When Danish goldsmith Per Enevoldsen, co-founder of the jewellery brand Pandora, and his friend Steen Bock first visited Porto, Portugal, they knew they’d eventually return to construct something together there. The idea crystallized after they returned in 2016 and discovered a pair of Sixteenth-century buildings within the Largo de São Domingos neighborhood that were soon to be available but needed work. Now they’re an integral a part of Largo, the couple’s inaugural hospitality project (opening this week), which mixes an 18-room hotel spread over five historic buildings with Porto’s first restaurant, Cozinha das Flores, and a bar, Flôr from Lisbon-born, London-based by chef Nuno Mendes. Designed by Space Copenhagen with an emphasis on local materials and the work of regional artisans – including Pritzker Prize-winning architect Álvaro Siza, who created the restaurant’s tiled mural – each space reinterprets the appear and feel of a Portuguese home. Mendes, who will prepare dishes equivalent to sweet prawn and steamed egg pie with presunto balchão (ham in a spicy vinegar sauce), has long dreamed of carrying out the project in his mother’s homeland. “That, coupled with the chance to create a street-facing restaurant with rooms upstairs, was especially exciting,” he says. “Hosting people overnight is great, but when you’ve gotten 24 hours with them, all the pieces becomes so way more enjoyable.” Largo opens May 25, thelargo.com.
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Men’s fashion that highlights Indian artistry
India, now the world’s most populous country, has long been underrepresented within the international luxury menswear scene, although a trio of designers are working to alter that. Kartik Kumra was studying economics on the University of Pennsylvania when the pandemic hit, forcing him to return to his hometown of Delhi. For years he was fascinated by the textile traditions of India and seized the chance to start out his own brand, karuwhose name in Sanskrit means craftsman. Small-scale manufacturers supply the brand’s silk and voile fabrics, that are produced on vintage handlooms, giving their camp shirts and patchwork trousers a homespun quality. Harsh Agarwal began working on his brand, Harago, during a year-long break from law school that turned out to be everlasting. Based in Jaipur, Rajasthan, Agarwal visits the homes of each textile artisan he works with, giving him the prospect to construct relationships with suppliers. Sometimes they even show him their personal treasures, equivalent to wedding bedspreads and embroidered kitchen towels, which might encourage latest designs for the brand’s appliqué jackets and lace shorts. Rikki Kher ran a fashion sourcing business in New Delhi for a few years and began making his own clothes from Indian fabrics, eventually starting his own business, cardin 2013 12 months. He travels the country’s various textile manufacturing hubs, incorporating regional specialties – khadi fabrics from Gujarat, Ikat dyeing from Andhra Pradesh – for brand designs including hand-painted shirts and striped silk trousers, all made on site in Kardo’s workshop.
Brazilian artist Alexandre da Cunha has spent 25 years splitting his time between London and São Paulo, and the influence of each settings might be felt in ‘Broken’, a solo show now at Thomas Dane Gallery within the UK capital. His miniseries Exile features five gouache-on-paper works that capture the sensation of being trapped in a kinetic outside world. But, just like the multimedia works that complete the exhibition, his love of cheerful Latin American colours protects him from grim existentialism. Da Cunha also returns to his much-visited world of found objects, with keys and coins encased in glass bottles and embedded in small blocks of concrete, a nod to the brutalist buildings so common in his home country. At Thomas Dane, these works are in conversation with work done later, from São Paulo, which incorporates a makeshift window composed of shovel handles and vibrantly coloured fabrics. It becomes clear that the title of the exhibition is an expression of potential. “Broken” is on view until July 15 thomasdatgallery.com.
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A set of British fabrics that brings Seventeenth-century maximalism to life
Curtain maker Gemma Moulton launched soft furnishings company East London Cloth in 2020 with a straightforward goal: to support a beleaguered textile industry whose wealthy history in Britain is slowly disappearing. Her latest range of materials, titled the Spitalfields Collection, hails from an area of East London that was once at the guts of the silk weaving industry, doing just that. Invited to explore and draw from the archives of a centuries-old Suffolk family spinning mill famous for weaving silk for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation dress (which was once based in Spitalfields, just yards from what’s now East London Cloth’s studio), Moulton chosen three designs and brought them to life for contemporary tastes. The resulting fabrics – floral striped silk and floral plaid, each dating from the Seventeenth century, and a Regency-era cotton belt, all in pastel colours – will bring a touch of old-time glamor to the inside. “I’m not talking about full-size calico,” says Moulton. “But I like the concept of a stunning silk headboard or bed skirt.” If that sounds too maximalist, you possibly can take an example from Moulton’s client, who lives in Spitalfields, and easily frame a small piece of cloth to hold on the wall. From about $250 per meter, eastlondoncloth.co.uk.
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Valuable objects of the architectural duo
When the Paris-Marrakesh architectural duo Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty design a house, they often create a totally thought-out world filled with objects, furniture and surfaces which might be handmade wherever possible. As Studio KO, they designed the famous Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech in 2017 with a patterned façade of handmade terracotta bricks and a concrete bathhouse with custom-made stained glass windows for the Flamingo Estate in Los Angeles in 2019. the little things that some people won’t notice, those final tweaks at the top which might be a very powerful,” says Fournier. Over the years, the duo has collected hundreds of things that they store in lots of warehouses, waiting for an appropriate project. Earlier this month, along with art director Nathalie Guihaumé, they decided to launch a web based store, L’Oeil de KO (The Eye of KO), where they might sell these things, in addition to collaborate with their favorite artisans. Along with items equivalent to a bear-shaped candlestick from British ceramics Rosie McLachlan and stoneware goblets from Parisian Marie Lautrou, L’Oeil de KO will introduce a group of ceramic tableware, created in collaboration with Belgian Atelier Pierre Culot. Fournier discovered work culotte when he bought some cups at an auction just a few years ago. “We need to support and share the work of the artisans we love,” says Fournier. “A handcrafted piece that confronts the growing uniformity of the world.” oeildeko.com.
Mahjong nights punctuated my early childhood, and my memories of the sport were defined by its sensory elements: the nippiness of the pieces under my fingers, the cascading sound as players shuffle the tiles (the Chinese call it “sparrow twittering”). Mahjong is as much concerning the atmosphere because it is concerning the gameplay, as highlighted by a recent T story concerning the architectural firm’s mahjong club. It all starts with the appear and feel of a mahjong rig, and since I’ve recently began playing again, I covet a few of them. Using tiles which have a little bit of history generally is a source of joy, whether it’s passed down through family or comes from the web. Chair AND Etsy offer vintage sets from the 70s, distinguished by old patina and traditional illustrations. For those that desire a more contemporary twist, The Import from Yellow MountainThe “Double Happiness” set features green stripes, an ingenious departure from the solid emerald that sometimes colours the backs of the tiles. And for gamers interested in minimal elegance, AerinThe company’s tiles are made from white melamine and placed in a shagreen box. The act of playing mahjong, in addition to the set itself, might be as luxurious or as frugal because the player wants.
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