Monocle Weekend
Edition: Saturday

There’s a vintage shop in Palma called Món S.XX that sells mid-century furniture, 1970s lighting, aged garden tables, globes and pictures. I drop in on my city walks just in case I might need a large porcelain puppy (€20) or a portrait of a woman looking as miserable as sin (both currently in stock). Usually, I leave without handing over any money to the owner, Ramón – but a year ago that all changed.

You enter Món S.XX via a narrow corridor, pass through an internal courtyard and then reach the shop proper (tucked around a corner is the workshop, the nails and screws needed for repairs stored in an old Haribo sweets unit). It was in the courtyard that I saw Ramón, who was removing a woodworm-riddled frame from a vast 3D relief map of Mallorca, the synthetic peaks of the Tramuntana mountains rising a giddy 10cm from the board, the surrounding sea painted azure blue. I needed this in my life.

Ramón explained that, originally, the map had been lit from behind and, when you flicked a switch, you would have been able to see the glowing routes needed to take you to 10 key spots (a trick aided by pieces of clear plastic embedded in its surface). A deal was struck.

Part of my excitement was that for years I had seen similar maps in old hotels, offices and shops around the island, and had always coveted them (no one was up for selling). These maps were all made by a company called Relieves Castaneda, which had a clever sales trick: it would add the name of a client’s hotel to the map, making them the heart of the action. Mine, made in the late 1970s or early 1980s, was for the long-gone Hotel Tulipan in Can Pastilla.

And so began a story of restoration and revival. My good friend Roberto found an electrician to rewire the rear but first there was summer to get out of the way. It was some four months before this task was done but it was done well. Next stop: Xicarandana, a framing shop so great that every gallery seems to use it. A few more months ticked away before I got the call that all was completed. It looked magnificent, with its dark frame and a delicate new switch. I transported the map home, rested it on the floor and – snap! I broke the switch. Back to the framers. By now everyone had been drawn into the saga and another friend, Chiara, offered to have the very heavy map put in place by her art-hanging contacts. There is another stage too: the map’s 10 empty windows once had pictures behind them, 35mm slides of the Drach Caves at Manacor, of the beach at Cala San Vicente. I am missing only three of these now – thank you, Ebay.

It was almost midnight when I got home to the apartment last Friday but the first thing I did was flick the switch, stand back and look in wonder at the map, with its glowing yellow roads and those soon-to-be-filled windows. I stood in the dark wondering how many times guests at the Tulipan had also stared at this map and used it to plan their next day’s excursion. How had the hotel manager protected those delicate mountains from a cleaner’s over-enthusiastic feather-dusting? Yes, it’s a map of the island but it’s also a map that lights up a road to the past, to distant sultry summers and long-forgotten holidays.

The next morning, I spotted that the old workshop address for Relieves Castaneda is painted onto a corner of the map. I looked up the address on my phone. The map was made a minute’s walk from my front door. It was meant to be.

Now about that porcelain puppy…

Parisian brand Cinabre has already gained a cult following (writes Grace Charlton). That’s largely thanks to its impeccably crafted ties and bow ties – even the French president’s huissiers sport a custom white number. Now it is making its first foray into the world of ready-to-wear with a collection of contrast-collar shirts and relaxed-fit blazers inspired by those of the quintessential 1980s yuppy, John F Kennedy Jr.

“I liked the roomy feel of the cuts from the era,” says the brand’s founder, Alexandre Chapellier. “I find it effortlessly chic. I love a blazer because it can enhance your style and you can wear it all night, from Paris to Hong Kong.” This spring, Monocle also has its eye on the brand’s double-twisted poplin shirts with mother-of-pearl buttons and offset underarm seams, available in striped and solid-colour versions. Our favourite detail? The pointed Cocteau collar – an ode to the legendary French artist – that is high and narrow but also spacious enough to accommodate a tie.
cinabre-paris.com

Giovanni “Gianni” Agnelli never made do with a standard-issue product, whether it was a shirt or a yacht (writes Michael Booth). In terms of the former, I was once told that he favoured an integrated shirt-underpant combo of his own devising – a sort of one-piece. True or not, the same ingenuity can certainly be attributed to his cars.

In the decades until his death in 2003, the former president of Fiat and billionaire playboy, nicknamed L’Avvocato (the lawyer), owned many beautiful, bespoke motors, usually finished in his preferred silver-and-blue colour scheme. Agnelli had a penchant for either removing the roofs from his vehicles (as with his 1986 Ferrari Testarossa) or turning them into estate cars.

Until 24 April, RM Sotheby’s will be auctioning three of Agnelli’s daily Fiat fleet. These include a Panda 4x4, which he used for driving in the snow around his St Moritz chalet; a Lancia Thema Familiare, one of only two made for the family by coachbuilder Zagato; and our favourite, his 1974 Fiat 130 Familiare, featuring American-style fake wooden panelling, an extra brake light in the rear window to warn his tailing security team of his notoriously reckless manoeuvres and wicker roof rack to carry his skis.

The car is expected to fetch up to €300,000. Given that a car similar to a Fiat 130 Familiare might normally sell for €10,000, it’s a handsome sum. But just think of the stories that this stylish wagon could tell.
rmsothebys.com

‘The End’, Joshua Oppenheimer
Acclaimed US director Joshua Oppenheimer follows his Academy Award-nominated documentaries The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence with an audacious post-apocalyptic musical starring Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon as the heads of a family clinging to their privilege after an extinction-level event.
‘The End’ is out now

‘The Most Precious of Cargoes’, Michel Hazanavicius
The first animated feature to compete for the Palme d’Or since Waltz with Bashir in 2008 takes on similar themes of war, dehumanisation and trauma. The Most Precious of Cargoes is a fairy-tale-like story that centres around a baby abandoned just outside Auschwitz. It’s a lyrical fable that includes the perspectives of those who perpetrated the horrors of the Holocaust – and those who defied them.
‘The Most Precious of Cargoes’ is out now

‘The Amateur’, James Hawes
In troubled times, escapism and familiarity can be attractive, so the timing of The Amateur could not be more apt. James Hawes’ spy thriller is based on a 1981 Robert Littell novel that was previously adapted for the screen with a film starring Christopher Plummer. It has now been reimagined with Rami Malek as a CIA operative who goes on a quest to avenge his wife’s death.
‘The Amateur’ is released on 11 April

It is, or should be, one of life’s most basic rules: never deliberately broadcast avoidable noise into the earshot of anyone who does not actively wish to hear it (writes Andrew Mueller). Yet a curious romantic lustre adheres to buskers, that strata of musicians who, by definition, cannot find anyone who will pay to listen to them at an appointed time and place. They are, however, indulged by municipal authorities, rather than locked in stocks so that passers-by might pelt them with mouldering groceries. This would furnish entertainment far superior to another tone-deaf rendition of “Wonderwall”.

Happily, a British judge has instructed Westminster Council to gag these nuisances. He has ruled in favour of businesses overlooking London’s Leicester Square, whose employees have been driven to the wits’ end by pestilential bunkers – and, in some cases, into cupboards so that they can make work calls or urgent enquiries to double-glazing merchants in relative peace. The judge issued a ruling for the ages, noting that while deafening volume was the “principal mischief”, the plague was greatly exacerbated by “the repetition and poor quality of some of the performances”, which he likened to “unlawful but effective psychological torture techniques”.

If there is any place for buskers, it should only be where everyone has the option to keep walking. Some sort of quality control should also be imposed, though it is unlikely that many councils have sufficient surplus in their budget to pay anyone enough to sit through the auditions.

Tokyo stylist Akio Hasegawa has chosen to open the first physical shop for his brand, Cahlumn, in Kanda-Surugadai, an area removed from the city’s usual fashion hot spots. “We intentionally chose somewhere with more of a local feel,” says Hasegawa, who is a longtime Monocle collaborator. “The building used to be a jazz kissa [coffee shop that plays jazz]. We fell in love with the exterior and interior, so we’ve made very few changes.”

Hasegawa is a veteran of Japanese men’s monthly Popeye, so it is no surprise that, as well as making clothes, the company he founded in 2023 publishes a magazine – also called Cahlumn. “Fashion is best recorded in photos, not videos, and is much better conveyed through print than digital,” he says.

The operation is a full Hasegawa production: he’s creating the clothes, directing the fashion shoots and writing the copy. The brand’s “Made in Japan” clothes, meanwhile, are easy staples described by Hasegawa as, “simple, high-quality designs made from natural fibres such as cashmere, linen, cotton, wool or silk”. He's offering organic, additive-free food and natural wine too. But who is it all for? “Older men, similar to my own age group, will probably be core customers but I just want to make what I genuinely believe is good.” Toykoites clearly share that belief: many are already making the trip to Kanda-Surugadai to snap up Cahlumn’s silk-cotton Balmacaan overcoats and blousons.
3-3-8 Kanda-Surugadai, Chiyoda-ku

In the mid-1990s, Lauren Santo Domingo was one of those lucky New Yorkers who managed to secure a highly coveted assistant position at American Vogue. But instead of climbing the masthead, she had a different vision. It has long been common knowledge in the fashion industry that Domingo’s dinner parties – usually involving caviar, stiff martinis and relaxed smoking policies – are not to be missed. In 2011 she co-founded Moda Operandi, an online trunk show business that offers customers the kind of privileges that were previously only available to magazine editors and her dinner guests. Now she is making the most of Moda Operandi’s success to take on more challenges, as artistic director of Tiffany & Co’s Home collection and the founder of a new fund, St Dominique Capital. Her first venture? Investing in The Row, a label that is quickly becoming the pinnacle of American luxury. Here, Domingo explains how she plans to keep up the momentum.

Tell us about the initial idea for Moda Operandi.
The fashion industry has really enriched my life, and I’m always happy to share. I wanted to give customers first choice because they enjoy fashion and want to be part of the beginning of the cycle. We’re still the only ones who are making the fashion runways accessible and letting people experience the head-to-toe runway look rather than just seeing a pair of trousers hanging on a rail.

What is your take on the broader challenges facing the luxury industry at the moment? Is there an affect on Moda Operandi?
When Moda launched, department stores had all the power but then there was a shift and power was handed to the luxury conglomerates. Now they’re both really struggling [to cope] with their sizes. For us, there’s an advantage in being independent and more nimble. A lot of the industry’s struggles are also a result of [prioritising] hype versus quality and relying only on big names.

You’ve also invested in some of the brands that you’ve been working with. Why did you decide to also add ‘investor’ to your CV?
I don’t care where a venture capitalist sits, they’re never going to have the intel and the data on these brands that I do. I have a front-row seat and the ability to understand whether a brand is a one-hit wonder or has some creative longevity. We are also looking at investing via Moda Operandi, as we have so much at our disposal to push these businesses, from being a wholesale force to merchandising and warehousing experience. Taking an equity stake incentivises us to be a better partner.

To read the full interview with Domingo, pick up a copy of Monocle’s April issue, our fashion special, on newsstands now. Have a super Saturday.