Monocle Weekend
Edition: Saturday

This week’s dispatch strides down the runways of Milan as we look to take a few style tips from Miuccia Prada, then it’s off to the Mani Peninsula where the Monocle Concierge has directions to a hidden beach and top-notch coffee, after which we sit down with Marina Abramović to discuss the performance artist’s latest exhibition. But here enjoying the last blast of London’s summer, Andrew Tuck takes us on a cruise through the capital.

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Would we like to have lunch? Two people I know through Monocle, and who have become friends, were in London for a few days before heading on to Milan for the shows. Hanna and Mark live in California but come to London often. They have good taste, know what they like (and don’t like) and have developed routines in the city that make them happy. They have their hotel, their favourite restaurants – and their favourite table in each of those establishments. Their loyalty to these places is rewarded with waiters, maître d’s and hotel managers who know their names and are always delighted to see them.

So this past Saturday, the other half and I got scrubbed up, popped on our jackets, jumped on some electric Santander Cycles and headed over to Knightsbridge. After several days of cold weather and doomy skies, the sun had returned for a late-summer encore and its mellowed light was making London look, well, pretty, as we whizzed through it.

Often when friends message that they will be in London for a few days and suggest a lunch or dinner, I leap at the chance, only to suffer a bout of reservation panic when they add, “Do you mind booking?” Will they want something new, fun, low-key or fancy? Will they fret if they have to head to some distant postcode? Finally, you start phoning around the hot recent openings that colleagues insist will be the perfect rendezvous location. It usually transpires that there are no tables to be had or you’ll need to bring your friends for dinner at 17.00, a time when only people in care homes should be fed. In London, trying something new can be exhausting.

But on this day we were about to be shown the city afresh by people who don’t even live here. Their favourite spot for lunch is quiet, old-school and charming, and as soon as we entered the dining room we spotted them at a discreet table by the window, a bottle of champagne already snuggled in an ice bucket. They didn’t need to look at the menu when it came to ordering food but were able to guide us around its plentiful pages. Afterwards we walked through Knightsbridge towards Hyde Park, before splitting off to find another set of hire bikes. A restaurant I have never dined in and a part of town I rarely linger in, with visitors who made us look at London anew – a Saturday to savour.

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That the sunshine stuck around all week was one of the reasons why the event that we co-hosted at the Natural History Museum, in partnership with the Holcim Foundation, was such a hit. The museum, designed by the architect Alfred Waterhouse, opened in 1881 and while it has often attempted to make use of the gardens and grounds that sweep around the building, it has always been a little timid in doing so. No longer. In recent years the museum has built the Urban Nature Project – winner of a 2023 Holcim Foundation award. The project features two hectares of land that are now given over to telling the story of Earth, its geology, its plants and how our planet is changing over time.

I got to moderate a panel about the project but, before all of that, our guests were guided around part of the scheme by the architect Edmund Fowles of Feilden Fowles, Neil Davidson from J&L Gibbons who oversaw the landscape architecture and Keith Jennings, the director of estates, projects and master planning for the museum. We wandered through woodland, inspected a wild garden (where sheep will shortly graze), saw the large pond where mayflies can still be spotted and heard the evening birdsong (some 3,300 insects and animals have been identified here by the museum’s scientific staff).

And just beyond the trees, hidden, there was a London that was moving at pace, a city giddy with this last blast of summer. But for those of us in the hands of Edmund, Neil and Keith, none of that mattered. We had been transported to another London, a secret natural landscape that we had only needed someone to give us the key to. Really, I barely know London at all.

Londoners have an invigorating treat in store this week as The Monocle Café in Marylebone hosts a takeover by UAE hotel Siro. Stop by to sample the hospitality group’s charms with an intimate exhibition of photography shot at Siro One Za’abeel, which was featured in Monocle’s September issue.

The partnership has also resulted in a special menu that includes the hotel’s healthy almond-butter-and-dark-chocolate bites, a daily magazine giveaway and the chance to win an escape of your own to Siro One Za’abeel in the heart of Dubai.

Siro x Monocle runs until 6 October at The Monocle Café, 18 Chiltern Street, London W1U 7QA

Few designers have a more recognisable personal look than Miuccia Prada, with her gold hair neatly tucked behind her ears, midi skirts and kitten heels (writes Natalie Theodosi). She hasn’t veered away from this elegant formula for decades. Still, those attending her runway shows every season are just as excited to see what she will wear when taking her bow as discover her latest collections. Sometimes there are playful embellishments adorning her favourite pencil skirt; a navy cardigan casually thrown over her shoulders; or a strand of pearls layered over her signature short-sleeved mohair knits.

As interest in Prada and sister label Miu Miu continues to surge, show-goers at Milan Fashion Week not only admired the designer’s look from afar but began replicating it too. I lost count of the amount of pencil skirts I spotted on front rows across Milan this week: there were minimalist leather versions, loud-print pieces and sportier iterations in Prada’s signature nylon material, worn with loose shirts, suede jackets or fitted cardigans. On the runways too, Prada offered plenty of refreshed pencil skirts for the forthcoming spring/summer 2025 season, so expect to see the look trickle further into the mainstream come next year. The return of these classic style tropes signals a growing appetite for a more polished look – athleisure is long gone – and highlights the Italian designer’s enduring influence over how we get dressed.

“They look friendly but they’ll rip your face off,” my aunt says casually as we drive slowly past a bear and two cubs on Romania’s Transfagarasan mountain highway (writes Laura Kramer). Knowing that silly tourists will throw food, bears extra eager to get fat will shamelessly beg for snacks by the side of the road – we spotted 13 on a 10-kilometre stretch. It’s estimated that there are between 7,500 and 8,000 brown bears in Romania, the largest population in Europe outside of Russia.

Enamoured tourists and city-dwellers fall for the rotund ears and puppy-dog eyes that the beasts have somehow mastered. Locals know better. They frequently get automated alerts signalling the presence of wildlife for a reason. As bears get more used to mankind and a taste for roadside fast food, they inevitably start to wander further into villages, posing a threat to humans and livestock alike. A few years ago, a bear snuck into a relative’s property in Corbeni, a locality in Muntenia at the foot of the Carpathian mountains, and killed five of his lambs in the middle of the night. This past summer in Râmnicu Vâlcea, a town some 20 kilometres away from the mountain area, locals were afraid to leave their homes as the animals roamed the streets.

With Romania’s presidential elections looming, how to sustainably manage the bear population has become a hot-button issue for politicians. There are calls to increase hunting quotas and plans to relocate the animals. Meanwhile, authorities have imposed fines, installed surveillance cameras and warning signs, all meant to discourage people from feeding the bears. Yet on our drive, we still witnessed a woman perch out the car window for a selfie, while another threw multiple apples. We collectively shuddered at the speed of the bear, which slid easily under the railing despite its impressive, enormous belly.

Curated by London-based design agency Blond, the Blond Laboratory exhibition opened this week and runs until tomorrow as part of the London Design Festival (writes Gabrielle Grangié). Founder James Melia, an industrial designer, set out to create a group show to explore the primacy of physical inspiration over digital and online sources. This offline approach, dubbed “Blond Artefacts”, began two years ago within the agency. “It took off quite quickly as a way to introduce a new design process starting from tangible objects,” says Melia.

Every month, Blond designers are given an allowance to spend at charity shops or flea markets on peculiar objects that are no longer manufactured, with the aim of sparking creative conversations at the studio. For this exhibition, Blond Laboratory tasked seven designers with a similar challenge, inviting Hirotaka Tako of Sony, Jon Marshall of Pentagram, Swedish design studio Form Us With Love, John Tree, Julie Richoz and Maddalena Casadei to create pieces inspired by unconventional items. Each creation is displayed alongside the original object. Whereas some pieces clearly exhibit visual similarities, others require a closer look to appreciate the designers’ interpretations of forsaken items. Melia notes that the material used for the exhibition space itself is reusable, reflecting his commitment to sustainability. “It was important for me to keep sustainability at the forefront of my production processes, both within the design objects on show and the exhibition display itself,” he says.

Visit ‘The Blond Laboratory’ at the Corner Store, 1 Kingsland Road, London E2.

The Monocle Concierge is our purveyor of top tips and delectable recommendations for your next trip. If you’re planning to go somewhere nice and would like some advice, clickhere. We will answer one question a week.

Dear Concierge,

We are planning a weekend getaway to the southern tip of the Greek Peloponnese. More specifically around the Mani Peninsula. What are your recommendations?

Esmeralda Sandoval,
Spain

Dear Esmeralda,

It’s still a good time to visit Greece, the weather is slightly warm and autumn clouds have yet to show their face. For a memorable weekend, head first to the coastal village of Kardamyli. Begin your day with a traditional Greek coffee or a freddo cappuccino at Aquarella, a café strategically located on the seafront. Then, a stroll through the Old Town’s narrow streets, with its stone houses cladded with fragrant jasmine and bougainvillea, is a must.

For lunch, make your way to the traditional Lela’s Taverna by the water’s edge. Try its grilled octopus and freshly caught fish. Afterwards, venture south to Vathia, a picturesque village of timeworn towers perched on a hillside. The crumbling architecture tells stories of the region’s past and the views over the Aegean are simply breathtaking. If you’re craving an afternoon dip, the secluded Marmari beach offers a peaceful retreat.

For some evening dinner, drive to Karavostasi. Here, O Fáros Tou Pantelí serves the finest local specialties – ask for the catch of the day and pair it with a crisp and citrusy assyrtiko wine. For the final touch, don’t forget to visit the Diros Caves. Boat guides will take you on an underground journey among stalactites and stalagmites to end your trip with a bit of adventure. Kαλό ταξίδι!

Globally renowned artist Marina Abramović has been in London to open her new exhibition Healing Frequency. Here she delves into the inspiration behind her latest work and the importance of performance art.

What was the genesis of this exhibition?
This work started being developed after I walked the Great Wall of China. As I was walking for three months through different territories, alone except for the company of seven soldiers, I thought about how I could transform my emotions and convey my discovery of the different regional energies to the public. I started creating something called transitory objects. I don’t want to make anything permanent because I’m a performance artist. It’s very important that you use these objects like tools to trigger an experience. The entire exhibition space is based on three basic human positions – standing, sitting and lying – and the public can use earplugs to completely isolate from the sounds and immerse in this experience.

How would you like people to interact with this space?
I would like people to use the earplugs so that they’re not as conscious of the public and noise. I really want them to close their eyes and immerse themselves. My work is highly emotional but at the same time, it’s a public space, so you have to concentrate in order to be part of the experience.

Do you believe that technology is becoming a barrier towards interaction with art?
We are technology. Nothing is wrong with technology, it’s our addiction to technology that is wrong. We can’t live without phones. We can’t live without computers. We look at our watch every five minutes and completely lose our spiritual centre. We are actually afraid to be by ourselves. We constantly have to be entertained, see something or control something with our devices. And every time there’s a new gadget, we have to have it. This is how the entire community is going in the wrong direction. So as an artist, you really have to see that and give some solutions. My advice is to go back to simpler times. Let’s return to nature. Let’s see what the minerals are. Let’s see how we can feel that kind of energy.

What do you think the role of performance art is in contemporary society?
Performances are like a phoenix: they disappear and reappear but never actually go away. Performance is time-based art; you have to be there to experience it. But it’s also something that is direct in relation to the viewer. The public is fed up with going to the museum to look at something. They need to be part of something instead. Performers give them this opportunity.

To hear our full interview with Marina Abramović, tune in to our latest episode of ‘Monocle on Culture’ on Monocle Radio.

Japan’s Goldwin has a reputation as one of the world’s finest skiwear manufacturers and is the Swedish national ski team’s brand of choice. Recently, the label has been translating its technical know-how into urban wardrobe staples, from parkas to sporty tailoring.
goldwin-global.com

For more well-dressed reporting, pick up a copy of Monocle’s latest issue or subscribe today. Have a great Saturday.