The world can be divided into just two types of people: coffee devotees and tea drinkers. I am a proud member of the coffee tribe and, frankly, harbour a distrust of anyone who outs themselves as a lover of the teapot and all the stewed, tannin-laced evil that can spurt from its spout.

Coffee is about speed, energy, focus. It’s about having a stand-up espresso in a Milanese café, surrounded by people in good suits, or sitting outside a Sydney café enjoying another flat white with ready-for-fun friends. Coffee is also about well-designed cafés, clean aesthetics. And tea? Well, tea is all about becoming a permanent resident of Sleepy Town. It’s a world of slipper-wearers who say things like, “What I need is a nice cup of tea and to put my feet up.” Yes, bubble-tea bars and matcha cafés have proliferated but these are drinks that obscure their tea element using fruity flavours or Day-Glo green colouring. Really, if you need to get anything done, make sure that you find a coffee drinker.

And it seems that much of the world agrees with me. Certainly, the money people do. The coffee shop has become one the hottest investment sectors for venture capitalists, alcohol businesses trying to diversify and community-building fashion brands (you may have also noticed a media company close to my heart that likes to take care of its coffee-drinking readers).

And you can see why. A good coffee shop has universal appeal and has cut through in wealthy markets such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where socialising often takes place over a coffee, not with booze. The audience is young, design-aware and ambitious. So if you can create a cool brand, it’s possible to grow a healthy business. And it’s this latest iteration of the coffee trade that we pore over in this issue. We’ll meet the biggest players (China’s Luckin Coffee now has 30,000 outlets) and guide you to 25 of our favourite cafés around the globe.

This magazine also contains two further surveys. The first is our annual examination of the world of art and collecting, in which we meet seven players with deep insights into very varied sectors of the market, from rare posters and antiquities to contemporary art. Collectors are motivated by many things: obsession, passion, money. Perhaps the most fascinating part of our report is the unpacking of the cravings that drive people to fill their homes with objects and art.

US gallerist Easy Otabor, for example, tells Monocle that he has always collected. First it was training shoes. Now, with the art that he buys, he asks himself, “Are these [works] by good people? Would I enjoy having dinner or working with them?” Meanwhile, Pertti Männistö has gathered one of the world’s largest Alvar Aalto furniture collections. Over the past 30 years he has put together an array of pieces so large and of such significance that only a tiny portion of them will fit in his house, with the rest now in storage. Yet he continues searching for rare prototypes.

Then there’s the Class of 2026 Expo, masterminded by our editor, Josh Fehnert. He’s worked with Monocle’s writers and correspondents to spotlight 16 rising talents in everything from photography to architecture and cartography. Why? At a time when many media organisations focus on the negatives – what divides us – we wanted to put the spotlight on people forging ahead, tackling issues and delivering change, with hope and ambition. It’s a very uplifting conclusion to this issue. And I imagine that there’s a lot of coffee drinkers among them.

If you would like to drop me a note, please feel free to send thoughts and ideas to at@monocle.com.

There’s a challenge for owners of coffee-shop brands who dream of taking their companies to the next level: how do you hold on to your independent, neighbourhood vibe and have 10, 20 or 100 outlets? It’s tricky to pull off – yet not impossible.

But before we tackle the intricacies of global marketing, a brief coffee break. Because how did we get here? How did we get to dinky coffee-shop companies being valued at more than $1bn (€850m) and becoming the investment darlings of venture capitalists and global food brands?

When Monocle launched some 20 years ago, the coffee story already seemed piping hot. It was a moment when the Aussies and Kiwis were perfecting their soon-to-go-global flat whites and defining a new coffee-shop aesthetic. It was a time when being a barista was suddenly one of the higher callings in the world of F&B. When “latte art” was taking hold – and finding many of its finest practitioners in Japan. And, in the US, it was when a new generation of coffee pioneers was out to break the Starbucks model.

A so-called third wave of coffee culture, with lighter roasts and intense bean knowledge, was coming to the fore. There were several components to this then-DIY world that were set to catch the attention of ambitious entrepreneurs and investors. Drinks brands wanted entry to a trade that served young people who were imbibing less booze. Fashion companies saw a way of making a community by using their brand’s halo effect in the world of coffee. And others spotted that coffee, served in an impeccable setting, could prove lucrative in markets such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where people gather and spend their social time not in bars but cool iterations of the café (though this is not a one-way street because Emirati and Saudi brands are now going global too).

This all means that there is a lot of money to be made if you can crack the coffee-shop conundrum of growing big while looking small. Luckily there are models beyond coffee that show how it can be done. Take Aesop, which was founded by Dennis Paphitis in 1987. Today the body-care brand is owned by L’Oréal (which paid over €2bn for the pleasure), yet Aesop retains much of its initial indie DNA by keeping its branding almost unchanged, investing heavily in good shop architecture and appearing at design events such as Salone del Mobile. UK coffee shop company WatchHouse is aiming for the big time but through good design (and coffee). And it still feels cool despite having raised money from Mark Bezos’s private-equity firm. There are lots more following the same playbook.

It’s stories such as these that made us intrigued and, below, we will take you round the world to visit coffee-shop brands both big and small with interesting and surprising stories to tell. After that, we take you to 25 nice cafés – just places that we like. We hope that you find it refreshing.

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More stories about the world of coffee:
Editor’s letter: Andrew Tuck on the booming business of coffee
Breaking new ground: 25 exceptional brands that are leading the coffee industry
Not your average joe: 25 of the world’s best coffee shops, run by next-generation owners

For our June issue, we’re exploring coffee on a global scale. Read about the project and join us as we visit coffee-shop brands both big and small with interesting and surprising stories to tell. We hope that you find it refreshing.

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1.
Fuglen
Norway

The cross-continental champion
Founded in Oslo in 1963, Norwegian coffee brand Fuglen has focused on Asia instead of the big European or North American cities. This is thanks to the strategy of the current owner, Einar Kleppe Holthe, who bought the business in 2008. Fuglen’s first overseas outpost opened in Tokyo in 2012, followed by shops across Japan, Indonesia and South Korea. Last year there were openings in Kyoto and a second location in Seoul; new shops in Fukuoka and Bali opened this year. “We’re showing that you can build a very good business, based on values, that doesn’t only think about profits,” says Holthe.
fuglen.no

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2.
Harlan Coffee
Philippines

The urban oasis
Catering to on-the-go professionals, Filipino entrepreneur Emmanuel T Pineda’s Harlan Coffee seeks to serve up re-energising experiences that fit into the rhythms of our working lives. Its priorities can be gleaned from its choice of locations: the first were near stock exchanges. It has 10 shops in its home city of Manila and 10 in Jakarta. The long-term strategy is international expansion, with ambitions to open a flagship in every Southeast Asian capital. Harlan Coffee is also being rebranded by Winkreative, Monocle’s sister company.
harlanholden.ph

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3.
Sip
Lebanon

The creative choice
When Omar Jheir opened Sip in Beirut’s Gemmayze district in 2017, it was the city’s introduction to artisanal coffee. Now there are about 20 cafés on the same street. “In the past couple of years, there has been a coffee movement in Beirut,” says Jheir, who was inspired by the bean scene of Australia, where he grew up.

Sip’s original café is in a former upholstery workshop, with its industrial aesthetic preserved. A second Beirut branch is imminent at Ramlet al-Baydeh beach and there’s an outpost in Cairo.
Sip, Gemmayze Building 341, Beirut, Lebanon 1100

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4.
Nuances
France

The aesthetic innovators
Founded by brothers Charles and Raphaël Corrot, Nuances has been turning heads in Paris with its retrofuturistic interiors. It has recently opened a fourth shop in the city: a cube-shaped outlet with dramatic lighting in Le Marais. Its Rue Danielle Casanova site is another visual highlight: a listed former creamery from the 1930s, its façade, floor and ceiling are historic treasures. “The contrast with the futuristic bar is striking,” says Charles. The appeal isn’t all aesthetic: house recipes such as the rose latte (eau de rose brewed with matcha and milk) and collaborations with a pâtissier give the brand extra, well, nuances.
cafenuances.com

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5.
Alchemist
Singapore

The entry point
Singapore-based brand Alchemist, which recently marked its 10th anniversary, remains committed to its founding mission of making coffee approachable. “We have always offered a wide selection from around the world that’s high quality but not too expensive,” says Ang Wei Kiat, Alchemist’s director of coffee. Across 15 sites in Singapore, plus cafés in Taipei and Tokyo, the roasts on the menu accentuate sweetness and clarity. “No education or experience is needed to enjoy those things,” says the company’s founder, Will Leow.
alchemist.global

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6.
Deluxe Coffeeworks
South Africa

The daily grind
When Carl Wessel and Judd Nicolay are choosing café locations for their South African brand Deluxe Coffeeworks, they look for spaces where people will want to return daily. “This allows us to become part of people’s everyday routines,” says Wessel. The business began as a coffee roastery in Cape Town 17 years ago but today the city hosts four of its cafés. There is also an outpost in Stellenbosch, as well as a roastery in Namibia. In Cape Town, you’ll often spot residents on the go sipping Deluxe flat whites. The roastery business has since expanded to supply 450 wholesale customers and coffee shops.
deluxecoffeeworks.co.za

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7.
Abuelo
UK

The gathering place
Combining speciality Latin American coffee with a strong visual identity, Abuelo has two outposts in London: its first opened in Covent Garden in 2018 and a Marylebone café followed in 2024. Its distinctive look draws on the architecture and design roots of the company’s mother-and-daughter founders, Lynette and Cloe de la Vega. “Many architects who design for hospitality can get it right for the photo but so wrong for how it feels to be in the space,” says Cloe. “We start with the practical elements before moving on to the workflow, how customers engage with the space and what we’re trying to communicate.” Featuring sharing tables, vintage furniture and wood-panelled interiors, Abuelo offers well-designed places that invite you to linger.
abuelocafe.co.uk

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8.
Subko
India

India’s best brew
Entrepreneur Rahul Reddy’s light-bulb moment for Indian coffee brand Subko came when he realised that most speciality shops in the country relied on African and Latin American producers. “I asked myself, what about Asian coffee?” he says. Reddy opened the first Subko in Mumbai in 2020. Six years later, there are outposts in four cities across India, plus one in Dubai. He has expanded its repertoire to include South Asian inspired bakes and bean-to-bar chocolate too.
subko.coffee

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9.
Koffee Mameya
Japan

The must-book bean house
Founded by Eiichi Kunitomo, Koffee Mameya has carved out a niche in Japan’s coffee scene. First came a backstreet bean shop in Tokyo’s Jingumae in 2017. Four years later, Koffee Mameya Kakeru opened in a renovated warehouse in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa. This reservation-only shop embodies Kunitomo’s mission to elevate coffee through an experience akin to fine dining. These two locations, plus a third in Hong Kong, show the potential for businesses built on craft over convenience.
koffee-mameya.cod

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10.
Die Cafetière
Austria

The mid-century treasure
Die Cafetiére is a fine example of the espresso bars that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s as counterpoints to Vienna’s traditional coffee hubs. Originally an outpost of family-owned roaster Naber, Die Cafetiére was reopened in 2023 under the ownership of Peggy Strobel, who retained its original details – such as a brass-edged bar and the Naber logo on the façade – but updated the menu to put flat whites alongside the Wiener melange. “Though we have tourists visiting, we’re essentially a neighbourhood café,” says Strobel. In keeping with its design-forward charm, the back of the café also doubles as a furniture showroom.
diecafetiere.wien

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11.
Hagen
UK

The Danish ambassador
Former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Schroeder founded Hagen in 2017, hoping to bring a bit of his native Copenhagen to London. “Our coffee culture is about a love for quality and individuality,” he says. With more than 20 locations spread across London’s smarter areas, Hagen now sits at the high end of the market. “Our brand is analogue – that’s a premium in a digital world,” says Schroeder. “Because we are located in affluent areas, we can ask for people’s time, which in turn creates brand loyalty.” In 2025, Hagen expanded to Amsterdam, a city that Schroeder says is close to Danish hearts. “We’re as obsessed with site selection as we are with the cities we want to share our coffee passion with.”
thehagenproject.com

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12.
Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi
Turkey

The heritage house
In the bustling backstreets next to Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, the rich scent of coffee pulls customers to the Mehmet Efendi HQ. The brand has been roasting coffee here since it was founded in 1871. “It isn’t just part of our family business’s history; it’s also a cherished part of our customers’ personal histories,” says Mehmet Kurukahveci, grandson of Efendi, who now runs the business along with his brother Hulusi. Today it operates a café in its original headquarters, plus two further shops in the city. Its coffee is also available in all of Turkey’s major supermarkets, so you can take that iconic logo home.
mehmetefendi.com

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13.
Samba Coffee Roasters
Greece

The ice-cold roasters
Though exporting beans remains key to Samba, a fixture in Athens since 1979, completing a flagship café in the Kolonaki district in 2020 gave its owner, Kostas Kalafatas, a deeper insight into Greek coffee preferences. The frappé – a frothy iced coffee created using instant granules that defined Greek café culture for decades – is now being replaced by the freddo espresso, made with two shots of freshly brewed espresso shaken with ice cubes. “It’s the main coffee now,” says Kalafatas. “Greeks drink it cold year-round, no matter the temperature.”
sambacafe.gr

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14.
Sede Café
Mexico

The to-go go-to
Opening 59 branches in 27 months is no small feat. Founded in 2024 by former banker and one-time Blank Street intern Javier Arrigunaga, Sede Café has become a staple in the Mexican capital. It’s an almost entirely takeaway business: few tables, no lingering, just good coffee at the fast pace that the city demands. Sede has expanded beyond its roots in Mexico City’s Roma and Condesa districts. You’ll now see its blue branding in malls and neighbourhoods such as Vallejo. “Accessibility means two things: fair prices and proximity,” says Arrigunaga. You shouldn’t have to cross the city or spend too much to enjoy a good coffee.

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15.
Koncrete
UAE

The cultural hub
Just off Jumeirah’s beachfront strip in Dubai, Koncrete is part-café, part-cultural anchor. Founded by Emirati entrepreneur Himyan Al Qubaisi, it reflects her long-standing interest in art, architecture and pared-back design. “Concrete is the foundation, the base layer,” she says. “Koncrete is a starting point for new ideas and connections.”

Polished concrete floors and exposed columns are offset by moss-green seating and sheer drapery, creating a space that feels both industrial and inviting. The menu, meanwhile, is focused and unfussy. Coffee is sourced with care, alongside a small selection of sandwiches, matcha, beans and branded goods.

Koncrete hosts low-key events with local and international brands. In doing so, it has carved out a loyal, design-literate following and a place in Dubai’s growing creative landscape.
koncretespace.com

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16.
Doutor
Japan

The pup-friendly park spot
With 1,072 branches and revenues of ¥76.8bn (about €417m) in the last fiscal year, Japanese chain Doutor Coffee Shop runs a wide range of operations. Founded in 1962 as a roastery, it opened its first shop in 1980. But for one of its most recent projects, Doutor focused on something smaller – a café in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park. Based on the site of the Dutch team’s lodgings for the 1964 Tokyo Games (when the park served as the Olympic Village), it features stone walls made from Japanese Aji granite and a large wooden table consisting of a slab of Zelkova wood. The menu offers Doutor staples, as well as park exclusives such as a fresh strawberry matcha latte and a Yoyogi Dog with Hokkaido four-cheese sauce. Real dogs lounge on the terrace, while an outdoor hatch serves their owners. “We wanted to provide a relaxing moment for everyone who comes to Yoyogi Park,” says Doutor’s PR officer, Yuko Maekawa.
doutor.co.jp

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17.
Single O
Australia

The batch-brew trailblazer
Australia’s coffee cachet is built on espresso-machine mastery. But Sydney café and roastery Single O, founded by Emma and Dion Cohen in 2003, has a different calling card. The self-serve batch-brew bar, known as Freepour Batch, was co-created in 2018 with Sydney-based manufacturer Six Simple Machines. The system, inspired by craft-brewery taps, allows for the quick batch-brewing and dispensation of hot and cold speciality drinks, from rare Geisha single-origins to the bestselling iced-oat lattes. It accounts for almost half of all café sales at Single O. The brand’s expansion to Japan began in 2014; it now has five locations and 55 staff in Tokyo. “We’re giving more variety to the customer, as well as more innovative beverages and faster service,” says Michael Brabant, Single O’s CEO. “It’s not just lattes and flat whites.”
singleo.com.au

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18.
Lap
Germany

The low-cost disruptor
“Germans drink more coffee than beer,” says Ralph Hage, who was born in Lebanon. “But unlike in London or New York, you couldn’t find good affordable coffee for the commute here.” So, alongside former start-up executive Tonalli Arreola, the ex-banker sought to remedy this. Since opening in Berlin in 2023, LAP has grown to have more than 30 outposts, with a further 20 poised to open this year. “Banks wouldn’t lend to me as a foreigner so I rang my investor friends,” says Hage. Critics accuse the venture capital-backed chain of undercutting independents but its cash-conscious customers are fans.
lap.coffee

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19.
Pingado LX
Portugal

The mobile ‘bica’
Working in the tradition of the ice-cream carts that were once a common sight in the parks of the Portuguese capital, entrepreneurs José Galamba and José Paiva dos Santos founded Pingado LX. The brand serves bica espressos prepared on their bicycle cart. “With the rise of Nordic-style cafés, we felt that the Portuguese custom of picking up a bica on the street was slipping away,” says Galamba. “Someone told us that the smell of our coffee brought back memories of being at their grandmother’s house.”
pingadolx.com

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20.
The Miners
Czech Republic

The franchise with ambition
You might not have heard of it yet but this Czech chain has its sights set on conquering Europe. Launched in 2019 by Egor Kolpakov and Oldrich Valta, The Miners has opened 34 coffee shops in seven European countries, including the Netherlands and Germany, and is set to enter several more markets by the end of 2026. While most of the cafés are franchised, all are supplied with beans from The Miners’ Prague roastery. The cost of opening a new branch is high (an investor typically must commit between €200,000 and €400,000) but the rapid take-up shows that its high-quality beans and stylish design are worth banking on.
theminers.eu

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21.
Canyon Coffee
USA

The neighbourhood hangout
When Casey Wojtalewicz and Ally Walsh co-founded Canyon Coffee in 2016 as a wholesale business (with the occasional pop-up), they had $5,000 (€4,250) in savings and a $10,000 credit line. Four years and multiple pop-up events later, the business had revenues of $1m (€850,000), giving Wojtalewicz and Walsh the boost to start thinking about launching a physical outpost. Their first café opened in Los Angeles’ Echo Park in 2022. A roasting facility in the city’s downtown followed, along with a café in New York’s Brooklyn neighbourhood. Another café in LA’s Eastside is on the cards for later this year. “There’s intention behind everything that we do at Canyon Coffee without it ever being ‘in your face’,” says Wojtalewicz. “People feel and appreciate that when they come to us and that’s the goal – to create spaces that are beautiful and easy to return to every day.”
canyoncoffee.co

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22.
Allpress
New Zealand

The global giant
Part of Japanese drinks giant Asahi’s non-alcoholic beverage portfolio, Allpress operates 18 cafés in four countries, including the UK, Japan and New Zealand, where the brand was founded. The company also serves more than 2,000 independent cafés globally, including Monocle’s in London. “We don’t just sell bags of coffee,” says Agnes Potter, Allpress’s managing director for the UK and Asia. “If someone wants an extra-large latte with two sugars, we want to make the best one that they have ever had.” Allpress’s latest opening was in London’s Farringdon area in April.
allpressespresso.com

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23.
Morettino
Italy

The belle-époque beanery
Caffè Palermo is just one of Sicily-based roaster Morettino’s three outposts but it serves a crucial purpose. Opened in 2024 after five years of restoration and based inside the 16th-century Palazzo Guggino Chiaramonte Bordonaro on Palermo’s Quattro Canti square, the café has allowed Morettino to enhance its offering in an area dominated by tourist spots. A Liberty-era outdoor kiosk will also open later this year. “It’s about creating a rapport,” says one of the owners, Andrea Morettino.
morettino.com

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24.
Market Lane Coffee
Australia

The modern masterpiece
Melbourne is a city that helped to elevate the barista’s profession so entrepreneurs opening a coffee shop here can feel a little daunted. It was this challenge that Fleur Studd and Jason Scheltus decided to take on. Since opening Market Lane Coffee in the Prahran food market in 2009, the pair have expanded to nine shops in Melbourne. Its latest, in Mitchell House, is its most design-forward yet. It features curved, steel-framed windows and a standing bar facing the street.
marketlane.com.au

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25.
Lalere
Switzerland

The one-off wonder
Founded by Fabian Gass and Eric and Luca Blum, Lalere offers an appealing mix of striking design and good hospitality. Gass, a certified coffee taster and Zürich-based brand Vicafe’s former roastery head, provides deep coffee expertise; his brothers-in-law Eric and Luca have brought their studio OnkaiArts’ design nous. The trio built Lalere’s wood-lined interior mostly by hand; almost every element of the space was made specifically for it, from its plaster finishes to its timber details. “The aim was to create something that would last and not distract,” says Eric. According to Gass, another goal was to build a social hub for the surrounding community. The curved counter, for example, encourages conversation. “We were trying to create the kind of place where we would want to go ourselves,” he says.
lalere.ch

ARTICLE CREDITS

Writers: Adrian Kai Fraile Itagaki, Alexandra Aldea, Alexei Korolyo, Ben Davis, Callum McDermott, Carlota Rebelo, Colin Nagy, Désirée Bandli, Fiona Wilson, Florian Siebeck, Guy De Launey, Hannah Lucinda Smith, Helena Kardová, Inzamam Rashid, James Chambers, Joseph Koh, Julia Jenne, Liam Aldous, Mary Holland, Natalie Stoclet, Rory Jones, Tara Loader Wilkinson, Tomos Lewis

For our June issue, we’re exploring coffee on a global scale. Read about the project and join us on a tour of 25 nice cafés – just places that we like. We hope that you find it refreshing.

15.
Top of the coffee roasteries

1.
Italy remains a key player. Trieste-based Illy had an annual turnover of €700m in 2025, while Turin’s Lavazza celebrated its 130th year in business with revenues of €3.9bn. Viva l’Italia.

2.
Luckin Coffee has taken the industry by the horns and in April 2026 opened a vast, €375m state-of-the-art roasting centre in Qingdao, China, which the company claims is the largest in the world. It has the annual capacity to roast more than 55,000 tonnes of the black stuff.

3.
Beyond the mass market, specialist roasteries have been able to position a cup of joe as a daily luxury and price their beans accordingly. London-based Monmouth Coffee Company – which was founded in 1978 and boasts three shops – has mastered the art of branding. In a market dominated by gimmicks, its simple, sandy-hued sachets adorned with a sans-serif font hint at the company’s values of quality, transparency and consistency.

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ARTICLE CREDITS

WRITERS:

• Rory Jones
• Julia Jenne
• Carlota Rebelo
• Liam Aldous
• Désirée Bandli
• Guy De Launey
• Natalie Stoclet
• Mary Holland
• Adrian Kai Fraile Itagaki
• James Chambers
• Fiona Wilson
• Alexandra Aldea
• Tara Loader Wilkinson
• Colin Nagy
• Tomos Lewis

Stretching from the town of Blanes, about 70km from Barcelona, all the way to the French border, the serrated coastline and plains of Spain’s l’Empordà region are etched into the Catalan identity. The Costa Brava is a place of confounding dualities: a hedonistic playground for the wealthy and a provincial outpost that clings conservatively to the past. It’s a region known for its fishing towns and farmland – but also for having been home to Catalonia’s most cosmopolitan souls, from writer Josep Pla to surrealist Salvador Dalí.

The Hostal de La Gavina in S’Agaró first put this part of Catalonia on the map – literally. The family that opened the hotel in 1932 also built the town. Though it has been updated over the years, there’s something unchanging here that offers comfort in a world in flux. From a long wall of arched windows, you can see slivers of the Med between fresh-trimmed foliage; grand bouquets perfume the air and a side table holds a jug of iced tea. Now run by the founder’s grandchildren, it’s a favourite among those who know this stretch of the Costa Brava.

While the region pioneered Spain’s modern tourism industry in the 1930s, it has surprisingly few international hotel chains. The villas among the coastal pines point to a different, more restrained approach to development – just the way the locals like it.

“More than a resort, we like to call it a mansion,” says Christian Kirschner, La Gavina’s sales and marketing manager, as he leads us into its network of dining salons, drawing rooms and terraces. “This is a good moment for La Gavina because the trend of design hotels seems to have run its course. People are looking to go back to their roots.”

La Gavina was envisaged as a “garden village” – a bold urban-planning project initiated in 1924 that eventually encompassed 160 additional villas in the surrounding hills. It reflected the idealism of businessman Josep Ensesa and architect Rafael Masó, and was an example of noucentisme – a more austere counterpart of Catalan modernism. The project was aimed at bourgeois barcelonins seeking solace outside the city. Almost a third of the 150,000 sq m space is dedicated to gardens, public squares and recreation grounds.

To help nurture the country’s nascent tourism industry, Ensesa commissioned artist Enric Moneny to create a series of expressive posters. Moneny’s whimsical campaigns perfectly capture Ensesa’s fantasy of an exclusive space, free of conflict, where summer feels eternal and high society comes to play. Civil war, however, sapped the hotel’s momentum and forced the family into exile. But by the 1940s, La Gavina had resumed its mission, hosting international tourism conferences as well as illustrious guests. Passing a wall of framed faces, Kirschner tells Monocle about the hotel’s Hollywood era. (We spot photos of Elizabeth Taylor, Ava Gardner and Orson Welles.)

We run into the hotel’s general manager, Joan Carles Casanovas, whose steady hand keeps it all running smoothly. “Hotels are never-ending stories and the backdrop to grand dramas,” he says. “Our job is to make things consistent.” He points to a desk designed by the hotel’s architect that was recently acquired at auction. Most of the furniture here is antique. The word “hostal” in the name has stubbornly been retained, even though its meaning has changed over the decades, leading to occasional confusion among new guests. “We have found ways to improve,” he says. “But we always protect the essence.”

Further up the coast, a little after midday, the sun glints over the terrace tables of Tragamar restaurant. Calella de Palafrugell is a cove of soft-hued boat sheds. Over exquisitely presented tapas, restaurateur Tomás Taruella and his daughter, Gina, offer their take on a recent wave of successions. Tomás tells Monocle that he took over this seafront spot in 2024 from his sister, who had been serving the summer crowds since 1992. More recently, his company, Grupo Tragaluz, took over seafood restaurant Sa Marinada in the town of Sant Feliu de Guíxols following the retirement of its owner. “She saw us as a safe pair of hands because we saw value in preserving the existing ecosystem.” The same father-and-son duo who have long supplied its kitchen still catches fresh fish for it every morning.

Having managed restaurants across Spain for 35 years, Taruella recently set his sights on a guesthouse. He discovered the 12-key Hotel Madremanya after meeting its owner, who wanted to retire. With only 280 residents, the surrounding village is one of many modest medieval clusters of stone, steeples and sentry towers, which dot the Gironese landscape. “I strive to respect each location and what came before,” says Taruella. “It’s more important for us to feel proud of what we do than just to do business for business’s sake.” Guests are encouraged to explore nature paths on foot or by bike; meanwhile, the hotel has a growing collection of crockery from neighbouring pottery workshop Ceràmiques Pantaleu. “The Costa Brava and l’Empordá have always attracted artists and intellectuals who aren’t here to consume but to contribute.”

Not all of the area’s historic mansions are for lodging. The town of Púbol, a 10-minute drive from Madremanya, is where Gala, Dalí’s muse, found refuge from the artist’s eccentricities. The castle-like residence is open to the public as the Castell Gala Dalí museum. Dalí’s acerbic nature wasn’t anomalous in the region. The unsparing Tramuntana winds, which sweep down from the mountains in the off-season, are said to be responsible for a brusque regional character prone to bouts of eccentricity. Laura Ballesteros, the manager of the Palau de Casavells, a contemporary-art gallery set inside a 16th-century estate home, says that this local disposition is also defined by curiosity and a love of dialogue. And, rather than musing about the future, many of the people here are fixated on connections with what came before.

The main building of Mas de Torrent, a hotel and spa, is surrounded by terracotta-tiled villas in the local vernacular. Showing us around its art collection, Susana Basols, the hotel’s director, recalls the time when a local business painted a prominent wall along the highway in a shade of yellow. Graffiti soon appeared, admonishing the owners to “respect l’Empordà’s landscape”. The wall was repainted in a more respectful green. “There’s a collective desire to preserve things,” says Basols.

The following morning, we’re in the lobby of Hostal Empúries, which opened in 1907 as a beachfront villa to host archaeologists arriving to comb through the neighbouring ancient ruins. It now offers 54 guest rooms. Joggers, cyclists and dog-walkers stream up and down the esplanade trail with jagged rock formations on each side of the narrow cove.

Costa Brava means “Wild Coastline”. The name was coined in 1908 by journalist Ferran Agulló i Vidal but was only officially adopted in the 1960s to attract new visitors to the untamed region. Dalí went a step further, talking about the coastline’s “geological delirium” and how the spectacle of its drama had the power to calm the spectator. Pla’s musings about this stretch of coastline – endlessly paraphrased – talked of the sea’s “innumerable smile” and “air of floating fantasy”. Today much has changed but more has stayed the same. This Catalan outcrop is at once conservative, outward-looking and avant garde, and all the better for it. 

To reach the entrance of Xinú perfumes, a fragrance shop in Mexico City’s Juárez neighbourhood, you have to weave between other shoppers down a busy path flanked by plants. Inside the wood-and-glass building, crowds of customers spray their wrists, sample tester strips and marvel at the magnificent space, which was designed by Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena. A short walk away, a queue is beginning to form outside Lengua, one of the city’s new jewellery shops, opened in 2025 to spotlight the work of Latin American designers. Outside, two clients sit on a bench and patiently wait. And why not? It’s a beautiful Saturday morning, with the sun streaming through the trees.

Hugo Rosellón, the shop’s owner and jewellery designer, also has another outpost nearby. He tells Monocle how the city’s transformation has increased consumer appetite for Latin American brands. He leads us past Lengua’s glass boxes, which are filled with silver earrings and gold chains by designers such as Puerto Rican Hernán Herdez. He says that customers who would previously have spent $300 (€260) on jewellery are now buying pieces priced at $5,000 (€4,300) or more. “That’s why we decided to open this new place,” he adds.

Over the past decade, a wave of homegrown brands has emerged as Mexico City’s popularity as a destination has risen. “So many people are travelling here,” says Montserrat Messeguer, who launched her namesake brand in 2017, specialising in Western wear and high-end artisanal cowboy boots crafted in El Bajío, where they have historically been produced. “It has been a great opportunity to open shops adjacent to businesses serving food,” she adds, noting that most people who come to the city have traditionally been drawn here by its culinary and architectural appeal. Now, they’re coming for retail too. One of Messeguer’s three locations is just around the corner from popular seafood restaurant Contramar.

Visitors from the US and Europe venture to the residential neighbourhood of San Miguel Chapultepec, where Chava Studio’s flagship shop is located. Founded by US-born Olivia Villanti, Chava quickly built a global reputation for fitted shirts in neutral palettes, with extra-large cuffs and crispy cottons.

Villanti moved to Mexico City – her husband’s hometown – in 2020 and started out making shirts for herself using fabrics from Gilly e Hijos, a company run by her in-laws, and importing textiles from Europe’s best mills. When people began asking where she got her button-downs, she decided to expand her production. What began with seven made-to-order designs has since grown into a company with fully fledged tailoring collections for men and women, as well as a selection of shirts sold off the rack – a hit among her international clientele.

“People want to go home with something,” says Villanti. She worked with Sebastián Mancera of architectural practice Taller 3000 to renovate her new boutique, a calm oasis clad in wood panels. The boutique’s unfussy location also captures Chava and Villanti’s independent spirit, and has opened up opportunities for visitors to see the city in a new light. The quaint neighbourhood is dotted with contemporary galleries, plus the Casa Luis Barragán museum, as well as a series of new favourites such as Saint bakery and Comal Oculto, an antojería that’s ideal for post-shopping bites.

The new wave of creativity across the city is changing the way that residents shop too. “We used to overlook things that were made in Mexico,” says designer Patricio Campillo, who was a semi-finalist in the 2024 LVMH Prize, an annual award run by the luxury group to support emerging designers. Campillo has a shop in Juárez; he tells Monocle that foreign appreciation has inspired locals to embrace homegrown brands. This has allowed him to be more experimental with his designs, price his pieces more competitively and collaborate with artisans on more intricate techniques.

Meanwhile, the city’s creative revival is spurring story tellers of all kinds to spread the word about local designers and artisans. Jessica Ramírez, the director and co-founder of advisory firm The Consumer Collective, points to the power of podcasts. “A lot of Mexican ones have very strong followings,” she says, adding that much of South America looks to Mexico as an entry point to the rest of the world.

This is partly why global luxury houses are now following suit. WGSN’s Mexico City-based trend forecaster, Catalina Marin, says that, unlike more established places such as the US or China, Mexico City’s overall luxury market is still expected to grow by 5 per cent in the next five years. “We are seeing growth of the upper-middle class and new luxury consumers: younger shoppers entering the market earlier,” says Marin, pointing to the recent arrivals of labels such as Tiffany & Co and Carolina Herrera, both of which have leaned into localised marketing experiences. The latter created a special collection for the Mexican market at El Palacio de Hierro, one of the city’s best-known department stores.

“Hermès is creating visual merchandising with Mexican architects and designers,” adds Marin. “The approach is more localised.” In 2023, Cartier launched a major exhibition, Cartier Design: A Living Legacy, curated by Ana Elena Mallet and designed by architect Frida Escobedo, both from Mexico, at the Jumex Museum. Ramírez adds that the city has become a stop on film press tours too. “Netflix has been betting on Mexico City,” she says. “These things go hand in hand.”

On Avenida Presidente Masaryk, a street in Polanco lined with brands such as Max Mara and Hermès, there’s no shortage of people carrying designer bags. Local shops such as Lago and Ikal, which showcase Mexican designers alongside international names, have become go-to destinations too. One person helping to drive this integration is Karla Martínez de Salas, the editor in chief of Vogue México y Latinoamérica. “She has done a fantastic job with Mexico, highlighting the culture and putting it alongside international high-end brands,” adds Ramírez.

Marin notes that Latin American labels such as Carla Fernández are also becoming increasingly attractive because consumers want items that are unique. “Women from Central or South America are not necessarily going to New York any more – they want something that tells a story,” she says. Eduardo Dubost, Ikal’s owner, adds that he has been seeing a lot of brands from places such as Colombia and Argentina using Mexico as a gateway to the global luxury market. “The country has turned into a platform,” he adds.

Back in Juárez, the queues start to disperse, revealing a neat line-up of beautifully designed shopfronts. “We have realised that we have to elevate the retail experience if we want to optimise our sales,” says Campillo, who shares a space with local design brand Varon. At Lengua down the road, the design of the shop – a boxy space clad in red Talavera tiles – has become a reason to visit in itself. “It took eight months to finish,” says Rosellón, proud of the space that he designed. “This is an ode to sculpture and Mexican luxury,” he says, adding that it isn’t just a shop for big-spending travellers. “We want to sell Mexico to Mexicans.”

Read Monocle’s complete travel guide to Mexico City, here.

Monocle has always sought out and celebrated fresh talent in everything from design and diplomacy to art and hospitality. Here, we spotlight 16 people who are challenging the way that we work and doing things a little differently. In a world beset by thorny problems and negative news, we’re putting forward folks with passion, energy and good ideas. From a Latin American musician finding international success to a self-taught Japanese designer with a mastery of fabric, new talent continues to flourish across the globe. We meet emerging stars in the fields of art, politics, architecture and more. Each has the potential to shape their industry, shift the norm and graduate to something even greater.

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Sofia Xanthakou
The ambitious designer bringing fresh ideas to one of the world’s oldest cities.
Athens

“I’m a young architect so my work still feels fluid,” says Sofia Xanthakou, the founder of Athens-based practice Local Local. “There’s room for exploration.” Prior to setting up her own office in May 2025, Xanthakou studied at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and the Pratt Institute School of Architecture, before working for firms in London and New York. “In big offices, you can only be in charge of a small part of a wider project,” she adds. “In Athens, I work across a variety of projects, from residential and commercial to something totally different, such as a university building or a hospital.”

Xanthakou and her four-strong Local Local team have completed the design of Melas Martinos art gallery in Athens’ Monastiraki neighbourhood. Another project consisted of the renovation of a 19th-century townhouse in Plaka. “It’s important to observe the site of a project, to understand its history,” she says about her approach to new commissions. “I’m not a loud person and want things to be refined. I like it when people enter a space and don’t necessarily understand what is old and what is new. It means that a project is well rooted.” To achieve this, Xanthakou works with local materials and craftspeople.

As an architect operating in one of the world’s oldest cities, Xanthakou spends a lot of time contending with Greek bureaucracy – something that she says requires equal parts tenacity and patience. “It’s hard to know which rules to obey and which are the most current – and obtaining permits is exhausting,” she says. “But creating something unique within these restrictions iiis an interesting challenge. And the wait for permits allows us the time to design carefully.”

The ambitious Xanthakou is poised to help transform her home city and beyond, with projects under way in the capital as well as in the mountains of northern Greece and the country’s islands. “It’s not that I don’t want to do things as they have been done in the past but it’s good to spice things up.”

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José Luis Barquero
The Spanish painter captivating collectors and causing a stir.
Barcelona

In the salons of Barcelona, there’s a growing buzz around José Luis Barquero – known simply by his surname on the nameplates at Galeria Mayoral, a respected Catalan gallery that acts as his local agent. Contemporary art dealer and philanthropist Carmen Thyssen was an early advocate and Barquero’s works are now on the walls of canny collectors in London, Paris and New York. From his studio in the industrial neighbourhood of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, the 28-year-old graduate of London’s Central St Martins and Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona paints large-scale canvases of human figures in abstract spaces. Some find them haunting but Barquero insists that his work is optimistic.

“These figures might not have a fixed gender – they’re somewhere in between – but they have intention, a sense of purpose,” he says. “Even if they’re struggling, they’re moving forward.”

Barquero tells Monocle that, for him, living and working in the same space is a crucial part of producing original ideas. “The short distance between my bed and the studio is important,” he says. “I can start working without rationalising anything. The ideas are raw, not yet shaped by the day. I also keep my library close and take reference from my books. There’s a dialogue between what I read and what I paint.” Literature also offers refuge when painting becomes too much. “When I need a break, I go to the books and then back again.”

Travel is another important influence on his work. “Barcelona is my base but I’ll spend a few months in New York and Paris this year,” he adds. “Travel opens you to completely different environments with unfamiliar inputs. Though social media connects artists globally, it’s not the same as living in another city. Going to places brings new colours, forms and ways of working. You see how other artists approach things and it pushes you out of your comfort zone.”

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Clara Vitaggio
The winemaker reimagining the taste of a terroir.
Sicily

Mention “marsala wine” and palates will be prepped for the familiar fortified tipple from the westernmost tip of Sicily. But 28-year-old Marsala native Clara Vitaggio wants to show that there’s more to her region than the sweet stuff, and attract thirsty connoisseurs in the process.

Though small in scale, Vitaggio’s namesake winery produces about 10,000 bottles a year using indigenous white grapes, including grillo and catarratto. “I’m interested in identity and quality, and want the terroir to be felt in the glass,” says the winemaker, who recently earned a doctorate in oenology from the University of Palermo, where she currently teaches.

After a two-year stint in the Mâconnais region of Burgundy, where she focused on ageing white wines, Vitaggio returned to tend her family’s plot. Today she’s preparing for her fifth harvest. Her goal is to produce wines that are “clean, focused and instantly recognisable”. For her red Gloria, which she makes using nero d’avola grapes, she removes the skins to avoid heavy, jam-flavoured variants.

Before releasing her bottles to the public, Vitaggio’s vintages are stored at the winery inside a naturally cool grotto that dates back centuries – a place that hints at the importance of honouring the past as we dash towards the future. Soon she hopes to have new additions made from overlooked grapes such as lucignola and inzolia nera, older Sicilian varieties that she believes will become increasingly useful as the island faces hotter temperatures and droughts. “Native varietals know the land better,” she tells Monocle. “They are part of our past but can help in the future.”

With her wines, Vitaggio is reminding the industry that tastes change, as well as practices. Today’s experiments could well become tomorrow’s mainstays.

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Tong Hann Goh
The restaurateur spicing up a city’s dining scene.
Singapore

The first thing that struck Tong Hann Goh after he returned from New York to his hometown of Singapore was how restrained the city-state’s restaurants could be. “Clean, modern and minimal – there wasn’t anywhere I wanted to linger,” he tells Monocle. So, at the age of 26, he opened seafood restaurant Marcy’s. With its maximalist interiors steeped in Old-World charm – think drapes, tiered chandeliers and gilded mirrors – it offers a confident vision of how dining in a global city can look.

“I had always craved the experience of taking two steps from the street into a restaurant and feeling as though I was somewhere else entirely,” says Goh. Rather than relying on time-tested recipes, Marcy’s offers cosmopolitan interpretations of classic dishes, such as clams rockefeller topped with breadcrumbs, Calabrian chilli and Sichuan oil. “

When we started Marcy’s, most Singaporeans had a specific idea of what a seafood restaurant should be,” says Goh. “This presented us with an opportunity to expand the palate.” Bite by bite, the business has gathered pace, encouraging Goh to launch a dive bar, Parliament, and Maggie’s, a playful take on a Chinese restaurant. Both capture Goh’s founding idea of crafting new worlds. His latest venture is a daytime deli called Between Buns – an airy, colourful place serving tasty sandwiches.

“Pleasure is central to everything that we do,” he says, explaining the name of his restaurant group, PleasureCraft. “It doesn’t have to be cheeky or sensual. It’s about appealing to all five senses. Craft means that we’re always looking for ways to improve. The work is never done.”

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Tura Cousins Wilson and Shane Laptiste
The architects with an eye on building communities.
Toronto

It’s April and the cherry blossoms that canopy a swathe of High Park in Toronto are blooming. In 1959, Toru Hagiwara, Japan’s ambassador to Canada, presented the sakura trees to the city to thank it for being a refuge for Japanese-Canadians after the Second World War. The petals inspired the design of the park’s public pavilion by Studio of Contemporary Architecture, a local practice that architects Tura Cousins Wilson (pictured, left) and Shane Laptiste (right) established eight years ago. “We’re curious about how architecture can facilitate culture, community and city building,” says Laptiste. The studio has applied that spirit to many settings, including changing rooms for a football pitch in Collingwood and an exhibition space for British-Kenyan ceramicist Magdalene Odundo’s first North American retrospective in Toronto.

Designing spaces in which people congregate is the studio’s signature. “We have been fortunate to take on projects that you can spend some time with – the architecture of spaces that are typically secondary or ancillary in some way,” says Cousins Wilson. “These are opportunities to showcase how architecture on a more intimate scale can have an impact.”

A big advantage of being a young studio on the up is the freedom to speculate. “As a smaller practice, we get to explore how we can make a difference and really cater to communities that we know could benefit,” says Laptiste. Among those is an urban vision for Toronto’s Little Jamaica neighbourhood and a report on reimagining one of the city’s defining urban features: its miles of laneways laced between major thoroughfares. “We are interested in how they can be used differently, beyond laneway housing or residential suites,” says Laptiste. “Perhaps for little neighbourhood cafés, bicycle repair shops or smaller gallery spaces.”

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Margaret Austin and Hannah Rieke
The Brooklyn shopkeepers focusing on in-person experiences over digital distractions.
New York

Longtime friends Margaret Austin (pictured, left) and Hannah Rieke (right) opened their womenswear boutique, Outline, at the ages of 29 and 28, respectively. Their goal was to create a classic neighbourhood shop serving the people they grew up around in Brooklyn. It was risky: since the coronavirus pandemic, the fashion industry had been questioning the relevance of bricks-and-mortar shops. Retailers from Barneys to Opening Ceremony (where Austin previously worked) were shutting their doors. But with its inviting interiors and smart selection – Outline has brought Japanese stalwarts Auralee and Ssstein to New York, as well as Lebanese labels Super Yaya and Renaissance Renaissance – the space quickly began to draw customers of all ages in search of artisanal design and a more sociable style of shopping. “What’s most important for us is catering to our immediate community,” says Austin. “These are the people we come into contact with every day.”

As the business evolves, the duo continues to make unorthodox moves that are helping to build customer loyalty. Most recently, they shut down their e-commerce site and created a catalogue to highlight their seasonal picks. “E-commerce didn’t feel very inspiring,” says Rieke. “We are about the in-person experience. Having a tangible object every season matches the essence of what we do.” Creating the catalogue also opened new opportunities for collaboration with photographers, graphic designers and friends who dabble as models. For spring/summer 2026, Oscar-nominated costume designer Miyako Bellizzi joined the team as a stylist.

Trusting your vision makes business sense. Since the duo abandoned e-commerce and introduced the catalogue, sales have gone up. “Shops existed before the internet and focusing too much on digital sales has been the downfall of some,” says Austin. “Why can’t we focus on what we do best?”

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Chloé Ridel
The politician helping to steer her party’s – and her country’s – revival.
France

“I came into politics quite late,” says Chloé Ridel, a 34-year-old MEP for Parti Socialiste (PS) – but she has achieved an impressive amount already. Ridel’s CV encompasses stints in France’s ministry of economy and finance, as well as activism. She co-founded Mieux Voter (“Better Voting”) in 2018 to push for a more innovative approach to polling. In 2020 she co-founded Institut Rousseau, a left-wing think tank. With its emphasis on consensus building, it prefigured NUPES, the progressive alliance that overcame the far-right in the 2022 French legislative elections, by two years.

Since her appointment to the role of PS spokesperson in 2023, Ridel has been elected to the European Parliament and helped co-ordinate the ambitious new party programme – an ideological and policy roadmap designed to guide the PS into France’s 2027 presidential elections and beyond. “The left has been absent from the second round of French presidential elections three times now,” she says. “My generation is tired of waiting.” The programme that she worked on is awaiting ratification by PS members but could be the shot in the arm that the party needs.

“It’s built around liberty, which is not a classical notion for the left,” Ridel tells Monocle at the EU’s headquarters in Brussels. As in the US, the idea of liberty has a particular resonance in France. “It’s a revolutionary promise,” she says. “The problem today is that we are not equal in front of liberté.” The programme looks beyond France and touches on European sovereignty. Though she acknowledges that this is a challenging moment for the EU, Ridel is undaunted. “I grew up in the 1990s, when Europe was very positive,” she says. “Then, with the crisis of 2008, everything collapsed.” Despite the political turmoil of recent years, she tells Monocle that her generation remains hopeful and committed to delivering transformative change. “We’re not nostalgic for the world before.”

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Winnie Dunn
The writer giving voice and optimism to a long-neglected community.
Australia

Writer Winnie Dunn’s work explores a subject that rarely makes the bestseller lists: the working-class migrant experience of Pacific Islanders in Australia. But her combination of humour and searing honesty has readers hooked. Her acclaimed novel Dirt Poor Islanders was nominated for a slew of prizes, including the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award. It showed readers an Australia that lies beyond the glittering blue waters of Sydney Harbour and the much-romanticised bush. The novel is set in the migrant heartland of western Sydney – just 40km inland from Bondi but, for many, a world away.

At the age of 30, Dunn has achieved the kind of success that most writers dream of. Still, she’s bemused to be considered an up-and-comer worthy of inclusion on a list such as this one. “In Tongan culture, 30 is actually considered pretty old and, if you’re not married with kids, you’re seen as a bit of a failure,” she says.

A third-generation Australian born to Tongan-Australian parents, Dunn grew up immersed in the culture of the Pacific Island nation, thanks to a large extended family. Tonga, an island kingdom not far from Fiji, is known for its tropical beaches and devoutly Christian values. Its already small population is falling as people migrate to Australia and New Zealand for work. “There are fewer young people to farm the land,” she says. “Tonga is now very neglected.”

Dunn’s suburb had a sketchy reputation for being socially disadvantaged and crime-ridden, which made her all the more determined to tell a fresh story about it. A voracious reader, she started writing in earnest at university and soon became the general manager of the Sweatshop Literacy Movement, which helps would-be writers from her neighbourhood. Dunn is now editing an anthology and working on her second book, a campus novel that is again rooted in the culture of Pacific Islander-Australians.

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Alice Carvalho
The actor whose pitch-perfect performances are scoring critical hits.
Rio de Janeiro

Though best known for her acting career, Alice Carvalho is also a screenwriter and playwright who dabbles in music. She has caught the eye of directors such as Ryan Coogler, who was among those impressed by her role in Brazilian film-maker Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Oscar-nominated The Secret Agent. Growing up in Natal in Rio Grande do Norte, Carvalho was hooked by music at an early age. A passion for theatre soon followed. Though her home state isn’t the centre of the Brazilian arts sector, she tells Monocle, “The alternative scene in Natal is so rich culturally.”

With job offers beginning to arrive, Carvalho moved to Rio de Janeiro in 2023. Besides her success with The Secret Agent, she has a leading role in Cangaço Novo (“New Bandits”). The first season was a global success; the second was released in April. Today she’s working on what is expected to be her biggest role yet: the lead in a biopic about star Brazilian-Swedish footballer Marta Vieira da Silva. The film is set to be released next year, just before Brazil hosts the Fifa Women’s World Cup.

When Monocle speaks to Carvalho, she has just returned from a training session. “Marta is my dream role,” she says. “This is certainly the biggest part in my career in terms of challenge and discipline.” It helps that Carvalho is friends with the real Marta. “We have been talking a lot. She has been giving me advice. The craziest thing about her is that she doesn’t have any notion of how iconic she is.” Couldn’t the same be said about the modesty of this rising star? Carvalho is cautious of praise. “I like to take calculated steps in my life and not to be presumptuous.”

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Anton Thomas
The artist charting the world’s biodiversity with his hand-drawn maps.
Melbourne

It was Anton Thomas’s childhood in the small city of Nelson on New Zealand’s South Island that ignited his curiosity for cartography. “My town is surrounded by mountains or ocean,” he tells Monocle. Thomas didn’t study art and had toyed with the idea of becoming a full-time musician but today he’s devoted to his beautifully hand-drawn charts.

In 2011, Thomas moved to the US and Canada, living in each country for about a year. The vast landscapes intensified his fascination with representing the world around him. Are maps meant to be functional or can they be art too? “They probably are art, as long as they’re made by people,” he says. “Mine are covered with illustrations and are all drawn by hand, which is increasingly rare.”

Thomas works from his home studio in the suburbs of Melbourne. Nearby is Yarra Bend Park, where he can get lost for hours gazing at flying fox colonies or spotting a wallaby or grey kangaroo. Thomas’s work includes a variety of wildlife; his Wild World project features 1,642 species. In an era of environmental pessimism, he says that he remains hopeful. This positivity suffuses his work.

The hardest animal for him to draw is the giraffe. “You have to be very patient,” he says. “All of those patches are time consuming. I’ve also long had an issue with porcupines; I find it difficult to get their quills just right.” And the easiest ones? “Cute little birds, especially the round ones, such as a finch.” Travel still informs Thomas’s work. “I have two maps under way: Wild California and Wild Kenya, two places I visited in 2024 and had mind-blowing adventures in.”

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Kiichiro Asakawa
The rising Japanese fashion designer with a keen eye for fabrics.
Tokyo

Kiichiro Asakawa’s first love was vintage clothing – denim jeans in particular, which he took apart, reconstructed and sold at his multibrand boutique, Carol. Ssstein, his Tokyo-based label, started quietly in 2016 with a handful of garments, all elevated by Asakawa’s eye for fabrics.

By teaming up with talented technical hands, developing textiles to his own specifications and manufacturing in Japan, the self-taught designer has gradually honed his vision of luxurious minimalism. His collections have grown, attracting a following for their subtle tweaks of convention and effortless elegance. The current season’s pieces include oversized premium cotton shirts and relaxed cashmere V-necks, loosely knitted for a lightweight summer feel.

Once a word-of-mouth label, Ssstein got its first international break in 2025 when it won the Fashion Prize of Tokyo. This took Asakawa’s clothes to Paris and gave the world a glimpse of his styling. Buyers snapped up the tailored coats and layered looks for the autumn/winter season; now the brand has 50 stockists in Japan and 90 overseas.

The speed of his ascent surprised Asakawa but he remains committed to his principles. He doesn’t feel the need to reinvent things every season and prides himself on his relationships with manufacturers. “We have taken a careful, conscious approach to expanding both in Japan and overseas,” he tells Monocle. “We intend to continue at our own pace in delivering our products steadily and thoughtfully to an ever-wider audience.”

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Jessie Willner
The perfumer evoking the thrill of club culture with her scents.
London & Los Angeles

Jessie Willner had an unlikely path to the world of scent. The Angeleno taught herself to code at the age of 11 and built websites while nurturing her passion for design and animation. “I started doing freelance graphic design and created my luxury outerwear brand, The Mighty Company.” The inspiration for her fragrance firm, Discothèque, came from club culture, which she had soaked up over countless nights out with co-founders Hanover Booth and Whitney Moulton.

“It’s hard to find another moment when you feel as free as when you’re on a dance floor,” she tells Monocle. “The scent business was a passion project that kind of went out of control. We turned it into a brand.” Success came quickly. In 2025 the business grew sevenfold, says Willner, who splits her time between London and Los Angeles. Further growth is expected in 2026.

Every scent is rooted in a time and place. “Call for a Good Time” is inspired by a jaunt in Tokyo in the 2000s, while “Baise Moi on the Dance Floor” evokes an imagined night on the tiles in Paris in the late 1970s. Today the perfumery is growing rapidly and has a factory outside London, while its candles are made in Plymouth on the UK coast. US expansion is the focus for 2026. “We have just started working with a factory in the US, so we are now running simultaneous productions,” says Willner.

The brand’s big break was the launch of its products at Selfridges department store. “That was monumental,” says Willner.

What does the company foresee after its US push? “We’re probably working on 20 different perfumes, though some of them will never see the light of day,” says Willner. “We’re also launching in some of our favourite shops across the world later this year, in locations that correspond with cities that inspired the perfumes.” Despite the pace of change, she says that growth has been organic and that her focus is squarely on what the company makes. “We’re a product-first brand and everything is built around making something that we really believe in.”

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Silvana Estrada
The soulful singer taking Mexican music worldwide.
Mexico City

Listen to Silvana Estrada’s voice and you’ll immediately understand why the international media has dubbed her the Latin American Joni Mitchell. Nature is ever-present in her work. Estrada, who grew up in the Mexican town of Coatepec, composed and sang from an early age, before moving to Mexico City to pursue a music career at the age of 18. “I had no plan and no money,” Estrada tells Monocle.

Her decision to relocate quickly began to pay off. Today she is celebrated in her home country and across Latin America. Her second studio album, Vendrán Suaves Lluvias (“Soft Rains Will Come”), is finding a global audience too. “This album is really personal,” she says. “I struggled a lot while making it. It’s self-produced and I wrote all of the tracks. It’s an album about trying to find beauty in pain.” She added an orchestra and layered instruments across the album for a fuller, more intense sound. Her favourite track? “Good Luck, Good Night,” she says, describing the song as one in which she laughs at herself. “It has a cabaret vibe,” she says. “It’s about a girl waiting for a person who never appears. There’s lots of drama but it’s funny and dark at the same time.”

Her focus this year is on touring, including in Europe. Expect new collaborations, such as with singer Pablopablo on the song “Antes de Ti”. When asked what she thinks of the Mexican music scene, Estrada says, “It feels like everything is possible. Artists are mixing different genres, including traditional music. It’s all happening at once. Every neighbourhood in Mexico City has its own scene.”

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Keerthana Kunnath
The photographer bringing together multiple perspectives.
London

For Kerala-born, London-based photographer Keerthana Kunnath, there’s never just one way to look at things. The young artist has been pushed and pulled between continents and styles ever since she first closed one eye and looked through a viewfinder. For Kunnath, this sense of duality is a source of creativity. In London, she works on commercial and editorial shoots, including for Monocle; while in India, she pivots to carefully composing what she describes as “staged documentaries”.

Her most recent personal photo exhibition, Not What You Saw, is an examination of female bodybuilders in India that offers keen insights into a little-known community. “I grew up in the same region as these women but they were unfamiliar to me,” says Kunnath. “I strongly wanted to document them and to do it in Kerala. The more rural you are, the more rigid the views of what traditional women should be. The challenge that they’re posing was important to me.” The images’ power partly lies in their depictions of small details: bracelets on ankles, faded tattoos on tensed forearms, flowing dress materials against brown skin. “I could never be a snapshot photographer,” says Kunnath. “I need that sense of orchestration.”

Her care for the craft goes beyond knowing when to press the shutter. In an age of shoot-from-the-hip smartphone photography, her work offers examples of time-tested technical proficiency. “I shoot medium format on a Mamiya RZ67 and a Pentax 67, and hand-print all of my images,” she says. “But as I’m getting more exposure, I’m starting to travel more, leading to a lot of experimentation too.”

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ARTICLE CREDITS

WRITERS:

• Aarti Betigeri
• Augustin Macellari
• Fernando Augusto Pacheco
• Fiona Wilson
• Grace Charlton
• Ivan Carvalho
• Joseph Koh
• Natalie Theodosi
• Rory Jones
• Saul Taylor
• Tomos Lewis

Are your walls looking a little bare? Is your furniture failing to elicit effusive praise from your dinner-party guests? Perhaps it’s time to refresh the objects with which you surround yourself. Whatever the scope or scale, collecting can be both intellectually and aesthetically satisfying. But where to start? Here, seven art and design aficionados share their perspectives on the current state of the market and what it takes to build a great collection – including where to source a megalodon.

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1.
Yü-Ge Wang, the auctioneer on a bid to bring art collecting to a new generation

We speak to the woman holding the gavel at Christie’s auction house on the art of reading a room, and the thrills and spills of the auction world. Read the full story here.

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2.
‘Posters are more than just images on paper.’ Susan Reinhold, the poster dealer elevating prints to fine-art status

After acquiring her first-ever vintage poster more than three decades ago, Reinhold has been on a mission to revamp the image of the printed medium. Read the full story here.

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3.
Thinking of starting your own art collection? Design Miami CEO Jen Roberts has some tips for you

The CEO behind the world’s premier collectable-design platform shares her insights on the future of the market, and collecting for the love of art rather than as an investment. Read the full story here.

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4.
Art advisor Yuki Terase on how to build a great collection in the digital age

The powerhouse art advisor who set a new benchmark in the sale of contemporary Asian art at Sotheby’s outlines shifting trends in the art world and finding value in historical narratives. Read the full story here.

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5.
Antiquities collector James Perkins invites guests at Parnham Park to holiday among dinosaur fossils

The UK collector is restoring Dorset’s 16th-century manor house after a fire in 2017 destroyed the property, transforming it into a hospitality destination where ancient creatures take centre stage. Read the full story here.

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6.
Anthony Gallery founder Easy Otabor on his cross-genre approach to collecting artwork

For the Chicago-based gallerist and collector, collecting is an act of ‘building bridges’ between creative disciplines – as well as artists and communities. Read the full story here.

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7.
Collector by chance: How Pertti Männistö became one of the world’s most accomplished Alvar Aalto archivists

For the Finnish furniture collector, staying true to his interests and following his instincts was the key to amassing a collection even larger than Finland’s Alvar Aalto Museum. Read the full story here.

JUNE

Copenhagen
3daysofdesign

Northern Europe’s most significant design festival encourages collectors to take a thoughtful approach with this year’s motto, “Make this moment matter”. Cycle between venues, stopping off for the odd kanelsnegl, to make the most of all that Copenhagen has to offer.
3daysofdesign.dk

New York
Phillips Modern & Contemporary Art Auction
Phillips’s flagship contemporary sale is the prime hunting ground for postwar masters and fresh discoveries.
phillips.com

Basel
Art Basel
The original Art Basel event continues to be a central meeting point for the art world every June. As well as checking out almost 300 galleries, make time for satellite fairs Liste and Volta.
artbasel.com

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JULY

Saint-Tropez
PAD Saint-Tropez
The French Riviera debut of pad design fair will fill Place des Lices with about 20 top galleries showcasing both historical and contemporary works.
padesignart.com

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SEPTEMBER

Rio de Janeiro
ArtRio
The 16th edition of ArtRio offers a comprehensive introduction to the burgeoning Latin American art market.
artrio.com

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OCTOBER

London
Frieze London & Frieze Masters
As autumn arrives, Frieze London and Frieze Masters will bring together contemporary artists, collectable objects and historic masterpieces.
frieze.com

Paris
Design Miami Paris
The French capital will be a key destination for collectors in autumn, when this fair – timed to overlap with Art Basel Paris – opens in L’hôtel de Maisons.
designmiami.com

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NOVEMBER

Dubai
Dubai Design Week
The Middle East’s most important design event has a focus on installations and commissions from the region.
dubaidesignweek.ae

Lagos
ART x Lagos
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, West Africa’s buzziest art fair has a multidisciplinary programme spanning music, film, design, art and literature.
artxlagos.com

Kanazawa
Kogei Art Fair Kanazawa
The 10th edition of Japan’s only art fair dedicated to crafts gathers 42 galleries showing contemporary work from the country and beyond.
kogei-artfair.jp

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Further reading:
The art of collecting, and why people do it
Art collecting in the age of artificial intelligence
The London art director collecting Earth’s rarest sculptures: Meteorites

The road to Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Military City is as unremarkable as its designers must have hoped. As the Emirati capital’s towers and boulevards recede in the rear-view mirror, the landscape flattens into a vast stretch of desert. Heat rises in ripples from the road. Tawazun Industrial Park (TIP) is a collection of industrial buildings and reinforced compounds scattered across the sand, punctuated by watchtowers and checkpoints, as well as the odd bunker-like shelter. Behind thick concrete walls and barbed wire sits one of the Gulf’s most strategically important sites – one that, over the past few months, has become increasingly central to the UAE’s ability to defend itself. This is the main manufacturing base of Edge Group, Abu Dhabi’s state-backed defence conglomerate that, in just six years, has become one of the world’s fastest-growing military-industrial groups.

The timing of Monocle’s visit is significant. The UAE is mired in a regional conflict that has brought the reality of modern warfare to the Gulf. After the US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February, Tehran sent thousands of drones and fired hundreds of missiles into Emirati airspace. At TIP, war has ceased to be an abstract idea. For decades, the UAE has seen itself as the region’s safe haven – a place of calm in an unstable neighbourhood, somewhere capital, talent and tourists could move freely, insulated from local conflicts. In recent months that perception has been challenged.

Edge’s role extends beyond manufacturing missiles and drones. It is helping to defend the UAE’s reputation as much as its airspace. But as the nation’s defence ambitions have grown, so too has scrutiny of how and where its systems are used, raising questions about whether a country that positions itself as a neutral hub can also be a major arms exporter. Inside the building containing EPI, one of Edge’s precision-engineering businesses, workers in protective goggles move between workstations. In one corner, teams are fabricating metal frames used in penetrator payloads and bomb casings. Staff who would ordinarily focus on work in the aerospace, oil or gas sectors have pivoted to support urgent wartime production. Across TIP, bomb shelters sit between buildings and thick concrete barriers line the entrances. Teams have moved to three-shift rotations. Some employees, we are told, have slept on factory floors to keep production lines moving uninterrupted.

Edge executives had long anticipated a conflict of this kind. Founded in November 2019 through the merger of more than 20 Emirati defence and technology companies, the group was designed to help secure the UAE’s military sovereignty and build a globally competitive defence export industry. The nature of the current war appear to have vindicated those aims.

“It was a do-or-die moment for us,” says Khaled Al Zaabi, Edge’s president of platforms and systems, of the initial Iranian drone and missile attacks. Monocle first speaks to him in the early weeks of the conflict. He is in his car between meetings, speaking quickly and candidly about the need to shift to a wartime footing. When we meet in person, he is standing in front of a Jeniah, Edge’s unmanned-combat aerial vehicle.

Al Zaabi says that Edge’s role has always stretched beyond manufacturing. “The primary objective is enabling the sovereignty of the UAE’s military-defence capabilities,” he says. That goal, he adds, underpins every acquisition, product-development strategy and investment decision. The second objective is economic: turning defence manufacturing into another engine of growth for the country. The two ambitions are intertwined. To build sovereign capability, Edge must create products that are effective enough to compete internationally. And to compete internationally, those products must be battle-proven. If they succeed abroad, the revenues generated will help to sustain the industry at home.

In 2019, Edge’s export sales were about $50m (€43m), according to Miles Chambers, the group’s senior vice-president of international business. By 2025, it was generating about $5bn (€4.3bn) in turnover, about 70 per cent of it from exports. “We were predominantly domestic,” says Chambers. “Now we’re predominantly export-based.” This has not come without controversy. In recent years, for example, concerns have been raised about the flow of Emirati weapons into Sudan, which plunged into civil war in 2023. Hamad Al Marar, Edge’s managing director and CEO, is unequivocal. “I can tell you clearly: we have never supplied Sudan,” he says. “We operate within international law, export-control regimes and end-user certification processes.” However, in contexts where alliances can shift quickly and weapons outlive politics, such assurances are rarely enough to silence critics. Investigations by the UN, Amnesty International and others have identified weapons manufactured in Europe, North America and the UAE – including by Edge – among those being used in the conflict.

Today, Edge employs about 19,000 people around the world and operates more than 35 entities across several clusters: missiles and weapons, autonomous systems, space, cyber security, naval systems, electronic warfare, land vehicles and advanced manufacturing. Chambers describes the international push in commercial terms but the geopolitical implications are obvious. Edge has secured a €1bn contract to deliver three corvette-class naval vessels to Angola. It has established offices and industrial operations in Brazil and is expanding in Southeast Asia and Europe through acquisitions, partnerships and joint ventures.

Recent deals with Italian firm Leonardo, French aerospace company Safran, and a European joint venture with Indra, suggest that the group has wider ambitions. There’s a strong focus on countries in the Global South that are seeking systems that are more adaptable and cost-effective than those offered by traditional Western suppliers, says Chambers. Edge executives insist that their products are faster, more agile and less burdened by legacy infrastructure than those of established defence companies based in Europe or the US. Plus, since they were built in direct response to current threats, Edge believes that its systems are more relevant to today’s conflicts.

At Edge’s HQ in Abu Dhabi, a missile-themed chess set sits on a coffee table in Al Marar’s office. “This is a new addition,” he says. “It was gifted to me by the Ukrainians.” Days before our visit, Volodymyr Zelensky was in the UAE for talks with the Emirati leadership, including discussions around regional security and defence co-operation. The chessboard is a reminder that in today’s world, geopolitics and commerce are never far apart.

Dressed in a white kandura robe, Al Marar talks less like a corporate executive than a military officer. When we ask him whether the war has been a test of Edge’s relevance, he says, “Two-hundred per cent.” For decades, the UAE invested heavily in missiles, radar technology and defence systems, drawing criticism from those who saw such spending as excessive. Today those systems are helping to intercept incoming threats and protecting infrastructure, airspace and civilians. “People might say that we have allies,” adds Al Marar, leaning forward. “And, of course, they’re there. But at times like this, you get to see whether your investments were in the right place.”

Those alliances are evolving too. In early April, Anwar Gargash, the Emirati president’s diplomatic adviser, said that Iran’s aggression would “solidify” the role of the US in the region. Meanwhile, following the Abraham Accords, signed by Israel and several Arab nations including the UAE in 2020, Abu Dhabi has been deepening its intelligence and defence ties with Jerusalem. The result is an increasingly layered security strategy: traditional US military backing, expanding regional intelligence partnerships and, now, a growing domestic defence-industrial base.

Al Marar points to the speed at which Edge and the wider Emirati defence ecosystem responded when the US-Israeli conflict with Iran began. “No country can deploy to hundreds of sites in two days unless you have things ready, unless you are on the ground and unless you don’t need to wait for permission,” he says. Asked how it feels to see systems developed by his teams used in active defence operations on Emirati soil, he pauses. “As a father,” he says, “I would say that it has made all of the birthdays missed and the school events missed go away.” Al Marar has four children and says that he began working on the day that he got married. “You can’t run it like a business in times like these,” he says. “You open your stores. You supply. You work 24/7. You continue the fight.”

On a remote island about 100km from Abu Dhabi is a secure area known as X-Range. The island is one of Edge’s lesser-known but increasingly important assets: a vast, multi-domain testing and evaluation site where the group, the UAE military and international clients can trial systems across land, air and sea. Reached by boat, aircraft or a narrow causeway, the site spans some 350 sq km, with clear airspace above and open waters around, allowing everything from missile firings and drone swarm exercises to maritime autonomy tests and electronic warfare simulations.

In the past, much of the UAE’s military equipment had to be sent to Europe, the US or Turkey for testing, slowing development and creating dependence on foreign ranges. No longer. “The UAE has historically been a net importer of military capabilities,” says Harry Rose, the international business development and sales manager at Remaya, the Edge-owned operator of the site. “Now the UAE is moving into a much higher-fidelity defence manufacturing environment and naturally there’s a bigger demand for testing space to support the development of those products.” On any given day, says Rose, the island can host up to five test events: engineers subject missile components to extreme heat and vibration; drones are trialled in flight zones; video pilots are trained in mock villages. Along the shoreline, surface vessels conduct manned-unmanned teaming exercises, while on the live-fire ranges missiles are launched towards static and moving targets.

What makes X-Range particularly valuable is the efficiency that it allows. Rose says that simple test events can be booked within five days; at many Western facilities, it can take six to 12 months. This allows Edge and its clients to “test earlier, fail earlier and test more often”, adds Rose – shortening the journey from concept to deployment.

As the conflict with Tehran has continued, technologies have had to adapt in real time. Threats are changing, drone tactics are evolving and electronic warfare is intensifying. One of the systems being put through its paces when we visit is Edge’s Shadow fleet of loitering munitions and strike drones – systems that executives say have been used extensively to help intercept and eliminate incoming Iranian projectiles before they reach Emirati territory. According to government sources, the UAE military’s interception rate throughout the war has remained above 95 per cent, a figure that officials attribute to a layered defence network of radars, electro-optics, missiles and autonomous systems. On the runway, the aircraft are launched in quick succession, before climbing sharply into the Gulf sky and banking out over the water towards their targets. Designed to lurk over an area before striking, the Shadow systems are emblematic of the kind of low-cost, fast-deploying weapons reshaping modern warfare.

If missiles are the visible side, sensors represent the invisible. At Edge’s Electro-Optic Centre of Excellence (EOCE) labs in Abu Dhabi, Chaouki Kasmi, the group’s CTO and president of technologies and industrialisation, offers Monocle a look inside the systems that have become the first line of defence in this war. Dressed in an oversized brown suit, platform loafers and a baseball cap, he looks more like a creative director than a defence scientist. Kasmi oversees systems and technologies embedded in Edge’s products, from radars and radios to electro-optics and AI-enabled battlefield innovations. “This is your eyes,” he says, gesturing towards a radar system. “You can have the best weapons system but if you can’t see, there’s no point.” Radar handles long-range detection, while electro-optical systems confirm the target. Then the UAE’s Ministry of Defence can decide whether or not to engage.

EOCE’s Mirsad systems – swiftly installed on the Burj Khalifa, on navy vessels and atop the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company headquarters – have reportedly been used to identify and track incoming Iranian drones. In some cases, Edge personnel were deployed to install and operate the systems. Kasmi believes that the future battlefield belongs to AI and autonomous systems. “It’ll be about force multipliers,” he says. “How fast you can make decisions: AI. How fast you can react: autonomous systems.”

The next step might be the creation of an Iron Dome-style layered defence architecture tailored to the Gulf, one that combines long-range radar, electro-optics, interceptor missiles, electronic warfare and autonomous strike systems into a network that’s capable of neutralising incoming threats at multiple stages of flight. In recent weeks, that vision has moved closer to reality. According to reports, Israel has supplied elements of its Iron Dome system, a remarkable development given how sensitive and vital the technology is. The move underscores the growing depth of the Emirati-Israeli relationship.

Edge-owned Caracal, the UAE’s only small-arms manufacturer, is where steel meets shoulder. Former special-forces operators test rifles in live-fire bays before dispatch. Firearms made and tested here are used by German and Indian special forces, among others. These are what the company calls “mission-proven” products. At nearby Nimr, the UAE’s leading maker of armoured military vehicles, production lines have reportedly been adapted to prioritise urgent wartime requirements. “The UAE as an end user is very demanding,” says one manager. “It makes us step up our game.” A few kilometres away, at Abu Dhabi’s national shipyard, giant naval vessels sit at various stages of completion. Some are destined for export, others for Emirati forces.

For years, the UAE was a consumer of Western technology, whether in defence, aviation or infrastructure. Now it wants to be seen as a producer and exporter in its own right. The conflict has exposed another side of the country – one built less on glamour and more on infrastructure, energy and defence. “People saw the superficial side,” says Al Zaabi. “The big buildings, the nice economy. But what has become abundantly clear is that all of that is built on a very strong foundation.”

Film-set designer Matteo Sani didn’t set out to revolutionise the way we document our lives but, in his own small way, that’s precisely what he has achieved. Around 2008, he chanced upon old analogue photo booths in Berlin and Paris. “I remembered booths just like it from my childhood,” says Sani. “And I thought, ‘What a beautiful thing.’” He has since sourced and restored seven of them, placing them on street corners and piazzas across his home city of Florence. “I want to give people a small space of privacy and freedom, once they close the curtain,” he adds.

The shift was also personal for Sani. After 15 years in the film industry, he had become tired of following productions from set to set. “You’re never home,” he says. The booths gave him a livelihood and a way to stay in Florence and build something of his own. Finding them became a kind of scavenger hunt. Sani spent months tracking down disused booths across Europe in abandoned stations or forgotten shopfronts. Some had been damaged, forced open or left to decay. He brought them back to Florence and taught himself how they worked, piece by piece.

Today, it isn’t unusual to see queues of students, residents and tourists forming outside Sani’s booths. A strip of four black-and-white portraits costs just €3, while colour is €4 – and the entire experience takes only a few minutes. Monocle observes younger visitors realising the booths are analogue. Used to the speed of a phone camera, they wait impatiently, tap the machine and expect the picture at once. “You can’t really stage it, even if you try,” says Viki, who is visiting Florence with her mother from the US. “That’s what makes these pictures feel more natural.” Friends squeeze inside the limited space together, families arrive with prams and dog owners stop by for a turn mid-walk. Sometimes, the first flash goes off before they are ready. By the next frame, there’s laughter. “Making people laugh for a few euros – for me, that’s something wonderful,” says Sani.

For Sani, the booths matter because they preserve something that digital photography has almost erased: a sense of mystery. “They are just tiny rooms,” he says. There’s no photographer, there are also no filters, no retouching and no endless retakes. “You insert a coin and what comes out is the truth,” he says. 

And yet some of Sani’s rescued booths will never return to the street. “[They] are historically important and too delicate to withstand public use,” he says. His long-term ambition is to make them accessible through a public institution. He even has a title in mind: “Museum of the Automatic Portrait”. “The booths I’ve rescued tell a story about photography without a human operator and the evolution of self-portraiture over the past century,” Sani says.

Despite its clear popularity, Sani’s project faces predictable bureaucratic challenges. Four of the seven booths fall under Florence’s labyrinthine heritage-protection rules and permit regulations. “Getting the permission to occupy public land with these booths is almost impossible,” says Sani.

But he persists. Florence is a city that prioritises cultural preservation and the booths make a convincing case for their own enduring importance – documenting fleeting moments behind a curtain, four flashes at a time.