Weekendpaper* | Design Miami buzz

At Design Miami, a sublime, lily-studded showcase of craft and collaboration awaits in the form of designer Costanza Vallese’s installation for Fendi. Each year, the house invites a different designer to play with its codes to create a display combining furnishings with Fendi icons to offer a fresh view on its history.

Milan-based Vallese was inspired by the people at the heart of the brand. ‘I was thinking of the [five] Fendi sisters as a collective energy of creative women who embodied elegance and also strength,’ she says. Correspondingly, her Fonderia Fendi installation will showcase objects created with five different Italian craft specialists in five materials – bronze, leather, glass, ceramic and woven wool – celebrating a dedication to artisanship.

The resulting objects include a bronze chair, a bench and a room divider enriched by Fendi’s leather; tiled seats or plinths embossed with floral motifs and a take on the house’s logo; and mouth-blown vases layered with gold-flecked details and floral textures. Rosa Bertoli spoke with Vallese ahead of their completion as Wallpaper* paid a studio visit to peek behind the scenes.

In Germany, where the diner culture ingrained in North America has long been usurped by unpretentious curbside snack stands and the smoky back rooms of Kneipen, a new string of Berlin restaurant openings is borrowing interior and menu concepts from diner-style venues around the world. 

In a testament to the cultural richness fostered by growing multiculturalism, the visual and culinary codes of North American, Southeast Asian and European diners, delis and cafeterias are deconstructed, simmered and distilled to create some of Berlin’s most talked-about restaurant openings. 

With nods to the obligatory menu boards, banquette seating and design codes that reference everything from Nora Ephron's orgasmic filmmaking to Vietnamese cafés, these new establishments are a rich blend of nostalgic global influences with unfussy socialising at their core. Milly Burroughs shares a slice of pie with the people behind the trend. 

Lovers of nature and unconventional places to live, look up – a unique architectural retreat, comprising three expansive and meticulously crafted treehouses, is available to buy for the first time, in West Dorset. Mallinson’s Woodland Retreat is named for its creator, the cabinetmaker and furniture designer Guy Mallinson, who trained at the influential John Makepeace School for Craftsmen in Wood, and at the RCA, and has spent 15 years on this labour of love.

Each treehouse – available for stays – has a unique look and feel. The Woodsman’s Treehouse channels Victoriana and steampunk, complete with a copper bathtub, a roof-mounted sauna and hot tub and a slide to the forest floor. The Dazzle Treehouse has a faceted multi-hued cladding inspired by the geometric ‘dazzle patterns’ developed during the First World War as naval camouflage. Finally, there’s the Pinwheel Treehouse, with its trompe l’oeil window framing and integral treetop swing. All three provide complete privacy.

‘Design, craftsmanship, and sustainability have always been at the heart of the retreat, and I hope that spirit will be carried forward,’ says Mallinson. Fancy branching out? Jonathan Bell has the details.

The anthropomorphic head and taillights are not all that’s cute and nostalgic about the newly revealed Renault Twingo E-Tech. An unashamed revival of the qualities and character of the original 1990s Twingo, this ultra-compact electric city car is available in 2026 – a small wonder to watch.