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At London’s Tramp, Luca Maggiora Rekindles the Flames

Plus, a swaggering new SoHo hotel, a vintage design gallery’s saddle-inspired fragrance, and more of the best things we saw this week.

Photography by Michael Sinclair

PLAY
At London’s Tramp, Luca Maggiora Rekindles the Flames

Tramp has been synonymous with the nocturnal proclivities of high-society Londoners since it first opened in 1969. The legendary club’s all-night antics are the stuff of legend—Keith Moon swinging on chandeliers, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson hosting her 21st birthday in a white bikini and snorkel gear, and Marlon Brando insisting on eating breakfast with the waitstaff. Though the club’s cool factor faded over the years, the glitterati were quickly reminded of its whirlwind glory days upon learning that Italian financier and hospitality entrepreneur Luca Maggiora recently took the reins—and is bullish on ushering in the club’s long-overdue renaissance in a way that’s palatable to the tastes of A-listers.

Besides canceling memberships and mandating that most existing patrons re-apply, Maggiora’s first step involved bringing in London design studio Campbell-Rey to reimagine the interiors with hedonistic flair. They essentially had carte blanche given how few patrons could recall the club’s appearance, so they referenced the louche backdrops of Roger Moore–era Bond. Think bespoke tub chairs, a plush L-shaped snug, chestnut moiré stairs, walls sheathed in lavender silk, scarlet-hued Wilton carpeting, sexy mixed-metal finishes, and an original stucco zodiac ceiling. The environment begs one to misbehave while forgoing nostalgia, except perhaps for the reimagined Tramp burger by Graziano Bonacina, the head chef at Maggiora’s Bardo. Consider leaving the technology at home—according to the rules, “members should use their phones as they would at a dinner party: with a slight sense of embarrassment.” —Ryan Waddoups


 

Photography by Liz Clayman

STAY
A Swaggering SoHo Hotel is Steeped in Modernist Opulence

Since its founding by André Balazs more than 23 years ago, Standard Hotels have become a go-to for travelers looking to live large in impeccable surroundings while on the move. Its latest endeavor, The Manner, is a sister hotel carrying that torch with its own flair from New York City’s SoHo neighborhood. Standard’s chief design officer Verena Haller brought the property to life through a collaboration with Milanese architect Hannes Peer, whose residential expertise can be felt in 97 rooms. Brass, ochre, and glossy mahogany finishes nod to Italian opulence, while amenities by Max ID, Atelier Saucier, and Costa Brazil offer elegant creature comforts. James Beard–nominated chef Alex Stupak oversees three culinary concepts, including a seafood-forward restaurant, cocktail bar, and a discreet lounge reserved solely for hotel guests. —Jenna Adrian-Diaz


Image courtesy of Perfumer H

OBSESS
Perfumer H and Galerie Half: Saddle

Cameron Smith regularly burns candles from Perfumer H at Galerie Half, the vintage design gallery he helms in Los Angeles. Their calming notes of myrrh and cedar became so popular among visitors that he teamed with Perfumer H founder Lyn Harris on devising a signature scent. He thought of his husband, an avid horseback rider who cleans his saddles in their Pasadena home, and sent a swatch of its leather, saddle soap, and a cleaning brush to London for Harris to translate into fragrance.

The resulting scent, aptly called Saddle, evokes the tactility and warmth of horseback leather—smooth yet smoky, with top notes of bright Italian bergamot and vanilla absolutes resting on a base of rich amber and Indonesian patchouli. It debuted as a candle and room spray, but recently launched as an eau de parfum. In celebration, Perfumer H will open its first-ever U.S. pop-up at Galerie Half in December; a range of personal and home fragrances will be up for grabs. —R.W.


Photography by Michael Pisarri

SAVOR
A Miami Culinary Stalwart Fashions an Art Deco Steakhouse

The team behind the Magic City’s beloved but erstwhile seafood restaurant Jaguar Sun has something new to offer in Sunny’s. What started as a culinary residency—Sunny’s Someday Steakhouse—has evolved into a permanent setup specializing in local and far-flung seafood as well as an in-house dry-aged steak program. Chef-partner Carey Hynes and executive chef Aaron Brooks also dish up offerings from Jaguar Sun’s cult-favorite pastas, including spicy pork sugo rigatoni and corn agnolotti with blue crab and saffron. Peruse the menu over a pick-your-path martini concoction, best enjoyed under the dining room’s Murano chandelier and Palm Beach Regency eclecticism, care of The Springs Collective designer Amy Butchko. —J.A.D.


Image courtesy of Le Labo

SHOP
In Kyoto, Le Labo Takes to a 19th-Century Machiya

Le Labo’s inaugural foray into Japan came 17 years ago, when the fragrance house opened its Daikanyama lab in Tokyo as its first location outside of the United States. Fast forward to today, and the brand has an exclusive Tokyo fragrance, Gaiac 10, and numerous stores throughout the country. The crown jewel among them is its Kyoto flagship, which Tokyo-based firm Schemata Architects helped Le Labo situate in a traditional machiya residence dating back to 1879. There, a statue garden, calligraphy workshop, café, and fragrance organ, lab, and atelier shine among the machiya’s original architectural features. Antique furniture, a reclaimed wood fragrance bar, and paint made from persimmon tannin and burnt pine soot meld the property’s history with the slow perfumer’s penchant for rugged utilitarianism. —J.A.D.


Images courtesy of Phaidon

READ
The Greatest Women Sculptors Across Time and Space

Between 2008 and 2018, work created by women accounted for a mere two percent of the $196.6 billion generated by art auctions. In the past few years, though, women have been making inroads, with Simone Leigh and Louise Bourgeois both shattering auction records and the Metropolitan Museum of Art offering its coveted facade commission to mostly women. Great Women Sculptors (Phaidon) rides this wave, gathering some of the world’s most exceptional sculptors across time and space.

The entries run the gamut from an elegantly carved cherry pit by Properzia de’ Rossi in early-16th-century Italy, when it was assumed that only male artists were capable of sculpture; an anatomical cabinet by the late Nicola L., whose feminist practice spoke to diverse bodily experiences; and Delcy Morelos, who employs natural materials like clay, soil, and cocoa powder to conjure monumental, multisensory experiences. The curator Lisa Le Feuvre sums it up in the introduction: “Women sculptors are everywhere,” she writes. “Sculpture is wonderfully in and of the world.” —R.W.


 

Photography by Matthew Gordon

VISIT
A Fresh New Café Shimmies and Shines at the Brooklyn Museum

Spend enough time around New York City’s art museums and galleries, and you’ll start to notice the deft touch of Office of Tangible Space. There it is at the revamped Whitney Museum shop, where the multidisciplinary studio’s custom-fabricated wooden shelves and seating invite exploration and glimpses of the Hudson River between stacks of Biennial catalogs and Gaetano Pesce ephemera. At the Brooklyn Museum’s new café, the studio’s signature use of warm materiality, splashes of color, and playful forms bring a sense of vibrance and life to the formerly stark lobby.

Museumgoers can look forward to elevated café fare overseen by culinary collaborator André Mack, an alumnus of The French Laundry and Per Se. While chowing down on, say, a salami cotto sandwich with miso mayo and piparra peppers, they can even pull up an artist-designed seat in the form of one-of-a-kind stools designed by Minjae Kim, Chen Chen and Kai Williams, and more. —J.A.D.

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