How to spend it… in October

DRINK

Sip Ruinart in Reims

Ruinart, founded in 1729, is the region’s oldest champagne house and, with its eight kilometres of cellars carved nearly 40 metres down into the chalk of Reims, a Unesco World Heritage Site. To celebrate its upcoming 300th anniversary, Ruinart has commissioned a new modernist pavilion by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto in the city, which will stand in contrast to the original 19th-century buildings, and a new garden to showcase art by established makers and new talents. On show will be work by the installation artist Lélia Demoisy, the land artist Cornelia Konrads and Henrique Oliveira, who has created a gnarly, life-sized tree from plywood. Visitors will be able to taste rare cuvées and vintages in the pavilion, while Arnaud Donckele, the three-Michelin-starred chef of La Vague d’Or at Cheval Blanc St Tropez and Cheval Blanc Paris, will be working closely with the maison’s in-house chef on an accompanying menu. Tim Auld

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&Daughter knits for masculine proportions

When Buffy Reid launched her knitwear brand for women in 2013, she had traditional Aran fishermen’s sweaters on her mind. This month, & Daughter comes full circle with its first menswear collection, a 10-piece capsule that retools their signature designs for masculine proportions. Echoing the slouchy spirit and bold colours of the womenswear line, standout pieces include the Wexford waistcoat, a louche librarian-ish style, and the cricket sweater with its subtle stripes. Just as the brand’s womenswear found its way on to heart-throbs including Paul Mescal and Cillian Murphy in recent years, the men’s collection will appeal to women who like a generous silhouette too. “It’s all about the way you wear it,” says Reid. By producing her collection in the British Isles and Ireland, she hopes, too, to capitalise on renewed interest in homespun craft. “When we started 11 years ago, a lot of our makers and mills were shutting down. Now they’re all expanding and investing in a new generation.” Ellie Pithers

EAT

Spring turns 10

Spring, Skye Gyngell’s seasonal restaurant nestled in the New Wing at Somerset House in London turns 10 this year. To celebrate, Gyngell is collaborating with some of her favourite chefs on three one-off “Scratch” dinners – the beloved £30-for-three-courses menu which Spring cooks with daily kitchen offcuts. Following September’s debut from British pastry chef Ravneet Gill, which featured chaat made with leftover potatoes, a fragrant curry and a peach baked Alaska, this month, chef and farmer Julius Roberts will take to the kitchen (the menu is to be decided from whatever remains from the previous day). A portion of proceeds from all three menus will be donated to food waste charity The Felix Project. Inès Cross

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Collectable design in a 1960s hotel

In Brussels, a brand new hotel is hosting a brand new design fair. Curated brings together collectible pieces by 44 designers – including a tent-like installation by Nathalie Van der Massen and a bench made of wood and reclaimed stone by Ariane van Dievoet – within the concrete interiors of the 180-room Mix Brussels, an imposing 1960s structure renovated by Lionel Jadot, the fair’s curator. Marion Willingham

SEE 

Sara Cwynar explores power and desire in a new exhibition in New York

A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, the most expensive car ever to be sold at auction, is the recurring motif in Sara Cwynar’s solo exhibition at New York gallery 52 Walker this month. In the exhibition’s centrepiece, a series of collages turned into a rolling film, the car’s smooth silver curves appear alongside found photographs and newly produced visuals of nude statues and drawings and photographs of glamorous men and women from throughout history. The resulting film is a playful exploration of desire, technology and power. Baya Simons

EAT

Bring your own truffles to Bocca di Lupo

This month marks the start of white truffle season, and Soho Italian restaurant Bocca di Lupo are announcing its arrival with a “bring your own truffle” scheme. Guests can take a truffle of their choice (available at Tartufaia in Borough Market, or Gelupo ice-cream shop across the street from Bocca), and the chefs will clean and grate the funghi over any dish on the menu. They particularly recommend adding shavings to the bagna caoda, an anchovy and garlic emulsion served with crudités, veal tartare and tagliolini with duck egg, lemon and Parmesan sauce. BS

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A monograph showcasing a Vanity Fair photographer’s eye for society

Jonathan Becker was quick to learn the value of dressing well as a photographer. In his London-tailored suit, he would slip into parties and glide “through VIP areas and into presidential suites”, writes Mark Holborn in a new book that covers all five decades of Becker’s career, much of which was spent at Vanity Fair. For the photographer, “acquiring this costume was really the purchase of armour. You were equipped for any encounter”. His eye for his subjects’ style – honed under Brassaï in Paris and finessed on the New York social scene – was just as sharp. He saw the importance of the perfectly ironed creases of the US ambassador’s suit at the UN General Assembly, or of writer and editor Bob Colacello, known for his profiles of institutional figures such as Ronald and Nancy Reagan, impeccably turned out on a visit to Buckingham Palace. He shows Colacello in the Palace’s gilded reception rooms, discreetly writing in his notepad. BS

DONATE 

Behind Blue Eyes gives disposable cameras to children in Ukrainian villages

Artem Skorohodko and Dmytro Zubkov were volunteering in Ukraine in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion when they had an idea for a new photography project. Inspired by the energy and optimism of local children, they started handing out disposable cameras. The children were under no obligation to take photographs. “For the kids, it’s a simple adventure,” says Skorohodko. “One of the key principles of our project is to respect the children’s autonomy.” The duo have now accumulated thousands of photos for their project Behind Blue Eyes. The charity programmes exhibitions and raises donations to help grant the children’s “wishes”, whether a pet, an instrument or a language course. Since the project began, more than 230 wishes have been granted. The photographs, meanwhile, are sincere and spontaneous. Proof that children can find lightness even on the darkest days. Francesca Tiana

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Chic rubber footwear

No one does inclement-weather gear like the Dutch – except perhaps the Swedes. So it’s fitting that, as autumn rains roll in, Amsterdam-based outerwear and accessories label Kassl Editions has teamed up with Swedish heritage brand Tretorn, best-known for its waterproof apparel, on a rubber-shoe capsule. The five styles, which span knee-high and ankle boots as well as a clog and a loafer, and come in an earthy palette of rusty brown and moss-green, will be unveiled on 4 October at a pop-up store in Amsterdam. With a retail space designed by buzzy Rotterdam-based studio Dennis Vanderbroeck, both the pop-up and the collaboration promise to blend function with flair. EP

SEE

Artist Rindon Johnson swims the Pacific Ocean

The California-born, Berlin- and New York-based artist Rindon Johnson is opening a new solo exhibition at Shanghai’s Rockbund Art Museum which looks to explore the cultural and historical significance of the Pacific. The central work is a real-time simulation of an avatar swimming from Johnson’s birthplace of San Francisco across the Pacific to Shanghai, crossing the invisible borders which demarcate different mining and fishing zones. The resulting work, a poetic, surreal video installation, probes at fixed notions of borders and national territories. BS

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Quilted bomber jackets by YMC and Lavenham

British fashion label YMC, celebrated for its timeless, workwear-inflected designs, and Suffolk-based outerwear brand Lavenham have collaborated on a clothing capsule. It features two quilted bomber jackets, one for men and one for women, both in a beautiful bottle green. IC

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Playful acrylic accessories from Solange Azagury-Partridge and Edie Parker

Since launching in 2010, the New York-based lifestyle and accessories label Edie Parker has become known for its playful acrylic clutches and smoking accessories, born of founder Brett Heyman’s love of mid-century design and expanded in 2020 to include stylish smoking accoutrements for women. Now, she is teaming up with British fine jeweller Solange Azagury-Partridge on a capsule collection. Launching on 25 October, the collaboration spans quirky trays, an acrylic clutch with a special lighter compartment and a candy-striped Hotlips ring that melds the two designers’ whimsical worlds. Sara Semic

WATCH

Jazz and brandy at Brunswick House in London

Jazz In The Cellars returns to Brunswick House for the fourth autumn in a row. Once again, Tuesday evenings from 7pm will feature live jazz from musical collective The Banger Factory, and Manhattans and cognac punch mixed with Hennessy (the spirit of choice for Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye and Josephine Baker). A weekly-evolving wine list spotlighting natural makers will also be available, with wines on by the glass. IC

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A book of unseen Polaroids by Robert Frank

Robert Frank and his wife, June Leaf, always kept an apartment on Bleecker Street in Lower Manhattan, but it was to his house in Mabou, in Nova Scotia, that he felt the deepest attachment. “I have a good feeling about living in that house,” the late photographer said in an interview in 2013. “It’s a place I have more feeling about.” A new book of previously unseen Polaroids taken by Frank around the house and the surrounding area reveals the tenderness and peacefulness of his life by the Canadian sea. Red Table, Green Tree, From the Window, by the Window comprises three sequences of work: images of a red table he found in a nearby antiques shop, which he photographs as light streams down onto its dusty surface, of the landscape and the trees, and of the views out of the windows of the house that he shared with Leaf, to whom he was married for 44 years. On some days the windows are only a blur of raindrops; on others they reveal the sunlit ocean and the forests surrounding them. BS