The spring/summer 2027 edition of Milan Fashion Week’s menswear edition delivered collections that offered something for every occasion, from the Americana-inflected vision of Ralph Lauren to the movement-ready clothes of former dancer Saul Nash. Beyond the runway, the city’s showrooms offer the opportunity to get up close to the designs and feel the quality of Italian manufacturing – namely made-in-Marche loafers and Florentine cashmere. Here are Monocle’s top-10 moments from the week.

1.
Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren brought his trademark American prep to Milan, staging a two-collection show at his brand’s sprawling palazzo on Via San Barnaba. Up first was the designer’s formalwear-focused Purple Label with a series of silk-blend beige and pinstripe suits, paired with sunglasses and the occasional beret, as well as reversible leather jackets and open-weave linen knitwear. A limited-edition series, made in collaboration with Japanese design house Kuon, included indigo-hued longline coats and blazers featuring sashiko embroidery and patchworks – a compelling case for more crossover of American and Japanese sensibilities. Then came the second act of the show: Polo Ralph Lauren. With classic collegiate pieces (namely varsity jackets, polo shirts and baseball caps), models evoked the halcyon days of tertiary education with silk ties worn as belts, argyle jumpers tied around shoulders and oversized totes filled with bouquets. Ultimately, this two-part presentation encapsulates Ralph Lauren’s kaleidoscopic, romantic vision of the modern-day American man – one that might involve a summer day spent at a Hamptons beach before a more formal occasion in the evening that calls for a suit. Traditional in many ways but not overly wedded to formality, such is the American brand’s recipe for success.
ralphlauren.com

2.
Brioni

This season, Brioni’s in-house design team led the charge in the absence of a creative director (Austrian designer Norbert Stumpfl exited last December and has yet to be replaced). As is often the case when brands find themselves in an interim period, the instinct is to reaffirm house codes rather than rock the boat. At Brioni, this means a reinforcement of the label’s bespoke tailoring offerings with Brioni Maestria, a new project that aims to provide further opportunity for customisation. The label also looked to its Roman origins with a palette inspired by the city’s hues – eucalyptus green, faded reds and travertine beige to name a few – as well as the relaxed, unlined silhouettes favoured by residents of the Italian capital. Highlights from the collection include a butter-soft suede blazer and a jacket with pockets designed to hold a newspaper and a pen, as well as roomy weekender bags for city escapes. As the brand awaits its next chapter, its design team is guarding the core belief that good menswear revolves around functionality and high-quality fabrics but also keeping a sense of ease, alla Romana.
brioni.com

3.
Dunhill

“I started the collection with a series of blue blazers, almost like a love letter,” said Dunhill’s creative director, Simon Holloway, at the brand’s Milan presentation. “There are three in these gorgeous bright colours, made in worsted cashmere, which is woven in Huddersfield. They’re styled with silk-cotton turtlenecks, very much inspired by a photograph of Roger Moore from the early 1970s.”

Since taking the reins in 2023, Holloway has been an unapologetic champion of British sartorial codes, delving into Dunhill’s 133-year strong archive for inspiration. (This season, for example, a vintage lighter with a playing-card motif is echoed on smoking jackets, robes and velvet slippers.) There’s an overt touch of James Bond this season, with eight-button navy blazers mingling with speedboat-ready linen shirts and belts made of rope. Elsewhere, the influence of the British painter Lucian Freud can be seen in the way a cashmere-silk scarf is worn with a pale-grey linen suit. “It reminds me of how he wore scarves as an alternative to a tie,” says Holloway. “There’s a loose tie knot in the way that he did it, which is quite charming.” Rich in references and reverence for the brand, Holloway is reviving the Dunhill universe for a contemporary consumer.
dunhill.com

4.
Saul Nash 

A former dancer, London-based Saul Nash has carved an appealing niche for himself in the menswear market, blending sportswear and tailoring while experimenting with innovative performance fabrics. Put simply, he offers clothes that enhance motion instead of restricting it. For spring/summer 2027, he continued exploring his “movement-based” design philosophy, looking at archival imagery of sports figures and pin-ups, and translating them into garments that were both functional and elegant: a raincoat cut like double-breasted trench; a suit jacket with an elasticated back nodding to fencing uniforms; and nylon twinsets in shades of burgundy and yellow. “Growing up in London, there was a unique story to be told around the men who wear sportswear and elevated perceptions around them –  I’m always fascinated with what we deem formal versus casual,” says Nash after dancing down the runway to take his bow. 

His growing presence in Milan over the past few years comes as a breath of fresh air to the city’s calendar, which is mostly dominated by longstanding brands. “Milan has been the first step to help me imagine what my brand looks like beyond technical wear, and look at [my expertise] through a lens of tailoring,” adds Nash.
saulnash.com

5.
Prada

Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons stripped things back for their latest collection, starting with the transparent runway set: the art deco carpets of previous seasons were replaced by fluorescent white tubes, glass and concrete columns. The opening look consisted of a white denim set with a classic black blazer layered over it. Denim, after all, is the most universal of garments, adopted by sailors and workers long before it became a fashion item, as Prada pointed out. The collection moved onto shrunken white denim trousers paired with simple white T-shirts or V-neck sweatshirts, along with skinny pinstripe or leather suits that recalled Hedi Slimane’s heyday at Dior Homme. It’s not a silhouette that can be pulled off easily but the label’s customers will still find plenty of items to shop, including patterned jacquard knits and mini nylon bags hanging from models’ oversized leather belts. 

Beyond the product, Prada and Simons pose interesting questions around their decision to offer a pared-back look and “break with the conventions of luxury,” as they put it. Is it time to rethink what constitutes luxury and investment-worthy design? Their latest collection, a statement “against exaggeration, against complex materials, against useless design”, suggests so.
prada.com

6.
Santoni

Judging by the number of bright orange bags spotted around Quadrilatero della Moda, Milan’s high-end shopping area, Santoni has something of a cult following. The Italian luxury brand that specialises in handmade shoes and leather accessories rarely strays from what it does best – loafers, sneakers and bags executed to the highest level of Italian craft, using premium leather. 

For its spring/summer 2027 line-up, Santoni is presenting new ways to personalise its Carlo loafers with a series of interchangeable tassels that can be added to the saddle of the shoe. Another highlight of the new collection is the continued exploration of its intrecci and serpentine methods of handweaving leather strips to introduce texture across footwear and weekender bags. Ultimately, the enduring popularity of Santoni lies in the brand’s willingness to hone in on manufacturing techniques while gently evolving the styles of shoes, ensuring continued relevance for a contemporary audience.
santonishoes.com 

7.
Malo

Italian knitwear label Malo was founded in Florence in the 1970s by brothers Alfredo and Giacomo Canessa. From their Tuscan atelier, the duo created some of the world’s finest cashmere sweaters – and were among the first to offer coloured cashmere – but it struggled to keep up with market pressures in the 2010s. Now, it has been acquired by American investor David Glickman via his private-equity firm Glickman Capital and is being relaunched with an ambitious plan, which includes a new retail space on Milan’s Via della Spiga and a growing collection of knitwear, shirting and sharp outerwear.

Behind the new collections is longtime editor-turned-CEO Michelle Kessler-Sanders, who has successfully sprinkled a fresher, more fashion-forward touch to Malo’s signature cashmere offering – quickly turning the label into the one to watch in the Italian fashion capital.
malo.com 

8.
Church’s

For spring/summer 2027, British shoe brand Church’s is seeking a sense of intimacy. Its presentation, “The Residence”, was a domestic framing of the Prada Group-owned house’s three men’s product families: Townhouse, Cottage and Villa. As a trio, these shoes cover a range of needs for a summer spent moving from a city to a countryside escape, from daytime to more formal evening events. Collection standouts include the Thirsk brogue, with its discreetly perforated leather, as well as the more relaxed profiles of the Tilford loafer and the Jason slipper. 

Alongside next season’s novelties, vintage shoes from the brand’s 150-plus-year archive were on display to create a dialogue between past styles and how they’ve evolved to meet modern needs. It was a fitting touch as the British house is currently formalising its rich history through its Church’s Chapters project, which includes an installation currently being shown at its Northampton headquarters.
church-footwear.com

9.
Thom Browne 

Thom Browne made his name with signature gray suits – the trousers are always two or three inches above the ankles, the jackets’ sleeves are intentionally short and often feature four horizontal white stripes. But more recently, under the stewardship of the Zegna group, the designer has been broadening his scope. For his spring/summer 2027 menswear collection, presented in Milan for the first time, he offered variations of his famous suits (some were updated with kilts and bermuda trousers) but also added to the look: elegant straw hats, weekender bags in sturdy canvas, workwear-inspired jackets and bright green trench coats. He added a sense of romance and whimsy – something often missing from most menswear presentations – with bee and floral motifs that were embroidered on outerwear and accessories. 

As the brand continues to expand internationally, Browne has been able to strike a rare balance: staying true to his original vision and experimental spirit while also introducing new items and speaking to a wider audience. Gildo Zegna, who acquired a majority stake in the New York label in 2018, will no doubt be pleased.
thombrowne.com 

10.
Giorgio Armani

Giorgio Armani closed this season’s Milan Fashion Week Men’s with a show at Palazzo Orsini in Brera. As usual the label hasn’t followed popular trends, which have lately been favouring extra-slim silhouettes and brighter colour palettes, and instead doubling down instead on the signatures that the late Giorgio Armani relied on for so many years. A neutral palette of navy, gray and earthy hues paired with collarless jackets and lightweight silk trousers that evoke a sense of Mediterranean ease. There were also more playful touches in the form of accessories, from brooches on suit lapels to woven bucket hats that added a more laid-back feeling to the summer ensembles. The collection was pure Armani – a testament to the late designer’s clear vision for sunny Mediterranean living, having spent many of his summers in perfectly cut shorts and airy linens at his homes in St Tropez and Pantelleria. 

Leo Dell’Orco and Silvana Armani have been steering the brand with grace since Armani’s passing last year, yet the question that remains is: how long until the need for a more definitive leader with a vision of their own becomes necessary? 
giorgioarmani.com

There is something theatrical about the flame tree. As temperatures rise across Dubai and much of the Gulf retreats indoors, the city’s Delonix regia trees respond by doing precisely the opposite. Their broad green canopies erupt into brilliant orange-red blooms, setting roadsides, parks and waterfront promenades ablaze. It’s oddly defiant. Just as summer begins, nature stages its most spectacular performance.

It is this contradiction that sits at the heart of Dubai’s newly launched Flame Tree Season. In a city better known for skyscrapers than colourful canopies, the initiative encourages residents to notice a phenomenon that has been occurring here for decades. And it asks another question too: can Dubai create its own version of Japan’s sakura (cherry blossom) season?

Like Japan’s cherry blossoms, the flame-tree bloom is fleeting, seasonal and photogenic. This year special menus have appeared in cafés, brands have created limited-edition products and social media is full of photographs of blossoms against urban backdrops. Yet Dubai’s version is unmistakably its own. Rather than emerging from centuries of folklore, Flame Tree Season began with a question posed to Dubai Design Lab, a part of Dubai Future Foundation: if Dubai were to have a flower season, what would it be?

“We discovered that the flame tree has been planted in Dubai since the 1970s, with more than 50,000 existing in the landscape,” says Rafia Bin Sulaiman, associate manager and design researcher at Dubai Design Lab. “We thought, if we have something as beautiful as this surrounding us but few people are appreciating its beauty, what if we came up with a story and a narrative that complements this tree?” 

Originally from Madagascar, the tree has become embedded in the city’s landscape. It thrives in the Gulf climate, grows rapidly and creates a canopy that can lower surface temperatures beneath it by as much as 5C. Tens of thousands have been planted across the emirate. Trees frame the Burj Khalifa, line quiet waterfront promenades and scatter orange petals across pavements like confetti. 

For Bin Sulaiman, the tree mirrors Dubai. “It comes from a faraway place but it found its belonging in Dubai like many people that live here today,” she says. “This tree also signifies resilience because it starts to bloom when heat hits.” That symbolism feels particularly resonant. While much of the region has spent most of this year navigating uncertainty and conflict, the flame tree has arrived as an unexpectedly optimistic symbol.

What makes Flame Tree Season interesting is that it is evolving beyond a government initiative. More than 235 brand collaborations have emerged and according to Bin Sulaiman, much of that participation has happened spontaneously. “We thought this year we’ll just test it,” she says. “How do people like it? How does it resonate? So we started it but the idea has grown organically.”

And yet, this is where the comparison with Japan diverges. Cherry-blossom season arrives at precisely the right moment. Spring weather draws people outdoors. Families gather beneath the trees, colleagues picnic in parks and entire neighbourhoods seem to reorganise themselves around the bloom. Dubai’s flame trees do the opposite. They flower just as the city begins its annual retreat indoors. By June, temperatures regularly exceed 40C. Residents try to stay in air-conditioned homes, offices, shopping centres and cars, or leave the country altogether. A canopy that lowers the temperature by 5C sounds impressive until one remembers that 45C becomes 40C – more comfortable perhaps but hardly picnic weather. The reality is that most people will experience the bloom through a windscreen. But perhaps that, too, says something about modern Dubai.

Flame Tree Season isn’t trying to be cherry-blossom season. But it does show Dubai’s ambition to create civic rituals. For decades, the emirate has excelled at constructing physical infrastructure and this is a welcome nod to the natural landscape.

What is certain is that the trees offer a different way of seeing Dubai. Their fiery canopies, contrast with the blue skyline rising in the distance, create a marker of the passage of time in a city that can feel like it only has one season.

It has been exactly 10 years since British voters chose to leave the EU. The result of that referendum swiftly destroyed the prime minister who called it, David Cameron; while the impossibilities of Brexit were also, to varying extents, the undoing of his four Conservative successors. In 2024, the same electorate awarded a thumping landslide to the Labour party of Keir Starmer, widely interpreted as a plea for stable, sensible, even tedious governance. 

Scarcely two years later, the British public has now decided, according to consistent polling, that they don’t want Starmer either. On Monday 22 June, Starmer announced that he would resign, joining a rapidly elongating line of people who couldn’t inhabit 10 Downing Street long enough to justify redecorating. In his wake, the next PM hopeful will almost certainly be Andy Burnham, who returned to the House of Commons last week after a nine-year stint as mayor of Greater Manchester.

To illustrate the disarray caused to British politics by Brexit, one simply needs to look at the six prime ministers before Cameron: the survey takes you all the way to 1974. That was the second premiership of Harold Wilson, a pipe-chewing Yorkshireman from Huddersfield who, by happy symmetry with Burnham’s imminent accession, was the UK’s most recent authentically northern prime minister. (In the British context, “northern” means specifically northern English, and therefore excludes Scottish-born Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and Margaret Thatcher, who was from Lincolnshire, which is just too far south to be considered properly Northern.)

It’s impossible to explain the appeal of Andy Burnham without explaining something of England’s north-south divide. Take a motorway heading upwards on the map from London and you will encounter signs reading simply and forbiddingly “The North”, understood to mean: “Here be if not monsters exactly, then whippets, flat caps and surliness.” In the opposite direction, “The South” has an invisible asterix attached to an understood footnote warning of braying toffs called Hugo and Arabella, milk that comes from things other than cows and glib insincerity. Southerners race horses; northerners pigeons. Two great British rock’n’roll rivalries – The Beatles vs The Rolling Stones, Oasis vs Blur – were projections of the north-south divide, the latter especially, pitching Oasis’s blokey Mancunian earnestness against Blur’s London art-school posturing. Oasis’s “Some Might Say” featured prominently in Burnham’s recent by-election campaign. 

Burnham has a history of trowelling on the northern schtick (a southerner would pay someone else to trowel their schtick on for them). During a previous campaign for the Labour leadership – he has fallen short twice before – Burnham was asked to name his favourite biscuit. He replied “I don’t have a sweet tooth and don’t eat biscuits. But give me a beer and chips and gravy any day,” a line which would have been groaned out of the Coronation Street writers’ room.

Burnham was born in Liverpool in 1970 (in the context of that city’s municipal divide, he is a Blue, which is to say he supports Everton Football Club, not Liverpool). Though his boosters will pitch him as a rugged, authentic outsider, Burnham is the very model of a career politician: parliamentary researcher, special adviser, Member of Parliament and holder of several ministerial and/or cabinet posts during the 2007 to 2010 premiership of Gordon Brown. After Labour lost power in 2010, Burnham assumed various shadow portfolios (Education, Health, the Home Office) before leaving parliament to run for the newly created role of mayor of Greater Manchester. He won it by a street, and was re-elected twice. The contrast with Starmer’s tanking approval rating grew unignorable, then irresistible.

As mayor, Burnham is generally regarded to have done well on public transport and the local economy, and on unabashedly amplifying the regional identity (the Burnhamite creed of complementary economic and social progress has become known as “Manchesterism”). He is an affable and able communicator, one of those rare politicians who has the knack of looking like he’s enjoying the work, and like he does not regard constituents as a baffling, querulous nuisance. 

Burnham has offered few clear lines on what kind of prime minister he hopes to be. He has spoken of a belief that Britain has been on the wrong path for 40 years, which seems a curious dismissal of the long period of Labour government (1997 to 2010) of which he was part. On foreign affairs, which consumed so much of Starmer’s attention, little is clear – though it would be surprising if much changed about the UK’s approach to Ukraine, the Middle East and China, or in its dogged insistence that it enjoys a “special relationship” with the US.

Burnham is, for the moment at least, merely the latest desperate response to what has become the default setting of the British electorate: “Whatever it is, I’m against it.”

Almost four decades after reunification, Berlin’s primary struggle remains reconciling its legacy as a divided city with the realities of being a modern metropolis. The German press has long labelled the city a “failed state” and it might be right – but Berliners haven’t lost hope. In fact, one group believes that reclaiming the city’s river for swimming could help to quell the tide of local tension. 

Jan and Tim Edler, brothers and founders of art and architecture studio Realities:United, first campaigned to lift the city’s ban on bathing in the Spree in 1998. Swimming in the inner-city section of the waterway was banned in 1925 because of industrial pollution. Following the Cold War and subsequent division of the city, much of the river ran through East Berlin, where the GDR treated swimming West Berliners as illegal border-crossers. 

“The river has become detached from the city and we need to rebuild that bond,” says Jan. They eventually established Flussbad Berlin, an NGO advocating to transform a 835-metre stretch of the Spree into a natural-water swimming area. It now boasts more than 500 members, who cite the city’s lack of cooling spaces as a reason for joining.

But this lack of swimming access reflects broader frustrations regarding access to civic infrastructure across the German capital. In recent years, Berlin has struggled with regulations and bureaucracy, a housing crisis and failing public transport. Urban development is also slow: the city’s new S15 railway line opened this month after significant delays and restorations to the Pergamon Museum have now entered their 14th year.

Protests have been driven by a desire to enrich the city’s quality of life and protect its public spaces. In 2014, Berliners forced a referendum that blocked any construction on the 300-hectare Tempelhofer Field, one of the largest inner-city open spaces in the world. In 2018, after two years of fierce local protests, Google dropped its plans to build a campus in the bohemian Kreuzberg district. And, in 2024, Tesla put its Gigafactory expansion in the Grünheide forest on hold. This year, Berliners are even opposing bids to host the Olympics in 2036, 2040 or 2044.

“It’s embarrassing,” says Jan. “Berlin has lost its ambition and it’s up to Berliners to act.” Volunteers at Flussbad Berlin developed a water-monitoring app and found that sanitation improvements have improved river safety, meaning that the Spree is now clean enough for swimming about 80 per cent of the time between May and October. The barrier to access, according to Jan, is political will: officials might allow bathing in the Spree during a potential Olympics but not at other times.

In protest of the swimming ban, the club’s members will dive into the Spree on the 20th of each month this year until the Berlin House of Representatives election in September. “Being in a river is a special feeling,” he says, “one that opens you up to ideas about caring for your city. Berliners are famous for being grumpy but in the water, it’s all smiles.”

Yegor Mostovshikov is a Berlin-based writer. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

Thirty years ago, a new art biennale called Manifesta launched in Rotterdam. Most biennials root themselves in a single city to accrue cultural capital but Manifesta takes place across different European cities or regions every two years. Founded by Dutch art historian Hedwig Fijen in the 1990s, its nomadic format reflected the fluidity of the post-Cold War continent and the optimism of the young EU. 

Manifesta’s expansive exhibitions are organised and funded in collaboration with the hosting venue. The event’s early iterations prioritised connecting western and eastern Europe but as the continent’s geopolitics shifted, so did its mission.

“In the beginning we were still a [conventional] art biennale,” says Fijen. Later, Manifesta worked with politicians to define civic needs, while curatorial teams got involved early to tailor concepts to place and purpose.

Manifesta’s 2018 biennial reclaimed 20 long-neglected or mafia-compromised sites across Palermo, while in 2022, the event revived forgotten community hubs in Pristina, drawing the art world’s attention to Europe’s youngest capital city. At the time, Kosovo citizens were severely restricted from travelling to the EU (the EU Commission has since lifted the country’s visa restrictions; Fijen suspects that the international coverage of Manifesta contributed to the reversal). 

These examples matter now more than ever. Artists and activists at the 2026 Venice Biennale organised boycotts and protests over the inclusion of Russia and Israel in the event. Other fairs in Europe and beyond continue to prioritise the blue-chip art market rather than considering local audiences. “But many biennials are rethinking their basic model of operation,” says Fijen, who has come to see mega-exhibitions as incubators for urban ideas and new ways of bringing communities together, rather than showcases.

Manifesta’s approach is clearly catching on, with several hyperlocal events emerging in its wake. Take South Tyrol’s Biennale Gherdëina, which launched alongside Manifesta 7 in 2008 and just held its 10th edition. The show featured 24 artists, whose work pops up everywhere from mountain trails to village squares. Then there’s Climate Biennial: Art, Industry and Territory which takes place for the first time this year in Avilés, Spain, with 40 artists showcasing work across 11 venues (one of its founders worked on the Barcelona Manifesta). In an era of copycat biennials and heavy curatorial concepts, thematic local events increasingly resonate with both art lovers and professionals.

On 21 June this year, the event’s 16th edition will open in Ruhr, a post-industrial region in the northwest of Germany. Titled “This is not a church”, it shines a light on an economically fragile area, as well as the demographic changes that the Ruhr has undergone since its once-mighty coal mines began closing in the 1980s. During Manifesta’s early research, it became clear that a hidden issue facing the region was the increasing number of church closures. In postwar Germany, centres of faith served as community anchors but this has changed over the past several decades. The exhibition features the work of artists such as Mona Hatoum and Luc Tuymans alongside many others in 12 decommissioned churches. 

At this year’s Manifesta, there’s great art to see but the event will also help open local imaginations to what these buildings can become after the fair closes its doors in October. Here, ideas such as opening community gardens and indoor tennis courts are already brewing. “People want to come together and create new circumstances,” says Fijen. The question now is whether other biennials are willing or able to create the conditions that contribute to a place’s future, even after the art crowd has moved on. 
manifesta16.org

Since we launched The Monocle Quality of Life Survey in 2007, we have sought to show that what makes a city great is about more than just low-crime rates, economics and public-transport connections (though these factors do make a considerable difference). Markers of urban quality of life also include inhabitants and visitors feeling considered, easy access to green space, the ability to grab a decent meal after 22.00 and a sense of community.

The cities that have topped our rankings over the past 10 years share many of these qualities – some cities have topped the charts multiple times. As we look forward to the release of our 2026 Quality of Life Survey this Thursday 25 June (order your magazine here), we’re looking back at the cities that came first-in-place and the ideas that helped them get there.

2025
Paris

“I can honestly say that there’s no city in the world in which I would rather live,” says Charles-Antoine Depardon, an architect and advisor on urban development to Paris’s city council, as he strolls through the Tuileries on his way to work at the Hôtel de Ville. “It is an extraordinary cocktail.”

Depardon might be biased but on a spring morning, as the French capital’s avenues resound to the click-clack of hard leather shoes on spruce concrete, it’s hard to argue with him. The 2024 Olympics provided Paris with the platform to showcase its chic contemporary self. The city delivered a rousing performance that also served as a fitting coda to a decade of revival under mayor Anne Hidalgo, whose ambitious (and sometimes controversial) urbanism interventions have made it cleaner, greener and safer, while maintaining and protecting the personality that give Paris its inimitable charm. The French capital in the 21st century looks a lot like it did in the 20th century but that’s a large part of the appeal. And today it is also a more international, outward-looking city than it has ever been.

Read more in our 2025 Quality of Life Survey, or buy the magazine issue here.

2024
Munich

Munich is perhaps Germany’s most attractive city. Since 2000, the populations of Berlin, Hamburg, Köln and Frankfurt have grown by about 15 per cent – but Munich’s has risen by almost a third. One reason is the city’s economic and intellectual draw. Of Germany’s 40 largest companies, seven hail from Munich. This has probably contributed to its status as Germany’s most expensive city. But talent is nurtured here. In December 2024, the city set aside an extra €668m for building and renovating nurseries, pre-schools and schools; with a total budget of €8.4bn since its inception in 2011, it’s Germany’s largest such scheme. On the other end of the academic ladder, the Technical University of Munich and LMU München are two of the country’s top universities. The city’s proportion of employees with an academic degree is 41 per cent, also Germany’s highest.

Munich is also the country’s best city for a healthy lifestyle. In an EU ranking of 38 German regions by life expectancy, Upper Bavaria, home to Munich, came first with 82.3 years. One explanation is the city’s access to nature: pristine environs, the river Isar and parks such as the Englischer Garten. New leisure facilities have opened too. Among them is Kunstkraftwerk Bergson, a power station converted into an arts venue. Last year, the city nearly tripled its newly installed solar power capacity with a scheme that supports small panels on private balconies. Munich’s future looks sunny. A worthy winner. 

Read more in our Quality of Life Survey 2024, or buy the issue of the magazine here.  

2023
Vienna 

With Vienna’s stunning baroque architecture and refurbished parliament building, it’s easy to forget its natural beauty. But there are hills, lakes and rivers within the city limits. As the sun returns, so do the Viennese – to the water. Danube Island is a popular spot, as are public swimming areas such as the Gänsehäufel on the Alte Donau.

Meanwhile, museums have been celebrating the 150th anniversary of the event that turned the city into a global metropolis: the 1873 Vienna World’s Fair. Though it was a financial disaster, it rekindled European interest in Japanese and Middle Eastern arts and crafts, which in turn inspired Viennese artists such as Gustav Klimt.

City authorities have pressed on with their plan to build more social housing, while crime is at its lowest rate in 20 years. A network of community-run parklets known as Grätzloasen, set up by former deputy mayor Maria Vassilakou, has continued to expand into neighbourhoods devoid of public space. Vienna’s excellent transport system is seeing two more additions, both produced by Siemens, whose factory is located within the city: driverless X-Wagen trains for the Vienna U-Bahn and new Nightjet sleeper trains for Austria’s national railway operator, ÖBB. Construction has continued on the new U5 U-Bahn line, though the planned reopening of a section of the U2 line has been delayed until next year. But even without it, Vienna has an embarrassment of transport riches. 

Read more in our Quality of Life Survey 2023, or buy the issue of the magazine here. 

2022
Copenhagen

Copenhagen’s decision to gear its city planning towards cyclists and pedestrians has resulted in cleaner air and reduced congestion, and has helped to improve the health and wellbeing of its residents. But there’s always more ground to cover: Nordic weather also demands a public transport system for days when the sleet feels like needles. So the Copenhagen Metro is still expanding, connecting previously distant neighbourhoods.

And the C-word? It’s as if the dreaded virus never happened. The Danish capital’s residents reverted to normality without a fuss, which reflects the sense of collective responsibility and togetherness that the city has fostered. Great new restaurants are opening almost every week (most have moved beyond the New Nordic dogma), culture has never been more vibrant and the economy is booming.

The city also scores well on safety, runs smoothly and has a generous welfare system and support for new parents (though inequality is nudging up). The whole country is under­taking the move towards carbon neutrality by 2050 but there are shorter-term advantages to living here – the proximity of the harbour for a lunchtime swim, for one.

Buy our 2022 Quality of Life magazine issue here.

2021
Copenhagen

In 2021, the global media picked up on the Danish word samfunssind, which roughly translates as “society-minded” and conveys a sense of pride in social cohesion. Copenhageners demonstrate their samfunssind in the way that they ensure their city is a place where children can roam free, is accessible to those on lower incomes and has efficient public transport, better air quality and a harbour that’s clean enough to swim in.

Yet without the tourists, it seems that Copenhageners are falling in love with their city once again. With its well-preserved cobbled squares, copper-spired beauty, green spaces, ample waterfronts, independent retail scene and a still-expanding choice of restaurants, the Danish capital excels. The new Metro ring has made it easier to access all parts of the city, and the Refshaleøen district is particularly appealing these days due to the presence of the Copenhagen Contemporary art museum and an eclectic range of dining options. 

Buy our 2021 Quality of Life magazine issue here.

2020
We took a break.

2019
Zürich

Zürich is a city that gives you the feeling that all is right with the world. It starts at the airport, where you will encounter few queues at customs and a punctual train that delivers you from arrivals to the city centre in minutes. You’ll step out onto neatly swept streets lined with well-appointed shops – and in the distance catch a glimpse of the snow-capped Alps beyond the turquoise blue of Lake Zürich. 

The Swiss city of more than 400,000 people often resembles a picture postcard – especially in the summer, when the crystal-clear water is busy with swimmers and sailing boats. 

Though the streets are filled with Ferraris and Teslas – the city is Switzerland’s banking capital, after all – more people ride around on bikes or take trams and ferries to get from A to B. Zürich is walkable and environmentally friendly: it’s on its way to becoming carbon neutral and aims to be a 2,000-watt society by 2050, meaning each person will limit their energy consumption to 2,000 watts per year. To encourage cycling, a few more bike paths to make everyone feel safe enough to hop on the saddle are in the works.

2018
Munich

Munich might boast some of Germany’s steepest property prices but the rewards of living here are just as high: this city uniquely combines excellent infrastructure with a booming economy, proximity to nature with appreciation for culture and a strong local identity with a welcoming cosmopolitanism. And, lest we forget, its airport is a joy to behold.

Let’s start with infrastructure. People sometimes call Munich “Italy’s northernmost city” but that’s only true if by Italy you mean South Tyrol. While other southern European cities’ public transport systems fester and decay, in Munich the system is so slick and universally embraced that on the U-Bahn you are just as likely to sit next to a dignified elderly woman in an ankle-length fur coat and a YSL bag as you are a student engrossed in their phone screen. Most of its 18 public swimming pools, 10 of which have a sauna, wouldn’t feel out of place at a top-notch private gym. The same goes for the showers at the airport.

The strong economy also attracts talent from all over the world. People often think of Berlin as Germany’s cosmopolitan city but with a foreign population of about 28 per cent, Munich is actually more so.

2017
Tokyo

Living in Japan can sometimes feel like inhabiting a very safe, impossibly polite bubble, detached from the strife, intolerance and ugly rhetoric that seem to be so prevalent in many parts of the world. Of course, other places are not always so bad and Japan is not perfect but, as far as large-scale cities go, Tokyo has got urban living down to a fine art. Primary school children walk to school unaccompanied as a matter of course and the streets are safe, even at night. Good service is expected and received in every situation. In fact, the level of civility is so universal, and everyone so attuned to it, that any deviation from acceptable standards – a mildly sullen waiter or inattentive shop staff – causes disproportionate outrage.

The overwhelming sense is that people go out of their way not to bother others. Disturbing fellow subway passengers with a booming conversation just wouldn’t be on and you can almost feel the collective horror should someone start eating a pungent burger or put their shoes on a seat. If it sounds exhausting, it really isn’t. The awareness of not imposing one’s presence on others is absorbed from childhood and internalised to the point where it becomes instinctive. There’s an unspoken agreement among Tokyo’s citizens that whatever the situation – a crowded train, a busy bus or an airport-security queue – it will all be much easier if everyone thinks of others and not just themselves.

2016
Tokyo

Where other cities talk a good game about being 24/7, Tokyo delivers – and not just on the singing and drinking front. As city mayors plot ways to entice talent and investment while also offering up strategies for a superior quality of life, the city’s round-the-clock economy is a key feature that makes it one of the most attractive places to live and visit. With a conveniently located international airport that operates 24 hours a day, bookshops that open at 07.00 and close at 04.00, and restaurants and shops that never close, Tokyo recognises the pull of being open all hours. Other hubs should take note. As we often say on our editorial floor, if you don’t like bright lights and buzz there’s a lovely place to move called the countryside.

We’ll see you for the release of our 2026 Quality of Life Survey this Thursday 25 June – order your magazine here

1.
Thailand: The Monocle Handbook

The sixth installment in Monocle’s Handbook series takes you across Thailand’s stunning scenery. From mountainous Chiang Rai all the way down to tropical Phuket, we head to wellness retreats, restaurants serving fresh takes on traditional dishes, national parks, temples and envelope-pushing culture hubs to show you why this sunny nation remains the stuff of holiday dreams. Plus, if you’re interested in a permanent relocation there, we spotlight the neighbourhoods and islands where you can make a home and profile the architects and designers to commission for the job. So pack your bags and experience this special corner of Southeast Asia afresh. 

Buy a copy here

2.
Greece: The Monocle Handbook

Making time for a weekend trip to the Hellenic world or planning to stay a little longer?  We present our most treasured recommendations across the country, from rural tavernas to island retreats and Arcadian ski slopes. We’ve also scoured the country for its most skilled artisans, so take a trip and dive into our guide to Greek fashion, food and design. Plus: for those looking to put down roots we reveal the places to set up a home, the clubs to join and the architects to consult. It’s time to explore this ancient country afresh.

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3.
France: The Monocle Handbook

Allow us to take you on a tour of our most cherished Gallic spots. We have traversed the mainland to scout out the creme de la creme of the nation’s bounty.

Come with us to Marseille and Montpellier, Biarritz and Brittany, with stop-offs in the Alps and along the rugged coast of Corsica. Break bread at both new and established bistros, visit luxury ateliers with a discerning eye for design and check in to Paris’s most storied hotels and metropolitan boltholes. Plus: we toast the nation’s vineyards, the cultural spots honouring France’s artistic heritage and the plucky retailers setting up shop in the country’s second cities. Fancy staying a while longer? We’ll take you through the places in which to linger, should you wish to put down roots. France is the world’s most visited country, and for good reason.

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4.
Portugal: The Monocle Handbook

A practical guide that will introduce you to the best the country has to offer as we present our favourite spots across the country. We’ve travelled from north to south (via the islands) to find innovative retailers and traditional ateliers, the chefs turning out the tastiest dishes and the sleekest hotels – not to mention undiscovered beaches and world-leading cultural venues. We even reveal the best neighbourhoods to invest in should you wish to put down roots in this sunny nation, plus the plucky entrepreneurs who’ve already made the move. It’s time to pack your bags for Portugal.

Buy a copy here

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5.
Spain: The Monocle Handbook

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6.
Swim & Sun

Here you’ll find our pick of the places in which to cool off when the mercury rises and plenty to get you dreaming about your next dip. We celebrate the joys of diving into the ocean, leaping into a river and allowing your limbs to stretch – and your mind to clear – as you simply swim. In its visually stunning pages, the guide celebrates the sunny pleasures on offer at our favourite beach clubs, urban pools and lakeside bathing spots. Pick up a copy and jump in. The water’s perfect.

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The recent upheaval at 60 Minutes – the US’s longest-running news programme, which airs on Sunday evenings on CBS – amounts to a straightforward political story. In October 2024, Donald Trump, who had long characterised much of the mainstream media as an “enemy of the American people”, sued the network over a pre-election interview with Kamala Harris on the show that, he alleged, had been edited to make her look better. He demanded $10bn (€8.7bn) in damages and called for CBS to be stripped of its licence. In July 2025, in an attempt to appease the president and usher in new, deep-pocketed owners, CBS’s parent company, Paramount, agreed to a $16m (€14m) settlement. A new senior editorial team was installed soon afterwards. Helmed by columnist and TV news novice Bari Weiss, the change has steered 60 Minutes towards more White House-friendly territory.

Cue the unceremonious firing of long-serving senior staff; the decision to allow Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to cherry-pick his interviewer; and the showdown between incoming executive producer, Nick Bilton (also a TV newbie) and seasoned correspondent Scott Pelley, which led to the latter’s firing by email.

Yet this almost 60-year-old show, with a format hardly tinkered with until now, is still the most-watched news programme in the US. And its audience still seems to be growing. It has forged a reputation as television journalism’s north star for good reason. Within the parameters of its famous format – the motif of a ticking stop-clock, the scripted segment introductions – 60 Minutes has continued to reshape the idea of how to report the news on TV and which stories to tell. Nielsen, the ratings-tracking agency, reported that the number of viewers tuning in had increased by 9 per cent over the past year.
 
“It’s a very old-fashioned formula,” the programme’s then executive producer, Bill Owens, told me in Toronto in 2023. (Owens resigned in April 2025, citing concerns over editorial meddling in the output of 60 Minutes under Weiss’s stewardship of CBS News.) “It hasn’t changed at all over 55 years,” he added. “We’ve profiled everyone from Beyoncé to Bruce Springsteen. Actors, thieves, poets – you name them. People scream and curse at us from the right and the left. We like it that way. That’s why we remain important in the lives of American news audiences. It’s part of the fabric.”

Well-established news formats have an advantage over newer ones when it comes to their relationships with audiences: trust. The assumption that a long-standing title, particularly if it’s still popular, must be reinvented just because it is old couldn’t be lazier. A newsroom is only as strong as its bond with its viewers. Once that’s lost, it’s difficult to get it back.

Yes, audiences are changing. Owens acknowledged this. “It’s challenging,” he said. “We’ve also lost share of the audience but that’s because the entire broadcast television audience has gotten smaller. Where we have seen dramatic gains are on our digital platform and our Youtube numbers have doubled this year. If people are still getting the quality journalism that 60 Minutes has been bringing people for more than five decades, they’ll continue to tune in.” 
 
But changing tastes need to be catered to carefully, particularly in a news ecosystem where information, often of dubious origin, is more readily available than ever. Under its new management, the clock appears to be ticking on one of the US’s most successful and lucrative news formats. It would be a mistake to let it stop entirely.

Tomos Lewis is Monocle’s Toronto correspondent. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

In the depths of a low-lit basement in central London, James Dickson is explaining how his coffee brand, Workshop, began. “I was interested in what’s called the ‘third-wave’ movement,” he says over floral long blacks. The trend focused on speciality coffee beans with flavour profiles mapped to region, roast and growing season. “Consumer behaviour formed around it and the technology too: machines from companies such as La Marzocco were designed to get the very best out of the coffee.”

Workshop rode the wave to become one of the UK’s leading coffee suppliers to the luxury hospitality sector, offering both the product as well as the training to storied establishments such as Claridge’s and The Langham. The company began by travelling to clients’ coffee bars to teach their staff how to brew the perfect cup. But as the business grew – they now have more than 400 clients worldwide – a new solution was called for. “I saw the opportunity to create a modern British brand that pioneered sourcing and roasting techniques, distinct from the antipodean approach,” says Dickson. 

Now, 15 years after Workshop’s founding, that opportunity has been fully realised in a new flagship café and academy in London’s Belgravia neighbourhood. The venue was vital for its proximity to the company’s London-based clients and the neighbourhood “was a key location because it reflected the heritage of London”, says Dickson. “It’s a stone’s throw from Victoria Station, Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park. I was quite obsessed with that.”

London, luxury, simplicity

Dickson’s commitment to representing London and championing a British aesthetic was core to the design brief for the café and workshop space. “I had three words in mind when working with our designers: London, luxury and simplicity,” he says. 

To bring that vision to life, Dickson tapped 3Stories, a London-based design studio. “We felt that Belgravia contained all three of these key concepts, so our goal was to invoke a feeling of the brand as well as the neighbourhood,” says Jordan Littler, creative director at 3Stories. To do that, the design firm used Workshop’s signature red-and-green colour palette and brought in texturally rich materials, such as burgundy ceramic from Bologna and Calacatta Verde marble, for a space that invites customers to slow down. 

“We wanted people to stop, pause, enjoy the surroundings and their order,” says Dickson. “There aren’t screens or robots trying to speed up the process of buying a coffee.” In today’s oversaturated market, Dickson believes that methodical service is key in creating a premium experience. “Coffee has become a bit ‘high-street’”, he says. “You don’t always get water, you don’t always get a smile, you don’t always get to experience the space. That can have an impact on your day when the price of coffee is going up.” 

Most speciality cafés transport customers to cities elsewhere: Copenhagen, Tokyo, Melbourne and Milan, to name a few. For Dickson, keeping the customer situated in London is part of a bigger goal to put the city on the coffee map. “I feel like London doesn’t get enough credit,” he says. “After many years in this industry, I can honestly say that it is currently one of the leading global cities when it comes to speciality coffee.” 

The design brief also nodded to the UK’s rich history of craftsmanship. “We wanted to revive the romantic association with British manufacturing in its heyday,” he says. To do so, 3Stories took inspiration from the leather stitching found in the interiors of Aston Martin vehicles, Burberry’s sharp tailoring and the refined opulence of Rolls-Royce. “I wanted Workshop to feel like it was bringing back that feeling of high-quality, British craftsmanship,” he says. 

Brewing a generation of well-trained baristas

At Workshop’s academy, James Bailey, chief product officer, is standing next to glittering new coffee machines that will train many future baristas. The company’s success is thanks to its relationships with growers, and its dedication to a range of distinct flavours. 

“There are certain flavour profiles that are very on trend that we’re not interested in,” says Bailey. The company instead prefers sweet, clean and “juicy” coffee flavours. Maintaining this signature profile to the highest standards is not simply a case of buying the right harvest – it’s about keeping strong relationships with farms, which are mostly based in East Africa and South America. The company works with its growers to determine fair pricing for the beans. “If you pay a premium price for the coffee, it allows [the growers] to reinvest in their infrastructures and their trees, and therefore retain the quality,” he says. “[That way we don’t] have to scramble and find a new market every year.” 

Sourcing, roasting and brewing distinguishes a good coffee from a great one. While many people compare coffee to wine, Dickson says the former is much more complex. “A good bottle of wine can be led by subjectivity – some people just prefer a chardonnay over a sauvignon blanc,” he says. “Coffee is not quite as simple. So much can go wrong through sourcing and the extraction process, as well as the serving mechanism. Only the last 10 per cent is subjective. It’s why it’s so much harder to get right.”

Today we’re going to play a little word game to set the tone for this fine Sunday (at least here on the Athenian Riviera) and guide us through the days, weeks and months ahead. Ready, readers? Here we go!

Lojel
This Hong Kong-based luggage brand might not (yet) have the fame of a bigger German label in the wheels business but just you wait. With a more competitive price point and a growing distribution network, the company is becoming recognised as a leader and innovator in the top-opening space. In simple terms, it means that you don’t have to look for a flat expanse to crack open your clamshell wheely. Instead, you can just zip it open from the top and avoid the explosion of socks, tees and undies while still saving on space – particularly in rooms that don’t have the dimensions or common sense to offer proper space for hard-side luggage.

Kikiya
If you find yourself in Tokyo now or over the coming months then make your way to the newish Takanawa Gateway City development and secure a perch at Kikiya. This 60-seat counter set-up reinvents the classic beef bowl with a selection of premium cuts and an array of accompanying dishes. They also pour a crisp, dry koshu white from Yamanashi. Go late when it’s a bit quieter and more relaxed.

Timsum
If you want a perfect table for eight outside in Nihonbashi that pairs great wines with dim sum and excellent service, then ring up and reserve. For now the crowd is local, so avoid over-sharing this little tip.

Margot
This is a woman who deserves the Monocle Service Award for Diplomacy, Enforcement and Charm. On my Etihad flight from Tokyo to Abu Dhabi on Wednesday evening, Margot (a Filipina flight attendant of the old school) was taking no prisoners when it came to inconsiderate passengers watching their HBO shows without headphones or chatting to colleagues as if they were working from home. Thanks to Starlink and ever-faster connectivity on board, digital indecency is likely to become a bigger in-flight flashpoint than drunken British hen parties to Portugal.

6-0
On Friday, an Emirati gentleman of senior rank came up to me to offer a word of thanks. “Thank you my Canadian brother for thumping Qatar.” It even came with a fist bump.

Lisbon 
By now you will have seen that the Portuguese capital will play host to the 10th edition of our Quality of Life Conference and the stunning Gulbenkian will be the backdrop. The conference is timed to work with North American Labo(u)r Day and we’ll be opening up the best of the city as we bring the sharpest minds to the stage for discussion of what makes for the best possible life in urban centres, whether massive or mid-size. All your favourite editors will be onstage and possibly in swimwear for a side trip down to Comporta.

Astir Beach
Need a jolt to get into your summer groove? I can recommend a set of loungers at the Astir Beach Club in Vouliagmeni, south of Athens. The staff are polite and fast, the guests mostly local and the sea superb. You can even stay at The Ilisian (check our wares and those from our brother company Trunk at The Store at The Ilisian) and pop down for the day for some sunshine and assyrtiko.

And on the topic of retail, three letters for you: ZRH. We’re back for the summer season at Zürich Airport – right outside the main Swiss business class lounge.

Enjoying life in ‘The Faster Lane’? Click here to browse all of Tyler’s past columns.