Observer

At Paris Fashion Week, living designers bow beneath the names of their late founders. The spring-summer 2027 womenswear calendar spans Sept. 28 through Oct. 6, and across those shows, editors and buyers study the set of a shoulder or the drop of a skirt for proof that a house remains itself under a new creative director. Paris prizes novelty, though it prefers the new to arrive with provenance and immaculate paperwork. The French word “maison” describes the core of the work.

Fournil Ephémère Cannes. Fournil Ephémère Cannes Last summer, my boyfriend made the kind of mistake that French locals avoid at all costs: he forgot to buy bread before the city shut down on Sunday afternoon. In the south of France, most shops are closed on Sundays and Mondays, so missing the window means going without bread until Tuesday—an unthinkable notion for any respectable French person.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. AFP via Getty Images As Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s The Row takes on its first Paris Fashion Week as a member of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM), the label arrives with some of the most powerful backers in luxury. In 2024, Chanel owners Alain and Gérard Wertheimer and L’Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers bought minority stakes in the brand at a valuation of roughly $1 billion, with the Olsens keeping majority control.

Andre Rehder Arte Contemporanea at Contemporary Istanbul. Courtesy Contemporary Istanbul Istanbul’s mythology continues to hold great sway beyond its borders. Starting in November, the city will be celebrated in London at the V&A South Kensington through a wide array of objects from its collection as well as national and international loans, some from as early as the 4th Century.

Raul De Lara, a Mexican-born sculptor based in Queens, New York, uses objects as carriers of memory, folklore and identity. Courtesy Raul De Lara The earliest forms of human creation transformed natural elements into objects endowed with symbolic meaning. Today, some artists still use ancient modes of production like woodcarving to consider the relationship between human making and nature.

Beverage brands are borrowing from fashion and beauty to create cultural relevance, but sustainable growth still depends on what is in the bottle and where it can be bought. Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images I’m sure you’ve noticed it: beverages are everywhere.

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The opening of Richard Meier’s striking white building in 1983 gave the institution an internationally recognizable architectural identity. Photo courtesy of the High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art in Atlanta has a reputation for attracting diverse audiences and for its commitment to inclusivity and accessibility. Founded in 1926, the institution has been a constant through Atlanta’s transformation from a regional city into a global hub and has helped shape its cultural evolution.

British artist Yinka Shonibare’s Wind Sculpture in Bronze (SG) at Frieze in London in 2024. Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty Images October is National Arts & Humanities Month, which launched thirty-plus years ago as National Arts Week to honor the twentieth anniversary of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Ernesto Giunta and Giovanni Mangone run Tufo e Tartufi. Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco It’s a sunny spring day in Tuscany, and we’re loading up in a truck to go truffle hunting. Two truffle dogs, Mosca and Bianca, are resting in their crate, which hangs off the back of the car, parked outside Castelfalfi. I’d always assumed truffle hunting, a popular activity across several regions in Italy, was an autumn endeavor.