In Brooklyn, a New Gathering Space for Tower Records

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Tower Records Returns With a Brooklyn Gathering Place

When musicians want to celebrate the release of an album, they’ll once again gather at Tower Records — its first new location in 16 years, called Tower Labs. After the iconic music seller shut its doors in 2006, there was a period of mourning: In 2015, Colin Hanks released a documentary featuring the likes of Elton John and Dave Grohl (who once worked at the Washington, D.C., location in the early ’90s), charting its impact and lamenting its closure. But in 2020, Tower Records relaunched as an online store — and this November marks its physical reincarnation. Located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the wood-paneled, warmly lit space was designed by the creative director Rebecca Zeijdel-Paz and the architect Louis Rambert, known for his work on the Lower East Side shop Beverly’s NYC. Customers will be able to pick up limited-edition vinyl records and merch from a window on Kent Avenue, while intimate concerts will be held on a stage with speakers custom-made by the New York D.J. Booker Mitchell. “The intention of Tower Labs is for artists and bands to host personal gatherings with their community, similar to a backstage experience,” says Tower Records’ president, Danny Zeijdel. “In an increasingly digital world, it is imperative for artists to have a physical space where they can connect and create.” Tower Labs opens Nov. 4, tower.com.

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A Surrealist Set of Gardening Tools

When Richard Christiansen, the Australian creative director behind Los Angeles’s Flamingo Estate, first met Duncan Campbell of the British design studio Campbell-Rey during a 2018 trip to Marrakesh, the aesthetes bonded over the city’s grand Jardin Majorelle as well as their own budding botanical ambitions. “Duncan is one of the few people I know who can also geek out over an English rose,” says Christiansen. Once back at their respective homes, they carried on their floriculture conversation, fawning over the flowers found on each other’s Instagram feeds — and commiserating over the less-than-inspiring landscaping supplies in their yards. The latter subject led Christiansen to make a proposal: Would Campbell and his business partner, Charlotte Rey, create gardening tools as romantically refined as the duo’s signature consoles and coupe glasses? In a nod to the surrealist imaginings of Salvador Dalí, Les Lalanne and Elsa Schiaparelli, the resulting limited-edition, trompe l’oeil spade and garden fork pairing incorporates a number of the 150 species grown on Flamingo Estate’s sprawling seven acres: The fork’s tines were meticulously sculpted to resemble fleshy aloe vera leaves, while the curved handle of the banana leaf-shaped trowel recalls a nightshade plant’s unfolding petals. Handcrafted at the third-generation Collier Webb foundry on England’s south coast, the patinated solid bronze set, which Campbell and Rey put to the test in their gardens on the outskirts of London, is surprisingly weighty — and completely wondrous. “They’re beautiful, decorative objects that you can actually use,” notes Rey. To which Christiansen adds, “I say let’s get them as muddy and dirty as possible.” Available from Nov. 1, price on request, flamingoestate.com.

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The Row Revisits Its Vintage Runway Accessories

When Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen staged the Row’s spring 2023 show at a grand Parisian hôtel particulier this past September, some models carried subtle, glistening surprises: petite gilded bronze boîtes created by Line Vautrin — the 20th-century French artist whose imaginative, intricately crafted jewels were once worn by the likes of Françoise Sagan, Ingrid Bergman and Yves Saint Laurent — and sourced from the collection of Mon Vintage founder Marie Blanchet. “The Row’s authentic reverence for vintage is like no other,” says the archivist, who also helped Mary-Kate curate a range of secondhand sartorial treasures (a 1967 Madame Grès dress; a Yohji Yamamoto coat from his spring 1999 wedding collection) for the Row’s e-commerce site last year. Starting Nov. 1, those decorative boxes — as well as 12 additional Vautrin designs from 1930 to 1965, including a multicolored Murano glass necklace and a chunky bracelet handmade from lightweight Talosel resin — will be available to purchase at the Row’s London boutique, followed by the brand’s New York and Los Angeles locations. Shown alongside equally enduring leather handbags and refined ready-to-wear, the traveling display presents a rare opportunity to take in — and perhaps even take home — the one-of-a-kind collectibles. As Blanchet puts it, “They are pieces of art that go beyond fashion.” Price on request.

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A Maximalist Collaboration From Cabana and Liberty

When Martina Mondadori moved from Milan to London in 2012, she would often visit Liberty, the British department store. Its shelves of fabrics and haberdashery matched her love of a layered space, which she would eventually showcase in the pages of her interior and decorative arts publication, Cabana, when it launched in 2014. Now, coinciding with the magazine’s 18th issue, Mondadori has collaborated on a line of housewares with Liberty, pulling from the company’s 147-year history of textile making.

While Mondadori began making housewares in 2017 under the name Casa Cabana, partnering with Liberty meant gaining access to its print archive. Choosing which patterns to use had the potential for overwhelm, but Mondadori was decisive: She spent just a single day looking through the historic artworks and swatches hidden away in oversize books and labeled boxes, settling quickly on a selection of four patterns and a solid mustard yellow. The resulting collection of bedding (cushions, sheet sets, reversible quilts) and table textiles (place mats, napkins, tablecloths) are meant to be mixed and matched. For inspiration on how to style the patterns together, those in London should make a trip to Liberty, where on the fourth floor, Mondadori has arranged a scene pulled out of the pages of Cabana. A long table is set under a souk-inspired canopy made of hand-printed Cabana x Liberty cotton material. In another nook, Uzbek suzani fabrics are draped on Liberty’s lofted walls above twin beds dressed in autumnal sheets. From $110, cabanamagazine.com.

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Kate Nash Songs Come to the Stage in the Musical ‘Only Gold’

One of my favorite go-to songs about unrequited love is Kate Nash’s “Nicest Thing,” from the London-born singer-songwriter’s 2007 debut album, “Made of Bricks.” But it was still exciting to hear the kooky lo-fi tune placed in the middle of a new Off Broadway musical, “Only Gold” (in previews now at MCC; opening Nov. 7), to encapsulate the longing, both requited and not, between a king and his queen; a princess and her betrothed; and a watchmaker and his wife. All of this unspools in a stripped-back stage version of 1920s Paris, where Nash stars as narrator, connecting the story lines and performing snippets of songs for which she’s known — at least by her many fans — alongside new ones she wrote for the show. She was brought on to the project a decade or so ago by its director and choreographer, Andy Blankenbuehler, whose syncopated style won him his third Tony for “Hamilton” in 2016, and who co-wrote the book for this “dance musical,” as they’re calling it, with the playwright Ted Malawer. If its set and staging are minimal, that’s only because the play foregrounds the power and movement of its ensemble who, of course, need lots of space to spin around while Nash sings beautifully along. mcctheater.org.

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An Iconic Lamp in a Bright New Shade

Richard Sapper created the lamp he wanted but couldn’t find when he made the elegant yet functional Tizio lamp in 1972. The clever design incorporated two counterweights and a swivel base, which allowed it to direct light in any direction, plus a halogen bulb whose previous application had mostly been limited to industrial use. Although it was developed in the ’70s, the angular design really hit its stride in the 1980s as an affordable icon of high-tech minimalism. As a young investment banker new to the city, I ogled it in the windows of the home shop D.F. Sanders on Madison Avenue and it became my first design purchase. Fifty years later, the Tizio lamp endures. To celebrate the occasion, Artemide has produced a fiery red version with one update that keeps it cutting edge: an energy-saving LED bulb. Starting at $480, artemide.net.

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