| | Sofia de la Cruz, travel editor
For film buffs, this is the moment. Oscar nominations are out, and the race is on to catch the contenders before the gilded ceremony. Cinema’s power lies in its ability to break free from the flat frame, transporting us into worlds that move, unsettle and endure. The rise of ‘set-jetting’ – travelling to filming locations – suggests screenings alone no longer suffice. What is cinema if not a journey? With the 98th Academy Awards landing on 15 March, consider 2026 the year to plan your travels around blockbusters, classics and cult favourites.
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Start with Cwmmau Farmhouse, a UK National Trust holiday let featured as the childhood home of Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes, in Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet. Or trace Wuthering Heights across Yorkshire, where Emerald Fennell shot her reimagining of the literary classic ( we’ve picked out a design lover’s hot spots). Ahead of the curve? Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (2026), due this summer, was partly filmed in Greece’s Costa Navarino, long tied to Homer’s epic. Prefer a classic? Check into Park Hyatt Tokyo, forever framed by Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003). Or simply switch off, and sink into a velvet banquette at one of our spotlighted cinemas with award-worthy design. Weekendpaper*, too, is ready to transport you elsewhere – take our after-dark tour of Palm Springs architecture, part of our guide to Modernism Week; flit to New York Fashion Week with our runway-side round-up; scale the world’s peaks for the latest in high-altitude architectural ambition; and by then you’ll need a coffee break – in which case we have an Italian design icon for the perfect brew. |
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Palm Springs at night – take our Modernism Week photo tour |
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As Palm Springs was preparing to throw itself into its latest annual Modernism Week – which launched on Thursday and runs until 22 February – local photographer Trey Burnette had decided to showcase the city’s midcentury architecture delights in an unexpected way.
‘The light in Palm Springs is beautiful, but I think a lot of people forget that the night is a variation of that beauty,’ he says. ‘Palm Springs has a dark-sky policy that keeps light pollution to a minimum. The stars, moon, mountains, trees, and minimal man-made light give Palm Springs a special texture and depth at night. I think the illumination of the classic modernist lines of the architecture against that texture and depth is quite striking. Most architectural photography is done in daylight; people forget that the architecture also lives at night. The shadows and contrast of illumination and darkness give the lines and form of structures a distinct and enhanced quality not seen in the sun.’ See Burnette’s photographs and read Ellie Stathaki’s guide to Modernism Week.
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The best shows of New York Fashion Week A/W 2026 |
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What does the New York woman want? As the city’s A/W 2026 fashion week got underway on Wednesday, Rachel Scott, the Diotima designer making her debut as creative director of Proenza Schouler, had an answer.
‘It was really important for me to respect the legacy of Proenza Schouler, and that’s this really strong love of the New York woman,’ she said. ‘But I wanted to find a way to get closer to her, to have more complexity and texture – she can be erotic, she can be angry. Sometimes she’s not quite so perfect.’ Her astute collection played off founders Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s signature style – an intellectual, art-inflected wardrobe for the polished urbanite – while embracing imperfection.
Anna Fixsen reports on the ongoing highlights as fashion week unfolds, in a schedule that includes some of the city’s defining names, such as Coach, Michael Kors and Tory Burch (pictured), as well as buzzy young labels LII and Ashyln; Nicholas Aburn’s sophomore show at Area; and shows from Calvin Klein, Eckhaus Latta and Khaite.
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High-altitude architecture finds dizzying new ways to blow our minds |
High-altitude architecture and infrastructure never happen by accident. A station or shelter carved into or set atop a mountain is built with great cost and intent, not to mention seemingly insurmountable natural obstacles. Planning and the transporting of materials to a peak are often as impressive as the architecture itself.
As materials continue to improve, as well as derring-do, it appears that the age of architecture in unforgiving climates is only getting started.
From Carlo Ratti Associati’s digitally fabricated bivouac that debuted during the current Winter Olympics to R3 Arquitectos’ barely-there mirrored shelter in the Andes, and a soon-to-be-unveiled copper facelift for Bond villain Blofeld’s hideout at 2,970m in Switzerland (revolving restaurant Piz Gloria, seen here, the final stage of the Schilthornbahn 20xx cable-car project), John Weich scales the dizzying new heights of architectural ambition for 2026.
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