The Monocle Minute

If you work in fashion, you’re probably very familiar with the breakfast menu of every restaurant in your vicinity. The hours between 08.00 and 10.00 used to be the industry’s most productive time – when connections would be made, deals closed and new ideas born. And this flurry of morning activity wasn’t just a phenomenon among fashion’s movers and shakers. It was when entrepreneurs would connect with potential investors and bankers would meet clients in the City. I’ve always liked it. A breakfast meeting finds you relatively clear-headed. It doesn’t last as long as a lunch or dinner and, no matter where you end up, the food is almost invariably decent. Group gatherings can admittedly be a little less enjoyable – there’s too much waiting around for latecomers – but the early start means that your day isn’t wasted.

Despite its usefulness, breakfast hour is becoming less and less popular. Fewer brands are willing to host breakfasts and invitations are now more likely to be for coffee dates, dinners or, worst of all, virtual meetings. Reduced budgets at some fashion firms might partly be to blame but I think it’s also a case of people becoming less willing to get dressed, leave their house and come into town. Is this a side effect of work-from-home culture? Or, in the fashion world, an unfortunate result of the rise of intermittent fasting?

Colleagues in the US seem to be the only ones who still set their alarms early – and even love to squeeze in a workout and a visit to the hairdresser before their 08.00 meetings. “Breakfast is for Americans,” a UK newspaper editor tells me. “I only accept lunch or dinner invitations.” But if you’re still hungry for breakfast meetings, make sure that you show up early (10.00 isn’t appropriate for a workday breakfast), keep the small talk brief and order strategically – a greasy full English or a toppling stack of maple-syrup pancakes should be reserved for the weekend.

Natalie Theodosi is Monocle’s fashion director. A longer version of this piece appears in‘The Entrepreneurs’, which is out now.Subscribetoday so that you never miss an issue.

Representatives of countries that make up the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) meet in Tallinn today for the military coalition’s annual summit. Founded in 2014, the force is an alliance within Nato, consisting of 10 northern European nations including the UK, Denmark, Iceland, Lithuania and the Netherlands. The JEF’s focus is on the strategically crucial High North, North Atlantic and Baltic Sea regions, though plenty of attention will be paid to the US as the force prepares for Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

“The alliance is a vanguard military grouping within Nato,” says Ed Arnold, senior research fellow for European security at the Royal United Services Institute. “All members meet the 2 per cent GDP requirement [for defence spending]. There is a significant opportunity for the alliance to keep the US engaged.” Arnold expects the JEF’s second decade to be “far more challenging” than its first, with the incoming US administration likely to be more forceful in its relations with Europe. “The coalition will need to prepare to absorb those demands ahead of time.”

Following talks mediated by Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ethiopia and Somalia have agreed to end their dispute over the breakaway Somaliland region. Mogadishu and Addis Ababa had been at loggerheads since January, when the latter announced plans to build a port in the contested region, which the former claims as its own. There were fears that the dispute would spill over across the region, especially after Egypt sided with Somalia in response to Ethiopia’s decision to dam the Nile.

For more than a decade, Erdogan has steadily been expanding his country’s influence in the Horn of Africa. He welcomed the “historic agreement”, which will be followed by a round of further technical talks in February. Somalia is Turkey’s closest African ally but Erdogan has also been forging new relationships across the continent through drone sales, including with Ethiopia. Turkey is now sub-Saharan Africa’s fourth-largest arms supplier and many of its customers are rivals or outright enemies. While Erdogan is playing the peacemaker this week, he might be arming both sides of a regional conflict in future.

Parisians and Londoners might be surprised to learn that French transport giant Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP) has long been one of the UK capital’s principal double-decker bus operators. But that is set to change after RATP recently announced that it plans to sell its 89 London bus lines to British competitor First Group.

Best known for operating the Paris Métro, RATP started expanding into overseas markets in the 2000s and is now the world’s third-largest public-transit operator. The decision to offload its London buses ties into its wider plan to focus on its core business of rail and automated metro lines. In 2025, RATP will operate two of Riyadh’s new metro lines and will bid to win contracts in countries such as Australia and South Africa.

Before Kuala Lumpur-based entrepreneur Kesavan “KC” Purusotman co-founded Pinkfish with childhood friend Rohit Rampal, the duo had spent more than 15 years organising music events and concerts. “There was demand for live music after the coronavirus restrictions were lifted so we decided to realise our dream of putting on a festival,” says Purusotman. The inaugural edition of the Pinkfish Music & Arts Festival in April 2023 featured international and regional headliners, from French producer DJ Snake to Malaysian rap star Joe Flizzow. In June 2024 the festival returned to the Sunway Lagoon theme park in Subang Jaya city, attracting some 15,000 attendees.

“We wanted to focus on creating a unique atmosphere in which people could build a long-term relationship with the business and not just with the headline acts,” says Purusotman. Large-scale events such as Pinkfish Music & Arts Festival are a boon for Malaysia’s tourism industry but strict government guidelines can make hosting them difficult. Earlier this year the Malaysian Islamic Party questioned why the music event Pinkfish Express was allowed to take place at all on a state-owned train. Purusotman, however, believes that it’s possible to find common ground with the authorities. “There’s still a long way to go before we can realise our goals but the dialogue is moving forward. I’m grateful for that.”
pinkfishfestival.com

A longer version of this piece appears in Monocle’s December/January issue as part of a feature on three exciting new businesses in the music industry. Pick up a copy today or subscribe so that you never miss an issue.

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