Issues

Clock and dagger

In from the cold

Last year began badly for Russia’s intelligence agencies and it was Vladimir Putin, a former officer of the country’s Committee for State Security (KGB), who delivered the first blow. During a televised meeting of the Security Council of Russia on 21 February 2022, Putin announced his intention to launch a “special military operation” in Ukraine. The president also made a point of humiliating Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (SVR). He kept interrupting Naryshkin until the confused spy chief was reduced to mumbling incomprehensibly. Putin loves humiliating his bureaucrats from time to time as a way of reminding the country who is in charge. However, he had never before attacked the intelligence agencies in public.

A few weeks later, as the world was watching Russian tanks burn on Ukrainian streets, Sergei Beseda, head of the foreign intelligence branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB) – the official successor of the Soviet Union’s KGB – lost his job and was made incommunicado for several months. His department had briefed the president about the political situation in Ukraine. Things had gone so wrong for Moscow’s troops that purges in the FSB seemed inevitable. It was at this moment that Western nations began to expel Russian “diplomats” from their capitals. These expulsions were accompanied by arrests of spies lacking diplomatic cover in countries from Norway and Italy to Germany and Slovenia. Of these arrests, perhaps the most scandalous was that of Carsten Linke, an officer in Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) in December, on suspicion of passing sensitive information to Russia, including about the Ukraine war.

It was a high-level penetration that recalled the Cold War years and suggested that Russia’s spies weren’t as incompetent as many had begun to believe. Linke was not just any agent: he was a rising star in German intelligence. A division head at the bnd’s signal intelligence unit, which spies on communications, he was responsible for vetting candidates for bnd jobs. In this capacity, he was privy to top-level material but also information that could be used to blackmail German spies. Linke was a youth football coach in the Bavarian town of Weilheim. It was during a fundraiser barbecue for his club that he made contact with Arthur E, a Russian-born German businessman in the pay of Moscow. The Germans admitted that Linke had passed on sensitive information regarding Ukraine’s battlefield tactics on two separate occasions in exchange for money. That was very smart of Russia; money is a better motivator than ideology. The infiltration was embarrassing for Berlin and it begged the question: was Linke the only Russian agent inside the bnd or, indeed, Nato?

As they tend to have diplomatic cover, most Russian spies are merely expelled once they are discovered so the public is kept in the dark. Counterintelligence services hate arrests and expulsions. Their job is to identify a spy, then flip them to feed disinformation to their masters. As a rule, they agree to arrests only under political pressure – for example, when their government seeks to send a message to Moscow.

Russian spy chiefs have attempted to get around these diplomatic expulsions by recruiting the children of Russian oligarchs and top-level officials living in the West. Artyom Uss, son of the governor of Russia’s Krasnoyarsk Krai region, was arrested in Italy in October. His company was trying to acquire semiconductors and microchips used in military jets and missile systems from US manufacturers. Uss escaped from house arrest in Milan in March, tearing off his ankle tag and jumping into a getaway car. Shortly after Uss was detained in October, Andrey Yakunin, son of former Russian Railways boss Vladimir Yakunin – previously a KGB officer and confidant of Putin – was arrested after allegedly flying drones over Norwegian military sites in the Svalbard archipelago. Yakunin claimed that he flew drones for recreational purposes only but when Norwegian authorities seized his yacht, Firebird, they found surveillance equipment. Both cases show that Moscow is recruiting the children of the elite, no matter how incompetent, to do its dirty work. That might seem like a sign of desperation but it’s also a way for the agencies (and the Kremlin) to signal that it’s time for those who have succeeded in 21st-century Russia to repay the favour and to bind them to the regime.

Putin’s people

At the height of its power, the Soviet Union had two intelligence agencies: the KGB and the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). The KGB was used for espionage and spying both inside and outside its borders. The gru dealt exclusively with military intelligence and still operates today. Putin’s Russia has three intelligence agencies: the gru, the svr and the FSB, the KGB’s theoretical successor.

The gru’s job is to steal military secrets, disrupt enemy supply chains and assassinate dissidents. In the 2010s, when the agency was expanded, it focused on recruiting special forces (spetsnaz) officers, rather than university students. Members of this new intake brought to the department a military ethos: they don’t much care about operational costs and pride themselves on getting things done. It was a gru team, Unit 29155, that organised the attack on the Czech Republic’s Vrbetice arms depot in 2014 and tried to poison Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev in 2015 with the nerve agent novichok (both missions had the aim of disrupting arms supplies to Ukraine). It was also gru operatives who poisoned their former colleague Sergei Skripal in the English city of Salisbury in 2018. These three operations had one thing in common: an utter disregard for collateral damage.

The svr is Russia’s closest analogue to mi6 or the CIA. It conducts political and industrial espionage, and monitors Russian émigrés. Despite the name changes, Russia’s spy agencies were never reformed after the Soviet Union’s collapse and stick to their Cold War traditions. British double agent Kim Philby holds an almost godlike status inside the svr. Its spies cherish their postings abroad and aren’t enthusiastic about taking on adventurous missions, such as assassinations, that might result in a return to Russia.

The second successor to the KGB, the FSB, also deals with foreign intelligence but its main role is to conduct political warfare rather than to spy. As such, the FSB is most active in former Soviet states, with the goal of keeping Kremlin-friendly regimes in power. In the 19th century, Russian tsars earned the label “gendarmes of Europe” for their efforts to suppress the revolutionary or liberal spirit on the continent. The FSB’s foreign branch is intended to be a new gendarmerie for Russia’s immediate neighbours. This was the agency that assisted pro- Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych as he tried unsuccessfully to suppress Kyiv’s Maidan revolution in 2014 and briefed Putin about the political situation in Ukraine before the 2022 invasion (it predicted that there would be minimal resistance).

All three agencies have suffered losses in their international networks but remain resourceful and innovative. They will be drawing new recruits from the huge exodus of Russians who have fled since the war began. This will be easy, since many will have families back in Russia who are vulnerable to pressure.

Russia’s intelligence agencies have been weakened over the past year but not neutralised. Their fate, as they see it, is bound to that of their benefactor, Putin, who has increased their power and granted them generous salaries. In 2022 many Western countries sought to signal that Russian espionage activities on the scale of the past 20 years would no longer be tolerated. Indeed, Russia’s foreign ministry admitted that it had only two diplomats left in some countries, seriously damaging the Kremlin’s intelligence-collecting abilities. But in Moscow, the purges that everyone expected didn’t materialise. Even the humiliated Naryshkin kept his job and Beseda was quietly returned to his position. This prompted some to wonder: was Ukraine really an intelligence disaster or are the rules that Russian spies live by different from those of their Western counterparts?

Beneath the surface

Russian embassies and cultural centres have traditionally provided cover for the country’s spies. A typical posting in New York – which has one of the largest spy stations in the world, probably because of its sizeable Russian-émigré population – involves long hours on the eighth floor of the ugly concrete high-rise on 67th Street that houses the country’s mission to the UN. The station is known by the agents who work there as “the Submarine” because there are no windows and no phone lines connected to the outside world. Its ceiling is about 30cm lower than on other floors as a result of its extra-thick walls.

Intelligence officers here spend much of their time writing responses to daily requests from Moscow – for information on the intricacies of US financial regulations, for example, or reports on where African states stand on Russia’s UN initiatives. To do so, they consult spies attached to other Russian institutions in America, such as banks. Evgeny Buryakov, arrested by the FBI in 2015, was an svr officer working as the deputy head of the Manhattan office of Russia’s state-owned Vnesheconombank. He pleaded guilty to spying and received 30 months in a US prison; in 2017 he was put on an Aeroflot plane back to Moscow.

From time to time, a spy will leave the Submarine for meetings. Most of these will be innocuous to fool the FBI. Among them, however, will be significant encounters, which aren’t always in person. At a prearranged time, an officer might have a laptop open in his car, parked near a particular corner with a private wi-fi network launched. At a nearby coffee shop, an agent will have his or her laptop open too, connected to the same network.

This is how Russian spy Anna Chapman communicated with her handlers until she was arrested in New York in 2010. Chapman, who was a member of the so-called “Illegals”, a group of Russian spies who the FBI uncovered in 2010, became a minor celebrity following her capture. She had been working in New York’s property market, able to pass herself off as English thanks to her surname and UK passport – both gifts from a rather meek ex-husband. Chapman took the glamorous route, attending Manhattan’s high-society drinks parties. Most Russian agents in New York are required to live in a guarded compound in Riverdale, a suburb in the Bronx, to prevent them from defecting.

New blood

In February 2022 a top student at one of Moscow’s most prestigious universities was invited to a quiet, nondescript office on the second floor of a building usually used by admissions staff. The student knew what this would entail – it wasn’t his first meeting – and decided to covertly record the conversation on his smartphone. “How did your parents take it?” his interlocutor asked. “Positively,” replied the student. “OK,” said the man. “In that case, let me lay out what’s coming next…”

His real job, of course, wasn’t to supervise admissions but to recruit promising students into the svr. He began his pitch, mapping out the career path of a 21st-century Russian spy. By the summer of 2023, explained the recruiter, the agency would have completed the student’s assessment, which would include conversations with a psychologist and polygraph tests. Drug use would be a red flag. Certain political views could be a problem too, especially in these difficult times. There would also be two language tests. The results would not be used to disqualify a candidate; rather, they were to determine his linguistic ability and how long it would take to teach him (and it’s always “him” in Russian intelligence) a language. In any case, the student had been approached because of his linguistic skills – he could speak three languages, one of which was considered rare – so those tests would probably be a formality.

Such interviews are designed to facilitate a smooth transfer of potential spies from universities to the svr. When the student received his master’s diploma, he would be expected to sign a contract. This initial agreement would be for five years’ work (others would follow almost automatically, he was assured, unless he failed particularly badly). He would be awarded the rank of officer and provided with an apartment in Moscow for the duration. Perks would include medical treatment at special facilities and holidays at svr hotels – sanatoriums and rest houses in the Moscow region, on the Black Sea and at Lake Baikal – for the employee and his family, including his parents, free of charge. Finally, his salary: he would initially be paid 85,000 roubles (€1,060) a month but wouldn’t need much money, since his time would mostly be spent in further education at the Academy of Foreign Intelligence.

The first assignment for a new spy is usually three years if the recruit is married or two if single. That’s how a spy’s career is modulated: three years abroad, two years in Moscow; rinse and repeat. The best part, the recruiter emphasised, was that the recruit would have three salaries while working abroad. The first would come from Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the cover position of attaché or third secretary offers a starting salary of about €3,500 a month. The second consisted of 45 per cent of the recruit’s salary in Moscow (about €800). The third would be paid by the foreign ministry in roubles: a further quarter of the Moscow salary (about €500). The recruiter repeated this part about the salaries several times.

“What about the risks?” asked the student. “Is there any danger? Might I get killed in this line of work?” “No way,” said the recruitment officer. Expulsion was the worst thing that could happen to him and, even then, he would be given a job in Moscow or another region. But what was unfair – he added, seemingly upset – was that those who are expelled would lose access to the triple-salary scheme. The student collected his various forms and promised the recruiter that he would return them soon. Both were relaxed: the recruiter believed that he had found a way to win the student’s trust and the student was excited to join the country’s true elite, the Russian intelligence community, which had grown unstoppably in power and influence under Putin.

But two weeks after the university student’s conversation, the president launched Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The student promptly left the country in disgust, leaving behind the chance of an intelligence career but taking his smartphone, whose contents he made available to monocle for this article. Russian intelligence will be denied access to many such recruits. The brightest are fleeing and the country is becoming even more nationalistic – bad news for intelligence gathering, which relies on clear heads untainted by political machinations. It’s worth remembering that paranoia and purges almost destroyed Soviet espionage under Stalin. What is clear is that when Russia thinks of itself as a fortress besieged by enemies, its security agencies will play an increasingly large role in its citizens’ lives.

Back on track

Beside a brass-and-leather-trimmed bar cart, in the middle of an old locomotive train, a posse of jovial passengers has sprung to their feet and is now holding on to each other’s hips or jacket tails as they form an impromptu conga line. In a scene that filmmaker Federico Fellini would have been proud to have staged, a dog-collared Monsignor is following a cream-blazered culture minister and a besuited rail executive through the seemly carriage of the just-renovated ETR 252 L’Arlecchino train as we rattle from Rome towards Naples.

One man in the throes of the conga line is Luigi Cantamessa, director of the Fondazione FS, a branch of Italy’s state-owned railway company. From the carnival atmosphere onboard it’s clear that he’s excited about the relaunch of this iconic green-and-grey classic but that’s also because trains represent something rather important in Italy. “Our railway services are a state within a state,” he said recently about the foundation’s unimpeachable position in national life.

Political leaders and parties come and go but trains remain a unifying symbol of Italian nationhood. Perhaps that’s understandable in a country of such vast regional differences and disparities which only unified in 1871. The association between Italy’s fascist leader, Benito Mussolini – who famously got the trains to run on time, though that’s not what he should be remembered for – and railways endures but, even now, they remain a platform for politics. “Trains,” Cantamessa has said, “are at the heart of what it means to be Italian.”

The pomp and pageantry onboard is to mark the tenth anniversary of Fondazione FS; the company is in the process of trying to restore and revitalise Italy’s heritage rail infrastructure. Monocle boards L’Arlecchino promptly at 08.30 at Ostiense station to experience the benefits of taking in our surroundings a little more slowly. Our three-hour journey would take little more than an hour on modern, high-speed services.

Named after the colourful Harlequin figure of 16th-century Italian theatre, L’Arlecchino launched in 1960, ahead of the Summer Olympics in Rome, and captured a moment of breezy optimism in Italy; of economic postwar miracle. Architects Gio Ponti and Giulio Minoletti were charged with designing the interiors and branding, while the engine’s shape, with its aerodynamic nods to the jet age, was modelled on the larger etr 300 Settebello from the 1950s. L’Arlecchino was one of four built as part of a First Class-only fleet of high-speed (for the time) trains that celebrated travelling in style.

The ETR 252’s quirky design was revolutionary, with drivers’ cabins at each end that perched the driver up high. This decision created panoramic lounges and views for any passenger who was sharp-elbowed enough to commandeer the swivel chairs (from which you are today encouraged to enjoy a cocktail muddled by the on-board barman). Meanwhile, each of the carriages was colour-themed in blue, gold, red and green, respectively, and each of the 170 seats was designed to be First Class.

Today the train’s gleaming, retro-futuristic appearance belies the painstaking effort that’s gone into its renovation. “As time goes by the numbers of any particular type of train decreases,” says lead engineer Riccardo Natali, who wears tellingly clean vintage overalls. It’s clear that this one-off has a special place in his heart. “Any trains that survive this long require an increasing amount of care.” Until 2020, this L’Arlecchino lay graffitied, stripped of its seats and interiors, and derelict in a railyard, its curvy carapace the only hint of the design’s important history. “We have to be innovative to restore a train like this,” he says. “You have to mix technologies from different eras.” Aside from helping the 60-year-old engine hum again, Natali relished learning about the softer side of train design in the 1960s. “The velvets that we used were selected to meet all the requirements of modern standards and are of a better quality than period textiles,” adds the engineer, his aspect suddenly softening.

You don’t need to be onboard L’Arlecchino for long before realising that the design of this train is about so much more than getting from A to B. It’s really about the enjoyment of travel, of seeing and being seen. As if to prove the point, Monocle spots politician and entrepreneur Daniela Santanchè – a chum of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi – swivelling on her chair in the front-facing lounge on this anniversary special journey. She’s also the government’s minister for tourism. “This is not transport,” she says, taking in the blurred landscape of suburban Naples from the panoramic windows. “This is travel.”

Behind the minister, the windows are decorated with jolly, green-and-white-striped sun blinds with a wiggly trim. As we talk, a man in a starched white uniform appears and offers us diamond-shaped biscuits, iced brightly to match the train’s vibrant interiors and served in silver bowls bearing the FS insignia. Like the branding of the larger Settebello model in the fleet, there’s a fine line between gaudiness and good taste. If, as Cantamessa says, FS is a little like a state within a state, then travelling on L’Arlecchino is akin to flying on Air Force One: it’s a statement of prestige and Fondazione FS only plans to use L’Arlecchino for very specific trips.

Santanchè says with considerable glee that tickets for a short ride from Venice to Trieste in 2022 “sold out in less than 24 hours”. The train is available to charter – one to book for your corporate awayday maybe? A moving wedding venue perhaps? In truth, it’s hard to imagine a practical everyday use for this strange, old, mid-century bird.

As we pass the commune of Pozzuoli on the outskirts of Naples, the train begins to chug a little – as if it’s breathing deeply. Natali informs Monocle that the train is no slouch, with a maximum speed of 160km/h, but the modern Frecciarossa fleets that crisscross the country regularly reach speeds of 300km/h. Though the etr 252 has not been surpassed in ambition, it has been swiftly overtaken by what’s possible. “Our objective is not [always] about getting to the destination quickly,” says Natali. “It’s to enjoy the journey.”

With those words ringing in our ears, our carriage emerges from a dark tunnel and a gap between buildings offers a postcard-pretty glimpse of the Bay of Naples with Capri and Ischia in the distance. The hum of the carriage falls silent as the old engine chunters on towards its final destination. Santanchè is right: this is travel.

Into the fold 

Find N2 Flip
Oppo

This folding phone from Oppo has an outside screen so your photo subject can decide whether they like how they look before you snap, plus a hinge designed to hide the middle crease better. You can also set it at various angles – in an L-shape for video calls, for instance. The N2 Flip is one of the best folding smartphones.
oppo.com

Watch Buds
Huawei

Press on the edge of this watch and the display flips up to reveal tiny capsule-shaped earbuds that are held in place magnetically. The earbuds have good audio, with strong active noise cancellation and rich sound overall. There are three sets of silicone ear tips for the best fit. While regular in-ear headphones are marked left and right, here they’re identical and are reset each time you put them back. The smartwatch is attractive too, with decent battery life and features such as heart-rate monitoring and 80 modes for measuring your sporting endeavours.
huawei.com

SuperConnect Stereo
Revo

Revo was founded in 2004 and has grown hugely, with a special-edition Monocle Radio as one of its many highlights. One of its most popular models, the SuperConnect, has been updated with the same design language, stereo speakers and DAB1, as well as FM tuners. If that’s not enough, the wi-fi connection can access 36,000 internet radio stations. You can also listen to streaming services and it has Bluetooth. The sound quality is exceptional: warm and rich with lots of detail, and the twin speakers ensure that the radio has a wide soundstage.
www.revoaudio.co.uk

Staying power

At the heart of Capella Sydney, the Harbour City’s most ambitious new hotel in years, there’s a plant-filled oasis called Aperture. Today guests and Sydneysiders are busy ordering coffee under a constellation of flowers created by Amsterdam-based designers Studio Drift. But Make Architects’ Michelle Evans, who led the painstaking restoration of the 107-year-old sandstone building, tells Monocle that the site looked rather different when the project started seven years ago.

Tasked with designing “the best hotel in the world”, Evans began with a “treasure hunt” for heritage features. A painstaking restoration revealed the bones of the building, which once housed government offices. Now the low ceilings and cubicles are gone, replaced by 192 guest rooms and suites, a bar, lounge, spa and Brasserie 1930, the fifth restaurant from Sydney’s Bentley Group.

Capella Sydney is the first Australian outpost of Singapore-based Capella Hotels. As such, it was crafted to reflect and celebrate aspects of Antipodean culture, says Nick Hildebrandt, sommelier and owner of the Bentley Group. Executive chef Brent Savage’s menu includes Flinders Island scallops and Kinross Station lamb; throughout the hotel you’ll spot artwork by Australian artists such as Judy Watson or Otis Hope Carey and design details from Melbourne stylist Simone Haag. You can even drink a Capella Sydney beer. Marc von Arnim, the hotel’s general manager, talks us through its thoughtful fit-out.

Sydney’s hospitality scene is finally coming back to life. What makes Capella Sydney stand out amid all of the recent activity?
We had an amazing building from the get-go. Make Architects and interior-design company BAR Studio transformed what was once a government facility into a luxury hotel. There’s nothing else like it in Australia.

How important was attention to detail in the redesign?
We wanted to work with someone who didn’t “do hotels” so we chose stylist Simone Haag, who is from a residential background. We also worked with curators Artlink. We procured 400 pieces by Australian artists – some emerging, some Indigenous. Otis Hope Carey has created a mural in our McRae Bar. Max Berry has made a beautiful piece for us too.

Are there any spaces that you particularly like?
When you look up inside the building, you see the sky through all of its internal façades and an installation, “Meadow”, by a Dutch company called Studio Drift. Its 19 lights represent flowers and they open and close. The calmness there instantly relaxes you.
capellahotels.com

Indie labels

“I was bored of advertising and wanted to create something real – with my hands, with natural materials, with soil and dirt,” says graphic designer-turned-wine-maker Jutta Ambrositsch. “In 2004 it was easy to lease a vineyard in Vienna and that was pretty much it for me.”

Learning how to make wine from scratch was tough but from an initial 800 bottles of riesling, Ambrositsch created a business that sold about 25,000 bottles last year, 80 per cent of which were exported. Her background in design helped when it came to creating a catchy label too.

Ambrositsch’s success is remarkable but her story is increasingly common. Peruse the shelves of most bottle shops, independent restaurants or supermarkets and you’ll spot that the wine label, once a melange of cursive script, arcane terms and esoterica, has changed to reflect a new wave of makers and drinkers.

The €453bn global wine market remains top-heavy. Italy heads up exports; alongside France, Spain and the US, these top four producers make more than half of all plonk. But the figures don’t tell the whole truth. Some of the 9 per cent increase in revenues expected in 2024 will be the result of a thirstfor wine from smaller vineyards in less obvious places: think Thai shiraz, Japanese müller-thurgau or sparkling wines from the UK, made to rival those of Champagne.

“We’ve definitely seen a new generation of drinkers who are more accepting of who can make wine, where it can be made and how it can look,” says AJ Pawlikowski, co-founder of Amsterdam wine shop Benelux Wine Co, which he runs with his partner, Malory Lane. The pair moved to the Dutch capital from Japan in 2019 and started their shop to showcase wine made within 400km of their base.

While Dutch wine might once have sounded like a punchline, the pair aren’t short of people to work with. “There’s a more inclusive attitude in the wine world now,” says Pawlikowski of the emerging the shop in the Dutch capital’s buzzy, cobblestoned Jordaan district. “One thing that helps them to stand out is their labels.”

The shift in their design isn’t simply a whim or a bit of canny branding. The Old-World rules were dictated by historic wine-producing regions and were largely implemented by in-house printers and typesetters rather than dedicated designers. “There’s no common denominator when it comes to how to read a label or what should be on it,” says Swiss wine writer and critic Chandra Kurt. “That depends on where a wine comes from. We’re more regulated in Europe and in some places, you need to include the vintage, the winemaker, the region, the subregion – a lot of information. But in other places, such as the US, or countries with lots of smaller producers, you’re much freer. You can be artistic.”

Few establishments sum up the wine label’s imaginative turn better than Shrine to the Vine, a colourful vintner that opened on Lamb’s Conduit Street in London’s Bloomsbury in 2021. Its shelves heave with quirky bottles that range from the traditional to the eye-catching. You might spot wine-maker Bruno Duchêne’s La Luna label, which looks like it was drawn with wax crayons by a child, a gold-foiled Yarra Valley riesling or Swartland red by Duncan Savage bearing the simple outline of a telegraph pole. The rule, it seems, is that there ain’t no rules. The freedom to include as much or as little information as the wine-maker fancies is being tested at both extremes.

The shop was co-founded by Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew, the pair behind Noble Rot, a budding wine empire that started as a magazine published three times a year. It grew into two restaurants of the same name, with another expected to open this spring, as well as a wholesale wine business. The pair’s house wine, an organic vinho verde called Chin-Chin made by Quinta do Ermizio, is emblematic of the iconoclastic turn that label design has taken, depicting a devilish red dog grimacing in front of a punchy yellow background. At less than €14, the wine is affordable, unpretentious, delicious and eye-catching, thanks to the illustration by Spanish designer Jose Mendez, who came to the pair through his work for the magazine, having never designed a wine label. “It’s a great wine at the right price,” says Keeling. “But there’s something about the label and the bottle’s look and shape that caught people’s attention.”

The more playful labels are part of a bigger movement to experiment with both what’s inside and on the outside of the bottle. “Natural wine, like craft beer before it, has made wine more accessible than ever,” says Keeling. “One of its greatest legacies – besides, obviously, improving farming – will be the accessibility. Ten years ago, friends of mine would have been put off. Now they don’t have to decide based on anything other than whether they like the vibe of the label.”

So, are there any rules of thumb that should still be adhered to? “It’s like with any other kind of beautiful object,” says Keeling, a former Sony record executive who compares creating wine-label art to designing a great record sleeve. “It’s the paper and the printing; it’s the kind of wax top; it’s the thickness of the bottle.”

Not every new design is successful and most people in the industry still have a soft spot for classic labels. “I love traditional wine-label design,” says Ambrositsch. “A few decades ago, it was about including dozens of bone-dry messages and regional information in a harmonious, sensitive way. Today, the natural-wine sector has developed a global design language. It’s colourful, crazy, sometimes a little disrespectful, often using big and loud type. Eye-catching labels have democratised wine but also commercialised what a precious delicacy it can be.”

Lane of Benelux Wine Co agrees, adding that anyone can make a loud label but the skilful part is in making one that matches what’s inside. “Corporate wineries can take advantage of label design,” she says. “It’s a challenge for many small wine-makers who are putting all their energy into the wine, not the label design. I’ve told customers to ignore a label if it’s not terribly beautiful. Despite that, the wine can be great, as we’ve proved in our tastings.”

Ultimately, for a product to be credible and feel authentic, there needs to be a balance between what’s inside the bottle and how it presents itself. “Take that Hermitage there,” Keeling tells Monocle, turning to point at a nearby old bottle. “This label would have been made by a printer in Burgundy who works with a lot of wine growers who come there to typeset their labels. It’s why you get a lot of crossover and there’s authenticity in that. It’s not overly designed. If it looks like it’s been done by an agency, that’s a big no-no for people who are into artisanal wine.”

The consensus? That even after more than 30 years in the industry, wine writer Kurt can still be seduced by a clever label. “You taste first with your eye,” she says. “If nobody tells you anything, you’ll pick a bottle based on price, maybe the region and the look of the label: even if it tells you nothing about the quality of what’s inside the bottle. If I don’t know any better, I’ll choose based on the label but you can’t really trust it.” On the other hand, Kurt reminds us, great wine can often lurk behind bad branding.

“To put it simply, a good label makes a bottle easier to sell but that doesn’t guarantee that customers will come back,” says Lane back at Benelux Wine Co with a smile. “The wine has to be good.”

Design for the vine

1.
Weingut Werlitsch
Simplicity sells and Ewald Tscheppe’s organic wine from Styria doesn’t give much away. Every bottle bears the same monochrome logo and a few sparse, often esoteric, words denoting what’s inside. Get the picture?

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2.
Cantina Giardino
Stockholm-based illustrator and animator Jonas Mosesson, who has worked for Adidas, Amazon and Apple (and that’s just the As), turned his hand to labels for this Campania natural-wine producer.

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3.
Quinta do Ermizio
Spanish-born Jose Miguel Mendez studied in Paris before settling in London. He worked on magazine commisions for Noble Rot before creating his first label for its house white.

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The old world

4.
Billaud-Simon
The label is one thing but the bottle’s sloping shoulders and pastoral scene tell you that you’re in Burgundy. For all the information that they put on wine labels, Burgundians rarely list grapes: chardonnay if white; pinot noir if red.

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5.
Château Roudier
The red top, high shoulders, tinted label and cursive script suggest that we’re now in Bordeaux. Established wine regions’ labels can seem obtuse but are really about cementing an area’s prestige.

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6.
Viuva José Gomes
This smaller-than-usual 650ml bottle from 1969 makes the Collares wine region near Lisbon its headline. The gold foiling over that punchy red rhombus is pure mid-century magic.

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Austrian upstarts

7.
Kamptal Kollectiv
London design studio Gunter Piekarski chose off-white paper and a simple line drawing for this bottle from Austria’s Kamptal Kollektiv.

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8.
Claus Preisinger
This blush-coloured blaufränkisch bears a funky label with a single word, “Dope”. Its jaunty angle hints at the less-than-traditional rosé lurking within.

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9.
Jutta Ambrositsch
Why Satellit? “It was a distant relationship in the beginning,” says Jutta Ambrositsch of her vineyard across the Danube. “It was a timid love but it grew fast.”

Cabin crew

When the lease for Mammertsberg, a Swiss villa near the shores of Lake Constance, became available last year, star chef Andreas Caminada knew that he wanted it. Built in 1911 in the tiny village of Freidorf, the white-washed building, which has six guest rooms, overlooks a panorama of green sloping fields, working farms, blossoming apple orchards and gently smoking chimneys. With its pitched roof, timber frames and colourful wooden shutters, Mammertsberg is atmospheric, traditional and offers a warm welcome from the young team at the front desk.

“There aren’t many gems like Mammertsberg,” says Caminada of the inn, which has long been beloved by visitors and locals alike. He didn’t take on the project alone. Instead, the lease was shared with his protégé, Silvio Germann, a former head chef at the two-Michelin-starred restaurant Igniv in the spa town of Bad Ragaz, about 70km south of Lake Constance.

The Mammertsberg site has had several upgrades over the years, including a spruce-up by Zürich-based architect Tilla Theus about a decade ago. The latest revamp came from design firm Space Copenhagen, which opted for gentle tweaks throughout. The historic, wood-panelled interiors are now offset with muted colours, soft linen curtains and lighting by the likes of Michael Anastassiades and Mathieu Matégot. The round dining tables are made by Danish carpenter Malte Gormsen and guests in the upstairs lounge can sink into leather sofas while flicking through art books from Caminada’s personal collection. The six bedrooms, each unique, include linen rugs, softly curving oak-backed sofas by &Tradition and floor lamps by Gubi. The result is Swiss alpine splendour carefully brought into a contemporary look.

The pair of chefs are friends as well as equal partners in the business but Caminada has consciously stepped back to allow Lucerne-born Germann to run the show. The younger chef’s dishes are all about deep and rich flavours and, while he favours local produce, he’s not so doctrinaire that he doesn’t source certain ingredients from further afield. His tasting menu comes as three or five courses (for the really hungry) and, when Monocle visits, it includes chestnut gnocchi and beef tartare with beetroot.

Mammertsberg’s diners are a mix of locals who are curious to see how this age-old restaurant has evolved and those who have travelled from nearby Germany and Austria to find out what the young chef has up his sleeve. Always eager to surprise, as well as tap into the area’s culinary heritage, the menu on any given day might include regional delicacies such as venison or smoked eel from the lake. The canton of Thurgau is also the apple-and-pear capital of Switzerland so the fruits are frequently on the menu in some form. “A local farmer smokes pears and he brought them to me when they were still warm,” says Germann, as he smacks his lips.

For Germann, who is just 34 years old, running a restaurant and hotel is a huge responsibility but one that he’s happy to take on. “It’s not just about the cooking and it’s not a one-man show either,” he tells Monocle as he emerges from the restaurant’s glass-walled kitchen. “It’s also how you are

Germann sources his meat from butcher Michael Vogt, who works out of a shop-cum-restaurant on the shores of Lake Constance. Vogt provides dry-aged meat from grass-fed cows for Germann’s tartare and smoked meats for the breakfast table. “My speciality is older cows,” says Vogt, as we pass through the shop with the young chef. “It’s a really rare type of meat and it has a deep, rich flavour.”

Mammertsberg’s menu comes with a wine-pairing option but the restaurant doesn’t overlook its non-drinking guests. “We match flavours and aromas to food groups to complement each dish,” says maître d’ and sommelier Giuseppe Lo Vasco. “For example, we have a smoked tea and pear mix to go with a pork dish.”

Germann admits that, though his network is good, he’s still busy scouting producers to meet his imaginative needs. In the meantime, he has just bought a consignment of cime di rapa (turnip tops) from Italy. “We’ll cook them over the fire,” he says. “I also have lemons from southern Italy. So the sweetness from those together with the wild greens is the perfect combination.”

Germann has already started growing his own vegetables, including radicchio, kale and celery, in the restaurant’s small kitchen garden but he’s getting ready to increase its output by planting herbs and edible flowers. He also hopes to build a greenhouse. “It’s good for our chefs to be close to the soil and to their ingredients,” he says. “And I like to get my hands dirty, especially in the afternoons.”

The chef’s vision is clear: to elevate Swiss cooking while using the best ingredients that the region has to offer. That said, running a restaurant is as much about pleasing the people who arrive as it is chasing an international standard of excellence.

So how does Germann respond to the area’s more traditional tastes? “Well, I always have bratwurst in the fridge for guests who stay up until three in the morning,” says Germann with a laugh. “But it is not going on the menu.”
mammertsberg.ch

Track changes

Many rail projects are finally getting the green light, meaning smarter trains and new overnight services in Europe and the US.

Rail developments tend to be slow-going but there’s a clear direction of travel in 2023. The European Commission recently announced that it is supporting 10 pilot projects to establish or improve cross-border rail services across Europe.

New services (especially night routes) and gleaming trains with smarter and more comfortable cabins are the order of the day, as European governments and rail operators begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel after years of cutting costs. In part, this comes in response to a public fed up with logjammed airports and leg-jammed flights. Add to this an increasingly vocal faction who are rightly concerned about aviation’s climate impact. Rail can play a part in reaching emission-cutting goals over the coming decades and there are even positive signs down the line for the long-underfunded rolling stock in the US.

So what can we expect? Well, Austria’s ÖBB and its Nightjet services have been leading the charge, improving and expanding overnight rail across Europe. This continues with the delivery of 33 next-generation Nightjet trains from Siemens Mobility that will start to pull up on platforms later this year. As well as comfier interiors, they will also have innovative mini-cabins on offer that are akin to sleeping in a capsule hotel room on rails. For about the price of a shared berth, solo travellers can enjoy a greater level of privacy.

Private compartments are also available on the new Stockholm-Berlin service from Swedish state rail operator, SJ. This is an extension of a Hamburg-bound route that launched last year and takes about 15 hours. The onboard offering is more utilitarian than extraordinary (albeit in pleasant, muted hues) but its existence is still remarkable.

There is a vast and growing demand in the Nordics for more intercontinental rail routes as an alternative to flying – and governments are beginning to act on it. European Sleeper is another service launching this year. It will offer overnight travel from Brussels to Berlin with services timed for connections from the Eurostar, so a London to Berlin rail journey will be easier than ever.

And hats off to Amtrak for finally investing in its long-overlooked trains. The US company began modernising several of its overnight services last year as part of a €26m programme. It has begun the process of replacing trains for its entire long-distance fleet, a reassuring sign that these iconic long-haul routes will operate for years to come.

Finally there’s Midnight Trains, a Parisian rail start-up that is prioritising comfort, luxury and privacy on its proposed overnight network, which is due to launch in 2024. If all goes to plan, it will eventually connect the French capital hub with 12 cities across Europe, including Edinburgh, Porto and Copenhagen, though the rolling stock is not known yet.

While any new stock or improved routes will be a good thing for travellers, it is Midnight Train’s ambition to elevate the standards of service and surroundings that excites us most. Quiet cabins, good food and great amenities are what is required if business and leisure travellers are going to forego the convenience of short-haul flights.

Pretty in pink
Marrakech

Behind the blush walls of Maison Brummell Majorelle lies an oasis of storied design in Yves Saint Laurent’s old neighbourhood.

“We made five different colour tests for the façade,” says Christian Schallert, peering upward as he recounts his recent encounter with Marrakech’s stringent planning laws. Schallert’s new hotel is a striking addition to the quiet Majorelle neighbourhood, rendered in the city’s traditional ochre-pink colourway.

The new opening marks the end of a long and sometimes difficult journey for the Austria-born Schallert. He opened his first hotel in Barcelona in 2015 and purchased a prized plot of land behind Yves Saint Laurent’s former Marrakech residence back in 2017.

Now that the site is ready for guests, the self-made hotelier strides through his just-finished maison, gesturing to a wall-hanging made from a repurposed djellaba. Every object has a story: the sunloungers made by a metalworker from the medina; the brass ashtrays and bowls designed by an affable artisan in a souk close to the Ben Youssef Mosque. Three textured paintings hang as testaments to the joys of art-as-therapy – they were made by Schallert during, he says, “peak construction frustration”.

New Zealand-born architect Bergendy Cooke played with Moroccan vernacular ideas of privacy for the hotel, which she likens to “an eight-bedroom home”. Arched and inverted apertures see golden arrows of sunlight pierce different parts of the building throughout the day, creating a slow-moving spectacle of light and shadow. The interiors are almost ecclesiastical, from the curved ceilings to the traditional Tadelakt hand-polished plaster walls.

“I envisaged another Marrakech experience, away from the souk or medina, without trying to reinterpret the riad,” says Schallert. “I want people to feel as though they’re in a sanctuary where they can unwind from the hustle of street traders or bustle of traffic.”

A sunken lower-level terrace, private hammam and pool provide recluse from the sounds (and eyes) of the neighbours. Pointedly, there are no televisions in the rooms; stone bathtubs provide an alternative way to unwind.

A clutch of collaborations with Spanish makers, including bed covers and cushions from Santa Living and small geometric sculptures by Manolo Menéndez of Unvolumen, create a dialogue across the Strait of Gibraltar. “I want guests to connect with each other but also discover the hidden city, which emerges more slowly,” says Schallert, who also remodelled two apartments in the nearby Gueliz district.

For a photographer who moved into private tourist rentals in Barcelona, Schallert shows off both his eye for surprising details and excellent hosting skills at Maison Brummell Majorelle. And with the roof of Yves Saint Laurent’s house poking through the palms next door, his elegant new hotel is certainly keeping up with its neighbours.
maisonbrummellmajorelle.brummellprojects.com

Fine print

In the fast-changing pocket of suburban Paris where Citroën cars were manufactured until the 1970s, a modernist structure designed by US architect Richard Meier sticks out of the tangle of concrete residential blocks. The only clue that this all-white Rubik’s Cube of a building is the headquarters of Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD), one of France’s biggest weekly newspapers, is the discreet sign of Lagardère News, the media group that co-owns the title, above the entrance. “We’ll go straight to the morning meeting,” says Stéphane Albouy, the JDD’s editorial director, as he greets us in the lobby and whisks us upstairs.

Launched in 1948 by Pierre Lazareff, the JDD is a journal du septième jour: a newspaper that is available only on Sundays. This segment of the publishing industry, comprising more than 40 titles nationwide, represents 6 per cent of France’s overall press sales.

Though the JDD’s print performance has faltered in recent years, it remains one of the country’s most popular Sunday papers. With a circulation of more than 135,000 copies, its figures are on par with the daily sales of Les Echos, the nation’s biggest financial title. “The JDD is historically known as a paper of influence,” says Albouy. “Debating an idea, getting under the surface and behind the scenes of power, is what interests us. Our readers have an ingrained print culture. About a third of them are from the Paris region. They are mostly urbanites; they’re decision-makers.”

Long renowned for its impartiality, the paper recently came under fire following the 2017 acquisition of Lagardère by Vivendi, a company led by businessman and media mogul Vincent Bolloré (the acquisition is being investigated by the European Commission due to its potential to concentrate France’s media in few hands). Plenty of new hires, including Albouy himself, were brought on board. Many readers were worried that the JDD would skew to the right as a result but staff insist that the title remains neutral. “The newspaper has evolved over the past year to become more open to representing the diversity of political voices in France,” says Albouy, who is dressed in an impeccable navy suit. “For instance, we featured the prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, on the pension reforms but also the leader of The Republicans, Éric Ciotti, as well as Marine Le Pen of the far-right Rassemblement National and Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the far-left La France Insoumise.”

Even so, at a time when people are increasingly becoming disillusioned with politics, the JDD had to rethink its positioning. “There is political-news fatigue: politics has lost its lustre and is seen as dirty,” says Jérôme Béglé, the JDD‘s managing editorial director, another new hire, who had spent 10 years at news magazine Le Point. “We found that our readers wanted to read more and longer features too – and not just about politics but also about social topics.” That’s why Béglé was brought on board to explore how the JDD could become more relevant to its readers. “I didn’t want to create another supplement that would rival the main paper so we decided to launch a well-made monthly magazine with room for beautiful photography and more evergreen features,” he says.

The team studied competitors at home and abroad to create a publication based on what its rivals weren’t doing. “We wanted a focus on literature and books, and investigative journalism,” says Albouy, picking up some books from the office floor. A former editor at Le Parisien newspaper, Albouy was called in last spring to think up the format for JDD Magazine, which launched in November. Originally contracted for six months, he was asked to stay on to oversee all of the publication’s platforms. “I had a month to think of a concept,” he says from his glass-fronted office, as a train zips alongside the river Seine below. “It was an exciting time. I sat in [Béglé’s] office, soaking up the atmosphere, the journalists’ interests, the DNA of the JDD.”

The idea that he alighted on was to create a magazine with three sections: the first on books, the next on society and the last dedicated to lifestyle. The sections would be the effect that the fatwa on the writer had on them. “We try to give every story a twist editorially and visually,” says Delacroix. “It’s about taking a different approach to a social topic, giving it a fresh angle and highlighting a link to book publishing,” says Albouy.

Every issue also makes a point of devoting plenty of pages to longform articles. “It’s rare today to have this much room for features,” says Albouy, as he leafs through a copy. “We wanted to give space to literature – not just new book releases or reviews but real content: interviews, investigative features, short stories… In France, book authors frequently delve into social topics as though they were documentary-makers, revealing hidden sides of important issues that then become newsworthy. Including their work allows us to operate at the crossroads between literature and society.”

That principle applies to many of the magazine’s features. In a past issue, the team asked former prime minister Édouard Philippe, who is also a writer of political thrillers, to come up with a fictional short story. The editors also shipped a food writer to Lapland for a travel piece. “Sending a journalist who specialises in Michelin-starred dishes to report on the pared-back diet of the Sámi people was a way of bringing something fresh to the table,” says Aude Revier, JDD Magazine‘s lifestyle editor, who was previously the editor of Air France Magazine. This slightly off-kilter approach is also taken in the fashion pages. “Our shoots are always linked to literature in some way,” says Revier. “One referenced the Bloomsbury Group, another the animated film The King and the Mockingbird, which in turn was written by poet Jacques Prévert. We also add an element of storytelling so that our readers can understand the thinking behind the photos.”

Having also worked for Dior Homme under creative director Hedi Slimane, Revier brings an edgy energy to her role. “We wanted to give readers something that they wouldn’t find elsewhere,” she says. “Our fashion shoots aren’t extremely posed. A recent one was an ode to street photography, with candid shots of people. The outfits are also unisex for the most part. It’s important to steep a magazine in our modern-day reality. I believe that if we want things to change, we can be drivers of that change through our content.” As much as 90 per cent of that content, including imagery, is produced in-house. “Our starting point is that nothing is impossible,” says Delacroix. “For example, photographers can shoot on film [instead of using a digital camera] if they want to. It’s actually not that much more expensive. It’s just about giving time to it.”

The luxury of this creative freedom is afforded in part by buoyant advertising sales: businesses are snapping up pages as they seek new quality titles in which to appear. Though the magazine is image-led, its soft-touch cover, thick paper and serif typeface lend every issue a book-like feel. Like a hard-bound volume, JDD Magazine is made to last. After debuting on newsstands as a newspaper supplement every last Sunday of the month, the title is then available to buy separately until the publication of the next issue. “It’s extremely encouraging for us to see that our reader numbers haven’t dropped since we launched,” says Albouy.

As we ascend to the building’s rooftop, looking out at the surrounding skyscrapers, Albouy takes the long view and starts discussing the title’s plans. Despite the JDD’s commitment to print, there is an enhanced digital strategy in the works to appeal to a more connected readership. For now, however, the recent magazine launch is enough to keep members of the team on their toes. “We don’t know what the future holds,” says Albouy, sitting on a high metal stool. “Right now, we’re revelling in the freedom and excitement of being part of such a thrilling venture.”

Sleek peak

Barbara Elwardt remembers being anything but thrilled when a friend insisted that she visited Bad Gastein, a sleepy village in the Austrian Alps, 20 years ago. “I just didn’t see a reason for going to the mountains and not skiing,” Elwardt tells Monocle. Little did she know that she would return every year and eventually open a hotel there: The Comodo. And the skiing nearby goes on until late April.

It’s hard not to be charmed by Bad Gastein. The town, about an hour-and-a-half drive south of Salzburg, boasts a charming mix of belle epoque buildings and 1960s modernism surrounded by the forested slopes of the High Tauern mountains. Once beloved by emperors and empresses for its recuperative thermal waters and underground caves, the destination fell into disrepair in the 1980s. However, creative openings in the 2000s including the Miramonte and Regina (as well as a rather convenient rail link from Salzburg and Vienna) started to awaken the town from its slumber. Elwardt compares the feeling here to that of Berlin in the 1990s. “It’s like a new beginning,” she says.

Elwardt teamed up with architect Piotr Wisniewski, to transform the hotel from a Kurhaus (“health resort”) into a contemporary mountain escape. “We were trying to evoke the ambience of a 1960s Alpine resort,” says Wisniewski as he shows us around the airy space. “It’s like a modern interpretation of an Austrian chalet mixed with Viennese coffee-house culture.” That is evident in the spacious lobby, which Wisniewski dubs the “living room”. A bar offers a good cocktail menu, while strong colours create a warm, cosy space that feels a world away from the stricter palette of Nordic minimalism. When it comes to stretching out with a book or newspaper, guests have options: Italian architect Gae Aulenti’s iconic leather lounge furniture, Wisniewski’s custom-made and comfy Pebble couch or Mario Bellini’s 1960s Camaleonda sofa for B&B Italia.

“Many of the pieces that you see here are from my personal collection,” says Wisniewski, gesturing towards a Type 200-190 chair from the 1960s designed by Rajmund Teofil Halas that he calls a “Polish classic”. The compact and light pieces were originally designed to sit in Soviet social housing but Wisniewski wasn’t shy about updating them. “We covered them with leather to give them a more luxurious appearance,” he says.

Though the furniture has been sourced from all over Europe, the design language, says Wisniewski, needed to link back to the site and its rich history. With shades of burgundy and bottle green, and materials including oak and pine, the interior mirrors the valleys outside. Geographical references to the mountains, forests and valleys are also incorporated into the designs on the custom-made wallpapers and carpets designed by Gosia Warrink.

The surroundings are vital to the experience of staying here and all 70 guestrooms and suites feature floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the valley or woods, plus artworks by emerging and established talents from Austria and beyond. The rooms also have nice touches, such as a cleverly integrated suitcase rack and tasteful carafes next to the beds: Bad Gastein’s mineral-rich, spring-fed tap water is a treat too. It also feeds into the pool, which offers striking views onto the valley, as well as a sauna. The pool is also unusual for Bad Gastein, a town in which spas and treatment areas were traditionally underground. This one offers massages, treatments and facials – not a bad option after a day on the slopes.

There’s also a gym, yoga studio, cinema and, unusually for a mountain resort, a co-working area. The restaurant eschews fanciness in favour of hearty, alpine seasonal favourites, from braised beef in red wine to Austrian dumplings. “In the Alps, you need comfort food, not ikebana [strictly-ordered Japanese floral arrangements] on a plate,” says Elwardt. The simple but sumptuous fare was conceived by Berlin chef Max Jensen and is served in the light-filled, wood-panelled dining room or, when the weather allows, outside on the terrace. Even the wines – many Austrian and organic – are listed by mood rather than winery.

The most exciting bit? The Comodo is just the first in what is slated to be a series of hotels that Elwardt plans to launch with Wisniewski over the coming years. The next site, for which Elwardt has already bought the plot but about which she’s keeping shtum, will be in a town just beyond Berlin. Watch this space.
thecomodo.com

Hello Sunshine

Ahlem
USA

According to Ahlem Manai-Platt, unlike some of the high-end eyewear brands out there, her sunglasses are not supposed to just sit on a shelf and be looked at. “Our frames don’t wear you,” she says. “They’re well-made and, yes, expensive but they’re there to be worn.”

Ahlem launched in 2014 in Venice, Los Angeles, and the brand is now rapidly expanding its retail footprint to New York, San Francisco and most recently arriving in Paris’s Rue du Dragon. While the San Francisco shop encapsulates Ahlem’s minimalist Californian aesthetic, in Paris the brand worked with Stockholm’s Specific Generic studio to create a space that is steeped in modernist abstraction.

This most recent opening is something of a homecoming for the eyewear brand: all of Ahlem’s collections are crafted in workshops north of Lyon and take design cues from the Bauhaus. “It’s making that link between beauty and functionality,” says Manai-Platt. “It’s all about the simplicity of the circle, square and triangle.”

Random Walk
South Korea

School friends Park Min Ku and Lee Jongmyung were in the right place at the right time when they launched Seoul-based casualwear boutique Random Walk. Park, then a banker, was in search of a career transition, while Lee, a buyer, had already been plotting the opening of his own shop. Since then the two have been searching for brands that value craft and preferably produce their collections in-house. “It’s an important part of our commitment to high quality,” says Lee. The first brand that caught their eye was Mackintosh, the Scottish raincoat maker founded in the 19th century.

After a few years of operating online, Random Walk set up shop in Apgujeong-dong, a once-fashionable neighbourhood that had been bogged down by sky-high rents. Thanks to their roaring business – they have since more than doubled their boutique’s space – the entire street has had a boost and is now teeming with clothiers and their dapper clients. Here, they discuss the latest shopping trends and their growing in-house label.

How have you been navigating the post-pandemic fashion landscape?
park min ku: While suits are less popular in the workplace, people are now looking for well-made casualwear to wear to work, with more possibilities for mixing and matching.

How do you see Seoul’s retail landscape evolving?
lee jong myung: People still want to try clothes on and they want advice in real life. What is the best length or shape for a pair of trousers? That depends on the customer. Even in the beginning [when operating as an online shop], we were telling our customers to visit our office and try on the clothes in the corner.

What’s next for Random Walk?
park: We have so many ideas. We’ve launched our private brand, RW Library, which is manufactured in a selection of our trusted workshops in Japan. We’re looking to expand the range into womenswear and hope that more people can visit our shop to experience the clothing in person.

LEE: We’re also looking at more lifestyle brands, from tableware to carpets.
randomwalk.co.kr

Mr Porter X Arket
UK & Sweden

Mr Porter has debuted a menswear line with Sweden’s favourite high-street player, Arket. Inspired by the great outdoors, the line is joyful and filled with bright staples: think anoraks for rainy spring days, striped knitted rugby shirts and quilted vests.

It’s rare for luxury retailers to rub shoulders with the high street but Arket’s commitment to classic Scandinavian design made the brand an appealing partner for Mr Porter. “We want clients to experience the beauty of nature and look good while doing it,” says Daniel Todd, Mr Porter’s buying director.
mrporter.com; arket.com

Loro Piana
Italy

Whether you’re in downtown Los Angeles or at a Dubai beach club, you’ll probably see Loro Piana’s White Sole shoes on the best-dressed passersby. The brand is now addressing copycats with an ad campaign suggesting that those in the know wear its original design. With nautical roots, the shoes feature slip-resistant soles designed to be slightly transparent to prevent them from leaving any marks or scuffs on a boat’s wooden deck.

The shoes are now produced in Loro Piana’s factory in Porto San Giorgio in Italy, a new facility dedicated to manufacturing the popular style. This corner of the Bel Paese, on the edge of the Adriatic sea, has long been associated with shoemaking and Loro Piana has been recruiting the region’s artisans to assemble the shoes by hand. We already have our pair – do you?
loropiana.com

Zegna
Italy & North America

A good collaboration usually comes with an element of surprise and Zegna has a penchant for unexpected tie-ins – or “dialogues,” as the label’s design team calls them. The Italian fashion house has been looking beyond its signature tailoring by working with a new generation of luxury brands and exploring new categories. Los Angeles-based knit specialists The Elder Statesman and Canada’s sportswear label Norda have been helping along the way.

Norda, best known for its trail running shoes, might seem completely at odds with the high finery of Zegna. Yet the two brands found plenty in common with their mutual love of nature and have collaborated on a new running collection. The Oasi Zegna, located in Piedmont in the Italian Alps, turned into a playground for Norda’s trailrunners, who used the natural park to test the new range. Standouts include a pair of black and sulphur-yellow technical trainers and a multi-layered running vest, rendered in Zegna’s classic earthy tones.

The brand has also been experimenting with loungewear. After bonding over their obsession with cashmere yarns, Zegna artistic director Alessandro Sartori and The Elder Statesman’s founder Greg Chait co-designed a capsule collection of cashmere-knitted Bermuda shorts, loose cardigans and robe-like coats, which married the signature Zegna polish with the LA label’s relaxed, sunny disposition. The sunset-hued, knitted blazers and striped shorts will help to make a smooth sartorial transition into spring.
zegna.com

Brady Bags
UK

The Brady brothers kickstarted their handmade leather goods brand in Birmingham in 1887 by creating high-quality gun cases, before expanding to briefcases, shoulder carriers and fishing bags. The holdalls are as resilient as the business itself, which had to be rebuilt after its premises were bombed during the Second World War. Its signature bags are crafted from durable materials such as drill canvas from Italy, Harris tweed from Scotland or milled leather from England. Opt for the brand’s large canvas carry-all when you go on the road this spring.
bradybags.co.uk

Image: Mickaël A Bandassak.