London’s Fashion and Textile Museum to stage an Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell exhibition.
London’s Fashion and Textile Museum will open a major exhibition on Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell this fall, spotlighting the design duo who helped define Swinging London’s fashion identity. Running October 2 through April 11, 2027, the show features more than 120 garments drawn from a private collection and loans from Birtwell herself, tracing their collaborative output from 1965 to 1974. The exhibition gives equal weight to Clark’s silhouettes and Birtwell’s textile prints, with a dedicated section on Quorum, their Chelsea boutique and creative home base. Highlights include the 1967 Bakst dress, the spiraling chiffon Ziggy Stardust dress, and Birtwell’s 1969 Ophelia wedding gown. Archive runway footage will document Clark’s theatrical approach to fashion presentation, staged at venues like the Royal Court Theatre.
More than 40 years after it was first proposed, Sydney’s Town Hall Plaza takes shape.
Sydney has unveiled renders for a long-awaited public square opposite Sydney Town Hall, more than 40 years after the project was first conceived. The City of Sydney released the designs this week as the council finalizes acquisition of the last of seven buildings slated for demolition to make way for the 4,500-square-meter plaza. Lord Mayor Clover Moore called the project a “once-in-a-generation opportunity,” comparing it to public squares in Vienna, Rome, and Spain, while emphasizing the design will feel distinctly Australian. The $150 million plaza, designed by JPW with Aspect Studios, features a semi-circular clearing, a misting water feature, movable seating, and a grove of native trees expected to shade roughly half the site. Demolition of the current plaza is set to begin in 2028, with completion targeted for 2031.
Carlo Ratti and Chuck Hoberman unveil an origami-inspired roof prototype in Modena.
Carlo Ratti and Chuck Hoberman have unveiled a prototype for a kinetic, origami-inspired roof destined for AGO, the cultural complex transforming an 18th-century hospital in Modena, Italy. Designed by Ratti alongside the late architect Italo Rota, AGO will house museums, research centers, and public spaces, with its first phase opening December 11. At the heart of the complex, a triangular courtyard will be covered by a retractable canopy developed with Hoberman, engineered to open and close within minutes and shift the space between covered and open-air configurations. The Corten and stainless steel prototype, built with Articulated Artworks, replicates the three independently operated sections planned for the full-scale structure. Integrated photovoltaic panels will generate solar power for the complex once complete.
After 52 years, SF Camerawork announces its closure.
SF Camerawork, the nonprofit photography gallery that has anchored the Bay Area’s photographic community since 1974, announced it will close after 52 years. The gallery cited rising operating costs, declining public funding, and a shifting philanthropic landscape as reasons for the shutdown. The space, which relocated to Fort Mason Center in 2022, will remain open through August 16 to complete the run of its current exhibition, John Chiara’s “Bay Panel.” Over five decades, the gallery supported photographers early in their careers, including Allan Sekula, Uta Barth, and Todd Hido, while championing conceptual approaches to the medium.
Free the Youth x Air Jordan: Africa’s streetwear scene scores its biggest deal yet.
Africa’s streetwear scene is having a moment in 2026, with Ghanaian brand Free the Youth preparing to release one of the year’s most anticipated Air Jordan collaborations, a sign that global sportswear giants are starting to take note of a movement that has long operated on its own terms. That movement, as African Leadership Magazine’s analysis confirms, was built from tailoring traditions, textile histories, community references, and local aesthetic priorities that did not wait for global validation. Labels like Maxivive, Orange Culture, Rich Mnisi, and Selly Raby Kane have each carved out distinct creative identities across cities that do not look the same, operate the same, or serve the same cultural pressures, from Lagos’s bold export-ready aesthetic to Dakar’s speculative world-building. African diaspora communities in major global cities show a 2.3x higher likelihood of redirecting spending to culturally aligned brands, meaning fashion influence is traveling beyond the continent’s borders.
Attractive Distractions:
Sabyasachi and The Met announce a partnership rooted in Byzantine art.
130 years on, the LV monogram remains fashion’s longest-running collaboration.
Studio Ghibli reverses course to add a Nausicaä Zone at Ghibli Park.
Ennua’s $130,000 chair was designed by the people behind the McLaren Speedtail.
