Welcome to our Style Special. It’s the issue in which my colleague Natalie Theodosi gets to make an editorial land grab as she brings to page stories of fashion brands on the rise, retailers that are delivering fresh takes on luxury and rather a lot of nice things for us all to wear too. And, as always, our fashion director has also ensured that her pages take us beyond the glossy surface of this powerful industry to hear from its key creatives and business leaders about the forces shaping the sector’s future.

You will get to meet Peter Copping, the new artistic director of Lanvin, as he seeks to give the house a new trajectory and relevance by revisiting the work of its founder, Jeanne Lanvin. Also stepping up to the interviewer’s mic is Renzo Rosso, the founder of the Milan-based OTB Group (short for Only the Brave), which owns the likes of Diesel, Jil Sander, Marni, Viktor & Rolf and Maison Margiela. He sets out how he is navigating a politically turbulent time in which people are “spending less and questioning whether they need more clothes”. Don’t worry, he has a plan. As does Catherine Rénier, the CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, makers of high-end jewellery and watches, who is ensuring that the company delivers designs rooted in craft and which ignore the fashion industry’s often insatiable appetite for newness.

There is another theme that plays out across the pages of this issue and that’s how cities, towns and villages are plotting radical new futures. Montpellier is France’s fastest-growing city, thanks to its status as a technology, media and innovation hub. In recent years, it has also stood out because of its passionate determination to become a place where pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users are always king. To achieve this, Montpellier became one of the first cities in Europe to reintroduce trams in 2000 and then, in a bold move, it made all public transport free for residents. Now it is building cycle lanes at pace. Overseeing the push to remake the city is Michaël Delafosse, Montpellier’s 48-year-old mayor, who takes us around town to show us how he’s delivering on his green agenda while also being tough on crime. No wonder many commentators see a big future for him in French politics.

Our foreign editor, Alexis Self, reports on another fascinating tale of urban development in Muscat, the Omani capital, as he meets city planners and global architects tasked with growing and developing the city at speed, while ensuring that it doesn’t lose touch with its history and traditional architectural values. I admit to being a little jealous of his reporting mission because he has returned with a fascinating tale of ambition and tradition trying to march in step. Mr Self’s fine reporting is matched by the photography of Paulius Staniunas, which brilliantly captures the city and this tension between storied past and hoped-for future.

We are also in Jakarta, a city with a falling population, to meet the young creatives determined to keep their home base vibrant. And we head to the town of Calonge in Spain to see how bookshop owners are riding to the rescue of another place that was facing the stark challenges of depopulation. It’s a thrilling read.

This issue also features great travel coverage, advice on how to bring your work and home lives together and a story about why compound houses, with no external windows, could be good for a neighbourhood.

Feel free to let me know what you think about our digital makeover, the issue or anything else. As always, you can reach me at at@monocle.com