Meet the artisans of Como, reviving craft in an age of mass production

Over the past few decades, there has been an exodus of artisans from European cities, where running a carpentry workshop or making shoes can be expensive. But manufacturing enclaves can still be found in the continent’s urban centres, doing wonders for customer trust, brand reputation and quality control. Among them is Como in northern Italy. Though the lakeside spot is known largely for hospitality, it’s also home to plenty of creatives and makers.

Beyond the historic centre is the city’s oldest silk producer, Taroni. “The story is that the lake’s water had a pH level that lent itself to printing fabrics,” says Maximilian Canepa, Taroni’s owner and creative director. Como has long been a centre of silk production; today, 25 companies still work with the fabric. “If you want something unique and researched, you come here,” says Canepa, explaining that Taroni provides silk to Milan’s fashion houses.

At printing studio Edizioni Lithos, founder Alfredo Taroni deals in intricate etchings. “Como had an art tradition that was lost in the early 20th century,” he says. “We brought it back in 1989 [with Edizioni Lithos].”

Today, there is a new story of craft being told by makers such as Luca Mandaglio and Lisa Castelnovo, whose pottery studio, Como Lake Pottery, works on commission for hotels, restaurants and a design firm in France. “Como’s beautiful spaces – the green and blue between the sky and the mountains,” says Mandaglio. “It’s inspiring.”
taroni.it; edizionilithos.it; comolakepottery.it

How Macon & Lesquoy playfully deliver the art of the perfect brooch

The glittering badges and brooches handmade by Macon & Lesquoy offer subtle lessons in how to add character and charm to an outfit. “You can begin your day with something comfortable and easily recognisable,” says Marie Macon who co-founded the brand with Anne-Laure Lesquoy 15 years ago.

Monocle meets Macon at the business’ Paris shop off the Canal Saint-Martin. She runs her hands over brooches that include a mix of subjects from a film camera, a lobster and a pair of Bic pens. “But you can also lean into something more provocative, which will become part of your armour for the day ahead.” We have all had a day when an artfully rendered emblem of a jellyfish might have heightened our mood or accentuated an outfit.

Designing more than 2,000 badges to date, Macon says her aim is to allow people to inject a note of whimsy into their day. The Paris-based company has collaborated with a variety of institutions, including collaborations with Musée d’Orsay, Notre-Dame de Paris and ourselves here at Monocle. “We love bringing a specific universe to life,” says Macon. “It’s a way of melding my sensibilities with Anne-Laure’s and allowing others to integrate them into their own lives.”

If you find yourself in Paris’s 10th arrondissement, you might just spot Macon in her royal-blue painter’s jacket, emblazoned with a mosaic of her favourite brooches.
maconetlesquoy.com

Shone Puipia is the brand connecting with the world on a personal level, one design at a time

Bangkok’s hustle and bustle hides myriad stitching, sewing and crafting. Fashion designer Shone Puipia’s studio, showroom and atelier is based in a quiet alleyway in busy Suan Phlu, Sathorn. The purpose-built, three-storey compound is walking distance from the home that he shares with his mother, Pinaree Sanpitak, one of Thailand’s leading contemporary artists.

The pair frequently collaborate. The 32-year-old also works with his father, Chatchai Puipia, another venerable Thai painter – a crossover that he celebrated at his first showing in Paris last year during men’s fashion week. “It was eye-opening for [people at Paris fashion week] to see this level of fashion coming out of Thailand,” says Puipia. “Visitors really understood the quality and craftsmanship that we produce.”

During Monocle’s visit to the brand’s Bangkok base, three seamstresses are putting the finishing touches to several wedding gowns. “Everything is made here,” Puipia says, showing us around the atelier in an outfit featuring a knitted T-shirt and a pair of red, eel-leather ballet slippers – a signature design from 2023 and now part of every Shone Puipia collection.

Puipia’s interest in clothes began when he took a pattern-making and draping course at the Alliance Française in Bangkok. He was learning French at the time, saw a poster on the wall and kept enrolling for the same weekend short course for the next two years. “I got to love the craft from learning the making side of it,” says Puipia, who recalls being given a book on Dries Van Noten. His admiration for the iconic Belgian designer’s use of colour, ethnic patterns and collegiate style led him to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. An invitation to show his pieces at the MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in Chiang Mai provided a platform for launching his own label in 2018.

His fun, experimental occasion clothes are on display on the showroom’s top floor, carefully catalogued and ready to try on for customers seeking inspiration for a custom design. A brand highlight is the lightweight knitwear, made from a linen-and-silk yarn, which will launch in April, the hottest time of the year in Thailand. The styles are heading to Paris later this year for a pop-up boutique in the Marais called Never Normal, featuring about half a dozen Southeast Asian brands. Puipia sees it as an opportunity to introduce his label to customers who can’t make it to the atelier in Bangkok.

For now, Puipia’s mind is on putting on his next fashion show in 2026. “I’ve gotten to know my customers,” he says, “and I know how to bring colour, craftsmanship, texture and textile to fashion that they can wear.”
shonepuipia.com

Kaptain Sunshine’s international expansion highlights global appeal of Japanese craftmanship

Japanese designer Shinsuke Kojima and his label Kaptain Sunshine had a big 2025. Kojima opened his first flagship in Aoyama, Tokyo, and followed it up with a shop in Seoul, his first in the South Korean capital. South Korean fans are big supporters of the brand, coming to Aoyama to get their hands on made-in-Japan suits and separates. The brand’s easy silhouettes, quality fabrics and ageless, genderless style make Kaptain Sunshine a breeze to wear.

Kojima has been showing overseas too, putting Kaptain Sunshine, which launched in 2013, on the radar of more international buyers. Kojima is not in the business of radical shifts between seasons. “We are not seeking dramatic changes; our goal remains to pursue uncompromising creativity,” he says of the new season’s line-up. “For spring-summer, natural fibres such as cotton, linen, silk and wool take centre stage. These are blended with select synthetics to create materials and silhouettes that feel comfortable in Japan’s humid summer climate.”

The Kaptain Sunshine look is put-together but effortless and it can go in the washing machine too. This season’s relaxed Riviera pants – made with Egyptian cotton, woven at ultra-high density and washed for a vintage look – paired with an indigo-dyed work shirt, would see us through spring and summer. Also look out for exclusive pieces that will be sold only in Aoyama and Seoul as a reward for customers who visit in person.
kaptainsunshine.com

‘We’re a gateway for brands to the country.’ If you want Brazil, you start at Iguatemi

Luxury brands searching for an entry into the Brazilian market – South America’s largest economy – usually start at a mall owned by Iguatemi. With total annual sales of R$21.2bn (€3.44bn), Iguatemi owns 15 shopping centres and two outlets across the country, from Brazil’s luxury epicentre of São Paulo to the capital, Brasília. Overseeing the business is Ciro Neto, who first joined the group in 2010 and was appointed CEO in 2025. He tells Monocle about expansion plans and why Brazilian malls do it best.

Why do major international brands choose to make their Brazilian debuts at Iguatemi malls?
The Iguatemi mall in São Paulo was the first shopping centre in Brazil, as well as the first in Latin America [when it opened in 1966]. People have fond memories of strolling through the mall with their children, as adolescents, going to the movies. If you talk to people in São Paulo they might say, “My first date was here at Iguatemi.” We see our malls not just as shopping centres but as spaces for social interaction. We want new generations to be a part of this. For example, we recently brought H&M to Brazil. It’s a brand aimed at a young audience and it’s been an absolute success. H&M chose[to make its debut at] Iguatemi because we are a gateway for major brands into the rest of the country. Brands look to us for our product curation. We have consolidated this offering over the past 20 years. Iguatemi brought Emporio Armani, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co, Loewe and Comme des Garçons to Brazil. We also host flagship stores, such as Tiffany & Co in São Paulo.

What sets an Iguatemi mall apart?
Our relationship-management department. We have specialists who take care of relationships with our main clients. Our loyalty programme offers perks, gifts and dinners. We help them to travel to interesting destinations, such as Brazil’s open-air museum Inhotim, and even abroad. We specialise in luxury services.

Are you optimistic for the year ahead?
Extremely. Brazil’s retail industry has grown less than 5 per cent in the past 12 months but Iguatemi grew by almost 30 per cent in our performance. We are expanding Iguatemi São Paulo with a rooftop, new restaurants and shops. We are expanding our Brasília outpost by 50 per cent. We are also developing a whole neighbourhood in the city of Campinas in São Paulo state. We already have a shopping centre there but this development will have a riverside park, bike paths and more than 100 towers, both residential and commercial, for 50,000 people.

Danish textile brand Tekla’s new London store boasts beautiful Scandi-British fusion

Danish textile brand Tekla’s first venture beyond its homeland is a handsome template for international expansion. In Marylebone High Street (close to Monocle’s Midori House), the new shop invites customers to explore tactile cushions, crisp organic-cotton bed sheets and terry-towel bathrobes. “On the pragmatic side, London is an important market for us and has been for many years,” says co-founder Kristoffer Juhl. “Then there’s the more inspiring side, which is the cultural importance of the city.”

For the shop’s interiors, Tekla tapped the Copenhagen-based architecture firm Mentze Ottenstein to combine Danish aesthetics with British craft. The result is a wood-panelled space with herringbone oak parquet and pared-back storage systems inspired by Victorian cabinetry. “We sought inspiration in historic homes, in particular Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge,” says Alexander Vedel Ottenstein, co-founder of Mentze Ottenstein. The shop also needed to provide a clean slate to stage future releases. “Our main assignment was to make the products come to life,” he says. “So we kept it simple.”
teklafabrics.com

How ‘Articles of Interest’ became a go-to podcast for fashion history

The fashion industry moves at a relentless pace that doesn’t always allow for deeper analysis, especially when the immediate focus is on new collections or commercial appeal. But for those seeking a more insightful, research-driven take on the history of fashion – or the current sociopolitical consequences of the industry – Avery Trufelman’s podcast Articles of Interest guides its listeners down rabbit holes as varied as clerical vestments, chromophobia and the rise of outdoor apparel in everyday environments.
 
“I work on longer timelines,” the New York-based Trufelman tells Monocle. “I’m not really into fashion, I’m mostly confused by it.” What began as a spin-off of popular design podcast 99% Invisible in 2016, Articles of Interest is now, a decade on, an important resource for fashion journalism. One episode might be years in the making. Often a single conversation will spark an idea. “I’m always collecting tape,” she adds. “I reach out to designers, visit exhibitions. When you talk to people working in the industry – the pattern makers, the designers – everyone is fascinating.”

It’s an investigative approach to storytelling that is rigorous, often delving into the intricacies of a production chain or the sociological issues that arise with a given topic. For example, Trufelman opined that French president Emmanuel Macron’s unexpected outing in mirrored sunglasses in Davos recently could be read as the deployment of an “involvement shield” – a concept that was coined by sociologist Erving Goffman in 1963. It describes behaviours (such as wearing a cap or listening to music) that help to ward off unwanted interactions. “Sunglasses were developed as a type of protection shield from each other with the rise of the city and the urban environment,” she says. Or maybe, as Macron himself insisted, he had a harmless eye infection.    

Whatever the truth behind the shades, Trufelman’s investigations always make for a great yarn. Going beyond surface-level questions of aesthetics, Trufelman provides a form of education that is accessible to a wider audience and not driven by any commercial agenda. “A given theme always emerges from a real, genuine question,” she says with a smile.

Listen to an episode:

Asics reinforces luxury strategy with expansion of Onitsuka Tiger in Japan

Tottori, one of Japan’s least populated prefectures, has several claims to fame – a 16km stretch of sand dunes among them – but most importantly, perhaps, it’s the birthplace of Kihachiro Onitsuka, the founder of sportswear giant Asics. Now, in a full-circle moment, the company has put the spotlight on this quiet corner of the country, reinventing a shoe-making facility as the Onitsuka Innovative Factory (OIF), the first dedicated production base for the label’s fashion brand Onitsuka Tiger.

At OIF, the “mother factory”, about 160 people will produce 280,000 pairs of shoes a year, broadcasting Onitsuka Tiger’s techniques to the world, and provide training and technical support for the label’s overseas manufacturing sites. “Craftsmanship is something that can’t be replaced by AI or fully conveyed through data,” says Ryoji Shoda, Onitsuka Tiger’s global head. “At this factory, skills and sensibilities are passed from person to person, from hand to hand, and from one generation to the next.”

The company, which was founded as Onitsuka in 1949, hit its stride with basketball and running shoes in the 1950s and became Asics (Anima Sana In Corpore Sano, or A Sound Mind in A Sound Body) in 1977. The Onitsuka Tiger name was revived in 2002, with the reissue of classic styles such as the Mexico 66, Ultimate 81 and Nippon 60. The Mexico 66 reboot was propelled by Uma Thurman wearing a pair in Quentin Tarantino’s 2003 film Kill Bill. Sales of Onitsuka Tiger shoes haven’t stopped since and were projected to reach ¥120bn (€653.5m) in 2025, an impressive increase from ¥45.6bn in 2019.

The building’s bright yellow and black exterior is unmissable, while the new facility covers the full span of production, from design and manufacture to a gallery and shop, which will offer the world’s only custom-order Onitsuka Tiger shoes.

A tour of the pristine factory reveals Onitsuka’s exceptional manufacturing. Over in the “crafted processing building”, shoes are being washed and hand scrunched to give the leather a pleasingly irregular texture. “We don’t place priority on mass production,” says Shoda. “This facility possesses a high level of hand-finished craftsmanship that can’t be achieved at overseas factories or at other domestic sites, particularly in secondary processes such as washing, bleaching and foil stamping.”

Close to the factory floor there is a display of vintage models and shoes that Onitsuka has made with luxury brands, such as Versace and Givenchy. Shoda is adamant that it won’t pair up with just anyone. “Our collaborations are guided not by sales but by a shared pursuit of brand value,” he says. “Each partner is chosen with care and discernment and this thoughtful approach won’t change.”

Shoda is reshaping Onitsuka Tiger as a luxury label whose reach will go beyond apparel. “We aim to create experiences that allow people to feel the brand not only through what they wear but through all five senses.” Four Onitsuka Tiger fragrances, devised by Mark Buxton, launched last year, and a Ristorante Onitsuka Tiger concept, conceived by acclaimed chef Yoji Tokuyoshi, is scheduled to open in the Milan shop this September. A flagship opened on Paris’s Champs-Élysées last year.

The ambition is for OIF to boost the local economy through employment and training, as well as bringing tourists to the region. “As a Japanese brand, it’s important for Onitsuka Tiger to have a dedicated factory in Japan,” he says. “It enables the exquisite craftsmanship and the refined, understated sense of beauty inherent in Japanese culture to be reflected in every product.”
onitsukatiger.com

How curator Olivier Gabet brought fashion back into focus at the Louvre

When Olivier Gabet staged Louvre Couture in 2025 – the museum’s first fashion-led exhibition in its 230-year history – the curator ushered in new possibilities for the venerable institution. “Fashion is part of artistic creation,” he tells Monocle. “It’s a form of expression in the pursuit of beauty, just like art.”

That said, it has long been absent from the museum’s concerns. “Fashion has never been within the Louvre’s remit but, at the same time, fashion is central to the Louvre,” says Gabet, who is director of the department of decorative arts. “It’s a place of inspiration for many creators, including fashion designers.”

In the hierarchical world of art history, where art forms and even types of paintings are traditionally ranked in order of importance (a portrait, for example, trumps a landscape), such a statement is revolutionary. “This hierarchy is still powerful in museums, though it is being upturned by the demands of the public,” says Gabet. “Fashion is everywhere and therefore more accessible, especially in a city like Paris. This creates an affinity for visitors who come to a fashion exhibition but otherwise wouldn’t necessarily feel welcome in a museum.”

Though the Louvre only offers general-entry tickets, Louvre Couture is estimated to have drawn in more than a million visitors over a seven-month period. Now the exhibition is on show at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. 

As a curator, Gabet demonstrates an ability to use fashion to draw connections with other forms of art and paint a broader picture by bringing in a wider context of history, literature and architecture. Before joining the Louvre, Gabet was director of Paris’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs, where he staged numerous exhibitions, including Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams in 2017 and Cartier and the Islamic Arts in 2021. A knack in creating conversations about historical topics in a contemporary context makes Gabet a curatorial force, as well as a champion of fashion’s place in museums. 

As for what’s next, he hints that he has several ideas for exhibitions but finding the right moment is crucial. “There is no obligation to create a fashion-led exhibition every year and any future project needs to be fine-tuned to the Louvre’s collection, which is one of the most fabulous of its kind in the world,” he adds. “There’s a lot of negative talk about the Louvre since [the robbery that took place last] October but it remains the greatest – and most visited – museum worldwide. It’s a permanent source of inspiration.”

How 1842 port house Niepoort made a successful pivot into table wine

The Niepoort family, originally from the Netherlands, occupies a unique place in the world of Portuguese wine. Their brand carries the hefty weight of tradition, particularly in port, which the company has sold since 1842, but it also has a long tradition of experimentation that has quietly kept the business not only relevant but also exciting for almost two centuries.

One turning point came in the late 1980s when, under the leadership of Dirk Niepoort, the family’s irreverent fifth-generation owner, the company acquired its first estate: until then, it had bought grapes from others. It then ventured away from fortified wines to unfortified ones. The shift transformed the brand’s trajectory – today about 70 per cent of its production is table wine – and helped to reposition the Douro region as a place capable of much more than the sweet stuff. “Moving into table wine wasn’t contradictory; it actually helped our port production,” says Daniel Niepoort, Dirk’s son, who now helms the oenology side of the business. “Not many people realise how much time it takes to make port – we’re talking 20 or 30 years.”

Since then, the company has grown, acquiring more land throughout Portugal and beyond, with fresh, low-alcohol and reasonably priced vintages released alongside its renowned and robust ports. Though Niepoort continues to be one of the staunchest champions of winemaking in the Douro, it hasn’t stopped dabbling in seemingly discrete worlds, from a fledgling tea business to kombucha. “If you stick to one thing, it’s easy to get blinded,” says Daniel with a smile. “It’s fun to try new things.”
niepoort.pt