PHAEDRA

 

    image courtesy of ©Bregje Sliepenbeek

In the luminous interplay of metal and flame resides the Phaedra candle holder, a sculptural reverie by artist Bregje Sliepenbeek, hand-forged in Amsterdam. In Size L, its dimensions unfold with commanding presence: sweeping curves of hammered aluminium reflect the candle’s dance, casting shifting light across surfaces. It invites grandeur, a centrepiece that holds space as much as flame. In Size S, the same design is distilled, petals of metal pressed close, intimate, perfect for smaller settings where subtlety matters as much as form. 

Each piece is cut, shaped and polished from fine aluminium: delicate in weight, strong in personality. The metal’s mirror-like surface amplifies every flicker; beeswax candles supplied with the piece enrich every glow with softness and natural warmth. The Size S candle holder measures approximately 18 × 15 cm, making it an ideal artwork for a sideboard, writing desk, or windowsill. The Size L version magnifies that effect, becoming a gathering point, a silhouette set against shadows. 

EASE AS A RADICAL ACT

 

          image and video courtesy of ©Fforme

The first sound was not applause but the faint slap of rubber against floor, jandals, flip-flops, walking into New York light as if the runway were a strip of black sand by the sea. Frances Howie’s FFORME Spring/Summer 2026 collection opened with this disarming gesture, setting the mood: a refusal of hauteur, a declaration of intimacy with the everyday, an insistence that luxury can arrive barefoot. 

From there, the clothes unfolded with a dual discipline: the strict clarity of construction and the looseness of garments designed for ease. Black, camel, and white grounded the palette in elemental calm, but were pierced by eruptions, a linen-silk suit in grass-green with a saturation that seemed almost alive; hammered gold draped across a halter dress; silver and royal blue satin dresses gleaming with liquid reflections. These colours did not decorate so much as strike, like sudden sunlit interruptions of cloud. 

Materials extended the dialogue between utility and elegance. Bonded seams, recalling the functional logic of wetsuits, erased distraction and let the eye travel unbroken along the body. Silk satin carried a mirror’s liquidity; washed metallic cotton satin gave black dresses a velvet-like depth; airy knits were hand-embroidered with feathers so light they seemed always on the verge of departure. There were frayed fringes, lace, and woven linens that remembered touch, that carried the mark of weather as much as the discipline of tailoring. 

LETTER TO THE END OF SUMMER

 

©tedorè

Dear Summer, 

You have always arrived like an untamed guest, barefoot, salt still clinging to your skin, eyes glittering with the kind of laughter that makes everything around you seem more alive than it really is. You never knock. You simply burst in, fling your arms wide, and suddenly the days are longer, louder, more excessive. 

For a while, I believe you might stay forever. But you never do. And now I see you slipping away, dissolving into the horizon the way a candle melts into its own wax. Your body leans against the sea, and your departure is almost indecent in its beauty. A last flare of orange, a wound of red sinking into the water, a hush that feels like both a goodbye and a dare. 

You have been too much, Summer, and also never enough. You drenched my skin in warmth, yes, but left me thirsty for more than the body can hold. You spoiled me with sunsets so swollen with gold they felt almost arrogant in their perfection, as though beauty had forgotten its duty to be merciful. And yet, you also reminded me that even the longest day dies quietly, that light, however fierce, must bend into dusk. 

AUBÖCK MAGNIFYING GLASS NECKLACE

 

    image courtesy ©Lemaire

Crafted from 100% natural horn, the Auböck Magnifying Glass Necklace embodies Austrian handcraft in dialogue with Lemaire’s refined restraint. Each piece is unique: horn, with its flowing veins and tonal shifts, refuses uniformity and carries its own living character. 

A circular lens, suspended from a supple lambskin cord, sharpens the gaze and magnifies detail – both literally and metaphorically. Adjustable knots enable the wearer to adjust the length, shaping proximity, and perspective. 

GIORGIO ARMANI

In Milan, there existed a building that breathed differently from the rest of the city. On Via Bergognone, where once Nestlé manufactured sweetness for the masses, Giorgio Armani constructed something far more elusive: a temple to the unspoken. Each morning, before Milan awakened to its cacophony of ambition, he would arrive, a figure moving through grey light with the precision of ritual, the measured pace of prayer made manifest in flesh. 

This was never mere punctuality but a sacrament. In a world that mistakes volume for authority, Armani discovered that power whispers its most devastating truths. His footsteps fell neither hurried nor leisurely but calibrated, as though even the rhythm of his walking had been subjected to the same ruthless editing that transformed fabric into philosophy. 

The studio itself defied every cliché of creative chaos. No romantic disorder of genius scattered across surfaces, no theatrical gestures toward inspiration. Music, when present, existed at the threshold of hearing. Fabrics were arranged with surgical precision. A sketch emerged not from the violence of sudden revelation but through the patient accumulation of considered lines, each mark placed with the deliberation of an architect designing eternity. He rarely raised his voice, not from timidity but from understanding that whispers travel further than shouts when they carry the weight of certainty.