Divine ways to spend it in December

BUY

Brunello Cucinelli pops up at Harrods

The Italian label Brunello Cucinelli produces all of its cashmere knitwear and wardrobe basics in Solomeo, a medieval village in Umbria, central Italy. For the holiday season, the brand has transformed Harrods’ window displays into a tribute to Solomeo. A six-part story unfolds across 21 windows, led by a character called Philo, a griffin drawn from Solomeo’s heraldry. Alongside the window takeover, they’re stocking choice clothing and accessories for men and women. The offering includes casual outerwear in denim and soft shearling, sweaters and cardigans in delicious shades of cream, soft brown or navy, and party dresses made from their sparkling “Croc Embroidery” fabric, which uses sequins to give an exotic crocodile-leather effect. Constance Ayrton

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SEE

Matthias Weischer’s playful paintings

The German artist Matthias Weischer views each of his paintings as a kind of game. He fills his canvases with objects he spots in books or on the internet, “as if searching a vast marketplace” for the right furnishings, he says. Weischer’s technique remains experimental: “What happens when the paint is applied more thinly? What is gained? Play remains open until the very end; the finished painting is just one resolution among infinite others.” The resulting interior scenes, a selection of which are going on show at London’s Grimm gallery next month, do not evoke a clear time or place. In one, a hallway is filled with bouquets of flowers, pictures and a mug; in another, a figure dressed in a patterned tunic sits inside a sienna-washed room, looking down at a blank book. Guided only by these sparse cues, the viewer must “actively construct the space, deciding where their gaze rests, and where they stand”, says Weischer. “The freedom I claim for myself in painting, I hope to extend to the viewer.” Georgina Elliott 

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BUY 

Scandi-chic scarves for your dog

Since launching in 2017, Copenhagen-born textile brand Tekla has carved out a cult following for its tactile bedding and plush homewear. Now the brand is adding pet accessories to the mix, with a range of candy-striped cotton-poplin neckerchiefs designed for dogs. Inspired by the scarf that founder Charlie Hedin uses to dress his own Havanese dog, named Texas, the bandanna comes in sky blue, rhubarb red, chestnut, bubblegum pink and bone white. “We’ve always believed that home comfort is universal, and many of us have pets that are very much part of the Tekla family,” says Hedin. “Creating these pieces was a way to extend this comfort to them.” Sara Semic

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GIVE

Cocteau-inspired Christmas cards to help the homeless 

London stationer Choosing Keeping has collaborated with its neighbour in Soho, the modernist Notre-Dame de France church, on its latest range of Christmas cards. Each features a drawing of an angel or a rose, inspired by the delicate murals that French surrealist Jean Cocteau designed for the church in 1959. One hundred per cent of the proceeds from each lace-paper card (£15) will benefit the church’s Sandwich Service Fund, which provides meals for those experiencing homelessness each Sunday. The hope is to raise £20,000, which would fund the addition of fresh vegetables to the offering. Marion Willingham

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SEE

Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo’s most dazzling designs

At the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, a blockbuster exhibition brings together two icons from the fashion world: the late British designer Vivienne Westwood and Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons. Both were self-taught and renowned for challenging conventions of taste, gender and beauty. The synergy between their punk-inflected designs is celebrated in this show of almost 150 pieces. Expect to see Westwood’s early punk creations, Carrie’s Westwood wedding gown from Sex and the City and the Comme floral dress worn by Rihanna to the 2017 Met Gala. Constance Ayrton

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BID

An auction of Renault’s iconic vintage cars

In 2027, Renault will open a new museum, Les Collections, next to its factory at Flins-sur-Seine, east of Paris, to showcase its historic collection of cars, artworks and archival objects. It will preserve 600 important and unique car models, dating back to 1898. Renault owns several examples of some of these cars and 100 of them will be auctioned by Artcurial at the Renault factory on 7 December, including F1 cars driven by Alain Prost and René Arnoux in the 1980s, and an Alpine A442 from the 1977 24 Hours of Le Mans (estimated at €250,000-€500,000). There is also a 1901 Type D (estimated at €50,000-€70,000), a rare 1933 bus (€12,000-€18,000) and a host of historic rally cars and concept cars, along with around 100 items of automobilia, from scale models to racing suits. Tim Auld

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BUY

Six decades of festive cheer, as seen by Lee Friedlander

Lee Friedlander didn’t set out to photograph Christmas. But years spent travelling around the US documenting the social landscape produced a body of work showing daily life and, naturally, celebration. In 2011, the Washington-born photographer revisited his archive and found it punctuated with Christmas scenes: an inflatable Santa greeting visitors to a roadside café; a banner suspended over a highway wishing drivers “Happy Holidays”. The resulting series, titled Merry Christmas from Lee Friedlander, gathered 48 of these seasonal photographs and went on show in New York that same year. Now these images and more have been compiled in a book. Spanning the years 1958 to 2016, they tell a story of how Christmas in America has evolved, from the community gatherings of the 1960s through the excess of the ’70s and on to the sleek spectacle of the millennium. But for all of the cultural shifts, some things remain the same: a photograph from 1987 shows an elderly woman enjoying a doze beside a tiny baubled tree, perhaps after a sherry or two. Megan Hill

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SIP

A champagne-fuelled dinner at Pavyllon London

For the latest iteration of its Wine Counter Dinner Series, Michelin-starred Pavyllon London, helmed by Yannick Alléno, the second most starred chef in the world, is spotlighting two “French master” producers: Reims’ Champagne Palmer and the Rhône Valley’s Paul Jaboulet Aîné. Rare vintages from both makers will be served alongside a menu of crispy scallop tartlets, hamachi carpaccio and poached guinea fowl with truffle. Act quickly – only 30 seats are available. Rosanna Dodds

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BUY

Britta Marakatt-Labba embroiders a picture of nomadic life in Sweden

When the indigenous Swedish-Sámi artist Britta Marakatt-Labba started out as an embroiderer in the 1970s, textile art, much like her culture, was relegated to the fringes. She gained little attention for her pictures of the nomadic reindeer-herding Sámi people, which she made using the sewing techniques she learned as a child. But following breakthrough exhibits in Germany and the Venice Biennale in recent years, the artist’s pictorial universe has reached a wider audience. An exhibition in Stockholm has now produced a monograph, titled Where Each Stitch Breathes. The book chronicles how she weaves together mythology, accounts of state oppression and climate change with portrayals of everyday Sámi activity: fishermen at work; a sled pulled across a snowy expanse by reindeer; three goddesses kneeling and praying. “That our culture will survive,” she says, of the purpose behind the artwork. “That we may exist and continue our way of life.” Shea Ferguson 

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BUY

Japanese studio pottery for craft obsessives

It was in Mashiko, a small town 90 miles north of Tokyo, that the founders of the studio pottery movement received the decisive part of their education, and the town continues to produce some of Japan’s most beautiful handmade ceramics. In the run-up to Christmas, Marylebone lifestyle shop Ki:ts is holding a pop-up of work by Mashiko’s contemporary makers. Stock includes elegant celadon-glazed mugs made from local clay (£125), simple white flower vases (from £80) and glossy black teapots made by the fifth-generation makers of a distinguished studio (£250). Baya Simons

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SEE 

Paintings of life in rural Italy, on show at a buzzy New York gallery

Justin Bradshaw started out painting in cities: first London, at art school, and then Rome, where he moved in 1994 and spent a decade painting watercolours of city scenes. It was a move to the countryside of northern Lazio that prompted a shift in focus. His isolation there “makes it difficult to have a wide circle of available models”, says the artist, who was born in London to a Caribbean father and an English mother. He makes use of the figures in his immediate circle (his partner, their dog, a close friend), but out of necessity now trains his gaze on the objects around his studio: books strewn across rumpled fabric, an armchair impressed with the shape of a body, a cracked porcelain cup. These paintings are being presented in a solo show in New York by Galerie Sardine, an itinerant curatorial project started by art director Valentina Akerman and her husband, US painter Joe Bradley. Together the works tell a story of absence, says Bradshaw: “The trace of a life or gesture that remains after the figure has gone.” Shea Ferguson

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BUY

Nadia Lee Cohen’s most personal photography project yet

Artist Nadia Lee Cohen was born in the English countryside and relocated to LA in her twenties; it was there that she made a name for herself with her camp, playful photographs exploring celebrity culture and modern American life. For her latest project, she ventured to a part of America she hadn’t visited since she was a child: Ohio, where her extended family lives. The resulting book is Holy Ohio, created in collaboration with Idea Books and WePresent. It comprises candid photographs of her extended family’s daily lives in Midwestern America: going to church, watching TV, driving around. “I equate that initial experience of America to what it’s like to see Disneyland for the first time as a child – the magic, the excitement, the innocence. Then, if you’re ever unlucky enough to end up there as an adult, you see the people under the costumes, the chipping paint, the junk food and the overly enthusiastic clientele,” Cohen says. This book is “probably my most personal project to date in terms of its candidness and lack of staging”. Stop by Dover Street Market in London on 3 December to get your copy signed. BS

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SING

Holkham Hall by candlelight

The Palladian coastal country house has been hosting lords, ladies and royalty since it was built in the 18th century. As of 1950, it’s also been open to the public, who since 2011 are invited each Christmas to explore its Marble Hall, dining rooms and old kitchen by candlelight. This year, the latter has been decorated with a feast of turkey, roast potatoes and pigs in blankets made out of chocolate by edible artist Sarah Hardy. A Christmas market from 12-14 December and carols on 11 and 22 December round out the offering. Rosanna Dodds

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GIVE

Money-managing skills for those who need them most

For the past four years, the FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign has been lobbying the government to improve financial education for young people, producing hours of classroom learning materials that are now being used in more than 900 schools, and building partnerships with the NHS and the Marines to improve the financial capabilities of adults. The news in November that the government is making financial education compulsory in all British primary and secondary schools, with pupils being taught everything from how to identify fake news to the fundamentals of managing money, was a big win. “Funding this wealth of work is not cheap, and has only been possible thus far thanks to the support of FT readers,” writes Patrick Jenkins, the FT’s deputy editor and chair of FT FLIC. To supercharge this year’s campaign, data company Experian has offered to match any donations made this year. Baya Simons

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SEE 

The slapstick side of conceptual photography

“Conceptual photography has a reputation as earnest – academic, even. John Baldessari, the grand eminence of conceptual art and dry humourist, said himself that ‘art is serious business’,” says curator Nana Bahlmann. But while developing a group exhibition at Sprüth Magers, she “discovered that idea-driven art is often unexpectedly funny”. Titled Seriously., the show presents 100 conceptual images that use irony, satire and the occasional moment of slapstick. In these photographs, for instance, the German photographer Thomas Ruff “twists himself into positions between two chairs and a lamp, playing a dadaist improviser using the camera as an accomplice rather than as a stone-cold tool for documentary. He casts his body as a sculpture (with dirty socks)”. The work, she says, “nudges us to rethink the familiar: to play with the image of the artist, to challenge social norms and to expose the absurdities of the everyday. In times of crisis and uncertainty, humour is more than a punchline, it’s also a release. But one should never explain a joke. Go and see for yourself.” BS