What’s Happening: Shot entirely in thermal cameras from NASA, the cult director’s acid-soaked film debuted in a Hollywood strip club and marks the first major project from his newly formed multimedia collective EDGLRD.

The Download: Almost nothing about Aggro Dr1ft, the latest film by cult director and creative polymath Harmony Korine, hews to convention. A lurid fantasia about a bloodthirsty yet conflicted Miami hitman hellbent on assassinating a demonic crime lord, the film’s garish palette and depraved subject matter are tough on the eyes, even at its lean 80-minute runtime. It was shot with thermal cameras from NASA and underwent extensive post-production treatment using AI, yielding narcotic visuals that fuzz its meandering plot and caused fainting and nausea at festival circuit screenings, where it was critically panned. Not that the film’s 36 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating matters—the technology Korine used to create the film lets it be constantly altered and updated, and he wasn’t even trying to appeal to cinephiles in the first place.

Korine was more inspired by the loops of TikTok and how the aesthetics of video games are seeping into the wider culture, as well as his forever muse: youthful transgressions. That may explain why his newly formed multimedia collective EDGLRD eschewed a traditional cinematic release and opted instead to kick off Aggro Dr1ft’s national tour at a Hollywood strip club. Last week’s screening drew a raucous crowd of roughly 400 attendees eager to be transported directly into the action: men in ski masks brandishing machine guns, strippers gyrating in giant cages, fast cars, stacks of cash, street brawls. That didn’t quite play out at the club, but the acid-soaked visuals lent themselves well to the dusky environs as dancers in pasties worked the poles and viewers took in the “tropical noir” psychodrama.

The screening was followed by live DJ sets courtesy of film score composer Araabmuzik and Korine himself, both donning neon-hued demon masks and accompanied by a crew of men wearing white hazmat suits and women in ghost makeup and neon wigs. Following its Los Angeles debut, EDGLRD plans to bring the Aggro Dr1ft viewing experience to even more unconventional venues across the country. Though Korine and EDGLRD’s creative director Joao Rosa have even bigger plans: “Basically seeing what we can make, how far you can push the medium,” Korine says. “It’s also, really, at its core, just a way of trying to have fun again with all this stuff. We’ll be making anything—from filters to features and games—and creating our own platform. It’s a way to circumvent a lot of the traditional system.”

In Their Own Words: “What we’re leaning into with this company is a more expansive approach to creativity,” Eric Kohn, EDGLRD’s head of film strategy and development, told the New York Times. “We’re trying to engineer a new way to get this kind of work out into the world that isn’t beholden to the limited economics of the film market. You’ve never seen a movie in a strip club before, but you’ve also never seen a movie like this before.”

Surface Says: Even the trailer left us questioning the nature of reality.

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Kevin Klein anticipated a history lesson when he agreed to refresh two penthouse suites and an extended-stay apartment in the storied Hollywood Roosevelt, the city’s oldest continuously operating hotel and a designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. Dating back nearly a century to the Golden Age when glitz and glamour reigned, the property has played host to a motley crew of film icons through the ages, chief among them Clark Gable and Carole Lombard whose names grace the penthouses. Klein, an Angeleno-born designer best known for lending an authentic, eagle-eyed touch to sumptuous residences and boutique hotels in California, approached the job cautiously, aware that he’d be excavating Tinseltown lore and envisioning decadent new digs for the next generation of industry bigwigs and A-listers.

“The biggest challenge is building back new, but doing so in a way that doesn’t feel new,” Klein told Surface. “We wanted to make sure that when you walked into either penthouse, you felt as though the spaces had been there for decades.” He achieved that by selecting an eclectic mix of furniture from 25 countries—ranging from a 19th-century side table from the Spanish coast to a 1930s Italian vanity mirror—that forge a convivial feel, not unlike a family member’s cherished abode. “We layered in vintage furniture pieces that inherently have a life to them and help give the suites a lived-in quality,” he says. Ditto for the rich material mix he employed throughout—rich Italian marble, dark stained walnut, oak panels, and warm plasters. Perhaps best striking that lived-in tone is the penthouse’s sunken living room, Klein’s favorite moment.

For the past twelve years, Zak + Fox has established itself as one of the design trade’s go-to sources for artisan-made fabrics and traditionally printed wallpapers. Though his business was flourishing, founder Zak Profera was grappling with heart-wrenching change, namely the loss of Shinji, his longtime Shiba Inu companion who inspired the Fox in his company’s name. He channeled that heartache into creating the Harvest collection of poetic, anecdotal fabrics that debuted to acclaim at Paris Déco Off last month. At the same time, he was eyeing expansion into new product categories like custom rugs, so a more spacious showroom was top of mind as he started fully embracing new beginnings. “We were outgrowing our old space,” Profera tells Surface, “and were looking to create something that we knew we’d be in long-term.”

The successor would have big shoes to fill: since 2018, the business had occupied a secluded, 3,000-square-foot jewel box on the fourth floor of a historic building on Park Avenue South. But he found the perfect option just a few blocks away that offered double the square footage and quickly got to work gutting, rebuilding, and decorating it to reflect his brand’s adventurous spirit. Crafting a showroom from the ground up while also thinking about his business needs a decade down the line proved no small feat. “There are endless decisions to make,” Profera says. “We had to think about how to best represent the brand and the client experience while thinking about how to build something functional.”

Collina Strada has a well-earned reputation for stealing hearts and headlines during New York Fashion Week. The weirdness and wackery steered well clear of gimmickry this season; while championing girls’ gains and the art of the “femme flex,” Hillary Taymour delivered a flex of her own skill with a parade of texture in the form of ruching, pleating, and an as-yet unseen manipulation of textiles to create—arguably the star of the show—a six pack-effect sweater.

Three words to describe the collection: Feminine, strong, resilient!

Which look is your favorite? We created a look with muscly arms using a knit manipulation technique by sewing the same textile on top of each other to create a ruffled effect.

What was the inspiration behind it? Feminine strength and the essence of beauty.

Attending any parties or events this week? I’m having dinner after the show with some of the models and my friends, and then a long nap.

Why do you choose to show as part of NYFW? New York is my home. I wouldn’t show anywhere else.

The latest installation photos out of Desert X AIUla look like something from a NASA collab with Midjourney: the otherworldly commissions rise from the desert of Wadi AlFann, Harrat Uwayrid’s black lava surrounds, and the city’s cultural center of AlManshiyah Plaza. This year’s edition of the fair, its third, asked participants to respond to the theme “In The Presence of Absence” with artworks that explore the unseeable.

Curators Maya El Khalil and Marcello Dantas assembled a star lineup of landscape artists who rose to the occasion and hail from Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Mexico, Lebanon, Italy, Kuwait, Iraq, Brazil, and beyond. South Korea’s Kimsooja captures the prismatic effect of sunlight with To Breathe, a glimmering spiral installation that rises from the canyons of AIUIa, while Ayman Yossri Daydban’s glow-in-the-dark A Rock Garden in the Shape of a Full-Size Soccer Field makes a lasting impression from a craterous outcropping in the landscape.

Last week, Humberto Leon and D’USSÉ Cognac gathered friends and family for an intimate Lunar New Year dinner during New York Fashion Week. Held at Casino in the heart of Chinatown, the dinner was curated and prepared by CHIFA, marking the L.A. hotspot’s first-ever presence in New York City. The evening was a lavish toast to Leon and D’USSÉ’s limited-edition red envelope collaboration in the spirit of the Lunar New Year tradition to present loved ones with red pockets filled with money as a symbol of luck and good fortune.

When was it? Feb. 8

Where was it? Casino, New York

Who was there? David Byrne, Chloe Flower, Raul Lopez, Rowan Blanchard, Quil Lemons, Myles Loftin, Hunter Schafer, Heidi Bivens, and Claire Danes.

Based in California since 2008, Cuff Studio layers form, density, and texture to produce furniture and lighting inspired by geometry, architecture, and lifestyle. All pieces are conceived to occupy a shared space in a way that feels evolved and dimensional without appearing matched, and are created in Los Angeles.

Surface Says: Both online and from their Melrose Ave. gallery, Cuff Studio presents an updated edit of future classics in collectible design. Dusty pinks, warm beiges, and burnt orange hues channel the distinct sense of place at play in Southern California’s topography.

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