Messy Girls. Robot Jackets. Tulip Chairs.
Visions of tomorrow come trickling in from Nike, i-D, and Hermès.
Internet Microdoses
Nike leaps into the future with self-warming jackets and self-running shoes. For Team USA’s 2026 Winter Games, the brand has unveiled new AIR (Adapt, Inflate, Regulate) technology that lets athletes control their jackets’ temperature in frosty Milano Cortina. While Air Jordans were a marketing marvel, this winter Nike bets on tech as the main story.
An unrealized chair design by Frank Lloyd Wright makes its debut at The Museum of Wisconsin Art. The spun-aluminum tulip chair appears in the museum’s fall retrospective — proof that even an architect who called sitting “an unfortunate necessity” couldn’t resist designing a good seat. Forty of his chair designs are now on view at MoWA.
Hermès names Grace Wales Bonner as its new menswear creative director. The British-Jamaican designer — known for blending Savile Row precision with Adidas-era ease — brings radicality to Hermès’s codes of restrained craftsmanship. It’s a historic, overdue move recognizing Black British excellence in European luxury.
Privately backed galleries are popping up in unexpected corners of London as public funding for the arts wane. Galerie Perrotin opened inside Claridge’s, while Sadie Coles HQ moved into a Georgian townhouse. Most spectacular of the bunch, the Kamel Lazaar Foundation’s Ibraaz spans 10,000 square feet — complete with a Tunisian café, a Palestinian literature bookstore, and sweeping exhibition rooms.
i-D magazine goes beyond glossy pages, launching its first limited-edition zine in collaboration with Substack writers. Under Editor-in-Chief Thom Bettridge, i-D reflects a new kind of culture writing — one that unfolds across a web of voices like Substacks, zines, and social feeds — where the critic, the commentator, and the community overlap.
Aesthetic Study · Messy Means Business
Messy is mainstream. Every variation of the messy girl now frays the edges of pop culture: “emotionally messy girl,” “decaying messy girl,” “clean messy girl.” British singer Lola Young’s 2024 song Messy crept up to No. 1 a year after its release, while actress and writer Alexi Wasser’s indie Messy hit theaters on Halloween. The trend pushes back against Kardashianized perfection, nodding to indie sleaze and, sometimes, 2000s tabloid icons like knife-wielding Lindsay Lohan. But today’s new-wave messy is deliberate — precise in her disarray. An aesthetic of off-ness, unfinishedness, and nonconforming aggression, it is a liberation of imperfection and a longing for the days before everything was recorded, edited, and filtered.
Bless this mess:
A deep breath for us all: Olsen Twins-esque smoking is back!
Image after image of warm, familiar worlds — punctuated by unexpected artwork and personal effects — appear as you scroll through Jessica Schuster’s portfolio. Her “timeless joy” aesthetic is as enduring as her NYC-based design firm. Withstanding more than a decade of interior trends, Jessica Schuster Design has expanded her uniquely buoyant touch across hotels and private residences in Miami, Boston, and Palm Beach, as well as new projects in San Francisco, the Hamptons, and New York City. The personal, the unusual, and the orderly find a natural home together, crystallizing her inimitable sense of luxury.
What do you do when you hit a creative block?
I usually turn to my library. I find that getting out of my routine — whether visiting a new place, a gallery, or seeing fresh work — always helps me find inspiration again.
What’s the last article you sent to a friend?
A Lost Weekend in Paris: Chapter One by Tim Blanks. It talks through the shift towards mood and emotion in recent Parisian runway shows.
What’s the worst recommendation someone’s given you?
I don’t believe in design rules. Every project is unique, and we approach each one organically and originally. A one-size-fits-all mentality just doesn’t work for us.
What’s something you bought for under $100 that changed your life?
Mr. Pen Spikey Sensory Rings — fidget rings for anxiety and stress relief. Cheaper than therapy.
What book have you gifted most?
François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne: In the Domain of Dreams.
Write us a fortune cookie.
Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
Find Jessica on Cosmos and Instagram.
Object Love · Dimensional Utensils
The ultimate luxury is when even day-to-day utility becomes art. This flatware was designed by Austrian architect and designer Josef Hoffmann in the early 1900s, during the height of the Vienna Secession — a movement that broke from traditional art in favor of freedom, craftsmanship, and modern form. As a founding member, Hoffmann helped define the clean lines and geometric precision that still shape design today. The engraved markings are a subtle signature, nodding to both the artist and the artisan behind each piece. Thank you, @olivebranch, for reminding us that sometimes beauty can truly feed you.
Quick Hits
Bottega Veneta releases a short film with Jacob Elordi, What are Dreams.
Bhutan’s first-ever fashion week takes place in the Himalayas.
The largest floating restaurant, which has a Michelin star, opens this month.
Artist Greer Lankton’s first monograph launches at Mattress Factory.
A24’s restaurant, Wild Cherry, opens at Cherry Lane Theater.
Signing off from the beautiful mess.
In soft focus,
Dena
P.S. An update on last edition’s news: four of the daring Louvre thieves were caught trying to leave France with the precious cargo. The Charles de Gaulle of it all!