What’s Happening: With newly opened retail destination Tons, two fashion veterans are bringing Maison Margiela, Jil Sander, Yohji Yamamoto, and more to the City of Steel.

The Download: The mall may be dying in cities across America, but in Pittsburgh it’s alive and well: early in 2023, Gucci caused a ruckus in Pittsburgh by opening its newest boutique in the city’s Ross Park Mall. The brand joined Louis Vuitton and Burberry—two other grande dames of luxury fashion—as well as fine jewelry powerhouse Tiffany & Co. But just across the Allegheny River, in the city’s enterprising East Liberty neighborhood, Tons is ushering in a distinctly indie approach by bringing the likes of Coperni, Marni, Marine Serre, and more to the city’s denizens.

Even to those familiar with Pittsburgh’s tech and design-driven turnaround, news of ritzy fashion labels setting up shop in the former Rust Belt raises eyebrows. In the wake of the region’s post-industrial decline, Microsoft and Google have flocked to the city while the holdings of former steel magnates have been enshrined in museums and landmarks.

America’s second and third cities represent a significant opportunity to meet aspirational and high-value clients where they’re at geographically. It’s no longer necessary to live in (or even visit) New York, L.A., or Miami for choice pickings of designer goods—a truth acknowledged at the highest levels of industry. “The growth in cities like Nashville or Charlotte, it’s structural,” François-Henri Pinault, CEO of Gucci parent company Kering, recently said. “It’s not going to disappear.”

Back in East Liberty, a mix of local musicians, gallerists, students, tech workers, and NFL players and their significant others make up the mix of high-low spenders that Tons founder Diana Kucenic and head of buying Lisa Kologreeva have become acquainted with in the lead-up to the grand opening.

“We’re trying to tailor the store to a diverse audience,” Kologreeva says of Tons’s merchandising strategy, wherein a shopper could spend as little as $15 on Aesop hand sanitizer or well into the five figures on a single head-to-toe look. In addition to attainable beauty purchases, cotton tees, totes, and hats from lifestyle brand Sporty & Rich, Vetements underthings allow the shop to make inroads with clients for whom $500 Margiela Tabi sneakers are out of reach.

“New York and L.A. stores can do great pop-ups with all the major brands and bring all the celebrities, but in smaller cities, you have to surround yourself with all people who might be interested in the fashion, in shopping,” Kologreeva says. With her credentials as a former stylist and fashion editor, and Kucenic’s years spent as a fashion buyer, the duo are poised to offer high spenders an experience unlike anywhere else in Pittsburgh. The duo keep Veuve Clicquot on hand for shoppers who prefer to take in the season’s newest ready-to-wear over bubbles, and place custom orders from the Paris fashion houses upon request.

In Their Own Words: “If you talk about Pittsburgh, specifically, I would say 90 percent of the designers [we carry] are not represented by any other store,” Kologreeva says. “Many brands were excited about Tons because they’re never going to bring the brand here.”

Surface Says: With the ever-growing premium placed on tunnel fashion, and the style-savvy of Steelers players like Tre Norwood and Pressley Harvin III, Tons stands to become something of an MVP on the local fashion scene.

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If you have any doubts that the art market is thriving, Christie’s November 2022 auction of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s collection should put them to rest. The charity sale surged past the previous auction record of $922 million to hit $1.5 billion, an emphatic punctuation to end a strong year.

At this level of collecting, buying a piece of art isn’t a simple transaction—purchasing a Georges Seurat painting for $149 million, as one bidder did during the Allen auction, calls for expert planning and execution when it comes to the transporting, documenting, installing, protecting, and eventual legacy planning of the piece. To understand the possible pitfalls of art collecting and the importance of legacy planning, we spoke with Claire Marmion, Consultant at PURE Insurance; Capera Ryan, Deputy Chairman at Christie’s; and Daffan Nettle, Managing Director at UBS Private Wealth Management.

“My work is always about an idea, a material, and about exploration,” David Adjaye says. “It’s about pushing craft forward.” Anyone who has visited the Ghanaian-British architect’s masterful buildings—from The Webster’s grapefruit-hued L.A. flagship to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, which he sheathed in lacelike brown panels—can attest. But that notion also applies to smaller-scale objects, specifically the new Yaawa bronze furnishings that expand on his Monoform series and are inaugurating Carpenters Workshop Gallery’s new flagship in London’s historic Ladbroke Hall.

The collection—named after the word for “bronze” in Twi, one of the Indigenous Ghanaian languages—comprises eight limited-edition objects that showcase his new experiments with a material often found in his buildings and with a history of use in craft and weaponry. Each piece features ellipses and rounded edges, from the domestic-sized dining table and low triangular occasional tables to the fluid dining chair and elongated banquet table. They’re marked by a duality in surface finish—smooth and polished on top, but with a textured underside of thick, gestural fingerprints that imbue an element of discovery. Depending on the angle, they can look svelte and lustrous or sturdy and rough to the touch.

The pieces debut today at Ladbroke Hall. Adjaye Associates assisted Carpenters Workshop Gallery founders Julien Lombrail and Loic le Gaillard with the three-year-long renovation, which brought the Beaux Arts building back to its origins as a showpiece for craft. (Completed in 1903, the Notting Hill landmark was once a giant Edwardian car showroom and assembly plant.) Now it’s a hotbed for a more contemporary type of artisanship. A solo show dedicated to the late Brazilian designer Jose Zanine Caldas accompanies Yaawa, as do new spaces by designers on the gallery’s roster: a restaurant and boardroom by Vincenzo de Cotiis, a secret garden by Luciano Giubbilei, and a tequila bar by Michéle Lamy and Rick Owens.

Designing Delicious is produced in partnership with Dorsia, a members-only platform with access to reservations at the most in-demand restaurants in New York, Miami, and L.A.

Inspired by the inimitable sushi dens of Tokyo’s Ginza, Hiyakawa is one of Miami’s most highly regarded Japanese experiences. Housed inside an architectural space in the Wynwood Arts District, the restaurant is an artwork in its own right thanks to a mesmerizing blond-wood installation whose undulating forms call to mind the motion of the sea. From the street, it glows like an illuminated sculpture displayed triumphantly in a gallery; inside, chef Masayuki Komatsui is busy at work orchestrating his own performance art. “My best view of the restaurant is outside to see inside,” Komatsu says. “The guests are a piece of the art.”

The distinctive dining room serves as a stage for Hiyakawa’s nightly offering of tempuras, soups, grilled meats, and sushi, prepared with traditional techniques like agemono (deep fried), nimono (simmered), and yakimono (pan-fried or grilled). The sushi program truly shines thanks to Komatsu’s sashimi medley assembled with fish flown in from Tokyo’s Toyosu Fish Market.

The Japanese philosophy of kikubari, the art of caring for others similar to the Western concept of hospitality, is at the heart of Hiyakawa’s ethos. Patrons can expect beautifully crafted ceramic sake vessels and small wooden brushes to paint pieces of nigiri with aged soy sauces. Can’t-miss dishes include the yuzumiso Scottish salmon, lamb chops smoked in rosemary, and, of course, the omakase offered at the eight-seat bar.

The International Woolmark Prize, one of fashion’s most storied accolades, has released a short film called Dialogue to announce this year’s eight finalists. The film, directed by Partel Oliver, showcases how having conversations is key to the creative process. It honors American artist Joan Jonas, particularly her Delay, Delay performance, and follows a cast starring actress Taylor Paige and hip-hop artist Loyle Carner as they explore the rocky seafront near Marseille, adorned in looks by the finalists.

According to John Roberts, managing director of the Woolmark Company, the finalists have “a passion for pushing the boundaries with merino wool, while [also being] focused on improving their brand’s environmental and social impact.” The grand prize winner, which will be announced on May 15, will take home $200,000 AUD ($132,000 USD) while the Karl Lagerfeld Award for Innovation winner will receive $100,000 AUD ($66,000 USD). Finalists include Rhuigi Villaseñor, Jaehyung Lee, Anthony Alvarez, Amalie Roege Hove, Robyn Lynch, Marco Rambaldi, design duo Lucile Guilmard and Paolina Russo, and Adeju Thompson, founder of Lagos Space Programme.

Last week, BOFFO headed to the Park Lane Hotel on Central Park West for the New York arts nonprofit’s annual Spring Benefit. Friends and supporters wore their Sunday’s finest for the festivities, which featured tea service and live performances by Viva Ruiz, Lavender Light LGBTQ Gospel Choir, z tye, and Kilopatrah Jones. The organization then staged a silent auction of artworks by painter Doron Langberg to support its mission of fostering experimental art and dialogue. They also announced the latest cohort of artists for BOFFO Residency.

When was it? April 16

Where was it? The Park Lane Hotel, New York

Who was there? Chelsea Manning, Julio Torres, Jacolby Satterwhite, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Ryan McNamara, Nicole Eisenman, and more.

Our weekly roundup of the internet’s most preposterous headlines, from the outrageous to the outright bizarre.

Botticelli’s Venus As “Influencer” in Tourism Campaign Faces Widespread Ridicule [The Art Newspaper]

New Research Suggests That French Fries May Be Linked to Depression [CNN]

Tabloid Fires Editor for AI-Generated “Interview” With Injured Celebrity [Futurism]

45-Foot-Tall “Maleficent” Dragon Catches Fire During Show at Disneyland [Napa Valley Register]

Nude Landlord No Excuse for Holding Back Rent, Rules German Court [The Guardian]

Vienna Nudists Oppose Plans for Cable Car Over Their Beach [AP]

Secret Service Nabs Toddler Who Squeezed Through White House Fence [BBC]

One of Pablo Escobar’s Cocaine Hippos Killed in Highway Collision in Colombia [HuffPost]

Like every design fair, the point of Milan’s Salone del Mobile is to encourage consumption. Better consumption, of course: definitely with better aesthetics, perhaps with better ethics, but unquestioned in its necessity. This year’s fair, which ran April 18–23, floated the word revolution—or, as its president Maria Porro demurred during the press breakfast, evolution—and made vows to lessen the environmental damages of events of its size.

But perhaps its boldest move was curator Annalisa Rosso’s decision to give Shigeru Ban the microphone for an hour’s talk in which the 2014 Pritzker Prize winner walked a rapt crowd through almost 40 years of work, cracking pointed jokes about his industry and talking trash about companies he felt aren’t living up to their obligations.

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Sunreef Yachts is the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of luxury sailing and power multihulls. Each catamaran, motor yacht, and superyacht built is a bespoke creation. Every yacht is a vision brought to life, designed to deliver luxury, style, and comfort.

Surface Says: For Sunreef Yachts, craftsmanship and nautical innovation power the pursuit of life’s finer things.

Superiority Burger, founded by former punk rocker Brooks Headley, stays busy.

Meme artists memorialized internet mayhem at this “anti-woke” film festival.

Is “genderless” becoming yet another tired beauty-industry buzzword?

There are millions of empty houses in Japan—and they’re selling for cheap.