What’s Happening: With all eyes on Paris, Tracksmith has teamed up with indie tailoring house Clementina to bring a capsule of handmade-in-Rome blazers to cult-favorite concept shop Merci.

The Download: For what seems like the umpteenth Olympics in a row, the official blazer of Team USA was panned on arrival when it was unveiled last month, and again during the Games’ opening ceremony this past weekend. But at the Marais destination concept shop Merci, a popup by New England–born sportswear label Tracksmith offers a glimpse at an alternate reality. Inspired by archival photos of the 1924 Paris Olympics, the city’s amateur athletes who represent Tracksmith’s Federation collection—each of them stylists, restaurateurs, or architects by day and runners after hours—were decked out in figure-skimming, hand-cut navy cotton blazers made by Roman atelier Le Tre Sarte and designed with boutique tailoring house Clementina.

“I did so much research on the 1924 Olympics,” Clementina founder Emilie Hawtin tells Surface. “That style was so incredibly, mind-meltingly good, but also, they looked so modern.” For Tracksmith’s Federation blazers, Hawtin’s hybrid silhouette melds a classic French chore jacket and a sport coat, with special attention to “flattering” features like wide, notched lapels, a center back vent, and, despite its easy-wearing look, extra seams and darts throughout the shoulder for a more structured fit. The throughline of Paris 1924 even continues in the form of an interior silk mill label whose typography and coloring references athlete identification cards from a century ago.

As befits a tailor teaming up with an active lifestyle brand like Tracksmith, comfort and range of motion were two of Hawtin’s biggest priorities. Touches like that center back vent, for example, make sense in a city like Paris where going the distance might mean cycling to work in the morning and heading to happy hour at 9 P.M. In addition to wear-testing 100 prototypes on Tracksmith staff, Hawtin enlisted restaurateur Alexander Rash, stylist Laura Vidrequin, and designer Edgar Jayet to wear it on stops along their running routes in the City of Lights. “We shot at the architecture studio, cafes, the Luxembourg gardens, the Eiffel Tower,” Hawtin says. “They looked great everywhere they went and in every situation; it wasn’t weird when they threw it on over their kit after running 10 miles, or to a café on l’île Saint-Louis.”

In Their Own Words: Olympians have spoken on how team-issued gear can languish in storage, both impossible to get rid of and undesirable to wear again. With the Federation Blazer, Tracksmith and Hawtin’s Clementina imagine an alternative future: “I think it’s important to have that balance of refinement and discretion,” she says. “This is one of the biggest moments of their lives.”

Surface Says: As the saying goes, “be the change you wish to see in the world.”

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A distinctly Parisian panache runs through the cheerful interiors of Laura Gonzalez, who has garnered an avid following among in-the-know aesthetes for hotels, clubs, boutiques, and residences that temper joyful maximalism with old-world romantic élan. She also loves New York City, having left her joyful touch on Cartier’s revamped Fifth Avenue Mansion and taking over a stately Upper East Side townhouse for the Invisible Collection. She recently pulled back the curtain on a gleaming new gallery, this time downtown in a historic building in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood. At three times the size of her Parisian atelier, Galerie Laura Gonzalez affords its matriarch the space to experiment and put her most exuberant creations on full display.

Those include a rippling Murano glass chandelier shaped like blooming lily pads, a handsome dining table topped with multicolor raku marquetry, and an arching floor lamp shaped like a giant himawari. A one-of-a-kind ceramic fireplace crafted by longtime collaborator Laurent Dufour anchors the sunlit living room with a commanding pièce de résistance, depicting two guard dogs standing sentry among swirling textures. Gonzalez likens her galerie to a quintessential Parisian apartment where visitors can “immerse themselves in the rich cultural tapestry that defines French art de vivre.” Even more New Yorkers are sure to experience it when she unveils the Parisian department store Printemps’ first-ever stateside location nearby on Wall Street in the spring.

Last week, the Watermill Center hosted its annual summer benefit on its ten-acre flagship Hamptons grounds. The occasion honored legendary dancer and choreographer Lucinda Childs and fêted the inaugural Dance Reflections program by Van Cleef & Arpels, which will support Watermill’s dance programs for the following year and a new dance fellowship launching in 2025. Throughout the evening, guests witnessed renditions of several of Childs’ seminal performances. After a seated dinner, the evening included a live auction that benefited Watermill’s Artist Residency Programs and performances by IUD and Mykki Blanco.

When was it? July 27

Where was it? The Watermill Center, New York

Who was there? Solange Knowles, Peter Marino, Maxwell Osborne, Liz Magic Laser, Patia Borja, Ekene Ijeoma, Serge Laurent, Kelly Behun, Maximilian Eicke, and more.

With dazzling hyperrealism, the California painter tenderly envisions her subjects immersed in mysterious light-soaked bodies of water as a spiritual balm—and reveals how time can help wash away trauma.

Here, we ask an artist to frame the essential details behind a recent work.

Bio: Calida Rawles, 48, Los Angeles.

Title of work: The Parts That Make You Whole (2024).

Where to see it: Pérez Art Museum Miami until Feb. 23.

Three words to describe it: Ethereal, tender, powerful.

What was on your mind at the time: I wanted to honor time and the tenderness of my subject, Ms. Rolle. Her hands show time. Moments when we sit and let water wash over our feet is such a divine feeling.

Duplex is a New York–based design boutique engaged with the world’s most iconic design brands, groundbreaking talents, and master artisans, all of whom offer a surrealistic take on form and function. Its founder, Patrizio Chiarparini, brings a curatorial approach to Duplex’s roster with the goal of providing clients with a sophisticated, unexpected range of pieces.

Surface Says: Chiarparini goes the extra mile—literally—to offer one-of-a-kind design objects and exhibitions, making Duplex an international destination for those lucky enough to be in the know.

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While the Olympics were full speed ahead in Paris, the Brits raced snails.