Random recs: Shreeji News, Studio Nicholson, L’etiquette, Christo at Gagosian and more



Allure face lift

A few snippets of digital ephemera and IRL recommendations I’ve enjoyed lately…

1/ Is SHREEJI NEWS the boujiest corner shop in London? Back in pre-Covid times, I remember Shreeji News was your average newsagent. A decent selection of mags but hardly a ‘destination’. Now, since a major glow-up from Gabriel Chipperfield and associations with Chiltern Firehouse, Air Mail and all manner of fashion and luxury brands wanting to use its store as a pop up ‘space’ to launch products and brand zines, it’s become a small phenomenon in its own right (below). As entry level luxury items have become so expensive, it seems magazines themselves have become luxury products. So it makes sense that some people would rather invest in a collectible magazine – enjoying the smell, feel and time taken to enjoy it – as their indulgence of choice. The Nod has the low down (with a little input from me.)
Shreeji News

2/ Congratulations STUDIO NICHOLSON on ‘going global’ with the first runway show in Paris. “You’ve got to know when to put the pencil down!” says Nick Wakeman on her design philosophy. Read the interview and watch the show here.

3/ CHANEL opened a heritage art house cinema. We can ridicule performative reading but what’s the harm if it puts the spotlight on books? Likewise, I’m all for getting more bums on cinema seats and Chanel is helping the cause by sponsoring the renovation of Paris’s Cinéma Saint Germain des Prés. Decorated with original art deco furniture and Picasso and Cocteau artworks, it’s a subtle nod to Coco Chanel’s days of schmoozing with artists and cinema luvvies. Plot twist: France actually registered 77 million cinema ticket sales in the first five months of 2026, up 20% on last year. It’s no surprise fashion brands want to align themselves with cinema and culture – witness the (lushly-costumed) YSL-funded Father Mother Sister Brother, which I loved! – it’s a way to embed themselves in the wider pop cultural discourse outside exclusive boutiques and the runway while showing support for creative talent.

4/ We’re all better without META eyewear. People are freaking out about tastemakers selling out to META. And the dystopia of surveillance eyewear. Obviously, I don’t blame them. I get that young people don’t have the luxury of being selective about paid work, they just want to pay their bills. But in META’s case it’s not like they chose rando influencers; they’ve partnered with very successful businesswomen who are presumably not desperate for money. And yet it just goes to show, everyone has their price.

5/ Re-upping my summer beauty survival kit. The Summer Friday lip butter minis are a success! This Peep Club dry eye spray is a summer saviour. And I’ve rediscovered the Omorovicza Queen of Hungary Mist, with its soothing orange blossom and rose scent. Here’s the travel size*.

6/ What I watched. From the grim opening scenes of every episode to the brutal, anxiety-inducing penultimate scene of the final episode, Russell T Davies’ Tip Toe is Channel 4 at its hard-hitting-with-a-side-of-humour best. The story of male relationships and modern-day issues (Brexit! Pronouns! Only Fans!) is worth the watching-through-your-fingers moments. Meanwhile, affecting in a different way, Jon Snow: A Last Big Story starts as a documentary about TV broadcaster Jon Snow’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, but ends in unexpected journalistic triumph.

7/ Oh, L’ETIQUETTE women’s magazine is launching its English language edition in September! (Thanks Fashion People for the intel, and this interview with L’étiquette’s Marc Beaugé is worth a listen.)
L'Etiquette Women's Magazine

8/ This article on what facelift recovery is really like is classic ALLURE (top). Fascinating and gruesome in equal parts – read it here.

9/ CHRISTO: AIR is being shown for the first time. No, the title doesn’t relate to the arctic air conditioning in the Gagosian’s Grosvenor Hill gallery, but to the wonderfully engineered ‘Air Package on a Ceiling’ (until August 21, below) that hovers between ceiling and just above visitors’ heads. Exploring ‘wrapped air’, the transparent, rope-knotted 16 x 10 metre polyethylene sculpture continues Christo’s (with wife Jeanne-Claude) exploration of ‘making the invisible tangible’. In the next room is a wrapped Volvo (unseen for 30 years), plus fabulous vitrines of drawings, studies, letters and prep photos.
Christo AIR at Gagosian
Christo AIR at Gagosian

WORDS: Disneyrollergirl / Navaz Batliwalla
IMAGES: Allure; Shreeji News; L’etiquette; Christo/Disneyrollergirl x 2
NOTE: Most images are digitally enhanced. Some posts use affiliate links* and PR samples. Please read my privacy and cookies policy here.



The pragmatic privilege of the understuffed bag



Chanel by Despi Naka

A few seasons ago, we romanticised the existential poetry of the overstuffed handbag. In 2024, it was kooky, chaotic, main character-coded but also… highly impractical. While I’m a chronic overstuffer (umbrella, multiple lip products, all of the pens – classic Virgo!) I’m also so over being encumbered (physically and psychologically) with all this stuff! Even men are at it with their ‘mine-is-bigger-than-yours’ ginormous commuter backpacks bursting with God knows what. (No really, what are they carrying in them?)

These days, I aspire to be like the street style ladies of Fashion Week, with their courtesy cars quarter-filled suede bucket bags, supple leather totes and soft baskets, telegraphing unburdened freedom and subsequent unbothered joy. And, no doubt, also free from coccyx twinges and ‘laptop shoulder’.
Marta Oldrini understuffed bag by Despi Naka
Cartier bag by Despi Naka
Despi Naka
Despi Naka bag
Despi Naka green bag
Marta Oldrini understuffed bag
Yellow Jil Sander bag by Despi Naka

Apparently, ‘the Gen Zs’ have fallen for the ubiquitous Longchamp Le Pliage tote* – a study in pragmatic product design if ever there was one. Me, I’m thinking Toteme’s floopy leather tote* (now on sale), Liffner’s soft bucket bag*, the underrated L’Uniform ‘cake bag’ (in cherry red canvas) or The Whitechapel Gallery’s Klein blue mini tote for local errands and coffee shop trips to accommodate just a newspaper, phone, sunglasses, keys and cash/cardholder. (Controversial: maybe I’ll even leave the phone at home!)

NOW CLICK BELOW TO SHOP THE POST (I MAY EARN A COMMISSION ON THE BASKET VALUE OF ITEMS BOUGHT*)…

WORDS: Disneyrollergirl / Navaz Batliwalla
IMAGES: 6 x Despi Naka; Marta Oldrini; 1 x Despi Naka
NOTE: Most images are digitally enhanced. Some posts use affiliate links* and PR samples. Please read my privacy and cookies policy here.



Buy it now: Summer Fridays Sweet Summer Minis



Summer Fridays Sweet Summer Minis tinted lip balms

I just ordered this Summer Fridays lip minis trio.

Summer Fridays Lip Butter is my current lip balm go-to; it’s a good consistency, non-drying and seems to last quite well. The tint is barely there, but I’ve accepted that’s the case with most tinted balms. The more pigment, the dryer they are choose your fighter!

A regular tube of Lip Butter is 15g, while these three are 5g each. So, not only are they more portable, but you have a choice of colours. And, being smaller tubes, you can get more product out (in my opinion) since you’re not going to lose half at the bottom of the tube. (Let’s hear it for my ladies who cut the tube in half to get the last fingertip of gloop out.)

Summer Fridays Sweet Summer Minis are available at Cult Beauty and Sephora.



Quote of the day: David Hockney on technology



David Hockney 2026
“It’s not the tool that matters—it’s the eye. A good painting is still a good painting, whether it’s made with a brush or a stylus. It is about sharing experiences. Machines don’t have experiences.”
David Hockney, A Rabbit’s Foot

These were some of David Hockney’s last words, published recently in A Rabbit’s Foot magazine. Always streets ahead of the curve in using new technology, he was a real thinker, whose many books weren’t only visual feasts, but an education in how to look.

While he made pioneering work with Polaroid cameras, faxes and iPads, he didn’t seem all that impressed with A.I. “People are fascinated by machines—but machines don’t see. They calculate. An image made without a human looking isn’t very interesting to me.”

In the accompanying photo, Hockney wore this dazzling oversize check suit and I love the coordinating tie and glasses. He was (quite rightly) held up as a fashion icon and had only recently had six new suits made by his French tailor. Now that’s style dedication.

WORDS: Disneyrollergirl / Navaz Batliwalla
IMAGES: David Hockey/ A Rabbit’s Foot
NOTE: Most images are digitally enhanced. Some posts use affiliate links* and PR samples. Please read my privacy and cookies policy here.

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