Daisy Hoppen presents her November to do list, featuring the best places for a comforting bowl of pasta and the Russian spa treatment guaranteed to relax and re-energise you this winter
November is a miserable month of wet weather and dark nights – here are some of things that may make it slightly more bearable. From products to protect your lips against the winter chill, luxury pantyhose and comforting pasta to exceptional art and photography.
See: Gossamer at Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate
I have a lot of love for the humble pantyhose. I recommend heading to Margate where Carl Freedman’s contemporary gallery is staging one of the best independent shows I have seen in a long time, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the tight, curated by the artist Zoe Bedeaux. The show brings together 22 artists who all incorporate tights into their work, from Man Ray to Louise Bourgeois, Sarah Lucas and Daido Moriyama. Don’t miss this: it’s a unique and beautifully curated exhibition that showcases painting, sculpture, photography and installation. Until December 15.
Buy: tights
Unfortunately, November signals the time for bare legs drawing to a close. I tend to only wear black tights, but I love a mixture of textures and fabrics – pair with double-soled Dr Martens boots for rainy weather or platforms if you have to leave the house in the evening. Some of my favourite tights on the market:
- Classic Black: Heist is my go-to brand for super warm, 80-denier tights with in-built Spanx – plus, they don’t rip.
- Lace: Gucci does a beautiful pair of lace tights which comes in myriad colours (but also black). If you have a tendency to rip your tights, Marks & Spencer also stocks an excellent selection of lace options.
- Diamanté: With the plainest black dress you own, wear tights encrusted with diamanté. Calzedonia does a lovely pair.
- Crochet: Mod Shoes offers a brilliant selection of crochet tights (introduced to me by stylist Rachel Bakewell).
- Sustainable: Ganni x Swedish Stockings – although I love tights, they’re not very sustainable (they’re often made from petroleum, which is non-biodegradable). Swedish Stockings is one of the first-ever sustainable hosiery brands and created eco-friendly tights made from recycled nylon yarn – they’ve just launched a collaboration with cult Danish brand Ganni.
See: Into the Night at the Barbican, London
This exhibition really has brightened up my month, showcasing a global look at cabarets and clubs through modern art from the 19th and 20th centuries. The first major show on this subject, it features both famous and little-known sites, from Paris to Berlin, Harlem to Tehran, Vienna to Ibadan, and beyond. Rather than the nightclubs we think of today, these spaces were incubators of radical thinking and showcased new forms of artistic expression and experimentation. Into the Night showcases the collaboration between artists, performers, designers, musicians and writers such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Loïe Fuller, Josef Hoffmann, Giacomo Balla, Theo van Doesburg and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, as well as Josephine Baker, Jeanne Mammen, Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, Ramón Alva de la Canal and Ibrahim El-Salahi.
In addition to the exhibition of art works, the Barbican also features full-scale recreations of specific spaces, such as the multi-coloured ceramic tiled bar of the Cabaret Fledermaus in Vienna (1907), designed by Josef Hoffmann for the Wiener Werkstätte – an incredible space to spend an afternoon in when it’s so cold and rainy outside. Until January 19, 2020.
See: Beulah Land by Paige Powell, brought to life by Gucci, at Dover Street Market London
American artist Paige Powell has brought a brilliant installation, comprising over 3,000 carefully selected photographs that are synonymous with London from her archive, to Dover Street Market London. The project, which Powell and her team personally installed in the London store, is based on her 1984 Beulah Land room installation: showcasing images that she has captured over the course of her life. A fixture of the downtown New York art scene, Powell was a close confidante of Andy Warhol and a member of his inner circle, alongside the likes of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Beulah Land is an interactive experience: those who visit the installation are encouraged to take cards off the walls in any manner they please. Plus, the Dashwood Books-published title Paige Powell will also be available to buy at Dover Street Market. Until November 21.
See: Paris Photo and Photo Book Week
If you are in Paris this month, both Paris Photo and Photo Book Week are on. Storied bookshop Shakespeare and Company is hosting a takeover by the wonderful ‘Archive of Modern Conflict’, headed up by their curator Timothy Prus and colleague Luce Lebart, based around the concept of visual and photographic archives and the making of photo books. Meanwhile, the bookshop’s art room is being transformed into a photo book shop, with a fine selection of artist publications by AMC Books, as well as other publishing houses that use archival visual content.
Some unmissable stands and highlights for Paris Photo:
Buy: new fragrances by Ormaie
I am obsessing over the architectural bottles of new fragrance brand Ormaie, as well as their very beautiful smells. All scents are made with natural raw materials, and the glass for the bottles is produced by the only French glassmaker who recycle their own glass magma. Plus, the architectural stoppers are crafted from wood sourced in renewable French beech forests, and the packaging is all made in the Marais. All in all, a true French dream. My favourite is 28°, which contains notes of lemon, bergamout, mandarine, rose and sandalwood. Available at Harvey Nichols.
Buy: Products to protect your lips
Make-up artist Zoë Taylor has created a luxury range of products designed for our sensitive lips called Tinker Taylor. I plan to try her Lip Care Sequence for winter. The range consists of a scrub, oil and balm: firstly the lip scrub gently buffs away dry skin and polishes, and contains organic sugar, cinnamon, cranberry seed oil (encourages new collagen production, which we all need), baobab seed oil (reduces fine lines and crepe-ing – again something I would very much like to encourage) and super-hydrating and moisturising rice bran oil. The lip oil then absorbs quickly to nourish the lips from within and give them an instant hit of hydration, containing a rich blend of grape seed oil, jojoba seed oil, and chia seed oil – all deeply nourishing and absorbing. Finally the lip balm is natural and deeply nurturing, with wild harvested capuaca seed butter (never picked, but collected from trees in the wild, meaning no farmer welfare considerations and no pesticides), an anti-inflammatory that is rich in omega 3 and 6 and vitamins A and C, which keeps the lips hydrated, moist and smooth. In addition to all of these lovely lip-focused elements, Tinker Taylor’s packaging is all glass or aluminium – both can be recycled using home recycling. Available at Liberty.
Buy: Tadaima by Annemarieke van Drimmelen
Dutch artist Annemarieke van Drimmelen has released an incredibly beautiful photography book about her homeward journey and her mother. Loosely translated from Japanese, Tadaima means ‘I just came home’. Much of the book is printed in blue, her mother’s favourite colour, using hand printing cyanotypes – the intention was for the work presented in the book to be as close to the exact colour of blue that reminds the artist of her mother.
Eat: pasta
This time of year is most suited to comfort eating – here are some of the best new restaurants opening this month, each ready with delectable pasta dishes, plus some iconic favourites that never fail to deliver (some even have gluten-free options too):
- Cafe Murano by Angela Hartnett on Bermondsey Street: swiss chard and ricotta tortellini.
- Passo by Joe Howley: sweetcorn mezzelune, crescent-shaped parcels exploding with flavours of oregano, butter and sweetcorn; and fresh orecchiette with girolles and buffalo camembert.
- Legare is a new broadly Italian neighbourhood restaurant in London Bridge, by Jay Patel (previously of Barrafina and Koya) and talented young chef Matt Beardmore (ex-Trullo): my favourite is the orecchiette with fennel sausage and cavolo nero ragu.
- Lina Stores offers diners gluten-free penne that has been freshly made at their deli and dried, before being served at the restaurant on Greek Street – and now a new location in Coal Drops Yard, Kings Cross. Guests are able to have gluten-free penne pasta with oxtail ragu, tomato sauce, truffle sauce, and salsa verde with datterini tomato sauce.
My all-time favourite London restaurants for the best bowl of pasta:
- Luca and Trullo: North London favourites.
- Lardo: East London favourite.
- River Café: South London favourite.
- Scailini: West London favourite.
- Ciao Bella: Central London favourite.
Do: Banya
As the weather gets colder, I head more regularly for a Russian Banya. The treatment was introduced to me by two of my friends: fellow AnOther contributor Lucy Kumara Moore and my Russian friend, the stylist Victoria Sekrier. Book in for four hours – this involves a baking hot sauna and being beaten with birch leaves, a process known as a parenie, before being doused in ice cold water. You can also add in a salt and honey scrub, after which you lie back in the sauna and literally bake yourself under a sheet. What I also love about this Banya in London is also that you get our own area in the lounge café where you can order anything from traditional dumplings, beetroot juice, and pickles to vodka on ice. Take a sheet to wear as well as a towel, but I also take my Tekla dressing gown for wearing while sipping vodka.
Watch: His Dark Materials
I have waited so many years to see justice done to one of my favourite book series (up there with Harry Potter): Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. There is a wonderful cast including James McAvoy (Lord Asriel), Ruth Wilson (Mrs Coulter, plus her evil sidekick golden monkey) and newcomer Dafne Keen as Lyra. I have always wondered what my daemon would be... what would be yours? Showing on BBC One on Sundays, the show will be available on HBO internationally now.
Daisy Hoppen is the founder of DH-PR, a London-based communications agency. She also works in house with a small number of brands, companies and personalities across fashion, art and culture.