If Indiana Jones took a turn for the stylish and developed an obsession with textiles, he might look a bit like Louis Bartholomew, the French illustrator and designer who travels to Africa and the Middle East to work with weavers and artisans who they are skilled in traditional techniques. Ishkar, a London-based company that works with NGOs and artisans to create employment opportunities for those living in isolated areas of countries often affected by war, was recently commissioned to create a capsule collection featuring women weavers in Afghanistan. Barthélemy usually works personally with artisans to create tapestries or carpets, but since the Taliban took power in 2021, he has had to connect with the weavers remotely. At the beginning of their collaboration, Barthélemy asked the weavers to design a place that symbolized beauty for them. Many of the women chose the 14th-century Bagh-e Babur (Babur’s Garden) in Kabul. Images from these designs, and one by Barthélemy himself, were then combined to create the designs for three different rugs. It took the women about six months each to make a knot of Ghazni wool. It is, says Barthélemy, “a collective dream of an ancient paradise.” The rugs can be seen in London at Sunbury Workshops on Swanfield Street from 24-26 April and until September at the flagship Ishkar showroom. from about $4,000, ishkar.com.
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A recently Michelin-starred restaurant in France’s Dordogne Valley
In the verdant countryside that connects the Corrèze radar with the Lot region in south-west France, almost hugging the banks of the Dordogne River, an impressive 19th-century mansion has recently undergone a dramatic reconstruction. This is Cueillette. Here, in a light-filled room whose ceiling blooms with almost surreal shapes of apples, the building’s owners—the shy Gervoson-Chapoulart family behind Andros, the company whose trademarks include these cute little pots of Bonne Maman jam – chef Oscar Garcia has installed it. At 25, Garcia was France’s youngest Michelin-starred chef, so it’s somewhat impressive to find him, a decade later, in the middle of beautiful nowhere, serving hyperlocal haute cuisine. (Besides the dining room, helpfully, there are five rooms.) The dishes walk the line between delicacy and substance. There may be trout or sturgeon from the river, game locally, Limousin beef, fruit and vegetables from the property’s orchards and gardens. Cueillette rightfully had Michelin in her sights, and it paid off: The restaurant was awarded its first star this month. Amazingly, a multi-course lunch — a recent menu featured a lasagna-like veil of cauliflower jelly over sturgeon tartare. Cueillette bread, roubles with the famous Corrèze walnuts — is currently €35, or about $38, perhaps the most outrageous deal in France right now. restaurant-cueillette.fr.
Scattered throughout Southern California are a collection of diverse modernist residences known as Case Study Houses. Intended to highlight the possibilities of affordable, forward-thinking design, the houses were commissioned by Arts & Architecture magazine between 1945 and 1966 and designed by mid-century modern architects such as Richard Neutra, Eero Saarinen, and Charles and Ray Eames. “You talk to any designer or architect in Los Angeles, and they’re all in love with these houses,” says Mike Leflore, the co-founder of Los Angeles-based Zia Tile. The collective influence of these architectural experiments served as inspiration for Zia’s Case Study, a new cement tile collection that combines traditional craftsmanship and modern design. The line features solid tiles, as well as a range of patterns, including wavy lines and dynamic geometric forms. “Each piece is poured and pressed by hand one at a time,” explains Danny Mitchell, who founded Zia Tile with Leflore in 2016. “Depending on the humidity and how the colors are combined, you’ll have a lot different variations. ” Zia Tile has a catalog of 64 colors and the Case Study includes four new offerings — crimson Pompeii. cool beige Dune; burnt orange Rust; and Elemental Blue, a cobalt shade inspired by Yves Klein. Unlike other tiles that are finished with a layer of opaque glaze, Leflore points out that the look of cement tiles is meant to patina over time. “It will age to the point where, in five years, it will give you the feeling of walking into a European cafe or an old hotel lobby,” he says. From $10 per tile, ziatile.com.
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A Parisian illustrator’s romantic take on the Tarot deck
French illustrator Marin Montagut has been fascinated with tarot since he was about 5, when his grandmother used to draw his cards by candlelight. His latest collection, Le Tarot Divinatoire, is a tribute to the allure of divination, rendered in playful watercolor illustrations. The artist’s 22-card reinterpretation of the Major Arcana was designed in his studio in Normandy and created with the help of Parisian craftsmen who gilded the edges of each card with gold using techniques developed in the 18th and 19th centuries. Le Tarot Divinatoire — which also includes a range of silk scarves and cushions and is sold online and at his store in Paris’ Sixth Arrondissement — captures the artist’s childhood enthusiasm for an art that, from its beginnings in the mid-15th century , has been renewed. relevance to modern audiences. “Twenty years ago, people would say, ‘What are you doing with the tarot?’ But now, so many people are learning,” he says. “I think a lot of us want a little magic in our lives.” From about $70 for the deck, marinmontagut.com.
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In Venice, a spa hotel filled with aromatic art
Just in time for the Venice Biennale, the 44-room Hotel Venice Venice, a hotel located inside an old palace on the Grand Canal, is launching its spa, designed as an art installation. Owned by Alessandro Gallo and Francesca Rinaldo, founders of the Golden Goose fashion brand, Venice Venice was designed to be a destination in its own right, with a museum-quality art collection and a canalside restaurant when it opened in 2022. Contemporary art is everywhere on property, including the spa, which includes a treatment room (offerings include deep tissue massages and facials using medicinal plants selected according to the ancient treatise of St. Hildegard of Bingen, a German Benedictine abbess, mystic and healer) and a second, larger stone space with one of the only private indoor pools in the city. Both rooms feature sculptural works by Romanian artist Victoria Zidaru: In the treatment room, linen tubes cover the walls and, above the pool, a textile work covers the ceiling. From the moment you enter either space, an aroma envelops you. the tubes are filled with a mix of cut and dried grasses, as well as flowers and herbs — such as chamomile, honeysuckle, shepherd’s purse and nettle — from Zidaru’s garden in Romania’s Bukovina region. Zidaru also fills pockets on the outside of the tubes with fragrant lemon balm, several types of mint, sage, lavender, and fennel. The artist developed teas and treatment oils for the hotel from her herbal blends. “Even before your treatment, you melt into the smell,” says Gallo. Rooms from about $600, including breakfast, venicevenice.com.
