Happy Monday! The new week is here and with it comes the chance to delve deep into some fresh culture and fashion. Here’s your latest look at the i-D Guide.
Wear… Maison Margiela’s grey cut out vest
Summer will be over soon, so you’ll need a transitional garment in your wardrobe to take you from one season to the next. This new cut out vest from Maison Margiela (£1105), in Argyll pattern with stray strands of wool, is perfect for that. Buy it here.
Buy…. Rhubarb by Perfumer H
Fragrances are forever, so it makes sense to buy one you can refill — both for the planet and for convenience’s sake. Perfumer H’s new Rhubarb scent recalls those memories of childhood; the sharp earthy sweetness of a vegetable patch growing the fragrance’s titular plant. Buy the custom handblown bottle with your first 100ml of fragrance (£530) here.
Buy… Loewe’s orange blossom candle
The latest scent in Loewe’s continually great line-up of home fragrances is a zesty mandarin moment. Buy it (from £82) here.
Go to… Gumbo
In Chicago, a collective of artists have gathered to highlight what they call “the unique perspectives, cultural expressions, and profound narratives that emerge from the African diaspora and Black experiences”. Featuring contributions from the likes of Renell Medrano and Gabriel Moses, Gumbo runs at the Anthony Gallery until 9 September. More information can be found here.
Stay at… Piaule
It’s officially August, and for those of us in New York City, that means it’s time to book flights, secure those train tickets, pack your bags and get the hell out! While your friends might be heading off to Europe or out east, might we suggest something slightly more wholesome? Sure, you’ve gone upstate before, but you haven’t experienced it from the confines of Piaule’s tiny Catskills cabins, floating in the middle of the forest and open to the sky. The landscape hotel — offering a secluded getaway, with each cabin’s floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors looking out into the property’s dense woods — is quickly becoming a favourite among the downtown art set, and for good reason. It’s one of the only upstate hotels that’s pure luxury, while keeping you immersed in nature.
Founded by Nolan McHugh and Trevor Briggs, alongside architect Jim Garrison, who’s behind Piaule’s serene Scandi and Japanese-inspired interiors, the boutique hotel is for city dwellers wanting to ‘touch grass’, without actually getting their hands dirty. From the confines of the spa, for example, one can slip into the mineral pool and enjoy a selection of high-end wellness treatments while gazing out at the mountains beyond. No hike required. At the restaurant, indulge in a prix fixe farm-to-table menu on the deck under the stars. You can return to the city on Sunday feeling rejuvenated, without even leaving the property – though nearby Catskill, Phoenicia and Woodstock have plenty on offer. Book your late summer escape at Piaule here.
Eat at… Outcrop @ 180 Strand
What would Rainforest Cafe’s trendy young cousin visiting London for three months look like? Probably something like Outcrop. Nestled at the back of 180 the Strand, this restaurant-bar-art-space (the brainchild of the founders of Clove Club and Luca, and three Secret Cinema alumni, among others) is putting on an innovative Thai menu, a curated cocktail bar and wine list, and an installation from art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast entitled “Sanctuary of the Unseen Forest” — all complemented with DJ sets inspired by the natural world. Find out more about the lineup, menu and bookings here.
Listen to… Tigerstate
How do you wrangle a sizeable collective of singers, musicians and artists to make music that makes sense? Pandemic project turned legit alternative outfit Tigerstate are achieving that. Based in Oslo, Norway, the group create alt-pop flecked with bits of R&B, bossa nova and disco. Check out their Instagram here.
Listen to… ratbag
If there’s one good thing about TikTok, it’s that its given artists who’d normally struggle to get a look-in the opportunity to form their own audiences. ratbag — a new scuzzy, shoegaze-y alternative artist from New Zealand — is one of them. Her new single “rats in my walls” feels as angst-ridden as its title suggests. Check out her Instagram here.
Go to… Flow Festival
Since 2004, Flow Festival has brought some of the world’s best in music, art and design to the defunct Suvilahti power plant in Helsinki. This year’s edition, running from 11-13 August, will host yet another packed programme — with i-D faves Lorde, Wizkid, Christine & The Queens, Pusha T and Caroline Polachek hitting the stage — and will once again offer visitors a wide-ranging art program, plus a selection of more than 40 top restaurants to stop off for a bite to eat. BRB just booking my tickets!
Listen to… Cosha
If, like us, you count yourself as a fan of Cosha, you’ve been craving a follow-up to the London-based Irish singer’s smouldering 2021 EP, Mt Pleasant, since the day it launched. Of course, we haven’t been kept totally wanting during that time, with her angelic voice figuring on “Coochie”, one of the standout tracks on Shygirl’s seminal album Nymph, but now she’s back with a whole new EP. Titled Murmurs, Cosha paints a picture characterised as much by unflinching vulnerability as by soulful optimism, with the rawness of the emotional insights it provides accentuated by the potent frankness of her voice. Fittingly timed for anyone currently living our late-November of a British summer, the EP’s debut track, “Sun Back” offers a necessary reminder that, even when skies seem punishingly grey, they will, at some point, give way to the restorative warmth of the sun – a piece of wisdom that naturally resonates year round. To toast Murmurs’ release, Cosha kindly filled us in on the story behind “Sun Back”, the emotional oscillations at the heart of the EP, and what we can expect next.
How does it feel to be releasing Murmurs?
Many in my core friendship group are incredible, inspirational mothers, and based on their collective reminiscing on childbirth, apparently, the final push brings an almost euphoric release. Now, I haven’t given birth, and I may eat these words if I ever find myself in labour, but to finally be putting this music out in the world feels like a fraction of that. I’ve had this thing inside me for quite some time – I’ve put blood, sweat and tears into making it; and though it’s a labour of love, I can’t wait to get it out of me!
What does this EP mean to you, both personally and creatively?
All the experiences that informed the making of this EP brought up emotions that I’d never felt before, so trying to express that foreign state through music was new to me. It’s been encouraging, though, to know that a fresh lyrical and musical vocabulary can come to me if I hold enough patience and curiosity.
Murmurs isn’t the record I thought I’d make after Mt. Pleasant — I thought I’d continue down the love-laced path I’d been used to, but things changed, as they do, and you have to roll with the punches. The essence of the EP is really about this sentiment — working on not fearing change but embracing it, getting better at adapting and eventually even finding joy and excitement in it. This is also my first time releasing music self-managed, fully independent and self-funded, and that has been tough. Ultimately it’s been worth it though, as it’s shown me the boundlessness of my tenacity and it’s forced me to believe in myself in a way which I hadn’t before.
What made “Sun Back” feel like the ideal song to kick off Murmurs?
Firstly, because it’s my favourite and I always like to start off with my favourite. “No Kink in the Wire” was my favourite song off Mt. Pleasant so I started with that. I also like that “Sun Back” is optimistic – it hints at pain but is not consumed by it, it overcomes it. This song to me is a grand declaration of joy and perseverance, it’s the light at the end of the tunnel, and I like to live in the light as much as possible.
“Sun Back” feels like a necessary anthem for anyone currently living through this year’s British summer. What were you trying to channel with this song?
I do love the humour of bringing out a song called ‘Sun Back’ during the current British summer, it had to be done. But really this song applies to any time of the year — you never know what may happen to shake the ground beneath you. Like I say in the song, “I know it’s unmissable the rise and fall, but at the end of the day the sun’ll come up”.
What tone does it set for the rest of the EP?
I think “Sun Back” has both pain and joy in it, so, in that sense, it encapsulates the moods that the EP oscillates between – the rest of the songs are a bit more polarised, some succumbing deeper to moments of anguish, others engulfed fully in joy. The track sequence is also kind of a murmur of itself – it’s happy then sad, then happy then sad – but then eventually time soothes the bumps a little and we arrive at a smoother footing. Hopefully, we then get to enjoy this terrain for a moment before the next climb. This is where the EP ends, at the top of the mountain. I like to think it’s a bit like Table Mountain in Cape Town – nice and flat, with plenty of space to walk around and enjoy the view!