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… Coach x Observed By Us
Coach’s latest creative link-up is with LA-based illustrator and designer Jessica Herschko and our Sofia Coppola-collaborating queen Kirsten Dunst. Their Observed By Us collection, replete with bucolic images of flowers, sunshine, fruit and mushrooms, is the ultimate must-have for the cottagecore girlies. Buy it all here.
Wear… Cou Cou Intimates
Everyone’s favourite cute, cult-y lingerie brand has just introduced their first print — English Rose — a hand-drawn vintage French print sourced from the late 1800s, inspired by founder Rose Colcord’s Nana and now seen on her label’s core camis, slips and undies. “I wanted it to be a nod to the freedom I believe we feel when in touch with nature and felt as children, before we became concerned with ways we believe we ought to be or things we ought to do,” she said. “This print acts as a symbol of everything Cou Cou represents and values: playfulness, timelessness, nostalgia and romance all in one.”
Cou Cou has previously only offered elevated, essential daily styles in black and white organic pointelle cotton and French lace, so the floral is a cozy, confident addition to a line that’s already seen on all the girls from Kiko Mizuhara and Emma Chamberlain to Hailey Bieber. Plus, they’ve also added The Balconette & The Slip Skirt, The Triangle & The Tanga, and The Midi Slip to their Summer of Intimates ‘23 collection. Stock up on the new print and designs before they sell out, here. ND
Buy… Homework candles
Homework candles are an interesting addition to the canon. Described as “a modern ode to ancient Chinese philosophy”, they come in five fragrances inspired by five elements – fire, metal, wood, earth, water – all homemade at the brand’s London studio. Housed inside beautiful smoked glass jars, you can return your empty ones for a discount on your next candle. Buy here.
Buy… A24’s Everything Everywhere All At Once Collector’s Blu-Ray
If you’re a nut for shiny home media (the only way to ensure you’ll be able to rewatch your favourite movies and TV in future!) and were delighted by Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Oscar sweep earlier this year, you’re in luck! A24 have released the collector’s Blu-Ray of EEAAO. This version, encased in a slip-box which resembles Evelyn’s tax prep folder, is equally stacked: director’s commentary from the Daniels, mini documentaries, deleted scenes and, for the real nuts, a recreation of the tax documents and receipts from the film. Buy it from the A24 shop here.
Go to… ØYA Festival
How do you like your festivals? Do you like them clean, friendly, fun, chill, well-programmed, and in a convenient and beautiful location that you’ll remember for a long time after the whole thing is over? Then you’ll be into ØYA, the music festival in Oslo known for its eco-friendly credentials and for bringing some of the best in international music to the beautiful Nordic city. The 2023 edition has something for everyone: Lorde will perform one of her final Solar Power shows there, while Pusha T will bring his own raucous set. boygenius will perform tracks from their new album too, on the same day, no less, as Caroline Polachek. Blur, Wizkid and a whole host of Norwegian acts like pop juggernaut Dagny, queer newcomer Metteson, neo-soul group Fieh and, for those who are into it, thrash rock courtesy of Combos. Check out the full line-up and your tickets for the festival from here.
Stay at… The Leela Palace Jaipur
Jaipur, the capital of the vast Northern Indian state of Rajasthan, is worth visiting for a list of reasons too long to list here – its rose-hued facades, thrumming bazaars, and an unparalleled wealth of fine jewellery and textile crafts among them. Oh, and the palaces – the unfathomably opulent palaces that make Charlie and Camilla’s new place look like a crumbling dive. As such, if ever you decide to take a trip to this most exquisite of cities, it would be remiss not to stay in one.
Granted, most are now either state-operated museums or private homes, though a stay at The Leela Palace is about as faithful a reproduction of what it would be like to live like a maharaja as it gets. Located a comfortable 40-minute drive from central Jaipur, in the shadow of the verdant Aravalli Hills, its sprawling eight-acre grounds offer myriad opportunities for respite from the city’s hustle and grind. Whether staying in one of the main palace’s rooms, or in one of its courtyard suites – located in standalone cottages dotted about the premises, and replete with a plunge pool (a near necessity if visiting during Rajasthan’s infamously scorching summer and monsoon season) – a decadent stay is guaranteed.
Between a selection of restaurants offering a resolutely international spread of cuisines – including Preet Mahal, a notably authentic Italian restaurant – the Jharoka Bar, award-worthy for its borderline-alchemical riffs on classic cocktails alone, a plush spa facility and a vast pool, gourmands are well-catered to. Design aficionados will spend hours marvelling over the property’s silvered domes, abundance of intricately carved marble – crafted from stone sourced from local mines – and corridors lined with thikri inlaid mirrors, while culture vultures will no doubt be drawn to the Leela Palace’s extensive, on-the-house cultural programming, spanning traditional Rajasthani high tea ceremonies, dance performances and even palm reading.
The crowning glory of it all, though, is the Mohan Mahal – a restaurant that offers a four-course, thali set menu. While what appears on the table – a thoughtfully curated introduction to the flavours that define Rajasthani cuisine – is certainly worth writing home about, it’s the setting that’s the real winner here. Inspired by the Sheesh Mahal – the renowned mirrored hall in the nearby Amber Fort – its walls are inlaid with over 300,000 mirrored mosaic tiles, and lit solely by the flickering reflections of candles floating on a central pond. It alone makes the trip there worthwhile – book yours here. MS
Stay at… Raffles Udaipur
Of course, Rajasthan’s Pink City is far from the only reason to head to the state – head a couple of hundred kilometres south and you’ll hit Udaipur, a city widely regarded as one of India’s most romantic. Set amid the Aravalli Hills and seven lakes puddled between them, it’s often referred to as the country’s answer to Venice, as much for its abundance of palaces as for its swoon-worthy natural setting. In our book, though, one of the main motivations to go to the city is actually located just beyond it.
Set across a 21-acre private island at the centre of the outlying Udai Sagar Lake, to call Raffles Udaipur an oasis of luxury is putting it mildly. A tranquil 10-minute battery-powered boat ride – an eco-conscious choice for the sake of the lake’s resident fish, no less – across jade waters deposits you at a gate with a vista that sets the tone for the stay ahead: a stately Palladian mansion foregrounded by a sprawl of symmetrical, hedgerow-bordered gardens. A stroll through an airy forum along one of the building’s U-shaped building’s two main wings leads you to 101 suites, each of which features an arresting view of the surrounding lake and mountains and a bathtub that could easily double as a plunge pool – although, if you book in for one of the property’s ground floor suites, there’s a good chance you’ll find one of those in your private garden.
In keeping with the world-leading standards of Raffles’ Singapore flagship, personal butler service comes as a standard, allowing you to forget trifles like booking in for afternoon tea at the Writer’s Bar – replete with fully stacked, floor-to-incredibly-high-ceiling bookshelves – or for a treatment at the exquisite Raffles Spa – where each treatment begins with a ‘sensory oil journey’, designed to diagnose what sort of treatment your body craves, and ends with a lavender tea served chaise longue-side in a canopied relaxation room. Heaven!
Of course, the leisurely lifestyle you come to somewhere like Raffles Udaipur to lead is nothing without the sustenance to match, and between its four restaurants spanning regional cuisine, East and South-East Asian delicacies, gastronomic riffs on familiar Western fare, and fine patisserie, it more than does. Beyond this buffet of options, you’ll also find Folly, a fairy light-adorned private dining experience in the property’s main courtyard, as well as the Long Bar – the Raffles staple, inspired by the original Singapore hotel’s fabled watering hole, home to the Singapore Sling – where a Udaipur Sling, an interpretation of the legendary drink using spiced bitters and locally sourced guava juice, is the first thing to order. Fancy raising a glass soon? Book your stay here. MS
Go to… the Tom of Finland Art and Culture Festival
This weekend, the annual Tom of Finland Foundation Arts and Culture Festival returns to London, this time to The Standard Hotel. Dedicated to preserving the famed homoerotic NSFW art filled with beefcakes, sailor jocks and leather daddies that has become a defining part of queer history, the non-profit has curated an exhibition that will feature Tom’s works alongside other established homoerotic artists and photographers such as Martin Perry, Rick Castro, James Dearlove, Felipe Chavez and Ed Firth. There will also be talks on writing queer sex, gay porn and the history, present and future of the leather scene. Additionally, queer cabaret The Glory’s life-drawing session for artists of all levels and calibres will take place in The Standard’s Library Lounge on the Sunday, with porn actor John Thomas as muse, posing within a set designed by artist James Davidson to a soundscape by Anal House Meltdown. For a very queer weekend, get your tickets here. TG
Go to… BAO Noodle Shop, Battersea
Get your slurp on! Today is the opening week of BAO‘s new noodle shop in the recently restored Battersea Power Station. Think bowlfuls of shimmering beef noodle soups and BAO menu classics, alongside dishes exclusive to Battersea such as Sanbei Tofu BAO, Cheese Croquettes and Danzai Noodles. There’s also the addition of hiring the KTV karaoke room, so you can sing and drink Weeping Sake to your heart’s content! From today, BAO Battersea is open seven days a week from noon until 9pm. MB