Wallpaper

CAMILA FALQUEZ Photographer A New York-based photographer of Colombian heritage, Falquez was born in Mexico City and grew up in Spain, which might explain her affinity with surrealism and strong colour palettes. This month, Falquez shot the American avant-garde artist Senga Nengudi (page 080). ‘I loved how generous she was with her smile and how much she wanted to feel like her own self in the portrait,’ says Falquez. ‘It was so inspiring to see her process, materials and colours.’ JERMAINE FRANCIS Photographer A London-based photographer who focuses primarily on documentaries and portraits, Francis was tasked this month with shooting Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei (page 184). ‘It was a great experience,’ says Francis. ‘Ai Weiwei was super generous, and we had a few very interesting chats.’ Francis will be showing a new work…

A window on the world There are many reasons to love Estudio Campana. The Brazilian design studio, founded by brothers Humberto and Fernando Campana, is celebrated for its ingenious upcycling of everyday materials – creating exuberant furniture pieces from stuffed toys, waste fabric, sheepskin offcuts, cork, and even the wooden sticks typically used to build Brazil’s favelas. Beyond their imaginative output, we also admire their reverence of nature, their steadfast championing of indigenous wisdom and traditional craft, and their fundamental belief in the role design can play. As Humberto tells our writer Beta Germano in this issue, ‘I see my profession as something sacred, because in a way I enter people’s homes, their temples.’ That sense of purpose has been a motivating force for Wallpaper* since day one, so we’re honoured to…

Spin the bottle A scent collaboration tells a tale of two cities Multidisciplinary designer Samuel Ross has joined forces with Acqua di Parma to create 300 bottles of its classic Colonia scent, which has remained unchanged for 100 years. Drawing on his British heritage and the perfume brand’s Italian roots, Ross has given the bottle a contemporary twist, taking inspiration from the architecture of London and Milan, in particular, the work of Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. The limited-edition bottles will be available in three colours: yellow, green and Ross’ signature orange. samuel-ross.com, acquadiparma.com…

A fusing of Parisian elegance with California cool is encapsulated in Givenchy’s new ‘Voyou’ bag, which sees a ladylike V-shaped silhouette melded with tough, biker-inspired hardware and slouchy tumbled leather. It takes its name from a French slang term meaning ‘bad boy’. ‘With the ‘Voyou’, you know at a glance that it’s Parisian, but it’s at home wherever it goes,’ says the maison’s American-born creative director Matthew M Williams, who describes his S/S23 collection for Givenchy as a ‘transatlantic clash’. Arriving in mini, medium and large sizes, alongside a veritable candy shop of colours – from vivid pink and mint green to denim – the ‘Voyou’ is the latest addition to what Williams calls his ‘lexicon’ of Givenchy, a thread connecting past and present in the designer’s contemporary style. givenchy.com…

To enter the headquarters of the Meito Arts Association Office, one must bend down and squeeze through a circular hole cut into the middle of a large cement block. When you straighten up, you are then confronted by vast tree trunks towering over you. The space was designed by Japanese architect Tomoaki Uno, for Kazunori Ota, who owns a clothing import business. Uno works intuitively, in a way that is unusual for an architect. He is distrustful of fancy words, and he never produces architectural models or renders. The son of a plasterer, he grew up surrounded by craftspeople. ‘Artisans can’t really hide behind their work,’ he says. ‘The end result will tell you all you need to know about them.’ Located in a suburb of Nagoya, Ota’s new space, on the…

The humble pin cushion is behind the latest watch from Chanel, with Arnaud Chastaing, the director of Chanel’s watchmaking studio, taking inspiration from objects whose architecture centres around their function. Chanel watches traditionally take their design cues from the French maison’s world – from winding its distinctive embellished leather handbag chain around the wrist to evoking the form of a No. 5 perfume bottle stopper or imprinting tweed on a dial. With the Mademoiselle Privé Pique-Aiguilles watch, it’s the pin cushion that Gabrielle Chanel often toted on her wrist in her role as seamstress that acts as muse. Cutting a playfully oversized silhouette, the tweed motif version features the pattern of a tweed jacket, trimmed with 92 diamonds, underneath a domed case evoking the shape of a pin cushion. It’s…