Most Wanted: January
This month's covetable things from the world of fashion, tech, interiors and beyond
Cauny X Siza
Pritzker Prize-winning architect Álvaro Siza has collaborated with Swiss watch brand Cauny, to create his first example of a timepiece in a lengthy portfolio that includes the 2005 Serpentine Pavilion and the concrete curves of South Korea’s Mimesis Museum. The 89-year-old Siza commented that his aim was that “this watch looked like a watch,” and so it does, with an Italian leather bracelet in camel or black, fixed minimally to a stainless steel case. Scissor or arrow details on the hands and modernist numbers lend an understated elegance that has much in common with Siza’s buildings. The watch is available both in men’s and women’s sizes. €175.
Studio Ford
Interest in the female protagonists of the Bauhaus is on the rise, and in particular the unique contribution they made to textile design in the early 20th century. Los Angeles textile company Studio Ford’s fifth and most recently released collection pays homage to these pioneers, including Gunta Stölzl, Anni Albers, Otti Berger and Benita Koch-Otte. Tonal hand-stitched quilts and throws, and block-printed cushions and table linens, come in the signature Bauhaus palette of primaries, and are made in the spirit of breaking down the “arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist,” as Walter Gropius put it. The products pictured were shot on location at the 1920s Berlin home of architect Bruno Taut, now a “rentable museum” where guests can stay. From $130.
Bernadette
Belgian fashion is known for its serious side, but Bernadette’s pieces will make you forget what you know. Founded by mother and daughter Bernadette and Charlotte de Geyter, its ready-to-wear collections are full of colour and feminine detail (such as the signature oversized bows that adorn the shoulders and hips of knitwear and skirts, wrapping the wearer like a gift). The SS23 collection is inspired by a sizzling-hot flower garden in summer, and includes this Lilibeth cardigan, knitted from baby alpaca and featuring bright contrast stripes and hand-embroidered roses: style with a pencil skirt for colour-blocked tribute to sunnier days. £565.
Damyel x Olivia Cognet
Chocolate as a blank canvas for art? Why not? Cult Parisian vegan chocolate brand Damyel has transferred the bas-relief sculpture of artist and ceramicist Olivia Cognet onto a bar of the sweet stuff, creating a melt-in-the-mouth work of art. Damyel master chocolatier David Uzan was a fan of Cognet’s work, and the resulting product entirely fits with the brand’s aesthetic approach. The chocolate itself is a blend of two cocoa beans, a strongly cocoa-coloured one from Venezuela and a fruity, acidic one from Vietnam. Pick up one of the limited-edition bars in-store until the end of February 2023. €60.
e15
When designer Annabelle Klute acquired one of e15’s Calvert chess tables, it prompted her to make a set of chess pieces that would lend a unique personal touch to her and her partner’s games. Now, e15 has put a version of her set into production, releasing them alongside a portable leather board. Named Nona in honour of Nona Gaprindashvili, the first female grandmaster, the oak pieces (in natural and black lacquer) have a stripped-back simplicity, with highly abstracted forms: the king, rook and pawn are all effectively the same cuboid shape, in different heights, while others have fractionally more complex faceted designs. Chessboard, €990, chess pieces, €690.