Issue # 13
Archive stories

A conversation chaired by Alex Tieghi-Walker It is an uncomfortable truth that part of the thrill, or accomplishment, of shopping lies in the exercise of power by retail environments and the brands that commission them. Designer Faye Toogood, Marie Honda from COS and Richard McConkey of architectural firm Universal Design Studio gathered in a canal-side...

Concept by Ana Dominguez & Omar Sosa Cookery by Ricard Martínez            

Humor Furniture Graphic Born and raised in Milan, Luciano Consigli (1930) has been a key figure in the grapho-humoristic Italian scene since the early ‘60s, when he first founded Humor Graphic. Part book part magazine, it was a series that ran all the way into the early ‘90s. Humor Graphic has been one of the...

Anything but an artist Berlin: Postman, philosopher, gallerist, entrepreneur, science academy president, designer, club owner, writer—Rafael Horzon has done it all. Since he sold his own toaster as a work by a fictitious Japanese artist in his own gallery Berlintokyo in the 1990s, Rafael has been one of the main players of the culture scene in Berlin...

Round the world & home again Los Angeles: Joel Chen’s eponymous shop on Highland Avenue in Los Angeles is a mental and visual whirlwind. 30,000 square feet of seemingly endless space is filled to capacity by a sprawl of hand-chosen furniture and decorative arts that represent virtually all periods and every country. With another 20,000 square...

The spirits of art and history Paris: I had never actually met Jean-Charles de Castelbajac before I was asked to interview him. But for some reason, and not only because he is a famous fashion designer and artist, I felt I already knew him personally before I even shook his hand. Is it because my husband,...

Bernie goes to Hollywood Los Angeles: In a luxury-obsessed market place where almost every fashion house strives to make its customer look and feel wealthy, Bernhard Willhelm has always taken the opposite approach. Willhelm is a champion of nonconformity who cares more about decadence, fun, and continuous exploration than conventional signifiers of status and style. Since...

On life & cookbooks London: When I started researching for my imminent interview with Anissa Helou, it seemed obvious that the story would be mainly about cooking. After all, she’s an expert on Middle Eastern and Northern African food, one who has written several well awarded books on the subjects. As well as that I knew...

A while ago I found myself in a hot stony desert; a place constantly beaten by a wind of sand. I was in a car with a friend who wanted to show me his house that had just been built. In the house there was only one, very thin man, working in the bathtub, cementing...

A unique legacy across three generations Sometimes the best things in life happen by chance. Our trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico was really one of those moments, one in which you really didn’t know what you were about to experience but you could sense that it would remain with you forever. Early last year...

A conversation chaired by Gianluigi Ricuperati In a world where ever-evolving technology has introduced limitless opportunities to the design industry, we’re also experiencing a resurgence in desire for craftsmanship. In anticipation of a new initiative launched by Loewe under the direction of Jonathan Anderson to reflect the importance of craftsmanship—the Loewe Foundation International Craft Prize—we invited...

A train is rolling by outside. It’s very quiet here after dark. I’m lying on tatami mats, with the window open in a old wooden house in East Tokyo. Out there in the dark, small houses made from old wood and corrugated iron crowd around, and in the distance, the apartment blocks, built with deep...

Wes Anderson Photography courtesy of American Empirical Pictures The characters from his movies have lived in houses, hotels, schools, boats, trains, trees, scout camps, on islands, and on beaches; he personally lives in New York but likes to spend time in Paris. This is where I met him, late one afternoon in early December. In...

In the early ‘70s, Oscar Tusquets Blanca (Barcelona, 1941) and Lluís Clotet (Barcelona, 1941), two complex personalities who were then part of Studio Per, took on the task of designing and building a home on the Italian island of Pantelleria, situated 100km southwest of Sicily. In response to our request, Tusquets agreed to meet us...

For the ages New York City/Twentynine Palms: In a corner of his Greenwich Village apartment, the artist Jack Pierson keeps a photograph by another artist, 19th century Frenchman Louis Igout. The picture shows a naked man in repose, his hands and feet carefully splayed at his sides, his small dark cloud of pubic hair a sort...

The mayor of Los Angeles Los Angeles: Over coffee and the hand-built omelettes of Donna Shire, Peter Shire, Ryan Conder, and I talk shop, LA history, and we daydream of a Malibu with a more romantic crowd in the water. Breakfast is in the courtyard at Peter’s studio, a colourful, garden-lined outdoor space with funky vessels of...

If there is anyone who has successfully gone to Ikea to pick up just one thing, I’d love to meet that person. In my own experience, it is impossible to go to Ikea and come out with just one thing, unless that one thing is, like, a kitchen. It is entirely possible, on the other...

Amman is made up of beige cuboids between four and six storeys high, interrupted by the occasional glossy glass-fronted version. The city looks like it was thrown together in a hurry and taken out of the oven half-baked, and this is almost true: what was at the time a chain of villages laced over seven...

Recently I watched myself give birth on TV. I saw my face contort into a range of pinched expressions, none of which I had ever wanted to see, especially not on a 24 inch flat screen. The television was actually switched off, but its suspension above my delivery suite bed meant I couldn’t avoid my...

Spirited and strong; a sweet, black haired pixie who is progressive in her views on female sexuality and free thinking over all, Fabiola Alondra is the director of Fulton Ryder, a private, invitation-only bookshop, gallery and publisher. Coming from a background rich in books, Fabiola worked for John McWhinnie, a noted rare book and art...

Arturo Rhodes I met Arturo very late at night a couple of summers ago in Majorca, in the only bar of a small village by the sea that is flooded every summer by the crème de la crème of the international jet-set and the glamorous and good looking arrivistes that follow them. I met him...