The Faster Lane
from Tyler Brûlé
Learn a look, lighten the load
Happy Easter, bunnies, from a breezy terrace above a modernist stretch of Lisbon. A couple of days ago I decided that this column will occasionally be devoted to life in the Portuguese capital as…
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The final countdown: 10 points to take into the New Year
How are things where you are dear reader? Does this find you back at your usual base after a few days in the countryside or the mountains? Or are you still in Cortina, Lech…
Season’s greetings: Monocle wraps up the year in St Moritz
I’ll start this Sunday with a scene-setter. It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m rinkside at the Kulm in St Moritz, jazz classics are playing for the skaters and lunchers, the furs are out, PC-12s and…
A merry start to December, from gifting to the Monocle Christmas Market
Vroooommm…From time to time I get stopped in an airport concourse, a hotel lobby or a buzzy restaurant by a Monocle reader or listener. “Excuse me,” they start, “are you Tyler?” In 99 per…
Back in business: A check-in from Cannes and reopenings in Wan Chai and London
As it’s Sunday and it’s been a light travel week (only Paris and Lisbon), let’s spin the globe to see what else has been happening in the world of Monocle and beyond. We’ll start…
Forget ‘safe spaces’. We should be more mindful of poorly designed buildings
It will come as little surprise that I’m not a fan of “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces”, particularly when the audience is over 18 and we’re talking about editorial comments, lectures and generally getting…
The positives of proper retail and the perils of passport control
It’s a sunny Saturday morning here in Zürich, the rooftops and trees are covered in snow, the Swedish radio station I’m tuned in to has started playing Christmas tracks and I’m coming down from…
Australia is the ‘more seductive version of California living’. Here’s why it should be on your travel list
It was about this time back in 1988 that I was running a small command centre-cum-travel agency from my bedroom in Toronto. With the clock ticking for the start of the Estonian festival in…
Planning a trip abroad? Meet Monocle’s newest family member: the concierge
In the coming weeks we’re going to introduce a new member of the Monocle family – in the pages of our December/January edition to be precise. Over the past couple of days, he’s been…
What observations from a hotel lobby can you about hospitality
It’s Saturday morning and I’m sitting in the lobby of the Palace Hotel Tokyo waiting for my colleagues Andrew and Linard to return from what was supposed to be a brief shopping expedition. Hours…
The neighbourhood-building power of good retail shouldn’t be underestimated. Here’s a tour of the best, from Munich to Lisbon
Today’s column is dedicated to those who do things well, who understand their customers, who have an understanding of scale and, above all, who don’t overdo it. We start in Munich, jump to Geneva…
