as online content and exclusive brand events," adding that "gathering to nurture 'community' is now in the hands of companies over individuals."

Fittingly, if somewhat ironically, that shift, and where the business of taste — design, the arts, and gastronomy — is heading next, is what Soutis just got to explore in depth in The Future of Taste, a panel discussion I moderated this Thursday on behalf of Livingetc for Frieze's membership programme Frieze Connect, marking the return of the annual Frieze London and Frieze Masters fairs (through October 18) to Regent's Park. Held in the Willow Room of Aethos London Shoreditch, the roundtable featured Studio Ashby's founding designer Sophie Ashby, visual and music artist and designer Emmanuel Lawal of Forestalgia, and Soutis herself as panelists, and was accompanied by a bespoke food installation conceived by Food Art Fair and food design studio Maisongb's founder, Giuseppe Burdo, in collaboration with the venue's executive chef Aaj Fernando. Turns out, taste might not be dead after all: scroll to discover how each keeps it alive and make it their own below.

Emmanuel Lawal, Designer, Visual and Music Artist, Founder of Forestalgia

What's One Thing You Remember Loving Instantly as a Child That Still Shapes Your Taste Today?

"I've always been drawn to things that felt considered but slightly unexpected. As a child, I remember being fascinated by footwear — not just the shoes themselves, but the idea that something functional could also say so much about you. Color, proportion, material, the way something ages: I've carried that curiosity with me ever since."

If Your Taste Could Have a Scent and a Flavor, What Would Those Be?

"The scent would be something woody, warm, and slightly smoky — cedar, leather, maybe a little incense. The flavor would be something much brighter: citrus, chilli, herbs, a little bitterness. I like contrast. I'm rarely drawn to things that feel too perfect or singular."

Who's One Tastemaker You Look Up to Daily That You'd Love to Sit Next to at a Dinner Party?

"I would have loved to sit next to Virgil Abloh. His ability to move between fashion, architecture, music, art, and culture without treating them as separate worlds was extraordinary. More than anything, I'd want to understand how he saw connections between things that other people might not have put together."

Is Taste ... Inherent, Purchasable, or Cultivated?

"Taste is cultivated. You might have an instinct for certain things, but taste develops through exposure — traveling, listening, looking, touching, eating, making mistakes and changing your mind. You can purchase beautiful furniture, art, or clothes, but you can't purchase a point of view. Someone can fill a room with the most desirable pieces in the world, and it can still feel completely disconnected from who they are. Equally, a home filled with second-hand objects, family pieces, and things discovered along the way can feel incredibly sophisticated because there's a story and sensibility behind it. The same applies to fashion, music, and art. Taste comes from developing a relationship with culture rather than just consuming it."

What's One IRL Experience You'd Never Trade for a Screen? Which of Your Senses Are You Most Driven by When it Comes to Judging the Tastefulness of Something?

"Conversation around a table. You can't replicate the feeling of sitting opposite someone, sharing food, hearing their stories and having a conversation that takes an unexpected turn. There's something very human about that exchange. I'm probably most driven by touch. As a designer, I'm constantly thinking about materiality — how something feels in your hand, how a surface catches the light, how leather ages, how a chair feels when you sit in it. Something can look beautiful on a screen, but the physical experience can completely change your relationship with it."

Art, Design, Food, and Fashion Are Suddenly Sitting at the Same Table: What Stems From That Contamination?

"I don’t think they were ever really separate. We just became accustomed to putting them into categories. The most interesting creative work happens in the space between disciplines. A chef thinks about composition like a designer. A fashion designer thinks about material and form. An artist thinks about atmosphere. A designer thinks about how people move, gather, and interact. When those worlds collide, you get experiences rather than just objects. That's where a lot of the excitement is happening now."

Where Does Community Sit in This Mix — And What's the Importance of It?

"Community is what gives these disciplines meaning. Without people, culture becomes purely aesthetic. When you bring different creative worlds together, you create an environment where people can exchange ideas, discover something outside their usual field and form relationships that probably wouldn't happen otherwise. The best events don't feel like networking; they feel like people genuinely sharing a moment. That sense of connection is something I think about a lot through Forestalgia — creating spaces and experiences where people can connect, converse, and create."

What's One Anecdote You Cherish To This Day From One of Such Events?

"Some of the most memorable moments for me have actually been the things that weren't supposed to happen. At one of our gatherings, what I remember most wasn't a particular celebrity or perfectly executed moment, but the point where everyone stopped behaving like they were at an event. People were sitting around, talking, laughing, moving between conversations and genuinely connecting. Someone spilt something, plans changed, people arrived late — all the normal human things. Those imperfections are often what you remember. We spend so much time trying to create polished versions of ourselves, but the moments that stay with you are usually the ones where the polish disappears."

Tell Us About One Object, Piece of Furniture, or Artwork That Best Captures Your Vision of Home.

"For me, it would be Modular 001 by Forestalgia, the first furniture piece Forestalgia developed as a studio project. I wanted to challenge the idea of furniture as something that simply occupies space. Modular 001 was designed around the ideas of connect, converse, and create — bringing together the functions of a table and a chair, with integrated lighting and sound, to craft a more immersive social experience. The inspiration came from thinking about how we actually use our homes. The most meaningful moments rarely happen in isolation; they happen around a table, on a sofa, over music, food or conversation. So rather than designing a piece around a particular room, I designed it around the moments that happen within one. In many ways, Modular 001 represents how I think about home: not as a collection of beautiful objects, but as a space that facilitates connection. The furniture is there to support the life happening around it."

Today, Storytelling Is Yet Another Pillar in Our Homes. Where Does This Hunger for Stories Come From?

"I think it comes from wanting things to feel meaningful again. We're surrounded by an incredible amount of visual information, so simply having something beautiful isn't always enough anymore. We want to know where something came from, who made it, why it exists and what it means. The room I find most inspiring is the living room because it's usually where different parts of someone’s life collide. Books, music, furniture, art, objects from travels, things inherited from family — it becomes a kind of autobiography."

In an Age of Scarcity, Culinary Pop-Ups Mustn't Ignore Waste. How Can Chefs Combine a Creative Approach to Gastronomy and Sustainability?

"I think the future will be less about making food look impossible and more about making the experience around it feel memorable. A beautifully made piece of bread, a perfect tomato, a dish that reminds you of somewhere or someone — those things can be more powerful than something designed purely to photograph well. The most sophisticated experiences often have a very simple core."

The World Is Burning. You Have 5 Minutes to Escape on a Spaceship and Can Only Take One Thing With You. What Does That Item Tell Us About You?

"If I were leaving Earth forever, I wouldn't want to take something that simply tells me what things looked like. I'd want something that reminds me how life felt. I'd take a dining chair. Not because it's the most valuable object I own, but because it reminds me of something very human: sitting around a table with other people. Before everything became so fast and screen-led, we would sit down together, eat, talk, listen, argue, laugh, and simply be present with one another. A chair represents that possibility. Of sitting down. Of having a conversation, eating, thinking, listening, or simply being present. For me, that's what good design should do: hold memories, facilitate human interaction, and remind us to imagine."

Panayiota Soutis, Founder of The Goal is to Eat

What's One Thing You Remember Loving Instantly as a Child That Still Shapes Your Taste Today?

"Beads! Jewellery! Embellishment! Patterns: tracing them, spotting them. Shells! Stones! Red things. Textures. Always observing the details."

If Your Taste Could Have a Scent and a Flavor, What Would Those Be?

"Vanilla and rose, cinnamon and tobacco."

Who's One Tastemaker You Look Up to Daily That You'd Love to Sit Next to at a Dinner Party?

"Brenda Weischer AKA Brendahashtag."

In an Age of Scarcity, Culinary Pop-Ups Mustn't Ignore Waste. How Can Chefs Combine a Creative Approach to Gastronomy and Sustainability?

"Totally. I see us returning to the basics, stripped-back simplicity. From events to restaurants, the impact of nostalgia — looking back to move forward — will see us opting out of complexity, toward less stimulation and more purity. But at the same time, with an injection of entertainment, of lightheartedness, fun first."

Food Has Become Omnipresent in the Arts. What Do This Kind of Banquets Bring to the Table — And What's the Detail That Gives Away a Success?

"How happy the people are to be working at them. How much of the event's design has impacted those bringing it together — are they all bought into the dream? Have they been told the story that's being told here? And are they keen to be part of this world?"

Today, Storytelling Is Yet Another Pillar in Our Homes. Where Does This Hunger for Stories Come From?

"I think everyone ultimately is on an endless journey to figure out their purpose in life, and collect things that offer stories, tell us what they're about, and why they exist. And that is captivating. Of all rooms, I find the bathroom the most interesting. It's the most intimate space, where we are most with ourselves, however uncomfortably, and it is where we take care of our bodies in the most primal of ways."

Tell Us About One Object, Piece of Furniture, or Artwork That Best Captures Your Vision of Home.

"I have a huge painting that I commissioned my friend, the painter Anouk Amount, to create for my 30th birthday. It ended up as a sort of self-portrait, full of all my favorite colors and symbols, and is representative of what I love most, from columns to a horizon, coffee to cigarettes. It is the centerpiece of our living room, and helps ground me, bringing me back to myself."

Where Does Community Sit in This Mix — And What's the Importance of It?

"Too often we forget that we're simply humans who want to feel seen and find love. Breaking down the barriers and creating spaces where interrelating industries can communicate, and interesting people can create by sharing new ideas or personal insights, will always help pull us out of ruts. Events become spaces to find common ground, to connect on mutual interests, challenge our current ways of thinking and find empowerment to keep going and growing."

Art, Design, Food, and Fashion Are Suddenly Sitting at the Same Table: What Stems From That Contamination?

"Cultural fluency as currency means that our preferences are merging into one, as proof of something. Superiority? Education? Elevation? I'm not sure anyone really knows what they're proving anymore but they want to cash in to reach a higher level."

What's One IRL Experience You'd Never Trade for a Screen? Which of Your Senses Are You Most Driven by When it Comes to Judging the Tastefulness of Something?

"Catching up with friends and dancing. I’m driven by visuals but mostly by meaning, so really, I'm searching for the feeling that things give me."

What Does Taste Mean to You, How Does it Shape and Inform Your Everyday Life?

"Never accepting things at face value. Find out the how, ask the why. Go deeper! Interrogate, assess, observe. Paying attention to the tinier details makes all the difference. It helps us know what we like, but most of all, what we like about it."

Is Taste ... Inherent, Purchasable, or Cultivated?

"All three, but 50% cultivated, 30% inherent, and 20% purchasable, I'd say. Taste is the base; charisma, aura, intelligence, and wit all play a huge part in how tasteful you are as a person and how your aesthetic choices translate to others."

What's the First Detail You Notice in Someone's Home That Immediately Screams Good Taste?

"How much of their personality comes through in the objects they assemble. How much story is on show, how much of a world is created."

Sophie Ashby, Interior Designer, Founder and Creative Director of Studio Ashby

What's One Thing You Remember Loving Instantly as a Child That Still Shapes Your Taste Today?

"Clothes, particularly things my parents bought me on holiday. A crochet skirt from Portugal and some gold ballet pumps from Greece."

If Your Taste Could Have a Scent and a Flavor, What Would Those Be?

"My taste would smell green and earthy — tomato leaf, geranium, wet earth. And it would taste of lemon, really good olive oil, and salt. I'm drawn to things that are quite elemental: simple and familiar, but full of character. Nothing too polished or overworked."

Who's One Tastemaker You Look Up to Daily That You'd Love to Sit Next to at a Dinner Party?

"Rei Kawakubo. She connects fashion, art, retail, interiors, and culture, but most importantly has spent decades refusing the obvious answer. Dover Street Market is almost a physical manifestation of your definition of taste: instinct, curiosity, juxtaposition, and editing."

What's the First Detail You Notice in Someone's Home That Immediately Screams Good Taste?

"I'm not sure there's one object that screams good taste. In fact, if something is screaming good taste, I'm immediately suspicious of it. I notice whether the house tells me anything about the person who lives there. Their books, their art, what they've kept, what they haven't hidden away. I'm interested in evidence of a life rather than evidence of a decorator."

The World Is Burning. You Have 5 Minutes to Escape on a Spaceship and Can Only Take One Thing With You. What Does That Item Tell Us About You?

"The little pouch that houses my most worn jewelry, but I guess that's not just one thing. So, I'd go for the brown mug I bought from an old potter in Sifnos with my boyfriend. It reminds me of Kostas's calmness, slowness, wisdom. The beach at the top of the island was serene, still, and the imperfections on the mug, its largeness, and the wonky hand painted olive branch on the front will forever house its humanity. Each proves that to be magical is not to be perfect. Or, if I finally got round to actually albuming my photos, I'd take my big fat tome of a photo album."

Is Taste ... Inherent, Purchasable, or Cultivated?

"I think there may be an instinctive component, an innate sensitivity to color, proportion, or composition, but taste develops through exposure. You have to look. Visit houses, museums, exhibitions, restaurants; travel; read; watch films; look at clothes; notice how somebody lays a table. And crucially, look beyond what you already know you like. I feel like if it were an equation: taste = instinct + curiosity + editing. The editing part matters because somebody can have access to every beautiful thing in the world and still put them together badly. Money can buy beautiful objects. It can't buy discernment. And I don't think cultivation ever ends. The moment you've completely codified your taste — 'this is what I like' — you've probably stopped being curious."

What Does Taste Mean to You, How Does it Shape and Inform Your Everyday Life?

"I've become slightly troubled by the word 'taste'. Historically, ideas of 'good taste' were determined by a very narrow group of people with access, money and cultural power. So I'm increasingly more interested in discernment. For me, discernment is instinct, curiosity, and the ability to edit. Instinct is knowing when something feels right. Curiosity is looking sideways rather than always going to the obvious reference. And editing is perhaps the hardest bit: knowing when to stop, what to leave out and when to walk away from an idea you love because it isn't serving the whole."

Art, Design, Food, and Fashion Are Suddenly Sitting at the Same Table: What Stems From That Contamination?

"I'm not convinced they are suddenly sitting at the same table. They've always been there. The Bloomsbury Group didn't separate painting from textiles, furniture from food, or conversation. The Wiener Werkstätte certainly wasn't interested in those boundaries."

Where Does Community Sit in This Mix — And What's the Importance of It?

"You need people outside your discipline because otherwise you become incredibly good at talking to yourself."

What's One Anecdote You Cherish To This Day From One of Such Events?

"I sat next to Max Lamb at a dinner a few years ago during this time, and whilst I knew his work well, I didn't know what he looked like. I spent an agonizing 30 minutes making small talk, trying to get to know him before someone had to intervene and tell me who I was talking to politely — and stop me from embarrassing myself further."

In Interiors, One Day's Trend Is the Next Day's Old News. What Makes a Home Tasteful, Then?

"The most interesting homes contain tension. Something beautiful beside something funny. Something valuable beside something the child made. Something very old beside something almost aggressively contemporary. If everything belongs perfectly together, I start to lose interest."

Today, Storytelling Is Yet Another Pillar in Our Homes. Where Does This Hunger for Stories Come From?

"Perhaps we're craving that because so much of what we see now is frictionless and reproducible. You can buy an entire aesthetic from your phone in an afternoon. Objects with provenance, things made by people, things inherited, things collected while travelling — they resist that sameness."

Food Has Become Omnipresent in the Arts. What Do This Kind of Banquets Bring to the Table — And What's the Detail That Gives Away a Success?

"Generosity. Not spectacle. Not flowers. Not elaborate tablescaping. Can I relax? Is there enough food? Am I sitting next to someone interesting? Do I feel looked after? Hospitality is ultimately an act of generosity."

The World Is Burning. You Have 5 Minutes to Escape on a Spaceship and Can Only Take One Thing With You. What Does That Item Tell Us About You?

"I'd want evidence of having loved and been loved."

Giuseppe Burdo, Product Designer, Founder and Creative Director of Maisongb and Food Art Fair

What's One Thing You Remember Loving Instantly as a Child That Still Shapes Your Taste Today?

"The orange of grated carrots, piled into a massive volume, ready to be eaten."

If Your Taste Could Have a Scent and a Flavor, What Would Those Be?

"It would have the smell you sense approaching a fig tree and picking the fruit straight from it, and the changing scents of different ingredients as they begin to warm up, and the tang of a fresh almond before it's fully ripe."

Who's One Tastemaker You Look Up to Daily That You'd Love to Sit Next to at a Dinner Party?

"Danny Khezzar for his friendly sense of magic in the kitchen; Laila Gohar for her aesthetics; and Forniture Pallotta for the culture they build around food."

What's the First Detail You Notice in Someone's Home That Immediately Screams Good Taste?

"A sense of calm, how the light falls and reflects across the interior, the layout of the space, and the choice of objects, from furniture to kitchenware."

What's One IRL Experience You'd Never Trade for a Screen? Which of Your Senses Are You Most Driven by When it Comes to Judging the Tastefulness of Something?

"Feeling through the senses, being touched by a ray of sun, touching something as delicate as a flower, or seeing how someone's rhythm and movement can reveal much more than the eyes alone."

Art, Design, Food, and Fashion Are Suddenly Sitting at the Same Table: What Stems From That Contamination?

"They all say something about people and how we live. They're different forms of art, sometimes just using different materials. Whether as provocation or for real, they can sometimes become the same thing."

Where Does Community Sit in This Mix — And What's the Importance of It?

"It's about creating a safe place where we can share, be inspired by each other's experiences, and see things with new eyes. We all notice, learn, and approach things differently, so bringing together different materials and disciplines can make the experience more approachable and inclusive."

In Interiors, One Day's Trend Is the Next Day's Old News. What Makes a Home Tasteful, Then?

"I don't think this is only about interiors, and I don't see why we need to commit to something because of a trend. We don't change that much from one day to another. I like the idea of taste being timeless, like buying a work of art you feel you'll love for a long time. But it's also fun to love something just for a moment."

Tell Us About One Object, Piece of Furniture, or Artwork That Best Captures Your Vision of Home.

"A work by Tessa Silva that I have at home. It reminds me of the feminine side of a home — gracious, but with a strong perspective. It contains milk, so you can actually smell it when you get closer, or sometimes on a humid day."

Food Has Become Omnipresent in the Arts. What Do This Kind of Banquets Bring to the Table — And What's the Detail That Gives Away a Success?

"I like to have a sense of where I am and what I have in front of me without necessarily needing someone to explain it. Then, as you get closer, the details reveal more. It doesn't need to be polished, but it needs to have an identity."

In an Age of Scarcity, Culinary Pop-Ups Mustn't Ignore Waste. How Can Chefs Combine a Creative Approach to Gastronomy and Sustainability?

"I don't think there's one way to do it. We shouldn't be afraid of using old or popular recipes that can be contextualized and elevated in ways nobody has done before. What feels familiar to one audience can be completely new to another."

The World Is Burning. You Have 5 Minutes to Escape on a Spaceship and Can Only Take One Thing With You. What Does That Item Tell Us About You?

"My backpack, so I can cheat and bring a few things with me: a knife to chop whatever edible thing I find, a blowtorch with some gas (assuming we have oxygen?), some seeds, a small plant, and, if there's still space, some water."

Keen to think more? Learn how to get your taste back in decor, or hear from fellow tastemaker and Kim Kardashian collaborator Harry Nuriev about his latest Paris banquette,

Bookmark our new long-read series, The Meaning of Home, for bimonthly investigations into the topics reshaping living today, or subscribe to our newsletter to receive our full interior and cultural digest straight in your inbox.

What better way to see the world than through the eyes of our favorite tastemakers? In Hidden Trails, we look at the places that feel most like home to our community of design insiders — wherever those might be — to help you uncover what their cities have in store for you.

Some cities grow on you like a garment you get gifted and struggle to embrace for years until you find yourself wearing it every day. Others just get you right away. Venezuelan-born entrepreneur and designer Sharon Costi, co-founder of luxury homeware brand CasaLatina, fell for Bogotá on the spot. "It was love at first sight," she says of her earliest encounter with the city 27 years ago, when she had flown here for her best friend's wedding. "Warm, chaotic, endlessly surprising, and irresistibly fun, Bogotá is a city where it feels almost impossible not to have a great time."

Her fascination with La Atenas Suramericana ("the South American Athens", from the number of cultural institutions, libraries, galleries, and museums present on-site) continued for decades. Until, in 2021, walking around local arts and crafts fair Expoartesanías, Costi decided to start what today is CasaLatina, a UK-based label known for producing hand-painted ceramic dinnerware from Carmen del Viboral, Chamba black pottery, handwoven iraca palm napkin rings and baskets, and hand-carved wooden accessories with South American craftsmanship at their heart.

All CasaLatina designs are handmade by a team of over 60 artisans across nine communities in Colombia and her native Venezuela, reinterpreting ancestral techniques through an essential yet richly textural eye. "I have a full team based in the city managing production, and I return to Bogotá at least once a year," the founder explains. "Between work, friends, discovering the latest restaurants, and shopping, time disappears. Luckily, jet lag has me awake at 5 am, so I can get the work done before the fun begins." Get your share of Bogotá's frenzy with Costi's insider tips for the city.

What to Do in Bogotá, Colombia

Make the Most of the City's Ubiquitous Museums

Museo Botero, banrepcultural.org/bogota/museo-botero, Calle 11 #4-41. Museo del Oro, banrepcultural.org/bogota/museo-del-oro, Carrera 6 #15-88. Escuela de Artes y Oficios Santo Domingo, eaosd.org, Calle 10 #8-73

My favourite art hotspot is La Candelaria, where three brilliant cultural stops sit within easy walking distance. Museo Botero pairs the artist's exuberant work with a beautiful colonial setting; Museo del Oro is an extraordinary introduction to pre-Columbian culture; and the Escuela de Artes y Oficios Santo Domingo brings craftsmanship to life, with students practising everything from woodwork and leatherwork to weaving and embroidery.

See Bogotá's Finest Along La Candelaria — And Beyond

La Candelaria, Plaza de Bolívar, Carrera 7 & Calle 11, La Candelaria. Monserrate, monserrate.co, Carrera 2 Este #21-48

La Candelaria is my favourite part of Bogotá: a wonderfully preserved historic quarter of colourful colonial houses, steep streets and bold street art. Many old buildings now house galleries, museums, shops and restaurants, making it endlessly rewarding to wander. Inevitably, you reach the grand Plaza de Bolívar — and from there, I'd finish with the cable car up Monserrate for sunset over the city.

Get Lost in Zona G, the Colombian Metropolis's "Gastronomic Heart"

El Chato, elchato.co, Calle 65 #4-76, Zona G

Bogotá is one of Latin America's most exciting food cities, and Zona G is its gastronomic heart. My pick is El Chato, named Latin America's best restaurant in 2025, where chef Álvaro Clavijo transforms Colombian ingredients into something inventive and completely contemporary. The menu changes constantly with the seasons, but if there's anything featuring palmito — heart of palm — I'm ordering it.

Collect Local Arts and Crafts on the Go — And Much-Needed Swimwear

Calle de los Anticuarios, Calle 79B, Chapinero. Verdi, verdi.com.co. Calle 79B #8-40. Suki Cohen, sukicohen.com. Cra. 12a #77 - 22. Touché, touche.com.co, various locations. Agua Bendita, aguabendita.com.co, various locations. Onda de Mar, ondademar.co, various locations

Calle de los Anticuarios is Bogotá's unofficial design district: a leafy, 250-metre street packed with fashion, interiors, art and independent Colombian brands. My favourite stop is Verdi, whose exquisite rugs, tapestries, cushions and mochilas are handcrafted using fique and metallic thread. Bogotá is also brilliant for swimwear and lingerie — Suki Cohen, Touché, Agua Bendita, and Onda de Mar are perennial favourites.

Reconnect With Colombia at Its Most Spiritual in Guatavita

Guatavita, Guatavita, Cundinamarca, Laguna de Guatavita, car.gov.co. Parque Ecoturístico Laguna del Cacique Guatavita, Sesquilé, Cundinamarca

When I need a break from Bogotá's energy, I head to Guatavita, a whitewashed town surrounded by dramatic Andean scenery and the Tominé reservoir. Nearby, the sacred Laguna de Guatavita inspired the legend of El Dorado, where a Muisca ruler was said to make gold offerings to the lake. The famous Muisca raft in Bogotá's Museo del Oro depicts this extraordinary ritual.

Make It a Trail-Within-the-Trail With Two More Must-Tries

Andrés Carne de Res, andrescarnederes.com. Calle 3 #11A-56, Chía, Cundinamarca. Usaquén Flea Market, Calle 119 con Carrera 6A, Usaquén, Bogotá

For pure, unfiltered fun, spend a Friday night at Andrés Carne de Res in Chía. It starts as a huge steak restaurant and somehow turns into a wild, theatrical party, with live music and dancing everywhere. For something gentler, visit the weekend flea market in Usaquén, where artisan stalls, street food, and live music turn the neighborhood into one of Bogotá's happiest weekend rituals.

One More (Lesser Known) Thing to Note

Despite its size and apparent chaos, Bogotá is surprisingly easy to navigate. Much of the city follows a numbered grid: Calles run roughly east-west and increase as you head north, while Carreras run north — south and increase as you move west. An address often tells you almost exactly where you are — and the Andes provide a built-in compass, always rising to the east. One other surprise: Bogotá may be in the tropics, but it sits more than 2,600 meters above sea level, so the climate is cool year-round. Pack a jacket.

Where to Stay in Bogotá

The Click Clack Hotel

IN A SENTENCE: Rising in the polished El Chicó district, a two-minute stroll from Parque de la 93, The Click Clack Hotel Bogotá turns a sleek glass-and-metal tower into a playful stage for art, design, and nightlife, where locals and travelers mingle in one of the city’s liveliest social hubs.

DESIGN: Conceived by PLAN:B architects with interiors by Perceptual Studio, the hotel stacks repeated room modules along a central corridor, then cleverly bends Chapinero’s strict building rules to its advantage. Guest bedrooms come with three window personalities, from floor-to-ceiling glass with movable shutters to filtered, metal-louvred openings and cantilevered bays that lean out over the street, while corridor ends on the façade double as small galleries for changing art. Below, a double-height lobby and restaurant are brought to life by side patios and green walls, and a double skin of glass and metal keeps the building so naturally comfortable that only a fifth of the rooms need air conditioning. Alongside graphics by Taller Estándar, a scattering of quirks, such as animal-themed door handles and vintage curios, complete a stay that earned a nomination for the 2016 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize.

ON THE MENU: Set within the double-height ground-floor space, The Click Clack Kitchen serves up an easygoing, all-day program, from lighter, healthy plates and generous breakfasts to fast-food classics given a considered spin. Its weekend brunch draws locals as much as guests, while Alimento Futuro, the hotel’s multi-sensory dining experiment, invites the curious to rethink how we eat in an era of shrinking resources.

DON'T MISS: Climb to Apache Rooftop Bar, where a wooden, open-air perch delivers a full 360-degree panorama of Bogotá and its green eastern mountains. With a menu inspired by comic books, a 1950s diner mood of high stools and slouchy leather sofas, and much-praised burgers alongside inventive cocktails, it is the perfect prelude to a night of live music and a DJ-led party crowd on Fridays.

Hotel Dios

IN A SENTENCE: Tucked into the historic core of La Candelaria, a short walk from Plaza de Bolívar and the city’s great museums, Hotel Dios is an eclectic, boldly sophisticated retreat that marries the romance of old Bogotá with the sharp lines and easy comfort of the present day.

DESIGN: Conceived as a dialogue between past and present, Hotel Dios pairs clean-lined, contemporary architecture with local art and handcrafted Colombian decor, all bathed in natural light and open, airy spaces. With just four rooms, from the Standard through the Deluxe and Executive suites to its namesake Suite God, the address feels less like a hotel and more like a private, art-filled house, with a garden and sunny terrace to unwind in after a day of exploring on foot. It's a serene, discerned counterpoint to the colonial bustle just beyond the door.

ON THE MENU: Open to the public for lunch and dinner, the hotel’s restaurant is an ode to bold, modern cooking that plays with flavors, colors, textures, and temperatures, taking diners on a journey through global tastes. The kitchen is fully open, so you can follow each dish coming together step by step, while a gourmet breakfast starts guests’ mornings off gently.

DON'T MISS: We are obsessed with the wine cellar, a curated collection of selected varieties that makes lingering over dinner very hard to resist. Pair it with a slow afternoon in the garden and sun terrace, and you have the perfect antidote to the city’s rush, mere steps from the Botero and Gold museums.

Holiday Delights

Keep the vibrancy of Bogotá with you year-round with our curated edit of Colombian-inspired buys.

Find the latest restaurant and hotel openings and cultural sensations in our lifestyle section, and for more inspiration, subscribe to the Livingetc newsletter.

Two things immediately stood out to me about The Dean Munich during my stay in the newly launched luxury hotel. One: it's so much more than a hotel; two: its nail-on-the-head execution of creating a destination full of buzz, interaction, and fun in its social spaces, while also serving as a cocooning retreat in its guest rooms.

Following the launch of its sister hotel, The Dean Berlin, in February of this year, The Dean Munich is Irish-born hotel brand The Dean's largest property to date, with 281 guest rooms, bringing another culture-forward, design-led hotel offering to the fore. Designed by Tatjana von Stein, founder and creative director of the eponymous London-based design studio, the interiors draw on Bavaria’s Art Nouveau heritage (Jugendstil), with subtle nods to the energetic 1980s music scene, creating a delectable array of unexpected design moments and spaces that encourage interaction and emotional connection.

Set in the heart of Westend, the bustling, culture-thriving neighborhood just west of the city center — filled with everything from independent cafés and restaurants to creative studios, craft workshops, and tech hubs — The Dean Munich converges design, art, wellness, and great food and drink, offering guests an inviting, rounded, and undeniably elegant stay.

As a big part of Munich's culture and lifestyle, art is at the core of The Dean's story, serving not just as decoration and visual interest, but also playing a key role in how the hotel gives back to the local community. "It was never about art for art’s sake," explains Kai Tan, co-founder of The Dean Group. "We set out to create permanent collections that support and platform emerging local artists, while giving guests the opportunity to discover work they might not otherwise encounter."

The art shapes the hotel's narrative, Kai explains, and the collections are chosen to ensure they feel "genuinely rooted in their surroundings." The Dean Munich’s art programme is titled The City Beneath the City, and is curated by Christian Ganzenberg, author, curator and director of Munich's international art festival. From the bold blue artwork seen by the lobby bar [above] and Ju Young Kim's sculptural work by the lobby's entrance, as well as the art displayed in the bedrooms and transitional spaces, it takes guests on a cultural journey across the hotel, as well as visually defining each of the areas.

Kai sees the hotel as a platform for creativity, rather than just a place to stay. And I couldn't agree more. "We also believe art shouldn’t simply blend into the interior design," he explains. "There should be a dialogue between the two, a tension that makes both the art and the space more compelling." I found myself fully absorbed by all the artwork — I was so tempted to touch the sequin masterpieces lining the corridors to my room, but refrained, only to be told it was actively encouraged! So, of course, I obliged; the tactility a wonderful surprise, and it felt like I was actively immersing myself in the hotel's story.

The 'tension' Kai speaks of is what Tatjana, who actually grew up in Munich, explored in the hotel's design. "Munich is a city rooted in history but always drawn to reinvention. I wanted to capture that tension — somewhere between elegance and exuberance — and let it guide every surface, object, and gesture," Tatjana explains.

The Art Nouveau influences are most evident in the curved lines of the hotel's signature restaurant Ibasho, where a gorgeous floral carpet sweeps around a sunken banquette seating area by its bar, with fringed pouffes, cushions, and soft velvet upholstery, bringing a sense of warmth, intimacy, and romance to the space.

"The design also brings to life a side of Munich only locals truly know: its rich musical and cultural spirit, quietly woven into the character of the city. Drawing from these two pivotal moments in Munich’s cultural history, the design concept created Jugendstil influences expressed through natural motifs, curved lines, tactile warmth, and crafted detailing, and 1980s Munich nightlife references in glossy surfaces, lacquered finishes, and subtly theatrical lighting."

Ibasho — meaning 'a place where one belongs' — with its bright pink Verner Panton upholstered leather chairs that surround its bar, is a contemporary Japanese dining concept conceived by award-winning chef Alex Craciun, who previously lived in Japan and worked at Michelin-starred restaurants Kikunoi and Ryugin. The dishes are artwork on plates and the menu celebrates seasonal produce, sourcing ingredients for their quality and provenance.

And I can attest that it is some of the best, if not the best, Japanese cuisine I have ever tasted. From the Crispy Sushi Temako (my personal favorite) to the Japanese A5 wagyu, each plate is a masterpiece of culinary joy, made even better when paired with the restaurant's delicious cocktail programme and sake selections.

Ibasho, much like the rest of the hotel, is visually layered, and the interplay between moments of privacy and intimacy with openness, from the stunning stained-glass internal windows to the mirrored ceiling and framed sightlines, creates a wonderful balance in design.

Without a doubt, my favorite space in the hotel — Tatjana's too — is NOREN. The hidden, speakeasy-style bar behind Ibasho, inspired by the Japanese hi-fi bars of the 1920s, is a bold space full of drama and revelry, but also intimacy. "It offers an explosion of senses and a play of materiality. Plus it feels a bit mischievous," says Tatjana.

The bespoke sound system by Friendly Pressure (which sounded as great as they look, might I add) gives the space a distinctly cool vibe, while the noren curtain gently divides the VIP area behind the 80s lacquer DJ booth, set against banquette seating "upholstered in a material you could find in your grandma's house" (as Tatjana said when we explored the bar), effortlessly bridging styles and eras in this special place of discovery.

In contrast to NOREN, the bedrooms serve as a place of calm retreat. With a predominantly pared-back design and color palette with hints of soft green, the rooms exude quiet luxury, elevated comfort, and an instant sense of ease. With a wide range of rooms on offer, from Deluxe to Premium Suites, there’s something to suit every occasion.

As The Dean Munich is the reimagining of an existing hotel, one of the main challenges of the redesign was that it remained open throughout; however, the bedrooms themselves had more of a 'light touch' approach, having been recently upgraded. Small details and finishing touches changed the feel of the space, such as adding curtains to the mirrored wardrobe area, which adds softness and tactility, and a greater sense of warmth and intimacy.

"Throughout the hotel, custom furniture and lighting designed by our studio sit alongside vintage pieces and lighting sourced from Cologne-based Studio Kuhlmann," says Tatjana.

The lighting makes an immediate impact across all spaces in the hotel — Tatjana shared that "hundreds" of custom lighting designs were created for the project, and each makes its mark. What is equally noticeable is how a lamp in a bedroom wouldn't look out of place in the lobby or restaurant, and vice versa, which was precisely the point.

"The beauty is that while each room has a distinct language, we were able to really interchange furniture from room to room because the thread of synergy remains clear. It makes it easier to play around at the end," says Tatjana. And the ability to "dial it up or down", depending on the space you're in creates the wonderful flow that's felt throughout the hotel.

The importance of wellness is also clear in The Dean Group's ethos. Its signature fitness and wellness concept, POWER, features a state-of-the-art gym, steam room, sauna, and indoor relaxation pool, so that after you've played hard at NOREN, you can recover in POWER.

"Noren and POWER are seemingly opposing spaces, but that’s exactly what makes them work together," Kai explains. "When we think about wellness, we often default to the gym, the spa, or other forms of physical activity. But wellness is also about balance — about having fun, discovering something new, eating and drinking well, and simply enjoying yourself.

"POWER gives guests a space to move, reset and recharge. Together, they represent a much broader idea of holistic wellness." If I'd had the time, the plush built-in seating that surrounds the pool in front of the bijoux cinema screen would have had me lost for hours.

The design of the hotel was "a puzzle to solve by balancing context, architecture, brand and a feeling we wanted to create," shares Tatjana. And I think the resounding takeaway that I had from the hotel was that sense of 'feeling' — all the good feels, that is. And there is great beauty in how everyone feels and appreciates things differently and at different times.

When speaking with co-founder Kai about the design of the hotel, he explained, "When you design by consensus, you're dead." And it's so valid. Not everyone will like everything, and not everyone will feel the way you feel about something, or when you feel it, but when you have a vision and execute it well, you can prove that being unique is always a good idea.

Book your stay at The Dean Munich.

Bring the Vibe Home

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Ahead of the official opening on October 8th, I had a chance to explore the hotly anticipated Tate Britain exhibition, The 90s: Art and Fashion. Curated by none other than Edward Enninful, the former editor of British Vogue, this exhibition offers a glimpse into his experience of the era; all the grit and the glamour he was exposed to as a 20-something in London in the 90s. And, as a 20-something in London some 30 years later, these are the aesthetic takeaways I'm still thinking about from the exhibition.

An all-encompassing approach to British culture in the 90s, this London design exhibition brought together icons of the era across all mediums, introducing the varying stylistic trends happening throughout the nation — from the stunningly stripped-back intimacy in Juergen Teller and David Sims's photographs to the flamboyant artistry in the fashion of Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood. Many of the greatest artistic achievements of the decade were on full display, including Chris Ofili’s moving No Woman, No Cry, a standout piece in any room it’s placed in.

There were the instantly recognizable images that have come to define the time, like Juergen Teller's 1998 Young Pink Kate, as well as lesser-known (but equally significant) works, including Hamad Butt's 1992 installation, Familiars. This was, as the Tate Britain's director Alex Faqhousan explains, part of the goal of the exhibit. By "bringing together icons of the era, as well as artists who were too overlooked," the curatorial team was able to establish a more honest, authentic depiction of the time, as opposed to a flat, clichéd recreation.

Of course, there are plenty of shots of Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss to admire, but equally represented were the more exposing, more illuminating artworks that perhaps haven't sustained the same level of cultural significance, but offer a true representation of the artistic culture of the time. It's an honest view of the decade, addressing the flaws as well as the highlights, and allowing you to step back in time and experience it all over again. Or, for 2000s babies like me, for the first time.

1. Minimalism As Authenticity, Not Simplicity

One of the leading themes of this exhibition, and perhaps of the era more broadly, was a celebration and exploration of minimalism. Today, minimalism in design is often viewed as some sort of lacking, an essential absence of personality or meaning. It's become tied up with the 'millennial beige' aesthetic, and has, in this age of maximalism, become somewhat of a dirty word.

In the 90s, however, a different kind of minimalism was defining the era. Arriving as a response to the flamboyant excesses of the 80s, the youth culture was searching for a way to rebel against the 'more is more' approach adopted by their predecessors.

The result was a stripped-back simplicity. A raw, authentic expression of minimalistic style. It wasn't characterless and beige. If anything, it was the complete opposite. It was honest and exposing, a celebration of truth. As one of the exhibition curators, Helen Little describes it: "Minimalism isn’t about a coldness and a lack of content. It’s distilling things down to their truest and purest state of being."

This approach was perhaps best expressed in the photography of the era. In the images of Juergen Teller and Corinne Day that line the walls, there's a clear desire for honesty and authenticity; any hints of artifice are stripped away, leaving us with a clear, exposing view of the subject.

In terms of design, this approach can be communicated in how we explore the finishes and materials we work with. Helen described the "focus on intentionality and materiality and using spare materials to make something new," which became so present in the art over these years, and today, we can adopt this same approach in our homes, finding pieces that express this authentic materiality in their design.

2. A New Type Of British Identity

While this era is so often characterized by the explosion of 'Cool Britannia' and the renewed sense of pride the British youth felt towards their cultural identity, this exhibition adopts a more complex view of what it meant to be British in the 90s, with a specific focus on the Black British experience.

Alongside the rise in Britpop and Union Jack-clad pop stars, there was a cultural reckoning taking place, and a developing understanding of the disparity in experience across different racial groups. Chris Ofili's No Woman, No Cry takes the viewer back to the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence and the institutional racism that removed any chance of justice for his family. Donald Rodney's moving work, In the House of My Father, explores similar themes, looking at the Black British experience of the British healthcare system.

Despite this setting of injustice and inequality, this room displays the achievements and resilience of the Black British youth in the 90s. At the center of the room, Ozwald Boateng's fantastically tailored suits stand proud, commanding in the suave simplicity of their construction. British director Steve McQueen is also honored in this room, with his silent film, Bear, playing on the wall.

A celebration of what we would now call Black Excellence, and what has been described as the 'most meaningful room' for curator Edward Enninful, this space explores a different side of the Cool Britannia movement.

3. The Allure Of Grunge

It wasn't all stripped-back minimalism, though; equally present in this era was a grittier, more outwardly rebellious stylistic approach. It was, as a 1992 story in American Vogue called it, 'Grunge and Glory'.

In many ways, the essential components of minimalism were still present. There was an honesty and authenticity that lay at the heart of the grunge movement. But this was a far cry from the 'clean girl' version of minimalism we know today. This was the anti-aesthetic aesthetic, revoking the very idea of the contrived intentionality that went behind the highly curated stylistic trends that came before it.

The grunge movement was more interested in exploring the truth behind the lived experience than it was in constructing a new version of it. Works like Barbara Walker's Attitude show an interest in embracing all aspects of the human experience, elevating the moments we previously would have disregarded into art.

Things were a little more undone, a little less contrived. A rejection of style that has ironically become one of the defining styles of the time. And even in our homes, grunge interior style can bring this same sense of stylistic nonchalance.

4. Utility Above Aesthetics

As you step into the third room of the exhibition, bright white walls are replaced with something a little darker. A small TV in the center plays Mark Leckey's Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore, a short film compiled from found footage of British nightlife through the ages, culminating in clips from the 90s underground rave scene. The walls that surround it are plastered with images of sunglass-clad ravers huddled around a DJ, and bleary-eyed friends slumped on the Brighton shore, roll-up cigarettes in hand.

What is striking about these images when compared to similar shots of nightlife in the 80s, or earlier, is the relative simplicity in the style of the subjects. Look at images of the Blitz club, just a decade prior, and you'd see a sea of the most highly stylized individuals, each dressed up as if playing a character. In the 90s, however, this degree of expression was swapped out for a more functional approach to dressing.

There was, as curator Dominique Heyse-Moore explained, a focus on utility. Young people were going out in clothes that they could dance, move, and sweat in without worry. There was a rejection of the curated approach to self-image that was so integral to the 80s. Instead, there was a more relaxed authenticity to the style.

This idea of a more casual, collected approach to self-expression is something we can carry through to our homes, too. It's all about trying less and allowing things to occur naturally instead, with more of a collected interiors approach.

While pop culture has exploded with 90s nostalgia in recent years, with the hit Love Story series reigniting a love for the cool elegance of 90s minimalism, this exhibition introduces us to a different view of the era, one that is rooted in the British experience and all the subcultures and movements that made the 90s what it was.

For more updates on all the biggest moments in design and access to exclusive events, like our curated Frieze Week panel, The Future of Taste, make sure you're subscribed to our newsletter.

Autumn might not necessarily rhyme with relax. But who said that, come October, we should stop fantasizing about other places, no matter how near or far? We have searched the internet for the latest hotel openings of 2026 to compile a no-fuss edit of the top four guest bedrooms and suites for rejuvenating seasonal retreats.

This month's curation of design-forward retreats straddles the amber-tinted spaces of a freshly re-envisioned sojourn in the Hamptons of New York, where maritime charm merges with the lushness of wrap-around vineyards and farmland for the ultimate immersion in calm; a palatial, 25-room boutique hotel obtained from the imaginative reworking of a 1931 Romanesque Revival church, housed in the spirited Los Angeles Eastside neighborhood of Silver Lake; a just-launched resort steeped in Cascais's rolling greenery, complete with whimsically furnished suites brought to life by ceiling-wide murals and an eye-catching palette choice, and filled with uninterrupted views of the surrounding estate, including a golf club, pools, and ornamental lakes; and an atmospheric aparthotel complex alive with this season's grounding nuances, boasting 29 style-conscious serviced apartments with kitchenettes that'll transform every last-minute visit to London into a home-like experience rich in comfort, texture, and sensory warmth.

Discover them all below.

1. Oyster Estate. Greenport, NY, US

Unveiled just over a month ago, Oyster Estate in Greenport Village deserves a spot on your autumn moodboard. A collaboration between Blue Flag Capital and Islyn Studio (of hotel Now Now NoHo fame), this boutique retreat targets interiors-savvy, culturally curious travelers seeking an unpolished alternative to the Hamptons. Guestrooms, including the plush Bay King, feature a coastal palette of clay, weathered greens, and salt-softened stone. Embracing texture and restraint, spaces showcase custom oak millwork, wood paneling, Parachute Home linens, and Tivoli Audio speakers. Beyond the bedrooms, the wider stay boasts a historic breeze-block courtyard pool and a vinyl listening lounge, Fortune Favors, a cocktail bar and restaurant launching this October for perfect shoulder-season escapes.

Book your stay at Oyster Estate.

2. Hotel Lucile. Los Angeles, US

Where: Hotel Lucile

Hotels located inside former sacred sites, like monasteries and convents, are having a hot moment, and Silver Lake's Hotel Lucile is one of them. Designed by Electric Bowery, this boutique retreat breathes fresh life into a 1931 Romanesque Revival church, transforming old schoolrooms into guest quarters with narrow-plank wood flooring and steel windows. The palette features mossy greens, maroon fabrics, and velvet jewel tones that mirror the historic stained glass. Design enthusiasts are booking the 536-square-foot Lucile Suite, which offers a master bath with a soaking tub and a light-filled arched living nook. This cozy alcove opens onto a 418-square-foot private courtyard beneath the historic bell tower. A strategic location that immediately turns into a postcard moment.

Book your stay at Hotel Lucile.

3. Kimpton Quinta da Marinha. Cascais, PT

Where: Kimpton Quinta da Marinha

Unveiled toward the end of summer this August, Kimpton Quinta da Marinha delivers a highly curated, artful atmosphere for travelers who don't want to give up on sunshine just yet. Leaning into site-specific Portuguese craftsmanship and contemporary artwork, the guestrooms and suites feature custom decorative ceilings, playful 1970s mid-century influences, pistachio walls, and globe lighting. Each residential floor follows a distinct thematic variation by artist Kruella d’Enfer, mapping out curated artwork themed around Earth, Nature, and Water to echo the views from private balconies. The spectacular property is anchored by the lobby's Mediterranean Garden of Light installation, which showcases seven monumental handcrafted textile chandeliers hanging overhead for an elevated coastal retreat.

Book your stay at Kimpton Quinta da Marinha.

4. Native by Numa Fitzrovia. London, UK

Where: Native by Numa Fitzrovia

Launching this month, Native by Numa Fitzrovia perfectly mirrors the season through its warm, heritage-inspired color palette. The bed areas are grounded in rich, earthy tones and deep autumnal hues that evoke an immediate sense of seasonal warmth and calm. This palette is beautifully textured with a thoughtful mix of materials, combining tactile fabrics, polished metals, and rich woods that contrast elegantly with the historic fabric of the former convent. Flooded with crisp golden light from original arched sash windows, these natural touches create a distinctly London feel, making for a cozy, considered autumnal getaway that pairs nonchalant relaxation with aesthetics.

Book your stay at Native by Numa Fitzrovia.

See what cultural sensations I have got on my radar as the defining inspirations for your moodboard in October, or revisit our curation of recently unveiled restaurants and hotels to keep your appetite for aesthetically pleasing eats and wanderlust going.

For more demanding reads to be enjoyed coffee in hand, head over to the landing page of our new The Meaning of Home series, or subscribe to our newsletter today to receive all of our best stories in one place.

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. And for people in Paris, make sure not to miss Harry Nuriev's multisensory contribution to Art Basel Paris.

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Have you ever visited a city that made you want to redecorate your entire home the moment you return? Marrakech has a habit of doing that to everyone. Whether it's picking up some pretty ceramics to refresh your tablescape or visiting hotels that'll leave you dreaming of a new bedroom, Marrakech is a design hub for anyone with a penchant for interiors. From breathtaking riad architecture to contemporary art and international design, it's one of the few non-Western cities where old meets new isn't just an expression: it's a way of life.

I was born and raised in Casablanca, and some of my favorite childhood memories involved the two-hour journey to Marrakech, a place I have always seen as close enough to home to feel familiar, yet far enough to feel like a change of scenery. Widely considered the buzziest destination in the country, and one of the world's alternative design capitals, Marrakech can be overwhelming at first, particularly for travelers experiencing it as outsiders. Its true magic, though, lies in knowing when and where to slow down, and which interiors are worth a stop in your itinerary.

Moroccan craftsmanship is alive, ever-evolving, and screaming to be experienced. That's the side of Marrakech that feels most special to me — its ability to continuously reinvent itself. Deeply rooted in the past but never stuck there, it is where Morocco's design is recast in a new light. That's what you can expect from this 48-hour insider guide: addresses that showcase the city at its best for first-time visitors or returning globetrotters, capturing how local makers' traditions, ancestral rituals, and an intimate understanding of home are finding new forms to enter the future.

What to Do in Marrakech — A 48-Hour Guide

Day 1: Check into Nobu Hotel Marrakech

Where: Nobu Hotel Marrakech; Nobu Riad

Begin your Marrakech journey somewhere that perfectly immortalizes the city's knack for marrying seemingly irreconcilable cultures and epochs into one. "The design of Nobu Hotel Marrakech is rooted in a dialogue between Moroccan craftsmanship and Nobu's contemporary Japanese sensibility," general manager Alvaro Sanchez says of the holiday stay, which is one of the world's leading design hotels. It sits in the Golden Triangle, a 5-minute drive to the Medina, and boasts 71 generously sized, beautiful bedrooms and suites for a One Thousand and One Nights experience, reloaded. I was particularly taken by the embossed leather details in the room and the spa-like, panoramic bathrooms with soaking tubs.

Those preferring a more quintessentially Moroccan residential experience might want to opt for sister property Nobu Riad, which, with just six guest bedrooms nestled around a stunning private courtyard complete with a sculptural fountain, makes for an even more exclusive sojourn. You don't actually need to leave the hotel for dinner, as the main Nobu restaurant, Nobu Bar & Lounge, and the Rooftop Garden Restaurant & Sushi Bar have extensive world-class menus in the building. Fancy a bright and colorful Moroccan lunch feast instead? Just keep reading.

Savor the Most Spectacular Feast at El Fenn

Where: El Fenn Hotel, Restaurant, and Rooftop Bar

When hunger hits, head to hotel, restaurant, and rooftop bar El Fenn, where Moroccan tradition takes on a far more maximalist twist. From the moment you enter, you are met by "hand-carved cedar ceilings, stained glass, plaster carving, tadelakt walls, and zellige tiles laid one by one by local artisans," shares artistic director Yann Dobry, who describes the address as "deliberately contemporary and ever-changing." Need some proof? Seek it in his favorite detail from the hotel: "the saturated walls in fuchsia and teal, which mix surprisingly well with the layered textiles and mid-century furniture, all competing for your attention".

The genius of El Fenn lies in the fact that nothing feels like a themed version of Marrakech. Its storied materials are allowed to be expressive, playful, and unexpectedly present-day. When securing a reservation, leave plenty of time to wander through the building and its grounds on your way to lunch, as it houses a serious art collection spanning names like William Kentridge and Hassan Hajjaj. Expect a moreish menu of delicious seasonal plates, each dish a vibrant reinterpretation of simple ingredients harvested from local farms. I found that the fragrant aromas of vegetable starters complement the delicate flavors of locally sourced Atlantic fish and meat from the Atlas Mountains beautifully. Believe me, once you experience it for the first time, a meal or a stay at El Fenn will become mandatory every time you return to the city.

Get Lost in the Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech Museum

Where: Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech Museum

After lunch, do yourself a favor and book a visit to the Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech Museum, an essential stop for anyone interested in design. Most of us are aware of Saint Laurent's personal and professional connection to Morocco, but the institution explores his work and creative legacy in an inspiringly architectural building that's a must-see in its own right. Designed by Studio KO, the site has a textured, woven-looking brickwork façade that feels fashion-esque, a fitting setting for platforming the work of Yves Saint Laurent. Inside, the permanent exhibition explores the designer's work, while the wider museum includes temporary gallery spaces, a research library, an auditorium, a café, and a bookshop, the latter of which I love getting lost in to browse for design-led keepsakes.

Find Comfort in Paper at Booklore

Where: Booklore

If you feel like you could stay forever at the museum, wait till you see the next spot on our itinerary. At bookstore and café Booklore, design inspiration comes in the form of deep upholstered seats and a sprawling, eye-catching collection of volumes for every taste. Spend some time browsing its carefully curated titles before settling down for a drink as a pick-me-up. In a city as visually stimulating as Marrakech, places that encourage you to slow down and look are always welcome. This is a recent find I stumbled upon on my last visit to the city in August, one I immediately knew I would find my way back to in the future. Think of it as a cultural space where you can discover rare and often unexpected literature while enjoying some equally rare quiet in the heart of Marrakech.

Treat Yourself to a Magical Dinner at La Mamounia

Where: Le Marocain at La Mamounia

Finish the day at five-star luxury palace hotel La Mamounia, an iconic landmark that tourists and locals alike are eager to visit when in Marrakech. Its 17 acres were 18th-century Alaouite Sultan Mohammed Ben Abdallah's wedding gift to his son, Prince Mamoun, and still carry much of the country's history, as does the stay's on-site restaurant, Le Marocain.

"Le Marocain takes inspiration from the traditional Moroccan riad, with a central patio, intimate salons and details in zellij, carved plaster, sculpted wood, and tadelakt," explains general manager Pierre Jochem. Redesigned by Jacques Garcia in 2009, the restaurant pairs Moroccan craft with the Art Deco influences woven into La Mamounia's identity. Upstairs at the sumptuous Le Club, designers Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku of Jouin Manku take that heritage in an even more contemporary direction. Here, essential wooden lines and amber light bring a constellation of perforated lanterns and a draped, tent-like ceiling to life. It is a perfect exemplification of how, in Marrakech, people are invited to honor what is there, and then have fun with it.

As for the menu of Le Marocain, it celebrates the depth and generosity of Moroccan cooking, with fragrant tagines, grilled meats, and imaginatively presented regional specialities. For me, the highlight was the chicken pastilla, with its delicate pastry and savory-sweet filling, alongside the selection of Moroccan salads. A live traditional band completes the experience, filling the space with music and creating a warm, inviting atmosphere as the evening unfolds. This is a dinner to remember: it encapsulates the generosity and ceremony of Morocco, both of which are synonymous with home for me.

Day 2: Pick Up New Collectibles, Material Traditions, and Techniques All Around Jamaa el-Fna

Where: Jemaa el-Fna

The next morning, hit legendary outdoor market Jamaa el-Fna and the surrounding souks for one of the best opportunities to see Moroccan craftsmanship up close. Look out for leather goods, ceramics, textiles, and the many objects that make these open-air workshops of creativity feel like a giant, mind-blowing interior showroom. But look beyond the shopping. The real appeal of markets like these lies in witnessing the materials and techniques that appear in Marrakech's most celebrated hotels and restaurants in their original context. Zellige, wood, woven fibers — you name it. These aren't simply decorative motifs; they are part of the city's centuries-old yet ever-resonant visual identity. You may find that "just browsing" doesn't quite apply to Marrakech.

Fill Up on Energy and Views With a Lunch at Les Deux Tours' La Pergola

Where: La Pergola at Les Deux Tours

For lunch, make your way to La Pergola at Les Deux Tours in the Palmeraie, one of the most underrated areas that a lot of visitors accidentally skip. Les Deux Tours was originally conceived in the 1990s by architect Charles Boccara not as a conventional hotel, but as an Arab-Andalusian 'village-garden' reuniting villas, gardens, patios, pools, arcades, and shaded passages under one concept. The architecture is deliberately immersive. You don't see everything at once; a wall conceals a garden, a passage opens onto a courtyard, and a pool appears unexpectedly.

To put it in the words of its designer, "Morocco here is a material, not a decoration." What emerges from this juxtaposition of organic textures, colors, and lines, each embedded into the architectural fabric of the site itself, rather than simply applied as decorative layers, is a theater of kinds.

"Contemporary and vintage European furniture enters the conversation, creating contrast rather than erasing the Moroccan character," explains marketing & experience director Wafa Laksiri. "A 1950s chair can sit against tadelakt; a contemporary light can hang beneath a traditional ceiling." At Les Deux Tours, the contemporary doesn't replace the traditional; it reveals it. The food follows the same connection to place. Fresh produce grown on the property's own farm is used to create beautifully simple, seasonal dishes, bringing a real sense of freshness to the table. Enjoyed poolside, with the gardens providing a verdant backdrop and the heat of the Marrakech afternoon softened by water and shade, lunch feels pleasantly unhurried.

Sink Into Peace With a Trip to Amanjena's Hammam

Where: Amanjena

After a morning spent at the souks, it's time for a hammam at luxury group Aman's local property, Amanjena. Because if there is one thing Marrakech understands, it is that a weekend itinerary should contain at least one activity where your only responsibility is to be looked after. The hammam is a staple of Moroccan culture, but at Amanjena the ritual is delivered within a luxurious, serene setting that feels entirely removed from the bustle of the medina. Set among palm and olive trees on the outskirts of Marrakech, Amanjena (translating to "peaceful paradise") has been part of the city's hospitality landscape since 2000, and has recently reopened with fresh updates to its accommodation, wellness, and dining following a refurbishment. The original architecture, which draws on the symmetry of Granada's landmark palace and fortress, the Alhambra, and the geometry of Marrakech's 12th-century Menara Gardens, created by designer Ed Tuttle, has been retained. Moorish details are paired with Aman's famously sophisticated design language in a destination that feels both monumental and remarkably calm.

Stock Up on Flavors With a Dinner at DarDar

Where: DarDar

End day two at DarDar, where you can settle in for dinner with views across the city. After hours spent weaving through souks, courtyards, and richly textured interiors, the rooftop offers a welcome change of perspective, trading enclosed spaces for open skies and the city’s unmistakable terracotta horizon. The design feels distinctly Marrakech, but with a more playful attitude, with mismatched color, patterned textiles, and relaxed rooftop furniture creating a setting that feels less formal than the grand hotels and more connected to the energy of the city brimming down below.

The menu follows that same spirit, bringing Moroccan flavors into a modern, generous format. Think beautifully spiced dishes, fresh salads, grilled specialties and plates made for sharing. The sort of food that encourages you to order one more thing, especially when the view is this good.

Day 3: Grab One More Drink for the Road at Bacha Coffee

Where: Bacha Coffee

Make Bacha Coffee your final stop before traveling back to the airport for what is arguably the most aesthetically pleasing coffee break of the whole weekend. Housed within the 1910 Dar El Bacha palace, Bacha Coffee fashions the grandeur of its historic setting with an intentionally bolder, up-to-date hospitality experience. It is maximalist, ornate, and unapologetically Marrakech, which, at this point, feels entirely appropriate. Order a coffee, admire the details, and resist the temptation to redesign your entire kitchen with Moroccan tiles (maybe just one wall) once back home.

Beauty alone isn't what makes Marrakech so compelling for the design-inclined traveler. It is the way the city allows tradition and modernity to coexist without one ruling out the other. At Les Deux Tours, this very philosophy is summed up by the idea that "tradition becomes a terrain of freedom". That perhaps gets to the heart of Marrakech better than anything else: the city doesn't ask you to choose between old and new. Instead, it invites you to experience them together as one, see what happens, and make the outcome yours alone.

Still, if a weekend away in the Moroccan metropolis is enough to convince you your bathroom needs an upgrade, with terracotta walls, a vintage stool, and considerably more color now all over your moodboard, don't blame it on us: you were warned.

Dive deep into our design ideas archive to make the most of your redecorating fever, bookmark more lifestyle stories for when you are next in need of curated travel itineraries, or subscribe to our newsletter to get all of the above and beyond delivered hassle-free to your inbox.

There is something intrinsic to autumn that calls for a mindset reset. It might be the experience of watching trees shed their leaves, the start of a new school and work year, or the days getting darker as we brace for the coldest months, but it is in moments like this one that the home and, particularly, our bedroom, become even more meaningful, prompting up to readapt to the changes around us. While the outside world gets more and more hostile, the domestic sphere transforms into the ultimate cocoon to pamper us amidst all the gloominess, starting with the objects, textiles, fragrance, and garments that populate the area around our bed.

While I was never the person to redecorate a room, let alone a full interior, to match the mood of the season by sticking to seasonal styling ideas and tips, I have always found the thought of preparing for the darkest weeks in the year through ad hoc fashion, design, and scent measures deeply comforting, as if curating the atmosphere of the space I would use to recharge at the end of the day could help me ease the toll those have on me — a serial meteopath — over the weeks.

I did it back then, first as a high school student and as a university fresher, as I do it today, as a young professional and lifestyle editor. What I look for in my autumn-proof upgrades is always the same: uplifting designs imbued with the joy, warmth, and softness needed to keep me going. And that's exactly what this edit of sleep finds, bringing together some of our favorite lifestyle brands across bedding, loungewear, and home fragrance, does best: giving you a reason to put your style and wellbeing before anything else. Scroll to discover how we like to get into bed.

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There are habits that the lowering of temperatures forces us to leave behind just for a little while, and habits that, with the return of autumn, finally get to thrive again. Reading, like paying attention to the way your home smells as you go back to spending more time inside, is one of the latter. And so it seems only fitting that two of the most recent scent-related news to have caught my eye unite the two: fragrance and storytelling.

For a while now, books and printed matter more widely have successfully infiltrated the lifestyle realm: Miuccia Prada's passion-project fashion label, Miu Miu, runs a yearly festival of feminist literature, the Miu Miu Literary Club, held in the maison's hometown of Milan and curated by London-based Italian author and researcher Olga Campofreda. Not far off the northern Italian design capital, in the oldest print factory of ever-sophisticated Paris at 146 Gal de Valois, retro-coded Papier Royal has made it into the pages of the world's most discerning titles as the ultimate destination for lovers of stationery and all things tactile.

Launched by multihyphenate creative director and artist Ramdane Touhami, the powerhouse behind the grand rebirth of Parisienne fragrance maison Officine Universelle Buly, in April 2026, the store has become an instant sensation for its gold-inscribed notebooks, stunningly cut envelopes, and nostalgic pens and pencils.

But Papier Royal isn't the only address putting the smell of paper front and center in its vision. So too is Aesop's Fragrant Fables Library, a temporary installation and public programme open at Aesop Regent Street until October 4, celebrating the 21st anniversary of the brand's fragrance debut, and French luxury homeware brand Astier de Villatte's new perfume and papeterie concept store at 171 Rue Saint-Honoré. Conceived as a conversation between the world of scent, design, and storytelling, both iterate what we have known all along: there is nothing sexier than being well-read.

Inside Autumn 2026's Paper and Fragrance Affair

Aesop's Fragrant Fables Library Makes "Each Fragrance a Fable. Each Fable a Question"

Unveiled September 22, Aesop's Fragrant Fables Library marks the release of the brand's new collection of the same name, a conversation between aromatic, herbaceous notes and humans' centuries-long tradition of literature, across a series of olfactive experiences hosted across the house's London stores.

If Aesop's locations alone, with their design-forward, site-specific interiors by regular collaborators like Deidra Hodgson of recent London Épicerie fame, have traditionally been enough of a reason for Livingetc staff to rank the brand among the best concept stores to visit in the British capital, the Fragrant Fables Library takes its vision one step forward.

Until next Sunday, Aesop Regent Street becomes a temple to the senses, where fragrance, atmosphere, and storytelling evoke awe and awaken memories.

At the heart of the display is a revisited edition of Aesop's 2014 Nasothèque exhibition. Like on that occasion, visitors are once again allowed to have their nose immortalized as an aromatic keepsake crafted in ceramic from a cast of their nasal features taken in-store.

As the full fragrance collection of Aesop is re-released for the anniversary, four other stores in London are each imbued with a specific blend from the line: Aesop Seven Dials carries the spirit of Entirely Aurner, described as "a fragrant fable about boldness" and accompanied by a constellation of large-scale nose sculptures; the Marylebone branch platforms Unforeseen Aer, Aesop's newest Eau de Parfum, capturing a tale of imperfection, with see-through panels embodying the movement and impalpable essence of pure air.

Aesop Piccadilly Arcade, meanwhile, will front Tacit Truths, a fragrant fable rooted in trust, with the spectacular Duke of York Square location dedicated to the ambery, woody Above Us, Steorra, "a celestial story of possibility and discovery", completed for the occasion with a dotted-in-telescopes set design. Only this Tuesday, September 29, here you'll find writer and creator of the Soho Reading Series Tom Willis leading a creative writing workshop delving into scent and memory.

Back on Regent Street, visitors are surrounded by a pendant installation composed of whimsical poems inspired by the narratives behind the Aesop fragrances.

Activated earlier last week by a reading exchange hosted by Isabella Burley of cult bookstore Climax Books (one of the invigorating addresses we spotlighted as an antidote to Blue Monday) for Aesop, the display shows that "to work with Aesop is to engage in an artistic dialogue," perfumer Céline Barel, the nose behind Tacit Truths and Entirely Aurner, says. "United by a 'rawness', elegantly tamed," she distils all Aesop fragrances as "an inimitable blend of nature and poetry."

Astier de Villatte Builds a Home to All Things Scent and Paper

Everyone who came across my story on the best stationery shops in London knows I am a sucker for these paper-and-ink parallel worlds. Launched by luxury homeware and ceramic maison Astier de Villatte earlier this summer, the new 171 Rue Saint-Honoré space looks more like a cabinet of curiosities than a traditional parfumerie.

Inside, the brand's bespoke notebooks and writing collections occupy just as much of the Art Deco-coded shelving as its signature white-glazed ceramics and fragrance range, including perfumes and candles for a multilayered experience.

Only on September 10, Astier de Villatte welcomed a new entry to its Destination perfume collection, Tanger. Like the rest of the blends gathered in this line, which strives to capture the atmosphere and character of the most disparate geographical locations, Tanger too is an invitation "to travel through scent", heavy with the sweetness of botanical gardens in bloom, the freshness of bergamot, maté, and musk, and the spice of citrus fruits.

A scent and papeterie haven, the latest Astier de Villatte location reminds us, once again, of how more and more lifestyle shops are embracing a home-like look, as we have seen with many of the coolest new design destinations in London.

Remove the objects meticulously displayed for sale in it, and the 171 Rue Saint-Honoré boutique suddenly looks like the library of a palatial residence, with checkered tiled floors, cream-painted wooden cabinets, and shimmering chandeliers taking center stage in it.

As autumn stages its comeback, so does our urge to enjoy the spaces we inhabit to the fullest, and fragrance and literature both acquire renewed relevance. Could this unexpected trait d'union embody a surfacing trend in retail design — replacing futuristic installations and 'special effects' with the sensory experiences we know best?

I don't know about you, but were it the case, they'll have a new loyal customer willing to spend hours getting lost in smells, memories, and the most disparate stories.

Get on the Fragrance-Paper Trend

In need of more fragrance tips? See how smell can revolutionize your soirees by taking notes on expert do's and don'ts for scentscaping at dinner parties.

For more October highlights, revisit our guide to the very best of autumn in London, or head to SoHo's Bar Leone (mentally or physically) for cocktail hour done right.

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There is a new icon in The City That Never Sleeps, and it comes dressed in the colors and textures of this season, rather fittingly. It's Bar Leone, a new two-storey cocktail lounge nestled at 527 Broome Street in SoHo, which sees restaurateur Andres Diaz and Manhattan-based architecture and interior design firm BOND cook up a winning partnership just in time for autumn.

Anyone traveling frequently to NYC knows every visit comes with an assured dose of interior design inspiration, whether sojourning at one of the best hotels New York has to offer or maximizing your chances for creative discoveries by scheduling your trip to coincide with appointments like NYC x Design. Still, if there is one thing that binge-watching all six seasons of Sex and the City in the span of two months taught me about the Big Apple, it is that nothing hits harder than NYC's cocktail bars.

The work of BOND's architects and partners, Noam Dvir and Daniel Rauchwerger, Bar Leone doesn't simply live up to the stereotype, but stands for a new kind of contemporary elegance. We said it during London Design Festival, and we say it again: today, being elegant is more synonymous with attitude than with restraint. And the imaginative pairing of materials, finishes, and moody lighting that brings Bar Leone to life shows just how much you can gain from breaking the rules and choosing to be irreverent.

Inside Bar Leone's Autumn-Coded, Two-Sided Universe

From Golden Hour Lounging

Two years since the start of their collaboration, Diaz and the designers at BOND have finally unveiled 2,400 square feet dedicated to nightlife and entertaining, so really, it's the interiors of Bar Leone that take the cake. Though we predict the SoHo address to be a year-round hit, its September debut makes it impossible not to feel like it's the place to take notes for a seasonal home bar rebrand.

To Italo Disco Dancing

In a recent story on autumnal interior styling ideas, contributing writer Lucy Lindfield wrote on the importance of making evenings the focus, bringing nature inside in unexpected ways, and turning rooms into destinations through deeper, more abundant materials and colors — and, perhaps most importantly, cultivating a sense of ritual through the objects inhabiting the spaces around us.

Bar Leone ticks all the boxes, and does so with confidence. Stick to the elements below to (try to) take its ambiance home.

The 3 Non-Negotiables for an Atmospheric Home Fix

The Mood — Unrushed Nonchalance

The first lesson to make evenings central in your routine as warm weather gives way to the colder months of the year is granting yourself the freedom to feel totally unrushed. Across curvilinear banquettes, upholstered chairs, and statement sofas, the seating at Bar Leone invites you to do just that — pick your drink from a range of creative martinis, caviar pairings, and refreshing Italian-inspired cocktails, choose a seat, and simply tune into conversation and the beats played on the ground level.

The Color — Amber Grace → Red Sunset

Mimicking autumn's color palette is one of the easiest ways to bring the outdoors in as the season approaches. Washed in a golden glow across warm sapele woods and suffused lighting, Bar Leone, though, doesn't limit itself to that. Instead, the choice of materials and finishes picked for its upstairs — from the cocooning corduroy velvet of its seats to the veined red travertine of the bar counter, and the countless matte details that, from the table legs to the sound system and fixtures, counterbalance the sleekness of the chrome taps — winks ever more subtly at the crunchy texture of blushing leaves crushed under our feet and the undulating bark of trees than in in-your-face seasonal decor. Ask me, and I'll confirm: the 1980s-infused look of Bar Leone makes for the ultimate modern living room fix 12 months a year.

The Twist: A Space Age-y Trick

If there's a straightforward way to make evenings a bigger part of your routine, it's to let yourself get lost in music. I might be biased, coming from Italy, but few things are as contagious as the right kind of Italo disco. Bar Leone dedicates its entire lower floor to it, calling for a mood shift. Here, it is red itself that takes center stage, across velvet wallpaper, undulating vinyl banquettes, and a red-lacquer-and-chrome bar station. The vibe is as sensual as it is playful, with multi-doughnut-shaped sconces playing witnesses to the space.

Throughout the venue, which gathers bespoke lighting design by Map Studio and custom lamps produced in collaboration with Gantri alongside stools and tables by Milan-based Spinzi Studio, but especially in its underground den, the aesthetic reminds us of our recently spotted Space Oddity trend: shapes that nod to the architecture of outer space, bold colors, and cinematic lights. Bar Leone succeeds, in a nutshell, in taking us elsewhere, and what better way to fight the autumn blues than convincing ourselves there is still room and time for sheer enjoyment?

Shop Bar Leone-Inspired Furnishings

And for more autumn decor inspiration, discover Arthouse Glasgow, Scotland's latest design boutique hotel.

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What better way to see the world than through the eyes of our favorite tastemakers? In Hidden Trails, we look at the places that feel most like home to our community of design insiders — wherever those might be — to help you uncover what their cities have in store for you.

Canadian maker and designer Mary Ratcliffe has carved a career out of shaping wood, metal, and stone into furniture and accessories that feel less designed than discovered, pieces that appear to have grown out of the landscape they're destined for, not simply imposed on it. It is fitting, then, that her hometown works the same way on her.

"Toronto is a city of neighborhoods, each with its own unique fingerprint and cadence, operating within a relatively small footprint," says Ratcliffe. Together, this vibrant patchwork of districts allows people to go from window shopping and a trip to the latest exhibitions to a wave off Lake Ontario, all without ever losing its magic.

Like countless creatives before her, she spent her 20s desperately "trying to get away from here," Ratcliffe explains. Home, when you are so young, can feel limiting for those who, like her, had a voracious appetite to see the world. It wasn't until recently, in the second half of her 30s, that the designer was able to experience and appreciate Toronto for what it has given her.

Grown at pace with the city itself, her production has since landed in New York and Los Angeles, though it is the dynamism of her place of origin that enabled Ratcliffe to come this far, keeping her curious and on her toes at all times. "There is always something to explore here," she says. Follow along to pin down her favorite things to do and see in Toronto, courtesy of an ever-evolving art space, a library fit for a 1980s thriller, and the lakefront when you can catch a wave without ever leaving town.

What to Do in Toronto, Canada

Discover New Creative Voices at the plumb

theplumb.ca. 1655 Dufferin St Basement, Toronto

The plumb is a project space run by a collective of creatives based in Toronto. The gallery looks to provide a platform for both emerging and established artists, serving as an arena where dialogue between audiences and talents from all walks of life thrives. The plumb regularly works with guest programmers to deliver fresh perspectives and create an accessible space in a city where space is at a premium. You're bound to see interesting work and meet intriguing patrons here.

Step Inside One of the World's Most Striking Libraries, The Toronto Reference Library

tpl.ca. 789 Yonge St, Toronto

The Toronto Reference Library is basically my studio away from the studio. Seemingly nondescript from the outside, the interior features a soaring, five-story atrium drenched with light and layers of curvaceous indoor balconies. Designed by notable Japanese-Canadian architect Raymond Moriyama, the library itself is home to Canada's largest public reference collection. While most of the library's materials are non-circulating, there is no shortage of places to curl up and dive into almost any topic you might discover and find yourself curious about.

Test Drive Two Sister Restaurants Elevating Food to Performance

lakeinezto.com. 1471 Gerrard St E, Toronto; instagram.com/belleisle__. 455 Gerrard St E, Toronto

Picking just one restaurant highlight is incredibly difficult because there is so much amazing food here. Toronto is the most multicultural city in North America, and there are endless lists of exceptional eateries to discover. Lake Inez and its sister restaurant, Belle Isle, are both exceptional. Located in Little India, they’re a bit off the beaten path of Dundas West and the Ossington Strip and bring a fresh twist to the city’s culinary scene. The Mystery Patio Tasting Menu at Lake Inez is the superior way to enjoy the restaurant. Served entirely by the owner, Zach, each course is presented along with hilarious and entertaining stories from his life.

Become One of Toronto's 'It' Girls With Absolutely Fabrics' New and Vintage Garments

absolutelyfabrics.com. 613 Queen St W, Toronto

Absolutely Fabrics is the most interesting boutique in the city right now. Carrying a highly curated selection of emerging and established designers as well as an excellent vintage catalogue, the boutique offers pieces that are unique, striking, and memorable while still being endlessly wearable. The store has a real point of view, exceptional interiors, and frames itself as a platform for emerging talent; what more could you ask for?

Just Get Out (of Town) — Or, Well, Almost — With a Trip to the Toronto Islands

The Toronto Islands, St Lawrence-East Bayfront-The Islands

The Toronto Islands are one of the most unique outdoor destinations the city has to offer. A short 15-minute boat ride from downtown takes you to a beautiful collection of 15 interconnected islands that separate the city harbor from greater Lake Ontario. The islands are home to Toronto Residents (who hold 99-year leases on home plots), the most perfect little amusement park, and serene parks and beaches. You feel like you've gone out of town for the weekend, but you're only about 20 minutes away from the nearest subway station.

One More (Lesser-Known) Thing to Note

The Beaches; The Scarborough Bluffs

People surf here. I started lake surfing at Ashbridges Bay in the city's Beaches neighborhood. The Scarborough Bluffs, a park with gorgeous sand and clay cliffs, also has a beach and a cove where, with lots of wind in the right direction, you can find a surfable wave. Obviously, it's not every day that you can surf in Lake Ontario, but when the waves show up, there is a surprisingly lively community of lake surfers here. Surfing has given me so much peace of mind, connection with nature, and most recently, it sparked the genesis of our CARVER collection. It might not be an everyday occurrence, but it's nice to be able to catch a wave close to home from time to time.

Where to Stay

Ace Hotel Toronto

IN A SENTENCE: Standing 14 stories tall in the heart of Toronto's Garment District, Ace Hotel Toronto distills the raw industrial history of its now hip neighborhood into a warm, community-driven urban retreat that seamlessly blends into the city's epicentre of creativity.

DESIGN: The fruit of an engaging, multi-year collaboration between Shim-Sutcliffe Architects and the hotel group's in-house interior team, Atelier Ace, the hotel mirrors the robustness of nearby brick-and-beam factories, reinterpreting it for the contemporary traveller. Past a striking, red-clay brick facade and monumental, cast-in-place concrete arches that frame the triple-height lobby, a tactile industrial interior reveals itself through a distinctly Canadian palette of warm red oak ceilings and Douglas fir flooring.

Local artistry is woven into the very architecture of the stay, featuring custom-designed lighting, a Howard Sutcliffe plywood installation and citylife-inspired guest rooms equipped with deep-set window benches that overlook leafy St. Andrew’s Park — the best of Toronto, at your doorstep.

ON THE MENU: A moody, semi-subterranean eatery led by award-winning local chef Patrick Kriss, Alder underpins the culinary offerings of Ace Toronto Hotel, putting fresh flair into the craft of wood-fired grilling. Against softly glowing copper sconces and lanterns, warm woods and terracotta tiles, the menu delivers intensely flavored, smoke-kissed plates, bridging rustic technique with refined, contemporary styling.

DON'T MISS: Aside from the lively community events hosted right in the suspended lobby lounge, we are crushing on Evangeline, the stay's 14th-floor rooftop bar. Framed by two massive brick fireplaces and anchored by concrete sculptures from David Umemoto, the indoor-outdoor lounge serves up signature cocktails against a sweeping, uninterrupted backdrop of the Toronto skyline.

The Drake Hotel

IN A SENTENCE: Strategically located in the eclectic hub of West Queen West, The Drake Hotel bridges the late 19th-century roots of its original architectural skeleton with a bold, contemporary expansion, solidifying its legacy as Toronto's premier hotbed for independent art, fashion, and adventure.

DESIGN: Similarly to Ace Hotel Toronto, The Drake Hotel too was brought to life by a synergetic partnership between beloved neighborhood locals: Diamond Schmitt Architects set out to restore and expand the building's architecture, while the interiors of the stay saw the address's own creative team and studio DesignAgency join forces with designer John Tong. The Modern Wing resulting from the collaboration pairs the classic structure with a facade of handmade white brick from Denmark and a polished steel, boxcar-inspired suite that cantilevers dramatically over the street.

Inside, it's pure design extravaganza, with plush velvets, mid-century modern furnishings, a painted brick fireplace and custom 3D wallpapers lending the backdrop to museum-level, contemporary art installations.

ON THE MENU: At the heart of the property is The Drake Hotel's Lounge and Restaurant, which serves up an energetic, all-day culinary program grounded in curated comfort food. The space balances pop-art-meets-diner aesthetics with rich wood and leather tones and an irreverent spirit. While, in the kitchen, elevated, locally-sourced bistro classics and inventive sharing plates accompany guests from casual weekday brunches to late-night snacky evenings: precious fuel to reverse into the city's buzzy artistic scene.

DON’T MISS: You absolutely cannot skip the Sky Yard, The Drake Hotel's legendary, chameleon-like rooftop patio, recently renovated and ready to entertain you throughout your sojourn. Outfitted with a fully retractable roof and surrounded by ever-rotating contemporary murals curated by visual art curator Ashley Mulvihill, it remains the ultimate year-round destination to grab a drink, mingle with locals and soak up the creative pulse and breathtaking views of Toronto.

Head to our travel pages for all the latest hotel openings and travel trends reports, and subscribe to our newsletter for everything else.

It doesn't take more than a handful of weeks into autumn to forget about the sudden buzz every Londoner gets as soon as spring stages its comeback. But to those who claim there is no better place to be when the sun hits than here, I always say the same: few cities look and feel as good dressed in orange leaves as the British capital, and the plethora of openings and events punctuating the autumn calendar may well have something to do with it.

With leading arts fairs Frieze London and Frieze Masters returning alongside another edition of global design showcase PAD London in just a few weeks, it's time for some serious planning. From skyline-blessed jazz concerts and a neighborhood-wide festival capturing the well-traveled spirit of Mayfair's Mount Street to the most discreet new bar we can't wait to get ourselves a table at, here's your fluff-free guide to what to do in London this October.

The Design Moment

Art, Decor, and Furniture Find New Forms at PAD London 2026

Berkeley Square, Mayfair. October 13-18

The 18th edition of PAD London, one of the world's leading art, design, and jewelry fairs, returns to Berkeley Square, Mayfair, October 13-18. Gathering 67 exhibitors from 18 countries, including 12 newcomers, the fair brings together museum-quality historical works, bold contemporary furniture, one-off craft and precious accessories in a dialogue between past, present, and future. A fixture of London's October calendar, PAD is also a chance to discover influential galleries including Carpenters Workshop Gallery, one of the foremost protagonists of London Design Festival, and Friedman Benda, among others. As in recent years, though, it's exhibitions of younger galleries that have caught my eye: I'm particularly looking forward to Initio Arts & Design's historic French and Italian pieces, Pik'd's technicolored ceramics, and Swedish artist-designer Alfhild Sarah Külper's fuzzy textiles at Rademakers Gallery.

Book your tickets to PAD London 2026.

The Art Pick

Creativity Abounds at Frieze London 2026 — And Mount Street Neighbourhood Arts Festival

The Regent's Park, October 15-18 (Frieze London and Frieze Masters). Various locations across Mount Street Neighbourhood, October 12-17 (Mount Street Neighbourhood Arts Festival)

October in London wouldn't be half as frenetic without global art platform Frieze putting up a three-part show across Frieze London, Frieze Masters (both October 14-18), and Frieze Sculpture (through November 1). Now in its 24th edition, the appointment, hosted on the grounds of Regent's Park, will see ambitious solo presentations, from Dalton Paula at Lisson and Albert Oehlen at Gagosian to Marina Perez Simão at Pace, alongside a debuting section examining how artists respond to mass culture, consumer goods, and the information flows of mass media, The Code Universe, and regulars like Focus and Artist-to-Artist. At Frieze Masters, the emphasis shifts towards rediscovery with Anthony van Dyck's Portrait of a Nobleman, a 26th-Dynasty bronze of Ptah, and Ampe Kempkes's Queering Modernism, unveiling a manifold archive of queer visual histories.

Elsewhere in the city, and not far from Regent's Park, the third iteration of Mount Street Neighbourhood Arts Festival (October 12-17) injects more inspiration into London with its signature mixture of art, design, food, and conversation. Must-sees include photographer Miles Aldridge's 15 Minutes of Fame, a Hauser & Wirth Publishers pop-up, and a series of intimate talks and breakfasts dotted around the seriously charming district.

Book your tickets to Frieze London and Frieze Masters. Find out more about Mount Street Neighbourhood Arts Festival

The Culture Spot

Ronnie Scott's Takes Over Seabird, the Rooftop Bar of The Hoxton, Southwark

Seabird at The Hoxton, Southwark, eight Sundays from October 18 to December 6

This October, following a sold-out first edition, Seabird, the rooftop restaurant perched on the 14th floor of The Hoxton, Southwark, welcomes back its much-loved Ronnie Scott's series in partnership with GREY GOOSE® Vodka. Across eight Sundays from October 18 to December 6, London's legendary jazz and blues institution will bring its unmistakable sound to the rooftop, where sweeping city views, Iberian seafood, and live music make for a rather dreamy way to ease into the colder season. The lineup is especially tempting, spanning award-winning Scottish vocalist Georgia Cécile and the groove-led Jackson Mathod to Cherise, Natalie Duncan, and Myele Manzanza, while a limited-edition cocktail menu puts GREY GOOSE at the center of the experience with curated drinks like winter Espresso and oyster-paired Bergamot Martinis. Each performance comes with a four-course seafood-focused menu and a Classic GREY GOOSE Tiny Tini, making the program a one-Sunday plan that feels particularly hard to resist.

Keen to know what Ronnie Scott's feels like? Revisit our recent feature on the recently refurbished Upstairs at Ronnie's, or book your tickets for the Ronnie Scott's Seabird takeover.

The Foodie Find

 Labombe by Trivet Goes Even Artsier

Labombe by Trivet at COMO Metropolitan. From October 1

One of the best restaurants in London for gastronomy and interiors connoisseurs, Labombe by Trivet celebrates its first birthday on 1 October with the launch of a new British contemporary art programme at COMO Metropolitan. Created with A Space for Art and Incubator Gallery, the restaurant's first art rotation will overhaul its existing collection with a curated selection of boundary-pushing emerging artists. Confirmed artists include Katherine Qiyu Su, Eva Dixon, and Emma Windsor-Liscombe, with further names to be announced, making the address one to know for people keen to pair standout food and wine with a full immersion in the freshest British talent.

Book your table at Labombe by Trivet.

Where to Drink

Venus Bar Brings France's Joie de Vivre to Chelsea

Venus Bar at Brasserie Angelica. From October 9

Opening on 9 October beneath Brasserie Olivia on the corner of Sloane Square, Venus Bar brings a distinctly 1970s Paris-inspired atmosphere to Chelsea. Designed as a speakeasy-style retreat, the new space features warm oak paneling, a sleek chrome bar, and shelves filled with vinyl and antique objects sourced from French markets. Expect details including glass absinthe fountains, chess sets, antique silver candlesticks, and Chartreuse-green velvet chairs, creating an intimate, richly layered setting beneath the restaurant. An instant contender for our edit of best London bars, the launch adds a new late-night destination to Brasserie Olivia, infusing French joie de vivre and vintage Parisian character into Sloane Square.

Book your table at Venus Bar.

Want to know what to do in London in October 2026 and beyond? Stay in the loop by subscribing to the Livingetc newsletter to get our top stories straight to your inbox. And if you want to get away from it all, check out our five curated itineraries for an artful day trip from London.

Gardens might technically be 'outside' of the house, but they're undoubtedly a vital extension of it. And, as the UK only just begins to recover from its hottest summer in history — a season marked by soaring temperatures, drought, and wildfires across western and southern Europe — our bond with the outdoors is fundamentally shifting. Green spaces are rapidly emerging as the protagonists of a global revolution we can and should no longer ignore.

With the ability to heal, repair, and nourish, gardens can provide solutions for many of our maladies — from health epidemics and social divides to the climate crisis. Although often treated as an apolitical escape, gardening is becoming a powerful tool for environmental activism, inclusivity, and community organization in the modern world.

For some, that realization of the importance of the garden came during COVID-19, when are world became more limited to our personal spaces and a shortage of food in grocery aisles made growing your own seem like a sensible solution. Watching plant life grow and change also felt like an antidote to lockdown-enforced monotony. In their book The Garden Against Time, Olivia Laing writes: "I was exhausted by the perpetual, agonised now of the news... I wanted to move into a different understanding of time: the kind of time that moves in spirals or cycles, pulsing between rot and fertility, light and darkness."

It is a sentiment that, I am sure, resonates with most of us even today. Aerial images of the unprecedented dryness that turned entire slices of the world hay-gold over the past few months are still vividly impressed in our minds, alongside those of the destructive wall of water and mud that, triggered by the collapse of a melting glacier, tragically took the lives of at least 1,287 people at a remote Nepal-China border crossing on August 26. If Laing was right, and gardening could help people find new balance in the bleakest times while also encouraging us to preserve what lies outside, then we should know where to seek fresh comfort this autumn. For too many of us, though, a garden remains an out-of-reach luxury, not a given right.

Gardener and activist Colin Stewart knows that all too well. He spent 2020 caretaking the grounds of Cambridge Botanical Gardens, where a plethora of colorful blossoms greeted him daily from the windows of his cottage.

"I was under strict instructions to maintain plants that preserved human and animal life, which essentially equated with plants kept in the glasshouse, and the activity was limited to watering," he says of his duties in that role. This meant that parts of the garden which were previously mowed regularly filled up with wildflowers like cowslips and red campions — "something incredibly beautiful to wake up to every morning."

Colin looks back fondly on those months because now that he is based in London, despite spending his days tending private gardens for a living, he has no access to a garden himself.

In temporary rental accommodations, gardens can help tenants feel at home; caring for plants or creating a green space can ground you, injecting a familiar atmosphere into a place that would otherwise be rather anonymous. Yet it's precisely in cities like London — where a feeling of groundedness is most needed — that many young people still lack the opportunity to spend time in gardens, whether private or shared with others.

According to GOV.UK's England Biodiversity Indicators (People and Nature Survey), in 2020/21, 92% of respondents based in the country reported owning, sharing, or having access to private or communal outdoor space — including balconies, patios, allotments, and terraces, as well as actual gardens — versus London's 79%. This remained steady through to 2024.

Although the vast majority of people currently benefit from some personal or shared outdoor space, access is unevenly distributed: a 2014-2019 Natural England study found that Black people in England were nearly four times less likely as White people to have access to outdoor space at home (37% vs. 10%), and that people in semi-skilled or unskilled manual jobs, casual work, or unemployment were almost three times as likely to be without a garden as those in managerial or professional occupations (20% vs. 7%).

There's also growing evidence linking this lack of access to a rise in chronic non-communicable diseases such as obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancers in urbanized populations. These illnesses disproportionately impact lower socioeconomic and non-White members of society.

The consequences were starkly evident during the pandemic, which registered worse clinical outcomes for infections in these demographics. Access to a garden or green space, then, isn't simply a perk or a pleasant addition to a home: it's a public health issue. Over the years, though, it has increasingly become a privilege.

Gardens and outdoor space didn't stop being a widely enjoyed feature of everyday life overnight. Parliamentary Enclosure Acts, which intensified from the 18th century (with roots in earlier informal medieval and Tudor enclosure), privatized a fifth of the formerly open land of fields and commons in England, stripping those who needed it most of the ability to grow their own food. The Allotments Act 1908 tried to reverse this, creating a legal obligation to provide residents with land to grow their own produce.

Although the law remains in place today, the appetite for green space has meant that waiting lists can span a generation. Luckily, in recent years, smaller organizations, charities, and individuals have stepped in to provide communities with a place to cultivate, learn, and connect with nature and each other.

These include Earth Tenders, a Black-led gardening organization based in Dulwich Park, South East London. Its goal is "strengthening local food systems and community health for the long-term," founder Ali Yellop tells me. "At the core of our work is a deep celebration of land practices, traditional knowledge systems, and relationships with the earth."

Co-led by community grassroots organizer Idman Abdurahman, Earth Tenders views "reconnecting with the Land as an act of resistance, healing, and self-determination," Yellop adds. It is a place where soil, culture, and storytelling naturally entwine.

Their BPOC Growers Club invites growers, culinary artists, chefs, and craftspeople from the Global Majority to curate a diverse and rich educational program. Past activations include a journey through Potawatomi botanist, author, and former director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) Robin Wall Kimmerer's book Braiding Sweetgrass, putting ancestral plant knowledge of the Three Sisters — corn, beans, and squash — into practice through planting, culinary artist Safiya Robinson (aka sisterwoman)'s sessions on spice blending, recipe exchanging, and collective harvest cooking, and community food grower Eyram Dzotsi (Gardens of Afruika)'s deep dive into ancestral dishes and fermentation practices.

While most of their programming unfolds in their Dulwich garden location, the organization has also brought similarly minded initiatives to the Barbican and Somerset House, spaces traditionally less accessible to BPOC. The reach and relevance of Earth Tenders' cultural calendar are thus far from confined to the borders of its SE London grounds: instead, the project demonstrates that a garden can carry forward indigenous knowledge and keep one's home alive even in a distant land. "I believe that by connecting with the earth, we can deepen our connection to our true selves and our communities," Abdurahman says. "This is the essence of Earth Tenders: finding our way back to what truly matters."

A desire to tackle inequality in access to home gardens also drives the Design Museum's Growing Together, a volunteer-led research, learning, and social collective rooted in sustainable design and horticulture. Launched in 2021 as part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Biodiversity Action Plan 2022–2027, the initiative runs annually under the guidance of programming curator Naomi Zaragoza and urban gardener Mandy Lee. Each year, stewards from the project's founding cohort of volunteers are joined by a new intake, recruited by the museum among artists, anthropologists, culinary professionals, curators, designers, herbalists, gardeners, and researchers, to sustain 12 months of gardening, intergenerational skill exchange, and public programming.

Among the highlights are seasonal garden salons, held in spring, summer, and autumn, which bring together talks and workshops exploring nature through a design-led lens by alumni guest speakers and facilitators like natural dyer and textile artist Studio Kuhu, The Gardening Drawing Club founder Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck, gardening technologist and activist Kalpana Arias, multidisciplinary artist Renata Fernandez, and Hackney Herbal.

In 2025, the garden's first design-led exhibition, Dwellings, Rehomed, featured a series of 17 experimental designer birdhouses examining our coexistence with other species in the face of non-stop urban development and human activity. That same year, The Nest, a tranquil, sensory installation crafted by the design MA students of Kingston University with natural and recycled materials in a peaceful spot on the museum's grounds, offered a safe space for people with dementia and their carers to immerse themselves in nature. Both are exemplary of how Growing Together has evolved into a pioneering think tank that's redefining what gardens look and feel like today while stressing the difference they can make in shaping our everyday.

Ying Ruo, one of this year's Growing Together volunteers, suddenly realized what it feels like not to have a garden when she arrived in London to attend a master's in anthropology at UCL last September. Throughout her childhood in China, she had always been able to spend time in the shared garden of her building. To make up for the lack of one in her student accommodation, she began to plant herbs in pots in her dorm, adding them to her food because it "reminded me of home," Ying tells me. She learned about the group through a talk at university and applied to join the cohort.

Ying's initial idea was to secure access to a garden, but it was only through gardening with people from different backgrounds that she realized how much the activity can help reduce the social isolation that comes with moving to a new country. Growing Together brilliantly captures the sense of belonging that tending plants with others can nurture in those who share that experience.

I am another one of the initiative's 2026 volunteers. The garden has been a space for me to share ideas across cultures and to learn about plant life cycles, soil, and climate change while growing spices in one of the raised beds. It has also allowed me to advance my ongoing research and writing project, Stories of Spice. My time with the team has allowed me to reimagine what growing spices means and has made me more aware of the importance of informal learning through social exchange.

If there's a London-based reality that understands the garden as a social project, it's OmVed Gardens. Based in Highgate, North London, they describe themselves as a "small garden with big ideas", interplaying between science, gardening, art, and ecology.

Founder Karen Leason is passionate about the revolution of the seasons and the magic of photosynthesis as the basis of life on Earth. Inspired by the summers of her childhood, spent in the woods under a sea of stars, she wanted to create a greenscape for people to convene and "spend time with each other and the more-than-human," Leason shares.

Earlier this year, I spent two days with their team learning more about the gardens and the projects hosted within them. On my first visit, head gardener John Gaffney led a tour of the space, talking through ways his team is tackling the effects of global warming and climate instability.

Some of these strategies include planting species more resilient to unpredictable weather fluctuations, like wetter winters and ever-warmer summers, encouraging pollinators such as bees and butterflies, and creating irrigation pathways during drought through indoor growing in a greenhouse-like space.

One way OmVed Gardens is championing a better plant future is through its brilliant Seed Saving Network. Started in 2020 as a way for growers across London and the UK to share seeds, growing tips, and preserve heritage crops, the network has expanded into a library and archive for future generations. On my second day at OmVed Gardens, I returned for a volunteer day with this network, harvesting lavender, roses, and seeds. The garden also has an enviable kitchen garden that grows produce for their culinary team, which experiments with fermentation and preservation and hosts regular plant-focused themed supper clubs.

Currently, it is the only garden in the country to have a 'groundfridge', a fridge of the future built on design principles from before the advent of electricity. Like a cellar, it nestles into the ground, using natural materials to stay cool in summer, plants around it to insulate in winter, and a solar ventilator to help retain a constant temperature of eight to 15 degrees at all times. The kitchen team uses the fridge to store their ferments for supper clubs.

Proving that it is truly a small garden with ideas, OmVed Gardens is also a place to imagine new ways to create art through its residency programme, with a rotation of artists invited to participate in nature-led projects and installations. The most recent installations featured artist Vivienne Schadinsky's Seeds of Time, which explores beans as seeds of hope for biodiversity, resilience, and planetary health, and Arran Gregory's Rammed Earth Bio-Sculpture, created using clay to live in the garden grounds and change with the seasons.

And yes, a garden may be a construct that serves health, but the garden as a place for inspiration to create art is not a novel concept, nor less important. Throughout time, gardens have played a role in artists' lives as a way of creative expression. In some ways, a garden that an artist leaves behind becomes a way of communicating with future audiences.

A breathing work of art set against the coruscating sea in St. Ives, Cornwall, late sculptor Barbara Hepworth's home, studio, and garden make her legacy immediately tangible to those visiting. When I last did so on a clear blue winter day in December, stepping into it felt like entering an oasis of serenity. More than the interiors, I was captivated by the sculpture-dotted garden and her greenhouse workspace, which feel like an extension of the outdoors, still kept as it was in her time.

The same is true of the garden at Charleston House, the Sussex home of artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, which I traveled to in early spring this year. There, my eyes naturally turned to its flushed-with-tulip estate, which Bell's studio and bedroom overlooked, a reminder of just how much joy a garden can bring inside.

Most recently, I managed to secure a highly sought-after but rarely secured visit to 575 Wandsworth Road, the London residence of British Kenyan's poet and carver Khadambi Asalache, who created a garden where he planted trees like the mimosa that reminded him of his East African home and a workspace to carve the intricate fretwork covering the inside of his South London home.

On a balmy summer day, the roses, planted by Asalache, were in full bloom, facing London's heatwave with grace. Come autumn, I plan to visit filmmaker and gay rights activist Derek Jarman's Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, Kent, where the landscape garden is set wild, without any fence, directly on the shingle headlands.

All these artists are long gone, still, their genius lives in the portal of time they carved out of the trees, flowers, and fruits they planted during their lives, which constantly reveals glimpses of the past.

Creating a garden that responds to shifting environmental conditions and the anxiety resulting from them can be an intentional way to restore agency and contribute, albeit in small ways, to the fight against climate change. As the saying goes, you have to start somewhere — and where better than by restoring the ecology of your immediate surroundings by fostering a deeper interaction with the plants and people who inhabit them?

Louise, a freelance creative working with horticultural design studio Palais London, took up the challenge of developing her dream garden with the planet and beauty in mind. When she first moved into her flat in the British capital, her front yard was paved with concrete slabs. Earlier this year, with a little help from a landscape designer friend, Louise set about bringing it to life.

The garden theme began before the plants went into the soil, with a green painted patio door and window panels. She split it into sections, including herbs and edible plants like strawberries and flowers, and is considering throwing some trees into the mix. All that grows from it will be her legacy to this patch of land under her stewardship.

The seeds Louise has planted have been passed down from friends and family, like the poppies, which she inherited from her father's garden in Belgium. Perhaps that's why, although still in its infancy, the garden feels as if it has already lived several lives. As the sun makes room for dusk, there is a peacefulness to it that only comes in a place crafted with conscience.

Throughout the summer, my feed teemed with updates from friends sharing what they had been growing in their gardens or on their balconies. Sungold tomatoes, courgette flowers, strawberries. The season might be coming to an end, but people keen to make the most of spring-flowering bulbs (think daffodils and tulips along with garlic, onions, and hardy perennials) know that a fresh start is just around the corner.

Now more than ever, as public concern grows over AI data centers taking over precious green space and drying up already compromised water reservoirs, choosing to take to gardens — whether private, shared, or communal — instead of retreating to the digital world feels like the most logical and life-affirming pathway to safeguarding our future. In the words of essayist Rebecca Solnit, "a garden is what you want (and can manage and afford), and what you want is who you are, and who you are is always a political and cultural question." Turning a blind eye to shrinking green spaces, then, is a decision that could compromise more than we can imagine.

I began gardening this year, determined to learn more about the life cycle of spices. Earlier in August, the coriander, fennel, and fenugreek seeds I planted completed a whole lifetime, turning into seeds once again. In this process, I found solace in the garden and its changing rhythms, a community among the women tending the plants with me, and new reasons to imagine a life in an increasingly fractured world.

Like seeds growing into mature plants that flower and, eventually, return to their original state, we too are always finding our way back to ourselves. Some days that's the only order I can trust in an age where, despite us being chronically online, it's far too easy to feel disconnected. So when everything else fails, you'll know exactly where to find me: hands deep in the dirt, quietly hoping for new beginnings.

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The return of rain definitely won't prevent a new edition of London Design Festival from taking over the streets of the British capital in full force like every September. If anything, the event will bring a much-needed splash of color, delaying the end of summer just a little bit longer, and we can't wait to join in its irreverence.

By now, design insiders should know the drill: nine days, dozens of neighborhoods, and more design exhibitions to see than any one person could realistically manage without a plan. This year's edition spans everything from Brompton Design District's Perfectly Imperfect programming to Soho's first-ever dedicated design district, and sees the return of a now-sprawling, diffused Shoreditch Design Week (fka Design London Shoreditch) hosted across warehouses, town halls, and showrooms all around East London. Whether you're after an immersion in craft, collectibles, or just an excuse to wander somewhere new, London Design Festival's footprint has only grown.

We've done the legwork of sorting through the districts, craft collaborations, collective exhibitions, and launches worth planning your route around, so you don't have to scroll through a hundred press releases to figure out where to start. Below are the shows you won't mind traveling across the city for and the product drops you'll regret not shopping this month — all mapped out so you can get on with the actually fun stuff at this London Design Festival.

1. Districts to Know

Brompton Design District

An LDF staple since its debut in 2006, Brompton Design District continues to be where cultural institutions, leading design brands and fresh talent meet. Its second iteration with TIWA Select's founder, British-Italian curator and gallerist Alex Tieghi-Walker, at the helm puts the emotional value of furniture, homeware, and collectibles in focus through pop-up exhibitions and installations united by a love of materiality and storytelling. Announced standouts include Rafael Prieto: On the Sunset, Which is Only One, a collaborative showcase led by the Mexican designer and chocolatier within the wider district's Perfectly Imperfect programme, featuring a series of six sunset-inspired chairs investigating our perception of objects displayed alongside works by friends Conie Vallese, Pierre Marie Agin, Laila Gohar, and Kadri Kashmir; a B&B Italia collection launch pairing contemporary genius and heritage reissues in a timeless setup; and new releases from Boffi|DePadova, marking De Padova's 70th anniversary and 40 years of Piero Lissoni's art direction at Boffi, among others. Also in the area, you'll find luxury, bespoke rug brand Tai Ping's Icons Underfoot, a showcase of seven landmark rugs curated for the house's own 70th year of activity, including George Nakashima's 1959 modernist Conoid and the flower-bud-heart-inspired Alizea (2024), and cementing the atelier's evolution from craft to contemporary design icon.

Sept 12-20. Various locations across Brompton

Soho Design District

A new addition to the LDF calendar and itineraries, Soho Design District translates the neighborhood’s electrifying atmosphere and rebellious spirit into a tangible legacy across disciplines. Reuniting architects, F&B specialists, branding agencies, developers, and creatives, the event's buzziest neighborhood yet will come alive through events, installations, talks, and collaborations exploring design, commerce, and community as inherently interconnected.

Sept 12-20. Various locations across Soho

Shoreditch Design Week

After a first edition titled Design London Shoreditch, Shoreditch Design Week revives the long-running Shoreditch Design Triangle as LDF's largest dedicated district. Presented across multiple iconic locations of the artsy East London neighborhood, the festival's satellite event gathers more than 60 showrooms, alongside galleries and creative spaces championing rising designers as well as pioneering brands, in a six-day program that aims to distil contemporary design's very best and what's next. Among the initiatives spotlighted in this year's edition are LDF-favorite Material Matters, bringing its ongoing investigation into biomaterials, recycled composites and advanced manufacturing to a 24,000-square-foot warehouse, UNLOCKED, across both curated displays and roundtable discussions; Neuroplaces, the UK's first B2B exhibition and conference centring exclusively on neuroinclusive and accessible design, hosted at Protein Studios; and House of ICON, which sees Milan and Dubai-based design platform Isola return for the second consecutive year to Shoreditch Town Hall's chambers, basement spaces and Victorian auditorium to showcase everything from Scandinavian minimalism to maximalist color.

Sept 15-20 (exhibitions: Sept 15-17). Various locations across Shoreditch

Blackhorse Creates

A hands-on celebration of craftsmanship, making and community, Blackhorse Creates is heading to Waltham Forest's Blackhorse Lane for a two-day inspiring marathon of open studios, workshops, and presentations. The 2026 edition, programmed by social enterprise Blackhorse Workshop with the council and themed Youth Opportunity, lets visitors inside the practices of some of the area's most exciting designers, encouraging manual learning and creative exchange.

Sept 18-19. Various locations across Blackhorse Lane Ateliers

2. Craft-Led Shows

Craft x Tech Tokai Project

The second edition of Craft x Tech Tokai Project pairs six Japanese artisans with international designers to challenge the notion of traditional craft as frozen in time through creative exchanges that push it forward. Highlights include Fushi, a lacquered desk with integrated lighting by Mino Yaki and David Caon, Arimatsu Narumi Shibori and Bethan Laura Wood’s sculptural tie-dye creations, Kataginu, and a series of dotted cloisonné vessels co-authored by Owari Shippo and Philippe Malouin.

Sept 12-20, to 18 Oct. Victoria and Albert Museum, The Daylit Gallery, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL

Reviving Craft: Reflection of the Mind

China's storied heritage takes on a new life in Reviving Craft: Reflection of the Mind, where the giant's craftsmanship is explored across three inward states of mind (Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist) as an ever-evolving journey through material and thematic experimentation. Brought to you by curators Su Dan and Yang Lan, the exhibition reunites captivating contributions across disciplines, from Shuang Xi's staggering textile works and He Yan'er's folkloristic ornaments to Diao Juan's immersive multisensory installations.

Sept 16-27. Somerset House, Embankment Galleries, South Wing Strand, London, WC2R 1LA

The Pangolin Shield

Taking over the pedestrian area extending along Somerset House's grounds at The Strand, Pratapnagar and Frome-based Studio Saar and British structural engineering company Atelier One's striking landmark installation The Pangolin Shield sees ceremonial Indian police Iathi shields and traditional woven "knups", the rain shields used by north-eastern Indian farmers, overlaid across an intricate, expansive bamboo grid shell. Woven into a spirited, undulating silhouette are India's histories of colonial legacy, ecological exploitation, and the movement of people and materials across borders. From tools of defense, subsistence and confrontation, the shields are reinterpreted into a canopy sheltering passersby from the heat. The piece, set to face the bust of modern India's founding father Jawaharlal Nehru outside the country's High Commission, renegotiates agency and heritage while establishing a new form of bond between India and the United Kingdom.

Sept 12-20. The Strand, The Strand, London, WC2 1HL

3. Collective Exhibitions to See

Progressive Permanence

Christopher Farr's near-40-year rug-making expertise and gallerist Max Radford's keen curatorial eye are out in full force in Progressive Permanence, a group exhibition hosted at Farr's Spitalfields studio as part of Shoreditch Design Week. The show sees Gary Hume's Door Rug 4031, modelled after his hospital-door paintings, juxtaposed with Carsten in der Elst's perfectly imperfect Graywacke OffCut Chair. Also on view are a diary-inspired knotted rug by Louise Bourgeois, finished the year before her passing, and LS Gomma's rubber-and-mesh XR Mesh 2-seater, a wavy number reminiscent of the bold resin experimentation of late Italian designer Gaetano Pesce.

Sept 15-20. Christopher Farr Spitalfields, London, SW6 2EH

Travel Light

Design gets moving at The Hoxton, Shoreditch, one of our favorite hotels in London, where Travel Light, a showcase for emerging talent developed in partnership with homeware platform Slancha, examines what travel and modern living mean and look like today. Selected from over 200 submissions, including porcelain vases, cast-bronze objects, tote bags carved from upcycled hotel bed sheets, and sculptures cast from the remains of demolished buildings, from more than 20 countries, the selection on display at the HOXSHOP captures the act of travelling as an intrinsically cultural and material affair. Reviving storied traditions such as Yoruba Aso Oke weaving, Ugandan barkcloth, and Welsh love spoons, the activation rewards pieces crafted to be compact, portable, and priced for a wider audience to collect. Part of The Hoxton's 20th anniversary celebrations, the hotel's ongoing series of conversations, Hox Talks, will also return to the hotel lobby during LDF, hosted by design gallery Unit.d's founder Duncan Riches and, again, curated by Slancha for the lifestyle group.

Sept 12-20. The HOXSHOP at The Hoxton, Shoreditch, London, EC2A 3HU

New Designers

This year's Shoreditch Design Week at Kachette marks the debut of New Designers' flagship graduate show, which platforms UK design studios within the first five years of their careers. Bringing together a thought-provoking collection of pieces from 12 practices, the display zooms in on contemporary craft as biomorphic, tactile and nature-inspired, putting handmade expression front and center. Must-see highlights include This is Oink's raffia-shaded lamps with turned-wood bases, Riolab Ceramics' spirited arched candle-holders, and Ceramakka's bulbous, hand-pinched, creature-like vessels, alongside Phil Berczuk's abstract wooden wall compositions and e.L.s. designs' painstakingly threaded, iridescent textile panels.

Sept 15-17. Kachette, London, EC1V 9LP

4. Galleries Worth a Detour

Design Museum

During LDF 2026, don't miss your chance to catch NIGO: From Japan with Love at the Design Museum, the world's first retrospective dedicated to the work of the pioneering KENZO artistic director and his trailblazing fusion of streetwear and luxury fashion. Also on site, you'll find PLATFORM: Simone Brewster, the latest installment of the institution's ongoing emerging designer exhibition series, which reinvents the first floor's atrium gallery through colorful wooden sculptures, furniture, jewelry, and collectibles united by an appreciation of archaic forms. Join curator Hadeel Eltayeb on a guided tour of the show on September 12, or listen to Brewster herself speak on design practice and motherhood as she shares the stage with Laxmi Hussein, Emefa Cole, and Hettie Judah in a conversation chaired by curator Danielle Thom on September 15.

To 4 Oct (exhibition), guided tour Sept 12, talk Sept 15. Design Museum, London, W8 6AG

Ruup & Form

Not far from the teeming-with-talent showcases of Shoreditch Design Week, Old Street's Ruup & Form gallery presents Bodily Inbetweenness, Seoul-born mixed-media artist Woo Jin Joo's debut solo art exhibition. Displayed in a living, immersive environment, her fuzzy freehand embroidery, amusing ceramics and sculptures, and animated textiles take the form of anything from faceless bodies and mystical creatures to material abstract compositions that surprise and inspire. The creative's attempt at 'myth-making', these whimsical pieces are imbued with folklore, embodied knowledge and shamanism. For Joo, they capture "innate worlds", internal, coexisting realities shaped through lived experience rather than separated from it.

Preview Sept 10, exhibition Sept 11-Nov 13. Ruup & Form, London, EC1V 9BQ

Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Over at Notting Hill's Carpenters Workshop Gallery, the clock is ticking to experience Mumbai designer Ashiesh Shah's debut UK solo exhibition, Taamr, before it closes on September 20. Informed by the essence of copper "as both a material and an idea", the presentation comprises a series of sculptures that have either been woven in it, or are held or structured by it, in a shape-shifting exploration of its narrative, artistic, and metaphorical potential. Favorites include the Brahmand Cabinet, coupling antique copper pots with a sharp, black granite base; the Mirror Mosaic and Dveep coffee tables, their hand-cut fragments echoing Jadau jewelry and Mumbai's archipelago origins; and the Matka Mobile, a back-lit hanging composition of hand-crafted earthen pots in a planet-like, celestial setup.

To Sept 20. Carpenters Workshop Gallery, London, W10 6AZ

5. Collection Launches to Shop

MADE x Barbican

Possibly the most iconic Special Project of this year’s LDF program, the MADE x Barbican collection translates the estate's board-marked concrete, teak joinery, and Miriam Howitt's original 1960s show-flat interiors into 23 pieces spanning furniture, lighting, textiles, and accessories. Expect warm wood tones, sculptural geometric silhouettes, and muted, architectural colorways that echo the brutalist landmark's textures and make them instantly collectible. In line with MADE's mission to make great design accessible to all, the range is available at a reasonable price point. Debuted on MADE.com in August, the co-authored collection is accompanied by an immersive installation exploring the historical inspirations behind the collaboration.

Sept 12-20. Barbican Centre, London, EC2Y 8DS

Lee Broom's The Chant Chambers

Birmingham-born designer Lee Broom can always be trusted to bring a magical touch to every appointment on the London design calendar. During LDF 2026, the release of his The Chant Chambers collection marks a new chapter for his celebrated Chant lighting design. Now reinterpreted into a full modular family, from oversized chandelier compositions and connectable architectural structures to sculptural wall lights, and also available in a new smoked finish, the expanded glass-block line is perfect to infuse theatrical charm into everyday life. Whether incorporated into the scheme as a jewel note or built into an expansive, glamorous statement with vanity light-like quality, it's a treat to the eye.

Sept 15-20. Lee Broom Shoreditch, London, EC2A 3AY

Sophie Ashby x Bert & May

This LDF, beloved tile manufacturer Bert & May and interior designer Sophie Ashby join forces on a new tile range packed with whimsy, color, and artisanal craft. Three animal motifs, rabbit, lion, and bird, are applied to a delicate set of pastels and earthy tones to inject playfulness and awe into your home environment. Style them with coordinated plain tiles for a jigsaw puzzle look, or go mismatched for an even bolder statement.

Now that you've got your London Design Festival 2026 itinerary, why not spend some time thinking about some extra stops to stock up on energy along the way? From the artsy restaurants in London every self-respecting creative needs to know to the rising design destinations making waves within the hospitality and retail space, you've got inspiration to spare.

Need a hand choosing your next dinner reservation? We have covered that, too. Just stick to the advice of seasoned restaurateurs and the five overlooked details that give away a great eatery.

And if you feel like you missed out on the LDF frenzy, don't worry: our sharp edit of things to do in London this October will prep you for a few weeks shaken by the city's creative pulse. For everything else, subscribe to our newsletter, and all the latest will be delivered directly to your inbox.

It is not every day that an independent designer gets to transform their love of making, and making in the most hands-on of ways, into a collaboration with the likes of SERAX, the heritage Belgian homeware brand known for its high-end, imaginative collections of lighting, furniture, decorative pottery, and dinnerware. But for Dutch emerging designer Annebet Philips, a Delft University of Technology Industrial Design Engineering graduate born in Gorinchem and now based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, reaching out on a whim worked out pretty well.

"I approached SERAX submitting a proposal with the concept and pictures of some of the first Carte Blanche prototypes," she says of how the line, which debuted at Maison&Objet last year, first came to be. The response was not long in coming. "They responded almost immediately and invited me to come in," Philips explains. "From that first meeting, there was a real sense of mutual enthusiasm, and things moved very naturally and quickly." They haven't quite stopped moving since, as "a completely new collection is launching this September".

How "Carte Blanche" Was Made — From Paper Dreams to Reality

"The name Carte Blanche refers both to the blank material that serves as the tableware line's starting point and to the feeling of freedom you get whenever you begin something new, fresh," Philips says of the name of her inaugural SERAX drop, her first-ever body of work in ceramic.

To envision it, she leaned into the honest essence of paper. "I've been making cardboard models for as long as I can remember as a designer, across all kinds of projects. I love working with cardboard because it's so immediate. You can just cut, fold, and tape, and see an idea come to life without complicated tools, technical drawings, or someone else making it for you. I love being able to capture a new idea quickly, in a raw and pure way."

In an AI-driven age, there is something quietly refreshing about getting to work with such an ordinary yet physical material, Philips suggests, joining in the manual crafts renaissance at the heart of the ongoing DIY revival. "There's no pressure for things to be perfect, which makes the process playful, intuitive, and a little naïve." Maybe, that's all you need, really.

The Goal — Searching for "the Essence of Archetypal Forms"

Philips's work strives to capture the essence of archetypal forms, and the flatness and slight stiffness of cardboard lend themselves perfectly to reducing a form to its most recognizable lines and shapes. "Carte Blanche is really about translating the character of those first raw cardboard prototypes into ceramic: the angularity of folded cardboard, the seams, the slightly naïve lines, and the spontaneity of making something quickly by hand."

I ask the designer whether focusing on tableware for this launch was always on the cards, or if the process itself led her to it. "The earliest prototypes were actually made during a stay in Italy, so perhaps it's no coincidence that the first object I made was a little espresso cup," she explains. Before she knew it, a cappuccino cup and saucer had found their final shape. Together with SERAX, Philips expanded that small coffee moment into a wider tea and coffee collection, adding mugs, a teapot and milk jug. Then came bowls, plates, and egg cups, making Carte Blanche a broader tableware collection. Most recently, the drop has grown even further to include vases and candleholders.

"In my work, I often take something very familiar and try to offer a slightly different perspective on it: a common silhouette with an unexpected twist," says Philips. "The white surfaces and black lines emphasize the essence of those familiar forms, while giving them a fresh and playful character." Explore the SERAX Carte Blanche collection, and keep an eye out for the designer's forthcoming launch.

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Rusty foliage gathering along the roads is the first indicator that summer is giving way to autumn. And while we all know how tempting it is to redecorate your home to match the atmosphere outside, things don't have to be quite that prescriptive. So, away with all plastic pumpkins, kitschy foliage, and garish rustic wall prints, and in with subtler, evergreen (no pun intended) touches sure to make you feel grounded year-round — we have just given your autumn decor moodboard a no-cliché style upgrade, and it's all thanks to Arthouse Glasgow.

Unveiled earlier this summer, this 76-room design lifestyle bolthole finds its home in a beautifully restored 19th-century listed landmark in the heart of the Scottish city, and boasts interiors signed by London-based multidisciplinary studio A-nrd. To inform its generously sized spaces, which were conceived to feel both "instinctive and lived-in," A-nrd's Lukas Persakovas and Alessio Nardi explain, was the "perfectly imperfect" ambiance of an artist residence.

One of the most exciting hotel openings of 2026, Arthouse Glasgow, a new entry by British hospitality group Oberland, is the place to know for a seasonal home rebrand. Recreate its tranquil look in three steps.

1. Set the Scene With a 'Biophilic' Palette

Orange might be the color most people associate with autumn, but really, if we think of how our surroundings morph as they prepare to welcome back the cold months, colors are far less vivid, yet earthier and more layered. Arthouse Glasgow's freshly unveiled lounge captures that vibe perfectly.

Tucked beyond a palatial lobby with meticulously preserved Victorian tiles, a signature birdcage lift, and a vintage-contemporary mix of furnishings balancing patina with sheen, this common area of the hotel feels sculpted in softness. From walls to ceilings and joinery, it is painted a deep olive green that grants the room a comforting feeling, the moss-y hue of the environment a nod to the frondiness of forests. This blurring of nature and interiors is the backbone of so-called biophilic design, and A-nrd know how to harness it.

Matching the peaceful shade of green across the lounge is a series of mismatched seating designs displayed to surround the building's towering arched windows and, therefore, benefiting from natural daylight. Think mid-century modern tubular steel upholstered numbers, 'chubby' sofa chairs, and boucle as well as velvety banquettes. Pair it with the studio's softly glowing linen wall sconces, and you've got a cocoon you'll hardly want to leave.

2. Layer in Some Chocolatey — Not Orange — Touches

In recent years, people wanting to leave pumpkin orange behind have been embracing soft furnishings and a specific shade of pink in its place to get their autumn decor up to level. This year, the answer for us might well lie in the insertion of selected chocolate touches. And, again, Arthouse Glasgow is a masterclass in styling the trend.

For a more balanced, non-overwhelming olive green room effect, consider warming up your scheme with the right choice of furniture and accessories, be it beautifully aged antique cabinets you have finally got your way around thrifting for your living — like the stunning piece framing the fireplace mantel of the hotel lounge — smaller highlights, like stools or carved sculptures, or some good old leather accents.

3. Go Easy on the Dry Foliage and Flowers — And Add More Natural Textures Through Artwork

In 2026, autumn decor stops being literal and starts aiming for sophistication. Take the immersive abstract canvases curated all around Arthouse Glasgow's residence-inspired spaces as an example of how, in art, too, you can find echoes of nature — its unruly lines, familiar textures, and chromatic vivacity.

At Arthouse Glasgow, specifically, the creative genius of a cohort of Scottish artists, makers, and craftspeople is out in full force, with original interventions commissioned to "create a hotel that feels rooted in its surroundings," say A-nrd.

Compared to autumn-only home buys, which are bound to clutter your cupboards once the season comes to an end, understated winks at the foliage, fields, and overall bronze-tinted atmosphere that comes with September make for a year-round statement. Start collecting them now, style them at your earliest convenience.

In for more autumn-inspired design stays? Check out our newest edit of hotel bedrooms to sink into in October 2026.

Neither rich nor famous, and with no access to a yacht even in my distant future, you might say that Monte Carlo was a peculiar place to find myself on a recent trip to the French Riviera. But the storied destination has a knack for drawing travelers to its studded stretch of the Mediterranean, and if it's good enough for Jacquemus (more on that later), who am I to argue with it?

Monaco, of course, is one of the destinations we look to when it comes to understanding Mediterranean interior design. But the hotels here, naturally, have their own take on the genre.

The refresh currently making waves in the principality is the ongoing renovation of Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo, one of the destination's oldest hotels. The iconic property is nearing its centennial, and with its signature Belle Époque façade just a stone's throw from the ultimate icon, the Casino de Monte-Carlo, the address that made this place what it is today, the updates make it an ever more attractive anchor for any trip here.

In the works is a renovation of the hotel's regal Diamond Suites, reimagined by Pierre-Yves Rochon and the Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer Design and Engineering Office, plus the addition of 40 new rooms and suites — with more on the horizon. Already home to a pair of Michelin-starred restaurants, the grande dame also unveiled a stylish new bar, Gustave, by interior architect Shirine Zirak, adding contemporary spirit and genuinely covetable interiors to the mix.

Monaco Is Buzzing — It's Where Fashion Hits the Beach

But it's the mix, after all, that's something of a secret perk — guests of the refreshed Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo can also indulge in other properties within the owner's portfolio. The one currently on my radar is Monte-Carlo Beach Hotel, the hospitality group's sun-kissed outpost, located a short (and complimentary) shuttle away to the coast. Here, the guests of Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo can indulge in something of a daytime resort getaway without leaving the destination. The former satisfies your cravings for urban elegance; the latter is your chic coastal retreat.

And what a retreat it is: this season saw the return of the Jacquemus takeover of the beach club's iconic pier — perhaps the most coveted sunbeds in Monaco this season — while resort updates open to Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo guests. These include Le Deck, the pool restaurant reimagined with maximalist verve by French interior architect Dorothée Delaye, and La Vigie Zanoni Monte-Carlo, a brand-new destination eatery set on bluffs overlooking the sea, both of which make it something of an irresistible day trip.

As I floated between both properties, I found myself noting the ways to bring their updated aesthetics home. Here's what's happening in Monaco this season — and a few shoppable items to help you capture the look.

Making Waves at Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo — A New Sea-Inspired Palette

It can be tempting to hold onto tradition for eternity — especially for a grande dame like Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo, which has welcomed guests for over a century. Under the guidance of French interior designer Pierre-Yves Rochon, the renovation underway intends to lift some of the hotel's old-school Belle Époque rooms into something more contemporary and relaxed.

The update working the hardest is the new palette for the hotel's Diamond Suites: a quiet mix of aqua, blue, and beige. The palette softens the room's ornate Auberley & Laurent crown molding, refreshing the look without erasing its period style.

Rochon kept the decorative elements light, maintaining an almost milky calm throughout the suites. The one exception — and the style lesson worth stealing — is the upholstered bench at the foot of the bed. Wavy textiles are increasingly popular lately (riffs on chevron, ikat, and moiré), and range from lightly playful to downright hypnotic. Here, the fabric is still restrained, with raised velvety zigzags in aqua and mint against a creamy ground. But the loose, intentionally 'messy' rhythm of the lines brings a casual feel to an otherwise composed, formal room without going overboard.

Fashion-Forward Interiors Head Out at Bar Gustave

The most dramatic reveal at Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo arrives beneath its most show-stopping space: the Belle Époque glass-and-steel dome built by the workshops of Gustave Eiffel. Here lies Bar Gustave, a new lounge designed by Shirine Zirak that levels up the setting. Inside, guests can drink beneath the dome itself, or slip through a door along the perimeter where amber-drenched interiors radiate warmth. And beyond that lies an all-new surprise — a chic terrace carved out of a formerly unused rooftop, making it entirely new ground for the storied property.

This is where the hospitality group really plays its hand, with new-wave cocktail ingredients you're unlikely to see anywhere else in Monte-Carlo (think pea shoots, cacao butter, and peach wine). The toast of the season, in my opinion, is the Madeleine, crafted to taste, as the name suggests, like a spiked Proustian reverie.

Given that few of us can install a glass dome at home, the space that has me smitten was the unexpectedly chic terrace, which really nailed the look of a well-designed outdoor living room.

Large checkerboard pavers lay a nostalgic base for the scheme, while plump upholstered furniture on black metal frames — a nod to the dome's structural bones — reinforces that lovely indoor feel outdoors. The element that ties it all together is the parasols: burned orange canvas with a double-top silhouette. That extra valence on top upgrades your everyday umbrella into something more substantial, and the scalloped edges — complete with white trim — tailor the whole look, making it all a touch fashion-forward.

Rounded Sunbeds Are the Jacquemus-Approved Summer Accent

In a destination where status is everything — and everywhere is status — the most coveted decor on the Côte d'Azur this season might just be the bespoke Jacquemus sunbeds and parasols at Hôtel Hermitage's sister property, Monte-Carlo Beach Hotel.

Lining a wooden jetty that juts into the Mediterranean, the bookable seats are part of the fashion label's current pop-up immersion — a re-fashioned jetée that brings a glimpse of the label's Riviera-ready runway to life. Tragically, none of the furniture is for sale, although we'd love to know where they end up after the season is over. But you can easily borrow Jacquemus' style with products well within reach.

The style note worth stealing, in my opinion, is the sunbeds' curved headrest. The thick cushions not only look comfortable for a full day of lounging in the sun, but the rounded backs just add a more contemporary edge to a usually traditional silhouette — it also brings the aesthetics of indoor furniture, like lounge chairs and chaise lounges, straight to the outdoors.

Dine Al Fresco, Monaco Style

Another arrival to these shores this season is La Vigie Zanoni Monte-Carlo, an Italian restaurant set on a scenic bluff. It's a charming location with fantastic views over the Mediterranean from its terraces, located at the end of a winding stone path flanked by lush plants.

The seasonal restaurant has the rare perk of being a 'dockable' reservation — for those lucky enough to have their own boat, they can float right up to the bluff and dock for a meal crafted by Michelin-starred chef Simone Zanoni, known for his fresh pastas.

The decor wasn't shy about leaning into coastal interior design: hand-blown water pitchers shaped like blowfish and seahorses, plates and saucers rimmed with sunbeam yellow. Altogether, the palette — sun-yellow, warm teak, and colorfully painted glassware — makes for a lovely, bright formula for your outdoor tablescape.

Those interested in taking the look home should start by using yellow as an accent, not a base — think napkins or placemats instead of a solid yellow tablecloth, making sure it's a splash of yellow that doesn't dominate. Teak can arrive through furniture, like the restaurant's woven rope chairs, while you can have your own fun with playful seaside references.

Get Inspired by a Refreshed, Maximalist Oasis at Le Deck

Maximalism is on full display throughout Monte-Carlo in more ways than one. But you'll get an extra taste at Le Deck, a refreshed space at Monte-Carlo Beach by French interior architect Dorothée Delaye (perhaps this writer's favorite space in the whole destination).

The poolside restaurant was inspired by the Roaring Twenties, albeit with a contemporary edge, and mixes patterns and textures at every turn: a green and white striped canopy stretches overhead and blankets the open-air terrace with a breezy atmosphere, while a painted trellis in vibrant terracotta climbs the tall walls. There's a lot going on in this space, yet it all manages to pull together — and the reason it works, beyond Delaye's penchant for mixing patterns, is that most of the upholstery and decor share a similar color palette as well as patterns of similar scale.

And while the actual mix is fantastic, there are a few specific items worth borrowing at home. The takeaways here are the floor-to-ceiling textures that Delaye incorporated. First on the list are the woven bistro chairs, which bring a certain character through their richly textured weave: it's the commitment to surface detail that makes them so visually compelling rather than any single color choice. A similar texture is picked up by the trellis-clad walls, which could look rather traditional if it weren't for the vibrant terracotta paint — and all of these tactile elements are softened by those flowing canopies overhead, making it a true maximalist moment.

Sometimes, more really is more.

In for the resort-core moment? Keep dreaming of more design-worthy getaways by revisiting our travel trends 2026 report, your online directory to all the sensations shaping hospitality in the months ahead, including the rise of 'monastery' hotels.

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There are people who have a knack for choosing the best restaurants and know instinctively how to recognize a reservation-worthy establishment the moment it opens its doors, looking for the details that will either confirm or refute their first impressions of a just-inaugurated spot, and others who, to put it very plainly, don't.

But if you think that identifying these addresses amid the myriad of new eateries that grace our cities every month is a talent you are either born with or, else, you can't acquire with dedication and time, well, we might have something that will make you change your mind.

To get to the bottom of what allows certain restaurant openings to instantly garner the approval of seasoned chefs, restaurateurs, and hospitality experts alike, while also charming the wider public, we asked a dozen gastronomy insiders to share the non-negotiable design credentials every self-respecting food destination should have — and the decor mistakes they wish they wouldn't have to see ever again. Read on to uncover the interior elements that give away a great restaurant.

5 Overlooked Design Details That Give Away a Great Restaurant, According to Top Restaurateurs

For many restaurant amateurs, the experience of a new foodie hotspot begins upon tasting the very first plate they have ordered from the menu. While we might have been taught that one shouldn't judge a book by its cover, hospitality gurus think you should already be able to tell whether an eatery takes itself and the diners it serves seriously as you step in, if not before that.

1. The 'Arrival Sequence', From the Exterior and the Host Stand to Fragrance

"The first thing I always notice is how the front is maintained," Max Venning, co-founder of London's award-winning cocktail bar concept Three Sheets, tells me. "It doesn't matter if it's a million-pound restaurant or one put together on a shoestring; you can clean the outside."

The most important thing an eatery should do is know how to greet, I am told by his peers. "Being greeted warmly by any FOH is, in my opinion, the precursor to a great experience," says Jay Patel, founder of MICHELIN Guide-approved Italian restaurant Legare and sibling wine bar Luna, both located in the Shad Thames warehouses. "To me, hospitality is about being looked after first, and that first moment of being acknowledged is key to visitors, especially when the restaurant is busy."

What that level of care looks like in (design) practice is deeply subjective, yet restaurateurs agree that entering a restaurant should be enough to have you feel or notice something. For Alex Young of Ltd Ltd, the hospitality group behind East London favorites Goodbye Horses, Day Trip Coffee, Stable Wines, and The Dreamery, what happens between the street and the table is particularly revealing.

"I'm suspicious of a monolithic host stand that turns a welcome into border control," he says. "I like being a little unsure where the restaurant begins and ends, and having a human resolve that uncertainty."

Being Goodbye Horses one of my favorite restaurants in London currently, I can assure you that its Lucy Stein murals and sculptural wooden bar are enough to communicate you have left the De Beauvoir Town to be somewhere else. It's a distinction that the interaction with staff and tactile detailing of its interiors make manifest more than any space designed off a 3D render could.

The acoustics of a space, the warmth of the lighting, and how you're met at the door are all things that "tell you a lot about whether a restaurant knows what it wants to be," Laura Hart, co-founder of London's Mediterranean-infused restaurant Wildflowers and its first-floor, next-level tapas spot Bar Flor, tells me. These are no restaurant design secrets. But smell is as crucial an element of the experience as sound, sight, and, of course, taste.

"The best restaurants engage all the senses, not just the obvious ones," Samyukta Nair, CEO and creative director at hospitality group LSL Capital, shares. "At the townhouse that's home to MiMi and MIKO Mei Fair, we developed a distinct fragrance that catches your attention the moment you walk through the door," she says of the special scents inebriating two of the addresses in their portfolio, which also include beloved Indian restaurants Jamavar and Bombay Bustle and lavish Italian Nipotina.

Bespoke fragrance can set a restaurant apart from another, but other tricks, like "scented towels, burning Palo Santo, or spraying a little Agua de Florida on the cloths we use when crumbing the tables", can still make for a memorable first impression of an establishment, Jo Radford, co-founder and sommelier of Michelin-starred Edinburgh restaurant Timberyard, tells me.

2. Glassware and Tableware That Reflects the Restaurant Atmosphere

If there's one restaurant element that, although easily missed, immediately classifies an eatery as either high-end or cheap, it's the glassware, restaurateurs claim. "The thought that goes into the choice of glassware is incredibly important and highlights that even the smallest of details can change how something tastes or feels," says Elliot Milne of recently launched Queen's Park hangout Bar Blondie, a restaurant and bar whose retro-fueled interiors and artwork draw cues from the cult of Spaghetti Western.

"Oversized cheap wine glasses are really a killer. If you can't afford fancy glassware, just go for simple small glasses," recommends Three Sheets' Venning. And if there's anyone you should be taking serveware advice from, it's the 2019 CLASS Bar Awards' Best Bartender winner.

But price isn't the only indicator of curated glassware. "At Nipotina, we chose colored glassware reminiscent of the amber-hued stained glass you might find in old Italian homes," LSL Capital's Nair says.

She suggests there's something instantly considered about glassware and tableware that have been picked to amplify the atmosphere of an eatery, rather than simply supplied. And it's thoughtful touches like this one that allow iconic addresses to retain their status long-term.

3. Materials That Age Beautifully as the Dining Room Acquires Its Patina

Whether people can envision how an address will change as years go by is another indicator of a restaurant worth booking today. Rather than focusing on freshly manufactured, Instagram-ready finishes, gastronomy insiders call for a return to lived-in authenticity.

Alex Young of ice cream and wine bar The Dreamery goes as far as to say that the patina of the surfaces and worn seating are exactly what he looks for in a beloved establishment. "There is something deeply reassuring about battered chairs: they suggest an eatery is well-trodden enough for objects to acquire a life", and won't just shut overnight.

Opulent fabric and expensive art can undoubtedly contribute to elevating a restaurant, but for Timberyard's Jo Radford, "there's much more interesting markers of quality than something obviously expensive: the weight of the cutlery, the feel of the napkins, the surface of the table, the baquette you are sitting on, the ceramics," he adds.

Textured wood, gritty terracotta or cement bricks, plaster that begs to be touched, and high-quality upholstered textiles hold the secret to dining rooms that don't just accommodate but dictate a restaurant's rhythm — how and for how long visitors feel they can engage with their surroundings. Together, they envelop guests in a distinctive ambiance that leads them to believe they couldn't find elsewhere.

Be mindful, though, as finishes can also be used the wrong way. Materials that imitate other materials, for example, are the ultimate nightmare of Logma's co-founders Farsin Rabiee and Ziad Halub: "think chipping laminate tables, wood-effect ceramic tiles, marble-effect anything, and, more generally, factory-fresh furniture that does not have the opportunity to age," they explain.

Avoiding that very mistake is something the favorite restaurants of Legare's Jay Patel do very well: Paris's Clamato with its reclaimed wooden furniture, small pillar candles, and vintage crockery and cutlery; Portuetxe Erretegia in San Sebastián thanks to its exposed wooden beams, stone and brick walls, and tiled floors; and South Kensington's The Lavery through its ornate high ceilings, intricate wall molding and panelling, floor-to-ceiling mirrors, and beautiful tables, chairs, and banquets.

Even in dining rooms aging gracefully, "the materials should feel cohesive and tactile, but not compete with one another; there needs to be somewhere for your eye to rest," says Laura Hart of Wildflowers. A great restaurant, after all, should comfort you, not exhaust you.

4. Nostalgic Ritual Objects That Capture the "Theater" of Service

If there's anything all restaurateurs I spoke with for this piece miss about old-school gastronomy, it's the "theater" of service.

"Ceremony. Celebration. Romance. Nostalgia... I want to bring back some of the 'special' and provide a space people know they can go to celebrate," Charlie Mellor says of what he's trying to achieve with his candlelit Soho spot, Osteria Vibrato.

"We became so determined to make restaurants relaxed that somewhere along the way we occasionally confused relaxed with stripped back," LSL Capital's Samyukta Nair says. "I love informality, but I also love a sense of occasion. There should still be moments during dinner when everyone at the table stops talking and watches."

The group is putting this vision into practice at MiMi Mei Fair, where the Applewood-fired Peking duck is carved tableside, and at Nipotina, where no meal really ends before the arrival of the dessert trolley. Something similar happens at Maison Francois in Mayfair, where "simple dishes like steak tartare, crudo, carpaccios, and salads are whizzed up before your eyes," recounts Jay Patel of Legare.

"There is a reason why places like the Connaught or Dukes bar have maintained their status as some of the best places to drink in London: they place importance on the ceremonial aspect of hospitality," Bar Blondie's Elliot Milne explains.

They might seem unnecessary frills, "but a trolley full of champagne or digestifs brings so much charm and old-school decadence."

5. Design Statements That Serve the Address's Story, Not Just the Gram

We are all fans of an aesthetically pleasing restaurant, but for many industry insiders, it is time to take the culinary experience away from Instagram and back to where it belongs: real life.

Anything designed primarily to be photographed rather than experienced, argues LSL Capital's Samyukta Nair, is exactly what today's eateries should shed to feel worth reserving, from "the obligatory neon slogan to the oversized fake-flower installation that feels entirely out of place".

Max Venning of Three Sheets, Logma's Farsin Rabiee and Ziad Halub, and Laura Hart from Wildflowers all agree: nowadays, too much of the restaurant design is built around Instagram rather than crafted for people to have a good time. That needs to change. As Venning puts it, "candles over LED lamps always."

"Too many spaces are starting to feel like copy-and-paste versions of each other, with personality sacrificed for whatever is trending," Hart explains, adding that the same trend-led mentality also spills into the service and the food. What stands out to experts, though, is "a restaurant with a strong point of view".

"We've become slightly obsessed with designing restaurants to be consumed through a phone: the statement ceiling, the bathroom mirror everyone photographs. But the things that make you return to a restaurant are much less obvious," concludes LSL Capital's Samyukta Nair. "The ultimate luxury isn't a restaurant that makes you want to photograph everything. It's one that eventually makes you forget to look at your phone."

The next time you catch yourself reaching for your phone at dinner, ask yourself what the room is missing.

In more F&B news, Marylebone's Cup of Joy is not just serving some of the best specialty coffee in the capital, but is alive with lighting inspiration, too. While two of London's top chefs think it's time to swap plain white porcelain with something more... patterned!

Head to our restaurant design archives for all the latest openings worth knowing about, and the interior details breaking through the noise, or sign up for the Livingetc newsletter to receive our best stories across interiors, homes, expert advice, wellness, and lifestyle in your inbox weekly.

Calvin Trillin sang its praises in The New Yorker in the 1970s. Anthony Bourdain dedicated a segment of the Disappearing Manhattan episode of his Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations travel and food TV show to it. The Financial Times called the address one of the "50 greatest food stores in the world" in 2021. That Russ & Daughters is a New York City institution is a fact, but even the most devoted of fans would have found a West Elm collab highly implausible till 24 hours ago, when its serveware collection with the brand dropped. Now the fourth-generation family-run American Jewish appetizing store's cherished tabletops can be yours for a little over the price of one of its delicious hand-rolled cream cheese and lox bagels.