Yes, at some point every city is “the new Shoreditch”. But thanks to its ever-growing selection of millennial magnets, Sheffield really is having a mass influx of hipsters. It’s already home to Bullion, the bean-to-bar ethical craft chocolate factory, and Ferraby Knives, an artisan knife forgery, while a £25 million redevelopment of Ski Village (a combination of co-working space and extreme sports) is underway.
This summer the city’s offering will continue to grow when chef Luke French (pictured) opens Hotel Jöro, a boutique hotel aimed at creatives and craftspeople. French already owns Jöro, a highly rated restaurant serving seasonal food out of an upcycled shipping container (of course). Maybe Shoreditch will be the new Sheffield?
Meet Mark Bryan: the 61-year-old stiletto-wearing fashion muse
“I am just a straight, married guy that loves Porsches, beautiful women and incorporating high heels and skirts into my daily wardrobe.” One of the more unlikely street-style stars of the moment is a 61-year-old robotics engineer and grandfather of four. In the past six months Mark Bryan’s Instagram has grown from 300 followers to more than 400,000; he has been photographed by Vogue and just had a cameo in London designer Martine Rose’s digital show too. The Texan, who lives in Germany, started wearing heels nearly 40 years ago and his wife now helps to pick his outfits — typically a normcore suit jacket paired with power stilettos. Think Chris Whitty meets Balenciaga. Divine!
Scam season is back — and so is Anna Sorokin!
Now that fake heiress Anna Sorokin is out of prison, the appetite for scam drama is growing once more. Welcome, then, Hype (out on April 29), a new book by an executive producer of the Netflix documentary Fyre that draws on scientific research and exclusive interviews to examine the stories behind modern-day con artists. Sleeping with a Psychopath, a memoir by Carolyn Woods, the woman seduced by Mark Acklom (the British Dirty John), is being published on the same day. It details Woods’s whirlwind romance with Acklom, who posed as a Swiss banker and conned her out of £300,000. Also coming soon is a BBC3 documentary about the rise and fall of the Australian wellness influencer Belle Gibson, one of the first social media fraudsters. In 2013, aged 21, Gibson claimed that she had cured her multiple “cancers” with a plant-based diet and alternative medicine (she never had cancer).
Why the 1% are getting ‘cellar nests’
The golden age of the mega-basement is over. According to stats, planning applications for basements are now back to 2010 levels, following their peak in 2014. So the next luxury home reno? An underground cellar “nest”. The wine merchant Lay & Wheeler has seen a 20 per cent increase in people starting their own wine cellar over the past 12 months. The Beckhams recently had plans approved to build a super-cellar under their Cotswolds home, with space for a mere 7,000 bottles. And this year has already been one of the busiest for Spiral Cellars, a company that drills two-metre-deep wine-cellar hatches into your floor, accessed via a trap door (prices start at £23,000 for a self-build kit). The Stone Cellar Company offers a similar service, with capacity for up to 1,300 bottles. For the high-net-worth individual who prefers to build above ground, there’s already a waiting list in New York for WineCab’s luxury wine wall with a high-speed robotic arm that fetches your wine (starting price, £130,000). The poshest vending machine ever?
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We’re all listening to hyperpop
What is hyperpop,” Charli XCX asked in a tweet last year. It’s the soundtrack of the internet-raised generation — almost like the sounds of PC Music have been mixed with a lot of synth, chipmunk-squeak vocals and the occasional sampling of Minecraft noises.
Charli XCX, Grimes and the late producer Sophie were early innovators in the genre. Ironic internet memes also play heavily into it — Friday singer Rebecca Black appears on a few remixes. In fact, Aqua’s Barbie Girl is often cited as the original hyperpop song. Basically, imagine if a regular pop song went through the microwave. See what you think of it with our playlist (above).
The cult purchase: a hype cap
With more than 300,000 streetwear fanatics tracking the latest hat “drops” on the Instagram fan page @hatclub, could the Gen Z sneakerheads now be turning into hat hypebeasts? Possibly. Of the 67 looks in Celine’s summer collection, 46 included baseball caps — and where Celine goes, the rest of fashion follows. Emilio Pucci, Courrèges and Missoni have all sent out their own signature caps. The perfect poolside accessory for your summer holiday. Oh wait …
● Embroidered canvas baseball cap, £200, Off-White
● Logo baseball cap, £270, Celine
● No Problemo cap, £70, Aries
The spring wardrobe update: a ‘puffcho’
Is it a puffer? Is it a poncho? Does it make sense? Yes, yes and no. Last year’s peak puffer obsession has already moved on to a new hybrid for 2021: the “puffcho”. The look opened the show at Chloé, with zip-up padding peeking out from cosy knitted kaftans. Increasingly enormous versions appeared at Marni, Rick Owens, Colville and Moncler Genius too. Your new best friend for beating the spring chill.
Add to cart: throwing shade
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There’s nothing like a pair of new sunnies for a day in the park. Cue Ace & Tate for the best in town (and they won’t break the bank). £100; aceandtate.com
Additional words: Hannah Evans
Images: Courtesy of Studio Ninamounah, Getty Images, Imaxtree, @markbryan911, courtesy of Spiral Cellars, Alamy, @cheflukefrench/@konjokitchen, @riconasty/courtesy of Savage x Fenty
