Friday, 2 October 2026

LINKED UP 138

Can art still illuminate reality in an age of monetised attention, generative AI, and culture produced at limitless scale? (The MIT Press Reader)

There’s a glut of information, entertainment, and everything in between out there. We asked 10 media-savvy people – all experts in their respective fields – how they stay on top of it all. (CULTURED)

It started as an internet outpost for die-hard music fans. Then came success. Then came corporate ownership. (NYT)

The Afterlives of Okayplayer
The story of a message board that changed hip-hop forever. (Hearing Things)

Public Enemy’s fourth album is often overlooked but it’s a true killer. (The Quietus)

Twenty years after The Radio Dept. left their second album behind with mixed feelings, Pet Grief is returning to vinyl as the band find a new generation of listeners. Johan Duncanson tells Jack Le Feuvre how he finally learned to hear the record differently. (The Line of Best Fit)

The Japanese music legend talks art, AI and his latest album with super-fan Ezra Koenig. (FT)

These XL Recordings signees are not the new Brokencyde – they’re way better. (The FADER)


Blondshell’s Sabrina Teitelbaum writes some of the sharpest breakup songs you’ll hear these days. With her third album, Violins, newly out, she spent some time selecting what she calls the sexiest songs ever made. (Playboy)

Herb Sundays 197: JP Haynie (Actual Source)
The co-founder of publisher/design studio/brand Actual Source, shares music that inspires his own recordings plus taste, shame and Nirvana. (Herb Sundays)

British artist Mark Leckey curated the soundtrack for Louise Trotter’s latest Bottega Veneta show, drawing on his iconic video work Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore. (AnOther)

If the city had a font, would his lettering be it? (NYT)

On the occasion of Lowman’s exhibition at David Zwirner, the artist met with Dan Cameron to discuss his early life in California, the stories behind some of his new paintings, and what it means to make an artwork not only as a tribute, but as a way of learning. (The Brooklyn Rail)

David Shrigley: “Very Strange, Figurative, Slushy, Squishy Paintings – I Love That Aesthetic”
Lotte Brundle meets the visual artist at his studio in Brighton. (Country Life)


Joseph Szabo’s pictures capture American adolescents’ spontaneous presence and loose-limbed, insouciant grace. (New Yorker)

Penn & Fashion traces Irving Penn’s fashion and beauty photography over more than six decades. (NYT)

Secret History of Colour: Yves Klein Blue
The ultimate IYKYK colour. (The Rose Period)

Fitzcarraldo – Inside the Chicest Publisher on Earth
Jacques Testard is transforming our reading habits, one blue book at a time. (FT) 

The architect tours the Gilded Age mansion after its $220mn revamp. (FT)

The artist on 2Pac, new boxer shorts and ‘old’ New York. (FT)

Once criticised for its modern soundtrack and pastel aesthetics, the director’s portrait of royal ennui is now being honoured in the chateau where it was filmed. (NYT)

Night Bloom
For over five decades, David Lynch called Los Angeles home. After his passing, the late auteur remains a fixture in the city. (Family Style)

In London, a New Flagship for Alex Eagle
The designer signed on to creative direct the whole of 180 the Thames, a new lifestyle hub on the north bank of the Thames. Then she moved her own business there. (NYT)

The Complicated Comfort of London’s Bus Garage Cafes
Only a few depot canteens are still open to the public – and they’re like a “hidden level in the video game of city life”. (Broadsheet London) 

Moods September 2026 (Moodmail)  

Friday, 25 September 2026

LINKED UP 137

From now on, I only want to recommend or be recommended to. (Side Projects)

The Opportunity of Anonymity
How forums, blogs and faceless archive pages gave outsiders a way into culture, and quietly changed who gets to shape it. (HIDDEN.RSRCH)

From Converse to Ed Sheeran, Let’s End These Tedious Apology Tours
Converse, Oxford United, and Ed Sheeran all got dragged through the same ritual for mistakes that were accidental or not even theirs. (ADWEEK)

Notes on a (dying?) dream job. (Blackbird Spyplane)

When Jonny Met Katharine
Cover star Katharine Hamnett meets Sports Banger’s Jonny Banger to talk four decades of political fashion, protest, and why she’s still fighting. (i-D)

Oi Polloi, One of the World’s Best Menswear Stores, Is Back
And oh, how we’ve missed it. (Esquire)

Must Dressing for Tennis Be So… Literal?
Notions on taste, convention, and bringing the outside in. (Court Date)

Inside the Bag: The History of Yoshida & Co.
We take a look at Yoshida & Co., a Japanese bagmaking powerhouse known across the globe for its iconic Tanker bags and other accessories. (Heddels)

Service Projects Wants to Make Everyday Objects Better
From brushed stainless steel mugs to American-inspired diner cups, founder Philip Seerup is rethinking the objects we use every day. (Sprezza)


Oftentimes the smallest objects have the greatest significance. For artist Nate Lowman, it matters where you look. (Family Style)

Arthur Jafa, Art’s Great Disrupter, Readies a ‘Big Bang’
“I Am Tony,” the artist’s largest museum survey to date, carries a powerful message about identity “forged in the holds of slave ships”. (NYT)

“It’s Weirdly Helpful to Get Lost Along the Way” – How to Make a Film With John Wilson
The director chats to It’s Nice That about his first feature film, The History of Concrete, and the process by which his comedic explorations of the banal become so beautiful. (It’s Nice That)

A new photobook highlights the process of the legendary queer photographer, and his process of growing into the artist he ultimately became. (Huck)

In the Swiss Alps, a Sprawling Chalet That Still Feels Cozy
For his first European project, the American designer Billy Cotton recast a home in Gstaad as a vibrant family retreat. (NYT)

An Evening at Chez Paul
Faced with a spare evening in Paris, we could think of nothing more suitable than a decadent and indulgent trip through French cuisine. (Drake’s)


The Chris Black Questionnaire
On peptides in the film fridge, “Chris vitamins,” and the loneliness of Lanserhof. (Magasin)

Roxy’s Tales – Chrissie Miller: The Downtown Cool Girl of Y2K New York
“This week on Roxy’s Tales, we’re sitting down with Chrissie Miller. Founder of the Y2K-era clothing brand Sophomore and the very definition of downtown cool. Chrissie didn’t just participate in early 2000s New York fashion, music and nightlife; she helped build it. And it all started with a handful of cheeky graphic tees.” (Spotify)

These Photos Offer a Rare Glimpse Into Grime’s Early Days
Featuring red-eye flights with Wiley to clashes with Skepta, D Double E and Dizzee Rascal, photojournalist Jamie-James Medina unpacks his new photobook, Hate Is a Strong Word – and solves one of grime’s most enduring mysteries. (Dazed)

35 Years On: A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory Revisited
Angus Batey revisits the history and lasting legacy of A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory. (The Quietus)

A History of Hip-Hop’s Obsession With Lean
An in-depth look into the past and present of rap’s favourite drug. (Hearing Things)

Thousands of knock-off records worth a fortune are being seized in the UK by anti-counterfeit police stings. (The Guardian)


Blondshell Works Out What She Wants by Saying It Out Loud
Three albums in as Blondshell, Sabrina Teitelbaum keeps transforming grievance into forgiveness, and handing some of the blame back to herself along the way. (The Line of Best Fit)

Chad Gilbert, New Found Glory’s Founding Guitarist, Dies Aged 45
Gilbert’s family says he died “peacefully in his sleep” months after ‘My Friends Over You’ musician shared stage four cancer diagnosis. (The Guardian)

Tuesday, 22 September 2026

DENIM TEARS FROM THE POOL OF BLACK GENIUS

Tremaine Emory’s Denim Tears From the Pool of Black Genius is now on view until January 11th 2027 at the SCAD Museum of Art.

“Denim Tears founder and creative visionary Tremaine Emory highlights his sources of inspiration from the “Pool of Black Genius” featuring works by Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Alma Thomas, Faith Ringgold and others from the SCAD Museum of Art’s Permanent Collection, as well as an extensive display of contemporary works by his collaborators and other artists he is in dialogue with, including Arthur Jafa, Hank Willis Thomas, David Hammons, and more, shown alongside his designs and works from his personal archive.”

Saturday, 19 September 2026

POPEYE: THIS IS LONDON

The October 2026 edition of POPEYE magazine explores London’s new brands, shops, skate culture, South London jazz, music bars, fashion and everyday city life – all through POPEYE’s unmistakable “Magazine for City Boys” perspective. Available here.

Friday, 18 September 2026

LINKED UP 136

How a quiet quarter full of offices became the favoured hangout for in-the-know Londoners – and Charli XCX. (The Londoner)

6 of London’s Best Underground Photo Bookshops
We spoke to the minds behind six of the city’s most elusive art, photography and culture bookstores – here’s everything you need to know before visiting… (Dazed)

Counter Culture Offers Photographic Ode to New York City’s Enduring Diners
A new photo book preserves the longtime city staples. (Gothamist)

Hard Parties, Cheap Rents and Horrible Flats: How 90s Art and Fashion Redefined British Culture
An evocative new Tate Britain show captures an era when the UK’s newly flush creative industries teamed up with a generation of skint dreamers to bring the decade into vivid colour. (The Guardian)

From photo shoots with Helmut Newton to birthday antics with Anna Wintour, the legendary fashion editor shares the stories behind her remarkable career. (W Magazine)

A Harlem Renaissance Party to End All Parties
After the maverick director William Greaves convened the movement’s remaining members, it took 50 years and his family to bring the fireworks to the screen. (NYT)

Gordon Parks as His Subjects Knew Him
Isabella Rossellini, Lonnie Ali, Anderson Cooper and other relatives of those who figured in the celebrated photographer’s portraiture bolster a new exhibition at the Jack Shainman Gallery. (NYT)

Rita Ackermann Doesn’t Have to Explain Her Work to You
The artist, an enfant terrible of the 1990s, has embraced a quieter, more enigmatic style. Just don’t ask her what it all means. (NYT)

FFNY in Conversation: Clayton Patterson
The Lower East Side, Tompkins Square Park, hardcore, outsiders, and a life spent documenting the people New York might have forgotten. (Friends From New York)

The Intricate Making of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette
During the making of Marie Antoinette, photographer Andrew Durham wandered the streets of Versailles with a 35mm camera. Twenty years on, more than 350 of his images have been gathered in a new book. (AnOther) 

When Blink-182 Was My Neighbour
25 years ago, the band brought a wrecking ball to the house next to mine for a music video. Then history happened. (Vulture)

Clairo Talks New Music, Touring, and the First Time She Met Charli XCX
Before Charli brought Clairo onstage at her July show in Brooklyn, the two caught up about making music, working with friends, and the importance of devoting yourself to your art. (WYouth)

Your Favourite Music Producer’s Favourite Magazine
Tape Op keeps the DIY dream of the ’90s alive. (Totei)

Making a Magazine Is a Hilarious Exercise
The eyes, minds, hands (and breasts) behind our Fall 2026 issue. (Playboy)

Thursday, 17 September 2026

CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF IRAK

Photography by Alain Levitt.

Saturday, 12 September 2026

STÜSSY IN OSAKA

Friday, 11 September 2026

LINKED UP 135

Underground chemists are now producing the notorious party drug after a Scorsese film sparked renewed interest. (The Guardian)

Kleptos at Claridge’s: What’s OK to Steal From the World’s Best Hotels? 
Some guests walk away with more than just memories – a lot more. But what’s permissible to pinch and what’s a five-star felony? We investigate. (Town & Country)

Down With the Breakfast Meeting
Will Hosie has been a breakfast refusenik since he first learnt the joy of lying in. As Londoners flock to breakfast meetings, can he bring himself to join in the fun? (Country Life)

The rise of “luxury” grocery stores feels deeply sinister. (Eater)

Civilisations can carry a surprising number of parasites and live. But there’s a line – Rome crossed it, the Gilded Age toed it, and for the first time in history, we can measure it. (The Grim Historian)

A Print Magazine for Teens? In This Economy?
Sara Moonves managed to save and expand W, a fashion and culture magazine. Her next bet is on WYouth. (NYT)

Kirsty Godso, Hailey Bieber’s Trainer, Talks Pain, Positivity and Perfect Abs
Meet the fitness guru who gets the A-list into shape. (FT)

François Halard Talks Taste
The French photographer loves tantric art, ’90s garage and his Glengarry cashmere beanie. (FT)

Chris Black Can’t Slow Down
The How Long Gone co-host and founder of Hanover opens up about everything. (SSENSE)

Jerry Hsu’s Empty Space
The skateboarder and photographer opens up about his new photobook How About Never, his creative process, and living alone for the first time in years. (SSENSE)

Flow State Style
From skate parks to tennis courts, Palmes Society’s Nikolaj Hansson will forever be in love with lived-in style. (BAGEL)

How Terminal Skateshop Became an Uptown Skate Destination From a Sixth-Floor Walk-Up
For over 20 years, Eugene Kang’s skateshop has served the community – from the sixth-floor of his walk-up apartment building. (V Magazine)

Carpet Company Is Playing the Long Game
Despite a new flagship store and a slew of high-profile collabs, the Baltimore skate brand’s founders are committed to keeping things DIY. (GQ)

Can a 125-Year-Old Prep Institution Become a $100 Million Menswear Giant?
Led by creative director Jack Carlson, J. Press has an ambitious plan to bring its old-school Ivy style to the masses. “$100 million is not a massive company,” Carlson tells GQ. “That’s where we probably should be.” (GQ)

Emma Cline on Switzy – “How Would You Survive Those Days, Knowing What’s Coming?”
The American novelist’s Booker-longlisted new novel follows a man with Alzheimer’s on his final journey to an assisted-dying clinic in Zurich. (FT)

Matthew Schnipper on Grief, Art, and Learning (Not) to Be Like Henry Rollins
“It’s better to be connected than isolated.” (Futurism Restated)

Lucien Smith, Whose Meteoric Rise Presaged a Diverse Second Act, Dies at 37
Originally known for his contributions to the abstract painting boom of the 2010s, Smith shifted to channel his talents into art-adjacent efforts such as a nonprofit online registry for unsigned artists (Serving the People) and a revival of Food, the renowned restaurant-cum-art project that fed SoHo’s artists in the 1970s. (Artforum)

Jay Maisel, Photographer of Miles Davis and Much More, Dies at 95
His moody portrait became the album cover for Kind of Blue. Mr. Maisel lived and worked in an old bank that he bought for $102,000 and sold for $55 million. (NYT)

The Day After 9/11 Through the Lens of Skate Photographer Mike O’Meally 
“The streets were so empty. People were kinda waving us on, it was a weird optimistic outlook.” (Jenkem)

Revisiting Dipset’s Complicated and Provocative Relationship With 9/11
The 9/11 terrorist attacks were a unifying moment for the US. Hip-hop had a more complicated relationship: part patriotic, part provocative. No act better exemplified this than Dipset. (okayplayer)

Sunday, 6 September 2026

HOW CLARKS BECAME A NEW YORK STAPLE

Friday, 4 September 2026

LINKED UP 134

Chris Black: My Skill Set Is Bringing Together the Best People
Part one of my conversation with the How Long Gone co-host. Part two here. (Human Pursuits)

There’s something, one might say, in the water. And it’s probably slightly more expensive water. Here are the five to drink. (Gentleman’s Journal)

Booze, Food & Sex: The US Open Edition
Honey Deuces, chicken nuggets, caviar, ATP hotties and Brat-Tamers rule in New York City. (BAGEL)

How Many Jerseys Is Too Many?
In the Premier League, a limit may not exist. (Reuters)

Dads and Dudes: The Two Style Clans That Dominate Menswear
The ‘dad’ look favours straight lines and muted colours, while ‘dudes’ prefer baggier clothes with adornments. (The Guardian)

The Swedes Who Dared to Stand Out
The Swedish fashion brand Acne Studios broke out three decades ago with one pair of jeans, kicking off a wave of Scandi fashion that hasn’t stopped. (NYT)

Inside Dozer: A Conversation With Justinian Mason
On Fake Ivy, the new wave of prep, community, and where Dozer goes next. (Easy on the Ivy)

Dressing up for Life With Sandy Liang
On the occasion of her new Rizzoli monograph, Dressing Up: Sandy Liang, the designer reflects on building her brand and the future of the “Sandy Girl”. (SSENSE)

The House of Shelter
Founded in London in 2023 by Andrew Westermann and Morell Maison, Shelter sits somewhere between a creative studio, consultancy and cultural intermediary, though neither founder is particularly interested in defining it too neatly. (to Be)

James Frey by Asher Penn
“If you look for stories in your life, you will find them.” (Sex Magazine)

Edward Enninful on The 90s: “If There Were Phones We’d All Be Cancelled!”
Ahead of Tate Britain’s expansive new exhibition The 90s: Art and Fashion, Enninful talks us through curating the show, past rivalries with Dazed, and the one item that slipped through his fingers. (Dazed)

William Meyers may be in his 80s, but he only picked up professional photography when he was 60. Across the past 25 years, he’s been photographing New York City – not its officials or politicians, but the rooms in which democracy happens. (It’s Nice That)

Pro Skater-Turned-Photographer Jerry Hsu Takes Us Inside His Breakup in a New Photobook
The pro skater moved to Los Angeles for love. A new monograph from MACK chronicles the decline of his relationship and the beginning of his love affair with the incorrigible city. (CULTURED)

Prolific UK Graffiti Artist Helch Dies
Artist rose to prominence in 2018 by painting his eponymous tag in public spots across southern England. (The Guardian)

How Graffiti Artist Helch Left His Mark All Over Shoreditch and Beyond
Wandering the streets of Shoreditch, it’s impossible not to spot ‘HELCH’ – or a simple ‘H’ – emblazoned on walls. (The Standard)

The 8 Ball: An Oral History of Bungalow 8, the Nightclub That Changed New York
In the early aughts, everyone who was anyone (and those who wanted to be) packed into Amy Sacco’s Chelsea nightclub – think George Clooney, Sting, and Demi Moore. Derek C. Blasberg talks to the designers, artists, moguls, and aspiring somebodies who packed in the banquettes to light up, get close, and shut it down. (Vanity Fair)

Herb Sundays in Focus: Electro 1997-2005 (Electroclash, New Electro, Disco Nouveau) Part 2
Stories and favourites from the front lines + I was an Electro Malcontent + unseen photos by Will Calcutt. (Herb Sundays)

The 25 Best Future Projects
Freebandz Gang unite! (The Linx)

Thursday, 3 September 2026

THE PALACE CREATIVE UNIVERSE FOR WALLPAPER

Palace Skateboards guest-edits the October 2026 issue of Wallpaper magazine, with the founders turning the lens from themselves to profile the wide-reaching Palace community. Check it out here.

Tuesday, 1 September 2026

IN THE DETAILS – VICTOR MUÑOZ

Reigning Champ recently caught up with Vicente Muñoz of Pro Shop at his studio in New York City. Read the full story and watch the film here.

Monday, 31 August 2026

THAMES SHIELD SCARF

The Assembly neck scarf by THAMES MMXX. Available here.

Sunday, 30 August 2026

THE HISTORY OF CONCRETE

“Following the finale of his acclaimed HBO series How To with John Wilson, NYC documentarian John Wilson looks to the bedrock of his beloved New York City for inspiration and structure. Concrete, the world’s most widely used building material, appears as an ever-present life force, and John sets out to make the definitive documentary on the matter.”

Saturday, 29 August 2026

TURNSTILE – NEVER ENOUGH: VERSIONS

Listen here.

Friday, 28 August 2026

LINKED UP 133

Everyone wants to be culturally relevant, but what even is culture anyway? (Protein)

Welcome to the Era of Microsnobberies
Now you’re judged on your children’s lunch boxes and whether your olive oil has a story. (WaPo)

How a Highbrow Novel Became Celebrity Gossip 
Life of M, Rachel Cusk’s new book, has a protagonist with an uncanny resemblance to Natalie Portman. But in an interview, Cusk says she never expected it would cause such a frenzy. (NYT)

The Secret History of the Lost First Edition of Brideshead Revisited
Evelyn Waugh’s beloved novel was published first in Town & Country, but it might look a bit different from the copy on your bookshelf. To honour our anniversary, we’re bringing the original out of the archives. (Town & Country)

The new series depicts a Reagan-era Los Angeles of absent parents, rampant drug use, and near-death experiences. It’s not entirely fictional. (Town & Country)

The author of a new book about “The Beverly Hills Housewife” recalls that when Hockney painted Freeman, he made much more than just a legendary image. (Town & Country)

Preserving the fashion industry’s history and heritage is a colourful, creative business. We head to Spain, London and New York to visit three archives that are inspiring the next generation. (Monocle)

Teddy Blanks, the Chips co-founder behind the title sequences for Barbie, Weapons and Robert Eggers’ upcoming Werwulf, explains how eBay dolls, hidden AA symbolism and a 14th Century manuscript all found their way into his lettering. (It’s Nice That)

Taryn Segal on her zine of photographs of oddities and the absurd. (Monster Children)

Melissa Auf Der Maur’s Chronicle of Nineties Rock
The photographer, who played bass for Hole and the Smashing Pumpkins, captured a moment in which one generation’s subculture became the next generation’s mainstream. (New Yorker)

Lily Allen, One Year On
A candid conversation with Lily Allen, caught backstage in the middle of the UK leg of her epic, 62-date West End Girl tour. (Perfect)

Celebrating the Unsung Heroes of Black British Music With Escaping Babylon Author, Jesse Bernard
Jesse Bernard sits down with Rob Kazandjian to talk about some of the lesser known voices he spotlighted in his book to trace their impact on British culture. (DJ Mag)

Herb Sundays 190: Electro 1997–2005 (Electroclash, New Disco, Disco Nouveau) Part 1
Electroclash never truly existed, but the feeling was immense. Memoirs of the new Electro era part one. (Herb Sundays)

Inside Paul Smith’s Nottingham Archive, a Treasure Trove of British Fashion
Wallpaper takes a trip to Nottingham to discover Paul Smith’s career-spanning archive, which continues to inform the label’s collections today. (Wallpaper)

What the Ladies Are Wearing This Summer
We asked our friends what they're wearing right now, and they delivered. (Sprezza)

Has Cricket Bowled Over the Fashion Set?
The sport is becoming a chic summer fixture – here’s how to get the look, even if you don’t understand the rules. (The Standard)



The legacy of the U.S. Open goes way beyond Flushing Meadows. (Town & Country)

Thursday, 27 August 2026

BAGEL X OPEN COURT: NEW YORK IN PLAY

A snapshot of the contemporary New York music scene to celebrate the start of the US Open, courtesy of BAGEL magazine and Open Court. Listen here.

KITS AT CARNI 2025

A look-back at last year’s Notting Hill Carnival edition of Kits at…, photographer Aaron Hettey’s documentary series spotlighting football kits as the uniform of celebration. 

Check out more of Aaron’s work here.