Issues

12 sandwich recipes that’ll have you rethinking the humble snack

1.

Recipe
Smoked salmon and celeriac remoulade on rye
Serves 2 

Ingredients
For the remoulade
100g celeriac
1 small carrot
3 tbsps mayonnaise
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsps crème fraîche
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp capers, finely chopped
Large pinch of sugar
5g flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
Salt and ground black pepper

3 tbsps vegetable oil
1 shallot, thinly sliced
A large pinch of salt 
2 slices of rye bread
Butter
4 slices of smoked salmon 

Method
1. Shred the celeriac and carrot with a vegetable slicer. Mix with the rest of the remoulade ingredients and set aside.
2. Pour the oil into a small frying pan over medium heat. Once the oil is warm, add the shallots. Cook until golden. Then place the fried shallots on kitchen paper and sprinkle with salt.
3. Toast the rye bread, then butter it. Arrange the salmon on top and spoon over the remoulade. Finish with fried shallots.

2.

Recipe
Jambon beurre with mustard and cornichons
Serves 2 

Ingredients
25g cornichons, finely chopped
1 small shallot, finely chopped 
2 tsps Dijon mustard
30g salted butter, thinly sliced
2 handfuls of rocket, washed, refreshed in cold water and dried in a salad spinner
4 slices (160g) good quality French ham
2 small baguettes 

Method
1. Mix the chopped cornichons and shallots with mustard in a small bowl.
2. Open the baguette with a knife horizontally and spread with the mustard mixture. Place the thin slices of cold butter inside.
3. Arrange the rocket and ham on top and serve.

3.

Recipe
Schnitzel bun with cucumber, sour cream and dill dressing
Serves 2

Ingredients
For the salad
½ cucumber, thinly sliced
70g sour cream
5g dill, finely chopped
¼ tsp sea salt
230g pork filets, sliced

For the breadcrumbs
50g Panko breadcrumbs
20g Parmesan cheese, cut into small chunks
2 tbsps plain flour
2 medium eggs, beaten 
100ml sunflower oil
100g clarified butter
2 large white bread rolls
Olive oil
2 lemon wedges

Method:
1. Mix all of the salad ingredients together.
2. Place the pork filets between sheets of baking parchment and pound with a meat tenderiser, until 5mm thick. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Blend the cheese and the breadcrumbs in a food processor to form a fine crumb.
4. Fill one tray with flour, one with the beaten eggs, one with breadcrumbs and leave one empty. Gradually heat the oil and clarified butter to 170C.
5. Dust the pork loins with flour, dip into the beaten eggs and coat with breadcrumbs, then lay them on the fourth tray.
6. When the oil is hot, add the schnitzel and fry for two to four minutes each side, until pale golden colour. Once cooked, remove and place on a wire rack.
7. Slice the rolls horizontally, toast and brush with olive oil. Add the schnitzel, a squeeze of lemon juice and the cucumber salad.

4.

Recipe
Smoked eel, horseradish and pickled onion sandwich
Serves 2

Ingredients
For the pickled onions
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
75ml red wine vinegar
15g sugar
2 tbsps water
A large pinch salt

For the horseradish
2 tbsps sour cream
½ tbsp olive oil
20g finely grated horseradish
½ tbsp crème fraîche
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
Pinch of salt
Freshly ground black pepper
5g chives, finely chopped
¼ cucumber, thinly sliced
2-4 filets of smoked eel
4 slices of sourdough bread
Butter

Method
1. Mix the vinegar, sugar and salt together in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer, stirring continuously, until the sugar and salt dissolves. Pour over the sliced onion and set aside.
2. Mix all the horseradish sauce ingredients until combined.
3. Toast the bread and spread it with butter.
4. Arrange the cucumber across two of the slices of bread, top with the smoked eel and spoon over the sauce. Finish with the pickled onions. Close the sandwich with the other slice of bread and serve.

5.

Recipe
Aubergine, egg, hummus sabich
Serves 2 

Ingredients
For an amba-style sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely grated
100g ripe mango, diced
¼ teaspoon sumac
Juice of 1 lime
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
½ lime, roughly chopped
1½ tbsp water
A large pinch of salt 

For the tahini
2½ tbsps tahini
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
½ sea salt
1 tbsp water

For the salad
6 cherry tomatoes, diced
1 small cucumber, diced
10g flat leaf parsley
2 tsps olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
2 large pinches of sumac
3 tbsps olive oil
2 medium eggs
2 spoonfuls of hummus
1 aubergine, sliced into 1 cm thick rounds
2 pitta breads
Green chilli pickles to serve

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Put the amba sauce ingredients into a food processor and blitz until smooth. 
3. For the tahini sauce, mix the ingredients together until smooth.
4. Toss the salad ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
5. Mix 3 tbsps of olive oil, the aubergine slices, salt and pepper in a bowl. Arrange on a tray and bake for 10 minutes on each side.
6. Boil the eggs for 7 minutes. Then peel and cut in half.
7. Spoon the salad, hummus, aubergines and eggs into a warm pitta and drizzle over the tahini and amba sauce.

6.

Recipe
Steak sandwich with chimichurri sauce
Serves 2 

Ingredients
2 x 200g sirloin steaks, season with salt and pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsps butter

For the chimichurri sauce
10g flat leaf parsley, finely chopped 
1 medium red chilli, finely chopped
5 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
The zest and 1 tbsp juice from an unwaxed lemon
1 clove of garlic, finely grated
1 tsp sugar
½ tsp sea salt
Ground black pepper
2 ciabatta rolls
2 handfuls of rocket

Method
1. Remove the steak from the fridge 30 minutes before the cooking time to bring it back up to room temperature.
2. Heat the olive oil in a very hot pan and cook the steak for 2 minutes on each side. For the last 30 seconds, add the butter and baste the steak. Remove from the pan and place on a chopping board, cover with a piece of foil briefly and let it rest for 5 minutes.
3. While the steak is resting, mix the chimichurri ingredients together, this could be done in a food processor.
4. Slice the rolls in half horizontally and toast in the frying pan that you used to cook the steak.
5. Place the rocket on the bread, slice the steak and arrange it on top of the rocket. If you have any cooking juices on the chopping board, add to the chimichurri sauce. Spoon the sauce over the steak and top with the other half of the bread. Serve immediately.

7.

Recipe
Spiced cauliflower kathi roll with coriander and tamarind chutney
Serves 2 

Ingredients
For the spiced cauliflower
250g cauliflower, cut into small florets
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp ground coriander 
½ tsp ground cumin
2 garlic cloves, grated
2 tbsps olive oil 

For the coriander chutney
50g coriander leaves
1 green chilli, roughly chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
10g fresh ginger
1 tbsp tamarind sauce
½ tsp salt
2 lemon wedges
30g salted, roasted almonds, roughly chopped
2 rotis
2 tbsps yoghurt 

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Mix the cauliflower and the rest of the ingredients together on a tray. Roast for 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Put all the chutney ingredients in a small food processor and blend into a coarse paste.
4. Remove the cauliflower from the oven, squeeze the lemon juice over the top, add the chopped almonds and toss.
5. Warm the roti in the oven for 2 minutes. Then remove and place some cauliflower in the middle of each flatbread. Spoon over the chutney and yoghurt. Roll and place in the middle of a sheet of greaseproof paper and wrap it up to form a kathi roll. Slice the roll in half and serve.

8.

Recipe
Balik ekmek (Turkish mackerel sandwich)
Serves 2

Ingredients
2 tbsps olive oil
2 mackerel filets
2 ciabatta
1 gem lettuce, washed
2 pinches of pul biber (or Aleppo chilli flakes)

For the salad
½ cucumber, thinly sliced
6 cherry tomatoes
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 red chilli, sliced
½ carrot, coarsely grated
Small handful of mint leaves, chopped with a sharp knife (not crushed as this will cause discolouration)

For the dressing
2 tbsps olive oil, plus more to serve
2 tbsps pomegranate molasses
2 tbsps olive oil
2 tbsps fresh lemon juice
2 tsps sumac
½ clove garlic, finely grated
Salt and pepper

Method
1. Pour 1 tbsp of olive oil into a frying pan and pan fry the mackerel, skin side first over a medium heat. Cook each side for 2 minutes. Then set aside.
2. Preheat the grill. Cut the ciabatta in half horizontally and toast. Brush the cut side with olive oil.
3. Put all the dressing ingredients in a jar and shake. Toss the salad ingredients in a bowl and pour over the dressing.
4. Cover one half of the sliced bread with lettuce, then top with the fried mackerel filets. Spoon over the salad mixture and sprinkle with the pul biber.
5. Close the sandwich with the other half of the bread. Wrap in a sheet of greaseproof paper and cut in half.

9.

Recipe
Lobster roll with spicy Marie Rose sauce
Serves 2 

Ingredients
400g of cooked lobster
2 sticks of celery, cut into 1cm cubes
Butter
Gem lettuce
2 brioche rolls
Serve with crisps

For the Marie Rose sauce
2 tbsps mayonnaise
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp red wine vinegar
10 dashes of Tabasco
2 tsps creamed horseradish
¼ tsp Worcestershire sauce
The juice of ½ a lemon
3g chives
Sea salt and crushed black pepper

Method
1. Shell the cooked lobster and chop the meat into bite size pieces or buy it pre-cooked.
2. Mix all the Marie Rose sauce ingredients together in a bowl and add the lobster meat and cubed celery.
3. Warm the brioche rolls under the grill, slice them open from the top (like a hotdog bun), and spread with butter. Fill generously with the lobster mixture. Add crisps to serve.

10.

Recipe
Bocadillo de calamares with aïoli
Serves 2

Ingredients
150g squid, cleaned and sliced into 1cm rings with tentacles cut into bite size pieces

For the aïoli
2 garlic cloves
1 organic egg yolk
1½ tbsp lemon juice
85ml mild olive oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsps chives, finely chopped
¼ tsp sea salt

For the squid fritters
45g self-raising flour
¼ tsp sea salt
300g cornstarch
75ml sparkling water, ice cold
Sunflower oil
Lettuce leaves, washed
2 lemon wedges

Method
1. Toast the garlic, skin on, in a dry pan, then peel.
2. Whisk the yolk and lemon juice with a stick blender. Add in the oil. Drop in the peeled garlic, mustard, chopped chives and mix. Season with salt.
3. Heat the oil in a deep pot.
4. Place the dry batter ingredients in a bowl and pour in the sparkling water. Whisk lightly. The consistency should resemble single cream.
5. Heat the oven and warm the baguette for a couple of minutes.
6. When the oil reaches 190C, dip the squid in the batter and deep fry for 2 to 3 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oil and place on a baking rack. Sprinkle with salt.
7. Slice the warmed baguette open and spread the aïoli inside. Arrange the lettuce and fried squid on top. Finish with a squeeze of lemon juice.

11.

Recipe
Chicken souvlaki
Serves 2 

Ingredients
400g skinless chicken thighs

For the marinade
120g Greek yogurt
1 tsp oregano
½ tsp sweet paprika
¼ tsp salt
1 ½  tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsps olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely grated 

For the tzatziki
100g Greek yogurt
½ cucumber
½ garlic, finely grated
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper 

For the salad
½ lemon
6 cherry tomatoes, quartered
¼ red onion, thinly sliced
Handful of mint leaves
A few shredded lettuce leaves
2 pitta breads or flat breads 

Method
1. Make the marinade and coat the chicken. Refrigerate for 2 hours or, ideally, overnight.
2. For the tzatziki, half the cucumber and remove its seeds. Finely grate the flesh and squeeze out any water. Mix with the rest of the tzatziki ingredients and season well.
3. Take the chicken from the fridge 30 minutes before cooking. Preheat the grill to 220C. Place a rack over a baking tray lined with foil.
4. Arrange the chicken on the rack and grill for four to five minutes on each side. The meat should be a little charred and the cooking juices should run clear.
5. Remove from the oven and squeeze lemon juice and sprinkle salt over the top.
6. Warm the pitta bread in the oven.
7. Fill the flatbread with tomato, red onion and lettuce, sliced chicken and tzatziki sauce.

12.

Recipe
Fruit sando
Serves 2 

Ingredients
4 medium slices of very soft white bread or thinly sliced Japanese shokupan
150ml double cream
2 tbsps caster sugar
16 hulled strawberries (also works with kiwis, grapes or a combination of both)

Method
1. Whip the cream with sugar until it forms soft peaks. Lay out the bread slices and spread half of the cream over the two of them.
2. Arrange the fruit diagonally, corner to corner, in an “x” shape. Cover it with the rest of the cream and top with the other slice of bread.
3. Wrap tightly with cling film and rest in the fridge for 30 to 60 minutes.
4. Using a very sharp, long knife, cut the sandwich, diagonally through the cling film. This will give you 4 small triangle sandwiches.
5. Arrange the sandwich cut side up and serve. 

The latest Portuguese farmstead villa offering much-needed escapism in the Algarve

The sun-kissed sandier fringes of the Algarve are a summer success story but the Portuguese region has peaceful patches too. The latest property to provide such sanctuary is Casas da Quinta de Cima, near the Spanish border in the town of Vila Nova de Cacela.

Set back from the sea within the confines of a 50-hectare farm, the country hotel was where owner José Maria Brion, a Portuguese actor, spent his summer holidays as a child. Today the estate, which has been in his family since 1925, is bearded with rugged citrus groves and trees growing avocado and carob. “It’s still a working farm so you’ll have fresh orange juice and homemade granola for breakfast,” says Brion as he takes Monocle on a tour of the grounds.

Opened in early 2024, the hotel is centred on a courtyard lined by whitewashed cottages that were once the living quarters of farmhands. With architect João Pedro Falcão de Campos, the aim was to preserve the original character of the buildings, which formed the core of a once important agricultural firm that produced cereals and other crops. “We wanted to share this experience of a forgotten Algarve, which most people don’t see today, one focused on the land, not the sea,” says Brion, squinting in the sun. “For us, it was important to keep things local, not only with the architecture but also the materials we used in the remodelling.” 

Nine guestrooms have ceilings lined with traditional strips of cane once commonly used for insulation, while bathrooms are adorned in a brownish marble known as Breccia Tavira, sourced from the area. Large suites feature an enclosed patio off the bedroom, with a private outdoor shower to wash away the sand from the beach, which is a few hundred metres away, past the property’s numerous lemon trees.

Those seeking privacy can opt to stay on the estate and sun themselves on loungers among blossoming flowers. To beat the heat, there’s a spartan stone pool, formerly the site where workers laundered their clothes. Close by is a circular threshing floor where grain was separated from chaff at harvest time. “Everything has been done to ensure that the original character of the site comes through so guests can envision how life was before,” says Brion.

Common areas such as the lobby are decorated with a mix of antique furniture procured from the homes of Brion’s parents and vintage shops (chairs next to the pool bar are mid-century finds previously used in Lisbon’s municipal offices). The reception has a table with stone countertop where workers in the 1950s would sort almonds. Inside a former warehouse, a breakfast room and lounge – complete with honesty bar, sofas and a billiards table – was erected.

The hotel offers two villas, each with a private pool and tastefully decorated interiors, aimed at families. Brion plans to renovate a further section of the estate’s buildings, including the stables, to double the number of guestrooms. “We haven’t included TVs in the rooms,” he says. “If it was up to me, I would make the phone service poor so that people could truly disconnect from their frenetic lives and enjoy the nature here.”

Talking trash: Community efforts and new technology that are keeping our cities clean

A healthy city is not so different from a healthy resident: it grows and adapts, does its best to look after itself and takes care of its hygiene. But at an urban scale, keeping rubbish, dirt and odours under control is a significant challenge. The UN estimates that the world’s cities produce more than 10 billion tonnes of waste a year, with little sign of slowing down.

Look at the big picture (after giving it a good wipe) and it’s clear that solving the problem requires our governments, private companies and residents to work together. Overwhelming as the challenge might sound, Monocle has sifted through the rubbish and found heaps of optimism about the future of our urban hygiene. In the following pages, we present the positive civic initiatives, smart technological innovations and upcycling companies that are keeping our cities clean.

1.
The River Dredgers
Rusken
Oslo

Things become frantic when a volunteer pulls an undetonated grenade out of the river. People scatter; our photographer drops his camera and calls the police. Soon, we hear that the bomb squad is getting involved. Thankfully, Rusken’s finds are rarely so explosive. As the picking crew’s 50 or so orange-clad members make their way up and down Oslo’s Akerselva river in boats or on foot along the banks, the usual suspects emerge: plastic containers, glass bottles, cigarette butts, pouches of snus tobacco, the occasional rusted road sign and the obligatory electric scooter. In about four hours, about 700kg of rubbish is hauled out of the 8km river that cuts through the capital, and which one volunteer describes to us as “the pulse of Oslo”.

The crew’s efforts to keep the river pulsing are appreciated. A soundtrack of applause and thank-yous from passers-by accompanies its work. “This city has been very lucky,” says Jenny Krohn, an Oslo resident for the past 35 years, whose official title is “Rusken general”. “We have been bringing people together to keep Oslo clean since 1976.”

Though Rusken (from the Norwegian word “rusk“, meaning “scrap”) is funded by the Oslo municipality, it operates more or less independently with little in terms of formal resources. Krohn has only two full-time employees, plus three hired seasonally. Still, the small platoon seems to have little trouble mobilising the occasional clean-up army. “The trick is to make yourself look bigger than you are,” says Krohn.

The secret to Rusken’s success is the fact that it taps into Norway’s dugnad tradition: literally meaning “help” or “support”, it refers to a custom of community-driven volunteering with strong connotations of civic duty. Doing your fair share of dugnad to contribute to the health of your community is a central part of Norwegian life. And it’s what allows Rusken’s team of three to do the work of a far bigger organisation. 

Later we learn that the police has checked the explosive and identified it as a relatively harmless grenade that releases white smoke. With calm restored, the cleaners continue undeterred. One officer tells us that he’ll return in the evening to fish here (though not for explosives). Thanks in part to Rusken’s work keeping the river clean, the once polluted Akerselva is now thriving with healthy salmon and trout.

The power of dugnad is on full display here. Alongside the volunteering ground troops with their bags and rubbish-pickers, Oslo’s Fjord Cleanup has brought dozens of small boats, which are deftly navigated down the river and used to haul bigger catches. Rusken is also collaborating with Kirkens Bymisjon (Church City Mission) to offer paid work for residents who are struggling with issues such as substance abuse and unemployment. 

By 14.00 the troops have dispersed. And there’s a feeling in the air that Oslo’s pulse is beating that bit stronger. 
rusken.no

Gomi Hiroi Samurai
Tokyo

You might think that Tokyo’s residents do a good job of keeping their city clean but actor Ikki Goto felt that they needed a reminder to take their litter home. So he teamed up with Keisuke Nakagome to become the Gomi Hiroi (“litter-picking”) Samurai, a double act that takes the message to the streets. Dressed in neo-traditional robes, with trilbies on their heads and baskets on their backs, the duo wield elongated tongs and perform a theatrical clean-up for passers-by. The show, which is sponsored by city businesses, entertains as well as informs. The pair pop up weekly around the area near their office in Ikebukuro and also recruit volunteers, and work with other organisations. In one performance, posted on social media, Goto sets out to fill 10 buckets with cigarette ends, plastic bottles and fast-food wrappers. The aim is to raise awareness along with standards. “We want to make people think twice before they drop their litter,” he says. 
gomihiroi-samurai.com

Public Hygiene Council
Singapore

Singapore’s global reputation for cleanliness demands constant vigilance: a stray piece of rubbish could upend it all. The Public Hygiene Council, a non-government group for promoting urban sanitation, has announced that its formerly quarterly “SG Clean Day” – when residents clear litter and sweep streets – will now occur every two months. The aim is to encourage civic mindedness and public awareness of what it takes to keep Singapore tidy. Not only do bank tellers and baristas pick up brooms, but janitors receive a much-needed day off too.
publichygienecouncil.sg

Mayor Eric Adams
New York

New York’s mayor, Eric Adams, came to office on a promise: “Fighting crime, fighting inequality, fighting rats.” The first two might still be works in progress but the city is getting on top of its rodent problem. In 2023 it appointed a dedicated “rat czar”. Initiatives include a side-loading garbage truck, designed in Italy, that will soon collect from new wheelie bins and put an end to bags of rubbish sitting kerbside, while Brooklyn-based Citibin is making enclosures where bins can be stored out of reach of furry residents. 
nyc.gov

2.
The Rubbish Collector
Villiger
Zug, Switzerland

All city dwellers know the feeling – the ugly sight of bins overflowing, holding your breath to avoid the smell on your commute and gritting your teeth at the daily grating of trucks struggling to keep up with the ceaseless flow. But one Swiss company might have found a simple solution to make the whole affair more bearable: to take it underground.

It started in founder Paul Villiger’s barn in the canton of Zug, where the self-taught inventor began welding metal pieces together to create new methods of condensing tins for easier recycling. From there, the ideas kept flowing. About five years after founding his eponymous company in 1991, Villiger’s first underground systems were installed in France and the Netherlands. “The initial idea was to limit noise and smells from waste collection in traditional containers,” says Michéle Villiger, who heads the international business. Today, it is a 400-strong family business with a revenue of €40m, exporting its innovative systems worldwide.

With its neat containers that have a minimal footprint and can hold anything from household waste to recyclables, Villiger can eliminate the need for foul-smelling, ugly bins at street level. The fact that these enclosed containers are below ground reduces noise and allows them to take more rubbish than standard bins. “The larger size also reduces the need for collection vehicles, which has a positive effect on noise levels, safety and the environment,” says business manager Michael Friederici. And instead of on specific bin-collection days, residents can throw out their waste at any time of the week.

Villiger’s customers are towns and property developers that benefit from compact waste-management solutions, reducing the need to allocate large spaces to rubbish collection that could otherwise be used for green spaces. The firm has further integrated itself into the waste-management value chain by developing a range of services, including special vehicles to empty containers in just a few minutes. Specific needs are different in every town but Michéle Villiger says that solutions can be adapted to anything from urban geographies to climate and social requirements. Now, from the quaint town of Oberrüti overlooking Lake Zug, Villiger and his team of engineers are already sketching out how the next generation of waste-management systems can make our cities even cleaner. 
villiger.com

Trombia
Helsinki

Finnish firm Trombia Technologies has taken street sweepers to the next level with the world’s first autonomous all-electric contraption, Trombia Free. The machine uses Lidar (light detection and ranging) and satellite data to map its environment and can then perform shifts day and night using only 10 per cent of the energy of a traditional street sweeper. And it’s quiet too.
trombia.com

Kärcher
Winnenden, Germany

Those of us who take pride in our patios might know Kärcher as the leading global manufacturer of power sprays since 1935. But the innovative family-run brand also puts its own cleaning techniques to good use when it comes to preserving the façades of historical monuments. Headquartered just outside Stuttgart, since 1980 Kärcher, alongside a team of art restorers, has been cleaning up more than 190 of our cities’ most recognisable monuments, from Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to the Vatican City’s colonnades. Even the limestone staircase in Paris’s Tuileries Garden has had a face-lift just in time for the city to host the Olympic Games, so it’s a good thing that the Kärcher team has experience of working under pressure.
kaercher.com

Laserflux
Willebroek, Belgium

Removing graffiti can be harmful to buildings that are made from softer stone and older structures too. To tackle this problem, Belgian company Laserflux has developed laser technology that heats up paint, rust and other surface grime, and evaporates it. The technique leaves the underlying material layer untouched because of its higher evaporation temperature. Unlike traditional methods such as sandblasting, the process is quiet and doesn’t cause dirt to fly everywhere, allowing cleaning works to occur without disturbing residents.
laserflux.com

3.
The Plastic Upcycler
Sungai Watch
Bali

In 2005, when Gary Bencheghib was nine years old, he and his family moved from Paris to Bali. The Indonesian island has been his home ever since. As Bencheghib grew up, Bali’s tourism industry boomed and he saw the pollution and environmental damage that accompanied its rapid development. He started taking part in beach clean-ups as a teenager, clearing the mounds of plastic that lined the shore after rainstorms. In 2020, Bencheghib and his siblings established Sungai Watch. What began as a small volunteer effort based on a simple innovation – installing floating barriers to stem the flow of rubbish from Bali’s rivers into the sea – has grown into a global charity with 140 full-time staff and sponsors including WWF and Marriott Indonesia. Sungai Watch runs education programmes in schools and works with village leaders and government officials to tackle Bali’s rubbish problem.

Sungai Watch’s most impressive achievement is perhaps the transformation of the waterways that criss-cross the tropical island. They were once so clogged with rubbish that it was often impossible to see the surface of the water through the blanket of debris. Now, Bali’s canals and rivers run clear, no longer an urban eyesore or health hazard.

As Sungai Watch’s operations expanded – it now has 280 barriers up and running – its stockpile of collected plastic grew too. “Our warehouses quickly filled up,” says Bencheghib. “In Indonesia there isn’t much recycling.” About 10 per cent of plastic waste in Indonesia – the world’s second-largest plastic polluter after China – is recycled. The rest lies in landfills or goes out to sea. Bali has very few recycling facilities.

This was the impetus for Sungai Design, the group’s newest venture, which upcycles waste – plastic bags in particular – and transforms it into furniture. Sungai Design’s first product, the Ombak chair, went on sale in March. US designer Michael Russek crafted the angular lounge chairs in black, blue and white, the original colours of the plastic bags that constitute them. The chairs are numbered, providing information on the locations where the bags were dredged from rivers. The texture and shade of every piece is unique. The Ombak chair costs $960 (€880). Its popularity is a testament to its beautiful design and consumers’ enthusiasm for supporting smart environmental solutions.

“We felt that we needed a product telling the story of where the plastic has been collected,” says Bencheghib. “Every chair comprises 28kg of plastic that would otherwise have gone into the ocean.” The chair has been selling fast in Indonesia and Sungai’s factory in Bali can barely keep up with demand. The first container of Ombaks was shipped to the US in June. Other products are in the works, including a stool. “We never knew that we’d be making furniture when we started cleaning up,” says Bencheghib. “We have been learning by doing. We’re really excited.”
sungai.watch; sungaidesign.com

Notpla
London

“Convenience doesn’t have to cost the world,” is the motto championed by sustainable start-up Notpla, reflecting its commitment to tackling plastic pollution with innovative seaweed-based packaging that can be composted and biodegraded like a piece of fruit. “To encourage wider adoption, we’re embedding ourselves in the food service, catering and hospitality worlds,” says Notpla’s Niall Russell. In the UK, as well as supplying takeaway delivery firm Just Eat, Notpla has partnered with the Compass Group to replace more than 75 million items of plastic across some 50 entertainment venues. “Through our UK partners we are making inroads across Europe and the US,” says Russell.
notpla.com

Redhouse Studio
Cleveland, USA

Architectural firm Redhouse Studio has joined forces with scientists at Nasa and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to tackle construction and demolition waste by harnessing the power of mushrooms. Its Biocycler programme involves setting fungi to work devouring and detoxifying anything from wooden floors to asphalt-based roof shingles. This process also creates new, carbon-neutral materials. “Our aim is to make large slabs from these,” says founder Chris Maurer. “They can be as strong as concrete, easy to erect, insulative and fire resistant, while mitigating landfill materials and toxins in the built environment.”
redhousearchitecture.org

Sparklo
Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi’s Sparklo is using a rewards system to change recycling habits. It’s a simple concept: fill cities with reverse-vending machines called Sparklomats into which users can feed bottles and cans to earn points to be redeemed as discounts in shops. “It all starts with human behaviour at the point of consumption,” says Sparklo’s CEO, Max Kaplevich. “With this approach, we are treating the root cause instead of just the symptom.” In little more than a year, the company has collected almost 30 million bottles and cans in more than 10 countries and become the Mena region’s largest clean-tech company, helped by partnerships with local governments and big names such as the Coca-Cola Company.
sparklo.com

Coasting it: Beer-mat designs that can build your brand

Summer in the city means enjoying more meals outdoors, so we set our correspondents a quick challenge over the past month: bring back the beer mats and coasters that catch their eye. At Monocle we’re sticklers for the way that a little canny design, a well-chosen hue or material might make the difference between creating something you see, savour and maybe even steal as a memento – and an item that blends into the background. Here are a few of our favourites.

How Thailand’s backpacker island is remaining authentic in the spotlight

For better or for worse, Alex Garland’s 1996 novel The Beach (and its 2000 film adaptation) pinned Koh Samui firmly on the backpacker’s map of Southeast Asia. Nearly 30 years on, Thailand’s second-largest island is preparing for another moment in pop culture’s spotlight that symbolises how it has matured into a destination known not only for its white sandy beaches but also its increasingly upmarket bars and hotels.

The main action in the third season of hit HBO series The White Lotus was filmed earlier this year at the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui. The fictional hotel guests who we see on-screen hint at the better-heeled travellers who now occupy the island’s smarter spots along the coastline. Even backpacker haven Chaweng Beach has transformed into a more appealing proposition with the arrival of upmarket hotel brands such as Sala and the newly opened Marasca.

Driving around the entire island takes about one hour, along a 55km main road. The east coast around Chaweng Beach is more developed than the west but it’s still hard to spot a building rising above four storeys (there’s also a 12-metre height restriction on structures close to the beach). “Samui has retained its tropical-island feel,” says Englishman Mark Harrison, hotel manager at Garrya Tongsai Bay, Koh Samui’s first luxury resort. Harrison has worked at Tongsai Bay for more than 20 years and, in that time, he saw the transformation of Thailand’s largest island, Phuket.

The country’s central government wants to turbocharge Koh Samui’s economy in a similar way. Headlines about cruise terminals and land bridges to the mainland are, however, nothing new. Extending the airport runway to allow larger planes to land is the most likely infrastructure project but even that proposal has yet to take off. Bangkok Airways owns Samui International Airport and operates almost every flight to and from the island. A small fleet of 144-seater Airbus A319s flies on the only direct international routes to Hong Kong and Singapore.

Monocle arrives from Bangkok on an ATR 72-600 turboprop with a fun tropical livery. Ticket prices are relatively high by Thai standards but residents get special rates and the hospitality industry is surprisingly sanguine about Bangkok Airways’ near-monopoly. At a time when tropical islands from Phuket to Bali are struggling with overtourism, Bangkok Airways could be Koh Samui’s best defence; a filter against runaway success that might upset the delicate balance that tourism here is striking.

Beach bar Coco Tam’s offers a breezy introduction to Koh Samui’s ever-evolving and increasingly sophisticated hospitality industry. Founder Tam Chotechurangkool started out in the northern beach town of Bophut with an ice-cream stall and two beanbags before graduating to cocktails and adding a coffee shop and restaurant. A new bar will be ready for high season in July and August. “I really want to expand,” Chotechurangkool tells Monocle as we sip fresh juice from young coconuts and gaze out at the Gulf of Thailand. Conscious of the competition, the 40-year-old Bangkok native shares his designs for a Bali-style beach club, which was put on hold by the coronavirus pandemic. “Samui needs another good beach club,” he says.

Coco Tam’s is among a small but growing number of bars and restaurants tempting visitors to venture outside of their secluded five-star villas and help the destination feel more connected and complete. Some of the best examples have been opened by newcomers. Australian Leandro Panza arrived in 2016 after quitting his job as executive chef at Sagra in Melbourne. “I was done with it,” says Panza at his seafood restaurant, Two Fishes, which has an ever-changing menu that reflects the catch of the day. Two Fishes recently moved into a purpose-built beachfront building a short drive from the original address in Fisherman’s Wharf. Version two has room for a pizza oven, a pastry station and a table for hand-rolling fresh pasta. There’s also a bar, where you can enjoy wine from the cellar.

Panza’s passion for his adopted home is shared by fellow Antipodean William Norbert-Munns. The Kiwi entrepreneur moved his family to Koh Samui in 2021 when the strains of operating more than 20 bars and employing 90 staff in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, prompted his doctor to prescribe him some fresh air and a year of restorative walks along the beach. “More people have come to visit us here in the past three years than in our entire 16-year stay in Cambodia,” he says, looking relaxed in his island uniform of shorts and T-shirt. Unable to sit idle for long, the 46-year-old opened House of Suzy in February. The cocktail bar caters to the residents of Lamai, a neighbourhood that’s popular with French expats (as well as yoga schools and Thai boxing gyms). “Samui is discreet and not flashy,” says Norbert-Munns, who chose Lamai for its international schools and hospitals. During Monocle’s visit, he gives us a peek at his ideas for a family home across the street. He surely won’t be the last to fall for Koh Samui’s tropical-island charms and affordable lifestyle. The White Lotus, when it airs in 2025, is sure to bring a new generation of travellers to Koh Samui but these explorers are more likely to have a bit of money in their back pockets than a rolled-up copy of The Beach.

Getting here
Bangkok Airways was the only airline flying into Koh Samui until May, when Scoot started daily flights from Singapore. International arrivals tend to connect via Bangkok and the short onward leg from either of the Thai capital’s two airports takes just over an hour. Tickets are considered expensive by many Thais, who either swerve Koh Samui or fly to Surat Thani International Airport and transfer via ferry. November is stormy and best avoided.

Read next: The Monocle City Guide to Bangkok, featuring the very best hotels, restaurants and retail spots in the Thai capital

Interview: How Edo López’s hospitality group grew from a single diner to a global phenomenon

Edo López is hooked on opening new ventures. “I get addicted to it, because it’s about creating something and each one is different,” he says, over the insistent rhythm of Japanese music playing in his sushi restaurant. “If it was just a case of ‘copy and paste’ then it would be so much easier.” It explains why López’s hospitality empire, the Edo Kobayashi Group, has expanded so rapidly. Starting with Rokai, a tiny Japanese diner in Mexico City in 2013, López now has ventures on three continents, comprising 30 Japanese-influenced restaurants and bars, mostly in Mexico City, plus a ryokan. He also has a hand in more hotspots in cities such as Madrid and Miami, as well as in Shibuya, in the heart of Tokyo. It’s no wonder some are saying that this restaurateur could be the next Nobu.

The name of his group, Kobayashi, comes from his mother’s side of the family. López’s grandparents fled to Tijuana from California in the 1940s at the height of the Second World War, a dark chapter in US history when citizens of Japanese origin came under the suspicion of the government and were put in internment camps. Imagining and opening restaurants, López tells Monocle, is his way of exploring his roots. We meet in Sushi Tatsugoro in the St Regis hotel in Mexico City, which has huge windows behind the counter with a view of the street’s purple-flowered jacaranda trees. Blowing and bright in the spring breeze, these trees were planted in the 1930s at the behest of Tatsugoro Matsumoto, a former gardener to the imperial palace in Tokyo. After emigrating to Mexico, he was hired by Pascual Ortiz Rubio, the president at the time, to give the capital’s main boulevard stateliness and colour. 

Mexico City has no shortage of izakayas and Japanese canteens; some add local spice into their rolls and robata. López doesn’t dabble too much in fusion. Instead, he explains, he wanted to share a pure experience of the cuisine and the “simpleness” of dining done well in Japan. It is about being fastidious with ingredients, seasoning and chefs but never fussy.

Behind a sliding door in Mexico City, Le Tachinomi Desu is a standing bar where regulars prop themselves up over crisp wine or Omurice that’s indulgently heavy on the truffle oil. Upstairs is Tokyo Music Bar, where the bartenders mix drinks and spin vinyl. López’s recent opening in Madrid is Mateo Honten, which he describes as a cocktail bar-meets-tavern. His best-loved places capture the easy hospitality of a true Japanese public house; somewhere to drop in and stay late. 

Though he started out as a chef, López doesn’t say much about the food. Instead, he steers the conversation to people and places that have inspired him, from the omakase masters he has met and, in some cases, brought onboard, to hunting down the best Japanese restaurant in Bogotá. Here he talks to Monocle about his journey so far and the future of the Edo Kobayashi Group.

You have had a hand in more than 30 restaurants. What inspired the first?
I’ve wanted to run restaurants all my life. With my first opening, Rokai, I wanted to bring purity to Japanese food in Mexico City. I began with just a bar, two tables and a small refrigerator for wine. That was it. At first it was hard but, luckily, the Japanese embassy was only two three blocks away; word spread.

How did you expand from there?
I opened a second place in Mexico City that served only ramen. The next eight restaurants came quickly: I did a joint venture in the States and then four restaurants followed over there. I have the new one in Madrid, and, with my business partners, I’ve done some hotels too. 

Has building these restaurants been a way to explore your family roots?
Exactly. I was born in Tijuana and always felt lost in translation. I was a junior Olympic swimmer when I was young; I spent a lot of time around Americans but never felt American. Then, in Tijuana, I wasn’t Mexican, either. I began to work in music and that took me around the world. In every country, I would seek out underground Japanese restaurants or go to the homes of Japanese families. When I opened my own restaurant, I wanted bring that “real” taste here in Mexico. To get it right, I used to smuggle fish into Mexico, carrying it back from Los Angeles in bags. I’d smuggle in wasabi too.

Have you found any connection between Mexican and Japanese food?
I don’t know much about Mexican food. I know what a tortilla is but not how to make one. It’s one of the hardest kitchens in the world. That said, I fell in love with the seasonal approach to food in Japan and that’s found in Mexican cooking too: there’s a season for every ingredient. 

Did your investors come in early?
My business partners didn’t come on until I had about 10 restaurants. I began with $50,000 of my own money. Whatever I saved, I put it back in. It was fun, you know, like playing cards – opening another one, another one, another one. At one point I said, “When am I going to fail?” And, of course, you need to fail once. 

What advice would you give yourself starting out?
It’s a business but when you have some love for it, it’s going to mess you up. You have to be a little bit of an asshole to have that on you.

Is your ambition to be the next Nobu?
No. I started my first restaurant when I was 32 and now I’m 45. I was a bit too late to the prom for that.

Yet you’re running restaurants on four continents. How do you manage?
You can have a big army but you must have generals you can trust.  

Is Mexico City a good place to test an idea?
You can see how many young chefs are working here now. They’re constantly building relationships outside Mexico. Then you have Tao [Group Hospitality], which has opened a Ling Ling here; Nobu is here. I’m proud when people from outside Mexico open here.

What’s next?
I have an exciting opportunity in Mexico City and some offers in Europe and the UAE. To do that, I would be looking back to my first restaurant.

Berluti goes for gold in tailoring for Team France at the 2024 Olympics

When LVMH announced its partnership with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, it was expected that the houses under its vast portfolio would get involved and add their famous luxury branding to the event. The announcements about Louis Vuitton designing trunks to transport the medals and torches, and jeweller Maison Chaumet designing the medals themselves, came as little surprise. But the choice of Berluti, one of the quieter labels in the lvmh portfolio, to dress Team France during the Olympic and Paralympic opening ceremonies was less expected, even among the Berluti team. “We’re one of the smaller [LVMH] maisons,” says Vanessa Le Goff, Berluti’s collection director. “Dior and Louis Vuitton are usually the big stars, so dressing the French athletes for the Olympic and Paralympic opening ceremonies offers a huge opportunity for us to be more visible.”

For this reason, Le Goff and the members of the atelier she leads in Paris didn’t think twice about taking on the responsibility, despite the challenges it presented: creating more than 1,500 outfits using some 8,000 metres of eco-certified fabrics and catering to each athlete’s body shape to ensure a perfect fit. “We worked from sizes 3XS to 6XL and designed shoes ranging from [European] sizes 35 to 56, which is very new for us,” says Le Goff. “That’s why, from the beginning of the process, we met with the athletes to understand their needs.”

Many of these conversations would go on to inform the final design of the opening ceremony’s uniforms: elegant midnight-blue suits with collars featuring the colours of the French flag, remixed in the house’s trademark patina. Female athletes will wear a sleeveless version of the tuxedo jacket and choose between trousers or a silk wraparound skirt. The looks are finished with Berluti’s signature woven Shadow sneakers in a similar navy hue, or the flexible Lorenzo leather loafers. “From the very beginning of the process, we considered every detail – for instance, we chose a wrap skirt so that it can be altered easily and didn’t use any pleating because it’s uncomfortable for athletes in wheelchairs,” says Le Goff. “And the sleeve length is adjustable to make it easier for athletes. We’re experts in this field and can adjust quickly.”

Knowing that the athletes could be standing in the sun for more than eight hours during the opening ceremony, Le Goff and her atelier’s number-one priority was to ensure Team France’s comfort. It’s why they chose breathable cotton-silk and wool fabrics with added stretch, and why they will spend the days in the lead-up to each ceremony making alterations to fit all 1,500 suits on every athlete individually. “We had to produce many of the pieces before knowing who would make it to the ceremony,” she says. The impeccably fit finished garments are a testament to the craft know-how of Berluti, one of the few houses in Paris still offering bespoke services for men’s shoes at its Rue Marbeuf atelier, as well as tailoring services at its Rue des Sèvres atelier on the Left Bank. “We want to show the house’s exceptional savoir-faire in ready-to-wear but also shoes, which is where the journey started,” adds Le Goff. 

That journey began back in 1895, when a young Alessandro Berluti moved from his native Italy to Paris to practise his trade as a shoemaker, starting with lace-up court shoes. His clients included Jean Cocteau, Marcello Mastroianni and Andy Warhol. In the past 15 years, under the leadership of Antoine Arnault (who now serves as chairman of Berluti while also performing a wider role within the LVMH group, with Jean-Marc Mansvelt taking over as ceo), the house began to offer a full look, including leather goods and ready-to-wear. Aside from the technical knowledge that went into constructing the garments, Le Goff also sought to ensure that the designs channelled the sense of elegance synonymous with French and, in particular, Parisian fashion – hence the focus on the deep Tricolore blue, tuxedo dressing and slim silhouettes typical of French-style suiting. 

“You have to combine elegance and comfort, while still looking French,” says Le Goff. It’s this concept of “chic à la Française”, she adds, that has been missing from recent Team France uniforms. “The French team wasn’t dressed by a fashion house in the past. You would look at the Italians dressed by Armani and the US team dressed by Ralph Lauren, and the French team said that they didn’t feel they looked as good.” At first, the French athletes accustomed to living in sportswear couldn’t imagine themselves in a sharp suit. But a few fittings with Le Goff’s team were enough to change their mind. “They now feel proud to be dressed by Berluti and it affects their overall mindset.”

As part of the process, Berluti also consulted with the Paris 2024 Organising Committee and the French National Olympic and Paralympic Sports Committees, as well as stylist and former Vogue France editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld. “It’s important to have an external point of view on the ceremony; it will be watched by billions of people,” says Le Goff. “Carine was a perfect match because she has a very French touch. We have to be proud to be French.” Le Goff hopes that, on the big day, the athletes feel so good in their new suits that they go on to “win a lot of gold medals for France”.

Berluti is coming out as a winner too. When the athletes of Team France walk along the Seine on 26 July for the Olympics’ opening ceremony – and on 28 August down the Champs-Élysées for that of the Paralympics –  sporting fans tuning in from across the globe will become more familiar with the brand’s name. “It’s a very niche, very special house – almost like a club,” says Le Goff with a smile. “When you enter our world you fall in love because it isn’t about fashion, it’s about the expertise of the maison: the patinated shoes, the bright leathers that you can’t find anywhere else. It has audacity. We of course hope that now more people will discover this world and come and visit us.”

Coast to clothes: Fashion labels that tailor to an island lifestyle

1.
Mirèio
France

Margaux Varnavidou has spent more than a decade working for luxury groups such as LVMH and living in busy cities including New York and Paris. Her husband, Paul-Henri Bayart, meanwhile, pursued a career in finance. Both were operating at the same lightning-fast pace but, in 2020, they pressed pause. During the coronavirus lockdowns, they began spending more time in the Mediterranean, between Bayart’s native Provence and Cyprus, where Varnavidou’s maternal family is from.

The sunshine, slower pace of life and proximity to the sea inspired the couple to get creative and embark on their first joint project, Mirèio – a fashion brand inspired by their mutual Mediterranean heritage and the region’s sunny, carefree spirit. “Despite our different backgrounds, we were both passionate about clothing first and the Mediterranean second,” says Varnavidou.

After nearly two years of researching, gathering inspiration from living by the sea and visiting flea markets, they debuted Mirèio with their now-signature Smock shirts. These laidback designs can be thrown over a swimsuit but also layered with a T-shirt for breezy island evenings. They’re made from a sturdy cotton fabric and feature charming Provençal prints, rendered more contemporary by their unisex, boxy silhouettes. “We love Provençal prints but everything in the market felt outdated – we wanted to rework these patterns into more modern, comfortable designs,” says Varnavidou. “The inspiration came from a traditional French sailor jacket that my husband’s grandmother used to have in her wardrobe. My husband used to wear a lot of [these jackets] too, so we created what we wanted to wear personally.” Some of the Smocks for women feature a playful, extra large sailor collar, while unisex styles feature a shorter, classic one.

The south of France was the central reference point for the couple as they were dreaming up the concept for Mirèio, the Provençal form of the name Mireille. “That’s the name of my husband’s grandmother and the title of a famous Frédéric Mistral poem about two lovers coming together, which resonated with us,” says Varnavidou, reminiscing of recent roadtrips that took them from Arles to St Tropez and Marseille. The fabrics for the collections are sourced from a manufacturer in Saint-Étienne-du-Grès that has been operating since the early 19th century and specialises in traditional printed textiles.

“The mission is to revive and celebrate the spirit of the Mediterranean but also its unique savoir-faire. Even if it’s expensive to produce here, we have to stay true to our ethos.”

Varnavidou’s Cypriot heritage – her family is from the town of Famagusta and now lives in Larnaca – and time spent on the island also had a role to play when it came to shaping the label. After all, there’s a shared language across the region, centred on joy, generosity and openness. “We are true children of the Mediterranean and love the entire region from east to west,” says Varnavidou. “The lifestyle touches every part of our lives, from the music we like to our children’s names. It’s not just a source of inspiration for the brand.”

It’s why last year, the couple also chose to open Taverna, a Cypriot restaurant, in Paris’s 11th arrondissement, serving all the dishes that Varnavidou enjoys when spending summers on the island. “The two projects feed each other,” she adds. “Taverna has a stronger Cypriot identity but we wear the Smocks in the restaurant and often use Mirèio as inspiration for the decor; it’s a full Mediterranean ecosystem.” Just like the couple gave the traditional sailor jackets a modern twist, they have also been working to add their own take on traditional, almost outdated, dishes that you would only be able to taste in a Cypriot grandmother’s kitchen, such as tava baked lamb.

Delicious island food, year-round sunshine and traditional cotton textiles have all helped to bring Mirèio to life and attract the interest of multi-brand boutiques, including Les Galeries Tropeziennes in St Tropez, Joyeuserie in Hong Kong and Bon in Tucson, Arizona, which now stock the label. But perhaps the most important inspiration the couple took away from living across the Mediterranean is the region’s flair for slow living – and working. They make a point not to design big seasonal collections and prefer to gradually introduce new pieces, or “surprises”, as they call them, every few months – the latest being an elegant sleeveless vest. “This isn’t a Parisian brand,” says Varnavidou, who is preparing trips to St Tropez, Cyprus and the Greek islands this summer. “We want to work at a slower pace – it’s a way to turn every piece into a signature. We always return to Cyprus as a family but also make sure that we explore other parts of the region to keep decoding the local lifestyle and inspiring our designs.”
mireio-paris.com

2.
Cecilia Sörensen
Mallorca

Finnish-born, Mallorca-based fashion designer Cecilia Sörensen’s clothes evoke a breeziness that’s synonymous with island life. “Being in Mallorca relaxes my designs,” she tells MONOCLE. “Everything is more laidback and slow here. If I were designing my collections in Finland, they would be more austere and stiff.” Loose dresses made from cotton muslin – ideal for throwing over a swimming suit – and kimono-inspired jackets cut to a boxy fit quickly became her signature styles. They’re romantic yet, at the same time, rooted in reality.

After learning the craft of tailoring in Helsinki, Sörensen decamped to Barcelona, where she launched her namesake brand in 2002. Six years ago she relocated to Mallorca with her husband and children, and settled in a village in the Tramuntana mountain range that makes up the northwest of the Balearic island. “Mallorca is special,” says Sörensen. “It almost hurts to travel because I miss the mountains when I’m not here.” At her workshop a 20-minute drive from her home in Alaró, Sörensen works with five seamstresses to produce every item in her seasonal collections, using cotton from a family-owned mill in Barcelona, as well as linen, jacquard and wool sourced from Spain and Italy.

“I cut the first pattern and make the prototype, then the seamstresses take it from there,” says Sörensen. There’s a lot of back-and-forth during this stage, with some designs dialled down and details, such as the internal pockets of waistcoats, tweaked to perfection.

Such attention to detail is aided by her commitment to keeping operations close to home and producing everything, from start to finish, on the island. “It would be less expensive to produce in Barcelona but it’s important to do it here.” The designer has even been known to hand-deliver orders, cycling directly from her atelier to the boutique in Palma that carries her label – another attempt to work responsibly and minimise her carbon footprint.

The label is stocked beyond Mallorca, in a number of independent boutiques in Austria, Germany, Belgium and the US. Buyers are drawn to Sörensen’s carefree designs, particularly her shirt dresses and oversized blouses, all rendered in earthy terracotta and yellow tones reminiscent of Mallorcan sunsets. Even the darker knitted vests and linen overshirts carry the island ease that Sörensen has come to embody. “I’ve lived in Spain on and off for 20 years now,” she adds. “I hope that my designs can offer something that feels grounded in reality and the local community, rather than the stereotypical white linen outfits for expats sipping white wine.”
ceciliasorensen.com

3.
Isole & Vulcani
Italy

Filicudi is a small island in the volcanic Aeolian chain north of Sicily, a pyramid of lava-made land where there are no cars, no streetlights and a mere 200 or so residents.

Swimwear brand Isole & Vulcani was born here in 1989, when Daniela Fadda put together her first designs using just cotton and knots. Today, Cristiano Fini, Fadda’s son, maintains the brand with his wife, Sara Goldschmied, its designer and daughter of jeans pioneer Adriano Goldschmied. Naturally, the couple met and married on Filicudi. “We’re obsessed,” says Fini. “The island is our favourite place.”

To respect the brand’s idyllic land of origin, Isole & Vulcani collections offer some of the most responsibly made swimwear on the market. Unlike most commercial swimwear, which is made from synthetic fibres such as Lycra, nylon and other plastics, the label uses certified Italian-made organic cotton-jersey and natural dyes, with minimal elastic. “It feels completely different on the skin to plastic materials,” says Fini.

The natural dyes also create a palette of soft, earthy hues – marsala, berry, olive – that mirror the landscapes of the island. Most summers, the duo also release printed and special-edition styles in collaboration with other design talents, such as Marta Ferri and even Adriano Goldschmied.

The brand has a flagship shop in Milan but its Filicudi boutique is still going strong. Manufacturing has come a long way since Fini’s mother ran the brand. Originally, the suits lacked stitching because sewing machines and electricity were hard to come by here. Though that’s no longer an issue today, Fini and Goldschmied still ensure that only the minimum of seams are stitched with a machine – all in the name of honouring Filicudi’s raw beauty.
isolevulcani.com

Zeus + Dione’s co-founders on reconnecting with Greek craft traditions

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that as you approach the Zeus + Dione eyewear laboratory in Kryoneri, a northern suburb of Athens, you spot goats, wild boar and the odd cow wandering around the pine-tree- dotted meadows. This is a brand born out of a desire to reconnect with craft traditions and nature, as well as forge partnerships with the best local manufacturers.

Twelve years since its inception, the business co-founded by Dimitra Kolotoura and Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotakis, Greece’s current first lady, has revived abandoned silk factories and employs artisans across the country to embroider kaftans or create woven fabrics on traditional wooden looms. Naturally, the brand has always thrived on summer wear, starting with a line of handmade leather sandals and expanding to breezy linen tailoring, as well as the most elegant beachwear and cotton shirting, which immediately brings the Mediterranean sun to mind. Kolotoura, an ambitious businesswoman with global expansion plans, has always been working on developing the brand’s collections and completing the Zeus + Dione look. 

Sunglasses were at the top of her agenda. The sun shines brightly year-round in Greece, so shades are as essential as your wallet or keys when you leave the house. “I always had a passion for sunglasses,” says Kolotoura. “Eight years ago, when I decided that we should expand into eyewear, everyone in the office looked at me as though I were crazy,” she says. Rigorous research and a commitment to the brand’s “Made in Greece” ethos led Kolotoura to the Nea Optiki, an Athenian artisanal factory specialising in high-end, handcrafted eyewear.

The facility opened in 2013, as a response to Greece’s economic crisis of the 2010s and the closure of eyewear factories in Italy. Consulting with industry friends from across the Mediterranean, Nea Optiki co-founder Costas Destounis decided to purchase the machinery from the abandoned factories across Italy and, alongside his brother and cousin, bring luxury eyewear manufacturing to Greece. Since then the trio has assembled a team of experts – employees are trained for several months before they can join the team on the factory floor – and begun crafting eyewear that has won a reputation for its handmade qualities and green credentials. The factory roof is covered with solar panels, harnessing the sun’s energy to power the machinery in what is the only carbon-neutral factory in Greece. 

“We began with 500 square metres of factory space,” says Destounis, speaking above the roaring sound of the workspace’s many tumbling machines. “Since then our production facility has tripled in size to 1,500 square metres to meet the demand we have for the eyewear that we produce.” Inside the vast hexagonal devices are thousands of perfectly polished wooden frames. They are buffed through four different types of tumbling equipment for 24 hours each time, before heading to the room next door for a final hand polish.

The partnership with Zeus + Dione, which includes both manufacturing and distribution of the label’s sunglasses collections, has played a key role in the factory’s expansion, allowing Destounis to employ and train even more staff. “We had an extremely good chemistry from the start,” says Destounis of his collaboration with Kolotoura. When the Apollo – their first frame design, combining acetate and metallic details – consistently sold out and prompted fast-fashion copies, he knew that he was onto a good thing. Now Zeus + Dione sunglasses are sold across Europe and the US, from department stores such as Harrods in London and Saks Fifth Avenue in New York to popular multi-brand boutiques in Athens, including Aesthet. 

“I proposed that Zeus + Dione design a full collection of sunglasses that we could then distribute across Europe,” he says, explaining how he works closely with Kolotoura on designing the frames. “It’s very rare to have the brand so involved in the design process but because Dimitra has such strict and high standards about the brand identity, all the design happens as a collaboration,” he adds, ordering a coffee for Kolotoura without needing to ask how she takes it.

Such close-knit partnerships are rare in the eyewear industry. Fashion labels tend to licence their sunglasses collections to the conglomerates that dominate the market and often become divorced from the creation process. Instead, Kolotoura and Destounis have fostered a different type of relationship – one which is now paying off. The pair’s designs are bolder and more individualistic than anything else in the market, helping the company to attract clients in search of distinctive styles who continue to bring new business to Nea Optiki. 

Collections range from colour-block frames and cat-eye styles in punchy hues to elegant, geometric forms such as the “Thalassa” (Greek for sea). It is a playful, pick-and-mix of eyewear to suit a variety of situations, whether you’re looking to make a statement for your next beach holiday or opting for a more discreet item for summers in the city, there’s something for everyone. 

Kolotoura admits she had a feeling the project would work out, as soon as she stepped inside Nea Optiki. “I went to a couple of small workshops and kept hearing, ‘No, it can’t be done,’ when I shared my ideas,” she says. “Kostas immediately liked the concept and expressed an interest, so I knew that I had found the right person.” 

The Zeus + Dione co-founder has come a long way since launching the brand in 2012, at a time when Greece was still grappling with financial upheaval, a global media slammed its politicians and speculation mounted about a “Grexit”. At that time, a project that celebrated the country and its traditions seemed laughable, yet Kolotoura and Grabowski-Mitsotakis (who has now exited the business) felt that it was time to get creative and shift public perception. “When the situation in Greece was bad and we were represented on the world stage in such negative light, it created an anger inside me,” says Kolotoura of her initial motivations. 

Even though they had never designed for a fashion label before, they had a vision that was equal parts romantic and forward-thinking, blending elements of ancient Greek and folkloric traditions with modern silhouettes. 

Working with an in-house design team, the pair’s initial collection of sandals quickly expanded to ready-to-wear pieces, which have now been joined with covetable collections of eyewear. All are overseen by Greek-Austrian designer Marios Schwab, who joined the brand as creative director in 2020. Kolotoura admits that Schwab had declined an earlier offer to join the company but her determination to redefine the image of Greek fashion paid off. 

“We were happy working women [before launching the business] but, at the same time, very passionate about our country,” says Kolotoura, as she takes Monocle on a tour around the facility, proudly admiring the team and the eye-catching frames they are working on. “Being able to support Greek crafts is the most satisfying part of the job.”
zeusndione.com

Tour accessories label Cinabre’s Paris guest apartments

In Paris’s Cité Bergère, a small and thoroughly charming pocket of the 9th arrondissement, is French brand Cinabre’s treasure trove of handmade silk ties, lapel pins, slippers and dressing gowns, showcased among vintage cocktail shakers, vinyl records, antique furniture and framed drawings. In the entrance is a marquee with blue and white stripes, and bright-red piping, which gives way to a reception area, complete with a concierge’s desk. At the back, a honey-hued, wood-panelled space houses drawers that are brimming with silk “Made in France” wonders. Look closer and you might see an embroidered image of French former footballer Zinedine Zidane on a tie.

Cinabre is opulent and a little irreverent, excessive without being overwhelming. It’s high and low. “If you’re a purveyor of bow ties and dressing gowns in the 21st century, you can’t take yourself too seriously,” Alexandre Chapellier, the French-Swedish founder of Cinabre, tells MONOCLE. “I like to modernise what are considered more serious, traditional accessories – and do it with panache.”

What began in 2011 as a passion project soon gained traction when one of the label’s first clients, Karl Lagerfeld, picked out Cinabre items at the now-shuttered multi-brand shop Colette. The label gained more visibility when it was added to the rails of Parisian department stores Le Bon Marché, Neiman Marcus in the US and Isetan in Japan. US musician and producer Pharrell Williams, who is currently the creative director of Louis Vuitton menswear, was then photographed wearing a textile Cinabre boutonniere fastened to his suit’s lapel.

Then the label reached another milestone: in 2016 it was given the opportunity to provide a young politician called Emmanuel Macron with a tie. After winning the presidential election the following year, Macron chose Cinabre as his official purveyor of silk ties. “I thought that it was a friend of mine pranking me when I got that call,” says Chapellier. “For a small, ‘Made in France’ artisanal brand such as mine, it’s the equivalent of a presidential warrant. We went to the Élysée Palace to present our products and since then we have worked with ministers and the French delegation to the UN.” Today the president’s bailiffs, or huissiers, can be seen in the background of the Élysée sporting Cinabre bow ties handmade from Swiss cotton.

“For our small atelier in the Loir-et-Cher department, two hours outside Paris in the French countryside, it’s a huge source of pride,” says Chapellier. “We have third-generation artisans passing down their savoir-faire and the craft of making a tie, which is an extremely technical skill.” Every tie is hand-cut and made using the highest-quality Italian fabric. “We want to bring back a sense of generosity in our products. What’s nice about working with old-school accessories such as bow ties is that people are often purchasing them for an occasion, such as a black-tie wedding or birthday. We’re specialists in items that are no longer obligatory. It’s a choice to wear a bow tie today.”

Last November, Chapellier opened Les Suites Cinabre: two guest apartments above the shop. The brand worked with Paris-based firm Necchi Architecture to create rooms that are a natural extension of the Cinabre brand, with plenty of character, colour and charm. There, visitors are offered the opportunity to embrace the lifestyle of a Cinabre gentleman, complete with velvet-lined slippers. “We wanted to shake up the straightforward retail model,” says Chapellier. “Today a shop needs to offer more than just a product. We wanted to go a level above.” In the coming months, the company will launch a range of perfumes candles, as well as a foray into ready-to-wear with a line of shirts, jackets and trousers. If it’s fit for a president…
cinabre-paris.com