The Monocle Minute

There’s a snobby line that was once levelled at Monocle by a critic in the early days that still rankles. The writer – his comment now part of company lore – couldn’t fathom a magazine that imagined readers could care equally about global affairs and fashion. To him, one story was for one type of reader, the other for another – never the twain should meet. Unhelpfully, marketeers are also prone to crumble people up into segments and specialisms, attitudes and tendencies; or even to reduce people down to their budgets and beliefs.

Luckily for Monocle, our subscribers are rather more colourful and I think we’ve made our point elegantly over the past 18 years: see our books, podcasts, newsletters, bureaux, shops, cafés and, soon, a new website. Plenty of people care about both design and diplomacy – and want to dress well too.

It’s why, dear reader, when I tell you that today marks the launch of our April style issue, that I can say with confidence that there’s as much inside for the opportunity-oriented financier or entrepreneur as the fashion designer. After all, don’t they all care about perception and dressing to impress?

In this issue, we visit the Transportation Security Agency’s canine training centre in Texas at a moment when the US is tightening its domestic security. We quiz the besuited Serbian foreign affairs minister on overcoming past grievances and ponder the case for EU conscription. We also report on designers to watch and the wardrobe updates to hanker after in our impeccable Style Top 25. There are essays and long reads about our relationship with technology, cities and the international order, plus recipes and a Tokyo shopping guide too. And yes, like a well-chosen outfit, it’s all brought together so that no one part overshadows the whole.

Our early detractor identified one thing right in his comment (offhand, I think about the apparent incongruity of features on Jil Sander and Somalia). We are all sometimes guilty of seeing the world in black and white.

At a lunch this week with a prominent Nordic ambassador, I saw firsthand how diplomats dance between what’s discussed – shifts in the North Atlantic, defence considerations – and how it’s done (in this case, dressed in a Savile Row suit over a good-humoured lunch and a glass of wine). Style and substance both matter, remember. To think otherwise is to underestimate people and condemn our many-hued world to miserly monochrome.

Josh Fehnert is Monocle’s editor. The April style special is out today. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle.

Michael Wolff has chronicled Donald Trump for almost a decade. His fourth book on the US president, All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America, depicts the years between Trump’s presidential terms and the election campaign that brought about his political comeback. Here, Wolff tells The Monocle Minute about the contrasts between the president’s first and second terms, and why he isn’t surprised that a journalist was unwittingly added to a top-secret government group chat.

Is Trump’s own view of the presidency different this time around?
Trump’s overriding theory from the beginning was that if he got the headlines, nobody else would. And it really didn’t matter if they were good headlines or bad – it was all about the attention. It is disturbing and alarming but masterful at the same time. Now there’s a new theory, which is, basically, that he can get away with anything by dominating the headlines every minute. This also keeps his mood up, by the way.

So the more contentious acts are purely to stoke a reaction? Is outrage the point?
I put it a different way. It’s not necessarily the outrage, it’s the elevation of the conflict. To hold the attention, the conflict has to continually get greater and greater. If you continue on the same plateau of conflict, it no longer feels as outrageous. So you have to ratchet it up.

Were you surprised that the editor in chief of ‘The Atlantic’, was inadvertently invited into a top-secret government group chat?
No, it’s not a surprise to me. I know these Trump people well and they’re always on Signal; that’s how you communicate in Trump world. Obviously, in this instance, it has backfired. But the larger point is that none of these people really think of themselves as government employees. They think of themselves as Trumpers and that’s a parallel world. So the idea that they are under the rules and conventions of any traditional sense of accountability is, at best, at the back of their minds.

Asia’s biggest art fair is under way with 242 galleries from 42 countries and territories – half of which are from the region – exhibiting to VIPs today and to the public from Friday (writes Lucrezia Motta). “Hong Kong’s enduring position as an international capital for culture is more evident than ever,” Art Basel Hong Kong director Angelle Siyang-Le tells The Monocle Minute. “Art Basel has a vital role not only as a global platform for buying and selling art – but as a connector and opportunity accelerator for key players in the region”.

Though this year has seen pressures resulting from economic downturns in China and growing competition in Seoul and Tokyo, Hong Kong’s status as the hub for Asia’s art market endures. Big auction houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s, which have opened dedicated spaces on the island in recent years, are holding concurrent marquee spring sales with the fair for the first time (modern and contemporary lots on 28 and 29 March). With acquisitive buyers and high expectations for the market, this 12th edition should be picture perfect.

From media polarisation and falling subscriptions to fake news and the threat of artificial intelligence, the challenges facing journalism are a familiar topic to anyone who, well, follows the news. Even in Germany, where it is still common practice to flip through a broadsheet every morning, many major newsrooms are going through rounds of layoffs. But the country’s capital is also home to a new bastion of optimism named Publix. Located on Hermannstrasse, a hectic street in the Neukölln neighbourhood of Berlin, this is an institution entirely dedicated to journalists and pro-democracy organisations.

“This is a kind of editorial utopia,” Maria Exner, director of Publix, tells The Monocle Minute. Here, above the ground-floor café, a badge is needed to enter: the first floor is a co-working space for media professionals, with fees starting at €179 per month; while the four storeys above host permanent offices for organisations including Reporters Without Borders and investigative outlet Correctiv.

Despite a relaxed brief for the design, AFF Architekten delivered something remarkable. “We wanted to create a sense of transparency,” says Ulrike Dix, a partner at AFF. The result is a six-storey building that makes the most of its slim site: a busy street on one side is contrasted by a lush park on the other; while light floods into every space through the building’s floor-to-ceiling windows.

To read the full scoop, pick up a copy of Monocle’s April issue today.

Monocle’s senior correspondent and host of The Global Countdown, Fernando Augusto Pacheco, rounds up some of his most anticipated new albums, originating everywhere from Barcelona to Byron Bay.

‘Jesucrista Superstar’, Rigoberta Bandini
This is Spanish singer Paula Ribó’s follow-up to her successful 2022 record, La Emperatriz. The 22-track album is an explosion of different genres, from the danceable electro pop of “Kaiman”, which sounds like a winning Eurovision entry, to the poignant single “Pamela Anderson”. A big summer tour across Spain is in the works.
‘Jesucrista Superstar’ is out now; watch the ‘Jesucrista Superstar’ music videohere

‘Slipper Imp and Shakaerator’, Babe Rainbow
Listening to Babe Rainbow will immediately transport you to the artist’s native Rainbow Bay in east Australia. This album was recorded in a warehouse on a banana farm and is full of the singer’s trademark sunny acid-pop sounds. The breezy “Long Live the Wilderness” addresses the loss of innocence, while “Like Cleopatra” features fun synth-funk beats.
‘Slipper Imp and Shakaerator’ will be released on 4 April; watch the ‘Like Cleopatra’ music videohere

‘Music Can Hear Us’, DJ Koze
The German DJ and music producer returns with an album released by his own label, Pampa Records. The cosmic-inspired record has an A-list set of contributors, including Damon Albarn on “Pure Love” and Sofia Kourtesis on “Tu Dime Cuando”. Progressive house track “Hypnotic” is a highlight, as is the otherworldly cover of 1983 summer hit “Vamos a la Playa” by Italian duo Righeira.
‘Music Can Hear Us’ is released on 4 April; watch the ‘Pure Love’ music videohere

Greece: The Monocle Handbook is the latest in our series of vibrant country guides to inspire your next trip – or move. Looking to take the leap yourself?