1.
Take a Kape seat
Kape is the newest chair from Danish furniture firm &Tradition. Designed by London-based studio Industrial Facility, it was born from the two firms’ shared appreciation for circular design. “The design for Kape was driven by a desire for the chair to enjoy a long life, including potential repairability and refreshing,” says Kim Colin, who co-founded Industrial Facility with Sam Hecht in 2002. “We made ‘longevity of use’ one of the chair’s functions, just as we expect comfort and strength to be functions.”
Kape’s K-profile frame is made from post-consumer recycled aluminium. Available in black or polished aluminium finishes, the sleek form has no visible joinery. For the upholstery of the seat and backrest, Industrial Facility took inspiration from suit tailoring – the fabric is carefully sized, cut and sewn to slip over the aluminium frame without obstruction. To ensure sustainability, it can be dry cleaned and re-fitted; replacements can be bought on a made-to-order basis. “Kape might be impactful visually,” adds Hecht. “But environmentally its impact is low.”
andtradition.com; industrialfacility.co.uk
2.
Jog on
New York-based fashion brand Kith has partnered with Swiss running specialists On for a multi-year partnership. The collaboration introduces two original trainers – the K-Tech 1 and K-Tech 2 – built with new Cloudswift cushioning and Helion foam for speed and endurance. The release also riffs off On’s Core line of apparel with co-branded jackets, T-shirts, tank tops, shorts and more.
on.com; kith.com
3.
Visit a modernist gem designed for modesty
West Germany faced a delicate architectural question in the 1960s: what should power look like after catastrophe? The answer, at least in Bonn, was to make it look as unthreatening as possible. The Kanzlerbungalow – built as the residence and reception house of the German chancellor – was completed in 1964 to designs by Sep Ruf and conceived as the exact opposite of the authoritarian architecture that had come before. Now it’s welcoming the public.
Flat-roofed, steel-framed and wrapped in glass, the building looks more like a mid-century Californian holiday home than a stage for power: floors of Roman travertine, walls panelled in palisander and ceilings lined with Brazilian pine. Drawing heavily on US modernism the architecture presented democracy as transparent and restrained yet quietly self-confident. “Rather than projecting power, the building articulated a republic that wished to appear open, future-oriented and intentionally understated,” says architect Miriam Aline Schwarz of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning, which oversees the bungalow. If the young Federal Republic wished to stand out, the thinking went, it should do so by blending in.
Ludwig Erhard, the first chancellor to move in, embraced the idea. Most of his successors did not. Many found the bungalow insufficiently cosy, lacking a certain Gemütlichkeit (warmth). When Germany’s capital moved to Berlin in the 1990s, the building slipped into a long, awkward afterlife. Six decades on, it has been granted a second lease. Following a discreet fire-safety upgrade, the Kanzlerbungalow has now reopened to visitors on Sundays. Take a walk through its leafy surrounds and sleek interiors to envision a better, more transparent place for politics and power brokering.
4.
Shop Brits and pieces in Japan
Sunspel opened its first Tokyo shop on Thursday, located within the newly renovated Harajuku Quest building on Omotesando. Pieces from the Sunspel archive, which dates back to 1860, are displayed throughout the space, offering a glimpse into the label’s heritage. It’s an opportunity for its growing Japanese clientele to pick up classics such as the Riviera Polo Shirt, the British Boxer Short and the Classic T-shirt, which is handmade in Long Eaton, England, where the brand has been based since 1937.
sunspel.com
5.
Slip into a Bavarian sandal
A Kind of Guise’s new Barolo sandal is a slingback reinvention of the classic boat shoe. “To me they’re a bit like a mullet,” says Anne Moffat, Monocle’s photo editor. “Business in the front, party in the back.” She’s not wrong. Though if you’re venturing off the boardwalk, I hope your business is taking you to Sydney or St Barths.
akindofguise.com
6.
Pick up a copy of Monocle’s March 100 issue
Monocle’s March edition has arrived, complete with our list of the top 100 people, places, products, policies and more from around the world. Meet the best spies, chefs and makers, step into revamped government quarters, discover the best new dining spots and follow the threads to learn which fashion leaders to watch. Plus: wander around a São Paulo residential oasis that dates back to the 1950s, complete with palm trees and lush green-tiled details.
monocle.com
7.
Find a smart souvenir at Giftshop
Since its launch in 2023, Paris’s Giftshop has worked with 50 of the French capital’s best restaurants and hotels to provide smart souvenirs, including Savy, Brasserie Lipp and La Grande Épicerie de Paris. “We wanted to challenge the idea of the Parisian keepsake, moving away from the anecdotal or decorative and towards objects that feel culturally grounded,” says co-founder Mathieu Lebreton.
The brand’s bricks-and-mortar boutique in the Palais-Royal occupies a site that once housed gastronomic institution LeBœuf à la Mode, which was frequented by the likes of Napoleon and Colette. Monocle recommends picking up a butter knife from À La Mère de Famille, Paris’s oldest chocolatier, or a dinner plate from Au Pied de Cochon, the city’s first 24-hour brasserie.
giftshop.club
