Soho House magazine, Summer '23 Issue

20 YEARS OF SOHO HOUSE IN NORTH AMERICA FEASTING IN BARCELONA . BABINGTON TURNS 25 . AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO PORTLAND . A NIGHT OUT AT SOHO HOUSE HONG KONG . QUINTA BRUNSON . THE ARTISTS OF MIAMI POOL HOUSE TREMAINE EMORY YOUR NEW FAVOURITE HOUSE COCKTAIL

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MEXICO’S NEW LEADING MAN DIEGO CALVA TAKES CENTRE STAGE AT OUR FIRST HOUSE IN LATIN AMERICA

THE AWARD-WINNING ACTOR AND WRITER

QUINTA BRUNSON

TALKS REPRESENTATION AND WORLD DOMINATION AT SOHO WAREHOUSE

20 YEARS OF SOHO HOUSE IN NORTH AMERICA FEASTING IN BARCELONA A NIGHT OUT AT SOHO HOUSE HONG KONG BABINGTON TURNS 25 TREMAINE EMORY AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO PORTLAND . THE ARTISTS OF MIAMI POOL HOUSE . DIEGO CALVA YOUR NEW FAVOURITE HOUSE COCKTAIL

Quna i t

20 YEARS OF SOHO HOUSE IN NORTH AMERICA FEASTING IN BARCELONA BABINGTON TURNS 25 DIEGO CALVA

A NIGHT OUT AT SOHO HOUSE HONG KONG AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO PORTLAND . THE ARTISTS OF MIAMI POOL HOUSE . QUINTA BRUNSON . YOUR NEW FAVOURITE HOUSE COCKTAIL

FASHION’S FAVOURITE TRAILBLAZER

TREMAINE EMORY ON BRINGING FRESH PERSPECTIVES AND SHAKING UP SUPREME

e emain

Interiors by Soho House

Make your interiors inspiration a reality. Book a complimentary design consultation with Soho Home COMING SEPTEMBER 2023

CONTENTS

at Babington House; the Sunday Feast at Cecconi’s Barcelona; members at Soho House Hong Kong; Portland, Oregon, where Soho House will open later this year

52

With a host of awards and a hit TV show under her belt, Quinta Brunson has o icially made it. But, as the actor, comedian, writer and producer tells us, there's still so much more to come

Fine dining, experimental style and that pool in the middle of the bar – our members showcase what it's like at Soho House Hong Kong, a er dark

7 A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR Soho House's Chief Content

O icer Jonathan Heaf explores what it means to be creative, reflecting back on the major events that have already taken place this year, and what’s still to come in the Soho House world

21 HOUSE TALK

Five writers explore changing cultures, emerging trends and the power of bringing people together across the globe, from preserving culture in Mexico City to creating connections in Ghana and redefining Manchester

THE WAITLIST

From food festivals to cultural events and many occasions to celebrate, here's what to do, eat, drink and immerse yourself in across the Houses this summer

26 THE SECRET HISTORY OF SOHO HOUSE IN AMERICA

Iconic roo ops, A-list guests and, of course, the birth of the Picante: 20 years of Soho House in North America, retold in comic book form

51

72 BECOMING DIEGO CALVA

e actor reflects on working with director Damien Chazelle, life in Hollywood and refining his cra – all in the decadent surroundings of Soho House Mexico City

84 TREMAINE EMORY: TAKING A STAND

He’s the creative visionary breaking down boundaries in fashion. Tremaine Emory opens up about the importance of representation and helming cult brand Supreme

THE

Yes, Soho House is finally making its way to Portland, Oregon. Ahead of its opening, we get a local’s insight into the city’s must-visit spots

25 YEARS OF BABINGTON HOUSE

It’s been a quarter of a century since founder Nick Jones opened Babington House – consider this everything you need to know about Soho House’s first countryside retreat

118 RUSSELL TOVEY AT HOME

He’s the actor-turned-artconnoisseur-turned podcaster who’s opening up the elite world of art for everyone to enjoy – and his newly renovated east London lo serves as part-gallery, part homage to Soho Home

Interested in becoming a member? Scan here for more information

ONE NIGHT AT SOHO HOUSE HONG KONG

THE RISE AND RISE OF QUINTA BRUNSON

INSIDER’S GUIDE TO PORTLAND

From le Guests

Photography: Salva Lopez, Mark Anthony Fox, Ken Ngan, e Morrisons

Soho House Magazine Issue 03

Chief Content O icer Jonathan Heaf

Editorial Creative Director Andrew Diprose

Production Editor Olivia McCrea-Hedley

Editorial Director Teo van den Broeke

Entertainment Director James Conrad Williams

Membership Content Director Gemma Boner

Global Director of Art Kate Bryan

Photo Director Julie e Clarke

Art Director Alessandro Molent

Head of Creative Operations Camilla Weston

Content Editor Sagal Mohammed

Beauty and Wellness Editor Chloe Lawrance

Editorial Associate Yasemin Celepi

Global Commercial Director Oliver Woodley

Global Partnerships Director Delara Nikkhah

Associate Publisher Andrew Chidgey-Nakazono

Senior Partnership Manager Lucy Murphy

Founder Nick Jones

Contributors

Janessa Narciso, Izogie Guobadia, Jo Addy, Abigail Hirsch, Hanna Flint, Leo Goddard, Dom Chung, Juan Veloz, Chiara Brazzale, Lucy Jones, Angus Wong, Dani Hart, Frankie Benkovic, Dee Harper, AJ Woomer, Noot Coates, Mandy Svasti-Xuto, Hilary IP, Luis Carreño, Joss Hastings, Alexander Lendrum, Kyle MacNeil, Guy Shield, Christopher Sturman, Lizzy Rosenburg, Mark Anthony Fox, Alfie Tong, Najma Sharif, Kennedi Carter, Kat Typaldos, Campbell Addy, Mario Abad, Fernando Fernández, Juan Veloz, Ken Ngan, Cherry Mui, Jake Curtis, Gareth Scourfield, Amiri Rose, e Morrisons, Michael Rygaard

With special thanks to Jarre Stuhl, Anouska Ruane, Ben Nwaeke, Gareth Lewis, omas Allen, Guy Williams, Rajat Dhawan, Ma hew McQuade, Amy Cheema, Markus Anderson, Samantha Stone, Vanessa Xuereb, Tom Collins, Guy Chetwynd, Tom Russell, Dominique Bellas, Chris Glass, Esther Brown, Marcus Barwell, Surinder Sangha, Jezer Alarcón, Alicia Gutierrez, Alfredo Rentería, Michelle Aubert, Avia Hawkins, Terence Heflin-Connolly, Jakob Hesketh, Kimani Roquemore, Daniel Smith, Danny Chan, Katie Smith, Olivia Sheath, Milly Baker, Emily Purdham, William Baines, Wallis Hamilton, Ruggy Joesten, Camilla Barre Sarah Graham, Jamila Brown, Min Shrimpton, Velma Simmons, Charlo e Read, Constance Lugger, Erdem Kayalar, Amera Khodary, Diana Fernandes, Josie Schiller, Andrea Noguera, Kimiko Ninomiya, Philip Spee, Alicia Langan, Kimiko Singer, Jack Rainey, Kimberly Chuang, Jack Lazenby, Claire Hearn, Meg O’Donnell-Bath, Pablo Arango, Melina Asnani, Max Moran, Bryony Watson, Sara Terzi, Isadora Calella, Efren Camacho, Andres Gonzalez, Allison Nidetch, Alana Andersen, Karen Sanchez, Anne e Cruz, Paul Stevens, Hiroaki Shinya, Jonathan Villalobos, Henry Gutierrez, Seulgi Oh, Graham Arnold, Alex Maruny, Andres Aznar, Johannes Lutz, Carlota Fabregas, Jamie Mark, Giulia D’Ippolito, Anakena Paddon, Karina Mkrtchian, Tatiana Meira, Madelyn Perez, Andy Fisher, Bella Kimber, Neil Smith, Lorna Alexander

Right: Artist Liene Bosquê with her artwork

Lower Manha an Expressway on display at Miami Beach House (p32)

CONTRIBUTORS

CAMPBELL ADDY

e world-renowned photographer’s work has appeared in Rolling Stone, TIME magazine and the Wall Street Journal

He also captured designer Tremaine Emory for this issue (p94). “Meeting Tremaine was a blessing,” he says. “His energy and openness to myself and the team was beautiful. is shoot is one still think of.

ank you, Soho House and Tremaine.”

LUCY JONES

Lucy Jones is an illustrator and printmaker from England, now based in Rome. Her playful illustrations (p19) combine line, cutouts, type and colour. “Typically an editorial illustration can take between two or three days, depending on the size or the number of illustrations,” she says. “I can find inspiration in all types of places: books, films, museums, traveling and in daily life.”

KEN NGAN

Ngan has shot for international titles such as Vogue Man, Vogue Singapore and Elle China. He’s also captured fashion campaigns for Tommy Hilfiger and Nike. In this issue, he shot our fashion story at Soho House Hong Kong on p108. “ e shoot was literally a party,” he says.

“A super fun and funky day spent with the loveliest people at the House.”

KENNEDI CARTER

Carter’s photography broke the internet when she captured the one and only Beyoncé for the cover of British Vogue For this issue, she photographed multi-award-winning multi-hyphenate Quinta Brunson at Soho Warehouse in LA (p52). “I watch Abbo Elementary so I’m a big fan,” she says. “She was so lovely and I’m excited to see what she does next.”

FERNANDO FERNÁNDEZ

Fashion stylist and creative consultant Fernández styled our shoot with actor Diego Calva (p72). “For me, he is the perfect example of what hope for when working with an actor,” Fernando says. “A talented, down-to-earth guy with really nice energy. He totally trusted the ou its chose, which as a stylist is so appreciated.”

A: Buy my T-shirts from Aimé Leon Dore

B: Once BeReal-ed Diplo at Soho Desert House, Coachella Valley

C: Know Dieter Rams’ design principles by heart

D: Drink reishi cappuccinos from Erewhon

E: Get someone else to do my taxes

We recently held the very first Soho Summit at Soho Farmhouse. It was an event we like to describe as a “festival of ideas”: two jam-packed days (and wild nights) of talks, workshops, dinners, performances, dancing, collaboration and conversation that drew local and international members – plus a long roster of some of the most prolific, pioneering creatives working across multiple industries – to a green field in the heart of Oxfordshire. roughout the Summit however, a common theme was masticated, prodded and generally gnawed over: what exactly is creativity nowadays, and what is its purpose? It’s reverberating questions such as this – and our members’ deep curiosity over the power of creativity around and in their lives at work, rest and play – that propelled us towards an exciting new collaboration with Disney, the fruits of which you can see among the pages of this new issue of Soho House magazine. For some, being creative can feel like a passive act; one that is less about imaginative productivity and more about doodling while staring at raindrops

running down a window pane or buying the right brand of bucket hat. At Soho House, like our friends at Disney, we know there is nothing apologetic or docile about being creative. Creativity is the spark. It’s what drives the boat, what ignites the fire of enterprise and, crucially, gives meaning. Without creativity there is only process, no purpose. And just like love – remember what that feels like? – creativity is an action, a doing word. At the core of our collaboration with Disney (it’s worth mentioning that the iconic brand is celebrating its centenary this year) is something we have coined together. e Soho Future 100 is a truly inspirational list of the next generation of creatives (including many Soho House members) working across a multiverse of industries and pla orms: artists, screenwriters, actors, product designers, musicians and innovators. In 2023, creatives cross-pollinate across fields and industries like the multi-hyphenates they usually are. Both Soho House and Disney have a rich, storied history of collaborating with innumerable creatives, and we are proud to continue the work by pla orming some of the most exciting names, who are breaking down barriers and excelling in their chosen field.

ese are the names to watch – and to drop, if that’s your thing (p51).

Whether it’s a talent like American writer-producer-actor Quinta Brunson, photographed on the roof of Soho Warehouse in Downtown LA (p52), or the maverick mastermind of Tremaine Emory, creative director of clothing super-brand Supreme (p94) – captured by Campbell Addy, one of the most game-changing photographers today – we hope you find as much energy and inspiration from reading the list as we did pu ing it together. If it provokes,

agitates, inspires or starts a conversation, then we consider that job done. Speaking of creativity, there’s a whole lot more in this issue, which looks forward as much as it glances nostalgically back. In anticipation of celebrating 20 years since Soho House opened in North America, for example, we thought it would be fun to ask comic book artist Guy Shield to illustrate some key untold moments of our history (p26) – see if you can spot Soho House Chief Membership Officer Markus Anderson escorting Madonna through the doors of Soho House West Hollywood, unannounced... Looking ahead to some of our bigger moments this year, we commissioned a local to take us on a guided tour of Portland, Oregon, the location of just one of a number of new Houses due to open in the Americas later this year. Actor and Talk Art podcaster Russell Tovey shows us how Soho Home transformed his London apartment (p118), while at Soho House Hong Kong, our members party like it’s 2019 (p108). Remember: with creativity comes great responsibility. It’s how you use it – even if it’s dancing on tables in heels, while mixing the perfect Soho Sunset – that counts.

Jonathan Heaf Chief Content O icer

Photography: AJ Woomer, Ma Hollyoak

Hi, my name is .

I am creative because I .

Proof of the author’s “creative” encounter with Diplo, photographed at Soho Desert House, April 2021

Designed for businesses and creative thinkers to come together and share ideas.

Add Soho Works to your Soho House or Soho Friends membership to benefit from the best rate

TALKS WORKSHOPS

New spaces, new events, new menus and more – consider this your need-to-know for the ultimate Soho House summer

By Olivia McCrea-Hedley

Illustrations by Chiara Brazzale

SERVING UP SUMMER

Nothing says summer quite like a few rounds of tennis on a warm, clear day – so fingers crossed the British weather is in our favour across 29–30 July, when we’re hosting our very first tennis tournament at Babington House. e Soho Grand Slam, in partnership with Lacoste, will see the grounds of our Somerset country retreat taken over by a host of activities, from the tournament itself (which is open to all members), to a wide range of tennis-related games and competitions for all age groups. New to the game? We’ve got you covered, with a host of top coaches on hand, including Black Girls Tennis Club – a group that aims to encourage Black women and girls to learn more about tennis and participate in the sport – who are providing training sessions across the weekend. And if spectating is more your thing, you’re in luck: there will also be a series of talks with major names from the world of tennis, as well as some summery new food and drink options for you to soak in the atmosphere (and hopefully that great weather).

Photography: Laurence Ellis

SUNDAY SERVICE IN BARCELONA

Imagine a space with an endless supply of delicious Italian food: think handmade pasta, cured meats, fresh seafood, wood-fired oven pizzas, salads and sides and more desserts than you can fit onto one plate – and that’s just the beginning. Sounds too good to be true? Welcome to the Sunday Feast, held every week at Cecconi’s Barcelona, which can be found on the ground floor of the city’s Soho House, right on the coast. For €55, or €50 for Soho House members, you’ll have access to this wide array of dishes between 12–5pm. For the occasion, Cecconi’s even extends its selection of fine wines, so you’ll find the right drink to pair with every part of your meal. We’ll see you there next Sunday.

is page and opposite: e decadent banquet on o er as part of the Sunday Feast, held each week at Cecconi's Barcelona

Previous page: Guests on the tennis courts at Babington House, the site of our Soho Grand Slam tournament

THE SOHO HOUSE WAY TO TRAVEL

At Soho House, we have Houses with Bedrooms across the world, from Mykonos to Mumbai. While you’re visiting, dinner in our clubs and drinks on our roo ops and patios is a given, but the beauty of our Houses’ central locations, in the coolest neighbourhoods, means that they make the perfect base from which to explore.

at’s where the new Soho House City Guides come in – created by members, for members, in partnership with Antler. You’ll find these guides in the bedrooms of our Houses in LA, London, New York, Rome and Berlin, packed with tips on the best places to eat, drink, shop and immerse yourself in culture. We’ve consulted with members from each city who are experts in art, architecture, food and more, for truly local insights that you won't find anywhere else.

Le Soho Farmhouse's reforesting project, which reintroduces 3,000 plants to the area, sits behind the Lazy Lake

Need a quiet space to think? A bright, airy space to incite creativity? Or even just a dedicated o ice that allows you to separate your home and work life? Well, Soho Works has got you covered. Especially our London members, who will soon be able to benefit from a newly extended Soho Works Dean Street. From October, it will o er six floors of co-working space, meeting rooms and private o ices, plus a recording studio, kitchen areas, a lounge and dedicated events. It’s also next door to our House at 76 Dean Street, should you be in the market for post-work drinks. What more could you ask for?

UPGRADE YOUR 9 TO 5 BACK TO NATURE

As part of our social responsibility and sustainability programme House Foundations, Soho Farmhouse is now home to a new forest – a space that allows guests to immerse themselves in nature while also giving back to the surroundings. e 1800 sq m reforesting project (the same size as the entire floor space of Soho House Copenhagen) will improve soil and water quality, absorb carbon and provide a habitat for local wildlife. As the forest matures, it will also play host to a series of holistic member events. e ultimate antidote to city life.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION

For your next summer break, look no further than Soho House Tel Aviv, Ja a. Israel’s ancient port city is home to a host of cultural events over the coming months – a highlight being August’s Tribal Summer Festival – and with its 24 bedrooms, the House provides a perfect sanctuary. It's also within walking distance of local-run cafes, art galleries and parks, and just a 10-minute drive to the famed Banana Beach, so you there’s plenty to explore – if you can tear yourself away from the patio, with its outdoor pool, 300-year-old olive trees and Middle-Eastern inspired cuisine, that is. With House parties every other ursday, jazz nights every other Sunday, outdoor DJ sessions on Fridays and the House's birthday celebrations planned for September, you might find it hard to venture elsewhere.

ALL EYES ON TEL AVIV

e Soho House membership is designed to bring creatives together, and our Soho Fellowship programme works to provide wider access to these industries and foster the next generation of talent. Earlier this summer, we launched Soho Fellows Spotlight – a series of events across London, New York and Los Angeles to celebrate our Fellows members working in film. ese inaugural events featured screenings of our members’ short films, including Acuitzeramo by Miguel Angel Caballero, Daylight Rules by Alex Browning and Taming a Seahorse by Raza Tariq, along with table reads and Q&A sessions across the three cities, hosted by Founder Nick Jones and Soho House’s Global Film and Entertainment Director Jo Addy. A true celebration of new talent.

FOOD LOVERS, ASSEMBLE

Anyone who has been to Soho Farmhouse will know it appeals to the foodie crowd, from the House regulars on o er in the Main Barn to Japanese cuisine at Pen Yen, small plates at e Li le Bell and Blake’s Kitchen Bakery for those cinnamon buns. But from 22–23 September, we’re taking our love of dining to a whole new level with the fi h annual Soho Farmhouse Food Festival. Now held over two days, expect more experiential and immersive dining than ever before, plus hands-on workshops and demos from more than 30 of the most exciting chefs right now. Come hungry – you won’t be disappointed.

Le e outdoor pool area at Soho House Tel Aviv, Ja a

SOHO HOME'S BATHROOM RANGE IS (FINALLY) HERE

Yes, the rumours are true. Soho Home has launched its very first bathroom range, inspired by those at Soho Farmhouse, Soho House Paris and Holloway House. Expect everything from accessories to statement furniture, designed to make your daily routine feel like a luxury experience.

THE SOHO SUMMIT IS

COMING TO LOS ANGELES

Block out 1–3 November in your diaries, because we are bringing the Soho Summit – our multi-day festival of ideas – to Los Angeles later this year. We held the first Summit at Soho Farmhouse back in April, featuring a host of talks, musical performances, film screenings and art installations. Guests included notable names across the worlds of design, art, technology, fashion, and sustainability, including artist Yinka Ilori, actor James Norton, activist Sinéad Burke, designer Sir Paul Smith and even “real-life Iron Man”, inventor Richard Browning, who flew around the grounds in his jet suit. Expect all of this and more at the Los Angeles Summit, with a host of renowned creatives and exciting events planned for our Stateside members. For more information, head to the SH.APP or sohohouse.com.

From top: Soho House West Hollywood and Soho Warehouse in Downtown LA, some of the sites of our upcoming Summit; guests at the first Summit at Soho Farmhouse in April

Right: Carlisle Oak and Marble Vanity, £4,995, Soho Home (members will receive a further 15% o all purchases)

is August marks 12 months since we opened our first House in Copenhagen – and what a year it has been. e House, which can be found in the central Havnegade district, is arguably one of our most striking, thanks to its turquoise exterior and waterfront location. Plans include a collaboration with local art collective e Creators Project, which will involve transforming a boat docked on the neighbouring canal. e boat will serve as an extension of the House and the home of a host of events during the week-long celebrations, including a boat trip to a nearby island. Now that’s what we call a party.

Tommy Hilfiger celebrates

100 Years of Disney

THE ULTIMATE SUNDOWNER

Introducing our new House cocktail, the smoky-sweet Sunset Over Soho. Created by Fabio Perez Marte, F&B Manager at DUMBO House, you'll find it on the menus at our Houses in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Austin – but if those aren't your locals, why not try it for yourself at home?

Ingredients

1.5oz / 50ml patron reposado

0.25oz / 2 bar spoons Vida mezcal

0.25oz / 2 bar spoons chinola liqueur

0.75oz 25ml lemon juice

0.5oz 15ml carrot juice

0.75oz 25ml ai chili blood orange syrup (see recipe, right)

Tajin seasoning, slice of dehydrated blood orange or grapefruit and a mint sprig (to garnish)

For the ai chilli blood orange syrup

Mix all ingredients in a pan and heat for five minutes until boiling. Heat for five more minutes until the sugar dissolves, then take the pan o the heat and let it cool before straining and decanting into a jar or bo le.

50oz / 1.5l water

50oz / 1.5g caster sugar

12 bar spoons of blood orange dry tea leaves

3 whole ai chilis, cut in half

Method

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker, add four ice cubes and shake for eight seconds. Strain into a glass half-rimmed with Tajin seasoning and filled with ice cubes. Add garnishes and serve.

Ever wondered what it would be like if Mickey Mouse and his famed companions entered the wondrous world of college prep, manga-style? Wonder no more – the answer is here via a new partnership with Tommy Hilfiger to celebrate 100 years of Disney.

“An iconic anniversary, an iconic brand and a collaboration with its most iconic characters – there is no better way to join fans around the world in celebrating Disney’s 100th anniversary,” says the main man, Tommy Hilfiger (pictured below). “Colliding Mickey and friends with the Tommy Hilfiger brand DNA has been one of our most fun collaborations to date. e collection represents a playful take on the classic characters, bringing them into the collegiate world. We wanted to pay tribute to Disney’s iconic characters while doing something new and with a twist.”

The premium label is a staple of American fashion, known for its collaborations with pop culture figures such as Gigi Hadid and Lewis Hamilton, so it made perfect sense to celebrate Disney’s milestone in this way. “We’ve always partnered with brands who share our values and can give a unique perspective to our archival classics,” says Hilfiger. e carefully cra ed collection consists of signature prep styles, staying true to Mickey’s fun-loving nature through playful pa erns and though ul details across menswear, womenswear and childrenswear. Think playful takes on a classic rugby shirt and a Minnie Mouse polka dot cricket jersey, plus shirt dresses with a manga Mickey frolicking on Hilfiger’s signature Ithaca stripes. All firmly added to the wishlist. Hilfiger’s favourite piece? “I love the classic shirt, with manga Mickey dancing through the Ithaca stripe,” he says. “It’s a playful take on a prep icon, reimagined with Disney’s fun-loving nature.”

Form an orderly queue: iconic American fashion label

Tommy Hilfiger has come together with Disney to produce a collection of preppy classics with a manga twist

By Yasemin Celepi

From top: e waterfont patio at Soho House Copenhagen; actor and member Alex Høgh Andersen in the House Club

Photography:

omas Cato, Anders Overgaard, Laura Edwards

Stories by Luis Carreño, Joss Hastings, Alexander Lendrum, Kyle MacNeil and Sagal

Right: Soho House Chicago, where Vic Mensa and Chance the Rapper planned Black Star Line Festival (p24)

Mohammed

Illustrations by Lucy Jones

A CENTURY OF CREATIVITY

Over the last 100 years, Disney has built strong relationships with some of the most exciting and boundarypushing talent within the creative industries, from film and fashion to art and music. We want to celebrate those collaborations, past and present, while looking forward to the future, where the next generation of creators are just beginning to spread their wings.

at’s the impetus behind Disney’s partnership with Soho House. Just as Soho House o ers a space for creatives to feel inspired, Disney has inspired a century of creators through its iconic stories and characters. So why not join forces to spark something exciting for a new generation of creatives?

by Joss Hastings, VP for Global Marketing Strategy at

Disney

2023 marks 100 years of Disney. at’s a century of storytelling, a century of escapism and a century of wonder that all began when Walt Disney arrived in California in the summer of 1923 with a single film in hand – a cartoon of a girl called Alice’s Wonderland Disney set about finding a distributor for his series of “Alice Comedies”, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Since then, Disney has been a pioneer of creativity in all its forms. Parks that bring a li le bit of magic to patrons the globe over; box o ice-smashing films, from Star Wars and e Lion King to the incredible phenomenon that has been Frozen; franchises that have expanded the Disney family and allowed for some incredibly exciting brand partnerships across just about every touchstone of the everyday. Fashion collaborations, boundary-pushing digital content, even stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Mickey Mouse and Minnie. roughout it all, creative collaboration has been fundamental. I see it in my role every day as VP for Global Marketing Strategy for our consumer products. Creativity is a powerful force. On a grand level, it’s the secret sauce for finding inspiration and pursuing new ideas. It’s behind the stories, music and art that connect with people in a universal way and bring us together. It’s also the thing that helps us find solutions to more mundane issues; approaching life’s many challenges with creativity might just make things that li le bit be er in the process.

As part of Disney’s anniversary celebrations, we’re launching Create 100: a global charity initiative to celebrate the power of creativity and bring together some of the world’s most inventive minds, both established and emerging, to help raise funds for Make-A-Wish. Each creator within the initiative has been invited to donate a one-of-a-kind product or experience celebrating their favourite Disney character or story, which will be auctioned o for charity.

In the spirit of paying it forward, we’ve nominated 30 of the rising talent participating in Create 100 for Soho House’s Future 100 list (p51), with the goal of

spotlighting their talent to a global audience. In doing so, we hope to open the door for new creative collaborations with our brands while also allowing the next generation of artists, filmmakers and more to flourish. Our partnership doesn’t stop there. Throughout the rest of 2023, we’re curating member events that will give access to some of the incredible talent that have collaborated with us over the years. As far as see it, whether you’re just breaking into the industry or your name has been on the door for many years, there’s always space to learn from others – and I’m certainly looking forward to sharing inspiration, ideas and advice with some of the amazing creatives involved in this programming.

Creative storytelling has always been foundational to Disney’s success. It was the superpower Walt Disney held in his pocket as he arrived in California all those years ago. It’s what has driven the company for the last 100 years – and it will continue to do so for the next 100, too. e world has changed enormously in that time, and it’s inevitable that it will keep on evolving, but our focus will always remain the same. And isn’t that something worth celebrating?

Joss Hastings is a member of Soho House West Hollywood

Manchester, UK

MANCHESTER IS MORE THAN A MUSEUM

by Kyle MacNeill

When the Manchester Museum reopened in February, it saw 50,000 visitors in the first week – equivalent to a 10th of the main city’s population. Swinging open its neo-Gothic doors for the first time since 2021, the museum’s £15m metamorphosis cements a new commitment to communities across the world, while creating space for ones closer to home. In many ways, it’s a metaphor for Manchester’s own reframing. To those outside it, the city is something of a museum. Its sonic landmarks – half e Old Grey Whistle Test (Joy Division, e Smiths, Buzzcocks), half rave whistle (The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Oasis) – provide a tour of the UK’s entire alternative music history. e spirit remains – it still feels like you might bump into Bez pre-Hacienda at Night & Day. Some institutions seem like they will live forever: the “emporium of eclecticism” A lecks recently celebrated its 40th birthday, with legendary record shops Eastern Bloc and Vinyl Exchange not far behind, while Sam’s Chop House is still serving at 150. It still has its fair share of local legends too, from long-spinning DJ Clint Boon to Boombox Barry, known for cycling around town blasting rave tunes out of an Ikea bag. While the city relishes in its relics, it is no artefact. “What Manchester does today, the rest of the world does tomorrow,” went Disraeli’s slogan during the industrial revolution. While “rest of the world” might trouble our humility, the city has regained its future-facing

status. It’s partially thanks to a huge amount of investment and construction; a double-edged shovel which threatens the relative a ordability of Manchester but also increases its cultural capital.

Much of this investment has gone into central creative hubs, o ering food, music and art under one roof. e latest of these is Factory International; again, an homage to the past – Tony Wilson’s Factory Records – that’s rooted in future culture. As the new home of the cu ingedge Manchester International Festival (MIF), it promises boundary-breaking curation. Scores of other venues in Manchester are booming right now, many of them also involved in MIF’s citywide celebration. For arthouse bu s there’s cinema HOME, for laptopclubbers there’s Ducie Street Warehouse and for musos, there’s New Century.

Soon to join is Soho House Manchester, set in the old Granada TV studios in Spinningfields. It’ll feature sizable event spaces, a rooftop pool, an in-house motel-diner and a range of state-ofthe-art wellness facilities. We’ve finally got our northern powerhouse.

ese multipurpose venues show a new side to Manchester, more acute than the usual angle of humble, honest, wi y, gri y. Sure, Manc has a warmth and wicked sense of humour that London can’t match, but it’s also ambitious – not ready to accept its Second City status. Its bees are busy, not bumbling.

e city’s new high-rises aside, there’s a lot more going on closer to the ground

– and under it. Adventurous nightlife has always been part of Manchester’s rapidly beating heart. White Hotel and its gothic sister venue, Peste, range from gabber to organ recitals; Derby Brewery Arms switches between pub and club, and longtime staple Soup blends a casual upstairs bar with a basement for nascent club nights.

Ancoats is a swankier affair, with its natural wine bars and avant-garde food. It’s become a fixture of best-district lists across the world, but friendly inner-city competition is tight: the Northern Quarter leapfrogged it in Time Out’s latest list – a testament to the constant seesaw of where’s coolest. It’s hard to keep up, but that’s part of the rush. In a city that’s changing so rapidly, there’s a belief that, creatively, anything can happen. While those stopping by for photographs with Mark Kennedy’s mosaics on A lecks or snaps outside Salford Lads Club will always be welcomed, people are now making a beeline towards the city for the now and the new. Crucially, too, they’re staying. A few weeks a er the Museum opens, I find myself confronted by the perfect metaphor. catch Boombox Barry hurtling down Oldham Road again, as usual. nearly spit out my la e; Barry’s no longer on his bike. Instead, he’s whizzing past on an electric scooter, gearing up for a new era. Queue up, the future’s here in Manchester – and we’ve got it a day early.

Kyle

SOHO HOUSE MANCHESTER

SOHO HOUSE WEST HOLLYWOOD

THE NEW ATTITUDE OF THE NEON EMPIRE

by Alexander Lendrum

Growing up in a city like Hong Kong exposes you to a very special blend of East meets West. e world has seen the harmony and dichotomy of these two regions through myriad depictions, from films to fashion to food and beyond. What many don’t see, however, is how Hong Kong and Asia as a whole have responded to the long-lived influence the West has had across the continent. Being half Chinese and half English, born in Hong Kong while spending a stint at boarding school in Phuket, ailand, both were essentially a playground during adolescence. My peers and I would sneak out to drink the night away at a ridiculously young age, navigating the streets, bars and clubs as fluidly as monkeys within their own jungle’s turf. Looking back, it’s shocking how easy it was for us to infiltrate the nightlife scene legally reserved for adults, but at the time, we were obsessed with experiencing all the creative ways Asia would o er its nocturnal activities.

Now well into my thirties, it’s a fascinating journey when reminiscing about the way Asia’s nightlife landscape has shi ed and evolved over the years. e cities I’ve experienced were always relatively safe, as many a luent metropolitan cities in Asia are. So back in the day, starting your night with a “7-11 beer crawl” as you drunkenly found your way to an underground BYOB event hosted by a new music collective from France was “just another weekend”. Flash forward to today and you’ve got something similar but now hosted by local communities. Looking specifically at Hong Kong, this is a big step forward for locals, and by that mean both the local Chinese and the local expatriates, which consist of a wide range of non-Chinese nationalities either born or living in Hong Kong. To put it simply, as far as events, parties and concerts go, many major Asian cities have relied on the influence and the production of international names and entities for a long time. If they’re from a recognised Western city, it was worth checking out on that fact alone. My high-school friends Tom and Arthur Bray – who run music and creative collective Yeti Out – can a est to this. “In 2013–14, people in Shanghai would come out to see an act just because they’re from New York City,” they say. That mentality of thinking that something is creatively “worthy enough” because it has stemmed from the West has recently been rapidly changing. ere’s a new a itude throughout the

neon empire, where local Asian talent and creative thinkers alike are proud of what they can bring to the table. “More so these days, there are local artists that are much more successful – on-par or even be er than an international name,” explains Tom as we discuss the current state of Asia’s nightlife scene.

Together with their third Londonbased partner Eri Ali, Yeti Out operates as a community and central hub that brings together musicians, designers, event promoters and more from around the world in a refreshingly unique way. They have a tenacity to constantly push the envelope with experiences, utilising abstract facets of traditions and deep-culture cuts to push local boundaries far beyond expectation. “We’re always trying to outdo ourselves and create diversity and inclusion within our programmes,” says Tom.

I’ve seen Yeti Out help to flourish international communities, such as those in Egypt, Los Angeles and London, however Asia sits as a predominant region due to the Bray twins being based there. As such, they’re on the front line when it comes to working with local names. As Tom puts it, “Every [Asian] city that we go to has di erent pockets of music heads or promoters, they just don’t know each other. ey’re the same creative people, just from di erent cultural backgrounds. We’re trying to bring them together to help grow the collective Asian scene while still keeping the diversity alive.”

I’m now living in Los Angeles, but whenever I go back to Hong Kong, see the shi Tom talks about. ere’s this new energy from local talent that is putting forth elements close to home, be it elements taken from their local cultural backgrounds to making good use of traditional spaces that highlights who they are and where they come from. “We did this event in Seoul at these 14th-century traditional wooden houses called hanoks which no one has ever considered as an event space,” Tom recounts.

It’s that Asian creative pride which is now coursing through the entertainment pulse of Asia, and like Yeti Out, what Soho House is doing for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is yet another testament to this growth. Tom also serves as Soho House’s APAC Events Curator for its Cities Without Houses, a new programme that extends the social club’s community, membership, events and pop-ups to cities that don’t

yet have an official House. His work there offers another avenue to help amp lify the rich cultural sounds and sights of APAC through events such as Soho Rising, Secret Sounds and Soho Sessions.

Stretching across eight APAC countries, with five more to be added by the end of the year, what Tom and Cities Without Houses are doing right now is twofold. ere’s the aforementioned spotlighting of local APAC creative scenes, and then there’s the next step: bringing that to the rest of the world. Asian culture has indeed influenced other regions in the past, but I’m not talking about a “Bruce Lee” sneaker drop at END. It’s about bringing burgeoning acts, sub-genre names and underground collectives from Asia to a global audience.

What was once us kids in Hong Kong having to deep dive for hours on the internet to find that elusive word-of-mouth DJ from Bristol, is

now the Bristol kid looking up who the Yeti Out collective from Hong Kong are. “It’s wild to see that when we touch down in Europe for parties in east London or Paris Fashion Week, we’re seeing kids that we’ve met everywhere from Shanghai to Tokyo. And then there are new faces that are fascinated with the Pan-Asian music scene,” describes Tom.

Today’s generation is feeling the influence of the neon empire making its way across seas. Promising artists such as Awich, Shygirl, Charity SsB, Vinida and Gold Fang, to name a few, are ge ing their much-deserved international limelight thanks to the curation of Tom, Yeti Out and Soho House. eir continued effort to bridge the gap between music, fashion, art, film and food are laying down the bricks for a new foundation of Asia-Pacific’s creative landscape, one lambent night at a time.

Alexander

Lendrum is a freelance writer

“THAT MENTALITY OF THINKING THAT SOMETHING IS CREATIVELY ‘WORTHY ENOUGH’ BECAUSE IT HAS STEMMED FROM THE WEST IS RAPIDLY CHANGING”

SOHO HOUSE HONG KONG

BRINGING AFRICA TO THE MAIN STAGE

Mexico City, MEXICO

THE NECESSARY PRESERVATION OF CULTURE

Digital nomads have made big e orts to integrate into the environment by adopting the local values. Some creatives have even drawn inspiration from the city’s vibrance to spark ideas for their cra s, from design, photography and art to journalism, film and music.

Among the creative magic, however, it’s impossible to ignore the elephant in the room: the Mexican capital is experiencing rapid gentrification, causing concerns among locals. Questions about the city’s culture being lost and substituted have dominated dinner table conversations across the city this year. This isn’t exactly new. We’ve seen neighbourhoods such as Roma and Condesa – once rich in culture and home to local businesses – transformed into “trendy” hotspots, with highly-priced restaurants, bars, coffee shops and housing inaccessible to the majority of the capital’s population. It’s natural that fears of this happening again – on a bigger scale – have been triggering.

by Sagal Mohammed

“ ere’s beauty in the power of creative collaboration,” says rapper, entrepreneur and long-time Soho House Chicago member Vic Mensa. “It can build bridges across continents that bring people together.” Earlier this year, the American-Ghanaian hip hop artist –born Victor Kwesi Mensah – did just that, hosting the inaugural Black Star Line Festival in Accra with friend and co-organiser Chance the Rapper. It was held at the historic Black Star Square arena in Ghana’s capital as a celebration of young African descendants – 50,000 of which were in a endance. “As a kid, I couldn’t imagine a time when all of my people from Chicago would be with my people in Ghana embracing the music, but this was that moment,” says Mensa. e festival was conceptualised on the fi h floor of Soho House Chicago, where Mensa and fellow Chicagoan Chance would plot ways to bring their vision to life, having first birthed the idea during a joint trip to Ghana – one of our Cities Without Houses (CWH) locations – in December 2021. “I’ve been visiting Ghana with my family for most of my life but more recently, started going alone and spending time in Accra to immerse myself in the art scene, the music ecosystem and the fashion,” explains Mensa. It made me realise that there was this massive gap between the Black

American experience, Black American music and the African people. There were no opportunities for the artists to connect with the fans. It made me realise that I’ve never performed in Africa, and I’m from Africa. at was when I started to theorise the ways I could bring people into the culture over there and also create opportunities for international artists to connect with the people.”

When he received an “out of the blue” call from Chance, expressing his interest in visiting Ghana, Mensa immediately made arrangements for his friend to join his upcoming trip. “It was his first time in West Africa and it was a life-changing experience with his ancestry.” It is one many African Americans and the diaspora can relate to: since 2019’s “Year of Return” – an initiative by the Ghanaian government and US-based organisation e Adinkra Group – Accra has acted as a gateway to Africa for a new generation of youth yearning to reconnect with their roots through homegrown culture and creativity.

Working closely with local creatives and event planners in Accra, some of which are among Soho House’s CWH membership in the city, Mensa, Chance and their team pulled off one of the biggest international festivals on the continent. They tapped the likes of Erykah Badu, T-Pain and a host of locally

renowned African artists, including Sarkodie and Asakaa Boys, to perform.

Fellow Soho House Chicago members Uduimoh and Oshoke Umolu were also sold on the idea. The Ghanaian-born, Chicago-based brothers are the founders of Jon Basil Tequila – the festival’s primary spirit sponsor. The collaboration was seamless, given their shared links to Ghana and Chicago, as well as being part of the Soho House community.

“Soho House has been a centerpiece of the creative community in Chicago. We take meetings, do performances and host listening parties and events,” says Mensa.

“It has become a real homebase for me. I got new projects with tech founders that were birthed from relationships I made by being at the House. I like to shoot a game of pool and ideate. at’s what this space is for – cooking up ideas.”

Chicago and Accra are ubiquitously influential in Black culture. “For decades, Chicago has been the main driver of many cultural facets of pop culture, hip hop and drill music globally,” says Mensa. “Ghana’s cultural youth community is evolving expeditiously in its own right. e movement is undeniable, so uniting the two worlds just makes sense.”

Sagal Mohammed is theContent Editor at Soho House and a member of White City House

by Luis Carreño

Mexico City is a place of a million stories. To live in it is to know that they’re all waiting to be uncovered; hidden inside the Porfirian houses of Colonia Roma, the colonial buildings in the historic centre, the skyscrapers on Reforma Avenue and Multifamiliares in Tlatelolco. It’s knowing that there is a tianguis (a traditional open-air bazaar) for each day of the week, where you’ll be met with fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and fish, locksmiths, and jewellery stands, all tucked under colourful tents. Here lies the identity of CDMX, home to a melting pot of cultures. Its Mesoamerican origins come together with European, African and Asian migrants, as well as a new generation of Latin Americans, who have historically used Mexico as an obligatory passage to reach the United States.

Post-COVID, the city has also become home to a wave of “digital nomads”; individuals who fulfil their work obligations while living remotely. In 2020, many migrated from places with tight restrictions, such as France, Germany, Belgium and the United States. Mexico was among a small number of destinations open to the world at the time – an enticing prospect for those wanting to enjoy a breath of fresh air again. As the world opened up, many decided to stay, making Mexico City their new home.

Miguel, is proof that – through respect for local beliefs, people and places – it is possible to add value that strengthens Mexican culture and identity.

Historically, Mexico has been a country of asylum, welcoming those who must or want to leave their places of origin. Reading texts by Gabriel García Marquez, Roberto Bolaño and the Beat Generation, admiring the art of Remedios Varo, Matías Goeritz and Pedro Friedberg, or listening to the music of Chavela Vargas and Luis

ere is so much to admire about this place. e music, the smell and sounds of our streets, our diverse gastronomy and local produce are the reason many are drawn to CDMX in the first place. Welcoming people and businesses that champion this is crucial, hence the excitement among local creatives for the opening of Soho House Mexico City. Having a globally renowned club like Soho House create a space in the city that celebrates its roots while supporting local creatives is a prime example of engaging, rather than erasing. ere’s nothing quite as beautiful as watching diverse cultures collide and upli one another. ere is so much to explore here; so much to see, do and feel. Ciudad de México is not in need of a cultural reset, it never has been. It is through the stories illustrated by creatives – especially once Soho House opens its doors, bringing its international membership – that enrich the cultural connection between Mexico and the rest of the world, all while maintaining love and admiration for the people and culture that make it so special.

Luis Carreño is a freelance writer

Chicago and Ghana USA AND AFRICA

SOHO HOUSE CHICAGO

OUR STORY BEGINS IN THE MEATPACKING DISTRICT OF MANHATTAN. FOUNDER NICK JONES DISCOVERS A FORMER WAREHOUSE, WHICH HE TRANSFORMS INTO SOHO HOUSE NEW YORK – OUR FIRST GLOBAL CLUB WITH A ROOFTOP POOL.

SPRING 2003

SOHO HOUSE NEW YORK BECOMES THE TALK OF THE TOWN WHEN TOM WHELAN, THE LOCATION SCOUT FOR “SEX AND THE CITY”, ASKS TO FILM A SCENE FOR THE SHOW ON THE ROOFTOP.

NICK HOSTS A SERIES OF DINNERS BEFORE THE DOORS OFFICIALLY OPEN. COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND NOTABLE NEW YORKERS, SUCH AS DAVID BOWIE AND IMAN, ATTEND.

2003

IN THE SCENE, SAMANTHA SNEAKS IN USING A CARD BELONGING TO A (FICTIONAL) MEMBER, ANNABELLE BRONSTEIN. “IT MADE SENSE THAT SAMANTHA WOULD BE THE ONE TO DISCOVER SOHO HOUSE,” SAYS ONE OF THE SHOW’S WRITERS, AMY HARRIS. “SHE ALWAYS LIKED TO BE IN ON THE NEXT BIG THING.”

“FOR ONE OF OUR FIRST PARTIES AT SOHO HOUSE WEST HOLLYWOOD, WE INVITED MADONNA AND SHE VERY KINDLY SHOWED UP.”

MARKUS ANDERSON, CHIEF MEMBERSHIP OFFICER

THE SECRET HISTORY OF

“ GOT HER OUT OF THE CAR IN THE PARKING GARAGE AND MANAGED TO SNEAK HER UP A SECRET STAIRCASE. AS OPENED THE BACK DOOR I REALISED THE DJ HAD JUST STARTED PLAYING ‘MATERIAL GIRL’. ‘OH S**T!’ SAID. SHE ASKED WHAT WAS WRONG. TOLD HER AND SHE LOOKED AT ME FOR A SPLIT SECOND BEFORE SAYING, ‘F**K IT.’ SHE THREW THE DOOR OPEN HERSELF AND WENT INTO THE PARTY TO HER OWN SONG. QUITE THE ENTRANCE.”

SOHO HOUSE IN AMERICA

Born in London, made in America – and now retold in graphic novel form

Illustrations by Guy Shield

THE PICANTE DE LA CASA’S STORY BEGINS AT SOHO BEACH HOUSE IN MIAMI, WHICH OPENED IN 2010. OUR THEN BAR MANAGER, CHRIS HUDNALL, STARTED TESTING OUT A SPICY NEW TWIST ON THE MARGARITA FOR OUR MEMBERS. MADE WITH FRESNO CHILIS, CORIANDER, AGAVE AND REPOSADO TEQUILA, THE PICANTE BECAME AN INSTANT POOLSIDE HIT, BOTH ON THE BEACH AND AT THE BAR.

ZING!

IN 2011, THE PICANTE DE LA CASA WAS CHRISTENED AS ONE OF SOHO BEACH HOUSE’S ORIGINAL HOUSE TONICS. IT BECAME SO POPULAR, WE DECIDED TO TAKE IT GLOBAL, ADDING IT TO THE COCKTAIL MENUS AT OUR HOUSES ACROSS THE WORLD. THE REST, AS THEY SAY, IS HISTORY.

SOHO HOUSE GOES BICOASTAL WITH THE OPENING OF WEST HOLLYWOOD, OUR FIRST HOUSE IN LOS ANGELES

SPRING 2010

AUTUMN 2010

LITTLE BEACH HOUSE MALIBU OPENS WITH A PARTY, HOSTED BY NICK JONES AND CHIEF MEMBERSHIP OFFICER SAM STONE. THE EVENT WAS CO-HOSTED BY JAMES CORDEN, CINDY CRAWFORD AND RANDY GERBER.

“THE FIRST TIME WE OPENED THE DOORS OF SOHO HOUSE TORONTO WAS FOR THE INAUGURAL FILM AT THE TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, ‘LOOPER’,” SAYS MARKUS ANDERSON. “AS WE WERE SETTING UP, THERE WAS A KNOCK AT THE DOOR. WE FOUND BRUCE WILLIS STANDING THERE. HE’D DECIDED NOT TO SIT THROUGH THE FILM, SO WE LET HIM IN, GAVE HIM A DRINK AND FINISHED SETTING UP AROUND HIM.”

SOHO HOUSE CHICAGO OPENS DURING LOLLAPALOOZA. MANY OF THE ACTS PERFORMING AT THE FESTIVAL STAYED WITH US THAT FIRST YEAR – INCLUDING THE ARCTIC MONKEYS.

AND JUST LIKE THAT, WE OPEN OUR SECOND CLUB IN NEW YORK – LUDLOW HOUSE – IN A FORMER GOLD LEAF FACTORY ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE OF MANHATTAN

SPRING 2016

THE PEKING DUCK SERVED AT THE DUCKED UP POP-UP ON THE ROOF OF THE HOUSE QUICKLY BECOMES STUFF OF NEW YORK FOOD LEGEND.

STEVIE WONDER CALLS TO SAY HE LOVES US WITH AN IMPROMPTU PERFORMANCE AT MALIBU BEACH HOUSE.

DUMBO INCOMING! OUR THIRD HOUSE IN NEW YORK OPENS IN BROOKLYN, AND THE VIEWS OF THE BRIDGE FROM THE ROOF DECK BECOME EVEN MORE BELOVED THAN OUR AVOCADO TOAST.

THE ROEBLING GLASSWARE, CREATED EXCLUSIVELY FOR DUMBO, IS INSPIRED BY THE LINES OF THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE. IT ALSO TAKES ITS NAME FROM THE STRUCTURE’S DESIGNER, JOHN A. ROEBLING.

SPRING 2018

SPRING 2016

SOHO WAREHOUSE OPENS IN DOWNTOWN LA. “IT WAS A REALLY INTERESTING BUILDING,” SAYS SAM STONE. “IT WAS SPRAY-PAINTED BY GRAFFITI ARTISTS WHILE IT WAS VACANT, AND WE KEPT A LOT OF THE WORK INTACT. NOW, MUCH OF IT IS ART IN THE BUILDING”

“THE ART COLLECTION IS KEY TO THE IDENTITY OF SOHO WAREHOUSE,” SAYS GLOBAL DIRECTOR OF ART KATE BRYAN. “WE COMMISSIONED A MURAL BY SHEPARD FAIREY, A FLOOR-BASED INSTALLATION BY SADIE BARNETTE, A WALLPAPER INSTALLATION BY GENEVIEVE GAIGNARD AND ROOFTOP MURAL BY BLANDA – AS WELL AS OUR FIRST VIDEO WORK BY BRIAN BRESS.”

HOLLOWAY HOUSE OPENS IN LOS ANGELES WITH A PARTY FOR STELLA Mc CARTNEY. THE HOUSE IS THE FIRST TO HAVE BEDROOMS IN HOLLYWOOD, A GAME-CHANGER FOR OUR MEMBERS.

SOHO HOUSE AUSTIN OPENS AND QUICKLY BECOMES A MECCA FOR OUR AMERICAN MEMBERS SEARCHING FOR A CHANGE OF PACE.

SOHO HOUSE NASHVILLE PULLS UP IN A FORMER SOCK FACTORY, AND THE HOUSE QUICKLY BECOMES A MUSICAL HUB IN THE CITY.

MIAMI POOL HOUSE OPENS IN THE EDGEWATER REGION OF THE CITY. AN EARLY PARTY AT THE CLUB FEATURES THE SPICY MUSICAL STYLINGS OF LATIN SUPERSTAR TOKISCHA.

SOHO HOUSE PORTLAND WILL BE HOUSED IN THE HISTORIC TROY LAUNDRY BUILDING, WHICH WAS BUILT IN 1913 BY ELLIS LAWRENCE. THE BUILDING OPERATED AS ONE OF PORTLAND’S LARGEST LAUNDRY FACILITIES UNTIL 1983.

AUTUMN 2023

“AT THE NASHVILLE OPENING PARTY, THE BAND MIDLAND PERFORMED. AT THE END OF THE SET, WE ASKED DARIUS RUCKER IF HE’D PLAY TOO AND, SURE ENOUGH, HE TOOK DOWN THE HOUSE. IT WAS TRULY MAGICAL.”

SAM STONE, CHEF MEMBERSHIP OFFICER

SPRING 2022 2023

SUMMER 2021

SPRING 2022

i i a m m a h te

The best thing about having a membership base full of creatives? Our Houses become hubs of innovation and expression – as seen at Miami Pool House, which provides the perfect backdrop to showcase the city’s art talent

By Chloe Lawrance

Styling by Lizzy Rosenburg

Photography by Christopher Sturman

Artist Lauren Shapiro with her work Three Rivers (2022)

LAUREN SHAPIRO

(pictured, previous spread)

Born and raised in South Florida, ceramics artist Shapiro is inspired by Miami’s ecology, which she describes as a “harmonious fusion of tropical and subtropical ecosystems”. Her mural ree Rivers (2022; pictured) – a cast of fruits, corals, shells, and flora, which can be found on the patio of the House – is no di erent, drawing a ention to the city’s changing environment amid rapid urban development.

Jumpsuit, £570, HOMME PLISSÉ ISSEY MIYAKE Sandals, £570, HERMÈS Rings, from approx £800, and bracelets, approx £425 each, all JOVANA DJURIC

EDOUARD DUVAL-CARRIÉ

Haiti-born Duval-Carrié’s work combines visual tropes from the Caribbean with concepts such as Colour Field painting. He has lived in – and drawn experience from – areas such as Puerto Rico, New York, Montreal and Paris. Now the artist, pictured in his studio, lives in Miami, which he refers to as a “multi-tiered cabinet of curiosity”. His work Tropical Convention in Blue (2022) can be seen at Miami Pool House. Top, £110, and shorts, £125, both JOHN VARVATOS Trainers, approx £80, VANS Bracelet, approx £190, MARTHA CALVO Watch, price on request, ROLEX Rings, his own

JUMAANE N’NAMDI

e art dealer, filmmaker and co-owner of Geological Agriculture Institute – also known as Your Art Guy – has been supporting emerging artists in LA for a decade through his gallery N’Namdi Contemporary Fine Art (which he is pictured outside). “What love about the Soho [House] art collection is that it moves the needle of contemporary art without following trends,” he says. Top and shorts, price on request, AKNVAS Bracelets, approx £240 each, MARTHA CALVO Trainers, £115, NIKE

LIENE BOSQUÊ

Miami-based, Brazilian-American artist Bosquê’s work Lower Manha an Expressway (2014; pictured) sits above the entrance to e Co age at the House. e series of commemorative plates pays homage to buildings that would have been destroyed if plans for the LOMEX in New York had been realised. “It’s a celebration of the triumph of local activism, led by Jane Jacobs, in preventing community displacement,” she explains. Dress, price on request, AKNVAS Earrings, £140, and necklace, £170, all CELESTE STARRE Gold rings, approx £79 and £1,070, ALICE PIERRE

ALEJANDRO PIÑEIRO BELLO

Cuban visiual artist Piñeiro Bello brings a burst of colour to the House with his work Ginie’s Beach (2022; pictured), which can be found in e Co age at the House. It depicts an island floating in the Caribbean Sea at night: palm trees leading towards the horizon; a monkey perched within them. As Piñeiro Bello describes, “It’s as if the whole painting were a magical dream on a beach lost in time and space.” Shirt, stylist’s own, ISSEY MIYAKE Trousers, price on request, A.POTTS Trainers, £240, SCAROSSO Necklace, £160, CELESTE STARRE Watch, price on request, ROLEX

TYPOE

“From the neon lights above strip clubs to Disney World and Miami Beach’s art deco buildings, grew up around shape, colour and vibrancy,” says mixed-media artist Typoe, pictured in his Sculpture Garden in the city. Typoe’s work ranges from paintings and murals to supersized sculptures – four of which can be found at the House. “ ere is always a balance in life, light and dark,” he adds. “ at is what try to find in my work.”

Top, £310, and trainers, £690, BRUNELLO CUCINELLI. Trousers, £210, FRAME Necklaces and bracelets, from approx £175, MARTHA CALVO Rings, from approx £155, CELESTE STARRE

Photography: Christopher Sturman at Art Department. Hair and make-up: Jessica Chan at

IMAJ

Artists.

Photography

assistants:

Patrick Bernard, Miguel Mori

Everyone back to

in Ba gton b

To mark our original countryside retreat turning 25, we celebrate everything that makes Babington House so welly-stompingly special, from garden-to-table dining and baths in bedrooms to the many runaway weddings which have taken place in its historic halls

By Chloe Lawrance and Sagal Mohammed

is page: Members Dylan, Isadora, Colle e Bisset enjoying the grounds at Babington House. Opposite: e Grade II* listed building at the heart of the 18-acre estate

Photography by Mark Anthony Fox

y earliest memory of Babington House is driving down the driveway to this incredible Georgian manor and falling in love with it immediately. My first thought was, “I’m going to buy this.” at was around 27 years ago. At the time, didn’t have the money for it but just knew I had to make it happen somehow. Luckily, the people who were selling it were nice enough to give me nine months to raise the money – so got to work, and I did it. We had been thinking about opening a country House for a while, but as I feel with everything, I wanted ours to be done di erently. didn’t want to follow the rules and create a copy of something that already existed; to do it the way a country house had always been done. wanted Babington House to create a new rulebook: breakfast whenever you wanted it; feeling like home but being much nicer than your own home. When it came to designing it, didn’t want to get an interior designer.

I wanted someone who had seen design from ever y perspective to do it and create something unique. So, I got Ilse Crawford CBE, who was at Elle Decoration at the time, to help me design it – she’s since gone on to become a world-famous designer.

To me, Babington is the most beautiful House. I still look at it and think it’s got such soul. just knew that it would work well for our members, and not just on weekends but seven days a week. I envisioned people using it as a place to work,

Babington House: the timeline

Ma place to relax or have dinner with friends and, of course, a great place for partying. And that’s exactly what it turned out to be – one big House party. Some of my favourite and most memorable parties have taken place at Babington over the years. When we first opened, we’d regularly host an event called Babington 24, a festival that lasted 24 hours with various performers and people creating campsites on the grounds. It was always such a great time – our bar was known to only ever close when there weren’t people there to drink from it, which in other words was never. You’d o en come down from breakfast and the bar was still busy from the night before. at was the spirit of Babington.

ere are such great stories from members about those early years, and till this day, Babington House continues to be a place where people create fond memories. We’ve had brilliant New Year’s Eve celebrations where some very well-known singers have led impromptu singalongs in the library or danced around in the bar. It’s the kind of place where you can’t help but feel the infectious energy when you’re there. It’s extra special to me because I got married there in 1999. My wedding day, and many other highlights, have been celebrated there since we opened our doors 25 years ago, and Babington House will continue to be a home for the best of times in the 25 years to come.

1698

1705

From garden to table

1939

BBC Radio broadcasts a concert from the grounds, spotlighting pianist, composer and Babington resident Dora Bright – widow of Wyndham Knatchbull, whose family owned the estate.

1968

Behind

the brilliance of Babington’s seasonal and sustainable approach to dining

At Babington, no two daily menus are ever the same. at’s because of the House’s garden-to-table ethos, which prioritises sustainability, high-quality local produce and a seasonal approach to dining. In part, this is driven by the Walled Garden, an acre-large Victorian garden nestled in the grounds of the House, in which an ever-evolving rotation of herbs, fruits and veggies are grown.

“It’s a chef’s dream,” says General Manager Neil Smith, who began his Soho House career as Babington’s commis chef, working his way up to head chef before taking on the role of leading the entire team. “We work closely with the gardener throughout the seasons. We don’t use any pesticides, so everything is organic, freshly picked each morning and used for that day’s service.”

For ingredients that can’t be grown in the Walled Garden, the team works closely with local suppliers to source the highest-

Babington House is designated a Grade II* Listed Building, marking it “of special interest and worth investing in preservation”, along with the 18th century ice house in the grounds.

quality meat, fish and cheese, leaning on seasonality to dictate what lands in the kitchen. “We buy the whole animal, break it down in-house and use every part of it. For example, we’ll buy the whole lamb and use the legs for one dinner and the shoulder the following night. We might use the o cuts to make a delicious ragu and the bones for stock,” he explains. “It’s more sustainable and also keeps the thrill alive for our chefs; they’re constantly learning, perfecting their cra .” With all this to consider, curating the daily menus is a creative and collaborative process: “Head Chef Dionas Frank and will walk through the garden and talk to suppliers to work out what’s coming in,” says Smith. “For me, it’s not about six or seven ingredients with foams and everything – it’s simple food, done really well, using the best produce. at’s the way it should be.”

1998

In September, Nick Jones buys Babington House. A er much development, the doors open to Soho House’s second outpost, with 223 founding members.

Below: e Georgian manor in the 19th century. Right: Members Kim Shaylor and Colle e Bisset enjoying garden-to-table dining

Henry Mompesson becomes Sheri of Somerset, a position which sees him take responsibility for collecting taxes and enforcing law and order around the county.

Babington House is commissioned by Mompesson. It is built on the foundations of an estate thought to be previously owned by the Babington family.

Founder Nick Jones on the moments behind Babington House’s magic

Meet the members

Opposite, from le : Babington House members Danny Go ey, Angel Mackintosh with her dog, Tewkesbury, Pearl Lowe, Simon Morray-Jones, Donna May Lynch, Suzanne Bisset, Heidi, Dominic and Audrey Greensmith, and Ross Wilson with his dog, Suki

behind the decks at some of Babington House’s most legendary parties. “ e post-pandemic Bonfire Night party was a particularly special one,” he says. “People were definitely down to party and the House just felt so alive.”

Pearl Lowe

For the fashion designer and lover of all things vintage, Babington House represents so much more than just a club. “It’s like one big happy family,” says Lowe. “I got married there in 2008 and I swim and steam there every day. I don’t think I would have stayed living in the country for so long if it wasn’t for Babington!”

Angel Mackintosh

THE ARTWORK TO KNOW

Soho House’s Global Art Director Kate Bryan gives us the lowdown on the pieces worth keeping an eye out for around the House

Simon Murray Jones

An architect by trade, Murray Jones was one of Babington’s original members - and in fact played a very large part in the design of the House you know and love today. From the first date with his now-wife (“a seriously extended lunch”) to his wedding day, Babington House has played host to some of Murray Jones’ biggest life milestones

Donna May Lynch

Based just up the road from Babington House, Studio Ashay – May Lynch’s fashion design studio – houses not only her own collection of readyto-wear designs but also a host of up-and-coming artists, including jewellers, po ers and interior designers. May Lynch has been a member of the House for two years. “It’s magical,” she says. “It brings city and country life together under one roof.”

Ross Wilson

DJ and brand consultant Wilson has been curating club nights and music events across Somerset since the mid-1990s. ese days, he’s o en found

1999

e Babington House Cricket Club o icially forms a er six matches against local teams. ese days, the club plays every Sunday throughout the summer months.

“Such is the power of Daisy Parris’ large oil painting, it is able to hold the entire Orangery wall. Somerset-based Parris is an artist whose work feels intimate yet demanding. ey cultivate an uneasy beauty, with aggressivelooking passages o set against an appealing colour pale e.”

Aged just 19, musician Mackintosh has been a Soho House member for about as long as she can remember. As someone who splits her time between London and Somerset, Babington House o ers a sanctuary: a workout followed by an ice bath and brunch make up her countryside mornings, while weekends are spent at the House with her family. "One of my most special memories was taking my 103-year-old grandma clay pigeon shooting,” says Mackintosh. “She shot a hat trick!”

BABINGTON HOUSE 1-20 (2020) BY TOM HOWSE

“In 2020, Tom Howse created a suite of drawings a er spending time at Babington House – a quiet love le er to the buildings and landscape in his characterful, undone style. Displayed as a full salon wall in the Library, they are an alternative take on British country house portraits."

1999

In August, Babington House hosts its very first wedding, with Zoe Ball and Norman Cook’s blessing ceremony taking place on the sun-drenched lawn in front of 200 guests.

SELF LOVE (2001) BY SAM TAYLOR-JOHNSON

“Sam Taylor-Johnson is an internationally recognised name in art and film, as well as a long-time neighbour of Babington. In this photographic work, displayed on the mirror in the main bar, she interrogates the relationship between authenticity and artifice.”

1999

at September, Soho House founder Nick Jones marries Kirsty Young at Babington House.

UNTITLED (2019) BY DAISY PARRIS

Babington House would be nothing without its members. We meet five bringing the life and soul to our countryside retreat

Cowshed: the inside story

s Babington House celebrates its 25th anniversary, so too does Cowshed. In fact, Cowshed was born at Babington, with the very first spa built in a renovated milking shed back in 1998. These day s, the Cowshed brand includes 13 spa locations worldwide, with an extensive range of expertly formulated products to bring a li le taste of the spa home, too.

Back when that first Cowshed spa opened its doors, it had one mission: to inject a li le country calm and cool into the busy lives of members visiting Babington House: a retreat within a retreat. At the time, spas had a reputation for being almost clinical. Founder Nick knew he wanted to do things a li le di erently. He created a space that was comfortable, relaxing and warm - an extension of everything members loved about the Houses. To this day, whether you're in Shoreditch or Chicago, when you step into a Cowshed spa, you’ll still find that same relaxed atmosphere, with therapists who are knowledgeable and friendly.

Our Cowshed treatment menus have been refined and perfected over the past 25 years, with each spa providing its own unique menu of permanent o erings and pop-up residencies. But there are a few treatments that have gained

2003

Groundskeeper Clive joins the Babington House team. In the years since, he has preened the grounds, cricket pitch, croquet lawn and iconic Victoria Walled Garden to perfection.

Aalmost legendary status among those in the know. e Ultimate Cowshed Manicure and Ultimate Cowshed Pedicure are more than just your average mani-pedis: think hydrating hand and foot masks and a tension-relieving scalp and shoulder massage to elevate the whole experience. Likewise, the Salt Scrub & Massage treatment pairs our Signature Massage with a full-body exfoliation for an impressively relaxing 90 minutes.

This year, our spas are also offering the 25 Years: Deep Tissue Massage with Hyperice to celebrate the milestone anniversary. And, exclusive to Babington House, members can also indulge in Babington’s Botanical Facial, which uses botanicals sourced directly from the Walled Garden. Each of Cowshed’s formulas take inspiration from ingredients grown in the garden and were developed by local perfumer Richard Howard. Upon launch, they were given names inspired by Cowshed’s roots: the Moody Cow, Grumpy Cow and Horny Cow formulas sat on the bathroom shelves and took pride of place in the spas. In 2019, it was a time for a brand refresh, with these cheeky names replaced with eight refined and modern moods, including Sleep and Relax. But a er 25 years, one thing remains the same: a range that combines quality, therapeutic value and carefully balanced fragrance harmonies.

2005

Babington House’s central dining room, e Orangery, opens. Seating around 70 members, it o ers a warm, cosy space overlooking the lake and cherry blossom tree.

2007

e greenhouse in the Walled Garden is removed to make way for an upgraded spa space, where members can enjoy luxurious Cowshed treatments.

2013

e House hosts its first Glastonbury Wind Down Party. Just 30 minutes from the site, guests can find sanctuary (and more partying) the Monday a er the festival.

The Babington need-to-knows

Fun facts and details to note in and around the House

Babington House was one of the first hotels across the globe to make a roll top bath a star a raction in the bedroom – not the bathroom.

e House’s original bread oven can still be found in Room 11 in the Coach House. Don’t worry, it’s no longer in action.

e refrigerated white wine cellar was converted from what was the property’s original gent’s toilets – a rather impressive example of turning water into wine.

2020

Babington is given a refresh, with a complete makeover. New paintwork, furniture and artwork marks the beginning of a new era at the House.

e largest-ever room service order on record actually didn't contain any food. It consisted of an impressive 47 Bloody Marys and a single glass of prosecco, delivered to Room 32 one Friday morning.

All of the Westcombe cheddar and rico a devoured by hungry Babington guests comes from the award-winning artisan fromager Tom Calver, who regularly hand-delivers our orders from his dairy, which is located just 9.8 miles away from the House.

2023

Babington House celebrates its 25th birthday, with a summer of wellness retreats, unmissable supper clubs and art events celebrating the local creative crowd.

Explore membership, bedrooms and the Cowshed spa at Babington House

Hair and make-up: Liz Daxauer. Photography assistant: Luke Simmonds

Below and right: Guests enjoying the Cowshed spa at Babington

The creative way to invest? Gather.

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Join our community of investors and like-minded Gatherers, sharing ideas for financial success.

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Capital at risk

Gather International Limited does not offer advice or personal recommendations, if you’re not sure if investing is right for you then please speak to a financial advisor. The value of your investments may go down as well as up and you could get back less than you originally invested. Tax rules can change, benefits depend on circumstances. Gather International Limited is an Appointed Representative of Sapphire Capital Partners LLP (FRN 565716) which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. This Financial Promotion was approved by Sapphire Capital Partners LLP as of the 30th of May 2023.

Good things come to those who Gather

Welcome to the future. Produced in collaboration with our teams across North America, Asia and Europe, as well as our friends at Disney, the first ever Soho Future 100 list is a definitive por olio of the most exciting artists and visionaries who pass through our Houses on a daily basis. From film and TV talent, both in front of and behind the camera, to fashion, music and art pioneers, prepare to meet the bright young creatives blazing a trail. Disney, which celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2023, has been instrumental in nominating many of the up-andcoming names that feature on this list. In the spirit of paying it forward, each talent has donated a one-of-a-kind product that celebrates their favourite Walt Disney character or story, which will be auctioned o for the Make-A-Wish charity. For more details, please visit @DisneyStyle on Instagram and TikTok.

By Alfie Tong, James Conrad Williams and Olivia McCrea-Hedley

Right: Fashion designer Clarence Ruth shot at Ludlow House, New York. Ruth is wearing a jacket from the Disney x Tommy collection

©

Disney Photography: Juan Veloz. Hair: Mirna Jose. Make-up: Mark Edio

While Quinta Brunson’s ascent to Hollywood’s comedy elite might appear e ortless, it’s been years in the making. During a morning at Soho Warehouse, she discusses winning awards, her hit TV show and why she’s only just ge ing started

By Najma Sharif

Photography by Kennedi Carter

Styling by Kat Typaldos

efore Quinta Brunson played second-grade teacher Janine Teagues in the hit sitcom Abbott Elementary she was a student of comedy. While at university, she started watching Saturday Night Live and became obsessed with it. Earlier this year, caught her fresh o hosting that very show. In the opening monologue, she acknowledges this kismet. “I wanted to be on SNL back in the day but the audition process seemed long,” she said. “Instead, I just created my own TV show, made sure it became really popular, won a bunch of Emmys and then got asked to host – so much easier.”

In 2014, when Brunson’s web series e Girl Who’s Never Been on a Nice Date went viral, the internet fell in love with her humour and relatable videos. Her comedic genius and mass appeal hasn’t let up since. Brunson has shown her range as an actor, comedian, writer and producer, appearing in the likes of A Black Lady Sketch Show Big Mouth and iZombie is photo shoot took place in Soho Warehouse in Downtown LA – Soho House’s 12th club in North America, in the heart of the Los Angeles arts district. It’s a House with a 24-hour vibe; a place where members can eat well, work diligently and hit the gym just as much as they can party poolside. As too am guilty of this, I wasn’t surprised when Brunson told me that she has never been to Soho House in the daytime. “I’ve only been at night for parties, and I was walking around like, ‘So this is what this room looks like?’” she says, with a laugh.

“I loved the clothes got to wear; it was a good experience,” Brunson says of the shoot. “ e photographer, Kennedi Carter, was young, Black and really good. I’m 33 now, so when I meet someone under 25, I’m like, ‘Oh, you’re the future.’”

For many Black artists and creators who are trying to be seen online, Quinta Brunson is a testament to the fact that anything is possible. Watching her rise has been surreal. Brunson’s wins made me feel like mine could happen too, so was keen to hear about her relationship with social media now she’s achieved success. “I came off Twitter, and I maintain that I would not have been able to make it without that distance. Hearing constant thoughts and talk, it’s too much. So I hope the younger generation takes time for themselves,” she says. “When I was hi ing puberty, AIM [AOL Instant Messenger] was around, and then when was 17 and 18, MySpace was there. It was like plastering your identity for the world to see, and you weren’t even sure who you were yet. en there was Facebook, and then Twi er, and all these di erent ways to put your personality out there without checking in to see if it was really well formed.”

bBrunson joins me on Zoom – it’s her first week o since filming the second season of Abbot Elementary Her skin is glistening. “I need to get my fibre in,” she says as she sips on a chia drink. It’s early in LA; she shows up in a headwrap and a T-shirt. A er the year she’s had, it makes sense that she’s prioritising her health, rest and sleep.

As the ho est creative in Hollywood right now, Brunson not only understands the cultural lexicon, she creates it – it comes with her experience as a Black woman in the industry. “We are a small minority,” she says, speaking to the overall lack of representation across the creative industries, “but we have so much that is profitable, and that’s what changes things. We have strides to go, depending on how you look at things, but we are small and we give so much. Like you – you’re talking about your experience, being a Somali woman from Minneapolis” – Brunson recognised me as soon as she joined the call, having come across my work as a writer on social media – “I’m pre y sure anybody Black online has probably seen your writing without knowing. We’re big.”

Brunson was born in Philadelphia in 1989. She grew up as the youngest of five siblings– her name translates to “fi h” in Spanish. She a ended Temple University, where she studied theatre and acting and began honing her performance skills. Watching SNL opened Brunson’s eyes to the fact that entertainment was a business and marked the beginning of her journey into comedy. She researched every single SNL “player” and switched out her textbooks for biographies and memoirs.

“Actually being there is a whirlwind,” she says of her time hosting the show. “I’m still tired from it! ey move so fast and they’re so good at what they do. know it’s easy for people to s**t on SNL now, but man, pu ing together a whole show in a week is life-changing. ey’re pre y much live editing while it’s on the air. It’s incredible work. I love sketch; I love comedy so much. I feel so romantic about that experience.”

Brunson le university to pursue her comedic ambitions, moved to Los Angeles and began performing at local comedy clubs and open mics, where she soon caught the a ention of producers and casting directors. In 2014, Brunson joined BuzzFeed, which at the time was ubiquitous on social media for creating viral videos. is was where Brunson’s creator career took o She went on to create and star in her own comedy series, Quinta vs. Everything which she uploaded on YouTube and was eventually picked up by Facebook Watch, before ge ing her breakthrough as a full-time co-star and writer on HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show By 2020, she had the idea for Abbo Elementary. It was inspired by her mother, Norma Jean Brunson, who was a teacher for 40 years in the

Jumper, £635, shorts (just seen), £345, and cardigan (worn around waist), £1,780, all Etro. Shoes, approx £610, Manolo Blahnik at Paumé Los Angeles. Gold earrings, £4,850, David Yurman

Previous spread: Bodysuit, price on request, Dundas. Gold, diamond and malachite earrings, price on request, Mateo

“If you want to put something out there, it can be frustrating that it’ll always be viewed through the lens of: ‘You’re a Black woman; you’re a woman.’ It can affect how they critique it”

Quinta Brunson

Dress, approx £750, A.L.C. Sandals, approx £425, Alexandre Birman. Silver earrings, approx £285, Sophie Buhai. Silver ring (on middle finger), £425, David Yurman. Gold and silver ring (on index finger), £969, Spinelli Kilcollin

is page: Bodysuit and skirt, price on request, both Dundas. Sandals, approx £425, Alexandre Birman. Gold, diamond and malachite earrings, price on request, and gold, malachite and diamond ring (on right hand), £2,090, all Mateo. Gold ring, approx £2,340, David Yurman. Silver, gold and rose gold ring (on le hand), £686, Spinelli Kilcollin. Opposite: Jumper, £635, Etro. Gold earrings, £4,850, David Yurman

“I joke that I vow to destroy the very thing that created me, but I really feel like social media needs to be destroyed”

district where the show is set, while the fictional school gets its name from Joyce Abbo Brunson’s sixth-grade teacher. What makes Brunson one of the greats is that she’s an open spirit, with a lot of love for where she came from and who she is creating work for. at comes with its challenges, but not the ones you’d expect. Representation has its imposed limitations. “Sometimes it’s frustrating for artists. If you want to put something out there, it can be frustrating that it’ll always be viewed through the lens of: ‘You’re a Black woman; you’re a woman,’” she explains. “It’s not that you’re ashamed of your gender, sex, race, any of that. But when it comes to people engaging with your work, it can a ect how they critique it.”

Because Brunson’s story began in the digital world, she can anticipate the expectations people have of her; she intimately understands the parasocial dynamics fans have with artists. But that doesn’t change the fact that Abbo Elementary is just a workplace sitcom, nothing more. “You don’t know how many times people say, ‘ is is changing the political landscape.’

But Abbo doesn’t have a responsibility to do anything but be a comedy. We’re not trying to necessarily change anything. firmly believe that we pay tax money to people to make these changes,” she says, referring to elected politicians and government workers. “It’s not up to Abbo to do that.”

No-one is immune to critique, not even Brunson. She was met with endless discourse following her SNL monologue, in which she called out the lack of diversity in Friends – a topic that has been widely discussed, yet still seems to o end die-hard fans. “It’s a network sitcom like, say, Friends,” Brunson said of Abbo . “Except instead of being about a group of friends, it’s about a group of teachers, and instead of New York, it’s in Philadelphia, and instead of not having Black people, it does.”

Right now, she longs for certain freedoms as a creative.

“People are asking you to fall in a certain line and I think it especially a ects Black women in comedy, because unless you’re making a joke in the way they want you to, they have decided you’re not making a joke. It’s like, can this person make this compelling work and also have a sense of humour?”

Brunson’s mastery of intentionality and purpose has catapulted her to stardom. A closer look at what Brunson

values clarifies how she approaches accolades for her cra “Awards are interesting, because when we first started making Abbo I felt strongly that it had the ability to contend for the awards. at doesn’t necessarily mean I find them to be extremely important. I just think that good should be recognised and was proud of the work that we were doing.” She’s being impossibly modest. Brunson was the first Black woman to be nominated three times in the comedy category at the Emmys, winning her first for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. She also has a Golden Globe for Best Television Actress in a Musical/Comedy Series, two NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actress and Outstanding Breakthrough Creative, plus Abbot Elementary took home the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series earlier this year.

Since its premiere, the star power of the entire Abbo cast has grown, even for established names such as fellow Golden Globe winner Tyler James Williams [of Everybody HatesChris fame] and Sheryl Lee Ralph, whose moving 2022 Emmys acceptance speech went viral. Brunson went in with a mission to simply create good work, but seeing her co-stars win makes it all the sweeter. “Sheryl won her Emmy, which was a moment that I felt like we all shared with the world,” she tells me with her signature grin. “Tyler winning was just like him. Quiet, so deserving. Beautiful.” She makes sure to tell me that Janelle James, who plays Ava Coleman on the show, was actually the first person in the cast to win an award, for Best Supporting Actress at the Hollywood Critics Association Television Awards. So if there is a lesson to learn about Quinta Brunson, it’s that in order to win, you have to desire the same wins for everyone, and the only way to do that is to know and like yourself. For her, the only way to do that is to take a step back from the o en-drowning noise of social media. “My career is tied to these pla orms. I joke that vow to destroy the very thing that created me, but I really feel like [social media] needs to be destroyed. In the meantime, I think people can just take care of themselves outside of it.”

Quinta Brunson is a member of Soho Warehouse, Los Angeles

Top: Brunson hosting Saturday Night Live earlier this year. Above: e award-winning cast of Abbot Elementary at the 2023 Golden Globes

Top: e cast of Abbot Elementary Above: Brunson with her award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series at the 2022 Emmys

Dress, approx £925, Tibi. Gold ring (on middle finger), approx £2,340, David Yurman. Silver, gold and rose gold ring (on index finger), £686, Spinelli Kilcollin. Quinta Brunson was photographed at Soho Warehouse, Downtown Los Angeles

Kunichi Nomura

Tastemaker, Japan

Wikipedia describes Nomura as a “Japanese writer, actor, radio personality, book editor, interior designer, creative director and DJ from Tokyo, Japan”. We prefer the term “tastemaker”, because whatever Nomura thinks is cool will eventually make its way onto your feet, bookshelf, walls and playlist. As a writer, he’s interviewed the likes of Wes Anderson, Spike Jonze and Marc Newson. As a designer and consultant, he’s worked with Beams Japan on its catalogues and created event spaces for Uniqlo and Nike. He’s even made cameos in films such as Lost in Translation and e Grand Budapest Hotel

Annahstasia Musician, Los Angeles

While singer-songwriter Annahastasia Enuke’s heritage is Nigerian on her father’s side and her mother is from Wisconsin, she is is, first and foremost, a self-proclaimed “Valley girl” from Los Angeles. She independently released her debut EP S acred Bull in 2019, and has since opened for Lenny Kravitz on the European leg of his Raise Vibrations tour. Her haunting and dreamlike ballads, such as the single While You Were Sleeping from her latest EP Revival sit somewhere between Sade and Tracy Chapman. And there’s more: she’s currently working on her first full album, Tether

Daily

Founded in 2012 by Hussein Suleiman, Abderrahmane Trabsini and Je erson Osei (of Somali, Moroccan and Ghanaian heritage respectively), Daily Paper fuses contemporary streetwear with the fabrics, prints and culture of their pan-African backgrounds.

The Amsterdam-based fashion and lifestyle brand began as a blog (remember those?), which celebrated the trio’s favourite art, music, fashion, history and culture from across the African continent. The three friends used the blog as a way to help them learn more about the backgrounds and history of their motherlands.

This modest beginning turned out to be one of the smartest moves that a brand with almost no start-up capital could have made. It helped them to develop the world of Daily Paper and build a community of fans who share the trio’s taste. In addition to fashion, the

brand bolsters its community credentials with initiatives such as 2021’s Freedom Skatepark – a partnership with O -White and Surf Ghana to open the very first skatepark in the country.

As the Daily Paper community expands across the globe, so does the trio’s need for an international base.

“We enjoy the Soho House spaces, as they allow us to engage and connect with other creatives and like-minded communities at a global level,” says the trio. “Soho House is a relaxed social hub where interesting, collaborative ideas are shared and nurtured.”

The brand launched with a range of T-shirts and sweatshirts, which soon evolved into the full collections of knitwear, contemporary tailoring, printed overcoats, bodycon dresses and puffer jackets on offer today.

A quick glance at the website reveals a selection of crochet-knit T-shirts,

hats and dresses, along with a boldly pa erned jacquard suit. ese designs are all from Daily Paper’s Under e Same Moon collection, inspired by the colours and pa erns of North Africa – take the red and green Petriri shirt, which channels the national colours of Morocco in that same crochet knit. It’ll be cool seeing these pieces translate to real-life scenarios, from lounging in a riad to dancing at No ing Hill Carnival. No major streetwear player can exist without a regular roster of headlinegrabbing collabs. Last year, Daily Paper teamed up with Adidas to create football club Ajax’s 3rd kit for the 22/23 season. e graphic design on the front of the shirt was inspired by pleintjes – the small, enclosed football courts where the city’s brightest talents hone their skills. A fi ing milestone for a grassroots brand that has found international success.

Chris Allen

Comic artist, Texas

Nominated by Disney

Allen was born in New York and raised just outside of Orlando, Florida, where he developed a passion for comic art at a young age. He began his professional career in the 1990s, with his distinctive style quickly making him one of the most sought-after artists in the industry. Allen has worked on titles including Spider-Man: Miles Morales and X-Force, and is now the only US member of Marvel’s 2023 Stormbreakers: a select group of global artists hired by Marvel. Allen is currently creating his own corner of the Marvel Universe, illustrating the upcoming Black Panther comic book series.

Micheal Ward Actor, London Member, 180 House

It might come as a surprise to hear that the actor perhaps best known for playing kingpin Jamie Tovell in Top Boy actually lives with his mum in Romford, east London. He was born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, before moving to the UK with his family when he was four. Now, he’s had roles in Steve McQueen’s celebrated Small Axe: Lover’s Rock, won a BAFTA Rising Star award and has been nominated for another: the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the recent Sam Mendesdirected Empire of Light All of this, by the age of 25. Mega stardom awaits.

Yinka Ilori

Artist and designer, London Member, White City House

Colour and pa ern are the key features of Ilori’s art and design practice, which spreads joy along with celebrating his Nigerian heritage and London upbringing. e artist recently unveiled installation Beacon of Dreams (2023) at Soho Farmhouse as part of our first-ever Soho Summit. Iloria has also created notable public works and installations, such as Happy Street (2019) in London’s Nine Elms, in which a dreary railway underpass was transformed with bright murals, and The Colour Palace (2019) – a temporary pavilion at the Dulwich Picture Gallery that paid homage to colours and pa erns inspired by West Africa.

Member, Soho House Rome

e mind-bendingly surreal forms of Giulia Tavani’s brand anGostura are set to turn the conservative world of fine jewellery upside down. She’s inspired by dreams of ancient gods, mythical creatures and an “indigenous culture from an unidentified past” that she has devised. Fans of her work include Miley Cyrus and Erykah Badu, whose hands are o en festooned with Tavani’s oversized rings, amulets and finger moulds. While her design aesthetic has sprung forth from her fertile imagination, Tavani’s success is very much rooted in the real world.

Silvia Giambrone

Artist, Rome and London

Member, Soho House Rome

Giambrone’s art uncovers the power dynamics between men and women. Working in the mediums of performance, sculpture, photography, installation and sound, the artist sees her work as part of a long heritage of feminist thinkers and artists, from Helen Chadwick and Judy Chicago to Gina Pane, who used their work to uproot inequality in the home and workplace. Her film Traum (2021/2019), an exploration of violence in relationships, has won 11 awards, including Best Performance Art at Fine Arts Film Festival Venice, California. Her work Halo–in theageofMechanical Reproduction (2018) can be found at Soho House Rome.

Rimon

Musician, Amsterdam

Member, Soho House Amsterdam

At just 26, singer-songwriter Rimon makes the kind of ethereal neo-soul music that seems precision-tooled for cruising down a sun-drenched Los Angeles boulevard (or maybe a blissful mushroom trip on a beach somewhere hot). Born in Eritrea and raised in Amsterdam, Rimon’s music blends R&B, hip hop and dancehall with melancholy, heartfelt lyrics about falling in love, falling out of love and finding it again. Funnily enough, the video for her latest single, I Choose U features young couples from all walks of life falling in love in New York City. Prepare to hear it everywhere this summer.

Je erson Osei, Hussein Suleiman and Abderrahmane Trabsini, founders of Daily Paper, Amsterdam Members, Soho House Amsterdam

Revolue

Artist, São Paulo

Nominated by Disney

Marcus Vinicius d’Andrea Coelho, also known as Revolue, has more than 13 years of experience in research and artistic development. Revolue’s practice is distinctly contemporary but covers a range of genres: he pairs oil painting with less traditional elements, such as crayons and spray paint, to create a unique personal style that can be best described as the perfect marriage of classic with urban street art. His expressive works portray the nuances of chaotic human nature and have gained both national and international acclaim. He’s currently represented by galleries in Vienna, New York and Asia.

Artist, London

Member, Shoreditch House

Canadian-born artist and 2022 Turner Prize nominee Sin Wai Kin works in drag to create live performances, moving image, fiction and print inspired by science fiction and popular culture. eir work challenges misogyny and racism both inside and outside of the queer community – the centrepiece of their 2021 exhibition It’s Always You featured a four-piece boyband of masculine drag characters celebrating queer joy (pictured below). Kin moved to London in 2009 to study at Camberwell College of Art and the Royal College of Art, while also running queer club nights. eir work can be found at Brighton Beach House.

Daryl McCormack

Actor, London

Five years ago, Irish actor Daryl McCormack had just moved to London and was waiting tables while looking for roles. Today, he finds himself a two-time BAFTAnominee for both the Rising Star and Best Actor categories for his role in the comedy-drama Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. In the film, McCormack stars alongside Emma ompson – his so ly, so ly sex appeal helps her character, a recently widowed teacher who has never had an orgasm, rediscover her sexuality. You’ve probably also seen him in Peaky Blinders and Bad Sisters Next up? He co-stars alongside Ruth Wilson in the BBC drama e Woman in the Wall a thriller set in Ireland.

Gianni

Artist, Rome

Member, Soho House Rome

Jarreau Vandal

DJ and producer, Amsterdam

Member, Soho House Amsterdam

Jarreau Vandal – real name Ellroy Uyleman – made his name DJing and remixing tracks by the likes of Dua Lipa, G-Eazy, MNEK, Rihanna, Diplo and Trippie Redd –bringing his le -field, electronica, hip-hop, dancehall and soulflavoured magic to their music. Now, he is an artist and indemand producer in his own right, with albums such as 2021’s Suburb Superhero: The Villain Within capturing the essence of his remix work and club sets via tracks wri en, produced and performed by him. Check out the vibes from his Boiler Room set on YouTube to see why he’s been hailed by none other than Diplo as the “sound of the future”.

Favour

Sobhita Dhulipala

Actor, Mumbai

Member, Soho House Mumbai

e former beauty queen and actor is perhaps best known to global audiences for her role as Tara Khanna in the Amazon Prime drama Made In Heaven e show follows two wedding planners from Delhi as they navigate conflicting demands of modernity and tradition in contemporary India against the backdrop of lavish weddings, which hide secrets and lies.

Dhulipala, who is a huge star in India, can speak Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu, and her most recent role is in 2023’s e Night Manager a Hindi version of the popular BBC thriller based on the John le Carré novel.

Gianni Politi’s abstract paintings are indebted to the history and culture of his hometown, Rome, but also draws energy from the punk irreverence of London’s Young British Artists. In his 2018 US debut Paintings

From An Old World splashes of expressionistic colour found a canvas on heavy shirts made out of raw linen, while 2021’s e Last Stand saw the painter returning to canvas on a grand scale. Politi’s work can also be found on display at Soho House Rome. “San Lorenzo is the neighbourhood where my studio is,” he says. “Many artists have their studios here but since Soho House opened nearby, we now also have a home.”

Thiago Toes

Artist, São Paulo

Nominated by Disney

Toes is a multimedia artist who embraces painting and sculpture to create sensorial spaces and experiences. Having been awarded the Garimpo prize for emerging Brazilian artists by DasArtes magazine back in 2015, his work has subsequently been exhibited in several of Brazil’s most revered spaces, including the Memorial da América Latina and Sesc Belenzinho as well as Paço das Artes. Internationally, he’s also participated in the artistic residency at the 13th International Art Week in Lüben, Germany, and created a mural for the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus in Minsk.

S.S.Daley

Designer, London

S.S.Daley’s story is the stuff fashion dreams are made of.

A Liverpudlian from a modest background comes to study fashion design at the University of Westminster, and via talent, hard work and a lucky coincidence ends up dressing Harry Styles in some of his most iconic looks. Sounds easy, right? Far from it. Daley’s vision, while romantic, has an unusual depth and resonance. While his clothes revel in the idea of bright young things frolicking at a party, his nuanced work reveals that the designer is as critical of the British class system as he is entranced by the trappings of it (see his SS23 show, pictured).

Only 23 and already a threetime Brit Award nominee, singer-songwriter Cat Burns deftly blends gospel and pop influences with indie guitar balladry for her rapt Gen Z audience. Born and raised in Streatham, south London, she recorded her debut EP Adolescent aged just 16 when she was still a student at the renowned BRIT school, however she struggled to get signed. en, in 2022, her single Go blew up on TikTok – a whole two years after its initial release – and went all the way to number two in the UK charts. It even led to Sam Smith recording a verse for a remixed version of the track.

Nigerian-born, London-based multidisciplinary artist Favour Jonathan specialises in metalwork, creating art that is steeped in African and British history. Her work has appeared at the Royal Academy, Tate Modern and internationally at the Lagos Biennial in 2019. How do you set yourself up for a productive day of work?

I’ve recently turned 27 and this is the first year I’m feeling my age. My routine and interests have truly matured into something healthy and beautiful. e type of creative world I’m in demands a lot of discipline and strength. We’re constantly working with heavy materials and moving heavy steel, so I had to make my body catch up with the job by taking up weight training and bodybuilding. In the morning, I usually clear my head by a ending a 45-minute class at the gym, then head to work. It’s a bit of a ritual and I feel less productive when I don’t work out. My brain loves it.

Where do you go when you need to feel inspired?

I take a break! I find a location outside London, preferably near the sea or a river. It helps me relax. When I’m relaxed, I’m more motivated and happier. I sometimes go to the Institute of International Visual Art at the Stuart Hall Library in London, too. It’s almost like time traveling – layers and layers of history at your fingertips. I also find inspiration in the history of my hometown, Benin City, Nigeria.

Who is the person whose feedback your trust the most?

During exhibitions and shows, I love it when children are interested in my work. They really don’t care about your feelings and are happy to voice what they think. It’s funny but that’s where the unbiased compliments come from. You’ll be surprised by the constructive criticism they have, too. ey ask questions like, “How did you

make this?” and sometimes they hit you with the, “Do you think I can do this too?” kind of questions.

Which piece are you proudest of creating and why?

I have a steel and copper realistic heart that created in 2017 that is as big as an adult’s palm. I inserted a mini speaker inside so you can play whatever your heart wants. It’s small but the metals create the most satisfying vibrations.

What’s your trick to overcoming a creative dry spell?

It’s hard to have a dry spell when you work with history; there is so much to speak about that’s happened in the world. But to overcome a dry spell, you have to play. If that means buying a colouring book made for kids, do it. If it means going on YouTube and learning how to make a paper kite, do it. You’ll be surprised at what your inner child inspires you to make.

Revolue, iago Toes and Favour Jonathan were nominated by Disney as part of Create 100 for this sponsored collaboration with Soho House. Photography: Hindustan Times/Ge y Images; Sweatmother; La testa del cane (2023) by Gianni Politi/Corrado De Grazia; Je Spicer/BFC/Ge y Images; Alamy; Sgamo; David M Bene /Ge y Images

Artist, London Nominated by Disney

Cat Burns Musician, London

Sin Wai Kin

Politi

TYLER M c GILLIVARY Fashion designer

A prime pick of our Soho Future 100 talents, nominated by Disney, take a bite out of the Big Apple at Ludlow House in New York

By James Conrad Williams . Photography

by Juan Veloz

Photographer and creative director Kendall Bessent

Born in Washington, D.C., McGillivary now resides in New York and is the founder of her namesake label. “My favourite place in New York is the Botanical Garden in the Bronx,” she says. “ e concept for my piece for Disney’s Create 100 [a floral-embellished handbag] was inspired by the Garden’s orchid show. I was reminded of Bambi, when umper emerges from a pile of flowers.”

KENDALL BESSENT

Photographer and creative director (pictured, previous page)

Bessent, who divides his time between New York and Atlanta, explores the complexities of Blackness through his work. “When I’m in a creative block and I need to feel inspired, I dive into music videos, movies, or iconic fashion images,” he says. “But my earliest creative hero was my mother, who is a hairstylist. Growing up in the salon and watching her create inspired me to do the same. She really nurtured my artistic side and is one of the biggest reasons am where I am today.”

ALIYAH SALMON

Textile artist

Florida native Salmon now resides in Brooklyn, and her work focuses on the playful relationship between colour and form. “I grew up in Orlando, 10 minutes from Disney World, and it’s always been a fountain of inspiration for me – the playful nature of the architecture and the a ention to detail at the parks.” she says. “I o en go back there, and to other places in Orlando, just to remind me of my roots and give me a jolt of creative energy.”

GABRIELA NOELLE

Artist

Cuban-American artist Noelle creates playful art and interactive objects inspired by childhood. “Since my work is all about speaking to the inner child, when need to feel inspired, I go to my local skating rink,” she says. “It’s pre y much an actual time portal to the 1990s. Not one thing has been renovated or updated, from the dark carpet with fluorescent shapes to the formica dining tables. e music also transports me to a di erent time. It clears my mind and ideas start to flow.”

DAZIAH GREEN

Creator

Born and raised in Canton, Ohio, Green is a former athlete-turned-multifaceted creator. “My dad was a great artist who taught me how to draw. He also taught me to follow my dreams and face every obstacle head-on. He always said, ‘You can do anything you put your mind to,’” says Green. “I’m super proud of the sneaker I am donating to Disney’s Create 100, with all proceeds going to Make-A-Wish. It is inspired by Mirabel from Encanto.”

CLARENCE RUTH

Fashion designer

Designer Ruth has worked for fashion titans such as Tom Ford and was most recently the winner of the Tommy Hilfiger x Harlem’s Fashion Row design competition. “My creative heroes and icons are Frederick Douglass, Hedi Slimane, Tommy Hilfiger, Ann Lowe and Jesus Christ,” he admits. “But spending time with my son is when I feel most inspired. e way he views the world brings me a new perspective. I want him, and the generations to follow, to live in a be er, more inclusive world.”

JACKSON WIEDERHOEFT

Artist, storyteller and designer

Winner of the VOGUE/CFDA Fashion Fund in 2022, Wiederhoe ’s designs have been worn by A-listers including Lady Gaga and Rihanna. “My most creative moments almost always happen as I’m walking alone at night,” they say. “I love the buzz and rumble of New York but most days are a sensory overload. At night, the city calms down, and so do I. It’s a good time to digest the feelings and visuals of the day, and let it all marinate. New images start to form in the stillness. Suddenly a collection, a poem, an idea is born.”

anks to his star turn in Babylon, actor Diego Calva is spending more and more time in Hollywood – but the vibrant hub of CDMX will forever be his home. Here, in the historic surroundings of Soho House Mexico City, he gives us a glimpse into his world

By Mario Abad

Photography by David Suarez

D g ie

Styling by Fernando Fernández

or Diego Calva, taking part in this photo shoot against the historic architecture of the soon-to-be-opened Soho House Mexico City – weaving his way between construction workers and classical fresco paintings while wearing head-to-toe Gucci – was a full-circle moment.

While the actor was rehearsing for Babylon (his first Hollywood role, starring opposite Margot Robbie and Brad Pi , no biggie) the film’s director, Damien Chazelle, invited him to stay at his home in Los Angeles. Chazelle’s wife, Olivia Hamilton, lent him her Mini Cooper for the trip. “I remember driving in LA when Damien called me and said, ‘Diego, you have to be at Malibu Beach House at 8am [for a meeting].’” Cut to Calva waiting at a nearby parking lot. “Somebody threw their keys at me, for a Tesla or whatever, and said, ‘Hey, Chico, park my car.’”

For those familiar with his turn as Manny Torres in Babylon, this encounter plays like a scene from the script. Calva inhabits the role of a Mexican worker in his twenties and at the beginning of the movie, everyone calls him “Chico” because no one knows his name. “It’s the first time he’s in LA, working with celebrities and he’s literally parking cars,” Calva says. “But 10 years later, he’s one of the [industry’s] greatest producers.”

It’s a case of art very much imitating life: the global fanfare and awards buzz around Babylon proved pivotal for Calva, bringing him to the a ention of worldwide cinema audiences, as well as industry casting directors. And it’s clear Calva has very much had the last laugh. So who be er to feature in a shoot at Soho House Mexico City – our first Latin American outpost – than one of its native sons and ho est rising stars?

Soho House Mexico City is situated in a restored casa in the heart of Colonia Juárez. Its design reflects the building’s historic French influences and baroque heritage, preserving much of the original structure and interiors. Though it’s still something of a work in progress for this cover shoot, trust us when we tell you that the finished House – complete with outdoor pool and greenhouse-style bar – will be impressive. Calva agrees.

“It’s in a cool old neighborhood,” he says.

“You can tell that a really big, rich family used to live there and it still has the original ceiling. ere’s a very romantic painting of three naked angels with the trumpets and all that. It’s great to see that they didn’t destroy the space, they played around with it.”

e area feels very familiar to Calva, who grew up in downtown Santa María la Ribera and in La Condesa (“Way before it became a fashion place,” he adds).

In many ways, he feels that his generation was among the last who would actually spend their days out in their neighbourhoods, playing on the streets.

“I remember I went to the park in Mexico

This page: Top, approx £4,095, trousers, approx £1,590, and belt, approx £460, all Zegna. Top (worn underneath), stylist’s own. Sunglasses, approx £325, Isabel Marant. Steel watch, price on request, Omega. Previous spread: Jacket, approx £1,370, trousers, approx £670, and shoes, approx £240, all Emporio Armani. Steel watch, price on request, Omega

“I don’t want to rush things any more. I don’t want to play anything I haven’t properly prepared for”

Jumpsuit,

£3,390, and top (worn underneath), £1,335, both Valentino. Shoes, £1,790, Zegna. Sunglasses, £375, Marc Jacobs. White gold and diamond bracelet, price on request, Ti any & Co.

to play soccer,” he says. “I used the city a lot. I would take my skateboard and go super far away from my house, just to find a spot that somebody talked about in the south of the city.”

Mexico’s creative scene has long been an inspiration for Calva, whose parents were both artists. But meeting the punk-artist-turned-film-director Artemio Narro, who ran underground gallery La Panadería (Spanish for “bakery”) four blocks from Calva’s house, proved seismic. He eventually started working for him as a 14-year-old and, a week a er our interview, in another “full-circle moment”, Calva will start shooting a movie with Narro in Mexico City.

Calva welcomes the fact that the new Soho House could bring some positive momentum to Mexico City’s creative scene. “All my meetings in LA are at Soho House,” he says. “In New York,

before going to a big event or premiere, you meet at Soho House. After the party, you go to Soho House. There’s a big community around it. truly believe Mexico City is a centre for the arts. ere are people from all over the world here. Soho House in Mexico City is going to open that community up to the artists and people across Latin America. It’s also going to open up a whole new world of people to Soho House.”

Calva began his movie career very much behind the scenes, working on independent Latin American movies with other creatives from Guatemala and El Salvador. From the sound and art departments to construction and catering, he’s done it all. “I fully respect all the people working [on set],” he says. “I know there are many jobs where you don’t receive a clap, but they’re still so important. I’ve been the co ee guy and know the satisfaction of knowing how the actor takes his co ee and being helpful.” But going from behind the scenes to in front of the camera is a di erent beast, and something Calva never intentionally set out to do. One day, he was working as the boom mic operator for a film and the lead actor didn’t show up. So the director, a friend of Calva’s, asked him to step in as a favour. He then started doing other acting jobs for free and, in his own words, “became a li le popular”, landing 20 or so short film roles before he’d even entered college.

His first lead role in a movie, a small independent film titled I Promise You Anarchy, about skateboarders in Mexico City, featured a lot of his high school friends who also played his friends in the movie. “It was kind of this weird documentary of my life,” he says. It led to an abundance of travel opportunities to places like Switzerland, Costa Rica and Spain. “I started to realise, ‘OK, I’ve

Opposite: Shirt, approx £625, Emporio Armani.

Scarf, vintage Hermès

been looking for my way to get into the movies. Maybe this is it?’ So, I dropped out of school and the rest is history.” It wasn’t just Babylon’s critical success that proved to be a game-changer, but also the process of making it. For Calva, creatively speaking, it was a dream come true. Chazelle gave him four months to prepare: to work on his English, perfect his accent, learn how to ride a horse and to really immerse himself in the character. It was a process that has since informed the kind of projects Calva hopes to take on in the future. “I don’t want to rush things any more,” he says. “I want to have all that time. I don’t want to play anything I haven’t properly prepared for.”

His new level of fame and success means he’s been able to be more selective with his roles. Up next is On Swi Horses, the film adaptation of the novel by Shannon Pufahl about a forbidden love triangle after the Korean War, co-starring Jacob Elordi, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Will Poulter. Calva has also discovered an interest in high fashion. Along with the racks of designer clothes he’s encountered on glossy photoshoots, the relentless red carpet press circuit has presented an opportunity for sartorial experimentation. He’s been working with Ilaria Urbinati, one of the most in-demand Hollywood stylists (her roster includes Ben Affleck, Chris Evans and Ryan Reynolds), who has encouraged Calva to try less traditional takes on menswear. A close working relationship with Gucci followed, and Calva now champions Mexican brands such as Barragán, Sanchez-Kane and Francisco Cancino.

“I always use clothes as part of my code,” he says. “I was the skater kid with a e Cure T-shirt full of holes and into street fashion. It was a whole discourse for me. I always said a lot with my clothes. So now, wrapped up in the high fashion world, there’s a lot of ways you can talk. There’s a statement, there’s a whole history there and I really like it.”

“Before a big event or premiere, you meet at Soho House. After the party, you go to Soho House. There’s a big community around it”

Following the success of Babylon (which landed him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor), Calva is contemplating a full-time move to Los Angeles. And though the city of dreams is less than a four-hour flight away from his hometown, the potential wrench away from his beloved Mexico City is already something he’s wrestling with.

“I love Mexico City and hate being away from my mom, my home, my friends; from my streets, my taco place, my co ee place,” he says. “But if I want to make it in Hollywood, I have to be there. Los Angeles has a completely di erent vibe. Mexico City welcomes you. It’s like a very dirty, sweaty friend that always helps you. Los Angeles is like a very clean, beautiful friend, but he’s trying to kick you out all the time. So if you are invited, you have to r espect that. have to move back

Right: Calva with Margot Robbie in Babylon Diego Calva was photographed at Soho House Mexico City

to Los Angeles [for work], but I’m glad that it’s so close to Mexico City.” Indeed, all roads lead back to Mexico City, a place he describes as a metropolis of contrasts and contradictions. “To fully live the Mexico City experience, you have to cross neighbourhoods. It’s a very walkable place, and you can be walking in one street, thinking you know the vibe of the neighbourhood, and literally three blocks that way, it changes completely. I just love that!”

Diego Calva is a member of Soho House Mexico City

Grooming: Davo Sthebané.

Photography assistant: Emiliano Quetal. Digi assistant: Hugo Chaparro.

Styling assistants: Valeria Villa, Daniela Correa. Grooming assisrtant: Anna Mortera. Additional photography:

Explore membership at Soho House Mexico City

This page: Jacket, approx £3,500, Off-White at Jet Store.

Trousers, approx £380, Asai at Silver Deer Store. White gold and diamond bracelet, price on request, Tiffany & Co.

Opposite: Jacket, approx £2,530, trousers, approx £930, and boots, Calva’s own, all Gucci. Gold chain and white gold and diamond bracelet, both price on request, Tiffany & Co.

A Londoner who’s actually from London – when’s the last time you met one of those? Even more astonishing is the fact that Naomi Ackie – who was born in Camden and grew up in Walthamstow, north London, to a dad who worked on the Underground and a mum who worked for the NHS – makes such a convincing Whitney Houston in the biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody (pictured below).

While Ackie doesn’t look remotely like the singer, she instead nails Houston’s mannerisms and quirks so that we get her essence : the quiver of the lips as she hits the high notes; her dazzling, megawatt smile. e 30-year-old also captures Houston’s emotional depths with great sensitivity – that curious blend of vulnerability, bravado and melancholy – without descending into talent show mimicry or impersonation. The role, Ackie’s first as a leading lady, earned her a BAFTA Rising Star nomination and put her firmly in the vanguard of a new generation of British actors set for global superstardom.

Ackie Naomi

But success has not come easily.

Shortly a er graduating from drama school in 2014, she starred alongside Florence Pugh in the period thriller Lady Macbeth e William Oldroyddirected film was released to critical acclaim in 2017 and proved to be the making of Pugh, who went on to become a household name shortly a er. But for Ackie, despite winning Most Promising Newcomer at the British Independent Film Awards, it proved a false dawn. e experience almost made her quit acting, due to the lack of diverse roles available for actors of colour – an issue that is starting to improve, but prevails today. Later that year, Ackie found herself working at an immersive Crystal Maze experience based on the Channel 4 game show in London’s West End. She realised something had to give, and so the actor set herself the deadline of a year to make it happen. And boy, did it happen. Shortly a er, Ackie won the part of Bonnie in comedy noir e End Of e F***ing World, and then, aged 28, she took on the key role of Jannah in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – this showcased her talents to the US and set her on the path to becoming Whitney Houston.

Next up? A leading role in Pussy Island – a thriller directed by Zoë Kravitz and co-starring Channing Tatum –plus Ackie will star alongside Robert Pa inson in Mickey 17 Bong Joon-ho’s much-anticipated follow-up to Parasite Long may her run continue.

Gabriel Rico

Artist, Mexico

Sculptor and installation artist Gabriel Rico brings together seemingly unrelated objects –think taxidermy, ceramics, neon, branches, CDs, glass bottles and phones, as well as his own personal items – to reflect on the relationship between humans and their natural environment. His work nods to the post-Surrealism and Arte Povera movements. Rico has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the world, including the ASU Art Museum in Arizona, MASIN Sinaloa Art Museum in Mexico, the Pérez Art Museum Miami and the 2019 Venice Biennale. His work will also be on display at Soho House Mexico City when it opens this autumn.

The Korean-American singer-songwriter was all set to be a management consultant, until a YouTube video of him performing caught the attention of a Korean producer who was searching for contestants to feature on the X Factor-style talent show Star Audition: Birth of a Great Star Nam took part in the show and the rest, as they say, is history. To celebrate 10 years in the music industry, Nam, now a K-Pop icon, recently announced a “reimagined” version of his 2022 album ere and Back Again For the 2023 release, all seven songs have been totally reinterpreted for a sound that feels at once fresh yet nostalgic.

Danielle Soon Jewellery designer, Malaysia

Nominated by Disney

Malaysian-born artist Danielle

Soon creates intricate, handcra ed jewellery for her brand Tzu, which is sold through Instagram (@tzu.stu ). Soon’s designs are influenced by her time living in Borneo, where she learnt about the local traditional cra techniques – as a result, many of Tzu’s pieces feature delicate beading inspired by the region. e earrings, for example, use a variety of Japanese Miyuki beads to create Soon’s signature flowers, including tulips, lilies and daffodils in a range of colours – an homage to her mother’s love of flowers and the natural beauty and botany of her homeland.

Bianca Saunders is leading a generation of designers whose identities and cultural heritage are integral to their fashion ethos. It’s paying o the Royal College of Art graduate won the ANDAM Fashion Award in 2021, was shortlisted for an LVMH prize and took home the Golden Picante for Breakthrough Designer at our 2022 awards, held at 180 House – Saunders’ favourite House. “I couldn’t stop going there when it opened,” she says. Her evolved take on menswear blends sharp, minimalist tailoring with draped fabrics and bold optical prints (pictured below) – an aesthetic rooted in her love for London and her Caribbean heritage.

Charity SsB

Musician, Shanghai

Charity SsB has been beamed in from the future by way of Shanghai to electrify the world with his eclectic pop bangers. His experimental fashion image and bold sound – which spans reggaeton, industrial rock, trap and lighters-in-the-air pop – is a product of his hometown, which, with its population of 28 million and neon-drenched skyline is less of a city and more of a Blade Runner-style megalopolis. He is part of the creative collective Genome 6.66 Mbp and Chinese-Korean rap duo Vroskiii, and his 2020 mixtape NIC3 2 MEET U introduced his next chapter as a solo artist.

The photographer and filmmaker draws deeply from his South London roots and Nigerian heritage to create his portraiture, which is rich in texture and inspired by artists including Gordon Parks and Malick Sidibé. rough Moses’ lens, subjects – whether a rapper from America or a ballet dancer in Lagos –appear epic and timeless. e self-taught artist was offered his first directing role with Nike at the age of 18 and was the youngest photographer to shoot a cover for Dazed He has collaborated with brands and designers including Adidas, Dior, Moncler, Supreme, Burberry, Virgil Abloh and Pharrell.

Singer-songwriter Bellah is on a mission to help put British R&B on the map and make it as successful as its US counterpart. e 26-year-old North London native has been writing and creating music since she was 17.

e result: hear elt lyrics and an easy sound that blends R&B with laidback Afrobeat vibes. She first came to our a ention with her 2019 EP Last Train Home followed by EPs In the Meantime and e Art of Conversation For her latest project, the seventrack Adultsville, Bellah explores her experiences of growing into the woman she is today with a powerful sincerity.

e Italian artist has lived in countries all over the world – born in Saudi Arabia, she then lived in the likes of Italy, Mexico and the USA before moving to Paris, the city she now calls home. is experience is reflected in her paintings, which o en interpret the world around her. During her studies at Central Saint Martins in London, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and Hunter College, New York, Granara learnt how formalism and minimalist colour pale es were traditionally considered to have more gravitas than colourful, figurative works. Today, she aims to turn this notion on its head, painting what are o en seen to be stereotypical, almost clichéd, symbols of femininity, such as bu erflies, hearts, flowers and the naked female form. ese bright, bold works are o en accompanied by poetry and other musings by Granara, which provide further insight into her process.

Eric Nam Singer-songwriter, Seoul Bellah Musician, London

Bianca Saunders Fashion designer, London Member, Shoreditch House

Cecilia Granara Artist, Paris Member, Soho House Paris

Gabriel Moses Photographer, London

Actor, London

Ammar Abo Bakr

Artist, Egypt

Nominated by Disney

As a muralist, installation artist, set designer, art director, painter and draughtsman, it’s safe to say Abo Bakr is a man of many talents. He was arguably one of Egypt’s leading street artists during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, known for his murals along Mohamed Mahmoud Street in Cairo, which leads to one of the main sites of protests during that time. e artist uses his murals – which feature bright colours and a combination of traditional and contemporary motifs – as a form of reportage and a study of the Egyptian people, and can be found everywhere from Cairo to Luxor, Amsterdam, Berlin and Brussels.

Saul Nash Fashion designer, London Member, 180 House

Central Saint Martins and Royal College of Art graduate Saul Nash is a choreographer and dancer as well as an awardwinning designer. His inspired use of hi-tech performance materials combined with a choreographer’s eye for theatricality and showmanship results in kinetic, free-flowing designs that de ly blend creativity with functionality. But it’s more than fashion. It’s about liberation, pride in Nash’s heritage and loyalty to northeast London, where his creations are produced. Since winning the Woolmark Prize in 2022, he’s also pioneered new techniques in the longevity and carbon impact of sportswear.

Shah Rule

Musician, Mumbai

Member, Soho House Mumbai

Mumbai-based rapper Shah

Rule takes his name from the US rapper Ja Rule and the Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan. As the moniker suggests, his music is a canny blend of US rap and R&B with contemporary Indian pop sounds. e rapper is famous for songs including Default and Superstitious, but got his big break performing alongside Indian superstar Ranveer Singh in a rap battle scene in Zoya Akhtar’s 2022 movie Gully Boy – his first film role. Rule was born in Hong Kong, raised in Moscow, studied in London and now lives in Mumbai – a true nomad.

Awich

The designer is renowned for her inspired use of upcycled and repurposed vintage fabrics for her menswear brand Bode, o en worn by the likes of Harry Styles (pictured). The Atlanta native was the first female menswear designer to show at New York Men’s Fashion Week and won the CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year Award two years in a row. During her first Paris show in 2019, Bode Aujla showed a pair of striped trousers made from ribbons originally used in the 1970s to make equestrian sports awards. is is typical of her approach; a thri y yet quirkily posh re-imagining of menswear.

Hailing from Punjab, artistic duo Jiten ukral and Sumir Tagra’s practice reflects on a fast-changing and dynamic India with bold, joyful paintings, sculpture, installations, graphic design and videos. One of their most famous series, 2013’s Windows of Opportunity explores the socio-political issues behind the Punjabi diaspora – for example, the doctors and accountants who migrate to the West and what happens to the country and people they leave behind.

At once dreamily Surreal and Pop-Art-bold, the series questions the meaning of success and contemporary consumerism in modern-day India. You can also find work by the duo at Soho House Mumbai.

Ader Error

Fashion designers, South Korea

Nominated by Disney

Stephanie Hsu is one of Hollywood’s fastest rising stars, known for roles which represent the Asian American experience. She was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her dual role as Joy Wang and villain Jobu Tupaki in Everything EverywhereAll AtOnce Hsu was born in California and began her career performing in school musicals before studying drama at the prestigious Tisch School for Arts at NYU. Next, Hsu will appear in comedy film Joy Ride directed by Crazy Rich Asians screenwriter Adele Lim, and new Disney+ series American Born Chinese alongside Michelle Yeoh.

Amie Dicke is best known for manipulating images of fashion models found in magazines and newspapers. Her most famous works involve nails smashed into a magazine cover and also images of models that have been cut into with a surgeon’s scalpel, so that they no longer evoke glamour but unsettle.

Dicke trained at the Willem de Kooning Academy of Fine Arts in Ro erdam and is based in Amsterdam, where her art can be found at the city’s Soho House, and also at Soho House Rome. Dicke also hosted a workshop at the first Soho Summit at Soho Farmhouse in April.

Back in 2014, an anonymous group of South Korean creatives gathered together to create Ader Error: a brand that aimed to channel art and culture through fashion. The name stands for “but near missed things”, reflecting the designers’ approach to their cra which takes inspiration from everyday moments – ones that are o en missed. Today, the brand delivers season a er season of playful, gender-neutral clothing, o en featuring voluminous shapes and rich colour. As a result, Ader Error has gradually accrued an ardent following of Instagram followers and real-life customers.

Danielle Dean’s multimedia art practice, which includes video, painting, installation and performance, reveals the hidden nightmare behind the American dream as expressed in advertising – you will find examples of her work at Holloway House and Soho House West Hollywood in Los Angeles. Her contribution to 2022’s Whitney Biennial, Quiet as It’s Kept looked at the Ford Motor company and founder Henry Ford’s fascination with popular cartoon characters. In her critique, Ford’s dream of the open road is in fact a neocolonialist nightmare of oppression and exclusion.

Klaxon alert: there’s a new queen bee in town and her name is Awich – short for “Asian wish child”, which is the translation of her birth name, Akiko Ursaki. Awich hails from Okinawa, Japan, and fell in love with hip hop a er discovering it in the record shops, clubs and bars that surrounded the nearby US Army base where she grew up.

In 2022, she made her major label debut with Queendom, which tells the story of her journey from Okinawa to Atlanta, the imprisonment and murder of her husband in the US and becoming a single mother. Rapped in both Japanese and English, it’s a statement of triumph over adversity, and a celebration of a queen who now rules over everything she surveys.

Ursaki learnt to rap in English thanks to her idol, Tupac Shakur, and his album All Eyez On Me In his music and

message she found an a inity with the political struggles of Okinawa, which is a colony of Japan in a similar way that Hawaii is to the US. The lyrics of her first song featured a play on the Okinawan word for “what’s up” (cha-yaga) – at the time, the language was banned from being spoken in schools on the island. Ursaki gave her first live performance aged 14 and quickly signed to a Tokyo record label, but quit when her music didn’t fit in with its pop-rap approach.

Aged 19, she moved to Atlanta to study business and marketing at the University of Indianapolis. During this period, she met and married an American man and gave birth to their daughter. A er her husband was incarcerated and subsequently killed, Awich returned to Japan with her daughter. What shines through from this period

is her determination. She went on to set up the marketing and production company Cipher City, which works to market Okinawa’s location, art and people internationally.

In 2017, she won an award for the short film Aimer, which she wrote and directed. rough the independent hip hop label Yentown, she released two albums, 8 and Peacock followed by Partition – her first EP via Universal Music. e critical acclaim of thoseprojects led to Queendom, her major debut with the label. Following Queendom’s release, Awich fulfilled a long-held dream of headlining the famous Nippon Budokan stadium in Tokyo. In 2023, her hot run continues. Most recently, she released the single Yeah with ai rapper OG Bobby. And you know what? It rules. Long live the queen.

Bakr and Ader Error were nominated by Disney as part of Create 100 for this sponsored collaboration with Soho House. Photography: Philip Fong/Ge y Images; Mohit Mukhi; Stuart Wilson/BFC/Ge y Images; Neil Mockford/ Ge y Images;

Dicke; Gallery Nature Morte, New Delhi; Jeremy Moeller/Ge y Images; Alamy

Musician, Tokyo

Thukral & Tagra Artists, Mumbai

Amie Dicke Artist, Amsterdam Member, Soho House Amsterdam

Emily Adams Bode Aujla Fashion designer, New York

Stephanie Hsu Actor, Los Angeles Member, Soho House West Hollywood

Danielle Dean Artist, Los Angeles Member, Soho Warehouse

JULIAN KLINCEWICZ

Artist, filmmaker and photographer

e Chicago-born, San Diego-raised multidisciplinary artist is known for his experimental approach to storytelling. “When I was 19, I went to Paris for the first time and saw an Olafur Eliasson exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vui on,” he says. “I le with a clear aspiration: to one day show my work there. And that’s what happened in 2021. I shot a series of portraits on VHS – the first video camera I ever owned – and seeing them blown up to about 15 feet tall and shown at an institution of that calibre was a literal dream come true.”

A selection of our LA-based Soho Future 100 talents, nominated by Disney, soak up the rays at Holloway House in Los Angeles

By James Conrad Williams

Photography by Juan Veloz

Designer Kimmiski Adams

KIMMISKI ADAMS

Designer (pictured, previous spread)

“When feel inspired, I’m most likely listening to music,” says Adams, a graduate of adidas’ School for Experiential Education in Design (S.E.E.D.) programme, who is now a colour materials designer for the sportswear brand. “I try to find new places I have not been to and I keep my notebook and iPad on me. My creative heroes are Pharrell Williams, Nicki Giovanni, James Baldwin, Hype Williams and Beyoncé. respect the honesty they use to create new realities that so many people connect with.”

REGINALD ARMSTRONG

Artist

Armstrong is a Los Angeles-based artist who specialises in painting and sculpture. “I’m grateful that when I’m in my art studio, the spark always happens and I know my fire will never die out,” he says. “I feel proudest of my largest painting to date, which is currently up on the wall in my studio. It’s about 10x11 feet and demands that the viewer looks at it as soon as they step in the room. My goal is to make works that fit the walls of a museum, or something of that level.”

LEEANN HUANG

Fashion designer

Huang’s designs blend traditional cra techniques with inventive materials to create colourful, almost fantastical pieces. “I created this tailored coat that, when you open it, it reveals an entire dinner se ing and feast,” she says. “Embroidered with lobsters, fish, oysters and all kinds of accoutrements, it was one of those pieces that just came together really fast and e ortlessly one night. It’s part of the FIT Museum’s upcoming Food & Fashion exhibition.”

COLINE CREUZOT

Singer and songwriter

A proud Houstonian, Creuzot has worked with some of the city’s biggest names, such as Paul Wall, Slim ug, Z-Ro and Lil Keke. “Every song I write and sing is a reflection of who I am and where I am in that moment. I’m honestly proud of every piece of work I create. But must say, I’m super proud to be designing and creating a one-of-a-kind jacket for Disney’s Create 100. It’s exciting to make something that combines my love for music and my favourite Disney Princess, Tiana.”

Taofeek

Leung Chi Wo Artist, Hong Kong Member, Soho House Hong Kong

Ras Baun Bartram Stylist, Copenhagen

Chandricka Carr

Fashion designer, Philadelphia

Nominated by Disney

In 2018, when Abijako presented his debut SS19 collection for Head of State at New York Fashion Week: Men’s, he became the youngest-ever designer to show at the event. He is renowned for his ability to express social and political commentary through his work, which led to him appearing on the Forbes 30

Under 30 list and becoming a CFDA/ Vogue Fashion Fund finalist. For Disney’s Create 100, Abijako created a shirt that combined Head of State’s signature design language with Winnie the Pooh. Here, he shares what, where and who inspires him.

How do you set yourself up for a productive day at work?

I go on a long early morning walk with music before a empting anything else.

Of all the pieces you’ve designed, which are you the most proud of?

In 2022, we designed two Met Gala looks in less than 10 days [for Danai Gurira and Evan Mock]. Even though the process was tough, we created something beautiful and it gave us the belief we could take on any project.

Where do you go for inspiration?

To feel inspired, I usually spend time away from consuming art. I visit my family in upstate New York, which is much closer to nature than NYC.

I think it’s important for artists to learn to take breaks, as a big part of making art comes from being able to live.

Who are your creative heroes?

Francis Kéré is my idol – an incredible architect who’s rethinking the way infrastructures are built in a margin -

alised environment. at’s the type of subject I’m interested in exploring.

Which book, film or piece of art are you inspired by?

Poetics of Relation by Édouard Glissant.

It’s hands down my favourite piece of writing. It’s helped to frame my understanding of how culture and identity evolves over time.

What’s been your strangest source of creative inspiration?

Cartoons and anime. It’s not really strange, but it brings out my inner child.

What city do you find the most inspiring and why?

Lagos, Nigeria, because I was born there.

Whose feedback do you trust the most?

My siblings’. We fight, we laugh, we cry, we do it all together. So they tend to understand me best.

What do you do to unwind or escape?

I unwind by taking long road trips across the country.

What’s your definition of creativity?

Creativity is the ultimate freedom of expression. It’s the ability to combine what each generation learns from the previous one with our aspirations for the future, in order to dictate what we do in the present.

Leung Chi Wo’s practice encompasses video, text, performance and installation, but focuses primarily on photography. His work – which can be seen at Soho House Hong Kong – explores identity in the region and its fractured relationship with mainland China. For one of his most famous works, the Colour Photo series (19992003), Leung captured the highrise buildings against the sky in both Hong Kong and New York. He helped found one of Hong Kong’s very first contemporary art destinations, Para/Site, in 1996 and now teaches at the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong.

Lulu Wang

Director, Los Angeles

Member, Soho House West Hollywood

Filmmaker and producer Lulu

Wang was born in Beijing, raised in Miami and educated in Boston. You might not know that she’s a classically trained concert pianist who began learning aged four, but you probably will know her for e Farewell – the 2019 film about a Chinese-American family who decide not to tell their grandmother that she has only a short while le to live and instead schedule a family gathering. e film was based on her own life and won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature. In 2022, Wang was also appointed to the Sundance Board of Trustees.

Prem Sahib

Artist, London

Member, Shoreditch House

With its disembodied hoodies suspended in the air and pu a jackets squished into stark glass frames, abstract installations by the artist Prem Sahib may at first glance appear starkly minimal and formal but are, in fact, loaded with meaning. An alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London and the Royal Academy, Sahib’s work explores queer culture, intimacy, desire and community – look out for his art across our London Houses, including Shoreditch, White City, 180 and High Road House. In addition to his art practice, Sahib helps to run the queer club night Anal House Meltdown.

As a boy, Danish stylist Ras Baun Bartram was bullied at school because he preferred Barbie to G.I Joe; fashion instead of sport. He changed schools four times because his androgynous look marked him out as a “weirdo”. ank goodness for the fashion industry, where Bartram found his true calling as stylist. He was recently appointed fashion director of 032c magazine, where he works across the magazine, its ready-to-wear line and runway shows. However, it goes without saying that no matter how captivating the looks are that he styles, Bartram reserves his best work for his own gothic, futuristic look.

Carr’s career is rooted in education – she is a graduate in fashion design from Drexel University in Philadelphia, and a subsequent design program at Pensole led to her creating a trainer for Puma. She is now part of the adidas School for Experiential Education in Design (otherwise known as S.E.E.D.), which is located in Brooklyn, New York. “When need inspiration, I travel, whether it’s physically or mentally,” she says. “Even a train ride in the city where I’m living can spark inspiration for me. like to explore the di erences around me in order to open my mind to new possibilities and understanding.”

Debbie Musician, London

Member, Shoreditch House

Londoner Debbie likes to describe herself as a soul singer. Not just because that’s the kind of music she ostensibly makes but also because that’s where it comes from: deep down. Her fans include John Legend, Mahalia and Stormzy (pictured above), with whom she collaborated on his latest album. Soho House holds a lot of memories for Debbie:

“It’s a home away from home. love the familiar warmth I get in every House.” Now, she’s signed to 0207 Def Jam – she met them at Shoreditch House, of course – and her star is set to rise even further.

Benedetta Porcaroli Actor, Rome Member, Soho House Rome

Italian actor Porcaroli shot to fame playing teenage prostitute Chiara Altieri in the Ne lix drama Baby, which concluded its third and final series in 2020. e show follows the students of an elite high school in Rome who becomes disillusioned with her privileged life and is drawn into a prostitution ring. It is loosely based on the real-life “Baby Squillo” scandal from 2014. e actor, who is also a major presence on the red carpet (usually in Gucci, natch), is set to appear alongside Sydney Sweeney in upcoming American horror film Immaculate

Alva Bratt

Actor and model, Stockholm

Member, Soho House Stockholm

Bratt has carved out a niche playing teen queens in Swedish language TV. She shot to fame as influencer Felicia Kroon in the youth TV series Eagles which follows a group of teenagers in a Swedish ice hockey town as they fall in love, do ba le on the ice and compete with each other over everything. Meanwhile, in this year’s Netflix heist series Barracuda Queens, Bra is part of a group of disa ected teenage girls who, bored of their privileged lives in the a luent Stockholm suburb Djursholm, become involved in burglaries targeting their naive rich neighbours.

Photography: Mill6 Foundation; Ma Morris; Henry Mills; David M Bene /Ge y Images; Adam Katz Sinding; Mondadori Por olio/Ge y Images; courtesy of Ne lix

Designer, New York

Nominated by Disney

© Disney Photography, Juan Veloz. Hair, Mirna Jose. Make-up, Mark Edio. Taofeek Abijako and Chandricka Carr were nominated by Disney as part of Create 100 for this sponsored collaboration with Soho House.

Actor, Texas

Member, Soho House Austin

Nominated by Disney

Lauren Ridlo is a Tony Awardnominated actor from Chicago.

A er winning Miss Deaf America in 2000, Ridloff became a teacher. Her big break came in 2018, when she was hired to tutor director Kenny Leon in American

Sign Language for his Broadway revival of the play Children of a Lesser God. Leon eventually cast her in the lead role opposite Joshua Jackson. Ridlo then found mainstream success and international recognition after roles in e Walking Dead e

Sound of Metal co-starring Riz

Ahmed, and as Marvel’s first deaf superhero in Eternals opposite Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek.

Francisco Manzano named himself AKA Priest as a reaction to his strict Catholic upbringing. Classically trained in violin and piano from the age of five, he discovered electronic music through clubbing in his teenage years. Working as a PR and casting director took him around the world, expanding his musical horizons. His main influences are now early 1990s house, hip hop and Latin rhythms. After his career in fashion, AKA Priest eventually returned to music, where he uses his classically trained ear to blend a range of musical genres, which he plays in clubs and festivals all over the world.

Nic Klein Illustrator, Munich

Nominated by Disney

Klein is a comic book artist and illustrator who is part of Marvel’s Stormbreakers’ Class of 2023 – a programme that highlights the best up-and-coming artists in the comic book industry. Klein is known for his previous collaboration with writer Donny Cates on the comic or Other credits include a veritable who’s-who of superheroes, namely Deadpool Captain America and Winter Soldier However, his lastest work can be seen with the revival of a classic: the new Incredible Hulk comic book series, which he created with renowned writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson – the first issue was released back in June.

e singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad sings his delicate acoustic guitar ballads about love, relationships and heartbreak in both Hindi and English. He grew up in Jaipur in a household without internet and so was immersed in Indian pop and Bollywood music at a young age. As a result, Kuhad only discovered the music of Elliot Smith, Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie while studying at New York University. His beautifully haunting music leans heavily into folk and his 2018 song cold/mess was featured on Barack Obama’s “Favourite Music” list in 2019, which the former president posts on social media every year.

Artist, Los Angeles and Massachuse s

Member, Soho Warehouse

Genevieve Gaignard works with the mediums of collage, installation, sculpture and self-portraiture to create art that explores race, status, resilience and accountability. Her ultimate aim: to help the viewer to ‘“continue the unlearning of white supremacy” – take her piece The American Dream is A Pyramid Scheme from her 2022 show Strange Fruit which questions the glorified white ideal of Black servitude. Her art can be found adorning the walls of our LA spaces, including Soho House West Hollywood and Holloway House.

There’s a pretty good chance you’ll have heard of the industry-disrupting and category-defining megabrands founded by businesswoman Emma Grede. Chief among them is Skims, the shapewear label she co-founded in 2019 with the most influential influencer of them all, Kim Kardashian. e brand has conjured up the kind of business alchemy of which most marketers can only dream. It took a moribund category – shapewear – and via a combination of exclusive collabs and hotly anticipated “drops” (rather than seasonal collections), Skims became one of the hottest and most profitable Gen Z brands on the planet. It has a valuation of $3.2 billion and was named one of TIME magazine’s most influential companies in 2022. Also, the product is exceptional, with the colours and simplicity of form hiding the data-driven engineering genius within the material.

To give you an idea of the kind of consumer frenzies these techniques can whip up: the Skims collection designed by Kim Jones – the artistic director of Dior menswear and Fendi womenswear and couture – generated more than

$3 million in sales within 10 minutes of launching. Even more inspirational is the fact that this has been achieved by sticking to the brand’s – and Grede’s – ethos of diversity and inclusivity. Who knew shapewear could be so culturally relevant and, let’s face it, so sexy?

It has been one hell of a ride for Grede, the eldest of four girls raised by a single mum in Plaistow, east London.

As a child, she used fashion as a form of escapist glamour and enrolled at the London College of Fashion aged just 16 – but dropped out a er securing an internship at Gucci. Grede believes that it was the dyslexia she was diagnosed with a few years later that prevented her from pursuing her studies, which she valued and took seriously.

After working as a producer of fashion shows and events, she founded

ITB Worldwide, a talent and influencer agency with o ices in London, New York and Los Angeles, at the age of 26. She eventually sold the company and went on to establish the first of her major brands with the Kardashian family: the denim label Good American with Khloé Kardashian, which launched in 2016. The core of the Good American brand is inclusivity, offering denim in a size range of US 00–24 photographed on diverse models. The company was forecast to generate sales of $200 million in 2022 alone. In 2017, Grede moved to Bel Air, Los Angeles, with her husband Jens and their four children. Her success is a testament to the fact that diversity and inclusivity is not a problem to be solved, but a superpower to be built upon.

Artist, London

Member, Shoreditch House

A Texan artist based in London, Wielebinski explores themes of desire, mythmaking, gender and sexuality with a head-spinning mash-up of paint, installations, textile, sculpture, gay porn and, oh, the occasional Pamela Anderson cameo. His installation at Selfridges London (until October 2023) takes the form of an old-fashioned men’s public toilet, highlighting the powerful politics behind seemingly innocuous spaces: from the transphobic “bathroom panics” created by tabloids to symbols of women’s liberation. Want to know more? Look out for his work at Brighton Beach House.

Ro erdam-based singer Naomi Sharon became the first female artist signed to Drake’s record label OVO Sound when she joined earlier this year. Drake announced the release of her debut single on the label, Another Life, on Instagram with the caption: “I been waiting for this day for too long now where the world finally gets to digest the insane amount of work you have put in since we met.” Sharon is already a star in her native Holland –her haunting vocals set over minimally lo-fi production have led to fans comparing her work to the the music of Sade, Tems and Majid Jordan.

For the New York-born, Berlin-based fashion designer Olivia Ballard, the personal is professional and vice versa. She founded the brand from her bedroom in 2020 – which remained its headquarters for two years before Ballard expanded to a studio in Kreuzberg. Her intricately cut layers of stretchy mesh fabric are a “second skin for all genders, all bodies, all ages”. Key to her work is how each piece is altered depending on the person who is wearing it, creating an intimacy between Ballard’s clothes and the wearer.

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert – known collectively as “the Daniels” – are the filmmakers behind the madcap multiverse drama Everything Everywhere All At Once, which triumphed at this year’s Oscars, winning 10 awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. The duo started out making similarly goofy music videos, most notably DJ Snake and Lil Jon’s Turn Down for What? e Daniels recently announced that they will continue their intergalactic adventures by signing up to direct an episode of the next Star Wars series: Skeleton Crew.

Entrepreneur, Los Angeles Member, Shoreditch House

Lauren Ridloff

Genevieve Gaignard

Gray Wielebinski

Naomi Sharon Musician, Amsterdam

The Daniels Directors, Los Angeles

AKA Priest

DJ, musician and artist, Mexico

Olivia Ballard Fashion designer, Berlin Soho House Berlin

Prateek Kuhad

Musician, Mumbai Member, Soho House Mumbai

Soho House West Hollywood member Tremaine Emory is a designer with a unique brand of creativity that’s rooted in culture, history and a deep sense of community. Now at the helm of Supreme, he’s bringing these values to a global platform

By Sagal Mohammed

Photography by Campbell Addy

hen Tremaine Emory was six years old, his parents took him to buy a calico cat. He was so fascinated by its tricolour tortoiseshell coat that he named it Fashion. “It reminded me of one of my mom’s dresses, or something beautiful I’d seen in a magazine,” he tells me, si ing by a long wooden dining table in his New York apartment. Decades later, his eye for detail and design has led him to the highest ranks of the fashion industry, as both the founder of Denim Tears and the creative director of Supreme. His appointment to the la er came in 2022, two years a er the streetwear giant was acquired by VF Corp for $2.1 billion in a deal that shook its puritanical fans, who feared for the brand’s anticorporate soul. eir worries were soon allayed when Emory was confirmed as the new design lead, working closely with Supreme founder James Jebbia to imagine a bright new future for the brand. For Emory, fashion has always been a vehicle for dialogue, specifically in fighting for socio-political change for Black people in America. He didn’t study at Central Saint Martins or Parsons, nor did he have a gateway into the industry through a wealth of contacts. He was born in the state of Georgia and raised in Jamaica, Queens – a New York neighbourhood where the systemic oppression of African Americans was a constant reminder in the financial and social struggles of his community.

“My entry into the creative world was very obtuse because I didn’t come from prestigious places,” he says. “Growing up in New York is only inspiring if you’re privileged enough to have access to things. I’m from a place where most

people don’t have passports. My mum died without a passport and never having left America. A lot of people here have never even le the borough they live in. New York can be a very small place when you live like that.”

Emory’s experience was a little di erent to that of the friends he grew up with. His father was a broadcast journalist who’d travel the world and come home with stories of what he’d seen. It fed Emory’s imagination and birthed a desire for exploration and creativity. His father and mother, who died in 2015, would take him on trips around the five boroughs of New York, where he’d experience the magnitude of the city and its layered characteristics. “It opened up my mind,” he admits. rough the prints, designs and storytelling of his own brand Denim Tears, Emory has built a reputation for centering and celebrating Black history and the ancestral roots of the African diaspora. Since launching in 2019, the label has collaborated with the likes of Levi’s, Stüssy, Ugg and most recently Dior, in a streetwear-meets-luxury mirage rooted in culture and heritage. Then there’s the community-focused initiatives of No Vacancy Inn – his partnership with best friend Ade “Acyde” Odunlami and Brock Korsan, traversing the realms of nightlife, music, radio, and fashion.

rough No Vacancy Inn, Emory and his co-founders have hosted parties and events attracting a who’s who of the fashion scene, from Rick Owens and Yoon Ahn of AMBUSH to Virgil Abloh and A$AP MO. “No Vacancy Inn was born out of friendship and similar interests. It was Acyde and coming together and taking our act on the road, DJing, hosting parties, making T-shirts and traveling the world to do things with our friends. Our first pop-up was with Tom Sachs, then we did two collections with Virgil [Abloh] and O -White,” he says. “Culture is a small group of people learning a new way to live. Me, Acyde and Brock, with our squads of friends, found a new way to live through making things, doing things and bringing people together.”

Emory started his fashion career working in the brick-and-mortar stores of various brands. First up was a 2001 stint as a sales assistant at J Crew: “It was my first retail job, but I ended up leaving after they discriminated against me because of my hair. I had braids and an Afro, which they said didn’t match their ‘look book’, so I quit a er going to war with them about immutable characteristics.” He then went underground, so to speak, taking a stock job at Kate Spade,

before landing a similar role at Marc Jacobs. “Marc Jacobs was very di erent from the retail brands had experienced. ey appreciated people’s di erences and supported and promoted people of all races, colours, sexualities and genders before it was ‘cool’ to do so,” he says. e company eventually moved Emory to London, where he was promoted to manager of a Marc Jacobs store. It was there he found his tribe, tapping into the city’s fashion and nightlife scene. “I spent a lot of time at Shoreditch House,” he says, reminiscing on his seven years in the city. “I met a lot of cool people there. I just like surrounding myself with great people.” In 2016, he was tapped by Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) to serve as a creative consultant for Yeezy. He then joined the label as brand director, working closely with Ye and Abloh. He also worked with Frank Ocean and Stüssy around this time.

Emory now finds himself among an elite group of Black creatives who, despite the barriers keeping luxury fashion and art exclusive to the white and wealthy, have amassed a level of power and influence that can spearhead tangible change. Virgil Abloh, a close friend and collaborator, showed what was possible in his role as artistic director of Louis Vui on Menswear and through his own label O -White before he passed in 2021. Emory took notes. “I care about what is happening for my community,” he says. “You can put all the representation you want into fashion companies but what’s going on in neighbourhoods of Hispanics, Blacks, poor whites and poor people in general? What is the education like there and what is the food like in grocery stores there? What’s the access that these people have to the world? ose things are really important to me.”

In 2020, before allowing the release of the Denim Tears x Converse sneaker collection, Emory challenged Converse and its parent company Nike to disclose the number of Black employees they had in leadership roles, and demanded they stop financially supporting the US Republican party under Donald Trump. While they didn’t acquiesce to his initial request, the call to action resulted in Converse making e orts to work with Emory on educating about the importance of voting in swing states ahead of the 2020 Presidential primaries. “ at [social] post was a call to arms for Converse, and myself, to do more,” he told Esquire at the time. “Do more than just donate money, but to activate people to do something immediate that can help the plight of what’s going

“I spent a lot of time at Shoreditch House [when I lived in London].

I met a lot of cool people there”

on in America with systemic racism.” Similarly, when No Vacancy Inn released a sneaker with New Balance three years ago, he launched an essay competition for teenagers, asking them to write academic arguments around postenslavement reparations for African Americans for a chance to win a free pair. Emory is focused on giving a voice to narratives that have previously been ignored. Take Dior Tears, his collaboration with long-time friend and Dior artistic director Kim Jones. The menswear collection, which was unveiled at Cairo’s Grand Egyptian Museum earlier this year, explored the stories and wardrobes of Black creatives like James Brown and Miles Davis, who le Jim Crow America to seek refuge in Europe. e clothes amalgamated workwear worn by civil rights activists with preppy pieces favoured by 1960s–70s Ivy League alumni and French elegance. Each piece was styled with symbolic emblems, like Denim Tears’ signature co on wreath motif – a nod to the enslaved ancestors of African Americans who picked co on on plantations – also featured heavily. ese intricate details speak to the depth of Emory’s conscious cra and his gi for embedding history into his designs with authenticity, care and cultural relevance. “I’m not focused on trends. have to design from stories because it’s a part of who I am. at’s what I want my brand and my work to represent: the stories of African diaspora and narra-

tives that don’t get told much. at’s my contribution to the creative world and it has naturally turned into commercial business.” On the question of commercialisation, Emory is unequivocal. “As a creative, don’t ever let someone make you feel bad about commercialising something,” he says. “People want their artists broke and on the corner. ey’re so quick to say things like, ‘Oh, he makes too much money, he’s not a real artist,’ but we’ve all got to eat in this world.”

Emory and I sit down for this interview on the first anniversary of his throning at Supreme: “It’s been one hell of a year.” In October 2022, eight months into his appointment as creative director, he su ered from a lower aortic aneurysm, hospitalising him for three months. While he has since taken leaps in his recovery and describes his health as better than ever, the experience was life-altering.

“Eight out of 10 people pass away from having it, so I was fortunate enough to survive it,” he shared on the podcast Started from the Bo om with Justin Richmond. “It’s interesting when you get that sick where you’re on the verge of death. Willpower definitely plays a part in it, you’ve got to want to be here.”

Emory’s outlook on life remains optimistic. “ e main thing for me is executing excellence,” he says, between sips of his Blue Bo le iced oat matcha.

“Making cool dope s**t that represents youth culture. Supreme is an amalgamation of punk and hip hop and rock in New York. My goal with the team is to keep representing those things

and continuing to build on the legacy that has been going since 1994.” e toughest thing, he says, has been doing it without Abloh. “I miss my friend Virgil. Not being able to just call him up has been pre y hard.” Still, he credits the loved ones around him as his inspiration. “The reason keep going is because I have something to lose,” he says. “ e reason I made it out of Jamaica, Queens isn’t because I’m be er than or smarter or even more hard working than anyone there. It’s because I was lucky enough to have people couldn’t let down.”

This spring, Denim Tears dropped a collaboration with Our Legacy, paying homage to Tupac Shakur. Shortly a er, Emory teased a new range of Supreme durags he dubbed a “love le er to the block.” Through his work, Emory continues to serve his community and the stories within it. But the real work needed, he says, has li le to do with fashion. “I can’t lie to myself and say what my peers and I have accomplished is enough. It’s inspirational and it does mean something, but things need to change on the ground level,” he admits. “People like Stacy Abrams [former Georgia State Representative], who helped turn Georgia blue for the first time since 1992 in the 2020 elections, they’re the ones that are on to something. I don’t look to fashion or entertainment for social or political change unless it is a ached to some direct action, and that’s what I want to do.”

Tremaine Emory is a member of Soho House West Hollywood

Tremaine Emory wears his own clothes throughout

From top: Looks from Emory’s Denim Tears label, featuring the signature co on wreath motif; Emory with Skepta, Ian Connor, Abloh and Acyde Odunlami

Clockwise, from top: Emory with friend and collaborator Virgil Abloh; a look from the Dior Tears collection; Emory in New York in 2022

Photography assistants: Dimitriy Levdanski, Hayden Worsfold. Additional photography: Eric Nelson; Gilbert Carrasquillo/Ge y Images; Laurent Viteur/Ge y Images; Nick Harvey/Shu erstock

Lake Verea

Elujay Musician, Los Angeles

Singer-songwriter Elujay makes R&B and soul with a lo-fi, indie sensibility. Tracks such as Ratrace and Farewell from his 2022 album Circmvt are light and groovy, while the arrangements are dreamy and expansive. Throughout the album, Elujay – whose voice is as soft as a cool breeze on a hot day – sings sweetly about the di icult things: capitalism, addiction, poverty, mental health, and ultimately, redemption through art and music. e melancholy tinged album charts the 25-year-old’s journey from breakdown to recovery (with a li le help from psychedelics) during the two years he spent working on the album.

Ilana Savdie Artist, New York Member, Soho House New York

Painter Illana Savdie bombards the eye with a cacophony of fluorescent colours and textures to depict extreme abstractions of the human form. Noses, eyes and the odd hand can be discerned within the mad riot of carnivalesque colour she swirls and swooshes all over the canvas, which can be seen with Untitled (2022), her piece on show at e Ned NoMad in New York. Savdie, who studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and at the Yale School of Art, is o en inspired by the scenes she witnessed as a child growing up in Barranquilla, Colombia, including the annual carnival it hosts each year.

Sara

Artist, London

Nominated by Disney

Shakeel is a former dental student-turned-award-winning artist and Instagram sensation (she has 1 million followers). e Pakistani-raised, London-based artist has no formal training, yet is renowned for her digital collages that incorporate handembellished crystals. These images came to life in 2019, when Browns collaborated with the artist on a range of gli ering merchandise. “My art is either a story I want to live for myself, something have witnessed, or a life want to give to others,’ she says. “I like to think I’m leaving behind a small piece of my heart and soul in everything create. Its sole purpose is to spark joy.”

Bella Bruzzese

Designer, Sydney

Nominated by Disney

Miranda Forrester

Artist, London Member, 180 House

Formed in 2005, Mexican art duo, Lake Verea – also known as Francisca Rivero-Lake Cortina and Carla Verea Hernández – create photographic art that experiments with the technical aspects of analogue photography using different papers, chemicals, film and a variety of cameras (some dating back to the 1800s), plus other mediums, including sculpture, textiles and performance. ese experiments lead us to see even familiar and iconic subjects in a totally new light.

The series for which they are best known, Paparazza Moderna (pictured), consists of photographs of renowned modernist buildings by architects such as Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Richard Neutra, Rudolf M. Schindler, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson, taken between 2011–2018.

Instead of the formal, sombre and picture-perfect portraiture, which is the convention for this kind of photography,

the duo approached their subjects with the immediacy of paparazzi catching a quick glimpse of a celebrity. ey came up with the idea for this candid approach while in Guatemala in 2009, photographing the works of Carlos Mérida for the exhibition Incidents of Travel. The duo found that a mural by Mérida was hidden behind the fence of a privately owned house, and so decided to jump on top of a nearby car and photograph it from above the fence. When applied to modernist architecture, this audacious method allows us to see these iconic buildings in a new light.

Instead of the clean lines and sleek perfection of the popular imagination, we also see the myriad ways in which the buildings have aged over the years: cracked windows, water-damaged rooms, overgrown foliage creeping up against windows and walls and the aged patina of once-smooth surfaces.

In short, the buildings become what Lake Verea call “living beings”, full of character and personality. e “paparazzi” approach means we never see the buildings in their full, panoramic glory – rather in snatched glimpses. is brings a new intimacy to these symbols of untouchable modernity. e duo shows us the flaws of modernism, as well as the ideals.

Lake Verea’s work has been exhibited widely in Europe and Latin America and they have won several photographic awards, including the BJP International Photography Award in 2007 and the Residence New Roots Foundation in 2019. It is also in the permanent collections of the Jumex Collection, the Rufino Museum of Contemporary Art and the Estanquillo Museum in Mexico, plus the Barragán Foundation in Switzerland, the Catherine Petitgas Collection in the UK – and, of course, at Soho House Mexico City.

Based in Sydney, Australia, and with a background in fine art and fashion, Bruzzese has created print and textile designs for international pop icons such as Katy Perry, Sam Smith and Cardi B. She launched her artist-inresidency print collaboration with the Australian brand Sass & Bide in 2022 and was included in the Artist Profile booth curated by 3:33 Art Projects for the 2022 Sydney Contemporary Art Fair. Bruzzese has also recently had her work displayed internationally at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and the OnePlus music festival in Mumbai.

Miranda Forrester’s art explores the queer Black feminist gaze and questions the historical conventions of male artists who paint the female form – she depicts the hidden complexities and nuances of femininity and sexuality. Forrester, who won Breakthrough Artist at last year’s Soho House Awards, lives and works in London and studied Fine Art Painting at the University of Brighton. It’s fi ing, then, that she created art for Soho Houses in both cities – painting the ceiling of Li le House Balham and a textile design for Brighton Beach House.

Hoyeon Jung became famous practically overnight a er her breakout performance in Squid Game the surprise South Korean smash hit Ne lix series that no one saw coming during the thick of the pandemic. Jung, who had never acted before the series, is now a globally indemand superstar working with some of cinema’s most celebrated auteurs, including Alfonso Cuarón in the forthcoming Apple TV+ series Disclaimer starring Cate Blanche , in which Jung will perform her first scenes in English. She’s also appeared in e Weeknd’s Out of Time video and has a part in upcoming film e Governesses directed by Joe Talbot.

CEO, Copenhagen Member, Soho House Copenhagen

e CEO of Copenhagen Fashion Week cannily pivoted the event, known for Scandi-chic labels like Ganni, into a world leader in sustainability. In 2020, she launched Reinventing Copenhagen Fashion Week, a threeyear action plan for sustainability standards, which included a ban of single-use plastics. Today, every brand that wishes to show at Copenhagen Fashion Week must adhere to the requirements laid out in the plan. It’s all in a day’s work for orsmark, who was previously communications director of the Global Fashion Agenda, a group that focuses on sustainability in fashion.

Sofiane Pamart

Pianist, Paris Member, Soho House Paris

Pamart was trained in classical piano at the elite Conservatoire de Lille, where he was a gold medallist. He made his career breakthrough in the French rap scene, becoming the go-to pianist. In 2019, two singles he had worked on were certified gold: Matin by Koba LaD featuring Maes and Journal perso II by Vald. Pamart brought a new audience to the conservative world of classical piano. His performances have an otherworldly quality ,which is clearly influenced by Claude Debussy, Erik Satie and Philip Glass, and he regularly sells out solo concerts worldwide.

Shakeel

Cecilie Thorsmark

HoYeon Jung Actor, South Korea

Sara Shakeel and Bella Bruzzese were nominated by Disney as part of Create 100 for this sponsored collaboration with Soho House. Photography: bythebrokenarrow; Mara Corsino; Brynley Odu Davies; Alamy; Streetstyleshooters/Ge

y Images;

Francisca Rivero-Lake Cortina and Carla Verea Hernández Artists, Mexico City Members, Soho House Mexico City

Priya Ahluwalia

Fashion designer, London

Member, White City House

Nominated by Disney

e designer has won a host of accolades for her label Ahluwalia, from the 2020 LVMH Prize to the 2021 Queen Elizabeth II award for British Design – plus, she was named Leader of Change at the 2022 Fashion Awards.

Her creativity doesn’t stop there.

Ahluwalia – whose studio is based at 180 Strand – has turned her talents to filmmaking, and is signed as a director with Ridley Sco ’s Black Dog agency. She has also released two books: Sweet Lassi, which focuses on overconsumption in the clothing industry, and Jalebi, exploring what it means to be a young person of mixed heritage in the UK.

Nominated by Disney

Andrés Acosta Jaramillo is be er known by his stage name Gusi, the nickname his mother gave him as a child. It was during his youth that the Colombian star fell in love with music, when his grandfather introduced him to the songs of the greatest troubadours. Throughout his career, Gusi has recorded as both a solo artist and, most famously, as a member of the Latin Grammy-nominated duo Gusi & Beto. In November 2022, he made his debut as a mentor on Caracol TV’s reality show LaDescarga Another fun fact: the guitar Gusi plays today is the same one his father gave to his mother when they first started dating.

Justin Hurwitz met his most famous collaborator, the director Damien Chazelle, as bandmates and Harvard freshmen before working together on 2009’s Guy and Madeleine on a Park Bench is helped to establish a creative partnership that has gone on to include major movies such as Whiplash Babylon First Man and 2016’s La La Land which won the Best Original Soundtrack Oscar and Best Original Song for City of Stars (a joint victory with co-writers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul). e friends have now worked on a total of five feature films, with Chazelle stating that he doesn’t shoot until he has some music from Hurwitz to work with.

Designer, Zurich

Member, Cities Without Houses

Operating at the “epicentre of anti-fashion”, Swiss designer Yannik Zamboni, is on a mission to shake up the industry. The former model and marketing executive received US$1 million after winning Season 3 of the Amazon Prime fashion talent show Making the Cut to fund his brand Maison Blanche. Established in 2020, the label specialises in deconstructed designs and has been swi ly followed by Rare/Self – a co-branded line with Amazon Fashion designed to bring an “avant-garde fashion perspective to an assortment of wardrobe essentials that can be worn every day, anywhere and by anybody.”

In a world dominated by digital photography, the Iranianborn American artist Sheree Hovsepian works with filmbased cameras, light-sensitive papers, natural materials such as wood and ceramic, and images of her own body to create sensual analogue artworks. Hovsepian’s photographs – which are on display at our Houses in New York and Chicago – remind us of the power of the real thing. In 2022 she had a room dedicated to her work at the 59th Venice Biennale – a festival which has traditionally been the domain of male artists.

Born in Osaka in 1987, Verdy moved to Tokyo in 2012 to join the esteemed illustration and graphic design group, VK Design Works. A graduate of the Tokyo street scene, today he is arguably best known for his pioneering projects Girls Don’t Cry and Wasted Youth.

How do you set yourself up for a productive day of work?

I start my day really early, drinking lots of water and spending time with my daughter. My process is very intuitive, so I design based on my emotions. I enjoy working in a silent environment – I don’t really like to set a schedule for my design work.

What piece are you proudest of and why?

I’m proud of all my projects and love them all for many different reasons, whether they are big or small. ey’ve helped me accomplish many di erent things and have brought me to where I am today. But Wasted Youth is special because it’s the first project where I began designing for myself.

Where do you go when you need to feel inspired?

I don’t seek specific places, listen to music or watch movies just for the sake of ge ing inspired. I just find inspiration in my everyday life.

Who are your creative heroes?

I have many heroes that draw inspiration from, but the ones that have inspired me the most are Raymond Pe ibon, Nigo and Mickey Mouse!

What book, film or a piece of art has had such an impact on you that it’s a source of constant inspiration?

Fucked Up + Photocopied: Instant Art of the Punk Rock Movement by Bryan Ray Turco e and Christopher T Miller is my favourite book. It’s a compilation about American punk show flyers from the 1970s and 1980s, which I o en refer to for inspiration.

What city do you find the most inspiring and why?

Los Angeles, because it has a whole generation of people who are influenced

by Japanese Harajuku culture. It also reminds me how lucky am to have grown up around that culture. When was starting o , I wasn’t well received in Japan but the people of LA have always supported and encouraged me.

Whose feedback do you trust the most?

I trust my wife’s feedback the most. She’s always by my side and understands me the best and can judge things objectively.

What’s your trick to overcoming a creative dry spell?

Nothing, I don’t force it. I just wait for it to pass because I know that I can’t create good work with that mindset. So I only design and draw when I genuinely feel like doing it.

What do you do to escape or unwind?

I like to watch yoga videos for beginners on YouTube. Eventually, I’d like to try Pilates but I don’t have the courage or time right now!

Fryd Frydendahl is a fine art photographer who takes candid, pared back-portraits of young people – usually friends and relatives, but also of strangers and famous people – in a way that brings us emotionally closer to the subject. A sense of intimacy, tenderness and vulnerability pervades Frydendahl’s portraiture – a range of which can be seen throughout our House in Copenhagen. Her work often feels like documentary photographs, but is in fact often staged to create that effect – as seen with the Danish photographer’s new book, Salad Days

Chelsea Sco -Blackhall’s label Dzojchen (pronounced “doh-jen”) started out as a denim specialist brand before restructuring to o er the kind of high-end luxury tailoring and separates. It was a bold move that paid o for the Eurasian designer, who now dresses the Hollywood A-list, including Austin Butler, Pedro Pascal and Ryan Gosling. Her slinky, shimmering, free-flowing tailoring, which incorporates jackets with kimono-style openings as a key design feature, are an elegant blend of European and Asian sensibilities.

Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, the actor and singer Halle Bailey first found fame with her sister as one half of the duo Chloe x Halle, racking up millions of views for their YouTube videos, in which the duo would belt out astonishingly good covers of R&B and pop songs. That’s how the sisters were discovered by Beyoncé, who signed them to her label, Parkwood Entertainment, in 2015. In 2019, Bailey landed the lead role in the live-action remake of The Li le Mermaid which premiered in May this year. As the first Black Ariel, Bailey has become an inspiration to millions of children worldwide.

The self-proclaimed “Renaissance Boy” has the kind of scarcely believable multihyphenate CV that justifies the hype. He designed the set for Lady Gaga’s Enigma tour, devised and shot all of the Kardashian-West family polaroids and has produced music for Teyana Taylor and Kid Cudi. Take a deep breath – there’s more. He’s also done graphic design work for Comme des Garçons, collaborated with Kim Jones at Dior for the brand’s spring/ summer 2023 collection (pictured) and is currently designing clothes for ERL – a fashion brand the designer founded in 2018.

Graphic designer, Tokyo Nominated by Disney

Gusi Musician, Bogotá

Justin Hurwitz Composer, Los Angeles

Sheree Hovsepian Artist, New York Member, Soho Beach House Miami

Fryd Frydendahl Artist, Copenhagen Member, Soho House Copenhagen

Halle Bailey Actor and musician, Los Angeles

Eli Russell Linnetz Creative Director, Los Angeles

Chelsea Scott-Blackhall

Designer, Singapore Member, Cities Without Houses

Yannik Zamboni

Charlotte

Sco ish filmmaker, writer and director Charlo e Wells shot to fame with her 2022 cinematic debut A ersun. Set in the 1990s, the film stars Paul Mescal as Calum and Frankie Corio as his 11-year-old daughter Sophie, as they go on a package holiday together in Turkey. Based partly on Wells’ own life, the film premiered in Cannes to win a jury prize in the Critic’s Week for its finely wrought and subtle study of fatherdaughter dynamics. It won a host of accolades, including a BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer and a Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing of a First-Time Feature Film.

“I’m grateful to Soho House to have had the chance to screen my film in London,” says Wells (pictured below with Mescal and Corio), speaking of the member screenings of A ersun held across the Houses last year. “I hope to spend some time at the Houses over the summer, particularly in New York for the roo op pool,” she adds. Wells grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland. Aged 14, she stood up in class and declared that she wanted to be a film director – without really knowing what it entailed. All Wells knew was that she

wanted to be involved in filmmaking a er many visits to her local Cineworld, plus lots of television at home. Contrary to the dreamy arthouse atmospherics of Aftersun, her initial tastes were distinctly mainstream – think Buffy the Vampire Slayer She studied classics at King’s College London, followed by a Master of Arts at the University of Oxford, before ending up in financial services and then running post-production agency Digital Orchard, which did a lot of film work. Wells used this experience to enrol in New York University’s joint business and film graduate programme with the intention of becoming a producer. Instead, she ended up directing three short films: Tuesday (2015), for which she was nominated for Best Writer at the BAFTA Scotland New Talent Awards; Laps (2016), which won the Special Jury Recognition at the SXSW Short Film Awards; and Blue Christmas (2017), for which Wells was nominated for the jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Now, aged 36 and with the ability to do pre y much anything she wants in cinema, Wells is instead playing it cool and waiting to see what her next move will be – as is the rest of the film world.

Tsellot Tesfaye Haile

Director, host and founder, Berlin

Tsellot Tesfaye Haile is a Berlin-born film and casting director, host and presenter. As a Black woman growing up in an urban environment, she always felt that nature and the great outdoors was something exclusively reserved for rich white people. It was not until her thenboyfriend took her on holiday to the German countryside that she realised how much she loved it – and how accessible it could be. In response, she founded 030 Black Canary, an outdoors club aimed specifically for Black FLINTA (female, lesbian, inter, non-binary, trans and agender people), with the aim of diversifying the image of

Lukas Gage Actor, Los Angeles Member, Holloway House

For an actor, fame and opportunity can arrive in unusual ways. Take Lukas Gage, for example. In November 2020, the actor posted a clip of an audition he’d done over Zoom, in which a director can be heard complaining about the state of Gage’s apartment. e actor may have not won that role, but the clip went viral and eventually led to him being cast in e White Lotus in which he played a key role in one of its most infamous scenes (if you know, you know).

Since then, he’s appeared in Ne lix’s You and has two films on the way later this year: Parachute and Down Low

FLO

Musicians, London

Members, Shoreditch House and 180 House

As FLO, Jorja Douglas, Stella Quaresma and Renée Downer are putting a new spin on the traditional girlband. Their signature sound evokes that of classic 1990s and 2000s R&B, with a 2023 spin. So far this year the band has collaborated with Stormzy and Missy Elliot, topped the BBC’s Sound of 2023 poll and won the BRITs Rising Star Award. Not bad, considering they haven’t yet released their debut album (but it’s coming, later this year). is summer, they took centre stage at a host of major UK events, including Wireless, Isle of White Festival and Glastonbury.

RAYE

Musician, London

Member, 180 House

Rachel Agatha Keen, better known as RAYE, initially found fame as a featured vocalist on smash hits for David Gue a and Jax Jones. e British singer has also penned tracks for the likes of John Legend and Beyoncé. But it’s since she parted ways with her label and became an independent artist in 2021 that true mainstream success has come her way. Her single Escapism topped the UK chart back in January and was her first hit on the Billboard chart in the US. Her debut album 21st Century Blues was subsequently released to huge critical fanfare, cementing her reputation as one of the most exciting artists of her generation.

Director, New York

Member, Soho House New York

Yendry

Producer, Mumbai

Member, Soho House Mumbai

Guneet Monga has made history twice at the Oscars. The first time was in 2019 for winning Best Documentary Short Film for Period. End of Sentence – the first time ever for an Indian director. is year, she won her second Oscar for e Elephant Whisperers, which follows an indigenous family as they care for two orphaned baby elephants in Tamil Nadu’s Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. e film, which celebrates the unbreakable bond between the family and the elephants, is a celebration of unconditional love – and the crowning glory of Monga’s 20-year career in film.

Paula Mendoza

Fashion designer, Colombia

Member, Cities Without Houses

Paula Mendoza designs jewellery that has been deeply influenced by her Colombian heritage, especially El Dorado and the rich colour of Colombian gold that she uses to make her pieces. She works with local artisans across South America, blending their cra smanship with her vision to create the brand’s signature ear cu s and rings with oversized orbs. ese bold sculptures can be seen adorning Beyoncé in her XO music video, which gives you an idea of the kind of confident and strong woman Mendoza envisions wearing her designs.

Artist, Mexico

Nominated by Disney

Lobeira discovered her love of art at the age of five. She began her formal education in fine art at Mexico’s University of Monterrey, and continued her studies in New York, Paris and Mexico City. Her signature style is reminiscent of magical realism: poetic, richly coloured works inspired by nature, fashion and music, all steeped in symbolism. Lobeira is a hugely successful independent artist – her resume boasts more than 25 exhibitions at galleries across Mexico, the USA and Europe, such as her recent solo show Retrouvailles at the Pinacoteca de Nuevo León in Mexico.

Musician, Italy

Nominated by Disney

Singer-songwriter Yendry Cony Fiorentino grew up between the Dominican Republic and Italy. A er a turn on the Italian X Factor earlier on in her career, Yendry finally burst onto the music scene in 2021, with notable collaborations with J Balvin, Damian Marley, Mozart La Para and Emotional Oranges. One Barack Obama also declared her track YA as one of his songs of the year in 2021. She cites her musical influences as E a James, Frank Ocean and Beyoncé, and her upcoming debut album – a marriage of meringue, salsa, R&B and electro – is already one of 2023’s most hotly anticipated releases.

Guneet Monga

Roberta Lobeira

Photography: Dominic Whisson; Michael Tullberg/Ge

y Images; NBC/Ge

Images; Chelsea Guglielmino/Ge

Images; Alamy; Anna Lorenzana

Drinks, dancing and a dip in the indoor pool – everything you can expect from a night at Soho House Hong Kong, as showcased by our members

g n g

From left: Nicole Law, producer at Complex and founder of Fierce, wears dress, £440, Ottolinger at Adekuver; earrings, price on request, Swarovski. Dorothy Lau, art director and singer-songwriter, wears top, £890, and jeans, £890, both Dion Lee at Lane Crawford; necklace, £30, Fierce. Este (Alex) Loong, stylist, wears dress, £399, Maje

Photography by Ken Ngan. Styling by Cherry Mui

From left: April wears dress, £499.99, H&M Studio Collection; gloves, £2,374, Maticevski at Adekuver; earrings, her own; necklaces, price on request, Swarovski. Juan-Carlos wears jacket, £1,710 Bottega Veneta; sunglasses, £250 Gucci; earring, his own

Top, from left: Juan-Carlos Aquino, art director and co-founder of Bounce, wears shirt, £259, Sandro; top (worn underneath) and trainers, his own; jeans, £833, Amiri at Lane Crawford; sunglasses, £275, Saint Laurent. April Yau, digital marketing manager at Sassy Media, wears dress, £69.99, H&M Studio Collection; all jewellery, her own.

Above left, from left: Tedman Lee, creative director of Triple Happiness Club, wears shirt, £459, Jacquemus at Lane Crawford; all jewellery, his own. Dorothy wears top, £438, skirt, £1,390, and necklace, £450, all Versace. Foxla Chiu, fashion executive at Vogue Hong Kong, wears a Diesel bodysuit and earrings, all his own. Above right: Jerry Wong, DJ and founder of Artificial Dust, wears jacket, £1,690, top, £890, and trousers £980, all Miu Miu; shoes, £1,040 Prada; socks, stylist’s own

This page, from left: Este (Alex) Loong wears dress, as before. Jerry wears top, his own; trousers,£900, Adidas x Gucci. Nicole wears dress and earrings, as before. Foxla wears top, £330 Egonlab at Adekuver; leggings, stylist’s own

This page, from left: Dorothy wears top, jeans and necklace, as before. Jacqui Shek, wellness extraordinaire, wears her own jumpsuit and jeweller. Daya Yeh, Membership Manager, Soho House Hong Kong, wears dress, £700, Jonathan Simkhai at Lane Crawford

own. Above: Daya wears dress, £700, Jonathan Simkhai at Lane Crawford; shoes, price on request, Claudie Pierlot. Foxla wears top, £330, Egonlab at Adekuver. Jacqueline wears jumpsuit, as before; sandals, £585, Giuseppe Zanotti

Opposite page, clockwise from left: Jerry wears jacket and top, as before. Daya wears dress, as before. Dorothy wears T-shirt, as before. April wears dress, gloves and jewellery, as before. Nicole wears: shirt, £570, EENK at Lane Crawford; necklace, £30, Fierce Studio; all other jewellery, her own. Top left: Jacqui wears dress, vintage Bottega Veneta; jewellery, her own. Top right, from left: Coba Cheng, filmmaker and creative director, wears: shirt, £550, Kenzo at Lane Crawford; top, trousers and trainers, all his own. Dorothy wears top, jeans and necklace, as before. Angus Wong, Head of Membership & Communications, Soho House, wears Prada shirt, trousers and trainers, all his

A TASTE OF HONG KONG

Some of our favourite House recipes to try at home – it’s almost as if you were there

KUNG PAO CAULIFLOWER

…AND DRINK

MOMENT IN THE SUN

By Krzysztof

Czerwinski, chef at Soho House Hong Kong

INGREDIENTS

200g cauliflower florets

80g kung pao sauce (see recipe, right)

20g shaoxing wine

25g yellow bell pepper, diced

25g green bell pepper, diced

25g white onion, diced

5g garlic, sliced

3g dried sichuan chili peppers

5-6 coriander leaves

Sunflower seeds, toasted

For the sweet soy sauce: Combine all ingredients in a pan, bring the mixture up to a boil and then blend.

100ml water

100g light soy sauce

50g sugar

50g dark soy sauce

For the sweet and sour sauce: Combine all ingredients in a pan, bring the mixture up to a boil and then blend.

120g water

60g cane sugar

120g white vinegar

30g Lea & Perrins sauce

60g tomato ketchup

For the kung pao sauce: Combine ingredients together in a bowl.

300g sweet soy sauce (see recipe, left)

115g Toban Djan (chilli bean) sauce

150g OK sauce

67g fried garlic

113g sweet and sour sauce (see recipe above)

For the flour mix: Combine ingredients together in a bowl.

250g corn starch

250g potato starch

METHOD

1. Dust the cauliflower florets with flour mix and fry in hot oil at 350°F until they are tender and golden in colour.

2. In a pan, sauté the diced peppers and onion, before adding a generous amount of the Kung Pao sauce – make sure it gets sizzling hot. Deglaze the pan with shaoxing wine.

3. Add the cauliflower florets, garlic, dried chili and some toasted sunflower seeds.

4. Plate into a low bowl and top with the coriander leaves and remaining toasted sunflower seeds, to taste, then serve.

By the women bartenders of Soho House Hong Kong

INGREDIENTS

1.5oz / 45ml Stranger & Sons gin, infused with bell peppers

0.75oz / 20ml Fino sherry

0.75oz / 20ml lemon juice

0.5 oz / 15ml mango syrup

0.2oz / 5ml ginger syrup

GARNISH

Dried mango slice

Paprika

GLASS

Serve in a sour glass

METHOD

1. Add all ingredients, plus cubed ice, into a cocktail shaker.

2. Hard shake and fine strain into a sour glass over cubed ice.

3. Top with dash of paprika and a slice of dried mango to serve.

FOOD…

Above, from left: Jacqui wears dress and jewellery, as before. Dorothy wears top, jeans and necklace, as before. Nicole wears dress and earrings, as before. Este wears dress, as before; shoes, stylist’s own. Marcus Cheng, entrepreneur, wears shirt, £366, Toga Virilis at Lane Crawford; sunglasses, his own. Coba wears shirt, £550, Kenzo at Lane Crawford; top, trousers, jewellery and watch, all his own. Foxla wears shirt, £440, Jacquemus at Lane Crawford; trousers, stylist’s own; earrings, his own

Russell

welcomes us into his east London loft to talk art, design and his love of Soho Home

British actor and podcaster Russell Tovey

By Hanna Flint

Photography by Jake Curtis

Styling by Gareth Scourfield

As I step into Russell Tovey’s east London lo , see people everywhere.

Two Amoako Boafo portraits adorn a wall by a large E15 dining table he bought 10 years earlier. A Studio.SPF canvas he selected from the new M.A.H Gallery Soho Home art collection depicts a curly-haired man with ears not dissimilar to Tovey’s own (but reminds him more of the actor Josh O’Connor) rests on an easel he brought back from New York. Various abstract pencil and charcoal drawings of figures and ceramic busts add to this domestic community of artistic impression. But I’m most drawn to My Reflection Of You, an Ana Benaroya rendering of two voluptuous women having a cigarette and a glass of wine, which takes centre stage in the kitchen Tovey recently redesigned.

“ e art always has come first, and wanted this kitchen to feel social,” the actor art connoisseur and collector tells me, as we take in his abode. Tovey likes to collect interior inspiration as much as art. If he’s not ripping out pages from design magazines, he’s screensho ing furniture on Instagram. He wanted to create a cohesive discourse between who he is as an art collector as well as “a collector of furniture, objects or ceramics”. Ebay has proven to be a wondrous wellspring

Above le Shirt, £1,320,

where he purchased the bench and stalls for the kitchen, a range cooker, a conch he had restored and the taps for the sink. However, Soho House has long been a design influence for the actor, who has been a member since he was 18.

“I always go to the toilets at Soho House and think, ‘I want that toilet roll holder, I want those sinks, where can find them?’” he says. “When the Soho Home stu came online at the beginning, there was a whole vintage section, so I’ve got a towel rack. e soap dispenser [in the kitchen], that’s Lefroy Brooks, which is a Soho House brand. It’s beautiful stu .” In keeping with the earthy tones and mid-century feel, old wood is a prominent feature. For example, his Soho Home bed frame, sideboards and a bookcase he had specially made to house his art book collection, featuring tomes by Tracey Emin, Wolfgang Tillmans and Derek Jarman. “It was a bit of a splurge, but it shows o the books beautifully,” he admits. “For people that can’t afford art but love an artist, they can buy the book and put it on their co ee table.”

Ultimately, Tovey wanted to strike a balance between the art and the interiors to create a living space that also serves as a personal diary. “ e building is the star object and everything else is

like the supporting actors bringing an incredible story to life,” he says, looking out at the living room and surveying all the interior touches. “ at’s from when I met that artist, and that’s when I was doing that play which changed my life and career. e place is embedded with all of this history, energy and joy.”

Tovey set about creating a subtle space where the works could shine. He chose a mellow, o -white Lick paint for the walls and pillars, with a brown tone for the front door that complements the wooden floors and brick of the building, which was once a storage facility for the British Museum. “I wanted to warm it up,” he says, referencing the Margate property he and partner Steve Brockman bought and renovated two years ago, as a source of influence. “ e colours for that Victorian house were neutral,” he adds. “Lots of Farrow & Ball Joa’s White across [the walls]. You can hang the art up against it but it isn’t screaming out like if you have stark [white]. We wanted something that was welcoming.”

Tovey’s natural warmth shouldn’t come as a surprise. A er all, he is in the business of people. He’s spent more than two decades becoming one of the most reliable and a able performers our country has to o er. From playing school kid Rudge on stage and screen in e HistoryBoys to lending his lad-next-door charm to the hit comedy series Being Human and Him & Her, the Essex boy has

earnt acclaim for his performances. ere was also the stage and screen adaptation of The Pass the National Theatre’s production of Angels In America and series Years And Years, where he could connect with gay characters who share a similar experience of the world. “I didn’t really have an idea of a career,” he says. “I didn’t understand negotiating your trajectory. I was very fortunate that was o ered those things and did it all. Now I’m incredibly thankful that can chill and do things want to do.”

That includes becoming one of the most relatable faces of art, thanks to the Talk Art podcast he started in 2018 with gallerist and friend Robert Diament – a wide-ranging discussion with guest artists, curators, collectors, celebrities and fans, challenging the elitist view of who gets to enjoy and own art. “We want to be a conduit to discovery,” says Tovey. “Many emerging or even mid-career artists have been discovered through the podcast. at has been incredible.”

Talk Art continues to go from strength to strength. e podcast has hit more than six million downloads, and the pair have wri en and released two books.

Tovey has been invited to curate exhibitions around the world, as well as be a judge for the 2021 Turner Prize and a patron for Art UK in 2022. e podcast has also helped fuel his acting. “We’ve done over 250 interviews with people from all walks of life,” he says. “I’m

absorbing their stories, so when get characters I can feed in all this stu .” It even landed him a role. American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy DMed him on Instagram to ask for a chat and, soon enough, Tovey was cast in the most recent season as an NYPD cop investigating a serial killer targeting gay men. “We talked about [the role] for three minutes and then we talked about art. If I hadn’t done the art stu he might not have been as interested in me as an actor.”

Tovey has had a voracious eye for art since he was young – the first works he ever hung up in his childhood room were David Hockney posters from exhibitions. For his 21st, his parents bought him the Tracey Emin print Dog Brains And with his pay cheque from e History Boys he bought himself an original monoprint from White Cube. Now his collection boasts more than 300 pieces, located between this apartment, his house in Margate and a storage unit, but he frequently browses the lot via an app on his phone. “I’m like an obsessive curator moving things around. ere should be an Art Anonymous. would have to go!”

Currently, his favourite piece is Pleasures of Italy by Derek Jarman. It’s especially resonant as the actor has just appeared in Blue Now a series of

immersive live performances celebrating the artist, writer and filmmaker’s final project (Jarman died in 1994 from an AIDS-related illness). “He inspires me with his activism. He was doing that years ago and here am in 2023, going, ‘I want to do what Derek Jarman did.’ It makes me feel more present in the world.” e ability to marry his two creative passions continues to excite Tovey. He hopes to play his hero Keith Haring in a biopic one day, but his latest art film pursuit is a documentary on the late poet and artist David Robilliard. Both Robilliard and Haring were visionaries who also lost their lives to AIDS-related illnesses. Tovey hopes to further cement their legacies in our cultural consciousness, alongside the myriad artistic figures who paved the way for queer people today.

“Younger generations need to know that they’re standing on the shoulders of giants and be aware of what’s happened,” he says. “ ings can change overnight, especially when it comes to our rights. e older I get, see myself as an activist, and that art is political.” Art will always be a window to life for Russell Tovey, and in his home it truly lives.

RussellToveyisamemberofSohoHouse

40 Greek Street

Above le Jacket, £3,300, Dior x Denim Tears. Trousers, £440, Nili Lotan at Matches Fashion. Shoes, £295, Grenson. Socks, £14, London Sock Company. Lyla Footstool, £550; Lenka Bowl, £160 and Greyson Floor Lamp, High Gloss Lacquer, Cream, £850, all Soho Home. Above right: Jumper, £1,400, Loewe

Felix Floor Lamp, £850, Soho Home

Karine Armchair, Midtone Oak, Grey Blue Velvet, £995, Soho Home

Greyson Floor Lamp, High Gloss Lacquer, Cream, £850, Soho Home

Soho House members and Soho Friends get 15% off Soho Home and free delivery all year round. Scan the code below.

and trousers, £540, both Fendi. Bracelet, Tovey’s own. Trainers, stylist’s own. Felix Floor Lamp, £850; and Karine Armchair, Midtone Oak, Grey Blue Velvet, £995, both Soho Home.

Above right: shirt, £535, BODE at Matches Fashion. Jasper Footed Bowl, Green, £195, Soho Home

Grooming: Charlie Cullen

THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO

Our first House in the Pacific North West opens later this year, and we have the lowdown on where to eat, drink, shop and immerse yourself in culture when you visit Oregon’s premier city

By Amiri Rose

Photography by e Morrisons

ost people say that New York is a city with a park in the middle of it. Well, Portland is a park with a city in the middle of it. is diverse city is a place of movement and transition, where you can almost always expect the unexpected. Over the past few years, Portland has become home to a multifaceted community of artists, designers, filmmakers and creative innovators – a community set to grow further with the opening of Soho House Portland later this year.

Located in the historical Troy Laundry Building in Central Eastside, the latest outcrop from the members’ club will cement the city's status as a global creative hub.

“Portland is full of ambitious creatives. Over the past decade, I’ve watched the city’s upward growth and love how the House will be a resource for gathering like-minded folks to share relationship-centered experiences,” says Janessa Narciso, Membership Manager – Cities Without Houses, Portland and Sea le. “As humans, we are starved for connection and the House provides a unique place for growth and a beautiful atmosphere to unplug and ground yourself. see the Portland House inspiring profound, meaningful relationships for the community at large.”

While amplifying the city’s creative scene, Soho House will be among a long list of unique elements that make Portland one of the most exciting cities in America right now. e natural beauty of the Oregon Coast, with its limitless stretch of the Columbia River Gorge, is a start. Not to mention the unforge able summers, where the sun only sneaks away for a small power nap between 10pm and 5am, plus the delectable bu et of some of the best restaurants and food carts in the world. ere are the dreamy wineries, and a sports fandom for the Trail Blazers, Timbers and orns that’s arguably unmatched. at’s not forge ing the 12 bridges you can traverse, plus a strong cycling culture. So if a recharging dose of nature and ever-evolving creative inspiration is what you’re a er, then look no further.

TRADITIONS AND LOCAL CUSTOMS

NO UMBRELLAS

If you visit Portland in the autumn or winter months and don’t want to look like a tourist, then don’t use an umbrella. It might seem counterintuitive in such a rainy city but trust us, you will get a look of disgust if you use one.

NAKED BIKE RIDING

Yes, the annual Portland World Naked Bike Ride is exactly what you’re thinking. Its purpose is to promote cycling and champion more sustainable methods of transport.

ADULT SOAPBOX DERBY

Over 7,000 spectators come to see this Portland mainstay every August at Mt. Tabor Park. is annual downhill race started in 1997, and now hosts 42 race teams. Founders Paul Zenk and Eric Foren will forever be Portland legends.

HOT MEMBER TIPS

“Canard makes the best fried wings in the city and Lechon does the best ceviche, as well as being famed for having great dirty gin martinis. If you find yourself in Beaverton, Tom’s Pancake House, built in the 1960s, makes amazing pancakes all day. Tom has an incredible original Robert Crumb piece in there, too.”

JULIAN GAINES, MEMBER, SOHO HOUSE PORTLAND

“I’m Mexican, so finding great street tacos is a priority for me. e most authentic ones in Portland are from the back of a Mexican grocery store in St Johns: Tienda Santa Cruz. In fact, St Johns is low key a foodie paradise in itself. I also love the regular gallery opening nights at Industry in Downtown Portland.”

ANDREA PEREZ GARCIA, MEMBER, SOHO HOUSE PORTLAND

PORTLAND IN STATS

• Portland has the oldest public rose garden in America – it’s called the City of Roses for a reason.

• ere are more than 350 miles of bike lanes, making it the most bike-friendly city in the the US.

• e city is composed of one of the largest urban landscapes in the country, with 70+ winding miles of trails.

• Portland has the second largest copper statue in America: the Portlandia Statue sits at 35 – the tallest is New York’s Statue of Liberty.

• Mills End Park is the smallest park in the world and it’s right here in Portland.

PORTLAND CITY IS MADE UP OF SIX BOROUGHS.

YOU’LL FIND SOHO HOUSE IN THE SOUTH REGION

THE ESSENTIAL COFFEE HIT

DEADSTOCK COFFEE

408 N. COUCH ST

Explore membership at Soho House Portland

is is among the best, if not the best co ee shop in Portland (pictured below). Oregon is a region of sneakers – thanks in part to Nike’s headquarters being based in Beaverton – and since 2016, founder Ian Williams has made it his goal to make co ee snobs and sneaker heads true homies. He’s done a good job.

MUST-SHOP LOCAL FASHION BRANDS

MONOCHROMATIC

4026 NW WILLIAMS AVE

A women-owned business that creates colourful garments with sustainability in mind.

WILDFANG

404 SW 10TH AVE

Founder Emma Mcilroy is on a mission to transform gender norms and she continues to successfully sink her teeth into this work through fashion.

MACHUS

1101 SW ALDER ST

Machus is a multi-brand store that also houses its own independent label.

N’KOSSI BOUTIQUE

PIONEER PLACE MALL

Portland isn’t really known for dressing up, but this is the place to go for bespoke threads.

PORTLAND GEAR

627 SW 19TH AVE

For tourist gear that doesn’t feel tourist-y, check out this store, which elevates the work of creatives in the community.

TOP BARS IN THE CITY

MULTNOMAH WHISKEY LIBRARY

1124 SW ALDER ST

is members-only establishment focuses on, you guessed it, whiskey. ink of a library but instead of books, imagine a floorto-ceiling wall stacked with myriad bo les of the amber stu row in top-notch service and you’ve got a very special spot.

REEL M INN

2430 SE DIVISION ST

What’s Portland without a dive bar? is is one of the top neighbourhood spots, with just one window you can’t see out of, great service, a pool table and one fire stove to cook for all customers. If you order food, be prepared for a wait – se le in with a solid drink and you’ll quickly lose track of time.

ANGEL FACE

14 NE 28TH AVE

Not quite a library and not exactly a dive bar, Angel Face could be your first or last stop of the night, depending on what kind of night it is. Expect funky wallpaper and drinks to satisfy all tastebuds.

“PORTLAND IS FULL OF AMBITIOUS CREATIVES. THE HOUSE WILL BE A RESOURCE FOR LIKE-MINDED FOLKS"

Right: e famed neon White Stag sign, which can be found in Downtown Portland

Above: Soho House Portland, housed in the historical Troy Laundry building in the city's Central Eastside neighbourhood

Le Vintage store Kissing Booth (1111 SW Alder St), founded by a group of friends in 2021, o ers a carefully curated selection of preloved pieces with a contemporary eye. Below: e waterfall at Portland Japanese Garden

THE PLACES TO SAMPLE LOCAL FOOD

VOODOO DOUGHNUTS

22ND SW 3RD AVE

Seen anyone carrying a pink box lately? If so, they’ve most likely made it to Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Washington, Florida, California or Texas and picked up some Voodoo Doughnuts. Birthed in Portland by Kenneth “Cat Daddy” Pogson and Tres Shannon, Voodoo Doughnuts is a must-visit. Try a bacon maple bar or a chocolate old fashioned, you won’t regret it.

HAN OAK

511 NE 24TH AVE

THE OUTDOORSY SPOTS TO ESCAPE TO

MULTNOMAH FALLS

I-84 EAST, EXIT 31

If you visit Portland and don’t witness the spectacle that is Multnomah Falls, then you haven’t really been to Portland. It’s a 30-minute drive from the centre, and whether you hike to the top of the falls or cross the bridge alongside it, the view is well worth the journey.

PENINSULA PARK

700 N. ROSA PARKS WAY

is is the perfect place for a gathering – make sure to enjoy a peaceful stroll through the extensive flower garden.

PITTOCK MANSION

3229 NW PITTOCK DR

Pi ock Mansion provides a view of Portland like nowhere else. You can see all four sides of the city and beyond – once you’ve finished exploring the mansion itself, of course. It’s also connected to a host of hike-worthy trails.

THE BEST BOOKS ABOUT PORTLAND

THE PORTLAND BLACK PANTHERS BY LUCAS N.N. BURKE

Portland has a troubled past.

If you want to understand the di erences between the haves and have-nots, read about the key role the Portland Black Panthers played in the growth of the city.

Below: Founder and chef Kiauna Nelson outside her award-winning soul food spot Kee's #Loaded Kitchen (5020 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd)

MT TABOR PARK

SE 60TH AVE

If you need to get your steps in, want to witness your first adult soapbox race or you’re itching for a view, this is the park for you.

PORTLAND JAPANESE GARDEN

611 SW KINGSTON AVE

Portland has a lot of spaces for personal reflection. With spots for tea and trees of all sizes, including bamboo, walking through the Japanese Garden feels like a hug.

FOREST PARK

4099 NW THURMAN

It’s easy to roam here all day. No two parts are the same, so there’s a new experience at every turn.

CATHEDRAL CITY PARK

8706 N BRADFORD ST

Under St Johns Bridge is a park with fields for days, that’s right on the water and just a 15-minute drive from the city.

WOODEN SHOE TULIP FESTIVAL

33814 S. MERIDIAN ROAD

e tulip display takes place over a fixed period each year and is a true sign of spring in one of the rainiest cities in North America – it should be seen by all.

tortas spots in Portland. In 2017, Güero featured on Bon Appetit’s best new restaurants list and has continued to flourish. e hamburger rivals any of its peers’, as does the pozole dish, or one of its hearty bowl with multiple meats of your choosing.

FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN

1708 E BURNSIDE ST

Peter Cho and Sun Young Park have created a magical world of their own with Han Oak. e pair focus on the art of the hot pot, composed of dry-aged meats and local vegetables seeped in their special “bone broth supreme”. And, with their indooroutdoor space, you can enjoy the delicious food under the stars.

GÜERO

200 NE 28TH AVE

Megan Sanchez and Alec Morrison are co-owners of what’s considered one of the best

Everyone has their own specific approach to making wings, but Fire on the Mountain is known for its multiple flavours, with the ho est named “El Jefe”. Try them all at your own risk, and maybe keep a glass of milk at hand for the heat.

KATE’S ICE CREAM

3713 N MISSISSIPPI AVE

Portland loves ice cream, come rain or shine, and nothing can compete with Kate’s. e founder began creating her plant-based, gluten-free options as her sister was unable to have dairy products. e result: ice cream for everyone. e melt-in-yourmouth flavours are all secret recipes – ask for a sample of the Marionberry flavour.

THE PORTLAND BOOK OF DATES BY ASHOD SIMONIAN AND EDEN DAWN

ere aren’t enough words to list the number of things one can do and explore in Portland, so in addition to this guide, all the spots mentioned in this book are worth a visit.

PORTLAND LIKE A LOCAL BY ALEX FRAN, JENNI MOORE AND PETE COTTELL

ere’s visiting Portland and there’s living in Portland, and if you want to actively help “Keep Portland Weird” during your stay, this is the book that’ll help you do that, and then some.

THE CULTURAL SPOTS YOU WON'T WANT TO MISS

OREGON CONTEMPORARY

8371 N INTERSTATE AVE

For art that doesn’t sit in the mainstream, look to this collection of immersive installations and contemporary works.

PORTLAND ART MUSEUM

1219 SW PARK AVE

is is one of the cultural cornerstones of Portland, with works by Kehinde Wiley and Frida Kahlo.

FISK GALLERY

3613 NE MARTIN LUTHER KING JR BLVD e though ul gallery hosts events and boasts galleries that speak to Portland’s community of creatives.

SPARTAN SHOP

1210 SE GRAND AVE

e Spartan Shop is a gallery filled with art, design and furniture. It’s truly inspirational.

POWELL’S BOOKSTORE

1005 W BURNSIDE

e world’s largest independent bookstore may feel overwhelming at first, so block out an a ernoon to get lost in a sea of stories.

THE FILMS AND SHOWS TO WATCH BEFORE YOU GO

PORTLANDIA

Created by comedians Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, Portlandia is sketch comedy spoof on all the ins and outs of Portland and how it functions.

FAIRFAX

ough this is a show centred on an avenue in LA, the main character is from Portland and he rocks Gorpcore e ortlessly.

HERE & NOW is show shines a light on how a family navigates what it means to be multiracial in a predominantly white city like Portland.

SHRILL

Based in Portland, this is about a young woman who wants to change her life and not her body. She soon learns that the city is a good place for change.

HOUSE ART

by Sara Terzi, Senior Art Collections Manager

Hand to Mouth (2022) by Farshad Farzankia, in the foyer of Soho House Copenhagen

Farshad Farzankia’s practice is characterised by the use of a vivid pale e and iconography inspired by the language of Neo-Expressionism. In his paintings, recurring symbols –such as androgynous figures, birds and plants – make up the artist’s personal and cultural language, which o en references Farzankia’s love of film and childhood memories from his native Iran. In Hand toMouth, an angular face is presented in tones of blue, red and pink. e bold colours heighten the bemused expression, while a skeletal hand raises menacingly from the right side of the work. Born in Tehran, Iran, in 1980, the artist now lives and works in Copenhagen.

Explore the art in all our Houses

Photography: Michael Rygaard

for Soho House