Can this Cold War-era train revive the romance of rail travel?

In the Cold War’s great game of global prestige and influence, East Germany’s most mobile ambassador didn’t carry a passport – it carried people. Unveiled in 1963, the VT 18.16, later known as the SVT Görlitz, was the GDR’s answer to the West’s glamorous trains. A sleek, diesel-powered bullet of beige metal and burgundy, it transported party delegates, foreign dignitaries and business travellers from Berlin to Prague, Copenhagen and Vienna at a stately 120km/h. Inside were beech-veneer panels, deep-blue upholstery and rotatable seats modelled after those in a jetliner.

The SVT Görlitz was built not merely to move passengers but to stage a performance of modernity. That it was reservation-only – almost unheard of at the time – only burnished its brand. “Boarding the train felt like stepping into another world,” says Matthias Hebenstreit, who was just 18 years old when he took his first and only journey aboard it during a work trip. “It was like catching a glimpse of the future.”

Dubbed a “diplomat on wheels”, the SVT Görlitz offered a rare corridor between East and West. By the late 1970s, however, railcars were falling out of favour and the train was gradually withdrawn from service. Of the original eight, only three survived reunification. One sat mothballed for years in Nuremberg at the museum of national rail network Deutsche Bahn (DB), lacking a working engine or brakes.

It is this SVT Görlitz that is finally getting back on track. In a hangar in Halberstadt, a town in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, a team of railway enthusiasts and engineers is painstakingly restoring one to its former glory with the aim of resuming a service within Germany next year. “Getting a high-speed train such as this back on the rails is a way of making a legacy visible again,” says Mario Lieb, who is leading the effort.

More than 70 volunteers – mechanics, electricians, upholsterers, administrators and planners – have spent the past six years sourcing parts, stripping paint, replacing windows and reinstating fixtures with forensic attention to detail. Among them is Andreas Haufe, who oversees operations planning for the train’s return to the rails. A driver with DB in Dresden, he’s responsible for staff co-ordination, training and regulatory oversight – a wide-ranging role that reflects his personal commitment to the project. “For DB, I drive modern trains to Berlin, Hamburg and Rostock,” he says. “But this one is different.” Born into a railway family, Haufe was four years old when his uncle, one of the SVT Görlitz’s last certified drivers, brought him along on a refuelling run between Dresden Neustadt and Altstadt. “I still remember the sound, the atmosphere,” he says. “For me, it’s the most elegant train ever built in Germany.”

Of the €7m restoration budget, €5m came from public funds. The project aligned neatly with talk in Berlin of reviving the network’s international rail express routes. The restoration also happens to coincide with a moment when DB – beset by persistent delays, last-minute cancellations and overcrowded trains – is seeking to repair its battered image. Just 62.5 per cent of German long-distance trains arrived on time last year and the public’s patience is wearing thin. Patrick Schnieder, the transport minister, recently said that the state of the railways had become a national barometer. “People feel that things no longer function in the way that they should,” he told the German Press Agency. “That’s not just seen as a failure of infrastructure. It’s perceived as something more fundamental.”

Berlin-based revenue analyst Jessica Neu­mann joined the restoration as a volunteer, signing up as a photographer for the project. “It’s amazing how many people have a personal connection to this train,” she says. One couple wrote to say that they met in the SVT Görlitz’s dining car on a journey to Karlovy Vary in the 1970s. They struck up a conversation, fell in love and eventually married. Decades later, they hope to take that journey again.

Wherever possible, the restoration work is done in-house. “We have people here with a great deal of expertise,” says Lieb. But restoring the SVT Görlitz requires not just technical skill but an eye for nuance. “There was no unified interior across the eight trains,” he adds. “They were built in four batches, two units each, and there were notable differences in detail.” The team approached what remained with archival precision. Swivel seats, originally clad in grey-brown corduroy, were reupholstered in deep red with black side accents. The pattern of the dining-car curtains was faithfully reproduced. And the lighting? “The worn-out lamps had been replaced with pressed-glass fixtures,” says Lieb. “We had new ones produced by a local lighting maker, closely modelled on the originals.”

All of the fabrics now meet modern fire regulations and hidden systems such as toilet technology and door locking have been discreetly introduced to meet cross-border standards. Other aspects needed no improvement. “There was hot and cold running water on board already,” says Lieb. While the exterior, originally developed by Berlin-based architect Hans Gutheil, was leaner and sleeker than the more bulbous silhouettes emerging from West Germany, the interior was far more restrained. The aesthetic nodded subtly to Bauhaus principles, especially in the dining car, right down to the decorative end panels. “Of course, they had to work with what was available,” says Lieb. “But they still made something elegant.”

Though the SVT Görlitz emerged from a combination of constraint and ingenuity, the railway itself would soon face a very different challenge. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the newly unified train network was less a public service than a profit-driven enterprise. “The early years were genuinely positive,” says Christian Böttger, a professor at Berlin’s University of Applied Sciences for Engineering and Economics, and an expert on Germany’s railways. He explains that as passenger numbers grew and freight volumes increased, new high-speed routes helped to make the national railway company a respected enterprise.

While the DB remains a pillar of German mobility, the emotional contract that it once held with the public has quietly lapsed. The railway still moves people but not, perhaps, in quite the same way as before. What’s missing isn’t just modern infrastructure or newer trains, even though the federal cabinet has just approved a €107bn support package. It’s more a sense that the railways belong to everyone.

That spirit, say the restorers, is embodied in the SVT Görlitz. If all goes according to plan and the train returns to the rails in 2026, there will be space for 238 passengers to come aboard, plus 23 in the dining car. “We even have a chef,” says Lieb. For some, the journey to Prague will be a sentimental one. For others, it might offer a glimpse of how rail travel once looked, sounded and felt, when it carried a sense of purpose and promise.
svt-goerlitz.de

Why global eyes are on South Africa’s next design stars

“Cape Town is such a vibrant city that it makes you want to create,” says Megan Hesse, co-founder of Anatomy Design, an interiors and product studio that recently opened a lofty new showroom in the De Waterkant neighbourhood. Hesse started her business with her partner in Johannesburg but later moved to Cape Town to tap into the latter’s booming creative scene. South Africa’s second-biggest city is a rapidly growing design capital where it’s getting easier to do business. This is thanks, in part, to a robust economy, which is expected to grow by 1.8 per cent in 2025 (outpacing the country’s forecast 1.3 per cent), with €304m in investment and more than 15,000 jobs directly created in 2024 by business initiatives, which support a host of sectors that include the creative economy.

This creative scene is building on solid foundations. It has hosted Design Indaba, an annual global conference that has attracted the likes of Tom Dixon and Milton Glaser since 1995. Cape Town Art Fair launched in 2013 and, a year later, the city was named the World Design Capital, stirring even more interest. “Cape Town has always had a very active, healthy design and creative scene,” says Gareth Pearson, who along with his partner Aimée Pearson co-founded Cape Town Furniture Week in 2023. The event grew from 80 exhibitors in its inaugural year to nearly 100 in 2025. “Cape Town is definitely having a moment,” says Aimée. “There’s an influx of like-minded people, as well as resources.”

Importantly, the city hasn’t just captured aesthetes and design-minded transplants looking for a permanent move but also tourism dollars. The city’s population is growing steadily; between 2020 and the end of 2025, it will have gained about 400,000 new residents.

“There is a lot of international traffic here,” says Chuma Maweni, a designer who creates functional ceramic pieces such as intricate chairs, mirrors and tables. Maweni, who works with the influential Southern Guild gallery (which has an outpost in Los Angeles), moved from the neighbouring Eastern Cape province to Cape Town in 2006. “The Western Cape has better opportunities and more art enthusiasts,” he says.

In terms of tourism, the first quarter of 2024 saw a 16 per cent increase in tourist arrivals via air travel, amounting to 336,000 visitors. This rising interest is stoking confidence in creatives and even impacting their work. “It’s an international destination so it feels very cosmopolitan but at the same time it’s very South African,” says artist and designer Tshidzo Mangena, who moved to Cape Town and recently launched his design studio after practising fine art for years. Two decades ago, this was much more difficult.

When James Mudge started his furniture business in 2006, there was only a handful of furniture makers in the city. The country was still emerging from the hangover of apartheid. “Sanctions only ended in 1994,” says Mudge, as he walks Monocle through his impressive showroom and factory. “Ten years is not that long in the spectrum of an economy.” What started as a one-man band is now a sprawling warehouse in the industrial area of Paarden Eiland on the outskirts of Cape Town, where Mudge’s signature wooden tables and chairs are manufactured. He brought the entire production in-house a few years ago – a savvy move, given that electricity cuts still aren’t unheard of, despite infrastructure improvements.

Though Cape Town is arguably the most efficiently run metropolis in the country, it has had its problems, from those cuts to water shortages and safety issues. “There are all kinds of challenges,” says Carla Erasmus, co-founder and designer at Bofred, a contemporary design studio that crafts sculptural chairs, sconces and lamps. Erasmus remembers a time when the studio couldn’t make its bestselling items because they required clay and there was a shortage of water. “We just had to work around it,” she says, adding that it doesn’t faze them any more.

One thing that set South Africa’s design scene back in the early 2000s was the notion that the products made here weren’t as good as those from places such as Denmark or Italy, which had established design identities. This is despite South Africa having a long history of manufacturing, from textiles to woodwork and cabinetry. In the 1990s, many industries fell into decline, which undermined the confidence of the manufacturing scene. “It got depleted and people started importing,” says Erasmus. But, as pioneers such as Mudge, Haldane Martin and Xandre Kriel began paving the way and producing better-quality products, perceptions shifted, kick-starting demand and creating space for makers.

Designers have been grappling with this inferiority complex for years. “We have all been so obsessed with overcoming this idea that things made in South Africa might not be great and all of the imported stuff is amazing,” says Mudge, adding that this mindset is what drove the industry to improve. “We have tried so hard that we have ended up with products that have their own essence and flavour, and are different from what’s available in Europe and America. You go to these international trade shows and, while the products are cool, they’re all the same. Because we are separate from that, we have developed our own language, which I think is incredible.”

For many here, this means leaning into a fresh but distinctively African aesthetic. Maweni’s clay chairs riff on Zulu and Xhosa ceramics, while Mangena’s series of decor pieces and furniture is named after progressive African cities, such as the muscular, wooden Kigali chair. “I’m trying to redefine stereotypes about African design,” says Mangena.

Indeed, it seems that there has never been such an appetite for African art and design, with fairs such as Art 3 Lagos and Nairobi Design Week drawing global attention. Margot Molyneux, founder of Design Week South Africa, remembers sitting around a table at Milan Design Week a few years ago with a group of people from Europe and the UK, who quickly turned their attention to her. “All of these people wanted to know where I came from and what was happening in Cape Town,” says Molyneux. This curiosity prompted her to launch her design week event in 2024, a three-day immersive fair that hosts product launches, talks, meet-ups and showcases in Cape Town and Johannesburg. “There’s international attention on Africa; it feels sort of like the last frontier,” she says. “People want to know what is happening in this continent. And there is a lot going on.”

Indeed, in the past few years, more brands have launched and even opened standalone shops. Bofred recently unveiled a new glass-fronted space on the second floor of a shopping hub on buzzy Harrington Street, while furniture designers Pedersen 1 Lennard opened a bricks-and-mortar outpost with pieces that can be purchased in-store. New makers are arriving on the scene too. At the Ramp, an artist-led space on an industrial street in Paarden Eiland, architects and furniture makers share a communal workspace. In the workshop at the back, there’s the constant hum of a saw or sander. It’s here that artist and designer Gabriel Hope creates his custom cabinetry and flatpack stools. His business has grown organically and flourished thanks in part to consumers who no longer want to import pieces but have regionally made goods instead. “There is an interest in trying to support smaller businesses,” says Hope.

South Africans, who are largely accustomed to political turmoil and international outsider status, tend to rally behind local industries that are doing well. And designers also garner support because they can customise products for their clients. “A little bit higher or a custom colour? No problem,” says Bofred’s Erasmus, adding that South African designers go above and beyond for their customers. And they can because prototyping here is easy so you don’t have to make a run of thousands of items. “But that’s also because the designers themselves want to create something unique,” she says. For some brands, multiple craftsmen will work on one piece of furniture. While this can create an artisanal quality, it also requires time. “It can take between eight to 12 weeks to make a sofa,” says Anatomy Design’s Hesse. “We don’t have big factories like they do in China where they are mass-producing,” she says. “There’s a man or woman sitting behind a sofa hand-stitching it. Which is so beautiful – all of these incredible hands that are poured into one piece of furniture.”

Tapping into the country’s craft scene has presented opportunities for many brands. At Ananta Studio, sisters Viveka and Rucita Vassen work with craftspeople to produce beaded lamps, vases and chairs in colours such as hot pink and emerald green, inspired by their Indian heritage. “There’s so much opportunity because there are a lot of crafters here,” says Rucita. The sisters (one studied fashion, the other graphic design) got the idea for the brand when they noticed craftspeople on the side of the street creating beaded flowers and animals. “We saw the untapped potential,” says Viveka. “As designers we thought, ‘How can we support them, grow the craft and take it to another level?’” Ananta now works with a host of artisans to produce collections of vibrant, beaded pieces that feel entirely unique but also true to the city. “There’s a feeling that Cape Town wants to put itself on the map,” says Rucita. “People travel from all over the world to go to design fairs and Cape Town should be on that map.” (Also, she adds, because it’s “such a beautiful destination”.) For creatives, there couldn’t be a better time to be producing here. “It’s exciting to be making things in Cape Town. You can feel that things are moving. There’s an energy that is starting to shift.”

How John Lobb footwear stays one step ahead

“The way that people move during the day has changed,” says Philippe Gonzalez, the global CEO of storied footwear brand John Lobb. “We need to be responsive to that.” When Monocle meets Gonzalez in London, he is fresh off an early Eurostar with just a small suitcase in tow. “It’s important for us to be like a sponge,” he says. “When you look at people in the street, you see men cycling in the morning with their children, taking them to school before heading to work. That’s why we developed a bag for our customers where they can put their shoes for their commute.”

Gonzalez has been the custodian of John Lobb since 2019, safeguarding a heritage that is as compelling as it is complex. The brand combines British origins with French flair, a Northampton workshop with a Paris atelier and a ready-to-walk range of shoes with a top bespoke service. Spanning more than 150 years, its history includes a royal appointment from the Prince of Wales in 1863 and acquisition by French fashion house Hermès in 1976.

Under Gonzalez, the brand has stayed focused on its core category, men’s footwear. But working under an ethos of “slow evolution”, it has subtly updated its collections by making changes such as adding bike-friendly accessories, lighter fabrications and signature hardware. The introduction of replaceable rubber soles was also a direct response to the changing needs of the label’s customers.

John Lobb’s latest collection, presented in a small gallery inside the Palais-Royal in Paris, includes perforated leather loafers in supple suede (a nod to driving gloves), derbies in new colour-block patterns and dress shoes embellished with silver buckles. The oval metal rings have become a discreet brand signifier that is only identifiable to those in the know.

Launches of the brand’s collections have become a mainstay at Paris Fashion Week Men’s but its production remains in the UK. When Monocle meets Gonzalez, he is on his way to Northampton, where 90 per cent of the brand’s ready-to-walk offering is crafted. There, he will present the spring-summer collection to the artisans and congratulate them for bringing it to life.

Having a manufacturing base in the English heartland of shoemaking is a point of pride for Gonzalez. People who hail from Northampton (as well as the local football team) are nicknamed “cobblers” because of the town’s historic association with the trade; the Goodyear-welted shoe-construction method originated there.

“Britishness means having a sense of humour and a certain attitude,” says Gonzalez – a warm, generous view of the UK that defies the general post-Brexit sentiment. “Our bestselling Lopez shoe was created in the 1950s and has a specific English sensibility, a sort of rock attitude. Our latest model, the Smith, is also infused with that same spirit but with a rubber sole. Our customers want to feel at ease throughout the day when they’re walking but also want to feel elegant.”

Bespoke services are available in the company’s Paris atelier, where every made-to-order pair of shoes begins with a conversation between the customer and the makers. This is followed by detailed measurements, trials and plenty of design discussions.

Gonzalez’s commitment to growing both the bespoke and ready-to-wear parts of the business is yielding results. He tells Monocle that despite an overall slowdown across the luxury industry, the past year has proven “healthy” for the brand. The Hermès Group reported a 9 per cent sales increase across the business for the first quarter of 2025. “We’re seeing a nice, steady growth that shows that our convictions are right,” says Gonzalez, pointing to a balance between the brand’s core markets, which include the US, Europe and Asia (particularly Japan).

The brand’s wholesale distribution includes partners in Dallas, Madrid, Seoul and Hong Kong. “We want to grow our presence where we are successful,” says the CEO. “We often say that it’s like a shoe: we only open a shop if it fits. My intention is not to reinvent the brand but to nurture it. After all, what are shoes? They are very personal objects that reveal a lot about their wearer. So we don’t want you to disappear behind the shoe.”
johnlobb.com

A tale of two shoemakers

John Lobb’s history stretches back more than 150 years, when the eponymous founder, an apprentice bootmaker from Cornwall, travelled to Australia during the gold rush. There, he developed shoes with hollow heels in which miners could stash contraband nuggets of gold. Despite these somewhat illicit origins, Lobb was named as the bootmaker for the Prince of Wales in 1863 upon his return to the UK. A shop on Regent Street followed in 1866, then a Paris boutique in 1899. The brand was acquired by Hermès in 1976; as part of this deal, Lobb’s descendants (who have their own workshop in London as a separate entity) requested that the sale of the Paris-made shoes be prohibited in the UK. Though John Lobb London and John Lobb Paris share a founder and a history, the two are not to be confused.

Sharp new styles from the Monocle Shop

Teba travel jacket and travel trousers by Monocle

A project with fabric mill Vitale Barberis Canonico, this premium worsted-wool jacket and trouser pairing are thermo-regulating and anti-crease. The jacket has three patch pockets and one inside, while the trousers have a single pleat and welt back pocket.

Price: €440 (jacket) / €340 (trousers)
Colour: Navy
Material: 100 per cent wool
Made in: Lithuania

Yeti corduroy cap by Kappy Design x Monocle

These cotton corduroy caps – the result of a partnership between Seoul brand Kappy Design and Monocle – feature exclusive designs from Japanese artist Toru Fukuda. Made in South Korea, they are available in red and navy or forest green and white.

Price: €80
Colour: Red/navy or forest green/white
Material: 100 per cent cotton
Made in: South Korea

FreeWalker GL suitcase by Proteca x Monocle

Proteca’s 50-litre FreeWalker GL is made in Akabira, Hokkaido by Japan’s leading luggage manufacturer Ace – a specialist in suitcase technology for more than 50 years. It comes with a TSA-approved lock and a luggage tag from Japan’s Brooklyn Museum.

Price: €770
Colour: Olive
Material: Polycarbonate-abs resin blend
Made in: Japan

All-season work jacket by Monocle

This classic jacket is made in Portugal from pure cotton, with corozo buttons. Designed by our in-house team for writers and artists needing to stow away notebooks, it has five pockets, including one internal option. It is available in navy and olive.

Price: €250
Colour: Navy or olive
Material: 100 per cent cotton
Made in: Portugal

Correspondent bag by L/Uniform x Monocle

Born from a conversation between Tyler Brûlé and L/Uniform’s founder, Jeanne Signoles, this compact version of the No 54 Large Bag has extra pockets. It is handmade in Portugal from Italian cotton-linen canvas and full-grain calfskin leather.

Price: €1400
Colour: Ecru
Material: Cotton and linen
Made in: Portugal

Flight bag jumbo by Beams Plus x Monocle

This jumbo version of our flight bag is inspired by airline carry-ons from the 1960s and 1970s. Sewn by hand in Tokyo, it is made from Japanese nylon with PVC coating. The double-layered front pocket is exclusive to Monocle customers.

Price: €250
Colour: Navy
Material: 100 per cent nylon
Made in: Japan

Tyrolean leather shoes by Tep_P x Monocle

Handmade in Tokyo, these shoes from Tep_P are a laidback answer to the loafer. The collaboration features some exclusive alterations, including leather in the black pair. The shoes have a lightweight Vibram sole and no extra interior linings, for a natural feel.

Price: €350
Colour: Black
Material: 100 per cent leather
Made in: Japan

Your autumn style edit: weather-proof picks and smart layers

Stylist: Kyoko Tamoto
Hair & makeup: Hiroshi Matsushita
Model: Frederico Takahashi

How locals saved and reinvented a modernist Junzo Sakakura building

Walk below the “White Phoenix” castle of Iga-Ueno and history is never far away. There are rows of old townhouses and shops selling traditional ceramics, while the Iga-ryu school of ninjas and 17th-century poet Matsuo Basho are widely celebrated. This summer, however, it’s an icon from a more recent era that’s renewing interest in this part of western Mie prefecture.

Built on a gentle slope by the castle, the former Ueno Municipal Office was designed by Junzo Sakakura, one of Japan’s finest modernists, whose impact on life in the postwar era extended to numerous civic projects in regional Japan. Completed in 1964, the low-rise building merges with the landscape, welcoming Iga’s citizens rather than looking down on them. It has long been a beloved architectural icon. When it faced the prospect of demolition in 2008, a local movement led by former mayor Sakae Okamoto ensured its preservation. It was designated as a cultural property in 2019, laying the foundations for the creation of a destination for local residents and visitors alike.

Working closely with the local government, Iga-based Funatani Holdings developed plans for Sakakura Base, a culture complex with a hotel, an Iga-brand shop and a public library. The first phase of the project includes Hakusen, a 19-key hotel on the second floor. Its design was led by Yohei Takano and Sachiko Morita of Tokyo-based studio Maru Architecture, which also oversaw the building’s renewal and the design of the library.

“Junzo Sakakura was one of Japan’s greatest architects, so there was a bit of pressure,” says Takano. “The building felt like Sakakura’s at first but, over time, the boundaries between his work and ours became less clear. Our aim was to seamlessly connect the old and the new.” Yet the architects quickly found out that bringing a 60-year-old heritage-listed building into the present era was not without its challenges. Sakakura’s largely passive design – the building originally had no air-conditioning – had to be updated, leading to the creation of spaces that transition from calm interiors to the external surroundings.

“Sakakura really valued circulation, so he created details that catch your gaze as you move through the building,” says Morita, pointing out the variations in grain on the wood-pressed concrete pillars. “Even the same materials are given different textures in different places, drawing you in deeper and deeper.”

From the Hakusen Suite, the former mayor’s office, all the way around the perimeter, the guest rooms feature ash-wood veneer, sakan plasterwork and shoji panels in harmony with restored heritage materials. A mix of new and vintage furniture from Tendo Mokko, designed by Sakakura Associates architects and engineers, adds further character, alongside art curated by Shunsuke Kato of Shigaraki-based Nota&design. “This building has survived due to the strength of its architecture, so I was intent on finding works with a quality that will remain powerful a century from now,” says Kato. Three young artists with roots in Mie prefecture were selected: Masaomi Yasunaga, whose ceramic glaze mosaic takes pride of place at the reception; Lena Fujimoto, who lends her abstract paintings; and Taro Tsubota, whose wood-fired vessels and objects appear throughout the rooms.

The local flavour extends to Iga-made products, including Nagatani-en ceramics, amenities from 101-year-old Kimura Soap and room numbers designed by UMA/Design Farm. There’s also ample reading material: architecture, modernism and art titles can be found in every room. Once the ground-floor library opens next spring, plans are under way for hotel guests to become honorary members, able to borrow titles to enjoy in the comfort of their room or in the reading lounges.

“The hotel’s concept is a ship on a lake of words. I want people to arrive here at this dock and not worry about time, enjoying their stay before embarking on a new voyage,” says Iga local Takashi Wada, who joined the hotel as hotelier. “This building has always been here, watching over us. I hope that, just like me, the children walking past on their way to school will want to work here when they grow up.”

How a remote Swedish vineyard became a must-visit winery, hotel and spa

Daniel Carlsson was right to act on his dream of creating something unexpected in the middle of the countryside in southwest Sweden. With his siblings Linda and Mattias, he has transformed his grandparents’ organic milk farm (which was among the first in the country) into Ästad Vingård, a spa and hotel with an organically certified vineyard and a Michelin-starred restaurant called Äng. “This is the kind of place that I love to visit when I’m travelling,” Daniel tells Monocle. “I wanted to build that right here in my family home.”

The Carlssons tapped Copenhagen’s Norm Architects to design their hotel, Sjöparken, and Äng restaurant, both of which are understatedly Scandinavian delights. They planted their first grapes in 2011 and only reaped a good harvest seven years later. “We live in hectic times,” says Daniel. “It felt special to work on something that can’t be rushed.”

Two microclimates – one inland, one coastal – make for a unique wine matured in steel or French oak barrels and aged according to a traditional method involving a second fermentation once bottled. “Sweden can become a wine-producing country,” says Daniel. “We don’t have to be small-scale any longer. We’re making a great wine that can compete on the world market.”

The commute: Join José Miguel de Abreu biking from Porto to the central Ribiera district

In the first of a new series joining people we admire on their way to work, we hitch a ride with Portuguese entrepreneur José Miguel de Abreu, co-founder of menswear brand La Paz. As a keen surfer and photographer, De Abreu has an eye for the sublime.

He uses his short scoot east from his home in the riverside neighbourhood of Lordelo do Ouro to the central Ribeira district to study the light on the water, stop at a portside café to see what the locals are wearing and unplug a little before the day ahead.

Ah, you’ve got a helmet on, so perhaps you’re not walking to work. Tell us about your vehicle of choice.
It’s a BMW c400 GT motorcycle that I’ve had for the past two years. It’s on the bigger side so perfect for riding in the city.

A soundtrack? Are there any headphones under those flaps?
That’s not possible, I’m afraid. I’ve got to listen out for other vehicles. An accident in a car could leave you with a few scratches. On a motorbike, you’re a little more exposed.

And for the day, what reading material do you bring?
I’ll always pack a book as well as my computer. I’m reading A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler and The Way of the World by Swiss photographer Nicolas Bouvier. I also pack Público, a Portuguese daily, to keep me informed.

Best time to beat the traffic?
In Porto it’s about 08.30. There’s lots of investment in transport for commuters and there are a few metro lines under construction. But right now, there’s a lot of congestion because often only one lane on most roads is available. So it gets busy in the morning; a journey of 4km could take 40 minutes. People in cars get stuck – that’s why I ride.

Any pit-stops?
Most mornings there’s an espresso at Paparoca da Foz, a café in the port where the Douro River meets the ocean. I soak in the atmosphere and see the locals; it’s very different to the city centre.

And, since you’re in the business, let’s talk outfits. No leathers?
In winter, I’ll wear a heavier jacket, which helps with safety. Usually it’s just the clothes I’m wearing that day.

How is Porto’s road etiquette?
Drivers here don’t beep their horns too much. They’re pretty polite and respectful. Even so, if you’re on a motorbike like me, you have to keep your eyes peeled.

Some people see the commute as a means to an end but you seem to enjoy it. What’s the best bit?
The view. There’s water everywhere, with bridges taking me over the river and the ocean on the horizon. In the evening the light on the waves is beautiful.

Kone: The Finnish lift company quietly reshaping cities

“We talk about thinking outside the shaft,” says Jussi Herlin, vice-chair of Finnish lift-engineering firm Kone’s board of directors. He is the fifth genaration of his family to help steer the company; his father, Antti Herlin, is chairman of the board and former long-time CEO. “We build lifts and maintain them – but our real job is designing how people move through built environments,” says Jussi.

Founded in Helsinki in 1910, Kone now operates in almost 70 countries and employs more than 60,000 staff. Its products move a staggering two billion people every day. When Monocle visits Kone’s high-rise headquarters in Espoo to meet 41-year-old Herlin (pictured), we’re told that he is waiting for us on one of the building’s upper floors. So we take one of the company’s signature lifts, which glides silently up 16 storeys and politely pings before its doors slide open. Beyond the HQ’s plate-glass windows are sweeping views of the Baltic Sea and Finland’s coastal archipelago.

Herlin’s great-great-grandfather bought Kone more than 100 years ago, when it was just getting started in the business of lifts. The Herlin family, one of northern Europe’s wealthiest dynasties, has been associated with Kone ever since, both for being its biggest backer and for running the firm for most of its history. The company, which has an annual turnover of about €11bn, manufactures and services lifts, escalators and automatic doors, and prides itself on being a Finnish export. It has continued to service Ukraine’s lifts in metro stations, hospitals and residential buildings throughout the country’s war with Russia. “Functioning lifts are essential infrastructure, especially when cities are under stress,” says Herlin.

The increasing digitisation of how buildings operate is Kone’s next frontier and the firm is hoping to rise to the challenge. Its elevators now connect to the cloud and communicate in real-time with building systems, maintenance teams and, increasingly, with users themselves, to help anticipate maintenance needs, shorten wait times or even turn on the air-conditioning in your office as you enter the building. Sensors monitor everything from vibration and temperature to acceleration and door cycles to ensure smooth travel and to optimise energy use.

These inputs help predict breakdowns and optimise performance. “We can see how a lift behaves over time,” says Jussi. “We use AI to predict issues before they happen and make maintenance proactive. This improves reliability and reduces downtime.” Kone has also opened up its systems to third-party developers, allowing smartphones, delivery robots and more to interact with its lifts.

Elevators are often described as the world’s safest form of public transport. Kone’s business has hinged on providing reliability at scale. Its systems operate in the background of daily life, helping billions of people to get around without thinking twice. But the company’s ambition goes beyond just being dependable behind the scenes. “Our one clear aim is to shape the future of cities,” says Antti Herlin. “We know cities and have enabled them to grow taller, more energy efficient and more accessible for more than a century.”

According to UN projections, by 2050 about two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban environments. Kone sees plenty of opportunity in helping this mass of people to go about their lives smoothly. One of the firm’s innovative products is Office Flow, which offers touch-free access through turnstiles, mobile elevator calls (allowing users to summon and control lifts using a smartphone app) and real-time wayfinding. Meanwhile, Kone’s flagship DX Class elevators feature built-in connectivity, through which third parties can connect its elevators to the likes of service robots, accessibility guidance systems and other advanced people flow solutions. In mass transit, Kone is piloting digital modelling software in metro stations in Helsinki, blending sensor data from escalators and corridors to model crowd patterns. This works to prevent bottlenecks and improve commuter experience at peak hours. “AI is revolutionising urban infrastructure and services,” says Antti Herlin. “We are constantly looking at how we can add technology to what we sell and our ways of working.”

In addition to Kone’s 3,000-plus patents, Herlin points to milestones such as the development of the “machine room-less” elevator in 1996 as evidence of Kone’s ability to lead, not just follow.. One of its latest innovations is Ultrarope, a carbon-fibre hoisting solution that reduces the weight of elevators and allows them to travel further using less power. Another example is energy recovery, in which lifts are equipped with regenerative drive technology, which can recover up to 40 per cent of power used and put it back into the building’s electrical grid.

As cities become more vertical and digital, the way that people move within them is becoming increasingly important – and complex. Kone’s answer is to build tools that are elegant, intuitive and all but invisible. Its products seek to make movement feel seamless, whether you’re stepping into a metro station, navigating an airport or returning home at the end of the day. “That we move two billion people per day is not just an abstract statistic,” says Jussi. “It’s a human reality. And our job is to make every one of those journeys feel effortless.”

The unmissable films, exhibitions, books and music for September 2025

Art

Prism of the Real: Making Art in Japan 1989-2010
The National Art Center, Tokyo
If 1980s Japan looked like a vision of the future from afar, the view was markedly different on the ground. While the technology boom brought financial stability, globalisation shook things up creatively. Here, works by more than 50 artists and collectives wrestle with these contradictions.
‘Prism of the Real’ runs from 3 September to 8 December

Kerry James Marshall: The Histories
Royal Academy of Arts, London
US artist Kerry James Marshall’s striking, large-scale paintings co-opt the visual language of white Europeans such as Seurat and Manet to tell the stories of black history. This exhibition of 11 bodies of works – more than 70 pieces in total, including eight new and unseen depictions of the African slave trade – is his largest showing in Europe to date.
‘The Histories’ runs from 20 September to 18 January 2026

Film

The Long Walk
Francis Lawrence
Having directed four of the five films in The Hunger Games series, Francis Lawrence takes on another dystopia. In this Stephen King adaptation starring Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson and Ben Wang, 100 boys must walk until only one remains. If they stop or slow down, they will be executed. It’s surprising that this wretched tale – one of King’s first novels – took so long to reach the screen but it arrives in an era when narratives about human cruelty feel more plausible than ever.
‘The Long Walk’ is released on 12 September

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
Rob Reiner
Legacy sequels often suffer from a hollow self-mythology that drowns out the actual joke but the first Spinal Tap already introduced us to a band convinced of its own hype. The original cast returns to play a group that’s well past its prime. Cameos from real rock royalty blur the mockumentary line but the film understands that ridicule and reverence have always lived side by side in rock’n’roll.
‘Spinal Tap II’ is released on 12 September

The Glassworker
Usman Riaz
Pakistan’s first hand-drawn animated feature is an exquisitely crafted film that balances the intimate and the political. An artisan’s son and a colonel’s daughter meet across a widening gulf of class and ideology that threatens to tear both their relationship and their country apart. The film wears its Studio Ghibli influence on it sleeve but its message feels distinctly relevant.
‘The Glassworker’ is released on 19 September

Books

The Quiet Ear
Raymond Antrobus
Poet Raymond Antrobus long struggled with shame and anger while trying to find a language to fully express his experience of deafness. In The Quiet Ear, he intertwines his story with those of deaf cultural figures whom he discovered in adulthood. Part memoir and part cultural history, it is at times a difficult read but it’s an essential work that will hopefully help to shift attitudes to deafness.
‘The Quiet Ear’ is published on 28 August

Amity
Nathan Harris
Slavery in the US might have officially ended following the civil war but Nathan Harris’s second novel, set in the late 1860s, offers a glimpse of a society that still wanted black Americans in bondage. Harris writes with a sparseness and beauty that mirror the landscape of Mexico, where servant Coleman searches for his sister June, who has run away from their old master, Mr Harper, in pursuit of a better life.
‘Amity’ is published on 2 September

Cursed Daughters
Oyinkan Braithwaite
The irresistibly titled My Sister, the Serial Killer launched Nigerian-British novelist Oyinkan Braithwaite onto the literary scene in 2019. Her follow-up, Cursed Daughters, was worth the long wait. It tells the story of Eniiyi, the latest member of her family living under a curse that condemns daughters to heartbreak. When she falls in love, it’s time for her to finally stop ignoring the gloomy legend.
‘Cursed Daughters’ is published on 25 September

TV

The Girlfriend
Amazon Prime Video
In The Girlfriend, Robin Wright plays a mother with an unhealthy interest in her son’s romantic life. When a beautiful young woman (House of the Dragon’s Olivia Cooke) arrives on the scene to steal her son’s heart and potentially ruin his life, she becomes jealous and suspicious. There’s plenty of salacious double-crossing in this sleazy, erotic thriller with deplorable yet sexy characters.
‘The Girlfriend’ is released on 10 September

Black Rabbit
Netflix
This New York-set show stars Jude Law as a restaurateur and owner of the eponymous Black Rabbit, who finds his meticulously organised life turned upside down when his chaotic brother (Jason Bateman) reappears, wanting to be let back into the family business. After financial difficulties come knocking, the siblings are forced to consort with the criminal underworld, with resentment and bitterness building with every passing hour.
‘Black Rabbit’ is released on 18 September

Task
Sky/HBO
Still thinking about the moody and captivating 2021 hit Mare of Easttown? Its creator, Brad Ingelsby, is back with another procedural thriller, this time set in Philadelphia. It stars Mark Ruffalo as an FBI agent and former priest who is tracking a thief whose motives are far more complicated than greed alone. Tragedy hangs in the air as the story unfolds, blurring the line between right and wrong.
‘Task’ is released in September

Photography

New Photography 2025: Lines of Belonging
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Marking 40 years since the first New Photography exhibition was held at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, this anniversary edition features artists from four cities, including Johannesburg and New Orleans. The images from Mexico City could prove to be the most arresting, thanks to Sandra Blow’s unflinching portrayals of the LGBTQ+ community and Tania Franco Klein’s cinematic vignettes. And make sure that you don’t miss Nepalese visual artist and curator Sheelasha Rajbhandari’s artfully embroidered scenes from Kathmandu.
‘New Photography 2025’ runs from 14 September to 17 January 2026

Music

Myd
Mydnight
French DJ, producer and singer Myd has brought together a sparkling cast of collaborators for this dancefloor-ready album. Channel Tres shines on “All That Glitters Is Not Gold”, while Calcutta features on the gentler “9am”. “Song for You” is an Ibiza anthem in the making. Mydnight was informed by Myd’s recent globetrotting and we’re sure that the samba beats on “So High” were inspired by a long night out somewhere sweaty.
‘Mydnight’ is released on 29 August

Saint Etienne
International
Sad news for fans of English trio Saint Etienne: the group’s 13th album will be its last. Unlike The Night, the band’s previous release, International is a poppy electronic album produced by synth-lover Tim Powell (formerly of Xenomania). The record is full of soaring highs and emotive lows with lively early-1990s sounds on tracks such as “Brand New Me” and a tearjerker of a closer, “Last Time”.
‘International’ is released on 5 September

Parcels
Loved
Berlin-based Australian band Parcels is back with another happy-go-lucky album full of scintillating grooves. The euphoric “Yougotmefeeling” is an eminently danceable delight. The languid “Summerinlove” (yes, all the tracks are written this way) is another highlight. Parcel’s sunny sounds have attracted many fans, who will be flocking to see them on tour in Europe and North America this autumn.
‘Loved’ is released on 12 September

Images:
Netflix, Peter Kramer/HBO, Christopher Raphael/Prime, Murray Close/Lionsgate, Kerry James Marshall/ Patrick L Pyszka, Tania Franco Klein