With a New Showroom, Nordic Knots Returns to Its Roots

SOURCE
With a New Showroom, Nordic Knots Returns to Its Roots

New York has always felt like a home away from home for Fabian Berglund and Liza Laserow, the husband-and-wife co-founders of Nordic Knots, who first met at a Manhattan bar. The couple soon abandoned their day jobs and decamped to Sweden, where they launched the Scandi textile brand to address the market’s lack of quality rugs that aren’t outrageously expensive. Their hunch proved fruitful—in the years since, Nordic Knots has grown steadily and resonated with stateside tastemakers thanks to collaborations with Garance Vallée, Campbell-Rey, and Giancarlo Valle, who converted a historic Stockholm cinema into their flagship showroom. Their second home beckoned as the brand’s profile rose, though, and they relinked with Valle to transform a SoHo storefront into their first U.S. outpost.

Berglund and Laserow intend for the store, which opened in mid-June, to forge a sense of home for themselves and the brand’s growing U.S. customer base. That’s achieved through personal touches—a Sissòn painting, an antique Axel Einar Hjorth worktable, vintage lighting by Palle Suenson—as well as sweeping gestures like floor-to-ceiling windows outfitted with sheer curtains, casting a heavenly glow. Drawing inspiration from archive rooms, oversize steel cabinets contain an array of rug samples, sparking the nostalgia of discovering books in a library. The atmosphere is warm, welcoming, and reflects what the founders describe as a “big city vibe”—qualities they’re sure to nail again when they expand to Los Angeles next year. —Ryan Waddoups

STAY
Soho House São Paulo Takes Residence in Cidade Matarazzo

Late last year, Soho House opened the doors to its first Latin American members club and hotel with its Mexico City house. Now, with the arrival of its São Paulo club and accommodations, the brand stakes its first claim in South America. Located within Cidade Matarazzo, a cloister of historic buildings in the heart of São Paulo, members and hotel guests will find 32 bedrooms, club spaces inclusive of a game room, sitting room, and courtyard, as well as a restaurant, bar, and rooftop pool within its neoclassical architecture.

With works by more than 60 artists “born, based, or trained in Brazil,” Soho House also upholds its reputation for amassing formidable contemporary art collections at each of its outposts. Take in the breadth of the collection, which includes a Surrealist bar mural by Marcelo Cipis, over a Casa Verde—a Caipirinha-inspired house cocktail custom created for the new house. —Jenna Adrian-Diaz

READ
A Rare, Unflinching Portrait of Francis Bacon

It was a meeting of the Francises—Bacon, the sulfurous painter of the tortured postwar psyche; and Giacobetti, whose unorthodox lens brought dashes of elegance to nude photography. Just months before the former’s death, in 1992, he granted the latter a rare series of interviews and sittings in his cluttered London studio, which Giacobetti would later describe as looking “as if a plane had crashed into the two-room flat.” His vulnerable photographs of Bacon and the excerpts from their wide-ranging conversations illustrate the disheveled inner workings of a tormented enigma, which inspired Giacobetti to create a series of original images inspired by the dialogue they shared. It all comes together in “Francis Bacon by Francis Giacobetti,” a new Assouline volume that relates an unflinching portrait of one of the 20th century’s most vital illustrators of the soul’s distorted depths. —R.W.

PLAY
Neon Nostalgia Lights Up This Psychedelic Roller Rink

Taking notes from the Memphis Group, the newly opened Xanadu Roller Arts adds a dash of neon nostalgia to Bushwick’s techno-fueled nightlife scene. The 16,000-square-foot roller disco founded by Varun Kataria, the owner of the maximalist supper club Turk’s Inn, blurs the lines between childhood memory and adult antics, with skate-clad pole dancing and a not-so-secret club hidden in one of the bathrooms. Beverage director Keri Smith’s technicolor cocktails follow suit, like the blue spirulina and aloe-based “Skaterade.” The suped-up concession stand dishes out international hot dog flights (topped with whole pierogis or mushroom chile crisp), garam masala spiced popcorn, and Oreo ambrosia salad. Wash it all down with a grape soda cocktail and—carefully—hit the rink. —Abby Saldana

SHOP
Italian Leather and Danish Minimalism Collide at Lié Studio

The cult-favorite jewelry and leather label recently opened a Copenhagen flagship a stone’s throw from the likes of Tekla, Baum und Pferdgarten, and Sotheby’s in the city’s Old Town neighborhood. There, behind a copper, steel, and glass facade, Danish architect Julius Nielsen has blended furnishings from Cassina, Vitra, and Ingo Maurer to create a timeless home for Lié studio’s Italian leather goods and 18-carat gold jewelry—albeit one inflected with Scandinavian minimalism. The pièce de résistance is doubtlessly the lacquered madrona display case purpose-built for the shop and inspired by old-school apothecaries. —J.A.D.

SAVOR
A Streetwear Stalwart Fashions a Brasserie-Style New American Haunt

Ben Shenassafar, of the cult-favorite streetwear label The Hundreds, has another feather in his cap as the founder of newly minted Hollywood brasserie The Benjamin. Interiors by Jared Meisler pay homage to its setting in a 1920s Art Deco building, with a solid oak bar, “wedding cake” frosted glass pendants, olive velvet banquettes, and brass accents aplenty. For something savory, dig into executive chef Johnny Cirelle’s whole roasted branzino with red chimichurri and charred lemon. Or, for those feeling “just desserts,” we recommend pairing the sticky toffee pudding with a house specialty cocktail, like the apricot spritz. —J.A.D.

OBSESS
MCM x Harper Collective: Upcycled Luggage

The leather goods and luggage house MCM is perhaps best known for its distinctive monogram, but its newest release is, intentionally, rendered in plastic. That’s because MCM joined forces with Jaden Smith and Sebastian Manes’s Harper Collective to reclaim ocean plastic and transform it into a three-piece suitcase collection. Whether you opt for the cabin, expandable, or checked sizes, know that each is made in Milan from at least 70 percent of the recycled material. From $1,050. —J.A.D.