Monocle on Design
Your essential guide to design, covering furniture, craft, and architecture. Discover fresh stories, rising talents, and the latest from top studios.
Latest Episodes
The future of home, car and office design
What will our homes, cars and offices look like in the future? Hear from Vitra about its reimagined workplace, the Club Office, and Audi on the latest in autonomous vehicles. Plus: an innovative housing plan designed for longevity in Canada.
Extra: Phoebe Philo
The British fashion designer is lauded for her ability to produce garments with the female gaze in mind. With news that Philo will launch an eponymous brand, fashion journalist Dana Thomas tells us what we could expect from the designer’s return to the industry.
Tokyo Olympics special
Join us in Tokyo for the Olympic Games. From medals and pictograms to uniforms and venues, we hear how designers have shaped the event. Plus: get the lowdown from gold medallist Connor Fields on Team USA’s Ralph Lauren-designed opening-ceremony uniform.
Extra: ‘Architecture: From Prehistory to Climate Emergency’
Architectural historian Barnabas Calder explains how our access to fire, farming and fossil fuels have shaped the building styles found across the globe.
Thomas Heatherwick
Thomas Heatherwick unveils a radical design for a new electric car and architect Jane Smith shares the key to designing embassies overseas. Plus: we visit the collectible art and design fair Nomad St Moritz.
Extra: Spectacular vision
Travis Elborough, author of ‘Through the Looking Glasses’, shares the curious history of sunglasses in the early 20th century.
London design and Florentine fashion
In London, we visit the city’s new Design District and browse the shelves of homeware and fashion shop Labour and Wait. Plus: we get the highlights from Florentine fashion trade show, Pitti Uomo.
Extra: Lawrence Steele
The creative director of Aspesi discusses the fashion label’s focus on quality materials and its ability to carve out its own path by avoiding fads.
‘Carve, Curve, Cane’
We stop by a new exhibition by design studio Bassamfellows in New York, then discuss sustainability and the circular economy with design writer Katie Treggiden. Plus: we get the highlights from the menswear collections featured at Paris Fashion Week.
Extra: Climate care
We visit an exhibition at Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts that hopes to convince visitors to behave more responsibly towards the environment.
