Gallery View | This year has been challenging for Kelly Wearstler, the designer behind Proper Hotel Group, the restaurant at Bergdorf Goodman and free-spirited private homes worldwide. In January, while she and her family were out of the country, their longtime Malibu beach house burned to the ground in the LA fires. As she moves forward with rebuilding, another personal project has offered a welcome distraction. Aptly named Side Hustle, it’s a new approach to exhibiting art and design. “From the beginning,” Wearstler says, “I envisioned it as a curatorial platform existing both online and in the physical—but more than that, it’s evolved into a space of exchange, where creatives can experiment and reimagine how audiences encounter their work.” The first iteration debuted October 17 in the pool house of Wearstler’s own Beverly Hills home. Titled “Again, Differently,” the by-appointment set-up explores new meanings that can emerge from repetition and reimagining, with an international creative roster that includes Nynke Koster, Es Devlin and Dozie Kanu. The contribution of Koster is surprisingly intimate: she’s made furniture from rubber and polyurethane castings of architectural details in Wearstler’s 1926 mansion, once home to Barbara and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli of the James Bond franchise. sidehustlegallery.com —Sarah Medford
Akris Turns an Artist’s Cyanotype into an Elegant Textile Pattern for Fall | The Akris fall 2025 collection, done almost exclusively in a navy-and-black palette, is an ode to dusk’s “blue hour,” per the Swiss brand’s creative director, Albert Kriemler. One of the expressive ways the twilight mood is set is via cyanotype, the blue-toned photogram made using a photographic technique invented in 1842. A few years ago, American artist Alyson Shotz constructed a series of diaphanous sculptures that she used to generate 12 untitled cyanotypes, all swirls and wisps in endless varieties of blue. One of Shotz’s images now features on five of this season’s Akris pieces; it’s a chic pattern for a mix of skirts, dresses and coats that work well from day into night.
Sitting Pretty | Handcrafted in the French Alps, the new Drift chair from design gallery Theoreme Editions differs from classic silhouettes thanks to its cantilevered seat. It’s the vision of BrichetZiegler, a Paris-based studio whose lighting has graced the desk of the French president at the Elysée Palace.
Drift chair, from $3,280; theoremeeditions.com
Hats Off | “Stetson: American Icon,” explores the classic chapeau, including the art it’s evoked, such as Lon Megargee’s “The Last Drop from his Stetson.”
$100; rizzoliusa.com
Soft Power | Known for its stylish rugs, Swedish interiors brand Nordic Knots has expanded into bed linens, cashmere blankets and cushions.
Home leopard pillow, $195; nordicknots.com
Stay Cool | In the London neighborhood of Fitzrovia, a new hotel is taking its cues from the area’s bohemian leanings, harking back to the days when Virginia Woolf lived nearby and George Orwell frequented local cafes. Opening later this year, The Newman is an 81-room property designed by Lind + Almond, a London-based studio also known for doing the Hotel Sanders in Copenhagen. Poet-activist Nancy Cunard, an early 20th-century denizen of Fitzrovia, influenced the designers’ vision for the rooms. A mix of art deco and Victorian motifs also surface throughout, a nod to the district’s architectural make-up. A ground-floor restaurant, Brasserie Adalana, makes a lively addition to the surrounding dining scene, and downstairs, the Gambit Bar gets its mystic nature by taking after occultist Aleister Crowley, another Fitzrovia habitué.
Full Plates | A discussion with Paris Starn, the New York-based chef, food stylist, recipe creator and author of the Substack “Playing With Food.”
What’s a recent dish you had the most fun creating?
Lately, for Substack, I’ve been putting a twist on some of my favorite fall desserts. I reimagined the aesthetics and flavors of a linzer torte as a cake, and I reworked the components of an apple strudel into a dome-shaped dessert inspired by my mile-high apple pie recipe. In the strudel, the dough cascades, like the ruffled tablecloth it is served on.
You have a degree in art history, which often plays out in your dishes. What movements, periods or works do you find yourself referencing the most?
I love still-life paintings. My wedding was inspired by some of my favorite Northern Renaissance paintings, with their bunched tablecloths, whole vegetables farcis and the swan pies I modeled my wedding cake after. This summer, I was inspired by Cézanne’s “Still Life with Cherries and Peaches.” In that work, the bunching of the tablecloth offers two angles on the fruit; this is something I have started applying to my food styling, so viewers can see the finished product from different perspectives.
How much does visual presentation affect your approach? Do you ever start with a visual concept and work backward to the flavors?
Absolutely! For an Ellsworth Kelly opening, I took inspiration from his painting “Yellow Relief,” which features two conjoined vibrant-yellow panels, looking like one canvas split down the middle. I immediately thought of doing a banana split, of course, and I turned the iconic dessert into a visual imitation of the artwork.
Many of your creations play on classic recipes, like shortcake or PB&J. How do you balance nostalgia with innovation?
No one creates art—or food—in a vacuum, and I have fun making familiar things feel completely new. PB&Js and s’mores are joyful flavor combinations from my childhood, so it’s not surprising they have served as a nostalgic entry for recipe development and newness.
Perfect Ten | Grace Farms, in the backcountry of southern Connecticut, is a cultural center that invites visitors to build deeper connections with art, nature and one another. Since its founding a decade ago, increasingly ambitious programming has drawn crowds to its 80 public acres, which culminate at a sinuous glass pavilion designed by the Japanese firm SANAA. This fall, a new landmark arrives: “ParaPosition” (2024), a monumental sculpture by the Polish-born artist Alicja Kwade, will crown the highest point on campus and mark the center’s 10th birthday. Composed of interlocking steel frames cradling four sizable boulders and a bronze chair, the piece suggests a balance between man and nature at once immeasurable and fragile. “‘ParaPosition’ invites viewers to shift perspectives, to become aware of their place and to reconsider it again and again, which makes Grace Farms a perfect context for this work,” says Kwade, who joins a small but esteemed group of artists, including Teresita Fernández, Beatriz Milhazes, Olafur Eliasson and Thomas Demand, who are already in the collection. Though founder and CEO Sharon Prince insists she has no designs on creating a sculpture park, the installation of Kwade’s piece is unquestionably a sign of arrival—and, at the very least, a slice of optimism for more good things to come. —Sarah Medford
Best Shots | “Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens,” at the Brooklyn Museum through March 8, has assembled a vast selection of the Malian photographer’s work, including unpublished images on loan from his family.
Silver Linings | The tableware—a tray, a pitcher, tumblers and napkin rings—has the form of corrugated cardboard, some slightly crushed at the edges, circular coffee-cup stains visible on the tray base. Yet, its argentine glint gives it away: It’s sterling silver. If this mismatch of material and object seems familiar, it’s because it has long been a throughline of artist Rachel Whiteread’s work, as seen in her facsimiles of houses in concrete or hot-water bottles in plaster. French silversmith Puiforcat initiated the collaboration with Whiteread for “Silver Set 2025,” which, like all of the Hermès-owned brand’s offerings, is handmade by the artisans at its workshops in suburban Paris.
From $975; puiforcat.com
Wordly Appetites | A new globe-spanning series of Insider Journeys from Sotheby’s and Indagare offers collectors bespoke, hosted itineraries centered around exceptional access to art and culture. The debut trip this December provides VIP entry to the glamor of Abu Dhabi Collectors’ Week, and next October, there’s a culinary journey in Modena, Italy, with chef Massimo Bottura. Future stops? Think the timeless beauty of Venice, the rich heritage of Saudi Arabia and beyond. —James Haldane
Inside Story | “Robert Stilin: New Work” (Vendome Press, $75) focuses on the latest projects from the New York-based designer, picking up where his first book, from 2019, left off. The featured interiors, whether Howard Schultz’s Seattle office or a Montana chalet, are never formulaic but all share a studied eclecticism. Stilin even includes his own Brooklyn apartment and East Hampton “getaway.” Of the latter he writes, perhaps summing up his broader philosophy, “Vintage and contemporary, unattributed and finely pedigreed, the mix runs the gamut. What can I say other than I like what I like?”
Hot Minute | The Louis Vuitton Monterey is a limited-edition update of the house’s first wristwatches, LV I and LV II, which were designed by Gae Aulenti in the late ’80s.
$53,000; louisvuitton.com
Wings of Desire | The name of Tiffany & Co. designer Jean Schlumberger’s iconic “Bird on a Rock” brooch is a bit tongue-in-cheek: that’s no ordinary hunk of mineral the diamond-bedecked fledgling perches upon but an impressive gemstone, different in each iteration, that almost dwarfs the delicate creature. The piece’s witty nature is part of the appeal that made it a classic, beloved by celebrities and tastemakers—most famously, philanthropist and collector Bunny Mellon, whose version was anchored by a lapis lazuli. Now Tiffany’s chief artistic officer, Nathalie Verdeille, has envisioned parallel high and fine jewelry collections that both riff on Schlumberger’s 1965 design. Verdeille and her team carefully analyzed avian anatomy to get the in-flight aerodynamics just right. Plumage, formed from platinum and rose gold and embedded with diamonds, is the main motif of the fine jewelry Wings offerings, while the high jewelry pieces spin off the brooch into other styles, such as necklaces and earrings. The ring below features an open band whose tip is engraved with a quill, while the fine feathered friend on its top has sapphire eyes that seem to twinkle with a magpie-like energy.
“Bird on a Rock” by Tiffany bird Ring in platinum and gold with diamonds, price on request; available at select Tiffany & Co. locations.
