Tom Sachs Recreated Chanel’s Paris Flagship Out of Plywood and Paint in Chinatown
Walking through the installation with Observer, the artist cited Duchamp, Sol LeWitt and On Kawara as touchstones, while insisting his attachment to the physical act of making keeps him from veering too far into conceptualism.
John Ternus Opens His Apple Era With the Foldable iPhone Duo
Apple’s new CEO kicks off his tenure with the foldable iPhone Duo. The $1,999 iPhone Duo leads Apple’s fall launch, joined by the iPhone 18 Pro, Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 and AirPods 5.
The Bellini Was Built on White Peaches, Prosecco and Venetian Summer
Long before bottled mixes and year-round menus, the Bellini was a fleeting Venetian pleasure built around ripe white peaches.
Features
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Lululemon and Canada Goose Have an American Gen Z Problem
Lululemon and Canada Goose face falling U.S. sales, tougher rivals and younger shoppers increasingly resistant to status brands. The brands that dressed millennials in leggings and parkas now have to persuade Gen Z that familiarity can still feel aspirational.
Can ChatGPT Wear Prada? When Generative A.I. Meets High Fashion
The fashion industry is beginning to discover what A.I. can do inside the design studio. The more interesting question may be what remains beyond its reach. Sheldon Fernandez, A.I. executive, strategist and thought leader, explores both the possibilities and limitations of A.I. in high fashion.
Observer’s Fall Restaurant Preview: The Most Anticipated Openings of the Season
It’s the most wonderful time of the year for anyone who loves dining out.
Where the Front Row Drinks and Dines During New York Fashion Week
The 15 restaurants that matter after the shows, including a piano bar modeled on Diana Vreeland’s living room and Fashion Week’s likeliest new uptown power table.
The Most Exciting Red Carpet Fashion Moments at the 2026 Venice Film Festival
Venice’s biggest names are making the case for old-school red carpet glamour.
Business
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Burning Man’s Billionaire Paradox Is Part of the Appeal
For wealthy founders, Burning Man offers a rare social experiment where money matters less than contribution—even if wealth still shapes the experience.
Nvidia’s Hugging Face Deal Is a Bid for A.I.’s Next Control Point
Nvidia already controls a critical A.I. resource in compute. By acquiring Hugging Face, argues A.I. strategy and enterprise-wide adoption expert René Bohnsack, it is positioning itself around another potential control point: the place where developers discover, evaluate and deploy models.
Caterpillar’s Digital Chief Ogi Redzic on How A.I. Is Redefining Construction Work
After unifying Caterpillar’s digital infrastructure, Ogi Redzic is now using that foundation to accelerate A.I. across construction. Caterpillar is using A.I. to coach operators, automate equipment and coordinate job sites as the construction industry faces a labor crunch.
Apple’s New CEO Has One Job: Make Apple Surprising Again
Tim Cook succeeded precisely because he wasn’t Steve Jobs. Now John Ternus has to figure out what only he can give Apple—and it probably isn’t another season of ‘Shrinking.’
Nvidia Didn’t Buy Hugging Face for the Models
The Nvidia-Hugging Face deal points to a shift in A.I. economics, argues A.I. expert Mike Pino: as models become more accessible, the competitive advantage may lie in the ecosystems and workflow surfaces that turn capability into adoption.
Art
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Screening at Venice: Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s ‘The Burning Giants’
The movie takes wildly unexpected turns, but all of these are in service of an extensive dramatic exploration of the ways in which religion, political demonization and economic exploitation become intrinsically linked.
Experts Agree Chinese Porcelain’s Value Rests on Who Made It and For Whom
Collectors hoping to find the perfect piece at the upcoming Asia Week New York auctions should understand the factors separating a modest porcelain plate from a museum-caliber one.
Lance Oppenheim On Venice’s Most Uncomfortable Premiere
His ‘Primetime’ revisits Chris Hansen and his ‘To Catch a Predator’s heyday, when audiences were so riveted by the hit reality television show that NBC pitted it against ratings juggernaut ‘Lost.’
Intentionally Smaller and Slower, the 16th Gwangju Biennale Traces a Path of Change
Artistic director Ho Tzu Nyen argues that art’s influence operates on a longer timescale than the political controversies that dominated the opening press conference.
Why the New York Art World Runs on the European Cultural Calendar
“New York may receive enormous attention because of its market influence, but nearly every major cultural capital operates according to the seasonal cycle. What distinguishes New York is the concentration of influence.”
Lifestyle
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6 Timepieces From Geneva Watch Days Worth a Closer Look
From Daniel Roth’s gilt-dial Extra Plat to Bulgari and Vianney Halter’s unconventional dual-time watch, this year’s introductions spanned the quietly classical and the genuinely eccentric.
Fashion’s Next Front Row Is the A.I. Shopping Interface
As A.I. increasingly mediates product discovery, fashion brands face a new question: who controls the interaction between shopper and storefront? Swap’s Sam Atkinson contends that fashion brands have an opportunity to make digital shopping more bespoke without sacrificing the curation and intelligence they have spent years building.
Venice’s Most Enticing Luxury Hotels, From Gilded Palazzi to Lagoon Retreats
These standout hotels pair historic grandeur with smart design, waterfront access and some of the city’s most desirable addresses.
The Sartorial Rise of Nicholas Galitzine, From Sundance Unknown to Fendi’s Front Row
As his career leapt from indie dramas to blockbuster franchises, the actor quietly built one of Hollywood’s most compelling menswear wardrobes.
The Wintour Position
Twenty-one years of U.S. Open candids show remarkably few revisions.
Interviews
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Iris van Herpen Has No Flagship Store, No Diffusion Line and No Plans to Change
Dior makes beautiful clothes. So does Chanel and every house at the top of the fashion pyramid. But Van Herpen is operating on a different set of criteria entirely.
Daisy Dixon’s “Depraved” Grapples With the Art of Problematic Artists
Observer spoke to the author about controversial figures in the art world, dealing with woke dismissiveness and whether artists can effectively skewer the cultural signifiers that have defined them.
Why Japan’s Art Market Is Growing Steadily Even as Other Markets Stall
A new generation of galleries, now roughly a fifth of the market, is drawing international attention even as domestic collectors remain the market’s foundation.
Collector Emma Menell Is Rethinking How African Artists Are Supported Abroad
Her foundation’s approach is a direct response to what she saw and learned while running a commercial gallery.
Gloria Steinem Never Wrote a Manifesto
In 2005, Gloria Steinem—71, aviators on, stabbing at poached eggs in a brunch-mobbed diner—explained why women get more radical as they get older, and what she’d tell her younger self.
Power Lists
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Observer’s 2026 A.I. Power Index: Who Controls the Capital Flow in A.I
Power in artificial intelligence no longer moves through the channels everyone learned to watch.
Observer New Media Power List: Call for Submissions
Nominations are open for Observer’s 2026 New Media Power List
The 50 Most Powerful PR Firms of 2026
This year’s honorees are emblematic of a notable shift in public relations from responsive publicity to proactive leadership in the moments that matter most.
Wall-to-Wall Cultural Capital: Inside Observer’s Art Power Index Party
Under the dim lights of the Lower East Side’s Maison Nur, art world luminaries gathered to celebrate Observer’s Art Power Index—and each other. From the impassioned speeches to the sharp tailoring and Damien Hirst over the bar, the evening embodied our legacy of chronicling power with style.
2025 Nightlife & Dining Power Index
Humanity is still the most vital ingredient in hospitality, and that isn’t changing anytime soon.
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What A24’s DeepMind Deal Says About the New Rules of Cultural Power
Perfect Stranger’s Daniel Fries unpacks what Google Deepmind’s $75 million investment in A24 reveals about the changing economics of cultural power. Fries argues that A24’s greatest challenge as it scales lies in preserving the cultural credibility it has spent years building.
How the Olsen Sisters Turned The Row Into a Quiet Luxury Powerhouse
Two decades after founding The Row, Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen have turned an American minimalist label into one of luxury’s most respected names.
Art Fairs Are Built for a Market That No Longer Exists
The world has changed dramatically, but fair infrastructure hasn’t evolved to meet the demands of 21st-century collectors.
This Labor Day, It’s Time for a New Social Contract With Workers
Freelancers Union’s Andrea Gordillo and the National Arts Policy Alliance’s Althea Erickson examine why America’s social contract must evolve to reflect the realities of independent work. Erickson and Gordillo argue that benefits should follow workers across jobs, clients and sources of income rather than depend on a single employer.
Marian Goodman’s Multiples, Inc. Banners to Resurface at New York’s Independent 20th Century
The artist-designed, editioned wall hangings were part of Goodman’s push to make contemporary art more accessible.
Yoshitomo Nara’s New York Story Can Be Found in its Punk Clubs
Seventeen years after he drew on the walls at Niagara in the East Village, the artist is a superstar, one of only a handful of living artists to have cracked the $25 million mark for a single painting.
When Supply Chains Shift, Water Risk Shifts With Them
Kilimo’s Jairo Trad analyzes the water blind spot in supply chain resilience, arguing that switching suppliers can solve an immediate disruption while shifting water exposure from one basin to another. Trad explores why companies need to move beyond measuring water risk to incorporating local water conditions into fast, operational sourcing decisions.
In Venice, Hollywood Races to Adapt Books Before Publication
The Venice Film Festival is bringing publishers and producers together as demand grows for books with strong screen potential. From unpublished manuscripts to established IP, Venice’s rights market reveals what producers want and how early they are willing to buy.
For John Ternus, Apple’s Next “A.I. Breakthrough” Should Be the Company Itself
Warp’s Ayush Sharma examines what John Ternus’s takeover of Apple means for the company’s A.I. strategy, arguing that its biggest AI breakthrough may need to happen inside the organization itself.
One Fine Show: “John Akomfrah, The Hour Of The Dog” at the Menil Collection
The work plays with authenticity to the point where one cannot tell what is old and new and, ultimately, stops caring.
Can Seoul Art Week Sustain More Fairs? PAVILION and Design Miami Say Yes.
The city hardly lacks for fairs, but there is arguably still room for formats that are locally rooted and responsive to the people who engage with them.
How Greekman’s Turned a Silver Lake Strip Mall Into a Serious Greek Wine Destination
After pivoting his business to a Greek restaurant during the pandemic, Jonah Freedman fell into a rabbit hole of Greek wine.
