Random Recs: Uniqlo’s secret sauce, Studio Nicholson, craft influencers, a secret Negroni Salon
A few snippets of digital ephemera and IRL recommendations I’ve enjoyed lately…
1/ Craft influencers. In a backlash to flattening algorithms and A.I. slop, young creatives are finding value in the imperfect qualities of analogue, tactile pastimes. Vogue Business reports on the craft creators transforming niche hobbies like scrapbooking (hi!) and journalling into fledgling brands and media platforms. This doesn’t surprise me as we saw a similar wave around the banking crash of 2008 when we reverted to wholesome hobbies (sewing machine sales skyrocketed!) in protest of Big Tech and untrustworthy corporations.
2/ BLITZ: THE CLUB THAT SHAPED THE 80s at the DESIGN MUSEUM. Not another 80s fashion exhibition! Yes! But if you enjoy indulging in that decadent era, it’s worth visiting the Design Museum for not just a nostalgic wallow in the Blitz Club’s fashion, but also to revisit the era’s wider influence on graphic design, music, architecture and media. The reconstruction of the club itself with an A.I. Rusty Egan DJing (below) is a fun touch.
3/ Non celebs on magazine covers are my vibe. Good to see Hermes’ Nadège Vanhée on the cover and inside the latest Perfect magazine, photographed by Juergen Teller (below), and graphic design legend Karel Martens on the cover of Fantastic Man (above). Side note: it was fun to celebrate the latest Gentlewoman magazine at Miu Miu in New Bond Street a couple of weeks ago. After 15 years as the editor, Penny Martin is still doing a superb job.
4/ /On tiny attention spans, short form content and Simone Weil in the age of TikTok.
5/ STUDIO NICHOLSON’s perfect day bag. Advocating for short girl bags: a short strap, manageable size (30cm wide), beautiful grained leather and at a non-ridiculous price (£495), Studio Nicholson’s Medi Doublet Bag (below) in Italian grained leather looks ultra-sophisticated in ‘Darkest Navy’, and I predict will look even better with age.
6/ The Negroni Salon. A rare bar recommendation from me. I don’t drink much but I managed to sample a couple of negronis at the preview of The Lanesborough’s new Negroni Salon (opening October 8th). The space is delightfully opulent, intimate and fun, while plentiful truffle fries are the ideal salty accompaniment to a spiced negroni.
7/ UNIQLO, a ‘distribution system for utopian values’. This New Yorker long read is part history lesson in Ametora style, part customer service manifesto and part business masterclass. A few choice takeaways: One in four Japanese people is said to own a Uniqlo puffer jacket. It has ‘takumi’ teams of veteran textile artisans who coach far flung factories on dyeing and sewing techniques. Uniqlo’s precursor Unique Clothing Warehouse employed a rising artist called Jean-Michel Basquiat. In the stores, piles of clothes are ranked from A to E according to tidiness (take note Gap!). (P.S: my Uniqlo AW25 picks: these Paraboot-style lace-ups*; T-bar Mary-Janes* and the cashmere-mix HeatTech*.)
WORDS: Disneyrollergirl / Navaz Batliwalla
IMAGES: Fantastic man; Blitz exhibition; Princess Julia as the Venus de Milo, 1980 by Luciana Martinez de la Rosa; Perfect magazine; Studio Nicholson
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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