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KENZO TAKADA Fashion designer This month’s recipe artist (see his miso soup on page 226) has kept busy since retiring from his namesake brand in 2000, trying his hand at painting and furniture design. While he maintains a supportive presence at Humberto Leon and Carol Lim’s Kenzo shows, Takada has also found time to nurture talent of a different sort – investing in Toyo, a Japanese restaurant in Paris (and soon, Tokyo) run by his former private chef Toyomitsu Nakayama. LOU STOPPARD Writer ‘Chaotic curly hair, fabulous colourful clothes. Francesco Risso is such a stylish interviewee,’ says Stoppard of Marni’s creative director, who played dress-up for us at the brand’s Milan store, while discussing his design approach, a year into the role (page 101). Stoppard, also known as a curator,…

Artisanal techniques were big at the men’s spring shows. Alexander McQueen’s coat took inspiration from the reverse side of a rug, and featured a distressed jacquard finish with loose silk threads. Hermès looked to its equestrian roots with the braided leather detailing of its cashmere and cotton jumper resembling the twisted stitching used in saddlemaking. Ermenegildo Zegna Couture finished a chunky two-tone sweater with a patched-in pyjama collar, while Luke and Lucie Meier also nodded to craft for their debut at Jil Sander. The collar of this cotton vest has been finished with rough rope blanket stitching, blending sophisticated and raw materials. alexandermcqueen.com; hermes.com; zegna.com; jilsander.com…

Who says that the botanical beautification of our interiors must take the form of bunches of flowers arranged classically in gaping vases? Designers are increasingly rethinking the way we style our stems. Japan-based Studio Note and Italian designer Sara Ricciardi have made a number of sculptural stands that allow flowers and fronds to become extensions of the piece, shunning the traditional reservoir of water, and allowing the vegetation to become a building block of the living sculpture. Other designers currently framing flowers innovatively include Tino Seubert, Katia Tolstykh, Davide Aquini and Brooksbank & Collins. SINGLE MARKETS What if you could banish all those bottles from your bathroom cabinet – the one that depuffs your eyes, the one that brightens your skin, the one that irons out wrinkles – and replace…

Jonathan Anderson’s womenswear collection for Loewe’s S/S18 season had a strong focus on patterns, prints and trinkets. We were particularly taken with this pair of pointed ankle boots, with scaly trim. Taking inspiration from ethnic patterns, the sharp protrusions also suggest some time travelling may have been done – the boots have something of a prehistoric profile, rather like the sharp teeth or scaly back of a dinosaur. loewe.com BLACK MAGIC Charcoal is steadily infiltrating all walks of life. Shou-sugi-ban, the Japanese art of weatherproofing wood by charring it, has been inspiring the design world, with artists such as Arno Declercq, Jim Partridge and Liz Walmsley, and Roberto Sironi all putting a flame to their woodwork, while John Birch has used carbonised bamboo in his collection for Restoration Hardware. The…

Young talent has been tasked with bringing oomph and impetus to some of the biggest brands in Paris, Milan and New York, on occasion turning them on their heads (as with Helmut Lang, where Hood By Air’s Shayne Oliver has been enlisted to reboot), or at least injecting them with a healthy dose of fresh creative energy. Luke and Lucie Meier, a married couple whose previous experience ranges from Dior to Supreme, have been signed up to recharge Jil Sander. And delivered. Same goes for Carven, whose new creative director Serge Ruffieux has shown a flair for beautifully made contemporary womenswear. Here, though, is our pick of the most notable new arrivals in A-list ateliers. NATACHA RAMSAY-LEVI CHLOÉ Ramsay-Levi had been on Parisians’ radar long before January 2017’s announcement that…

Graffiti’s cultural position has long been a polarising topic – vandalism to some, a valid art movement to others. Fendi is clearly in the latter camp as street art forms the focus of The Ring of the Future, a circular artwork featuring the word ‘Future’ painted in six languages on the roof of the Italian fashion house’s HQ in Rome. ‘I see the rooftop as a blank canvas,’ says Cristiana Monfardini, Fendi’s vice president of communications and the project’s mastermind. Working in collaboration with London-based agency Global Street Art, Fendi commissioned a sextet of street artists to add their own typographic style to the piece. The six artists come from the four corners of the globe and include Hong Kong artist Roes, London-based Iranian artist Cave, Korean artist Jodae and…

‘There are more windows than there are walls – so the light brings the building to life’ An industrial shell with style.’ That’s what British designer Neil Barrett was looking for when he needed a new headquarters. He set up his namesake label at the turn of the millennium, after almost a decade working for Italian megabrands Gucci and Prada, and he initially bought a small studio big enough for a team of five. But, by the end of 2016, he was heading up a global fashion brand with a staff of more than 80, who found themselves spread across seven different buildings on Via Savona, in south west Milan. It was time to find bigger quarters. Barrett found his industrial shell with style in a former power plant on…

The designer Gosha Rubchinskiy, a hoodie-wearing Muscovite still in his early thirties, has been fashion’s big story for half a decade, closely followed by his Georgian buddy Demna Gvasalia, the design brains behind Vetements and Balenciaga. Rubchinskiy earned that attention with a celebration of Moscow streetstyle, all buzz cuts, scowls and knock-off sportswear (Adidas’ current good fortunes certainly owe something to his reimagined ‘gopniks’). But he started out as a photographer and still takes pictures, producing photo books to accompany his collections; and you could argue that Rubchinskiy is as much a multimedia creative riffing on post-Soviet style as he is a designer. Post-Soviet Visions: Image and Identity in the New Eastern Europe’, a new exhibition at the Calvert 22 Foundation’s gallery space in East London, takes in the work…

Four stories SOFITEL FOSHAN, GUANGDONG ‘There’s something here for everyone’ tends to be an overused marketing tag, but in the case of the Sofitel Foshan, it is, for once, pretty much on the money. Undaunted by what must have been a challenging design brief, the Hong Kong-based studio CCD gamely divides the Guangdong property’s 325 rooms into four distinct themes – modern, postmodern, neo-Chinese and classic French, the latter featuring a particularly soigné blend of eggshell-blue tufted headboards, timber flooring, pale silk rugs and faux-Louis XV side tables. The hotel offers a full complement of diversions, not least a So Spa stocked with L’Occitane products and traditional herbal treatments, a sky bar and outdoor terrace on the 60th floor, and pasta vongole at restaurant Allegria. Daven Wu 3 Hebin Road…

#90 Almost five decades after he burst onto the fashion scene with Japanese-inspired, audaciously patterned textiles, Kenzo Takada continues to draw inspiration from his home country – last year festooning Roche Bobois’ ‘Mah Jong’ sofa in kimono-like jacquard patterns, and developing cushions and vases to match. Like the designer himself, his recipe is the pride of Japan. ‘I love miso soup,’ he declares. ‘It’s a mix of complexity and simplicity. It is easy to eat, and can accompany many foods, or simply be served with a bowl of rice.’ For Takada’s recipe, visit Wallpaper.com…

We hear more and more that the younger generations are less interested in purchasing and owning things. They prefer to spend their money on experiences. Self-improving holidays, culture, live performances, eating out, eating in, yoga retreats, hiking Machu Picchu. While forensically documenting it all on social media of course. This naturally has been sending shock waves through the luxury industries. If this continues, soon nobody will be buying their products – no matter how good they are or how seductive their marketing campaigns. But I beg to differ. I really don’t see that the love of experiences is at odds with the appreciation of well-designed, well-made goods. They are far from mutually exclusive. The stuff that surrounds the experience is still significant, if not more so. The enjoyment of a…

Designers are getting trim for spring, with looks that reflect a fascination with fringing. Chanel’s kaleidoscopic tweed jacket, constructed from inky aquatic-inspired threads, has fringed cuffs with loose threads flowing like fronds of kelp. At Pringle of Scotland, an intricate macramé skirt has been constructed from lengths of knotted rayon and Japanese paper, while the swishing golden sleeves of Hillier Bartley’s sweater bring a glam rock-inspired exuberance to knitwear. And at Bottega Veneta, this shimmering top has a handwoven intrecciato panel whose weft gradually falls into fine fringing, resembling dancing rays of sunlight. chanel.com; pringlescotland.com; hillierbartley.com; bottegaveneta.com…

Designer Paula Gerbase subscribes to the mantra that the customer is always right. Or at least should be given a good hearing. ‘One of our bespoke clients challenged us to create a shoe that fits like a glove,’ says the artistic director of British footwear brand John Lobb. This test resulted in four seamless shoe designs, from a loafer to an Oxford, which have taken two years to develop and a minimum of 80 hours to handcraft. Lightweight footwear has fascinated Gerbase since she joined John Lobb in 2014. Two years ago, the brand launched its ‘tensile’ construction, an unlined Goodyear-welted shoe designed for a ‘barefoot’ feel. ‘This is going one step further,’ she says of the latest seamless shapes, which form part of the brand’s Artisans’ Series, an annual…

Francesco Risso, the newish creative director at Marni, has brought a skittish, almost feral eclecticism to the 24-year-old Italian house, which suits his own boyish charm – all messy hair, clashing prints and a big smile. Once known for hardworking, vaguely conceptual separates, rendered in off-beat prints and hues – and favoured by women who care as much about being taken seriously as a professional as they do about looking fashionable – Marni is now offering a more youthful, broken-down look. Think scraggy furs, baggy skate pants, frayed edges, dishevelled suiting. Show sets have featured metres and metres of scaffolding, while invitations have come with fabric and thread. The message? This is a work in progress. Tellingly, Risso began his design journey customising clothes. ‘I never liked to wear things…

Glossy plants with distinctive purple-green stalks and knots of compact magenta flowers crowd together in a sprawling field outside Nashville. Mosquitos dart around in the Tennessee dawn as a huge machine harvests a crop of natural indigo. It’s a gathering not seen in this area for over a century, a sign of how America, the natural home of denim, is mapping out a sustainable mass-market future using small-scale, artisanal ideas. While the indigo plant was once prized by the pharaohs, Japanese emperors and administrators of the British Raj, by the early 20th century, the natural dye it produces was supplanted by a synthetic substitute. Synthetic indigo is now used to dye around a billion pairs of jeans every year. But the presence of these plants in Tennessee is not a…

111skin Tel: 44.844 692 1112 (UK) 111skin.com A Acne Studios acnestudios.com Alexander McQueen Tel: 44.20 7494 8840 (UK) alexandermcqueen.com Akris akris.ch Amara Tel: 44.800 587 7645 (UK) amara.com Anna Hodgson anna-hodgson.com Annelise Michelson annelisemichelson.com Aram Tel: 44.20 7557 7557 (UK) aram.co.uk Atelier Swarovski atelierswarovski.com AWAKE a-w-a-k-e.com B Balenciaga Tel: 44.20 7317 4400 (UK) balenciaga.com Balmuda balmuda.com Bioeffect bioeffect.com Biore biore.com Black & Blum Tel: 44.20 7633 0022 (UK) black-blum.com Bmbu bmbu-bamboo.com Botanic Lab Tel: 44.20 8981 2961 (UK) botanic-lab.co.uk Bottega Veneta Tel: 44.20 7838 9394 (UK) bottegaveneta.com Bravo! bravo.io Brdr Kruger Tel: 45.39 56 15 55 (Denmark) brdr-kruger.com Brooksbank & Collins Tel: 44.20 7739 2908 (UK) brooksbankcollins.com Brunello Cucinelli brunellocucinelli.com Burberry Tel: 44.20 7806 8904 (UK) burberry.com C Calvin Klein 205W39NYC calvinklein.com Cappellini Tel: 44.20 3039 3034 (UK) cappellini.it Cassina…

The sharpest trends, trailblazers and sartorial triumphs…

Trompe-l’oeil was the inspiration for this shirt, which forms part of Tod’s S/S18 collection, designed by men’s creative director Andrea Incontri. It has all the appeal of a relaxed workmaninspired garment, but instead of being cut from grainy denim, it’s made using a piece of soft leather. The result is a rough jeans effect printed onto soft calfskin, which sublimely blends two menswear staples into one garment. Low key yet luxurious, it should prove a touchy subject this spring. tods.com BOOGIE WONDERLAND Our shoot location, the Disco House, in London’s Notting Hill, is the fifth collaboration between architect William Smalley and Danny Pine, founder and creative director of property investment company Pinzauer. From the shell that they found five years ago, this dynamic duo has fashioned five floors of decorative…

From chic Chelsea eaterie Wulf & Lamb and Marcus Wareing’s Planted tasting menu at Tredwells to the imminent arrival in Covent Garden of hip US vegan fast food restaurant By Chloe, plant-based cuisine is booming in London. Now a new vegan takeaway service is offering creative, super-healthy cuisine on the go. Essence Express launched last month at the Blok gyms in London’s Shoreditch and Clapton, and the concept should soon be rolled out at other gyms, hotels and train stations. The new venture has been launched on the back of the success of the Essence Cuisine restaurant, which entrepreneur Bart Roman originally created in 2014 as a pop-up in Belgium before opening permanently in Shoreditch last year. ‘Like many, I’m busy, and I was looking for healthy, energising food that…

Nothing about Antonin Mercier, the founder of horological label Laps, is conventional. Starting with his pocket-sized atelier, a revamped garage just a stone’s throw from the Musée d’Orsay. ‘This is my showroom, and where I assemble most of my watches,’ he says. The space is a hodgepodge of unexpected elements: chunks of wood, crocodile skins, Cuban cigar leaves, a poster from a 1970s Thai monster movie. And then there are the watches: all the same size and shape – vintage-inspired and discreetly small – and their Japanese-made dials filled with textured materials or miniature pictures. ‘Here is Jacques Chirac jumping the barrier at the Metro,’ says Mercier of one watch face. ‘This is Nakano Takeko, a female samurai from the Edo period. Clyde Barrow at 15. And an S&M picture…

Lorna Simpson can’t quite say where her practice is heading. ‘I don’t know,’ she exclaims with a big belly laugh, a frequent register for the artist. ‘And maybe that’s my response to even having a response to the work.’ Don’t think for a minute, though, that Simpson is somehow lost or unsure of her position. If almost unassuming in her public profile, particularly in comparison to many of her more flamboyant contemporaries, Simpson is definitely in the top tier of contemporary American artists. Simpson rose through the ranks as a conceptual photographer in the 1980s, and has impacted the medium with her particular use of text, eventually also branching out into video. Both the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Walker Art Center picked up on early Simpson work,…

140 Camping-style quilted nylon blankets swathing the benches at the Céline show, helping the fashion pack stage the chicest sleepover of the season 80,000 Shards of mirror used to cover the fantastical, 2,200 sq m Dior women’s show set. It took a crew of 80 people more than 20 days to create 94 Height in centimetres of eight canvas puppets mastered by models during Phoebe English’s womenswear presentation 22 Tons of bright purple sand covering the runway of the AMI show, making the fashion crowd long for a rubber ring and a piña colada 942 Total length in metres of the black plastic streamers, each 90cm long, that hung from the ceiling of the Dior Homme show 877 Square metres of Anaglypta wallpaper used to cover the life-size home on…

In San Francisco or any of the dynamic destinations in the collection, including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Copenhagen, London, LA, Madrid, Miami, Milan, New York, Paris, Rome and Tokyo, Wallpaper* City Guides uncover the most interesting architecture, enticing sights and hippest haunts. Whether you are on a business trip or a weekend break, here’s an insider’s checklist for the design-savvy visitor. Print £8.95, $11.95, ¤10.95. Available at phaidon.com App £4.99, $5.99, ¤5.99. Available at iTunes.com/phaidon…

For stockists, see page 224 Hair: Cyril Laloue at Open Talent Paris Make-up: Fred Farrugia at Calliste Manicurist: Beatrice Eni at Agence Saint Germain Interiors: Matthew Morris Set design: Chloé Guerbois Photography assistants: Corinna Schulte, Katrin Backes Fashion assistants: Lune Kuipers, Rosanna Bruce Set assistants: Raphael Emine, Julien Ziegler Model: Marlene Kohrs at Oui Management Body models: Rebecca Bagnol at Sport Models, Marine Helene Delzenne at MP Paris Casting: Julia Lange…

Plus, model making and concrete pouring with Junya Ishigami in Tokyo; Tom Dixon’s desirable London digs; the new Noma; house-hunting in Tel Aviv; disco design; Margaret Howell’s Tate Edit; Christian Boltanski at Marian Goodman; jewellery’s new chain gang; and our German supplement revs up with innovative autos, inspiring interiors and fast-paced fashion ON SALE 8 MARCH…